Lesson 3: HOLINESS 3(a)

Main theme: Relationship with God
Lesson 3: HOLINESS

3(a) Topic: Why must we be holy?
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Be Holy

Discussion Questions:
· Cite instances of God’s Holiness.
· What character traits of yours are similar to that of your parents?
· What are some attributes of Christ that we need to follow in order to be holy?
· How has your lifestyle reflected the holiness of God this past week?
· Do you think that being holy is a proof of our love? Rate on a scale of 1-10 how much you love the Lord.
· "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb12:14), is it a must to be Holy?
· So how should Christians live their lives?
· Are you ready to meet Christ?
· What does it mean to “live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear”(v 17)?
· What makes loving others deeply and actively possible?(v 23-25)

Application for the week:
We have learnt that as Christians, holiness is a must. In what areas of our lives can we strive to be holy this week?

Guidelines (commentary):
Key pointers:
Christians must prepare their minds, so that they can obey God.
They must have a clear mind about how to live as Christians.
Children often look like their parents and behave like them. Christians are now children of God, because God is their Father in heaven. Therefore as God is holy, we His children must be like Him.
To be holy means to be completely separate from all sin and evil. It also means to belong to God alone.
The Holy Spirit makes them holy (verse 2). This does not mean that Christians can their lives completely without sin. It means that with God’s help they try hard to avoid all sin and evil in every part of their lives.
Christians can pray to God as their Father. But he does not deal with other people in a different way. He does not judge people by what their faces look like. Instead, God judges all people by his standard of what is good and evil.
· To fear God does not mean to be afraid of him. It means that Christians should respect and obey God because he is great and holy. Peter again reminds Christians that they are strangers in this world. Their true home is in heaven.
· ‘God has bought you’. Sometimes a person pays money so that a slave or a person in prison can have freedom. God paid so that people can have freedom from their life of sin and death. He did not pay with money, but with the precious blood of his only Son, Jesus. Leviticus 17:14 says that the life of an animal is in its blood. So, the ‘precious blood of Christ’ refers to his death on the cross. To be ‘precious’ means to have great value and honour. Romans 6:23 says, ‘The wages of sin is death’. Jesus died to forgive sins. Christians will now live for ever and their spirit will never die.
Every day, Christians must obey the truth. This will make their life pure.
· As Christians become purer in their lives, they will have a deeper love for each other. They will not have evil thoughts and feelings about other Christians. To have sincere love means they really care about other people. They mean what they say. People are not sincere when they just pretend to love other people.
‘Have a sincere love for all Christians’. The Greek word for ‘love’ in this sentence describes the love that brothers and sisters have for each other in a family. All Christians are members of one very big family. God is their Father.
So continue to love each other deeply from your heart’. This word ‘love’ comes from another Greek word that describes the pure love of God. This love always gives more than it takes.
· Verses 24-25 come from Isaiah 40:6-8. All people, even great people, will die. Their physical body will die, just as grass and flowers die. But God’s words will live for ever. When people accept the word of the Lord, their spirit will live for ever.