Hardship, Holiness, and Heresy by Holly D. Sands
In Peter's first letter, the believers were being slandered and suffering for the name of Christ. In the second letter, the bigger danger was false teachers slipping into their churches, promising freedom and scoffing at the idea that Jesus was coming back to judge anyone. In other words: live however you want, because there’s no reckoning. Suffering tempts you to give up. False freedom tempts you to give in. Peter answers both the same way: know the truth, live a holy life, and be willing to suffer for it.
Hardship, holiness, and heresy aren’t three separate topics in these letters. Hardship presses from outside, heresy creeps in from inside, and holiness is how you stand against both.
Hardship: Don’t Think It Strange
Peter doesn’t treat suffering as a detour from the Christian life. He treats it as part of the road.
"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." (1 Peter 4:12–13)
“Do not think it strange” means don’t be shocked. Jesus said as much: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Knowing trouble is coming doesn’t make it hurt any less. It just keeps us from thinking God has abandoned us when it shows up.
Back in chapter 1, Peter had already told them why God allows it.
"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:6–7)
“For a little while.” “If need be.” “Grieved.” Trials are temporary, they have a purpose, and yes, they hurt. But God is proving our faith genuine, and that faith will still be standing when Jesus is revealed.
Be careful, though. Not all suffering is the same.
"But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter." (1 Peter 4:15–16)
Peter puts “busybody” right next to murderer and thief, which ought to make all of us sit up a little. Suffering for our own wrongdoing isn’t persecution. It’s consequences, and the answer is repentance. But suffering for the name of Christ carries no shame at all.
So what do we do when we find ourselves in the fire?
"Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator." (1 Peter 4:19)
"Commit" is a word for handing something over for safekeeping. We hand ourselves over to a faithful Creator, and we keep keeping on.
Notice the phrase “according to the will of God.” There’s a popular teaching that says Christians will face persecution, but sickness is never God’s will, and a lot of other suffering may not be either. 'Since the devil is the god of this world,' the thinking goes, 'he’s the one bringing it, not God. God may allow it, but it could be completely against His will.'
But think about that logically.
Is God God?
"For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me." (Isaiah 46:9)
Does He do what He wants?
“Our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
Is His will always accomplished?
He “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).
So how can God allow something that’s completely against His will? Allowing is itself a choice. If God permits it, He has willed to permit it. He could refuse to permit what He doesn’t want just as easily as He brings about what He does. And if the devil, or anyone else, could override what God wills, we couldn’t honestly call Him Almighty. That doesn’t make God the author of evil, but it does mean nothing happens outside His hand. That’s why Peter can say we suffer “according to the will of God.”
And the same hand that permits our suffering is the hand that will bring it to an end.
"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." (1 Peter 5:10)
After you have suffered a while. There is an “after.” Peter ends with a promise that God Himself will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us. We don’t have an absentee Father, a distant Savior, or a hands-off Spirit. The God who holds dominion over all things (5:11) will restore us and secure us to Himself. That’s why we can endure suffering and keep living for Him. His grace is more than enough to carry us, now and forever.
Holiness: Living Like You Belong to Him
So how do you live when following Christ costs you something? Peter’s answer is holiness, and he doesn’t present it as a rulebook or an impossible standard. He presents it as the natural response of someone who knows who they are, what it cost to redeem them, and what's waiting for them at the end.
"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:13)
I once heard a preacher say that whenever you see a "therefore," you need to find out what it's there for. Peter is saying the reason we can do verse 13 is because of verses 3–12: we are born again to a living hope, we have an inheritance that can't fade, and we are kept by the power of God.
So now, based on those things, we can gird up the loins of our mind. In Bible times, men wore long, loose robes. To run, work, or fight, they’d pull the hem up and tuck it into their belt so nothing would trip them up. Peter says to do that with your mind. Don't allow your mind to entangle and trip you or detain and hinder you. And he says to do it soberly. The word means clear-headed and self-controlled, the opposite of being intoxicated. Peter uses it three times in this letter (1:13; 4:7; 5:8), and the last one comes right before the warning about the devil prowling like a roaring lion. A sober mind sees things as they really are, danger included. Then Peter tells us where to set that ready, sober mind: rest your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us when Jesus is revealed. Fully means completely, holding nothing back.
Then comes the standard.
"But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'" (1 Peter 1:15–16)
Peter is quoting Leviticus (11:44–45; 19:2). The standard for God’s people has never been “a little better than the folks around you.” It’s God Himself. So how can anyone measure up to that? On our own, we can’t. But God doesn’t lower the bar. He meets it for us. “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Notice both halves of that verse. Through Christ’s sacrifice, we already stand holy before God, and that’s settled forever. At the same time, we “are being sanctified,” growing day by day into what we already are. Peter opened his letter with the same idea: we were chosen “in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience” (1 Peter 1:2). The Spirit who set us apart is the same One who makes us holy in practice.
