'SHIP 003

'SHIP  003

Obedience is our duty.  We have both a commission to fulfill and an obligation to grow.

Are you?  Obedience?

It takes work - hard work.

It takes sacrifice - tough sacrifice.

It take your commitment - which of course is meaningless without the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Peter tells us that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness.  Now that's not some certificate or diploma.  It's the means we have everything needed to begin and continue in the fulfillment of our obligtion and the fulfilling of our commission.

So, how're we doing?  Are we "lukewarm" like our brothers and sisters in Laodicia?  

Revelation 3:15-22 ESV
"'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! [16] So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. [17] For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. [18] I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. [19] Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. [20] Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. [21] The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. [22] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"

What's "lukewarmness?"

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 

Ouch!  Also, note verse 20!  Contrary to how we have heard this verse used, Jesus is talking to the Church (collectively and individually).  Hellooooo!  Anybody home?

How can Christ be "outside" the Church knocking on the door to come in?  I have no idea but obviously it's possible.

No look closely at verse 20b.  "If anyone," "in to him," "eat with him," "grant him."

Him (and of course Her as well - duhh) - singular.  That means we do not wait on everybody else!  We don't need to!  Indeed, we can not afford to!

You are a sheep - part of a flock -BUT whether the flock follows the Shepherd (or not), you can, you must.  What does "following" the shepherd look like?  Simple, trusting obedience to the one trusted.

But, when sheep get fat they tend to get sassy.  They're full, they have no sense of danger so they just do their own thing.  They don't sense the NEED anything.

Oh, wait, could this be something?  Do we tend to forget our need?  Not our need for food, for material provision but our NEED for Him.  Let me ask two questions.  First, "When was the last time you were convicted of sin?"  Second, "When was the last time you sinned?"  Any disconnect there?   Any loss of sensitivity?  Any (and oh this is scary) absense of sensitivity?

Uhhhhhhh --- 1 John 1:8-10 ESV
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Oh, we'll cop to sins - when they're in our faces.  But do we live insensitive to them?  Do we minimize, ignore, prevaricate?  Are we able to dodge conviction?  Are we shown our sin and then comparing it to what we call BIGGIES do we just walk past it?  The eating of a piece of fruit threw the whole of creation into the corruption and devastation of sin.  So how serious is any sin?

Do you hate sin as sin or do you just hate the consequences?  

Consider:
"...the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. Your being dead with Christ virtually, your being quickened with him, will not excuse you from this work."                                From Mortification of Sin, by John Owen.

Disobedience is sin.  Right" Or have I missed something?

Examine yourself 112112

Examine yourselves - 

Would you know - in spite of all the doubts and accusations of the world, the flesh and the Devil that you indeed His?  Would you have a confidence in your redemption that humbly stands against all challenges?  Then my fellow believers you must be about examining your hearts, minds and affections.

Ask yourself, "For what do I pray that is utterly dependent upon the will and providence of God?"

Our prayers are great tools whereby we may diagnose the state of our souls.  If they are self focused, even upon the most rudimentary needs, then we have need of closer examination.  It they seek that which we honestly need and yet these are sought for the removal of some worldly sense of shame, then we stand in need of closer examinations.  If they begin with us or they begin with a self-serving flattery for the sake of our requests then we stand in need of closer examination.

In the model prayer (Matt. 6) Jesus provides us with the priorities, progress and process that true prayer - the believer's prayer, must hold to so we can be confident in our prayers.

If you can pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," without your mind flying to your needs and wants then you may rejoice in that confidence.  But if, in asking that His will be done, your mind and heart erupt with a desire to mold or force His will to yours - then indeed you have just cause for concern.

Take, for the sake of self-examination, that one phrase, "Thy will be done," and pray only that for a week.  As you pray it consider His will - His goals and purposes for the world, for unbelievers, for believers and then for you.  

Can you set aside your personal concerns - your aggravations, worries, fears, needs and desires to explore the depth and breadth of His will and its being done?  Or does your mind and heart seek to get right to you and your desires?  

Perhaps you may pray with paper and pencil and upon asking, "Thy will be done," you can enumerate those things which you know are His will.  But I warn you, everyone of them must be tested by the plain and main teaching of the Word of God.  It they are not so examined most of them must be held suspect.

