Can we be holy like God? Peter says we can (1 Peter 1:15). The instruction is: You be holy like God is holy. If we are to develop holiness in our lives and become like God, we must come to know God. How can we be holy like Him if we do not know Him, or if we do not know His way and His revealed will?
The “elect” (Christians) were sanctified (made holy, agiasmos, Gr.) by the Holy Spirit when they purified their souls in obedience to the truth and washed their sins away (1 Peter 1:2, 22; Acts 22:16). We learn in 1 Peter One that a function of the Holy Spirit in the election process is to separate (make holy) the sinner through obedience and through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:1-2). This sanctification (setting apart) is to the spiritual realm, in the church and in Christ. The Spirit accomplished this by revealing, through the word of truth, the means by which one obeys the Lord and takes advantage of the true grace of God and appropriates to himself the benefits of the shed blood of our Lord.
Yet, in 1 Peter 1:15, believers are told to be holy. The typical first reaction is, “I thought we were already sanctified and made holy.” In the context of 1 Peter 1:13ff, the sanctification of the believer is the focal point. Verse 13 tells us that considering what had been said regarding salvation, the elect were to gather up their thoughts, restrain the improper ones and focus on the grace of Christ. As Christians, we belong to obedience, like a child and his parents, so we are not to go back to past sins done in ignorance (v. 14). We have been sanctified, so like God is holy, we are to become holy. The word be in the phrase, “be ye yourselves also holy” (ASV), doesn’t mean simply being, but rather “to become.” We are to strive to have the manner of life that “lives up to” our sanctification, our holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9). The design of God’s calling is holiness, the sanctification of the whole life to him (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7). God is our perfect pattern of holiness. We are to emulate God in “all manner of living” (2 Peter 3:11).
God is holy. He is described in Scripture as “the holy one of Israel” (Isaiah 1:4). God is holy in that He is separate, transcendent (above all things common) and far beyond the limits of the ordinary (Isaiah 45:5, 11, 22). God is also holy in that He is pure (Habakkuk 1:12-13). His words are pure (Psalm 12:6). Everything about God is pure.
