The apostle Peter & Holiness: So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as temporary residents. 1 Peter 1:17
Published on HivePostify by @bernie2002xp · Thu Aug 20 2026
The first epistle of Saint Peter is a brief exhortation to the Christian life addressed to several Churches of Asia Minor located in Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia, as the letter explains at its beginning. The letter is fundamentally a reflection or a synthesis of what the apostle learned during his missionary activity, as related in the Book of Acts. And so, at the initiation of this letter, the apostle Peter wrote in simple words about the sacrament of baptism, writing about a spiritual rebirth through the resurrection of Jesus with these words: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" 1 Peter 1:3. According to Peter's teachings, the bapstism is a Sacrament, that is, a visible sign of the Lord, through which Christians are called to a new way of life. And this is so because the life in God's grace is to reject the path of error; one cannot be a believer in Jesus if one leads a life full of sins, and Peter made this clear at the beginning of his letter. In Peter's thinking, baptism was meant to serve as the beginning of a faith that had to overcome the difficulties posed by the world, and this is because the world is love of money, lust, and ambition. And this is where holiness comes into play in the epistle, because this spiritual gift is intimately related to being like Jesus: "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'" 1 Peter 1:15-16. Holiness is therefore an indispensable requirement for spiritual growth in the Christian faith. A holiness that must begin with the spiritual gift of fear of God (constancy, firmness, devotion), while Christians live temporarily in this world, as the apostle himself explained in his epistle: "So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as temporary residents" 1 Peter 1:17. And the apostle concluded his teaching on holiness by explaining that this is why the Christian places his hope not in material goods like gold or silver, but in God himself, who is the source of all the beatitudes in man.
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