1 PETER 1:13–16
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “BE YE HOLY”?
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
— 1 Peter 1:13–16, KJV
“WHEREFORE”
That first word matters.
Peter does not begin his instructions about Christian living until he has spent twelve verses talking about what God has already done.
God has:
begotten them again unto a living hope,
raised Jesus Christ from the dead,
reserved an inheritance for them,
kept them by His power through faith,
promised a salvation ready to be revealed,
and fulfilled the salvation about which the prophets had searched and inquired.
Wherefore…
Because all of that is true, Peter now turns to the way Christians should live.
That order is important.
Peter does not say:
Live a holy life so that perhaps God will give you a living hope.
He says, in effect:
God has given you this living hope. Therefore, this is how people who possess that hope should live.
Christian conduct grows out of what God has done.
“GIRD UP THE LOINS OF YOUR MIND”
That sounds strange to modern ears.
Peter's readers would have understood the picture immediately.
People commonly wore long garments. If a man needed to run, work, fight, or move quickly, he gathered up the loose material and secured it around his waist.
The Old Testament uses the expression repeatedly.
God told Israel before the Passover:
“And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded…”
— Exodus 12:11, KJV
God told Job:
“Gird up now thy loins like a man…”
— Job 38:3, KJV
The picture is preparation for action.
But Peter does something interesting with it.
He says:
“Gird up the loins of your mind.”
The preparation begins in the mind.
Peter is telling Christians to gather up the loose ends of their thinking and prepare themselves for action.
Modern translations sometimes express the idea as “prepare your minds for action.” That communicates the sense well, but the KJV preserves Peter's vivid picture.
Don't let your thoughts hang loose.
Don't drift mentally.
Don't allow fear, desire, pressure, or suffering to control your thinking.
Get your mind ready.
That fits the entire letter. Peter is writing to people who will have to think clearly if they are going to remain faithful when the surrounding culture does not share their faith.
“BE SOBER”
Peter continues:
“be sober”
The Greek verb is nēphō.
It can carry the literal idea of being sober rather than intoxicated, but Peter uses it more broadly for clear-headed, self-controlled thinking.
He will use the same word again:
“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.”
— 1 Peter 4:7, KJV
And again:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about…”
— 1 Peter 5:8, KJV
Notice the pattern.
Peter is not encouraging religious excitement that abandons careful thought.
Quite the opposite.
The Christian is to be mentally alert.
That becomes particularly important when people are frightened, suffering, angry, or excited. Those are precisely the times when clear thinking can disappear.
Peter says:
Keep your head.
“HOPE TO THE END”
Then comes the main command:
“hope to the end”
The expression can also carry the sense of setting one's hope fully or completely upon something.
And Peter tells us exactly where that hope belongs:
“for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
That takes us back to verses 3–5.
The Christian's hope is pointed forward.
Peter has already spoken of:
“salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Now he speaks of:
“the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Grace, therefore, is not merely something Christians received in the past.
There is future grace still coming.
That is an important idea.
We sometimes speak of grace almost entirely in connection with becoming a Christian. Peter's language is broader.
God's grace began the Christian life.
God's grace sustains the Christian life.
And God's grace will be fully experienced when Christ is revealed.
“AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST”
The Greek word behind “revelation” is apokalypsis.
It means an unveiling or revealing.
It is the same basic word from which we get Apocalypse, the traditional name associated with the book of Revelation.
Peter has already used the expression in verse 7:
“at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
The KJV translates the underlying expression somewhat differently there, but the thought is closely related.
Jesus is presently unseen.
Peter just said:
“Whom having not seen, ye love.”
But He will not remain unseen forever.
The Christian life therefore stretches between two realities:
Christ is unseen now.
Christ will be revealed.
Peter tells his readers to organize their lives around that future reality.
“AS OBEDIENT CHILDREN”
Verse 14 continues:
“As obedient children…”
Literally, the expression is something like “children of obedience.”
That is characteristic biblical language.
Obedience is not presented merely as an occasional activity. It is supposed to characterize the family to which these people now belong.
And notice the family language.
Peter has already said that God:
“hath begotten us again.”
If they have been born again, they are now God's children.
Therefore they should resemble their Father.
That becomes the foundation of Peter's argument about holiness.
“NOT FASHIONING YOURSELVES”
Peter says:
“not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts…”
The Greek word carries the idea of being shaped according to a pattern.
Paul uses a related idea in Romans 12:2:
“And be not conformed to this world…”
Peter is describing two possible patterns for a human life.
One is the pattern of their former desires.
The other is the character of the God who called them.
Christian conversion therefore involves more than adding some new religious beliefs to an otherwise unchanged life.
The pattern itself changes.
“THE FORMER LUSTS IN YOUR IGNORANCE”
The word “lusts” in the KJV can be misunderstood today.
The Greek epithymia means strong desires or cravings. Depending upon the context, those desires can be sexual, but the word is not limited to sexual desire.
Peter is talking about the desires that previously controlled their lives.
That could include sexual immorality, but it can also include greed, drunkenness, envy, selfish ambition, uncontrolled anger, or other desires contrary to God's will.
Peter will become more specific later:
“For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles…”
— 1 Peter 4:3, KJV
He then mentions lasciviousness, lusts, drunkenness, revelings, banquetings, and idolatry.
That passage is one reason many interpreters believe a substantial portion of Peter's readers had been Gentiles.
Their former life had been characterized by what Peter calls:
“ignorance.”
That does not mean they were unintelligent.
