1 Peter 1:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

From the Gospel parable of the ten virgins, it is clear that not all the virgins were wise. Five of them were foolish.

The latter were called foolish or unreasonable because, while preserving bodily virginity, they did not care to preserve purity of soul. They defiled mind and heart with impure thoughts and desires.

Or they were disturbed by thoughts of anger and remembrance of wrongs, or of envy and hatred. Or they were blinded by love of money, and from miserliness were without compassion for their neighbors.

If some of them apparently restrained themselves from these passions, they were nevertheless conquered by self-opinion and pride, by judgment and contempt of their neighbors. Through this they lost purity of soul, according to what is said: “Everyone proud of heart is unclean before God” (Prov 16:5).

What is said about the passions with respect to virgins also applies to widows and to those who are married. The Lord Himself said to the apostles: “What I say to you I say to all” (Mk 13:37).

What is the chief means for leading a holy life? The Lord Himself, through the same Apostle Peter, points to this means, saying: “If you call on the Father, who without partiality judges each one according to his work, conduct the time of your sojourning in fear” (1 Pet 1:17).

These words show that the chief means for living piously and holily consists in the fear of God, and in the fear of the future judgment and eternal torments.

Only with the cooperation of this fear, and with God’s help, does the keeping of the commandments take place. As it is said in the Psalms: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord; he will greatly delight in His commandments.”

Without fear, even if someone were living in heaven, according to the word of Saint Peter of Damascus, he would gain no benefit if he had pride. By pride Satan, Adam, and many others fell.

If all the saints are commanded in the word of God to have the fear of God, as it is said, “Fear the Lord, all you His saints, for there is no want for those who fear Him” (Ps 33:10), then how much more must we, sinners and unreformed, have the fear of God.

We must also have the fear of death, the dread Judgment of God, and the eternal torments in Hades. We should mix this fear with the hope of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven, if we compel ourselves as much as possible to repentance and correction.

The fear of God and the remembrance of the four last things restrain us from falls into sin, according to what is said: “Remember your last things, and you will never sin” (Sir 7:39).

May we all obtain this by the ineffable mercy and all-powerful help of Him who was born of the Holy Virgin, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us fervently entreat Him for this. Amen.

The holy Apostle Peter writes: “As obedient children, do not conform yourselves to the former desires of your ignorance. But according to Him who called you, the Holy One, be holy yourselves in all your conduct. For it is written: Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:14-16).

This commandment means that a person must preserve chastity and purity, bodily and spiritual, not only in relation to the passion of fornication, but also in relation to other passions. Envy, hatred, and remembrance of wrongs also constitute impurity of soul.

Children of obedience, a joining of concepts like children of light (Eph 5:8), are people obedient to God and His commandments. Opposed to them are the children of disobedience, who act according to the will not of God but of the devil (Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6). They are also called children of wrath (Eph 2:3; 2 Pet 2:14). "Do not be conformed to your former passions." You have been called into the obedience of a new life. Therefore do not be conformed to what was formerly yours. To be conformed to something (cf. Rom 12:2) means to order one's life according to the pattern to which one is conformed. Here this means not only external actions or behavior, but the whole inner and outer ordering of life. The former passions, to which one must not be conformed in the new calling, are sinful passions in all their many forms. The Apostle John gathers them into three principal and basic forms: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jn 2:16; cf. Gal 5:19 and following). The beginning of evil in man is self-love, or egoism, self-enclosed pride. The opposite beginning of good is man's love for God, which is attained and perfected through obedience to the will of God. Therefore children of obedience must reject everything that comes from egoism, suppress it, and not be conformed to the former passions that existed before their calling to obedience. These passions are further characterized as being "in ignorance," that is, passions by which the readers of the epistle were guided in ignorance. The expression points not only to the time, but also to the cause. They followed these passions before their calling to obedience, and they followed them because of ignorance concerning religious and moral truth. Before their conversion to Christ, Christians from among the Gentiles especially remained in such ignorance. Yet even in the mass of Judaism at that time, the pure truth of God was darkened in many essential features. The Jews remained in ignorance, so that the Apostle Peter, in his speech on the occasion of the healing of the lame man, explains the Jews' very rejection of their Messiah by their ignorance (Acts 3:17 and following). Passions, or sins, and ignorance mutually assist one another in destroying man. Sin darkens the mind with whole clouds of false concepts and prejudices (cf. Rom 1:21; Eph 4:18). This ignorance, in turn, serves as the source of many sins. For the believing Christian these passions are former passions. In his Christian consciousness there is the conviction that their power has been crushed by the redeeming death of Christ, appropriated by his faith. Yet these passions are still manifest in the regenerated man because of the sinfulness of his nature. He must still struggle, and struggle grievously, with these passions.

Further, we must firmly remember why the Blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb, was poured out for us (cf. Jn 1:29-36; 19:34-36). It was so that we might not live according to the flesh, according to sinful customs inherited from our fathers and infectious evil examples, but blamelessly and in holiness. Christ was foreordained for this from the beginning (see Jn 17:24; Eph 1:4). He appeared after ages of preparing mankind to meet Him worthily. He lived with men, suffered, and rose again. Thereby He made it possible for our faith and hope to be firm, undoubted, constant, and altogether perfect. Before the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Apostles were weak. After the Resurrection they were strengthened in hope in the Risen One, so that they undertook great labors and endured death. The Apostle stirs all Christians to the same thing. He especially encourages them by hope that our Redeemer has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father (cf. Acts 2:32). Therefore He can give eternal glory to us also (cf. Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 6:14).

For those converted to Christ from paganism, the time of this ignorance has passed. Formerly slaves of sin and servants of the devil, they became children of the heavenly Father by the grace of regeneration. Since it is proper for children to obey their father, they became children of obedience. They bound themselves to fulfill the will of the heavenly Father in everything. What then does His will require of them? It requires that they "not be conformed to the former passions in ignorance," and not return to their former way of life. Rather, "according to the example of the Holy One Who called them, they themselves must be holy." The Lord is near to the world and fills it with His omnipresence. Yet He is not defiled by anything impure in the world, just as the rays of the sun are not defiled when passing through unclean places. The Lord is not only Himself alien to moral impurity and sin. He also hates sin in others, and even "an unrighteous thought is an abomination to Him" (Prov 15:26). In like manner, those who believe in Christ must be holy not only in outward conduct, but also in their inward spiritual disposition. The Church of Christ is a kingdom not of this world. Therefore those who belong to her, though they live in the world, must keep themselves pure from every worldly defilement. They must conduct themselves so that it is evident they have nothing in common with darkness, Belial, or lawlessness. "You shall be holy, for I am holy." The Lord repeated this commandment more than once through Moses to the chosen people (Lev 11:44; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7, 26). If the Apostle recognizes the same commandment as binding upon Christians, this means that Christians are the same chosen people as all the Old Testament faithful. As the chosen people, they too were honored by the Lord with the name of a holy people, that is, a sacred people (Ex 19:6; Deut 7:6), consecrated to His service. According to the Apostle's word, this same dignity belongs to New Testament believers (1 Pet 2:9). Therefore the Church of Christ is called holy, that is, a society of people sanctified by grace for the service of the Lord. The life of those who belong to Christ's Church must correspond to this dignity. To live according to the Church means to live in holiness, without being carried away by worldly customs opposed to holiness.