You were Ransomed. Act like it.

The full title of this lesson should be: “You were ransomed and adopted as a child of the sovereign Creator and King of the universe. Act like it.”
It is by God’s amazing grace that we are invited (by the Gospel) and brought (read, bought) into the kingdom of God. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:4).
When w begin to talk about holiness, as Peter does in 1 Peter 1:14-21, we tend to focus on behavior. Conduct. Outward actions.
And we should. Peter reminds us that we are to “be holy in all your conduct.” (1 Peter 1:15)
But conduct is only a symptom. It telegraphs what is in the heart.
Inconsistent conduct, unholy conduct mixed with more holy conduct, signals a divided heart. It signals a struggle between a new creation (no longer a slave to sin, Romans 6:6) and the residual habits of someone who contniues to rely upon the Gospel: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)
Meanwhile, what’s the problem? Why do we continue to struggle with sin? Peter points us to two root causes: mind and motivation. But they both point to the mind, which includes the intentionality and willfulness of the heart.
When we sin, our mind is not set on things above, so we drift back into conformity with the passions of our former (pre-salvation) ignorance. It’s all about the mind.
And when we sin, we reflect mixed motivations. There it is: double-mindedness.