You Must Be Holy

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

Daily Thoughts 

February 6, 2025

You Must Be Holy

So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:14-16

Read: 1 Peter 1:13-25 

The Epistle of First Peter helps us respond to the enormity of God’s undertaking to save us. Peter encourages the people of God to stand firm in their faith, not because they will be punished if they don’t, but in response to all that God has done for them and will do for them when Christ returns.

There are two characteristics in this letter that give insight into how the first century Christians responded to their salvation in Christ. First, there was a consistent theme and form to the preaching in the early church. Peter’s words here are very similar to the record we have of his preaching in the Book of Acts. This message was so consistent in the early church it was given the name Kerygma, a Greek word that means "proclamation" and is used in the New Testament to refer to the message of the Gospel. Essentially this form of preaching contained six points:

1-     The era of the New Covenant, foretold by the prophets, has dawned.

2-     This has taken place through the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

3-     By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has been exalted at the right hand of God as head of the church.

4-     The Holy Spirit in the church is the sign of Christ's present power and glory.

5-     The era of the New Covenant will reach its consummation in the return of Christ.

6-     An appeal is made for repentance with the offer of forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and salvation.

In addition to consistency of preaching, there was also consistency of teaching in the first church. As an example, in 1 Peter there are striking similarities to the teaching of Paul in the book of Ephesians. Consider:

1 Peter 1:3 and Ephesians 1:3

I Peter 1:13 and Ephesians 6:14

1 Peter 1:20 and Ephesians 1:4

The forms of our worship and fellowship gatherings have changed a great deal over the centuries because our culture and circumstances are substantially different than those of the first church. What is important is that we do not change the Gospel. I believe when all is said and done, God will judge my writings based on my consistency to the Gospel, and my life will be judged based on how I live out the truth of the Gospel.

My Takeaway: “As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” (1 Peter 1: 24-25)

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.