The holiness of God – 1 Peter 1:13-25
What really struck me over Easter this year is how attracted God is
to passion with patience. You remember the account, John and
Peter run to the tomb, Mary must have gone with them, for after
looking inside they wander off and Mary is left alone at the tomb.
Passion took the three there in the first place, but it was only Mary
who remained there waiting, expecting, hoping, wondering, and
in that passion with patience she had an encounter with the risen
Jesus. God is wanting us to passionately pursue him yet sometimes
it takes patience in order to experience his presence.
The leaders thought it would be good to spend a few weeks
thinking about holiness. God wants us to passionately pursue
holiness. Hebrews 12:4 says, “Make every effort ... to be holy.”
“Effort” implies a passionate pursuit, this is something worth
chasing after yet it also implies that a great deal of patience is
need because this is a lifelong pursuit. In the passage we read
from it says, “Prepare your minds for action.” In our minds we
make the choice to pursue with every effort - holiness. God is
attracted to a passionate and patient pursuit of holiness. We don’t
pursue holiness for a season and then wander off, particularly if we
have not had the breakthrough we might hope for, but patiently
pursue holiness for the rest of our lives.
What I want to do this morning is introduce the theme of holiness
and begin by looking at the holiness of God.
Introducing holiness
The first thing I want to do is introduce holiness. When we talk of
holiness it can conjure up all kinds of images in our minds. Those of
you who have a positive mindset it can be images of supersaints
who seem to make holiness unobtainable. Those of you with a
more negative mindset it can be of “holier than thou” characters
that put us off the idea of pursuing holiness. It’s also easy for
holiness to be reduced to “do’s” and “don’ts” – “Don’t smoke,
don’t drink and absolutely no dancing!” In the end we become
like the Pharisees and suck the joy and vitality out of holy living.
Holiness has to be more exciting than that if God thinks it is worth
pursuing.
Holiness is a great theme in the Bible. The word and its derivatives
occur over 600 times. The book of Leviticus is devoted to holiness.
In it God charges us, “I am the LORD your God; consecrate
yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44) Peter
picks it up in our passage. The pursuit of holiness is for God’s
people for all time. Holiness is something God highly values.
Holiness is for us as Romans says, “For sin shall no longer be your
master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
(Romans 6:14). The New Testament writers all paint pictures of the
holy person being morally blameless. Holy simply means separated
out for and this is usually for noble purposes. Those of you who are
older will remember the Sunday best, the best china, even the
front living room you didn’t go in except on special occasions.
God’s people are separated out for a noble purpose, we are
separated out to God. If our lives are separated out to God then
we live in conformity with what God desires of us. It is to be morally
blameless, without sin. Yet is we are being honest this morning we
can so often feel defeated in our struggle with sin. We find
ourselves conforming to our evil desires when Peter says it is the
one thing we should not do. In introducing the theme of holiness I
want to suggest three mistakes we can make.
The first mistake we can make is that our attitude to sin is more selfcentred than God centred. What I mean by this is that we are
more concerned about our victory over sin, our not loosing face in
front of others, our fear of failure rather than the grief sin causes
God. Holiness is about us rather than God. Because we are so
success orientated and we want to guard against failure the
pursuit of holiness becomes all about what we are able to
achieve. In our pursuit of holiness we have to acknowledge that
there is a human responsibility to pursue holiness yet so often the
attention of that pursuit is directed towards the pursuer rather than
he who should be pursued. When David sin he recognised that
against God, and God alone, had he sinned. God does not
primarily want us to walk in victory, but in obedience. Walking in
victory can make us the object of our success where walking in
obedience reminds us of who we are being obedient to. Where
obedience is pursued victory follows.
The second mistake that we can make is that we misunderstand
“living by faith” as outlined in Galatians 2:20. We recognise the
dangers of striving in our own strength and the attention being on
us and our success that any effort is frowned upon as being “of
the flesh”. As a result those living by faith, “let go and let God” as
the infamous slogan says. Yet the truth is we are to make every
effort while at the same time recognise there is a divine initiative
involved. A few weeks ago I bought some plants. I prepared the
ground, I bedded them in as described on the instructions, I
watered them as required, I have made every effort to optimise
their growing conditions, but I am still dependent on God causing
them to grow. “Living by faith” is not an abdication of
responsibility, it is not unfaithful to make every effort, it is what is
required in the pursuit of holiness. I play my part fully and God
does what he needs to do.