Your confidence, your assurance can not withstand the winds and wiles of Satan if you are not clear on God's priorities which should be yours as well.  To have priorities that compete with God's is to be at odds with God.  To be at odds with God is pride.  When the One True God does not serve our pride it is an easy slide into idolatry.

With so very many of us struggling just to provide the basics the temptation is to fall to our knees begging Him to provide those basics.  But prayer is worship over petition and supplication.  Prayer is thanksgiving before requesting and seeking.

James hits the mark - but the actual bulls-eye is is much smaller than we think.

He writes:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

(Jas 4:3)

"Passions?"  We tend to immediately think this means that those referred to are praying for sinful things.  But this is not the case.  The word includes any physical gratification or pleasure.  

I'll be bold and ready for correction but what I read here is that in this sort of prayer, we are more concerned for the physical provision that God can provide than for the spiritual provision which is His priority.  Why?  Two passages:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

(Jas 4:4)

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.   (Mat 6:31-34)

It is the Kingdom (Kingship) of God and His righteousness that we are to be seeking.  That is the priority.  Jesus says, "and all these things will be added to you."  Added - get that?  It is the physical providence that is the "extra" - the dessert.  The Kingdom and his righteousness is the meat.

I encourage you to use the above exercise to examine your heart and mind, to expose your true priorities.

Let me ask this in closing.  If indeed you are, first and foremost, seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness and in His good will, in His eternal plan you are to go without even the means of sustaining your life - is that "good" for you?  Is your redemption by His grace utterly sufficient or must you have dessert?

It is a hard thing to say, as did Job:

Though he slay me, I will hope in him; .   (Job 13:15a)

BUT

"life is more than food, and the body more than clothing." (Luk 12:23)

peirazō; Examine Yourselves 112012

I had a - well - vision?  Ok - maybe an illusion?  Or perhaps just a cool idea???

OK - I was in bed reading my evening devotional piece and the author was speaking a great deal about the battle we face with the world, the flesh and the devil.  In the midst of all this I had this - thing - pop into my head.

I saw (?) a person surrounded on three sides by their enemies.  In one of those very zealous "Yeah duhhh!!" moments I thought. "There is only one way to go!!"

Ok - please don't start the index finger, "one way" thing.

I know it sounds really simple and silly but with everything else I had been reading, for some reason, this really made an impact.

I (can I say "we?") do have only one way to go.  Or at least we need to decide that.  I could not help thinking of the idea of "back"-sliding or the admonition to not turn from the way - either to the left or the right.  

What is hard is to accept the fact that "in Christ" we finally have a choice.  Before we were made alive in Him we had no choice.  We were "by nature" objects of wrath, enemies of God, excluded from the promises.  We were SLAVES (we really don't understand that well enough) - to sin.  We were in bondage.  We were children of Satan.  Hence there was NO facility, ability or utility whereby we could make any real choice - and especially right or godly one.

Now, in Christ, we are free and we not only can but we must make choices - minute by minute by minute.  Do we go back?  Do we turn left?  Do we turn right?  Or do we go forward?

Remember the moving sidewalks in airports?  They were a little scary.  But, think about it - grace has provided us with a moving sidewalk (ok - poor analogy but it works with me).  We are in His "Way."  We move forward by His power.  If we turn back we hinder our progress (and that of those on the road sidewalk with us).  If we jump off - either to the left or the right we no longer have His forward moving power and our progress is hindered.

His "moving sidewalk" only goes one way to one goal.  We can, by combining our efforts with the power He has already provided, move more swiftly and efficiently or we can just take the ride - His power will get us where we are going.

But, 1. We have to stay on the sidewalk. And 2. If we just "take the ride" and do not engage what He has given us to do - I promise it will be a very boring ride. You will get off and on the sidewalk and you may well start walking backwards, fighting His forward movement of you.

OK - all analogies die a terrible death if stretched too far.  So let's drop that one.

Christ does not just call us to eternal life in the future but he calls us to actually live it here and now.  Too many of us are made alive in Him and we either hide in the tomb, refuse to unwrap the shroud, we keep ducking back into the tomb or some combination of the three (there may be more but I don't see 'em).  Live people do not belong in tombs or shrouds!  But tombs make good hiding places and shrouds make good camouflage.

