One of my favorite hobbies, which many of my friends find to be rather annoying is I enjoy critiquing commercials, especially one variety of them: Truck commercials. I discovered that to have a genuine truck commercial you must have these three components: A mountainside, mud, and manly men. Without fail, I think to myself, “Yes, I’m going to buy an $80,000 Silverado and run it through a lake of mud…Great idea. NOT! So me being me, I had to investigate why most commercials, not just about trucks, don’t speak as much to the product but to the experience of using the product. Richard Bauckham gave me the answer in his book “The Bible in the Contemporary World,” “Advertisements have long ceased to give information about the products. Their function is to associate the products with all manner of desirable goals well beyond the power of the product to deliver: confidence, innocence, relaxation, love etc.” The goal of ads now is to convince you the product will aid you in becoming the best version of yourself. Why are marketers using this strategy? Because it works. We as people are master mimics. We see the manly man in the truck commercial, we see the beautiful woman in the fragrance commercial, we see what new technology is offering us and we think, “I want that to be me. I want that life.” We gravitate towards the life we think will be the most desirable, and whatever that is for you, you begin to pattern everything else so you can arrive there. But what is the real best life pattern? What leads you to the most fulfilling life possible? It all revolves around this one word: Holy.
Now maybe you’ve noticed how the word “holy” has many less-than-holy connotations in modern English. Maybe you’ve heard the expression “holier than thou?” It’s one of the criticisms of Christians in general that we think we’re better than everyone. So when most around us hear the word “holy,” they take it as a churchy way of saying, “I am judging you.” But can you guess what’s behind that? Why do many react so negatively to this central word in the Bible? Just like with commercials, it has to do with the story you’re telling yourself about your life. No one indeed talks to you more than you do. Each of us tends to see ourselves in a first-person-focused life movie. Here’s what I mean. We are constantly judging ourselves, making ourselves the center of the world we’re living in, and trying to create the life we desire most. So when we see someone or something that can support us in our ongoing life narrative, we try to emulate or gain whatever it is that we think will get us closer to what we believe is the best version of ourselves. So what does the Bible say about the best version of yourself, the best life pattern to live? Peter tells us, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
He’s saying the best version of yourself, the best life pattern you can have, it’s all about holiness. What is biblical holiness? It’s living a “set apart” life. Look at how Peter describes it, “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” Put simply, the best life someone can live is setting everything into the context of Easter hope, staying focused on gospel obsession, and proudly living differently from the rest of the world, striving by God’s grace to mimic our heavenly Father and not merely as our culture tells us, to mimic what the “self” within, your inner being, is telling you should be your story. To truly live set apart solely for the use of our loving, compassionate, all-powerful God, and not falling into the same sinful pattern you and I know well: To live simply for applause.
What do I mean? Again, whatever you define as the ideal life affects everything you think, say, and do. It sets the pattern, and if holiness is the pattern God has called us to, then we have a problem to deal with. It has to do with desire. Remember Peter’s words? “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” What makes a desire evil? It’s when another noun takes the place of God, when a person, place, thing, or idea becomes the thing you’re living for, when you place your life’s hope in anything besides Jesus. This is where our sinful nature objects, “So you’re telling me I need to conform to God’s standards?” “Why does it matter so much?” “Is God just some domineering judge who takes pleasure in me struggling?” “Why does he have this expectation?” “Who can be holy?!” You want to know why God can’t stand sin, why he calls “evil” anything that leads us away from him? It’s not because he’s a God who needs our affirmation or is thirsty for our praise. God loathes sin and its effects because it sets you apart from him. Your life B.H. (Before Hope) broke his heart, because you were missing out on the greatest life ever, a life defined by hope. And nothing besides Jesus can deliver to you that grace-given lifestyle.
How did he deliver it to you? Look at what Peter shows us, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” The real central figure of your story, who you long to mimic more than anyone else, is Jesus. Why? Because he made you holy. He redeemed you, bought you back from un-holiness to blamelessness. You and I were chained to tragedy, and he freed you by shedding the only holy blood ever shed. He knows how desperately you need hope. He knows how often you are constantly judging yourself, that the real reason we as a culture are always evaluating, always judging, always trying to measure up, is because deep down we know we can’t. It’s for those very moments when we realize how unholy we are, that our Savior comes to us again and says, “I have redeemed you. You are mine now. I’m the reason you always have someone to live for.”