The third mistake that we can make is that we don’t take sin
seriously. We put sin into catergories and rate some things as
important and others relatively unimportant. I was going along the
bypass, following the car in front of me, thinking about this theme
of holiness, when I noticed my speed was the wrong side of the
speed limit. It’s easy to say, “It doesn’t matter” but what do you
think pleases God? What matters is not the laws we keep but the
majesty of the lawgiver. So Paul writes, “Let everyone be subject
to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that
which God has established. The authorities that exist have been
established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the
authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those
who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Romans 13:1-2) As
desperately as I want to go fast my desire to please God should
outweigh my need for speed. God is to be obeyed in all things. It
is the little things that matter. Songs reminds us, “Catch for us the
foxes, the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards.” (Songs 2:15) It is the small acts of
disobedience that ruin us.
Our response to holiness is shaped by whether we see sin as a
personal defeat or an offense against God, by whether we
acknowledge our personal responsibility and by whether we obey
God in all areas.
The holiness of God
I want to move on now to look at the holiness of God. God has
called everyone to a holy life. It is not the preserve of a few
passionate people but every Christian plumber should be a holy
plumber, every Christian banker should be a holy banker, every
Christian businessman should be a holy businessman, every
Christian teacher should be a holy teacher, ever Christian
housewife or husband should be a holy husband or wife. There are
no exceptions to this call to be holy. Our greatest danger is that
we assume a cultural holiness, we adapt to the Christian culture
around us and conform to its likeness, rather than pursue the one
who we are to be like. Holiness is conformity to the character of
God. So, what is the holiness of God like? I want to highlight three
things about the holiness of God.
The first thing to highlight is that holiness is an attribute of God. It is
part of his character. When we talk about the holiness of God we
are talking about his majesty and the purity and moral perfection
of his nature. In his omniscience God knows what is right. In his
holiness he does what is right. Sometimes we don’t know what is
right and we cry out to God for revelation. God always knows
what is right. Sometimes we know what is right but we don’t do
what is right. God always does what is right. So God’s holiness is
perfect freedom from all evil in thought and deed. John describes
it this way, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John
1:5) God is perfect holiness.
The second thing to highlight is that God conforms to his holy
character. He has perfect conformity to his character. All his
thoughts are always holy. All his words are always holy. All his
deeds are always holy. He is entirely consistent with his holy
character. God is always perfect, always holy. Yet the devil wants
us to believe that God is unfair. If we remember what happened
in the Garden of Eden he suggested to Eve that God was holding
out, he was being unfair. When life doesn’t play out the way we
would like, when one person seems to get away with something
and we don’t, it feels unfair. And the devil wants us to believe
God is unfair. It is impossible for God to ever be unfair – else he
would not be holy. One writer put it this way, “It is less injury to Him
to deny his being than to deny the purity of it; the one makes him
no God, the other a deformed, unlovely and detestable God ...
be that saith, God is not holy speaks much worse than he that
saith there is no God at all.” If God was omniscient – all knowing,
and if God was omnipotent – all powerful, and if God was
omnipresent – everywhere, but was not perfectly holy it would be
a terrible thing. But God is entirely consistent with his character
and so in every situation we are going to be met with the holiness
of God.
The third thing to highlight is that God commands us to respond to
his character. He demands that we be holy because he is holy.
Sometimes we make excuses, our temper gets the better of us
and we dismiss it as being “just the way I am” or rather than
guarding our mouths we gossip someone’s business and we
pardon ourselves with, “Well, I’m still growing in that area of my
life!” God’s holiness does not make for allowances. We are to be
perfectly holy as he is holy. Even when the pressure is on. If you
remember the story in 1 Samuel 13 Saul is waiting for Samuel to
come and offer the sacrifices before battle. The Philistines have
gathered, his men are quaking in their boots and Samuel hasn’t
turned up. His men are beginning to disperse, so Saul offers the
sacrifice. Samuel rebukes him for not being obedient yet Saul
simply makes excuses. God has put him in an impossible situation.
One of our greatest needs is to recognise how much God hates
sin. It is detestable to him. The more we love God the more we will
hate sin and stop making excuses and start living a holy life. We
may triffle with sin thinking it is of little consequence but God hates
it. We should seek to cultivate a hatred of sin, not as disquieting or
defeating of ourselves, but as displeasing to God. Holiness is a high
standard and a proper standard for those who believe. We should
not play with sin knowing that we can ask forgiveness and the
grace of God covers over our sin, rather, we take our responsibility
seriously for he deserves it.