Articles
Pursue Holiness
“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”(1 Peter 1:14-19).
Sherry Rauh mentions in this WebMD website article, “Video Game Addiction No Fun,” that “Keith Bakker, Director of Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, tells WebMD he created the new [detox] program in response to a growing problem among young men and boys. ‘The more we looked at it, the more we saw [gaming] was taking over the lives of kids.’” Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D, summarizes her article “Gray Matters: Too Much Screen Time Damages the Brain,” with the following statement: “'Taken together, [studies show] internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control’ – research authors summarizing neuro-imaging findings in internet and gaming addiction (Lin & Zhou et al, 2012).”
For our conduct to be holy, we need to put God first in our lives. Therefore, we should be honest with ourselves and consider what we spend our time on. In her TED talk entitled, “How to gain control of your free time,” Laura Vanderkam poses the following question: “There are 168 hours in each week. How do we find time for what matters most?” In his book “The Last Lecture” published by Hyperion (New York), Dr. Randy Pausch mentions on page 111, “Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think.”
What 1 Peter 1:14-19 teaches us is that a successful Christian life depends on us having the right mindset and recognizing God is the source of our strength. It also emphasizes the importance of obedience and putting aside sinful behaviors that distance us from God. The key point of this passage is God knows what we say, think, and do and will hold us accountable. Therefore, the question we should ask ourselves is, does my life glorify God?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
