Live Inside Out
After I accepted Christ as my savior in high school, I became a conspicuous Christian. By that I mean that when everyone else wore blue jeans, I didn’t. If everyone went to movies, I wouldn’t. Most of my peers went to school dances. I didn’t. I carried my Bible and plastered my notebooks with Jesus bumper stickers, and I always wore a cross.
Finally, an unsaved classmate in my English class piped up and told me that all that outward stuff didn’t mean anything to him. What really counted was if I had it all on the inside.
He made me think. And I’m still thinking. It’s easy to develop a Christian lifestyle full of dos and don’ts, but what about the heart.
1Peter is about the heart. After pondering it for a few weeks now, I’ve concluded that the key verses are But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16) The rest of the book outlines the why and how of being holy. I don’t think we even need to go outside the book of 1 Peter and look at Greek words and find all the places the word holy is used in the Bible. Just grasp and live the principles in 1 Peter, and holiness results.
1 Peter 2:1 provides a short list of what holiness of heart looks like: Wherefore laying aside all malice (ill-will), and all guile (deceit), and hypocrisies (acting), and envies, and all evil speakings,
That’s a short outline of what internal holiness is. But Peter gives an example of it a little later in chapter two as he describes Christ’s response to suffering. Look how Christ modeled inner holiness: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:22-24)
Back to verse 1. Jesus didn’t have malice or ill-will towards those who crucified them (remember He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”) He had no guile or deceit, according to our passage. He wasn’t a hypocrite, just acting like He loved people and God. He showed no envy, and he didn’t speak evil as he was hanging on the cross. It says he didn’t threaten anyone.
Surely His mind wasn’t blank when He went through that. What does a holy person think when suffering unjustly? He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Holiness prays. Holy people commit themselves to God and let Him work it all out. It’s completely an inner relationship that breathes communication with God.
Holiness avoids sin on the outside by avoiding it on the inside.