To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:14-16 “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.’”

Have you heard people talking about wanting to “find themselves”?  Typically, they’re talking about an inward gaze, to find out “who they really are.”  It’s usually in a positive context – like they’re trying to find out what wonderful things lie deep within them.  It can be thought of as an effort to strip away all the wrong thinking that “society” or their family or past experiences have burdened them with so that they can find the wonderful “real you.” 

Recently I had a conversation with a Christian friend about this topic. What he told me was that when he finally “saw himself for what he really was,” he was disgusted by it.  It’s what caused him to cry out to God for help, for he didn’t see any other way to deal with it.  The apostle Paul had a similar experience. He thought he was the be all and end all when it came to who he really was.  Listen to him describe himself in Philippians 3:4-6 “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” With these words, Paul is telling us that at one time in his life, he thought that he “had arrived.” In his own eyes, he was wonderful.  He was the most law-abiding, zealous, righteous person he knew!  He had looked within and found nothing with which he could find fault.  Talk about self-esteem! He surely had it!  But then he saw the living Christ, and he saw himself in a whole new light.  In a moment, he went from being the best person he knew to being ashamed of himself, despicable, even devastated.  He suddenly realized that he had been pursuing the wrong things. His value system was all wrong.  He had been blind to who he REALLY was. 

In the passage above, the apostle Peter talks about this in the terms “the passions of your former ignorance.”  It’s not a good description of a person, especially if he or she ever intends to follow Christ.   Peter calls us to be different than we once were, to be holy, i.e., set apart from it. We aren’t to be “conformed” to our past way of thinking and living.  In Romans 12:2 we are given another guide to holiness. There we are instructed to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  In both cases God, through His apostles, is telling us that following Him involves a great change.  Other places in the Scriptures call this “repentance,” which means “to turn around.” It’s a complete reorientation from who we once were and what we were once seeking to a new way of seeing things with a life that is changed as a result. God is telling us that rather than seeking to know “ourselves” we are to seek to know Him. He is telling us that the popular ways of thinking in “the world,” are usually completely contrary to His way of thinking and if we are to ever discern the will of God about the only things that are truly “good, acceptable, and perfect,” we must first have our minds transformed by Him.  That will never happen if our eyes are directed “within.” And it will never happen if we look to the godless world that we all live in and its godless ideas for what’s right. 

So, does any of this make any sense to you?  Can you point to a time in your life when a transformation occurred in your thinking about yourself and the world around you? Have you ever been disgusted with “who you really were,” or what this world’s value system and “wisdom” are?  If not, there’s only one reason, and that is that your eyes have never been set on Christ.  You’ve never really seen Him for Who HE is. You’ve never seen the glory of the holiness that defines Him.  And you’ve never seen yourself for who you really are – and the sin that plagues every one of our lives, deep within.  It is only when one sees these things that they will recognize their need for cleansing from that sin. It is when one sees these things that they will seek to be transformed by Christ.  It’s this that is always the first step toward salvation and the holiness that only God can provide.  It’s as Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees who saw themselves in such a wonderful light and despised the “tax collectors and sinners” that Jesus was spending His time with and teaching: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). 

So, do you see yourself as “well” or “sick” in a spiritual sense.   Are you “righteous” in your own eyes, or have you had your eyes opened to your own sin?  It is this view of oneself that is the first step to being transformed from “the passions of (our) former ignorance” about which Peter is speaking to us in the passage above.  It’s the first step to a transformation that only Jesus can bring.