One thing we must realize and admit is that we are people who have been poisoned. If our bodies have consumed a lot of unhealthy food, breathed polluted air, and drunk unhealthy beverages, they will be poisoned by many toxic substances that enter them. The same is true of our souls. What enters and fills our souls determines the quality of those souls. An unhealthy soul will surely produce poor character; it cannot have the character God desires. Thoughts and feelings that have been heavily poisoned by the world will damage a person’s character or be of low quality.
In Philippians 2:5–8, God’s Word tells us to have the mind and feelings of Christ. That means we carry out the Father’s will. To be able to do the Father’s will requires a clean mind, clean feelings, and a healthy soul. However, if someone’s soul is full of poison — in which are contained thoughts and feelings — then it is impossible for them to have the ability to act and behave like Jesus. From childhood, from an early age, our souls have absorbed and consumed unhealthy spiritual food, or even more unhealthy things.
Indeed, there are people who, from childhood, were taught to know God, taken to Sunday School, taught to pray before sleeping, and who heard Bible stories. But when, during the process of growing up, they encounter various life experiences, hear and see many things that poison their souls, they eventually become ruined. From childhood, we have absorbed ways of life inherited from our ancestors and from the surrounding environment.
Salvation in Jesus Christ is intended to make our souls healthy, free from the poisons that harm us. The purpose is so that we have the Father’s character, that is, to be perfect like the Father. In other words, to have holiness and the ability to be of one mind and one feeling with God. Yet many people do not realize their condition of having been poisoned by the world, so they do not make an effort to cleanse the poisons within themselves.
In 1 Peter 1:16, God’s Word says, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Holiness is not merely the state of not doing wrong, but the ability to understand God’s will in all things and to do it according to what God desires. If someone still harbors much poison within, they will not have the sensitivity to understand God’s will; they become dull and insensitive.
But in verse 18 it is written, “For you know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…” Many people feel that because the blood of Jesus has redeemed them, everything is finished; they feel they are already redeemed children. Notice this phrase: “ransomed from your futile way of life.” The problem is that many people do not realize that they must strive to leave the lifestyle inherited from their ancestors.
Verse 17 says, “Since you call on a Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, live your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” That means God will judge and evaluate our deeds. Certainly, if someone still harbors much poison as a result of inheriting a futile way of life from their parents, then their deeds cannot possibly align with what God desires.
In 1 Peter 1:13, it is written, “Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober-minded, and set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The mind points to thought. When we still expect happiness from sources other than encountering God, that is poison. It means we are still poisoned. A person who does not long for God is actually a traitor. Yet in His patience, God still allows us to change. If someone does not long for fellowship with God, it is certain that they have no faithfulness.