From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
August 30 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; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1
Peter 1:14-16 Grace lays us under the greatest of all obligations to
its free and bountiful Giver, and especially to render a believing obedience
to his revealed will and word. It is his free, sovereign, and distinguishing
grace alone which makes and manifests us to be his children, and therefore
it demands of us, as a feeble and most insufficient tribute of grateful
praise, that we should walk worthy of the vocation with which we are called,
and glorify him in our body and spirit which are his. He that has never
known and felt this knows nothing of the riches of God's grace in the
manifestation of mercy and love to his soul. Such a one knows, that do what he can, he can never do
enough to show forth the praises of him who has called him out of darkness
into his marvelous light, and his grief and burden ever are that, through
the power of indwelling sin, he cannot do the things that he would, but is
always falling short, always sinning against bleeding, dying love. To such a
one, therefore, the precepts of the gospel are as dear as the promises, and
he sees that they are set in the word of truth as "a lamp to his feet and a
light to his path," a guiding rule by which, if he could but direct his
steps, he would glorify God, walk in peace and love with his people,
preserve a good conscience, and adorn the doctrine which he professes in all
things. Obedience, therefore, to him is a sweet word, and is viewed by him
as a precious portion of that free and everlasting gospel which, in
restoring fallen man to God's favor, restores him also to an obedience
acceptable in his sight.