How do we become "holy?" by David O. Cofield

Peter slams us with this command, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (I Peter 1:16)

But how do we become holy?

It all starts and continues with the mind.  I Peter 1:13 reads, "Prepare your minds for action..."  Steven Lawson wrote: To "prepare" means to "to gird up."  In common usage, the term referred to gathering up one's long, flowing robe in order to be unimpeded in movement before taking action.  If someone wanted to move quickly, he would pull up the corners of his garment so that there would be nothing dangling upon which to trip his feet.  He would tuck all the loose ends into the leather belt. Metaphorically, this pictured the call to the Christian to be prepared for action in his spiritual life.  Peter is saying, "Pull in all your loose thinking.  Discipline your thoughts.  Do not be tripped up with wrong beliefs.  Do not allow any loose thinking not tied down with sound doctrine.  All your thinking must be tucked in and tied down."

So the battle for personal holiness begins with the battle for the Christian mind.  Everything in Christian living begins with the mind.  Solomon writes, "For as a man thinks within himself, so he is." Proverbs 23:7

Sanctification (process of becoming holy) advances by being "transformed by the renewing of your mind."  Romans 12:2

So, as the old saying goes, "What goes in, comes out. Garbage in, garbage out."

So what is going into your mind?  That is the fountain of your holiness.

Charles H. Spurgeon said, "It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord."

Closing thought:  but what we learn, we must obey.  Every step of our growth into holiness is in obedience to the Word of God.  If there is no obedience, there is no spiritual growth in holiness.  Disobedience causes a setback to any spiritual advancement, a stagnation in personal godliness.

May we all freshly experience the power of the Gospel in producing holiness in our lives.