Ok - theological narrow ledge here --- Jesus may have your soul - your "eternal" life(think the Greek "zoa")- but if you're not exercising the faith you've been given - then the world, the flesh and the devil are in control of your life (thing the Greek "bios").  

You are not amphibious.  You can not live in heaven and visit hell for brief vacations.  You have been regenerated for heaven - hell does not suit you--

UNLESS

Unless you never were regenerated to begin with.

We go to the doctor to examine our state of health. We examine our bank statements to determine our financial condition.  We take our car to the shop to determine its condition.  We examine our dwellings to determine its soundness.  But all too few of us ever intentionally examine our spiritual condition.

We just assume that because we once "went forward." "raised out hands," or "prayed a prayer," that we're good to go.  And unless God in His grace and mercy jerks a knot in our hearts or minds we just don't have the time nor the concern to examine them in relation to Him.

This is not faith, it's presumption.  

Peter writes that He has given us everything we need for life and godliness.  Do you have any idea what we have been "given" for that?  Yes, believers are given salvation but that is the end game not the journey.  

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.   (2Co 13:5-6)

What part of that does not apply to you?  The word translatred "recognize" in some versions and 'realize" in others is the word "epiginosko," which carries the meaning:

1) to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly

1a) to know accurately, know well

2) to know

2a) to recognise

2a1) by sight, hearing, of certain signs, to perceive who a person is

2b) to know, i.e. to perceive

2c) to know, i.e. to find out, ascertain

2d) to know, i.e. to understand

How we could claim to have that knowledge based simply on a one time response we made is beyond me.

Just take a simple test:

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."  (Luk 16:13)

Note:  "money" is the Greek word "mammon" which means treasure.  Extending it we can apply it to worldly concerns, worldly focus, indeed we can apply it to self - self dependency, self-serving, self-protection.  It is a treasure opposed to God.  In short, idolatry.

Well?  How are we doing?  Let me ask you this - and I do not ask in a vacuum because I'm living just at the poverty line.  In these tough times what concerns you more; God or Mammon?  His glory of your needs and wants?  What you do not have or what He has given you?    

I will continue the devotionals of Peter but I am beginning another series concerning how we can live with bold assurance.  That bold assurance comes not by flashes of light, not by visions, not by miracles but bu the faithful exercise of our faith in the performance of our duties and obligations as citizens of His Kingdom - subjects of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I am writing this series much more for myself than for you.  I almost have a panic attack at every loss of opportunity to earn a living and especially as I look ahead and see very real needs for which I have no means.  So please do not think I'm talking out of my hat.

Two passages from scripture engage me in this - two passages that re-direct my mind and heart when I feel myself tempted to jump the moving sidewalk of walk in the opposite direction.

First is Job's statement:

Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face. (Job 13:15)

The second is from Jesus:

"Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."   (Luk 22:42)

I pray that God will comfort and strengthen us all as we examine ourselves.

Of course, my "ace in the hole" is:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.   (Pro 3:5-7)

This and That 090112 Fear (2)

Second, we must not expect a perfect cure for our fear in this life. While there are dangers and enemies, some fear will work in the best hearts. If our faith could be perfected, our fear would be perfectly cured. But while there is much weakness in our faith, there will be much strength in our fear. For those who are naturally timid, who have more of this passion in their constitution, and for those in whom melancholy is a rooted and chronic disease, it will be difficult to remove fear and dejection. But they will be greatly relieved from this tyranny and enabled to possess their souls in much more comfort and tranquility by using the helps and means that follow.   Flavel, John (2011-12-27). Triumphing Over Sinful Fear (Puritan Treasures for Today) (Kindle Locations 798-802). Reformation Heritage Books. Kindle Edition.

I wrote yesterday concerning fear and I do so again today.  Fear, it’s sinfulness ofrblessedness, depends upon the object of that fear.  To fear God is good in the life of anyone for it brings him or her closer to God who is the only source of all things but principally redemption.  To fear man or circumstances, need and what or even death is natural but turns sinful only when it drives us to doubt God. 

Where Paul writes, “Be angry but don’t sin.” I would write, “Be fearful but don’t sin!”

For me, it is an insult to truth when we pretend courage of heart we do not have.  For indeed we do not have it.  It was not and is not the work of the flesh when believers face torment and torture for their faith and yet remain faithful.  It is not in our power or abilities.  It is not a stiff lip that empowers them but the Spirit if God within them.  To pretend to courage is a lie to the world and a lie to us.

