13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your minds and be awake perfectly and wait for the joy which will come to you at the revelation of our Master Y’shua the Mashiyach 14. as obedient children: and be you not conversant again with those former lusts with which you lusted when without knowledge. 15. But be you set apart in all your conduct, as he is set apart who has called you. 16. Because it is written: Be you Kadosh even as I am Kadosh. 17. And if so be, you call on the Father with whom is no respect of persons and who judges everyone according to his deeds, pass the time of your stay with fear…
In Hebrew and in Aramaic, “Kadosh” (root: קדש) means “Set Apart.” Therefore, “Be not conversant with those former lusts…” (v14) refers to setting oneself apart from those former things. To be “Set Apart” (vs 15,16) is to be separated from something, and to be set apart unto something else. Here the calling is exactly the same as it was given to the Children of Israel: “Be set apart from the world and its ways, and be set apart unto Me.”
V.16 “Because it is written…” Where is is written? Well, any concordance or Bible search program will tell you: Lost of places, including Leviticus 11 and Leviticus 20, for example. Let’s examine a few of them:
Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am YHWH your God… And ye shall be holy unto me: for I YHWH am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. (Lev 20:7 & 26 AV)
…For I am YHWH your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am YHWH that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (Lev 11:44-45 AV)
See also: Numbers 15:40, Deuteronomy 23:14.
So what is Peter saying? He said “Be awake perfectly” (v.13) like “obedient children” (v.14). Pay attention! Why? So that we will “not be conversant with those former lusts with which you lusted when without knowledge.”
The Word is saying that we must separate ourselves from the things that pertain to sinful life. This is because we are called by YHWH (v.15) to “Be Set Apart as YHWH is Set Apart.”
Why this calling? Because YHWH “judges everyone according to his deeds” (v.17). This is consistent with Y’shua’s final words:
“Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me to recompense everyone according to his work.” (Rev. 22:13 AENT)
Which just so happens to be consistent with the rest of Scripture:
Also unto thee, O Adonai, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work. (Ps 62:12)
Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work. (Pr 24:29 AV)
The context of Peter’s first letter is that it is written to believers in Y’shua haMashiach, who are the “elect and sojourners” (v.1), who are “chosen… to the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Y’shua the Mashiyach ” (v.2).
As anyone can see here, disciples of Y’shua haMashiach have been chosen for “obedience” as well as for “the sprinkling.”
Still ready to press on? We mentioned several specific verses in the Tanakh earlier, but to get the greater context, check out the full chapters: Leviticus 11 and 20; Numbers 15; Deuteronomy 23.
Wherefore, Torah is Set Apart; and the commandment is set apart, and righteous, and good. (Romans 7:12 AENT)