Explain why obedience belongs to the identity of God’s children.

Identify the former lusts Christians must refuse to imitate.

Show that holiness must govern all conduct, not merely public worship.

Explain why reverent fear is fitting for those redeemed by the blood of Christ.

Call hearers to live as obedient children whose faith and hope are fixed on God.

Parents want their children to behave.

A well-behaved child brings peace to the home.

A respectful child honors the parents who trained him.

A rebellious child brings grief, correction, and shame.

Parents understand that obedience is not optional.

A home cannot function when children decide they are the authority.

A child who refuses correction will suffer from the parents or from life.

Someone once said to a child, “We can get along fine, just as long as you realize that I am the head of this house.”

The same principle applies to the children of God.

God is not asking His children to admire Him while ignoring Him.

God is not pleased with children who wear His name but resist His rule.

God expects obedience because He is the Father.

In the earlier part of 1 Peter 1, Peter has already spoken of great blessings.

Christians have been chosen according to God’s foreknowledge.

They have been sanctified by the Spirit.

They have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ.

They have been born again to a living hope.

They have an inheritance reserved in heaven.

Then Peter presses responsibility.

Christians must fix their hope completely on the grace to be brought at Christ’s revelation.

Christians must gird up the mind and be sober.

Christians must now live as obedient children.

Obedience is not an ugly word in Scripture.

Men may hate the word because they hate authority.

False religion may soften the word because it wants salvation without submission.

Peter does not soften it.

God’s children obey.

Peter begins with identity.

First Peter 1:14 identifies Christians as obedient children.

He does not call them religious consumers.

He does not call them casual believers.

He calls them children, and he defines them by obedience.

Obedience belongs to sonship.

A child of God listens to the Father.

A child of God receives the Father’s correction.

A child of God does not treat the Father’s will as a suggestion.

Peter is not teaching sinless perfection.

Christians still need mercy.

Christians still repent when they sin.

But the direction of the life has changed.

Peter forbids conformity to the former lusts.

First Peter 1:14 commands Christians not to be shaped by the former lusts that belonged to their former ignorance.

To conform is to fashion life according to a pattern.

Peter is saying not to let the old life shape the new man.

The Christian has no business dressing the soul in the old habits.

Former lusts refer to the old desires that governed life before obedience to Christ.

Old speech.

Old appetites.

Old pride.

Old bitterness.

Old covetousness.

Old sensuality.

Old worldliness.

Peter connects that old life with ignorance.

Before Christ, men lived without spiritual understanding.

They followed desire because desire ruled them.

Now the word of God has come, and ignorance is no excuse.

Christians must not imitate the world.

The world pushes its pattern onto God’s people.

Dress can become worldly.

Speech can become worldly.

Entertainment can become worldly.

Ambition can become worldly.

Attitudes can become worldly.

Covetousness is one former lust that destroys many Christians.

Wanting to live like everyone else.

Wanting to buy everything in sight.

Living beyond one’s means to keep up appearances.

Cutting spiritual responsibilities because fleshly desires cost too much.

Speech is another area where the old life often shows itself.

Some Christians talk like the world.

They joke like the world.

They complain like the world.

They curse, gossip, exaggerate, and tear down while claiming to belong to Christ.

Romans 12:1–2 gives the same command from another angle.

Christians are to present their bodies as living and holy sacrifices.

Christians must not be conformed to this world.

Christians must be transformed by the renewing of the mind.

God’s people are not conformists; they are transformed people.

We are not here to imitate the world.

We are here to show what obedience to God looks like.

The church loses its influence when it becomes a religious copy of the world.

God calls His children to holiness.

First Peter 1:15 commands Christians to be holy like the Holy One who called them.

The standard is not the neighborhood.

The standard is not the religious crowd.

The standard is the Holy One who called us.

Peter grounds this command in Scripture.

God has always required His people to be holy because He is holy.

The call to holiness did not begin with Peter.

Grace does not lower holiness.

Holiness means being set apart for God.

Not merely separated from certain sins.

Not merely marked by church attendance.

Not merely different in name.

Set apart in life, conduct, desire, worship, speech, and purpose.

Holiness must govern all conduct.

Peter says holiness must be seen in all behavior.

That includes worship.

That includes the home.

That includes work.

That includes recreation.

That includes speech.

That includes private decisions.

Holiness cannot be purchased and worn like a robe on Sunday.

A man cannot be holy for two hours and worldly the rest of the week.

A woman cannot sing of devotion while conforming to the old life in private.

Young people cannot claim Christ and then let friends, screens, music, and lusts train their hearts.

Romans 12:1 says the body is to be presented as a living and holy sacrifice.

The body belongs to God.

The mind belongs to God.

The mouth belongs to God.

The habits belong under God’s rule.

Holiness must be visible.

Not for show.

Not for self-righteousness.

But because a changed life cannot remain hidden.

Holiness requires separation from sinful patterns.

Christians must stop excusing sin as personality.

Anger is not just “how I am.”

Gossip is not just “concern.”

Covetousness is not just “wanting better.”

Immodesty is not just “style.”

Worldly speech is not just “being real.”

Christians must stop treating holiness as optional.

God commands it.

Christ died to redeem us from lawless deeds.

The Spirit gave the word that trains us in godliness.

Second Corinthians 7:1 presses the same burden.

Christians are to cleanse themselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit.

Holiness is to be brought to maturity in the fear of God.

Holiness is not finished by intention; it is pursued through cleansing and reverent obedience.

Peter commands reverence during our earthly stay.

First Peter 1:17 commands Christians to live in fear during the time of their earthly stay.

Christians are sojourners.

This world is not permanent home.

The journey must be lived before God.

