Achieving holiness

1 Peter 1 14-15  "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;"

What does it mean to be "holy"?  Holy implies a state of perfection when used in reference to God.  Is Peter, then, asking us to achieve perfection?  I don't believe so.  Only God can and will ever be perfect.  If we had the ability to achieve holiness in the form of perfection, the Gospel of sacrificial atonement might have never come about.  If we were capable of achieving perfection, God would probably have been unwilling to send His one and only Son to die for us.  Why sacrifice your Son for something people can achieve on their own?

The fact that God did send His Son to die for us and achieve a level of justification on our behalf demonstrates that holy perfection is impossible for us to achieve on our own.  But what we can achieve is our own level of holiness.  Our level of holiness revolves around the choices we make and the way in which we live our lives.  The presence of the Holy Spirit inside of us and God's grace in revealing Himself to us through Scripture provide us with a basis and foundation from which to live our lives in accordance with His will.

A life well lived is simply a collection of small choices.  We are faced with situations every day in which we have an opportunity to respond in a manner that is aligned with the Holy Spirit, or we can choose to respond in a manner that gives in to our evil desires and conforms to the ways of the world rather than His ways.

Holiness is not the elimination of evil desires and temptations.  We are fallen, sinful human beings.  Those desires and temptations will always be present.  But God's presence through the Holy Spirit shows us a better set of choices to be made.  We achieve holiness by progressively responding in an obedient manner more often than we give in to our natural evil desires.