A Call to Purity
Key Scriptures: 1 Peter 1:13-16
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Lesson One: Prepare for obedience.
A. Prepare your mind
• We prepare our minds so that obedience becomes 2nd nature
1 Peter 1:13, Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit…
Romans 12:2, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
B. Have self-control
• If we are not committed to self-control of our flesh, we will not be prepared to obey.
• Preparation for obedience is characterized by a preparation for self-control.
1 Peter 1:13, Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit…
Romans 7:18-20, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Galatians 5:22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Lesson Two: Hope in Christ
• Our hope is in the future reality that Christ will return and transform us into perfect obedience.
1 Peter 1:13, Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Lesson Three: Embrace your identity
• We were given a new identity in Christ.
• Obedience is not something that we do; obedience is an overflow of our identity in Christ.
a. We are not shaped by sin
b. We are shaped by the holiness of Christ
1 Peter 1:14-16, As children of obedience do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. 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.”