1 Peter 1:13-25 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

13Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance. 15But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

17Since you call on a Father who judges each one’s work impartially, conduct yourselves in reverent fear during your stay as foreigners. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake. 21Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him; and so your faith and hope are in God.

22Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart. 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.

Following Jesus

As those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we are to follow the Lord with our lives. We are to walk in His ways according to the teachings of the Scriptures written down for us who believe in Jesus Christ. We are to be serious about what the Scriptures teach us with regard to how we are now to live. And we are to obey our Lord and His commands as a matter of life practice. So we are no longer to conform to the patterns of this sinful world. For God has called us to be holy (unlike, different from the world) and to be like Him.

Come Out From Among Them

But this isn’t just about being “good deed doers” who do nice things for other people. This is about our lives fully given over to God to do His will and to walk in His ways, to go where He sends us and to not go where He says not to go. And one of the major places He tells us to depart from are these manmade institutional market-driven “churches” which are not of God because they are not conformed to the will of God but to the will of humans and to human flesh and fleshly and worldly desires. We are to leave them!

We are not to walk in the ways of these worldly gatherings which are modeled after the world in order to win the world to their gatherings. And we are not to accept what so many of them are teaching as “the gospel” which is of human flesh and not of God. For so many of them are teaching that a mere profession of faith in Jesus is enough to secure you salvation, and that God, they say, does not require that you put sin to death and that you obey His commands in practice. But that is a lie from hell! Not of God!!

So the Scriptures teach that we are to come out from among them so that we do not share in their sins and in their punishment. We are to have no fellowship with darkness and with the ungodly, but we are to live holy lives, pleasing to God, doing the will of God. We are not to conform to worldly ways, but we are called to go out into the world and to share the gospel with the people of the world. But we must teach that Jesus put our sins to death with Him so we will die to sin and obey God, and live our lives to please God.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

The Biblical Church

For “the church” is not these institutions of human origin which are being patterned after the ways of the world in conformity with the world and in fellowship and partnership with the world and with the government. The church is not a building or a church denomination called “church.” And it is not a location you go to. We, the people of God, who are of biblical faith in Jesus Christ, are the church. And we are to gather together to minister to one another and to help one another to walk in obedience to our Lord.

[Matthew 5:13-16; Matthew 28:18-20; John 4:31-38; John 13:13-17; John 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18,42-47; Acts 26:18; Romans 10:14-15; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:11-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20; 1 Peter 2:9,21; 1 John 2:6]

Share The Gospel

And then we, as the body of Christ, are to go out into the world to share with the people of the world the gospel of our salvation. And Jesus Christ taught that to come to Him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) Him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to His commands, in His power, then we have eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26).

For God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ return. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, and no longer in sin. We have the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven (see Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1-3).

[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; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; 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 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Do Not Conform to Worldly Ways
An Original Work / October 28, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

In Holiness

An Original Work / February 1, 2016
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Praise the Lord all you saints!
Worship God in holiness.
Trust in Him! Do not faint!
Believe in His righteousness.

God is faithful in all things.
He delivered you from sin.
Follow Him where’er He leads.
Witness daily. His words heed.

Trust in Him! He is truth!
He has not forsaken you.
Rest in Him! Let Him lead!
He will meet all of your needs.

When you go through trials deep,
He’ll be with you. He’ll not sleep.
Walk with Him throughout your day.
Read your Bible. Kneel and pray.

Give to God all your heart!
From His mercy ne’er depart.
Jesus died for your sin!
Walk in vict’ry. Live in Him.

Jesus paid the debt we owe.
From our lives His love should flow,
Living for Him ev’ry day,
Loving others, His words say.