As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:14 ESV
When I was a little kid, my great grandparents used to take me to the 1st Pentecostal Holiness Church, in Norman Oklahoma. My idea of holiness was a little jaded, to say the least. In order to be "Holy," I thought men had to have short hair, women long hair. I thought you had to look and act a certain way. I had the notion that holiness was all things I did and said, the way I looked to the world.
It is all those things, but so much more. My holiness of course isn't determined by the length of my hair or my lack of tattoo's. My holiness is completely determined by the Lord. One thing we need to understand, is obedience is better than sacrifice. Peter says, "like obedient children," do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
Before I was saved, I was caught up in the occult, drugs, immorality, you name it. Like Paul, I felt I was chief among the sinners. Much of this behavior was done in ignorance. I knew I was doing wrong, but was ignorant to the fact that God existed, much less that he cared about what I was doing. Once the Holy Spirit started changing my heart, I knew right from wrong. To be holy, is to be separated from that old life style. To be set apart for the glory of God.
Christianity is not a bunch of rules to live by, it's a relationship with the God of all creation. He loves you so much that he came to this world to live as a human and be abused, beaten and murdered so you could have life with him. If you were a thief, stop stealing. If you were a drug user - dealer, stop using and selling drugs. If you were a prostitute, stop selling yourself.
You are a new creature in Christ Jesus. Do not be conformed, (changed back into) the old person that you used to be. By setting yourself apart from that old lifestyle, you are being holy. Pretty simple, huh? You have received a free gift of life, but just because it was free doesn't mean it didn't cost Jesus much!
If you have questions I can try to answer or if you need prayer, or maybe just someone to talk to that has been down the hard road, contact me; rlwhitener01@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for following along. Love you guys, God bless you.
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