The Four-Letter Word

Text: 1 Peter 1:13-25

There are a lot of words we don't wish to hear in common usage, if ever. But one four-letter word which is critical to Christian faith is one which heard less often than it should be rather than more often. When we do use it, we often limit its application to God Himself, somehow overlooking the fact that God wants it to be characteristic of all of His people. Yes, we're speaking of that word: HOLY.

Theologically, we find two uses of the term when it is applied to God's people. On one hand, we are are set apart, made fitting for His purpose; we are holy by our position, our standing in Christ. But Peter is writing about a second usage of the term, one which refers to our actual behavior, attitudes, dreams, and desires. In vv. 14-15, there is a contrast between the old ways of doing evil and the necessity of being holy in everything we do. He continues by stressing the basis of the hope we share because of Christ; that hope itself is to be a motivation toward this holiness.

For some reason, many believers become nervous about such texts. Perhaps this is due to a fear of working for our salvation, which we know we cannot do. Perhaps it is because of how woefully short we come when assessing ourselves very closely at all. And let us be clear: the writer of this piece is very far from meeting the goal. But I also believe that we misconstrue what it means to be holy, making it unnecessarily vague, removed from everyday life--as though it is something done off in a corner, isolated from not only the world, but cordoned off from even one another.

The text, which continues the theme for most of the epistle, has a quite different view of holiness. It begins by recognizing and realizing a new attitude toward one another, characterized by love. Peter goes so far as to claim that we can have love for one another only because sin has been taken away by Christ. It is sin which makes love difficult, if not impossible. But things are different for those in Christ.

To be God's holy people, we must demonstrate that we know what loving relationships look like. I can't imagine a more needed demonstration for a world in which hatred and violence are so commonly seen and suffered. God in His holiness did not withdraw from it but entered into it. We must be holy because He is; we must enter in as well.