Be Holy and Obedient

[GHansen]

13. Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming 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, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, 

16. since it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter, chapter 1).

14. As obedient children.

That is, conduct yourselves as obedient children. In Scripture faith is called obedience. The pope, with his schools of higher learning and his cloisters, has also mangled this little word for us and has applied to their silly lies what Scripture says about obedience, as, for example, the statement in 1 Sam. 15:22, where we read: “To obey is better than sacrifice.” For since they see clearly that obedience is greatly praised in Scripture, they have appropriated this in order to blind the people and to give the impression that the obedience of which Scripture speaks is their affair. In that way they bring us away from God’s Word to their lies and to the obedience of the devil. He who hears the Gospel and God’s Word, and believes in it, is an obedient child of God. Therefore tread underfoot and care nothing about what is not God’s Word.

15. but as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, 

16. since it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter, chapter 1).

Here St. Peter cites a verse from the Old Testament, from Lev. 19:2, where God says: “You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” That is, because I am your Lord and God, and you are My people, you must be like Me. For a true lord brings it about that his people are like him, walk in obedience, and are guided by his will. Now just as God our Lord, is holy, so His people are also holy. Therefore we are all holy if we walk in faith. Scripture does not say much about the deceased saints; it speaks about those who are living on earth. Thus the prophet David glories in Ps. 86:2: “Preserve my life, for I am godly.”

Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 30: The Catholic Epistles. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 30, pp. 31–32). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 30: The Catholic Epistles. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 30, pp. 30–31). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.