This is why we are gospel-obsessed because it’s only there that real hope is found. And notice what Peter says about this real hope of Jesus, the certainty of his resurrection, gives you. He says, “You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.” The hope Jesus has given you saves you from living in emptiness. His blood has freed you from the fear of judgment. Isn’t that so often how we live? Constantly wondering if our friends will like our posts? Constantly concerned if we’ll live up to our potential? Constantly wondering if life really has meaning, or if we’re good enough? Your Jesus has redeemed you from all of that, and now you live for holiness, thinking first and foremost about one person’s opinion of you. That first position is not the opinion of your friends, your parents, your kids, your boss, or even your own heart. It’s your Father in heaven.
Peter centers our thoughts on that when he says, “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” Now maybe you’re wondering, “That sounds scary!” “Our holy God is going to judge me?!” But remember who your Father is. He’s the one who adopted you by sending his own Son to take on the abandonment and hopelessness we deserved. You’re a foreigner here because he’s given you heaven as your home. He’s the Father who calls you his dear child through baptism and proudly puts his name on you. He’s the Father you love even if your biological father wasn’t there or he hurt you deeply, your heavenly Father will always be there, always love you, and that love does require judgment. It’s one of those hard questions. How can God be both our loving Father and also our holy Judge?
Here's how. God is not an indulgent grandfather giving into everything we want even if it’s harmful to us, nor is he an unloving critic of everything we do. He’s perfectly loving and perfectly holy, and can you see God’s grace shining so clearly in that? It means the God of the universe never makes a mistake. It means he takes the injustices that have happened in your life seriously. It means that he will stop at nothing to keep you close to him. It means you can pattern your life after him, not out of terrified fear, but as Peter puts it “reverent fear.”
What is that you ask? It’s being so blown away in awe over how much the LORD cares for you. To shake with the hair coming up on your arms because God has so much joy over you. This amazing thought that before the world began, knowing all the times you and I would turn away from him and choose desires above him, he still would send his Son Jesus who willingly and joyfully went through the ultimate judgment with you as his number one desire, so one day when you stand before your Father when Jesus comes back, he will look at you with a smile on his face and say, “You’re free, my child. It’s time to go home.”
Do you see what the holy life is always about? It’s mimicking, it’s patterning your life motivated by the unconditional love your God has for you. It’s why Peter began his letter getting us to obsess over the gospel, because the life Jesus has won for you is not one driven by guilt, nor performance anxiety, but joy. Joy in one thing alone: The certain hope of Jesus. Yes, this side of heaven we will never achieve perfect holiness, but we strive towards it with all our hearts because we’re children of God and we want to be just like our heavenly Dad. The holy life is the set-apart life, the repentant life. We set everything into the Lord’s hands, our identity, our purpose, our priorities, and our relationships, and simply pray, “Father, use me.” In our culture that despises the idea of being used, we are gladly obedient to our Father. Why? It all has to do with love.
The life pattern of the Christian is motivated by knowing we’ve been made holy by the precious blood of Jesus, which then leads us not just to love but as Peter puts it, “love one another deeply.” And what gives us the guidance for this greatest of life purposes? The Word of the Lord, the one that isn’t relevant for a day, but relevant forever. The Word of God lays out the unchanging reality even as everything else fades. And do you know how this holy mentality changes your life pattern? By faith, you prioritize the eternal over the temporary. You are thinking about that soul in front of you and not how you can use that person for your own emotional or physical gain. This is not to say that the temporary doesn’t matter. I had a man say to me once, “Christians are too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly use.” No, it’s precisely because our certain hope is grounded on the certainty of Jesus coming back for us, that every second becomes significant. When we pattern our life after the living hope of Jesus every moment, every person, every place in life becomes infinitely significant. Because everything that happens here has a direct connection to the next chapter of our story when we’re home.
But don’t let that scare you! Think about how exciting it is to be a Christian! To wake up every day knowing what the hope of Jesus means that wherever God takes you today, however he uses you has eternal, never-ending meaning and purpose. And do you how different life is when you are living free to be obedient to your Father? It’s not constricting, it’s not demeaning, it’s living free from fear of judgment. You never have to wonder if God will turn his back on you because you did that sin again, or didn’t love that person as you should’ve. Here’s God’s grace. He points you to the living hope of the cross and empty tomb which simultaneously shows the seriousness of your sin and the serious realness of God’s love for you. His love gives you forgiveness that motivates you to boldly love others deeply, even through hurt, even if it’s never returned, because we know our life pattern of striving for holiness will not end in vain. Your life will never be empty, but instead, you are wrapped in the arms of God where you find everything you ever hoped for and everything else thrown in. How then shall we live? For him. Just for him. Amen.
