knowing better

[Lou Ruppert <lruppert@ucf.org>]

This week is on 1 Peter 1:13-16:
  Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope 
  fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As 
  obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you 
  lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in 
  all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

This one is about holiness.  People teach on holiness as if it's following a
set of exceptionally puritanical laws, oftentimes invented by the leaders
of whatever church movement they're part of, to embrace and extend laws in
the old testament of the bible.  But Peter explains it pretty well here,
telling the people to whom he's writing the letter, to be self controlled and
not capitulate to the evil desires they had before they knew God.  In other
words, go to God to be taught how to behave as obedient children.

Are desires inherently evil?  I don't believe so.  I think it's natural for
people to want all sorts of things, but if it becomes obsession, or if the
thing you constantly want would harm you or another, it becomes a problem.
There's nothing wrong with liking the girl who lives on the corner, but if
you can't get her out of your mind despite the fact that she is married and
has two kids and a restraining order against you, there may be a problem.
There's nothing wrong with wanting ice cream after a meal.  But if you can't
eat a meal without polishing off a half gallon, and you don't have money
left to pay the bills, or to get shoes for your kid, because you ABSOLUTELY
HAVE TO HAVE A HALF GALLON OF ICE CREAM OR ELSE, then your desires are harmful,
and perhaps even evil.  Or what if you share your office with someone, and you
want for them to be your friend?  There's nothing wrong with that, but if you
really need for them to be your friend, and you stay up late trying to figure
out how to get them to be your friend, even if they don't care either way,
your desires are nothing but a cause of your misery, and so they have the same
effect as someone evil following you around making your life miserable.  These
are extreme examples, but like with pretty much everything, there are plenty of
grey areas.  Desires become evil when they threaten to pull you off of the
course that would be best for your life, which happens to be God's plan for you.

Holiness, among other things, is the ability not to be swayed by things which
are situationally or inherently harmful.  Much of "the law" handed to people is
made up of things to avoid, which, either in a certain context or by the 
inherent design of how God put the world together, are harmful.  I see such
desires as being like beagles.  Anyone who has owned or borrowed a dog, 
particularly sidewise walking beagles, knows how a dog can catch you off
guard when it picks up a smell or sees something totally disgusting laying 
by the road.  In an instant, they can pull you completely off course, if 
you're not carefully paying attention.  In our walk with God, we have
the dog of our human nature tagging along.  If we're not paying attention we
can get yanked off course.  Sometimes it's seemingly harmless, but other times
we get muddy or end up in traffic or fall down.  Holiness is the ability to
have a tight grip on that leash, and to know where you're going.

So what Peter is saying is basically not to follow the dog wherever it goes, 
but to pay attention and hold onto the leash, and follow God's path instead.
If you get lost, he'll turn on the light and illuminate it for you.  Be
self controlled, and be ready to react.  Know where you're going and what 
grace awaits you there.


-Lou
(notoriously easy to distract)