Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance…You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors…

Reference Ezekiel 23, particularly v. 17, 19, 27

(17) “And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust; and after she defiled herself with them, she turned from them in disgust.”

(19) “Yet she increased her whorings, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt.”

(27) “So I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring brought from the land of Egypt; you shall not long for them, or remember Egypt any more.”

For the Christian, Egypt represents our slavery to the world before our baptism.  Peter tells us to leave our former desires behind, for we have been ransomed from the futile ways we inherited, that is, while in Egypt.  The dictates of our conscience tells us as much, for when we “whore with the world” our conscience reminds us who we are, and we turn away in disgust from that which we thought would bring happiness.

Ezekiel warns Israel it is going to be punished by God through the very nations by which it has allowed itself to be corrupted.  For the Christian who turns back from his lofty call and commitment to once again pursue the world, punishment awaits by means of the very things pursued.  Anxiety, lack of peace and worldly cares are the punishments that are brought by worldly pursuits.  What is far worse, however, is that these are precisely those things that our Lord tells us choke off the Word of God – our very life. (Matthew 13.22)