2 Peter 3:11: “We ought to live holy and godly lives.”
It’s worth looking at those words and what they mean. “Holy” is a wonderful word that is used throughout the Bible referring to God and what He is like. He is set apart. Now, it has a moral element, which we’ll get onto, to do with not sinning. But actually, something to do with God and his holiness is the fact that he is different. He is set apart. The angels in Isaiah chapter 6 cover their faces as they cry, “Holy, holy, holy,” not because they’re sinful (because these angels who are saying these things have never sinned), and yet they still say “holy, holy, holy.” They still cover their faces because of the differentness of the Lord, the set-apartness of who He is.
Remarkably, we are told to live holy and godly lives. We are to be people who realise that we now have a different purpose, we now have a different identity, we now have a different mentality. And then, on top of that, there is a moral element to this. We are to not sin. We are to avoid sin. We are to hate sin. We are to put sin to death. We are to love God’s law.
This is where that word “godly” needs to be considered as well because this word “godly” refers to being like God. If you want to know what God is like, then look at his law. If you want to see that lived out in the life of a human being, then look at the Lord Jesus Christ and how he lived: how he worshiped his Father in heaven, how he loved his parents and looked after them and respected them, how he never spoke a harsh word to someone out of impatience, how he respected women and never leered over them or had impure fantasies about anyone, either of the opposite sex or the same sex as him. He was never sexually inappropriate. He paid his taxes. He was generous. Every word that came out of his mouth was truthful. He was never economical with the truth. He was never greedy. He was satisfied with what he had, especially in his poverty. This is what godliness looks like.