It means they had lived without knowing God and His will as they now knew Him through Christ.
Greater knowledge therefore brings greater responsibility.
“BUT AS HE WHICH HATH CALLED YOU IS HOLY”
Here Peter reaches the heart of the passage.
The standard is not:
What is everybody else doing?
Nor:
What can I get away with?
Nor even:
What does my religious group expect of me?
Peter takes his readers much higher:
“as he which hath called you is holy…”
God Himself is the standard.
That makes holiness much bigger than keeping a list of religious rules.
WHAT DOES “HOLY” MEAN?
The Greek word is hagios.
At its most basic level it carries the idea of being holy, set apart, belonging to God.
But we should be careful not to reduce holiness merely to the idea of being “different.”
Something can be different without being holy.
Biblical holiness begins with God Himself.
God is holy.
Those who belong to Him are therefore called to reflect His character.
That is why Peter does not merely say:
Be different from the world.
He says:
“as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy…”
The direction is toward God, not merely away from the surrounding culture.
“IN ALL MANNER OF CONVERSATION”
This is another place where the KJV needs explanation.
Today conversation normally means speech.
In older English it could mean one's conduct, behavior, or manner of life.
The Greek word here is anastrophē, referring to conduct or way of life.
So Peter is not merely saying:
Speak holy words.
He is saying:
Let holiness characterize your entire manner of living.
That includes speech, but it goes far beyond speech.
How we treat people.
How we handle money.
How we respond when mistreated.
How we behave sexually.
How we exercise authority.
How we deal with anger.
How we conduct ourselves when nobody is watching.
Peter says:
“in all manner of conversation.”
Holiness is not a Sunday garment.
It is a way of life.
“BECAUSE IT IS WRITTEN”
Now Peter does what we should always notice when a New Testament writer quotes the Old Testament.
He says:
“Because it is written…”
And then:
“Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
Peter is drawing from Leviticus.
The wording occurs in several closely related forms:
“Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy…”
— Leviticus 11:44, KJV
And:
“Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.”
— Leviticus 19:2, KJV
This is important because Peter is again taking language originally addressed to Israel and applying it to Christians.
We already saw him do something similar with:
elect,
Dispersion,
and later he will do it much more dramatically with:
chosen generation,
royal priesthood,
holy nation,
and peculiar people.
Peter's Christian readers are being taught to understand themselves through the story and language of God's covenant people.
BUT DOES PETER MEAN CHRISTIANS MUST KEEP THE LAW OF MOSES?
That conclusion would go beyond what Peter actually says.
Peter quotes Leviticus because the character of God has not changed.
The command:
“Be ye holy; for I am holy”
rests ultimately upon who God is.
The food laws, sacrifices, priesthood, and other features of Israel's covenant had their particular place in God's dealings with Israel.
But God's holiness was never temporary.
Peter therefore takes the underlying principle and applies it directly to followers of Christ.
The covenant setting has changed.
The holiness of the God who called His people has not.
HOLINESS IS NOT MERELY A LIST OF PROHIBITIONS
This is worth emphasizing.
Sometimes holiness is reduced to:
Don't do this.
Don't wear that.
Don't go there.
Don't associate with those people.
There certainly are things Christians must refuse to do. Peter himself has just said:
“not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts.”
But Peter's definition begins somewhere deeper.
God is holy.
Therefore:
His children should increasingly resemble Him.
That means holiness includes what we refuse.
But it also includes what we become.
Peter's letter will show us what that looks like:
love,
humility,
truthfulness,
self-control,
hospitality,
faithfulness,
doing good,
refusing revenge,
serving others,
and trusting God in suffering.
Holiness is not merely separation from something.
It is a life belonging to God.
NOTICE PETER'S ORDER
There is a beautiful progression in these verses:
THINK differently.
“Gird up the loins of your mind.”
STAY clear-headed.
“Be sober.”
HOPE differently.
Set your hope upon the grace Christ will bring.
DESIRE differently.
Do not conform yourselves to your former desires.
LIVE differently.
“Be ye holy.”
And underneath everything is the reason:
“for I am holy.”
Peter is not simply changing people's behavior.
He is describing a new identity that produces a new way of life.
TEXT BEFORE TRADITION
It would be easy to begin with our own definition of holiness and then bring this passage in to support it.
Peter gives us a better way.
Start with the text.
What does Peter connect with holiness?
He connects it with:
a prepared mind,
clear thinking,
future hope,
obedience,
a break with former desires,
and ultimately the character of God Himself.
Before asking what our tradition has called “holy,” perhaps we should ask a simpler question:
What does Peter call holy?
That may challenge some things we've always been taught—or simply how we've always understood this passage.
QUESTIONS WORTH THINKING ABOUT
Why does Peter spend twelve verses describing what God has done before telling Christians what they should do?
What would “gird up the loins of your mind” look like in everyday life?
Is our hope primarily fixed on improving circumstances now, or on “the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”?
Have we sometimes defined holiness mostly by what Christians do not do, rather than by resemblance to the God who called us?
When Peter says “in all manner of conversation,” what areas of life does that include?
Which of our ideas about holiness come directly from Scripture, and which may simply reflect how we've always understood it?
NEXT DEEPER STUDY
1 PETER 1:17–21 — REDEEMED WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST
Peter is about to bring together some enormous ideas:
God as Father and Judge.
Living in reverent fear.
Redemption.
The blood of Christ.
The lamb without blemish.
Christ foreordained before the foundation of the world.
The resurrection.
Faith and hope in God.
There is a great deal to unpack in those five verses.
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