Talk 2, Holy
Pete Thompson
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1 Comment ↓
The sure hope of Jesus’ return motivates believers to live a holy life appropriate for God’s obedient children.
Posted in Bible Talk
Pete Thompson
—
1 Comment ↓
The sure hope of Jesus’ return motivates believers to live a holy life appropriate for God’s obedient children.
There is a 2nd “therefore” in this passage:
1 Peter 2:1-3
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So, reading what is prior to this 2nd “therefore”, it seem as if Peter is saying we should rid ourselves of malice, deceit, envy and slander because:
* Christians have (past tense) purified ourselves by obeying the truth (1:22). This seems similar to what Peter says at 1:2 – that Christians have been “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood. I.e. They have believed the gospel by the grace of God.
* Christians are to live holy lives because (1:17) the Father will judge each person’s work impartially (so we should revere him) and because of our new nature we are now “foreigners”, not belonging to this world.
* Even though we will be judged by the Father, it is still grace that will be revealed to Christians when Christ comes again (1:13-17). We are now children of God with new natures (holy, which is why Christians are called “saints” in other parts of the Bible) so we don’t have to live according to evil desires we followed in ignorance. 2:2 says we are to grow up in our salvation. We are saved from sin’s POWER and penalty as Paul says below:
Romans 6:6-8
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.