“Ring Ring”…. A Call to Holy Living

By Monique Smith

1 Peter 1: 13-21 (Holman Version)

Therefore, get your minds ready for action, being self-disciplined, and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance ¹⁵ but, as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; ¹⁶ for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. ¹⁷ And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one's work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during this time of temporary residence. ¹⁸ For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things, like silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. ²⁰ He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the times for you ²¹ who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

As Children of God, we are called to live above the influences of the world. Of course this is hard. Even after you are positive that you have overcame a certain sin/lifestyle, you can be tempted by that same thing, out of no where! For example, tonight, I chaperoned at the high school homecoming party….and for a moment all the music made me want to go to a club and twerk some’n. And this was AFTER I had read the above scriptures this afternoon. SMH. Through the power of God, I overcame my addiction of clubbing and haven’t had the desire to club in like 2 years. But tonight, I was strongly tempted! Crazy right? Anyways, back to the text.

Firstly in vs. 14, we see that we are called children of God. It’s a privilege to be called a child of God because we were once enemies! (Romans 5:10). Secondly, being a child of God and obedience goes hand in hand. We can’t expect much success operating in disobedience to God.

The scripture then tells us to not be conformed to the desires of our former ignorance. Those desires are desires of the flesh and are ignorant to the spirit of God because they separate you from your proper relationship with the Father. “Former ignorance” means before you made a decision to get things right with God and stick with it. This can mean your mindset from last, last month, or even five minutes before you read this. Whatever the case, we are charged with living above the desires and to be holy. Not only are we to be holy in our speech, our thinking, or Sunday morning antics, but in ALL of our conduct. Yes that means our actions on Friday nights and even Tuesday mornings on the job or in class.

We have been called—chosen, to be adopted into the household of faith and we are to be holy because Jesus is holy. Not because Peter suggests it, its because Jesus is holy. Being a Christian means being Christ- Like, so living holy is a requirement. Vs. 17 tells us to conduct ourselves in fear while we are here on earth temporally. (That gets me really excited to read about this living situation only being temporal!) But as stated by Don. P earlier in the week, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So in our quest to live holy, wisdom has to follow because that is what the Word says. Vs. 18 says that we have been redeemed from our EMPTY lifestyles. Meaning before when we dwelled in sin and indulged in ALL the desires of the flesh, it left us empty at the end of the day. But our merciful God, agreed to restore us and fill our emptiness with his awesome spirit! How great is that! J

So to sum up this devotional, we have to be self disciplined in order to restrain our flesh from all its desires. We can’t control the flesh simply by attending church or bible study or even reading the Word. We have to apply the Word that was read to our lives and continually pray to God for help in these areas. God has given us common sense and the opportunity to ask for wisdom, so we can know the difference between our fleshly desires and His will. J Twas all I have folks! Onward to Holy Living!