Ye Shall Be Holy
“Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.”
I Peter i. 13-17 (r.v. ).
3y«^jjW/HE “wherefore” with which this paragraph opens A lky gathers up the premises of the preceding verses, and uses them as a massive platform of soHd masonry on which to erect the battery of appeal to which the Apostle now addresses himself. Because our destiny is what it is; because Jesus Christ is what He is: because our salvation has been the theme of prophets, apostles, martyrs, angels; therefore...
And the aim of his appeal is Holiness. — “Be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living.” The cry for HOLINESS rings through the Bible. It is the keynote of Leviticus, from which this quotation is made {comp. ver. 16 with Lev. xi. 44; xix. 2; XX. 7 and 26, &c.): and it is equally the supreme demand of the New Testament. In point of fact, all the wondrous machinery of redemption, from the distant choice of eternity to the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, has had this for its purpose, that we, who have been the subjects of the grace of the Persons of the Eternal Trinity, should resemble them in the holiness which is the perpetual burden of heaven’s rapturous minstrelsy — that song which was heard by the evangelic prophet Isaiah from the Temple courts, in the year that King Uzziah died; but which was still unfinished when the beloved Apostle John detected it amid the break of the yEgean Sea aioiind the lone island of his banishment; and which will never cease, world without end: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God the Almighty” (Isa. vi. 3; Rev. iv. 8).
Holiness is the property of God alone. — It is the totality of the Divine attributes; the sum of the Eternal and Infinite Being of Godhead; the essence of Ueity; the chord made by the harmonious blending of Divine equalities; the beam woven from the many colours of Divine perfections; the expression in a single term of all that goes to make up the moral nature of the great Spirit whom we call God. It is underived in its source; unlimited in its measure; insupportable in its naked and unveiled splendour by the eye of any creature which He has made “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exod. xv. 11). No tongue then shall dare to challenge God’s right to declare Himself as the Holy One of Israel, or to say in the words before us, “I am holy.”
Such holiness is evidently possible to us. — See, the holy God has “called” us to it {v. 15). “God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness” (i Thess. iv. 7). He “hath called us with a holy calling” (2 Tim. i. 9). All partakers of the heavenly calling are called “holy brethren” (Heb. iii. i). But God would not summon us to heights we could not scale, or to tasks we could not perform. His CALL involves two facts — first, that his holiness is within our reach; secondly, that He is prepared to supply all that is necessary to effect in us that to which He calls us. God is pledged to make us holy; or He will expose Himself to the mockery of his foes. But we need not fear for Him. He counted the cost before He issued his proclamation; and He is well able to finish that of which He laid the foundation in the great depths of Calvary (Luke xiv. 2q, 30).
Nor is such holiness for saints and apostles alone; or only for the special golden days which visit most lives — days of feast and song and transfiguration. The Divine ideal is more comprehensive far. “Holy in all manner of living” {v. 1 5, R.V.).
Zechariah foretold the time when the inscription on the high priest’s mitre should be written even on the bells of the horses: “Holiness to the Lord.” And it is God’s will that that motto should be engraved on house bells, and office bells, and shop bells; on dinner bells and factory bells; so that in every department of our lives there may be sweet music made to life’s great Lord. Holiness at every turn, and in every incident of our daily walk, like the golden tinkle which betrayed each movement of Israel’s high priest (Exod. xxviii. 33-33; Zech. xiv. 20, 21).
There is ojily one way of becoming Jtoly, as God is: and it is the obvious one of opening the entire being to the all-pervading presence of the Holy One. None of us can acquire holiness apart from God. It dwells in God alone. Holiness is only possible as the soul’s possession of God; nay, better still, as God’s possession of the soul. It never can be inherent, or possessed apart from the Divine fulness, any more than a river can flow on if it is cut off from its fountain head. We are holy up to the measure in which we are God-possessed. The least holy man is he who shuts God up to the strictest confinement, and to the narrowest limits of his inner being; partitioning Him off from daily life by heavy curtains of neglect and unbelief He is holier who more carefully denies self, and who seeks a larger measure of Divine indwelling. The hoHest is the man who yields himself most completely to be influenced, swayed, possessed, inspired, by that Spirit who longs to make us to the fullest extent partakers of the Divine nature.
Wouldst thou be holier f — T&xe is but one way. Thou must have more of God in thee. Holiness is the beauty of the Lord God of hosts. Thou canst not separate the one from the other. To have it thou must have Him. Nor will it be hard to obtain either; for He longs to enter into thy being. Thy longing is the faint response of thy heart to his call. The power that works within is matched by the grace which can do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Man never desired so much of God as God desired of man. God’s holiness has revealed itself in a human form in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord; and so it is as able as it is eager to enter human lives through that blessed Spirit who is pre-eminently the channel and medium by which we are filled up unto all the fulness of God. Ask thy heavenly Father for this Spirit. He is more eager to give Him than a father to give food to his hungry child. And, having asked, dare to believe that thou hast received, and “go in this thy might” (Jud. vi. 14). And this holiness will reveal itself in many ways.
I. There will be the Pilgrlm Attitude and Temper. — Eastern fashions suggest the figure of the gh’t loins. There the loose and flowing robes suit well the deliberate movements which the climate begets; but they would grievously hamper pilgrim, wrestler, or warrior. When the Israelites were momentarily expecting the summons for the Exodus, they stood with their loins girt around the tables on which the paschal lamb was smoking. Thus too did the prophet of fire gird himself for the swift courier-run before Ahab’s chariot, from Carmel to Jezreel (i Kings xviii. 46).
