1 Peter 1:15 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 1:15

Comments

I have been called and I have been called by none less than Christ. He called me out of this world. I took no notice of him; I didn’t want him; I despised him and then there was that ringing, challenging call which came to my heart through the gospel, and Christ called me from condemnation. I have got to love him and serve him. I didn’t find my way to him; he called and rescued me. He took the initiative. If I love him, if I appreciate all he has done, if I admire him, if I say I worship him, if I want to please him and not offend him, then I must with his help be pure, chaste in my thinking, honest and genuine. ‘Oh, Lord, help me,’ I must say every day. ‘Move in my conscience and bless me, because I am a person, who has been called by the altogether pure Creator of the world and I love him and I want to please him. Holiness is by imitation not by command alone. It is the most natural and reasonable of requests that God, who has redeemed us from hell, bought us, and given us life and an eternal future of blessedness in his presence, should require us to be like him. How could he command us to become something different from himself and still commend his character to us as altogether lovely? If he knows that his character is perfect and if we have become his children, then, like every father, he wants to reproduce his character in his children. And like every father God trains his children by example, which is the easiest form of instruction to follow. Of course we were not born as his children but we were all born under the law as slaves, and in this state we unwillingly obeyed sin. The desire to live a holy life was put into us by the Spirit of God at conversion; it was a supernatural change that our own wills could never bring about. We know we have been made different from what we were before, for this holiness distinguishes us from the world around us. Holiness marks out the believer, nevertheless sanctification is progressive and, as the Lord makes us aware, we are ready to put to death additional sins and to face new enemies for him. The battle is the Lord’s and as victory was assured to Israel, so we fight with the awareness that we are on the winning side.

Application

The modern translations always choose a word like behaviour, and that is all right but the Greek word isn't well translated by behaviour. The Greek word comes from a combination of words which mean in your to-ing and fro-ing – ‘Be ye holy in all manner of to-ing and fro-ing.’ The word is derived from this idea of interaction with others. Nevertheless it does include behaviour; it’s not just talk. It’s about how you talk to other people, and how you react to other people: it’s all of it. In all manner of conduct towards other people: towards believers, towards unbelievers, towards people we should respect who are above us, towards children to whom we set an example and instruct. In every kind of interaction we are to be holy. It is a massive exhortation. Every interaction in trade and business is to be marked by courtesy, holiness, good temper, and goodwill.

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1 Peter 1:15 Commentary and Bible Study