“As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (I Peter 1:14-16)
In the first epistle of Peter, the apostle aims to comfort believers and to encourage them to stay strong, urging them to put all hope in their future with Christ and to obey and trust Him in the present, even in their suffering. Christ suffered greatly, and now the Christ-followers can follow Him, showing His grace and power in their hopefulness, obedience, and faith.
This section describes how those God has caused to be born again should live in this world. We must mentally engage in setting all our hope in God and choose to act as those who are God’s people. We do this by rejecting the evil desires that once drove our actions. Our choices matter. Since God has made us able, we must now strive to live earnestly.
Everyone in Christ has a “before” and an “after.” There was a time before we trusted in Christ when we did not know the truth or understand. We lived in ignorance and followed our desires instead of God's desire for us. Now that we are in our "after," Peter calls us obedient children, writing that we must live up to the title. We must stop conforming to the pattern we followed "before." That's no longer us. We must follow a new pattern.
He urges that we should conduct ourselves like the children of God. We can do this when we obey His commands, submit to His will, and manifest unwavering confidence in Him as our Father at all times. The Christian is to be as different from what he was before conversion as he is from the ordinary, unconverted person. They are to be governed by new laws, to aim at new objects, and to shape their lives under new principles. Before conversion, they lived only for personal gratification, freely indulging passions and disregarding the will. Now, they are to be governed by a different rule, and their former standard of morals and opinions is no longer their guide but the will of God.
The accurate model or example which we are to frame our lives by should be the character of the very God who called us into His kingdom. We are to emulate Him in all our conduct. We should also be holy since God is holy, and we profess to be his followers. It’s impossible for us to be perfectly holy as God is, but we are called to live as holy a life as we can. The command, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” was first addressed to the Israelites in Leviticus, but its address to the professed people of God is of equal importance. The foundation of the command is that they professed to be His people, and they ought to be like their God. People everywhere will want to imitate the God they worship and form their character according to His.
By knowing the characteristics of the gods that any people worship, we may form a correct estimate of the character of the people themselves. Therefore, as God, who is the object of Christian worship, is perfectly holy, the character of His worshipers should also be holy.
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