Our souls are clad with the flowing garments of various tastes, appetites, affections, and propensities, which hang loosely around us, constantly catching in the things of the world, and hindering us in the Christian race. We must not let them stream as they will — or we do so at our peril. AlDsalom rued the day when his luxuriant tresses floated behind him in the breeze. We must “gird up” the habits of our souls, and trim ourselves, so as to pass as quickly and easily as possible through the thorny jungle of the world.
Hold your spirit in a tight hand. Put a curb on appetite. Say “No” to luxurious pleasure-seeking. Curtail your expenditure on yourself Do not spread yourself too widely. Watch eye and lip, thought and wish, lest any break from the containing cords of self-control. “Keep thy heart with all diligence.” Give Vanity Fair as little chance as possible, by passing swiftly and unostentatiously through.
Be sober, — Sobriety is a great word. It is constantly inculcated in the New Testament on elders, deacons, women, aged men, young men, and maidens. It means temperance, self-control, and a just estimate of one’s self in the world. There are some who counterfeit it by assuming an austere and forbidding attitude, denouncing much that is innocent and natural, and looking severely on some who do not yield to their scruples. The truly sober man, on the other hand, moves freely through the world, strewn with beautiful and innocent things: using them without abuse, rejoicing in every good thing which the Lord God gives; but never allowing any of them to usurp too grert an influence on his affections, or to tyrannize over his will.
When the heart is fully engaged with the Lord, his service, and love, and rewards, and welcome home at last, it can afford to look undazzled on many a captivating spectacle, and to turn from many a fascinating cup. The holy heart, filled to brimming with the presence of God, is like a man who has been well banqueted, and who is therefore able to look calmly on the passionate heat with which starving men will fight with each other over ofifal.
Hope to the end. — “Set your hope perfectly” (r.v.). Go fearlessly as far as hope can go. Let her sit at her easel, painting her fairest pictures, or sing rapturously her most ecstatic lay: she cannot be disappointed. The “grace which is to be brought unto us” when the veiling clouds are rent, and the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, will far surpass all her imaginings. Hope is the lamp of the soul, passed down from saint to saint, as in the old Greek race, but destined to be eclipsed in the light which is to break ere long upon our spirits — the day of perfected redemption, of glorified creation, of a perfected church. The Revised Version reminds us that that grace is being brought — it has started, and is already on its way.
H. There will be the Obedience of Children (14). — Once the children of disobedience, we have been born again, and become children of obedience — a fair mother with noble offspring. Such, at least, is the literal rendering of the Greek. And what a marvellous difference at once comes over the lives of those who have passed through this change! They “no longer fashion themselves according to the former lusts.”
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Lust is natural inclination run wild, overleaping all restraint, and asserting its own imperious will. When we are yet in the darkness of nature, unillumined by the grace of God, these lusts fashion us. Beneath their touch we are moulded or fashio7ied, as clay by the potter’s hand. Ignorant of the abominableness of sin, of its disastrous results, of its insidious growth, we yield to it until it becomes our tyrant and our ruin. Oh, the horror of the awaking, should we see the depths of this beetling precipice descending sheer beneath us to hell! When we no longer fashion ourselves according to the former lusts, but according to the will of God — that is obedience.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this truth. Obedience is not holiness; holiness is the possession of the soul by God. But holiness always leads to obedience. And each time we obey, we receive into our natures a little more of the Divine nature. “If ye shall indeed obey my voice, ye shall be a holy nation unto Me.” Do, then, whatever it is right to do. Forsake all which begins and ends with self. Be not satisfied with prayer and desire, but DO. And thus there will come over your face and life more likeness to the Father of your spirits; and you will be holy.
How few Christian people seem to realize that obedience in trifles, in all things, to the will and law of Jesus, is the indispensable condition of life and joy and power. The obedient soul is the holy soul, penetrated and filled by the presence of God, and all aglow with light and love. Dear reader, resolve from this moment to live up to the margin of your light. Let this be your motto: “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” Israel said this and failed utterly and shamefully; do you say it by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He shall make it gloriously possible.
III. There will be a reverent Anticipation of the Father’s Award (17). — God’s children are to be judged, not at the great white throne, but at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. V. 10). That judgment will not decide our eternal destiny, because that has been settled before; but it will settle the rewards of our faithfulness or otherwise (Matt. xxv. 19; I Cor. iii. 14).
There is a sense in which that judgment is already in process, and we are ever standing before the judgment bar. “The Father -who judgeth.” The Divine verdict is being pronounced perpetually on our actions, and hourly is manifesting itself in light or shadow.
But it is a Fathers judgment. We call on Him as Father. Notice this reciprocity of calling. He called us; we call Him; His address to us as children begets our address to Him as Father. We need not dread his scrutiny — it is tender. He pities us as a father pities his children, knowing our frame, allowing for our weaknesses, and bearing with us with an infinite patience.
But for all that it is impartial. “Without respect of persons.” Many years before, this had been revealed to the Apostle from heaven in a memorable vision, which affected his whole after-ministry (Acts x. 35). Not according to profession, or appearance, or any self-constituted importance, but according to what we do, are we being judged.
The holy soul realizes this; and a great awe falls upon it and overshadows it — an awe not born of the fear which hath torment, but of love. It passes the time of its sojourning in fear. Not the fear of evil consequences to itself, but the fear of grieving the Father; of bringing a shadow over his face; of missing any manifestation of his love and nearness to Himself, which may be granted to the obedient child. Love casts out fear; but it also begets it. There is nothing craven, or fretful, or depressing; but a tenderness of conscience which dreads the tiniest cloud on the inner sky, such as might overshadow for a single moment the clear shining of the Father’s face. So the brief days of sojourning pass quickly on, and the vision of the Homeland beckons to us, and bids us mend our pace.