Peter begins his discussion of Christian life with the question of holiness. In doing so, he refers to the Torah, more precisely to the Book of Leviticus, where God's call was first heard...
Peter begins his discussion of Christian life with the question of holiness. In doing so, he refers to the Torah, more precisely to the Book of Leviticus, where God's call was first heard: “Be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.” The bar was not merely set high: with His call, God sets it at the highest possible level. What is at issue is a fullness of sanctification in a human being corresponding to the fullness of God's own holiness.
Of course, a human being is not God. But a person can be sanctified by abiding in God's presence. God changes the person, changes even human nature itself, just as He changes the nature of everything He touches. This change of nature through God's touch is precisely what sanctification is. But holiness is more than sanctification alone. A human being cannot be sanctified in the same way as, for example, stone, wood, or metal. For a human being is the image of God and therefore a person possessing self-awareness and freedom of will. Thus a person cannot be sanctified without taking part in the process. And their participation begins, above all, with their consent to take part.
It begins with the “yes” they say to God. But a single “yes” is not enough: it must be repeated continually. For the process not to stop, for a person always to remain “holy,” that is, sanctified, this “yes” has to be affirmed again and again, so as to remain in God's presence. This is where that concentration of the “mind,” that “girding” of it of which the apostle speaks, is needed. Of course, this concerns not only the intellect as such, but also the ability to distinguish good from evil: the corresponding Greek word actually means “discernment.”
Knowing how to distinguish good from evil, what accords with God's commandments from what contradicts them, is the essential skill of Christian life. Direct communion with the risen Christ opens up the possibility of moving forward on this path. It is His shed blood, His death, and His resurrection that open the way of Christian life to us.
Were it not for the Kingdom which, in the Savior's own words, “has drawn near,” were it not for its breath and its power, fullness of sanctification, unbroken abiding in God's presence, would be as impossible for us as it was for people in the pre-Christian world, even those who had set out on the path of righteousness. And if any of us now chooses the evil in which the world lies, rejecting holiness, this is solely that person's own choice—and the responsibility that follows from it.
1 holy obedience, the foundation of all which is, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ - The atoning blood of Christ, which was typified by the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices under the law; in allusion to which it is called "the blood of sprinkling."
1:16 Lev 11:44.