1 Peter 1:13-25 – Scatterlings strive to be holy, by Rev. Colin Pretorius.
How fulfilled is your life? How fulfilled do you feel? In what are you searching fulfilment? Where should you be searching for fulfilment? How do you find it? Fulfilment is something with which the human race struggles and although we should know better, it’s something with which Christians struggle too! If you go and google what fulfilment is and how you can get it, you’ll find some interesting things. To live a fulfilling life, we’re told, you have to look at the bright side of life. You have to have goals and you have to pursue them. You have to focus on solutions to problems rather than crying over spilled milk. You get to live a fulfilling life if you’re open to change, eat well, get plenty of exercise and have fun. You’ll be fulfilled if you dress for success and if you have a “life-motto” – the “don’t-worry-be-happy” type of thing.
But friends, is that all that there is to it? You can have all of that, and still find your life unfulfilling. So what then is fulfilment about? In our passage today the apostle Peter gives us the answer – and it isn’t the answer that Google gives us. Peter tells us that fulfilment has three aspects:
- Recognising the emptiness of the way of the world;
- Being cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ; and
- Living a holy life.
Recognising the emptiness of the world, being cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ and living a holy life.