I once was called upon, in my role as a pastor, to write an affidavit in a legal case, in response to what I considered to be signs of a true conversion to the Christian faith. Have you ever thought about that? How would you articulate it? You’d probably start where I did—you would look for clear evidence of a change in character and behavior for the better, specifically in the things that Christians do and believe such as study God’s word, pray, go to church, join in the sacraments and fellowship with other believers (Acts 2:42-48). But have you ever thought of holiness as evidence of a true conversion—living a holy life? Holiness in its simplest sense means “set apart”—living a set apart life.
Now the Bible is very clear that no one but God can look into the human heart (1 Sam. 16:7), so we are warned to be very careful in making our judgments absolute—but Jesus was also very clear in his teaching that good fruit can only come from a good tree while bad fruit comes from a bad tree. In this parable Jesus was pointing to human beings and the source of their behavior (Mt. 3:10; 7:16-20). Even in the field of jurisprudence, there is a legal doctrine taken from our Lord’s discourse called, “The fruit of the poison tree,” which means that anything obtained from a tainted source is also tainted and must be avoided as legal evidence. Cases have been thrown out of court when the source was discovered to be rotten to the core.
The admonition from the apostle Peter is that God expects us to change when we get saved and our life-style should demonstrate it. Why? Because we’re saved by grace—we are born again and have become a new creation by the power of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 3:3-8; 2 Cor. 5:17).
If a person has really been converted there’s just no way we can go back to the same old sinful life-style, doing the same old evil things (2 Cor. 5:17). Our behavior must be altered. Eugene Peterson says it like this from The Message: “Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now.” Peter, in just four verses, explains holiness as a four step process.
- The first instruction is to prepare your minds for action. I have a weakness for sports on TV. It’s about the only thing I can watch anymore that’s not sensual—that is if I avoid the commercials (and looking at the cheerleaders)! Have you noticed how individual athletes, when they are being interviewed, always talk about being focused—focused on the game at hand, not looking beyond the moment, focused on their game plan, focused on their individual assignments, focused on the opponents strengths and weaknesses, etc.—and then execute. All because they want to win the game. Well, that’s what Peter is telling us here. We focus on the matter at hand—which is living a set apart life and concentrate on what needs to be done to accomplish the goal.
- The second step is to be self-controlled, literally “sober.” When people are under the influence of alcohol or drugs we all know that they often do crazy and destructive things. We see the evidence in our society all the time. Auto crashes, rapes, murders, anger, sexual promiscuity, verbal abuse, irrational behavior, etc. People do things while intoxicated that they would never do while sober because they are out of control. To be self-controlled in the spiritual sense, means to be under the control of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to think and act clearly and responsibly. Paul told the Ephesians in this regard, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).
- The third step has to do with God’s grace in our behalf. As much as we try and justify ourselves in this life, it all comes down to the grace of God—his unmerited favor in our behalf (Eph. 2:8-9). Mark Twain made this point well: “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in.”
- The last step involves obedience and lack of conformity—obedience to God’s word and denial of our evil desires. Now I know we don’t like to think of ourselves as entertaining evil in our hearts—but in case you haven’t looked in the mirror lately or read what God’s word says about us—our fallen nature is evil to the core. Jeremiah cried out, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jere. 17:9 KJV). Isaiah added, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isa. 64:6). Paul admonished the Romans (and us), “There is no one righteous, not even one;” and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10, 23). Not a very pretty picture of our fallen nature that still haunts us, is it?
God instructs us to be holy in all we do. There’s no wiggle room. No part time holiness—part time worldliness. We should strive for perfection so that all will know that we, as God’s people, are different.
Holiness demands that the world knows who we belong to. Is it obvious by the way we live our lives? Is it obvious to our neighbors? Where we work? To our friends? To our family? Let’s make a decision that will remove any doubts. That’s what holiness is all about. Maranatha!
— Pastor Don