makes it a
plea with them to give diligence that they may be found without spot and
blameless in His sight. And he asks them to think and say, under the
deep sense of what the coming of the day of God would be and would
bring, what the life of those ought to be who look for such things:
'What manner of person ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness?'
Holiness must be its one, its universal characteristic. At the close of
our meditations on God's call to Holiness, we may take Peter's question,
and in the light of all that God has revealed of His Holiness, and all
that waits still to be revealed, ask ourselves, 'What manner of men
ought we to be in all holy living and godliness?'

Note first the meaning of the question. In the original Greek, the words
living and godliness are plural. Alford says, '_In holy behaviours and
pieties_; the plurals mark the holy behaviour and piety _in all its
forms and examples_.' Peter would plead for a life of holiness pervading
the whole man: our behaviours towards men, and our pieties towards God.
True holiness cannot be found in anything less. Holiness must be the
one, the universal characteristic of our Christian life. In God we have
seen that holiness is the central attribute, the comprehensive
expression for Divine perfection, the attribute of all the attributes,
the all-including epithet by which He Himself, as Redeemer and Father,
His Son and His Spirit, His Day, His House, His Law, His Servants, His
People, His Name, are marked and known. Always and in everything, in
Judgment as in Mercy, in His Exaltation and His Condescension, in His
Hiddenness and His Revelation, always and in everything, God is the Holy
One. And the Word would teach us that the reign of Holiness, to be true
and pleasing to God, must be supreme, must be in all holy living and
godliness. There must not be a moment of the day, nor a relation in
life; there must be nothing in the outer conduct, nor in the inmost
recesses of the heart; there must be nothing belonging to us, whether
in worship or in business, that is not holy. The Holiness of Jesus, the
Holiness which comes of the Spirit's anointing, must cover and pervade
all. Nothing, nothing may be excluded, if we are to be holy; it must be
as Peter said when he spoke of God's call--holy in all manner of living;
it must be as he says here--'in all holy living and godliness.' To use
the significant language of the Holy Spirit: Everything must be done,
'wor