Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Peter 1:14

"as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in [the time of] your ignorance:" — 1 Peter 1:14 (ASV)

The Christians’ lifestyle is not to conform to the base desires that formerly dominated them and kept them from God. Christians must not allow the world to squeeze them into its sinful mold (cf. Romans 12:2). Peter exhorts Christians to control their desires rather than to be controlled by them. Formerly Christians were in ignorance; now they have come to know God and his will. They are to be “children of obedience”—an expression describing not only their quality but also their nature.