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Being God’s people means being holy. In the Bible, holiness implies the setting aside of something or someone for God’s work and will. The holy people of God are the people who have been distinguished by God’s gracious calling for doing God’s will in the world. Thus Peter urges the readers, as God’s obedient children (by virtue of rebirth), not to be conformed to their prior way of life (1:14). Rather, they are to be holy as God is holy (1:15). In other words, who Christians are and what they do must be determined by that One to whom they belong, that is, by God who claims them as his children. Quite simply, as the holy people of God, Christians base their conduct in the world exclusively on God’s revealed will. If they claim God as the Father, who desires only their best, they do not forget that he is also the Judge who demands their best. Accordingly, the holy life of God’s people proceeds from reverential fear of God (1:17).
Peter makes it clear, however, that Christians do not simply try to be different. In fact, Christians can be holy only because of the historic manifestation of Christ. His death provided redeeming power to free Christians from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers (1:18). It is only because they have been freed through Christ’s death (1:18-19) that they can be free from their former way of life (1:14). Additionally, it is only because they have been established in a life of faithfulness and hope toward God through Christ’s resurrection (1:21) that they can live consistently as obedient children of God. In short, through Christ all that hinders people from being wholly faithful and obedient to God has been dealt with decisively. To be reborn is to be set free from former futile ways of life to a life of faithfulness to God. Peter’s call to holiness is a call to appropriate fully all that Christ has done for his people so that the whole of their lives may be integrated and coordinated by God’s will. In this sense, Wesleyans in particular have understood that Christians who are holy because they are reborn (1:2) are also summoned to a holiness that extends to the whole of their conduct (1:14-15).