Sermon 16th September 2012

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, continues our study series, Created to Become Like Christ, looking at the book of 1 Peter.  

Be Holy

(1 Peter 1:13-25)

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a God who speaks to us. Give us understanding, so that we may not merely be hearers of the word, but also doers of the word. Amen.

Be holy. Holiness. I wonder what your instinctive reaction is when you hear the words ‘holy’ and ‘holiness’. In today’s world, the idea of holiness and being holy sometimes produces a negative reaction. Christians are sometimes accused of being ‘holier than thou’. An insult that was used at the school I attended as a boy was ‘Holy Joe’, although I must confess there were plenty of far ruder insults that the boys hurled at each other! While love, faith and hope are widely seen as positive virtues, the way people feel about holiness is probably rather ambiguous. Why is this so?

I suspect it is the case that sometimes Christians can appear to be holier than thou. Sometimes there is a tendency for Christians to pull away from society and, often completely unwittingly, to adopt an attitude of superiority and to regard other people as beneath them. Perhaps that is why the idea of holiness sometimes gets a bad press. Yet if people were to read through the Gospels and look at Jesus’ ministry on earth with an open mind, I think it’s fair to say that most would agree that Jesus is a holy man – that the Gospels tell the story of someone who is deeply good and holy.  Jesus connected with all sorts of people. He often got into trouble with the religious leaders of his day. Why? Because he hung out with the so-called sinners – people on the margins of society. The holiness that Jesus gives us is not a holiness that leaves anyone feeling superior or better than anyone else. It is a holiness that moves out; it is a holiness that engages with people.

But poor examples of holiness in the church are not the only reason why holiness is often not seen as a virtue. There is also a cultural conflict with holiness. Moral freedom rather than holiness appeals to many people today. ‘Do what you like as long as it doesn’t hurt others’ is the popular world view.  Society says, ‘Do what you think will fulfil you.’

But ultimately what this world has to offer us won’t be fulfilling. If we simply take the approach of doing what we like as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, the chances are actually that we will end up hurting other people - and also ourselves. Moral freedom may seem attractive, but it doesn’t bring fulfilment. In this passage Peter offers us an alternative. Instead of moral freedom he offers us holiness – holiness in the true sense of the word. So I’m going to look at two questions.

The first is – what is holiness. And the second is – how do we move from thinking about holiness to leading a holy life, to embodying holiness in our lives. Holiness actually takes in a lot of things, but I’m going to focus on two points. The first is that holiness arises from a relationship, and the second is that holiness isn’t easy – it’s a struggle.

Holiness flows out of a relationship. I suspect that ‘relationship’ isn’t the first word that springs to mind when holiness is mentioned. There’s often a tendency to think of holiness as a checklist. I go to church on Sundays; I pray and read my bible regularly; I attend a home group; I give money to charity; I don’t commit adultery. Now all these are good things, but holiness isn’t a list of dos and don’ts. It isn’t a checklist. Peter centres holiness on a relationship.

The word holy means ‘set apart’. When we become Christians we are set apart from our former lives to serve God. And we enter into a relationship with a person – and that person is Jesus. As it says in verses 18-19 Jesus rescued us from an empty way of life through his precious blood – through his death on the Cross. And as Christians, we enter into a relationship with Jesus. It is our relationship with Jesus that defines us, not a checklist of dos and don’ts. Peter reminds us of our identity, and urges us to live out of that identity, the identity that flows from our relationship with Jesus. Live out of that identity; live out of that relationship. Be holy, because God is holy. Our identity is now in Jesus, the Son of God. Our story is now part of God’s story. 

In verse 14 Peter contrasts the holy life with the ‘evil desires’ we formerly held. What does he mean? The word translated by ‘evil desires’ is EPITHUMIA. Epithumia is the Greek word for strong desires, which can have either a positive or negative connotation in the Bible. Here in verse 14 it clearly has a negative connotation, and that is why it’s translated ‘evil desires’. Peter is writing about strong desires that have been corrupted and twisted in a way contrary to God’s will and plans. The picture here is of strong desires that take us over, that rule us. If Jesus isn’t at the centre of our lives, the danger is that these strong desires will overwhelm us.

Are there any epithumia in our lives that overwhelm us, that control us? In his commentary William Barclay describes the world into which Christianity came. His description is surprisingly contemporary. There was desperate poverty at the bottom end of the scale, but at the top banquets costing vast sums of money were held and the people would feast on rare foods such as peacocks’ brains and nightingales’ tongues. Immorality was rife, and faithfulness in relationships was becoming increasingly rare.

But even if we’re not tempted by debauchery on this scale, we need to beware strong desires that can take us away from God. Whenever a desire takes us over, even if that desire is for something that’s otherwise good, then it displaces God.

