Lesson 4

Staying Clean In A Polluted World

I Peter 1:13-17

How can we stay clean in a corrupt and polluted world? The answer is in I Peter 3:13-17.

Peter opened his letter with words of encouragement to his readers to not lose hope. In verse 13, Peter begins a new section. His emphasis in this next section is holiness. Hope and holiness go together. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He (Christ) is pure" (I John 3:3).

The root meaning of the word translated "holy" is "different." A holy person is not an odd person, but a different person. His or her life has a quality about it that is different. Different from the way he use to be (past way of life) and different from others (the lifestyles of the unbelievers around him). In fact, a Christian's life of holiness appears strange to non-Christians (I Peter 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you), but it is not strange to other believers.

The truth is that, I'm not sure that holiness is all that important to us these days. Let's be honest. Do we pursue holiness? We pursue happiness. We pursue healthiness. But holiness ... not very high on the list of pursuits.

In fact, holiness almost sounds like something that you don't want to be. Holiness almost sounds strange and narrow and uptight and judgmental and pious. It certainly doesn't sound fun and free. Do we want to be holy? Not really.

Even it we do, it is not easy to live in this world and maintain a holy walk. The anti-God atmosphere around us that the Bible calls "the world" is always pressing against us, trying to force us to conform. How can we stay clean in a polluted world? How can we be holy in an unholy world?

Some have suggested sanctification by isolation - with- drawing from the world as the only way to keep it from rubbing off on you. After all, how can you walk through a coal mine without getting dirty? Isolation almost seems logical. But the Bible says things like: (Philippians 2:15) "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." We are to conduct ourselves as the children of God, blameless, harmless and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse world! Jesus prayer for us in John 17:15 "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." The answer is not isolation but insulation. Not to taken out of the world but to be kept from the evil one.

I Peter 1:13-17 gives us some important principles for personal holiness.

Principle #1: Holiness In Not Optional, 1:16b

The text says, "Be ye holy"! God's word tells us to be holy. Hebrews 12:14 Follow ... holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: The pursuit of holiness is a mark of a genuine Christian. God want His people to be holy. God wants His church to be holy. And His people, His church want what He wants. We must desire to be holy. Do you?

Principle #2: Holiness Begins In The Mind, 1:13.

The pull of the world is as strong and subtle as gravity. So invisible, yet so irresistible. So relentlessly there. Never absent or passive. We must realize how strong and how subtle the world's influence really is. It is easy to lose touch with the reality of the world's pressure to conform. It is easy to allow the world to intoxicate us and fuzz our minds.

Peter says "gird up the loins of your mind, be sober". It's as if he is saying, "Shake yourselves out of that dizzying spell!" "Pull your thoughts together!" "Discipline your mind!" The image of is a robed man, tucking his skirts under his belt, so he can be free to run, unencumbered and unhindered from making progress.

Holiness, you see, begins in "your mind" (v. 13). Before there is ever an unholy act, there is first and unholy thought. We do with our bodies only those things we have first conjured up in our thoughts.

"Be sober!" Peter says. The sobriety of which he speaks means a calmness, a steadiness. It is the opposite of getting carried away. There is nothing wrong with enthusiasm and excitement about the things of God, but some get so excited that they abandon holiness. There is, according to Romans 10:2-3, a zeal without knowledge. Romans 10:2-3 - "2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."

Our thoughts need to be disciplined and sober and they also need to be optimistic. "Hope to the end"! The hope spoken of here is not "hope-so" but confidence, trust and anticipation. The thing which we are to be anticipating is the "revelation" (return) of Jesus Christ.

If you desire to be holy, start with your mind. (2 Cor 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Principle #3: Holiness Is A Matter Of Obedience To The Bible, 1:14-16.

The argument here is logical and simple. Children inherit the nature of their parents. God is holy; therefore, as His children, we should live holy lives.

There was a time when we were not His children. Verse 14b speaks briefly of that time (lusts, ignorance). But now, we are different, so we are not to be nor to do what we did before. Now we are the children of God and we should be obedient children. Obedience means that in all our behavior ("manner of conversation") we are to be holy.

Peter quotes the Old Testament here to make the point of obedience. (Leviticus 11:44).

Keeping clean in a filthy world means asking, :What does the Bible say?" In the Scriptures, we find explicit commandments which must be obeyed. We also find precepts and principles which will guide us into holy living. There are examples to follow. There are sins to confess and avoid. God's word must be authoritative in our lives. We don't just study the Bible to get to know the Bible better. We study the Bible to get to know God better! And the better we know our Father, the more obedient children we can be, and the more like our Father we can become.

There is a third principle from this passage that will produce holiness.

Principle #4: Holiness Will Have Future Consequences, 1:17.

Verse 17 reminds us that our Father will judge every man's work without any partiality. The judgment being spoken of here is not being judged as sinners (for believers, that judgment took place on the cross). It is being judged as sons and servants. To speak in theological terms, this is not the great white throne judgment but the judgment seat of Christ. It is that time when each of God's children will give an account of his works. This will be a time of rewards either received or lost.

That means that life is too short to waste with unholy living. Those who call upon God as Father are commanded here to "pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." The fear spoken of here is not the cringing fear of a slave before a master, but the loving reverence of a child before his father. It is not fear of judgment (I John 4:18), but the fear of disappointing Him or sinning against His love. It is what II Corinthians 7:1 calls "godly fear", a reverence for the Father.

We cannot be holy by being careless, irreverent and flippant toward the things of God.

I have observed lately a growing irreverence even among Christians. There is a casualness in the way we think and speak about God. Some people call Him "the man upstairs." A baseball player refers to God as "the great Yankee in the sky."

Even our songs about God are losing their reverence. According to Steve Camp, in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Contemporary Christian Music has become "Christless, watered-down, pablum-based, positive alternative, fluff, cream of wheat, syrupy, God-as-my girlfriend kind of thing".

I recently read some of the lyrics to a Carmen song called "Who's In The House?" He sings the phrase "jam with the Lamb" and refers to Jesus as J.C. When I was young, Madelline Murray O'Hara assaulted Christianity and mocked God as "Big Daddy", the Holy Spirit as "the Spook" and Jesus Christ as "J.C." Now Christian singers who supposedly are exalting Christ use the same words. This is irreverence.

More than a hundred years ago, a minister wrote, "Every year makes me tremble at the daring with which people speak of spiritual things." What would he say now?

You cannot be holy without fear and reverence for God

Holiness is not optional. It is the result of ...

a disciplined, sober mind ...

an obedient and submissive will ...

a reverent heart.

Be holy!