Yes I know, the Word is full of, “fear nots.”  But dear friend do you not see that those “fear nots” are in Jesus and not in the flesh.  We may come to Him trembling in terror and there have our fears relieved, not by magic but by truth.  Face you fears – yes – but do so with Him in your heart and you on your knees.

Fear comes and our faith is challenged.  But faith is a gift.  Do you think God only gave you a dab or a trickle?  But you say you have never experienced this circumstance and you have no faith.  Oh, but you do.  Have you not learned from that anything new challenges those skills and abilities we possess?  Of course your faith seems weak in a new trial – for here you have not trusted God and so you will learn to.  I have learned to trust God in a country where I am, at least now, free to live and express my faith openly without fear.  But, put me in a country where to live and proclaim Christ means imprisonment, torture and death and my faith will be greatly challenged.

I am asked, “How do I trust God in this difficult circumstance?”  My reply is, “Much better than you did when things were going well.”  I say that not to be cruel but as a lesson I have had to learn (more than once).  It is this; those who trust God and attend to Him little when His providence floods their lives with good thing will find their faith has shrunk from inattention and lack of use.

We who are in a trial now surely attend to God better than we did before the trial.  And what is that attention?  Unfortunately it is a doubtful and often accusatory attention.  We cry out, “Why?”  when we know that nothing He does or allows is without purpose.  The purpose may not be for you but for God’s glory to be demonstrated to someone yet living in darkness.

Paul writes:

For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn--fighting without and fear within.  2Co 7:5 

Did you SEE that?  “but we were afflicted at every turn--fighting without and fear within.”

I know many of us are afraid.  But there is a natural fear which God has endowed us with that we should appreciate, even rejoice in.  This is Paul’s “fear,” and it is not sin.  We, like Paul, need to rely upon God to meet that which creates that fear in us. 

In Paul’s case the answer came thusly:

2Co 7:6-7  But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus;  (7)  and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.

I draw your attention to the word “depressed!”  It’s not a character or spiritual flaw.

Paul writes:

2Co 1:3-5  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,  (4)  who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  (5)  For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Note here that God, “comforts us IN all our affliction,” not out of it.  I try to look for comfort instead of solutions.  Oh, yes, we are doing all we can to be frugal and to look for opportunities to improve our condition BUT while we do so we NEED comfort. 

We believe wrongly that fear is only overcome when the cause is removed.  That is not God’s way – at least from my reading.  Fear is overcome as our attention to how God has worked and is working providentially grows.  As we see Him more, we grow more assured.  As we grow more assured our fear – sinful fear – returns to that natural fear against which there is not admonition or law. 

Do not, like so many, withdraw into your circumstance.  Rather re-read 2 Cor. 7 above.  It was through the fellowship and one fellow that Paul was comforted.  Also, pray for an understanding and appreciation of 2 Cor. 1:5.  That’s just the truth – a hard truth – even a fearful truth, but the truth.

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:20-21

1Pe 1:20-21  He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you  (21)  who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

It’s easy to read a verse like this and kind of say, “Yeah, duh,” but we do really need to read it slowly and carefully.

Breaking it down can help (as with many other verses).

(20) He was foreknown before the foundation of the world

but was made manifest in the last times

for the sake of you

(21)  who through him

are believers in

God,

 who raised him from the dead

and gave him glory,

so that

your faith and hope

are in God.

This verse sweeps away any confusion about who is in control of our redemption.  It makes it clear what the source of our faith is and nails not only why but how we have faith in God.

We always need to get very tired of laying the responsibility of our redemption on our own shoulders.  When we do, we are crushed.  But when we accept that all of it is of God – not only its beginning but its final result as well - we are free to praise and free to obey.

Oh what wonderful grace and mercy God has bestowed, is bestowing and will still bestow on those and through those for whom He made His Son the manifest Redeemer and Redemption.

As the lyrics to a great song says:

If I stand let me stand on the promise that You will see me through.

And, if I fall let me fall on the grace that first brought me to You.

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:17 & 19

1Pe 1:17-19  And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,  (18)  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  (19)  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

This can be a chewy passage if we’re not careful.  What Peter writes in verse 17 makes one quiet uncomfortable.