And notice “He who called you.” Peter mentions the call because of what it obligates us to. God called us to be His children. He separated us from the world around us and picked us out as His own treasure. So, by His grace, we work at becoming more like Him.
Then Peter adds “in all your conduct.” That means the whole course of daily life, every detail, wherever we go and whoever we’re around. Not just on Sunday. God’s own holiness is the pattern, not the world’s. Peter already said it in verse 14: don’t be conformed to the desires you had back when you didn’t know any better.
And underneath it all is the price.
"Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18–19)
We don't pursue holiness to earn God's favor. We pursue it because we've been bought, and the price was Jesus' blood. Peter calls our old way of life "aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers." Empty. Going nowhere. Christ didn't pay what He paid so we could drift back into it. When temptation comes, a good question to ask is: Is this worth what it cost Him? Do I really want to entertain what cost Christ His own blood?
Heresy: A Different Gospel in Familiar Clothes
If hardship is the pressure from outside, heresy is the pressure from inside, and it may be the more dangerous of the two.
So what is heresy? It isn’t a disagreement between believers over secondary things. It’s teaching that denies or twists the core of the faith: who Jesus is, what He did on the cross, how we’re saved, and the authority of God's Word. The Greek word basically means “a choice.” A heretic chooses his own version of the truth over what God has said, and pulls others along with him.
Here’s what that looks like.
On who Jesus is: Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created being, Michael the archangel, not God in the flesh.
On what He did on the cross: Kenneth Copeland, along with many other Word of Faith teachers, have long taught that Jesus’ physical death wasn’t enough, and that He had to die spiritually, take on a satanic nature, and suffer in hell before we could be redeemed.
On how we’re saved: the Book of Mormon says “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." Grace becomes the finishing touch on our effort instead of the whole foundation.
On the authority of God's Word: the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) teaches that the church must be governed by present-day apostles and prophets, who bring new revelation the church needs to fulfill its mission. Scripture stops being the final word and becomes a starting point.
Each of these sounds Christian on the surface. Each one changes the gospel at its core.
And Peter warned that this kind of teaching would come from the inside.
"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction." (2 Peter 2:1)
Notice two words: among you. Peter isn’t warning about wolves howling outside the fence. He’s warning about people already inside it, singing the same songs and using the same vocabulary. And notice secretly. The Greek word carries the idea of bringing something in alongside everything else. Heresy rarely shows up as an open denial of the faith. It shows up as a little something added to the gospel, or a little something quietly taken away. Most of what they say is true. That’s the hook.
Peter’s test is fruit. He spends far more of chapter 2 on how these teachers live than on what they teach: covetousness, exploitation, eyes full of adultery, promising liberty while they themselves are slaves of corruption (2:3, 14, 19). Bad doctrine and bad living travel together. When a message keeps landing on money, comfort, or permission to sin, pay attention!
Why does it work on believers? Peter says the Scriptures get twisted by “untaught and unstable people” (3:16). That’s the soil heresy grows in. A believer who doesn’t know the Word well can’t tell when it’s being bent. That's the reason I wrote Why Don't We Know Our Bibles?
His remedy isn't heresy hunting. It's growth.
"You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:17–18)
Knowledge without grace makes you proud and harsh. Grace without knowledge makes you easy to fool. Growing in both is what makes a believer steady.
The Real Thing Is Worth It
False teaching always offers a shortcut: a Christianity without suffering and without holiness. Blessing without trials. Grace without obedience. A Savior who asks nothing of you, and a future with no reckoning. It sells well, because it’s exactly what our flesh wants to hear.
Peter offers the real thing. Hardship that refines us instead of destroying us. Holiness that grows out of knowing we were bought with Christ’s blood. Truth that keeps us steady while others drift. And underneath all of it, a God who keeps His people. We are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).
That’s why my husband calls 1 Peter the SOP for the Christian. It doesn’t promise an easy road. It shows you how to walk the real one: expect the fire, live set apart, know the truth well enough to spot a counterfeit, and trust the God who holds it all in His hand.
The counterfeit is always easier. The real thing is always worth it.
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Holly D. Sands has walked with Christ since 1983. She writes at He is My Song, helping fellow believers walk faithfully through every season with biblical encouragement, sound doctrine, and honest reflection. She lives in South Carolina, where she and her husband, Shane Sands, are members of a local Baptist church. Shane's been called by God as an evangelist and leads United in Christ Jesus ministry. At home, they're joined by their idiot cat, Mister Bojangles, whose main contribution to the household is sleeping and eating treats.
© 2026 He is My Song. All rights reserved.
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