Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:13-16 ESV
NLT: verses 14-16
So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Helps Word Studies ~ Sanctification and Holy…..
40 hágios – properly, different (unlike), other ("otherness"), holy; for the believer, 40 (hágios) means "likeness of nature with the Lord" because "different from the world."
The fundamental (core) meaning of 40 (hágios) is "different" – thus a temple in the 1st century was hagios ("holy") because different from other buildings (Wm. Barclay). In the NT, 40 /hágios ("holy") has the "technical" meaning "different from the world" because "like the Lord."
[40 (hágios) implies something "set apart" and therefore "different(distinguished/distinct)" – i.e. "other," because special to the Lord.]
hagiasmos: Sanctification, holiness, consecration.
Cognate: 38 hagiasmós (a masculine noun derived from 40 /hágios, "holy") – sanctification (the process of advancing in holiness); use of the believer being progressively transformed by the Lord into His likeness (similarity of nature). See 40 /hagios ("holy").
God’s work in us is meant to flow through us, touching the lives of others. When Jesus was moved with compassion for the needs of the multitudes, He called and sent out His twelve disciples. He gave them authority and instruction so they could continue the work He had begun. In the same way, we—His body—carry on His work by the power of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness to this life-giving grace.
When Peter wrote to the Jewish exiles scattered throughout Asia Minor, he urged them to prepare their minds and remain sober-minded—to think clearly about their spiritual condition within their circumstances. Why? Because in the midst of adversity, it is easy to lose sight of God’s purposes. Our attention can drift, becoming self-focused, and we can lose awareness of the sanctifying work God is continually doing in us for obedience to Christ.
This reflects the tension Paul describes in Romans 7:
When I want to do good, evil is close at hand. Though I delight in God’s law inwardly, I see another law at work within me, waging war against my mind. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life has set us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Romans 7:21–25; 8:2).
This tension calls us to live sanctified and holy. Sanctification and holiness go hand in hand. We have been set apart unto God, for God—and the outworking of that reality is a life of holiness, a willing agreement with His purpose to use us for His service in every situation.
To be sober-minded, then, is to remember that there is a God—and it is not us. Our need for Him is constant and essential. As we grow in understanding His holiness, we begin to understand what it means for us to be holy as well.
Ultimately, this is not about human effort, but about trusting that the One who lives within us is at work in us, both to will and to act according to His good pleasure. What He requires, He also graciously empowers by His Spirit of Grace.