 Avoid those strong desires that can turn to evil, Peter says. Move away from them. Live instead out of your relationship with Jesus. Holiness stems from our relationship with Jesus, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Peter says holiness is a battle; holiness is a struggle.

We can realise that these strong desires can lead us away from Jesus and hurt us. We can see in contrast what Jesus offers and promises. We can come to him, but holiness remains a struggle.  In chapter 2 verse 11, Peter writes, ‘Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.’ These desires don’t disappear overnight when we become Christians. Peter’s view of Christian life is that it’s a battle. Even if we come to the Cross, we will struggle with these strong desires, the promises that this world offers. We think, ‘If I can only have my heart’s desire, then everything will be OK, I’ll be happy.’ But that’s not true, and the danger is that these desires can take us over and lead us away from God.

What epithumia, what strong desires could overwhelm us? Do we have the right attitude to our work, our money and our relationships? What desires will try to displace God in our lives? What are our particular temptations?

Holiness in the true sense of the word is a vital part of becoming like Christ. We need to put aside the strong desires that can lead is in the wrong direction, but it’s a struggle. We struggle to live a holy life; we struggle to live consistently in Christ.  Other things capture our imagination; they move us and drive us. How can we become more like Christ? Well, there are two things that Peter shows that I want to focus on. The first is that we need to see what is real, to wake up to reality, and the second is that we need to see Jesus.

We need to see reality. Peter starts the passage, with a call to use our minds – ‘minds that are alert and fully sober’ as he describes them. (vs 13) Prepare our minds. Think! We need to think. And in this passage Peter is helping us to think. He’s taking us through the Christian life and showing us what reality is. We live in a world that bombards us with opportunities to believe in other things and to behave in other ways. We need to see life as it really is. If we’re going to grow in holiness, if we’re to base our lives on something that lasts, we need to be centred on the right things.  So Peter in this chapter draws a contrast between the things that will last and the things that will fade. Where do we really put our hope and trust, because it’s not enough just to see the negative in our lives? How do we stop centring our lives on the wrong desires? How do we move beyond that? We do it by seeing Jesus, by looking to Jesus.

In chapter 2 verse 3 Peter writes, ‘you have tasted that the Lord is good.’ We have experienced his goodness, we know that he is good. Peter is helping us to grasp his goodness by showing us that he is a God who has moved towards us, a God who has spared nothing to get near to his people.          He is a God who has given us his Son. Peter reminds us of the costliness of salvation and of the great blessing of salvation. We have tasted his goodness.

We need to realise that the only way to move into a holy life, the only way to become more like Christ, is to focus on Jesus. We know that our hearts are fickle and that we are prone to leave him, that we are prone to move away from him and to move towards other things. So we need to deny ourselves those things, those strong desires that wage war on our soul, and instead of looking to them to complete us, we need to turn to Jesus to complete us. How do we focus on Jesus? By focusing on the reality! And Peter in this chapter describes the reality vividly.

·      In verse 3, he tells us that God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have new life in Jesus; we have eternal life in him.

·      In verse 4 he reminds us that we have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. We all know that the benefits of this life fade way. Even if we were to inherit an earthly fortune, one day we will die and someone else will get it.

·      In verse 7, Peter tells us that our faith is of greater worth than gold. Gold is very valuable, durable to the point of virtual indestructibility. Our faith will outlast even gold.

Peter is drawing out the contrasts. In verse 14 he tells us that we were once ignorant, but not any more. In verses 23-25 Peter says that the things that the world offers us are like flowers of the field that perish. But the word of the Lord, the story of the Gospels and the promises of God in Jesus – they will live forever.

Peter reminds us of the reality. We need to take that reality back into our own lives and see the particular shape of our struggles with holiness. We need to see the reality of the things that destroy, but we also need to see the reality of God. How do we make sure that we see the reality of God?

Quite near the beginning of this talk, I said that holiness isn’t a check list, that holiness doesn’t consist of going to church on Sundays, praying and reading the bible regularly and attending a home group. Holiness flows from a relationship with Jesus. But if you have a relationship with someone, you want to spend time with them. You can’t say, ‘I love my wife, but I don’t want to spend any time with her.’ Coming to church, praying, reading the Bible and attending a home group are all good ways of developing our relationship with Jesus. There are plenty of materials available in hard copy and on line that help us to study the Bible. To give just one example, CWR produces daily bible reading notes – Everyday with Jesus – which are available as a book, via email and even on kindle.

If we want to see things as they are, if we are to recognise the strong desires that can pull us away from our faith, then we need to centre on Jesus. Becoming holy, becoming like Christ, is a struggle, but we know that Jesus is with us in our struggles.

Let’s pray.

Lord, help us to see reality and to fight the strong desires that seek to take us away from Jesus. We pray that we will see that you are a God of love who showers his love upon us. Lead us, we pray, into a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Amen.

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[i] 16 September 2012