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”

In vs. 17 we see that, this is our God and this is what He does and we need to always keep this in mind.  How poor we are when we forget where and how we once stood. 

Eph 2:12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The cost of not remembering that truth is beyond measure.  When we forget this prior state, we are going to stumble.  When we do not keep it in mind in our prayers, meditations and conversations, we can all too easily begin to rely upon ourselves and upon other things for our hope and security.  When that begins, it’s a very subtle and slippery slope.

But, even though Peter and Paul call us to keep our dearest and deepest need ever before our eyes and foremost in our hearts, they do not leave us there to squirm and suffer for there is no reason for us to do so.

1Pe 1:18  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

And what, pray tell, are these futile ways?  Simply put, idolatry and autonomy (which is pretty much self-idolatry).  Our “forefathers” looked to deities they created and/or to their own abilities to live, to have power – for provision.  They rejected God and turned from the creator to the creature.

Isa 57:13  When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Jer 10:2-5  Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,  (3)  for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.  (4)  They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.  (5)  Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

We, followers of the Christ, have been RANSOMED/REDEEMED.

We WERE slaves to sin and self and for that we stood condemned.  A price was demanded, justice had to be served and so it was done.  Not by anything we could or would do.  Not by any riches we might amass and offer not by any power we could gather and hold:

1Pe 1:19  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

Gal 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1Pe 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Eph 2:8-13  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  (10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (11)  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--  (12)  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  (13)  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In the early days of the church our faith was known as “the Way” (Acts 24:14) and I believe we have lost a lot in losing this name.  When we look at our lives as lives following the Way, we have to remember that where we are is not where we began and hence we remember where we began. 

John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, wrote:

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

And

“Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

Let us pray we REMEMBER~!

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:13-16 (C)

1Pe 1:13-16  Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  (14)  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  (15)  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  (16)  since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 

V14

Note please the “as.”  It’s not easy to obey – especially as we grow up considering ourselves to be savvy and smart, thinking we can figure it out. 

But we are not asked to obey as grown-ups but as children.  This word translated “children” carries the idea of dependent, student, disciple.  Thayer, in his definition, writes this:

. . . the name transferred to that intimate and reciprocal relationship

formed between men by the bonds of love, friendship, trust,

just as between parents and children, . . .

This is not the same word that Jesus uses in the gospels when He says to allow the “little children” to come to Him.  Is the difference really important?  In a way, yes.

When we “come” to Him, we come as little children – as infants.  We come utterly dependent upon Him (which we always are).  As we grow in Him, we learn to make use of all the graces and mercies He has given us.  We learn to read the Word, to pray, even to do works of ministry.  Though we look to Him as infants, He grows and matures us so that we are of wider use.

So, Peter is recognizing that we are growing-up in Him and Peter enjoins us to obey Him in the maturing relationship we have.  And, Peter has a particular aim for this obedience –

do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, v. 14

Now here is a Peter/Paul moment -  Paul writes in Romans:

Rom 12:2  Do 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.

Let’s take a look at this “conformed” thing.  Both men use the same word:

συσχηματίζω    suschēmatizō

Zodhiates writes in reference to the Romans passage:

An expanded rendering might read, ‘Stop being molded by the external and fleeting fashions of this age, but undergo a deep inner change by the qualitative renewing of your mind.’ Such a transformation can be wrought only by the Holy Spirit.

Of the 1^st Peter passage, John Gill writes:

. . . to be fashioned (conformed) to the lusts of it is to indulge them, to make provision for them, to obey them, to live and walk in them; which should not be done by the children of God, . . .

So we have a “don’t” here in 1^st Peter and a clearer “but” that fits with it in Romans.  The “but” here in 1^st Peter, at least for me, is overwhelming.

Now I’ve heard and read a lot of things that dance around this and try to weaken it, but it says what it says!  “Be holy as He is holy.”

OK – REMEMBER >

Gal 3:11  Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith."

Rom 4:5  And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Eph 4:24  and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Peter has been laying the foundation for your assurance in Christ – I think the Spirit did this because this verse is a whopper.  For me it highlights my sinfulness and unless I see my sinfulness through the blood of the Savior, I will have no hope.

Faith – no matter how weak is sufficient to be His. 

Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Peter calls us to “holy conduct.”  That means in your mode of living. 

I’ll do one more on this passage -