In All Your Behavior

[Christsfreeservant]

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix 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; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16 NASB1995)​

This is speaking to all who are of faith in Jesus Christ. These are instructions to us in godly living. This is what it looks like to be a follower of Christ, which is not optional for anyone who is professing to know Jesus. We do not make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and then continue to go our own way, doing our own thing, living the same as we did before we professed faith in the Lord Jesus. For our faith in Jesus means a change of heart and mind resulting in a change of attitude, thinking, and behavior, by God’s grace.

So, if we are preparing our minds for action, keeping sober in spirit, this has to do with taking God and his word seriously, believing what he teaches us about what it means to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God. And it is not the light and fluffy stuff. For Jesus requires that to come after him we must deny self, die to sin daily, and follow him in walks of surrender in obedience to his commands. For if sin is our practice, and not obedience to God, we do not have eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26).

For the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is not a free ride to heaven based on a confession of Christ as Lord. Instead, it is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return (see Titus 2:11-14). For, it was God’s grace which sent Jesus to the cross to put our sins to death with him so that, by God-persuaded faith in him, we will now die to sin and walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands, all in the power of God.

Therefore, fixing our hope completely on the grace of God yet to be brought to us when Jesus returns, we live as obedient children of God. For we know what Jesus taught us, that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one doing (obeying) the will of God, in practice. For if sin is what we obey, in practice, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God, with Christ our Lord (see Matthew 7:21-23; and Romans 6:1-23).

Therefore, we are no longer to be conformed to our former sinful lusts and desires, for if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God. For if we claim that we have fellowship with God, but yet we walk in darkness (in sin), we are liars. If we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments, in practice, we are liars. For it is not the one who says, “Jesus is Lord,” who has salvation from sin and eternal life with God, but the one doing the will of God (see 1 John 1-3).

So, like the Holy One who called us, we are to be holy in ALL our behavior. And to be holy is to be unlike (different, separate from) this sinful world we live in because we are being conformed by God to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, but only as we cooperate fully with God’s work of changing us to be like Christ. This does not make us perfect people, but by the grace of God we should be changing, growing, and maturing in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, becoming more and more like him, day by day.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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In All Your Behavior
An Original Work / January 6, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love