We ARE Supposed to Be Extreme

God demands Holiness. This isn’t an “Old Testament dogma.” It’s been the call of God from the beginning. In the beginning, God created things and called them “good” and everything He had made was called “very good.” There was no evil or rebellion when it was created, and so the word “good” can and should be translated to mean “of God.” This means the absence of God, whether in a person, word, or action, means it is not of God, and we can call such actions, no matter how noble we think them to be, “evil.” God is Holy: perfect and pure in every way, set apart from us. In the beginning, before we willfully broke His command, we also were pure. The proof of this is in how Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden. And, since our fall, God has been trying to draw us back to His Holiness, and actively working to remove the sin and impurity from us.

The Covenants and the Law could only point to God’s holiness, but it could not, and cannot, save us. The Law could only point us toward atonement and sacrifice for its violation, and repeated violations proved we could not keep the covenants: we are too selfish and inclined to our own destruction in following our wicked (apart from God) desires. Yet God, in His wisdom and mercy knew this about us. At best, we could spend our fortunes in atonement, or He Himself would provide the sacrifice that would be sufficient. And sacrifice He did. “For God so loved the world, He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” We’ve all heard it, and it is so well known, some consider it cliché, but that is exactly what God did. He went to extreme lengths to restore us to the Image He designed us to be.

So what do we do with this awesome grace and mercy? We go to extremes with it. We desire holiness, and destroy, in our own lives, the idols that hinder that holiness. We seek to live lives of Holiness to God, not as a way of being saved, but because we are saved and that should lead us to desire relationship with God because through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we are redeemed. We should not and cannot accept life as it was. We must live different, seeking Christ out in all we do. We must strive toward Holiness, and the world will consider us to be rebels: living unstained in a generation stained with pride, rebellion, anger, lust, greed, and more will make one seem extreme. Do it anyway. Let us live for Christ in all we do, and let us not compromise. My life is bound in Christ, for I have died, been buried, and been raised again a new creation in Him.

1 Peter 1:13 -2:12

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious,

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

and

“A stone of stumbling,

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.