Reverent fear is not faithless panic.

It is respect.

It is awe.

It is sober awareness that God is Judge.

It is the heart that refuses to treat God lightly.

Jesus taught the same reverence.

Matthew 10:28 teaches that men may kill the body, but God has authority over both body and soul.

The Christian must fear God more than men.

That is not casual religion.

Reverence is required because the Father judges impartially.

First Peter 1:17 says the Father judges according to each one’s work.

God has no favorites.

God is not impressed by family name.

God is not bribed by religious talk.

God judges truthfully.

Calling God Father does not remove accountability.

A child is still corrected by the father.

A Christian is still judged by the Lord.

Grace is not permission to live carelessly.

Philippians 2:12 calls Christians to work out salvation with fear and trembling.

This does not teach salvation by human merit.

It teaches sober obedience under God’s rule.

The man who treats salvation lightly has not understood what salvation cost.

Reverence protects the Christian from casual living.

Casual religion grows where fear of God disappears.

Worship becomes routine.

Sin becomes manageable.

Doctrine becomes negotiable.

The world becomes attractive again.

Reverence makes a man watch his life.

He watches his words.

He watches his habits.

He watches his motives.

He watches his influence.

Reverence must be taught to the next generation.

Children should see parents who respect God.

Young people should see worship handled seriously.

The church must not train children to think God is casual.

Peter says Christians were not redeemed with perishable things.

First Peter 1:18 says redemption did not come through silver or gold.

Money could not buy the soul back.

Human effort could not pay the debt.

Family tradition could not redeem.

Christians were redeemed from a futile way of life.

The old life was empty.

The inherited patterns of sin were vain.

The former life could not bring man to God.

Men often overvalue what cannot save.

Wealth cannot redeem.

National pride cannot redeem.

Religious heritage cannot redeem.

Good intentions cannot redeem.

Redemption came through the precious blood of Christ.

First Peter 1:19 says Christians were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

Christ is the true sacrifice.

Christ is without blemish.

Christ is spotless.

Christ’s blood is precious because He is precious.

The price of redemption condemns careless living.

The blood of Christ was not shed so we could conform to former lusts.

The blood of Christ was not shed so we could treat holiness as optional.

The blood of Christ was not shed so we could live without reverence.

The cross tells the truth about sin.

Sin is not harmless.

Sin is not small.

Sin required the blood of the Son of God.

Faith and hope must rest in God.

First Peter 1:20 says Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world.

Redemption was not an afterthought.

God’s plan was not emergency repair.

Christ came in the last times for our sake.

First Peter 1:21 teaches that God raised Christ from the dead and gave Him glory.

The resurrection confirms God’s victory.

Christ’s glory anchors the believer’s hope.

Faith and hope must be in God, not in self.

The redeemed life must answer the Redeemer.

If Christ bought us, we are not our own.

If Christ shed His blood, our conduct matters.

If our faith and hope are in God, our lives must show it.

For the Christian.

Stop calling old lusts harmless when Peter calls them former lusts.

Stop treating worldliness as though it is just personality, preference, or culture.

The Father calls His children to obedience.

For the church.

A congregation cannot remain strong while its members conform quietly to the world.

Worship may look orderly while homes are worldly, speech is worldly, and hearts are worldly.

Holiness must be preached, practiced, and expected.

For parents and the next generation.

Children learn holiness by watching the adults who claim to believe it.

If parents treat worship casually, children will learn casual worship.

If parents excuse worldliness, children will learn to excuse it better.

Teach them that obedience is not legalism; obedience is the life of a child who belongs to the Father.

For the sinner.

You cannot become God’s child by admiration alone.

You must obey the gospel of Christ.

The blood that redeems must be met by obedient faith.

Peter gives the conduct of obedient children.

Do not conform to the former lusts.

Be holy in all conduct.

Conduct yourselves with reverent fear.

Remember the price of redemption.

The Christian life is not a cleaned-up version of the old life.

It is a new life under the Father’s rule.

It is a holy life shaped by the Holy One.

It is a reverent life bought by the blood of Christ.

The Father has spoken clearly.

He does not want spoiled children.

He does not want worldly children.

He does not want children who claim His name while refusing His correction.

Obedient children must live like they have been redeemed.

Not by silver.

Not by gold.

But by the precious blood of Christ.

Hear the word.

Faith begins when the sinner hears the message of Christ.

No man can obey a gospel he has never heard.

Reference: Romans 10:17.

Believe Christ.

The sinner must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Faith must rest in the crucified and risen Lord, not in family tradition, feelings, or religious habit.

Reference: John 8:24.

Repent.

Repentance turns the heart away from former lusts and toward God.

A man cannot cling to the old life and honestly claim he is ready to follow Christ.

Reference: Acts 17:30.

Confess Christ.

Faith must not remain hidden.

The sinner must confess Christ as Lord.

Reference: Romans 10:9–10.

Be baptized for the remission of sins.

The sinner must submit to baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness.

Baptism is not a symbol after salvation; Scripture connects it with forgiveness, appeal to God, and new life in Christ.

References: Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21; Romans 6:3–4; Galatians 3:27.

Live faithfully.

Obedient children must continue in holiness, reverence, and faithfulness.

The Lord calls His people to remain faithful until death.

Reference: Revelation 2:10.

Hear the word.

Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Believe Christ.

John 8:24 warns that unless you believe that Jesus is He, you will die in your sins.

Repent.

Acts 17:30 says God commands all people everywhere to repent.

Confess Christ.

Romans 10:9–10 teaches confession with the mouth and belief in the heart.

Be baptized for the remission of sins.

Acts 2:38 commands repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Live faithfully.

Revelation 2:10 calls the Christian to be faithful until death.