Christians should live as God's holy people
13 So now, prepare your minds, so that you are ready to live in a good way. Think clearly about how God helps you. Always remember that God will be very kind to you when Jesus Christ comes again. 14 Obey God, like good children who obey their father. Before you knew the true message about Christ, you very much wanted to do bad things. But now you should not agree to live in that bad way. 15 God has chosen you to be his own people. He is holy. So you must be holy too, in the way that you live. 16 In the Bible God says this: ‘You must be holy, because I am holy.’
1:16In the Book of Leviticus, God says five times that we should be holy, like him. See Leviticus 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, 26. That means that we should keep ourselves separate from everything that is bad. 17 God knows what each person has done, and he judges each one for those things. He is always fair when he decides about people. He is never kinder to one person than he is to another person. When you pray to God, you call him ‘Father’. So then, always respect him, while you live as strangers here in the world. 18 Your ancestors lived in a way that did not make them truly happy. That is the way that you learned to live as well. But now God has saved you from that way of life. You know that he has bought you for himself. He did not buy you with things that do not continue for ever, like silver or gold. 19 Instead, he bought you with the very valuable blood of Christ, who died as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He died like a lamb that is perfect and has nothing wrong with it.
1:19God told the Israelites to kill lambs and other animals and to offer them to him as sacrifices. They offered animals to God so that he would forgive their sins.
20 Before the world began, God had already chosen Christ. But now, during these last days of the world, God has shown Christ to people. God did that so that he could help you. 21 Yes, it is because of Christ that you now believe in God. God raised Christ, so that he became alive again after his death. He did that to show everyone that Christ is great. That is why you believe in God. You trust him that he will do good things for you.
22 You have obeyed God's true message. As a result, you have become clean inside, and now you can really love other believers. So continue to love each other very well, with honest thoughts. 23 You now have a new life! It is not like a human life that quickly comes to an end. It is a new life that will never spoil. You received it because you believed God's message. That message continues for ever and it does not change. 24 The Bible says:
‘All people are like grass.
They may seem beautiful for a short time,
like flowers that grow in the fields.
But grass soon becomes dry and it dies.
Flowers soon fall to the ground.
25 But the message of the Lord God will continue for ever.’
That message is the good news about Jesus Christ, which people have taught you.
1 Peter 2
God's message is like good food that helps you to grow
1 So you must refuse to do any evil things. Do not tell lies to deceive people. Do not be hypocrites. Do not be jealous of other people. Do not say bad things against other people. 2 Instead, you should want to learn about God more and more. New babies always want their mothers' milk, which makes them grow strong. God's message is like good food that will make you strong in your spirits. Then you will continue to grow as believers so that God saves you. 3 Do this, because you have already begun to know how kind the Lord is to you.
