1 Peter 1:14–15 (NKJV) — 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
Obedient. As Christians, we are to be so obedient to God that it is second nature to us. It is a learning, growing process.
We are to be obedient children of God. We are to be holy in all our conduct. It is a learning process that cannot be achieved outside of God. Anyone not having accepted Christ as Savior and Lord of their lives cannot be obedient. Obedience is a learning process.
We grow up in a world opposed to obedience to God. We are born and raised to oppose the righteousness of God. This is the sin nature going all the way back to The Garden. When a Christian is observed in the world it should be as obvious to others that they are a follower of Christ as it is when a light is turned on in an absolute dark room.
The model for a Christian is not another Christian. We do not and cannot compare ourselves to others. No matter how holy or righteous another person is, he is not Christ. People, no matter how holy they may be have flaws. Our model for the Christian life is Jesus. Jesus and Jesus only is perfect.
Here is what happens in the Christian life. We are “Born Again.” We are not discipled in the ways of Christ. We go to church and find more people who are not discipled in the ways of Christ. We start to model ourselves after people in the church. We falter in our walk with Christ, we do not grow in our walk with God. There comes an emptiness in our lives. We eat from the words of people instead of the Words of God. We ingest the world’s feelings and emotions instead of God’s sound doctrine. We conclude there is not much to the Christian life. We drop out of church and our walk with Christ a defeated person, not because we are “bad” but because we have conformed our lives to the ways of the world and not to the “holiness” of God.
Peter quotes Leviticus 11:44, “For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Discipleship, not just being taught God’s Word but growing in and living God’s Word is the walk of the Christian’s life.