📖 1 Peter Intensive — Unit 3: Be Holy; Redeemed by the Blood

Text: 1 Peter 1:13-25

Gird Up Your Mind, Set Your Hope

"Therefore." With that one word Peter turns from what God has done to how the believer must now live. Because of the living hope, the inheritance, and the salvation he has just described, he says, "gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). In Peter's day a man tucked up his long robe into his belt before he ran or worked, so that nothing would trip him. To "gird up the loins of your mind" is to pull in the loose, lazy thinking and make the mind ready for action. Be sober — clear-headed, not intoxicated by the world. And fix your hope, fully and finally, not on the comforts of this life but on the grace that is coming when Christ appears. The hope born in us at the new birth is meant to shape the way we think and live right now.

Be Holy, for I Am Holy

From that settled hope Peter issues his great command. "As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" (1 Peter 1:14-15). Once we lived in the desires of our ignorance; now, as obedient children, we are not to be poured back into that old mold. Instead we are to be holy — set apart, clean, like our Father — "because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy'" (Leviticus 11:44). The standard is nothing less than the character of God Himself.

Here the lesson must speak plainly, for we have grown comfortable. As Christians we have too often made peace with "pretty good" instead of holiness. We can all quote, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) — but that verse describes the lost man's need, and we must not turn it into an excuse for the believer to settle into sin. We expect the world to compromise; the Christian does not have to. We will never be happy, restful, or spiritually healthy until we set our hearts on becoming holy.

How Christ Deals with Sin: Penalty, Power, Presence

But someone says honestly, "I believe Jesus forgives my sin; my trouble is that I sin again, and I feel such tendencies to evil within me." Here is a truth that answers that despair. The Lord Jesus came to take away sin in three ways: He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and, at last, the presence of sin. These three line up exactly with the three tenses of salvation we have already seen. The penalty of sin was removed when we first believed — this is justification, "I have been saved." The power of sin is being broken day by day as we grow — this is sanctification, "I am being saved." And the presence of sin will be removed entirely when Christ appears — this is glorification, "I will be saved." So the believer who groans over indwelling sin has not been abandoned: forgiveness for the past is his already, power for the future is being supplied now, and full deliverance is certainly coming. Every child of Adam needs two things desperately — forgiveness for the past and power for the future — and in Christ both are given.

Holiness Needs a New Nature

How then does holiness come? First, it requires a new nature, for our problem runs deeper than behavior.

And this new life unfolds as both a crisis and a process. A traveler steps onto a train all at once — that is the crisis, the decisive moment — and then the train carries him nearer and nearer his destination — that is the process. So holiness begins in a moment of new birth and grows over a lifetime of walking with God.

Holiness Needs Desire, Power, and Cleansing

The new nature must be cultivated, and the lesson presses three more needs. First, desire. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). It takes time to be holy; no one becomes holy in a hurry, and much of that time must be spent in secret prayer. A seeker once asked an old sage how to find God; the old man held him under the river until he came up gasping, and asked, "While you were under, what did you want most?" "Air!" he cried. "When you want God as much as you wanted air," said the sage, "you will find Him."

Second, power. Why can we not simply fight the devil for a few months and drive him off? Because he is stronger than we are, and will be just as strong at year's end. Trying harder will never break the grip of sin, for our enemy is mightier than our willpower.

Third, cleansing. A minister having a tooth filled complained of the pain as the dentist dug out the decay. "I am going to fill it," the dentist said, "as soon as I get all the impurity out. If I leave any, the filling will not hold, and your peace will soon turn to pain. That is why God insists on a complete cleansing — He is the God of peace, and cannot fully dwell where something will breed discord." And bad habits are best dealt with early, before they grow strong; we say we have habits, but the truth is the habits have us.

Sojourners in Reverent Fear

Peter adds a sober motive for this holy life. "If you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear" (1 Peter 1:17). The God we call Father is also the Judge who shows no favoritism. So the believer, remembering that he is only a sojourner — a stranger passing through, as we saw in Unit 1 — lives his short stay here in reverent fear, taking God and holiness seriously because he will answer to Him.

Redeemed by the Precious Blood

And here Peter gives the deepest motive of all for holiness: the price of our rescue. We were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, nor freed from our empty way of life by any tradition handed down from our fathers, but "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Think of the cost. The Father did not buy us back with the most precious metals of earth, which themselves perish, but with the lifeblood of His spotless Son. This Lamb "was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (1 Peter 1:20) — the plan of redemption is older than creation itself. And through Him we "believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God" (1 Peter 1:21). A people purchased at such a price are not their own; to live carelessly in sin is to despise the blood that bought us.

Love from a Pure Heart, Born of the Living Word

Holiness is never merely private; it flowers in love. "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart" (1 Peter 1:22). The same obedience that cleanses the soul knits believers together, and Peter commands a love that is both pure and fervent. Then he reminds them where their new life came from: they have been "born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever" (1 Peter 1:23). The seed that produced the new birth was the living word. And that word will outlast everything: "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever" (1 Peter 1:24-25, quoting Isaiah 40). The world that persecutes the scattered church is itself fading grass; the word that saved them, and the God who spoke it, will stand forever.

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