1Peter 1:13 – 25

Feb. 8, 2022

13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

14As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

17And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

18Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

21Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

“14As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” That’s a tall order for us humans. These verses imply that we also apply the instructions to the way we think – in order to be holy in ‘all manner of conversation’. Think of things that immediately come to mind – politics, sports, what that woman wore to church today …

We are told – and I believe – the tongue is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways (based on Hebrews 4:12) and that it’s what comes out of our mouths that defiles us (St. Matthew 15: 18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20These are the things which defile a man:). In order to clean up ‘all manner of our conversation’, we first have to clean up how we think.

We can put a governor on our vehicles that will limit the speed the vehicle can attain but we have to build our own governors to control how we think, which, in turn, controls how we speak.

I told you this was a tall order for humans – we like to just let it all out and tell people exactly what we think and what they ought to know. But if we are to be holy as He is holy, then we need to start (or continue) building that governor.

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