First Epistle of Peter
CHILDREN OF OBEDIENCE
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:14 (KJV)
"obedient children"
This is literally "children of obedience." As children of God, obedience should be our natural characteristic. It is a wonderful thing to be born into God's family, to be His son, or His daughter. But it is also a great responsibility. The world is sure to judge a father or mother by their children. So they are sure to judge our heavenly Father by our actions.
A child often is a perfect image of his father or mother. A lady came to an old elder and said, "It just isn't fair. Your son looks like you, and not like his mother." He assured her he was sorry, but he could not help it. It was not intentional. The old elder went further, "When I look at my son, I feel proud, but when I think of his actions, knowing what he did as a boy, I am even prouder of him." But how much of our actions are like those of our Father in Heaven? Has He reason to be proud of us as He was of Job? (See Job 1:8 and 2:3).
In direct contrast to "children of obedience" the wicked unsaved are called "children of disobedience" (Col. 3:6; Eph. 5:6). This was our natural character before we were saved by the blood of Christ. We just could not obey the Lord. It was just not in us at that time.
But when we were obedient to Christ, contacting His precious blood, we received a new nature, through the entrance of the Spirit of God. This new nature cannot continue in sin, cannot continue disobedient, but even with all this help from God, we do not completely get rid of the old nature. It stays with us all through this earthly life. A Christian is sort of a dual person, having a double nature. You can say that we are successful Christians in the measure that we keep down the old nature and build up the new.
In John 14:23, we read, "If a man love me, he will keep my words." Here we have the cause for obedience; love for the Lord Jesus. If we truly love someone, we have a desire to please him. Children who truly love their parents, will be more obedient than others. How we love to see obedience in our children, and how it grieves us when they will not do what we say. There is nothing more important for a child than obedience. Samuel says to Saul, in 1 Samuel 15:22, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to harken than the fat of rams."
How do we know what our Father wants us to do? Only as we read His Word. If we never read the Bible, we will never know His will, and we will not be obedient children.
Then, as disobedient children, we will get into trouble. A wise father will punish disobedience in his child. The Lord has always been one of those old-fashioned fathers who believes in punishing His erring children. Sometimes Christians wonder why they have troubles. They will say, "Why does all this happen to me?" Probably, if their lives were known no one would wonder.
Poor Jonah is an example of suffering for disobedience. The Lord said, "Arise, go to Nineveh; that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:2). But Jonah would not do it. He went the other way. He went down to Joppa and paid for passage in a boat bound for Tarshish. The Lord sent a terrible storm after him and Jonah was thrown overboard. A large fish was waiting for him, and swallowed him. No wonder Jonah thought he was in hell. Is not hell a hot and dark place, like it must have been inside this great fish? Besides, it must have been a pretty slimy place. There he was for three long days and nights. He got a free ride back, but it’s unlikely he enjoyed it. Then Jonah prayed as he never prayed before, and when he said, "Salvation is of the Lord," the great fish could hold him no longer, and Jonah was vomited out on the dry land; perhaps close to where he caught the ship. Then after all this, he still had to go to Nineveh. How much better off he would have been if he had obeyed in the first place.
The great example of obedience is our Lord Jesus. Speaking of Him in Isaiah 50:4, we read, "He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned," as if to say, "My Father awakens me every morning and gives me instructions for the day." He says in John 8:29, "For I do always those things that please him (his father)." Every day He did just what His Father wanted Him to do. We read in Philippians 2:8, "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." May we be like Him, be children like the Son.
"not fashioning yourselves according to former lusts"
Not fashioning or patterning yourself after what you used to be. A Christian is a changed person, made new in Christ Jesus. He has a new life. He should not try to be like his old self before he was saved. He is now a child of God and should not go back to his old manner of life at all. To do so would be like a young man taken out of sin and poverty, adopted into a well-to-do, clean family, slipping out every once in a while to his old alley and sinful ways and companions.
The question is often asked, "Do you think so and so is saved?" Of course, no one can tell, even though one professes to be. But how can anyone say, "I am a child of obedience" and not obey? Sometimes we look and talk so much like a sinner in the world, that our example says we are not children of God. Yet we may still claim to be. How much better if we could say, "Yes, I believe with all my heart that so and so is saved; just look at the way he/she acts."
"former lusts"
"Lusts" here speak of "evil passions." These are natural to the unsaved. They flow from the fact that man is born into a sinful and corrupt world. We have many of them listed and condemned in the Word of God. Romans 1:24 to 32 gives a very black list. In Colossians 3:5 to 9, we read of them in connection with "children of disobedience." He speaks of sexual lusts in Colossians 3:5 and other sins in verse 8. "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth."
It is possible to lust after things ordinarily considered legitimate. Some lust after money or fame or pleasure in this life. These things can be a great snare. Never let them interfere with a whole-hearted life for God. The children of Israel lusted after the onions, leeks, garlic, melons, etc., of Egypt, and the Lord was displeased. Let us remember, things never satisfy the human heart. Christ alone can satisfy.
"in your ignorance."
We were ignorant. How provoked some of the wise men of the world would be if they were told they were ignorant. But, if they do not know God, they are ignorant of that which is the most important part of life. Before being saved, we, too, were ignorant; we did not know any better. We were like those wicked men who crucified our Lord. He said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." But beloved, we are no longer ignorant, for we know Christ, we do know the better way of life. There is no excuse for us if we go back to our old ways.
