1Pe 1:13 | KingComments | STEP | . After the explanation about what has to do with Christ and His suffering and His glory, Peter speaks about the practical consequences that go together with these facts. You may know what your blessings are, but according to God’s thoughts you only have a right understanding of them if they also have an effect in your life. To work that out, Peter exhorts to take certain actions. He does so in forceful, imperative language. First he says that you must “prepare your minds for actions” or “having girded up the loins of your mind” (Darby Translation). To ‘gird up’ has to do with making yourself ready to set out, prepare yourself to leave. You see that when the people of Israel had to make themselves ready to leave Egypt ( ). This is how you should be ready for the call of the Lord to leave the world and enter into the kingdom. This is the proper attitude of the pilgrim and that prevents you from settling yourself here on earth as if your future is here below. Other aspects that are related to girding up, are service and struggle ( ; ; ). What we must gird up, is ‘the loins’. The loins indicate the strength to walk ( ; ; ). If you have an ailment in your loins you can forget about a brisk walk. Here the loins are connected to your mind. The exhortation to gird up the loins of your mind means that you are exhorted to let yourself to be guided in your thinking by Christ from Whom you have received your mind, to be strengthened with power and spiritually be enlightened ( ). You have a mind, which means insight by God’s Spirit and God’s Word, of the things that will happen. Remain focused on those things and don’t let yourself be distracted by all kinds of matters that may seem interesting, but which are only ideas of people. To that the next exhortation, “keep sober”, is connected. You are sober if you see reality as it really is. That reality is the coming revelation of Jesus Christ Who will come to judge the world and to establish His kingdom. Your soberness will disappear if you do not focus your mind on the future, but on the here and now. I have heard about a quite serious story that illustrates this biblical soberness well. It is about the proclamation of the gospel to cannibals. Some evangelists went to cannibals to preach the gospel to them. Two of them were killed and eaten by them. Another one had the chance to escape. Still, a certain John persisted to go there to bring the gospel to those people. When he talked about this with an old theologian, the latter tried to persuade him with apparently sober argument to stop him from going. The answer of John was: ‘You will soon be buried and be eaten by worms. It is not a big difference whether I will be buried here and be eaten by worms or go there and be eaten by cannibals.’ That is ‘soberly thinking’ in the biblical sense of the word. The result is that the gospel reached that place and people came to faith there. This soberness focuses the thoughts on the future that is totally controlled by the Lord Jesus. If you belong to Him, you will also share in His future, in His revelation or appearance. Then, after the exhortations to gird up your mind, you are exhorted to fully hope “on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. You must “fully” hope on that. Therefore you should not allow anything to diminish that hope. No worry or illness should cause you hope less on that grace. It goes without saying that you are not to allow a certain sin to be the cause of that. When there is sin in your life you will not even hope on that grace. Then you will keep the thought of the revelation of the Lord Jesus at a distance. To look forward again to His coming with desire it is necessary for you to confess your sin. If there is sin in your life, you must make haste to remove that hindrance. . Maybe there is no concrete sin in your life, but there is the inclination to give in to sin. You feel that you are drawn to commit a certain sin. That may be caused by your desires of the past. Considering that, the next exhortation comes to you: ‘Be as a child of obedience not conformed to the former lusts.’ Do you remember what says? You have been called to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Literally it is not ‘obedient children’, but “children of obedience”, children who live according to the principle of obedience. That you are able to live as a child of obedience is the result of the fact that you are a child of God. You are born of God and due to that you have received God’s nature ( ). It seems strange that Peter speaks to them about “former … in your ignorance”, while in their past they were so familiar with God. The Jews were treating the ignorant Gentiles with contempt and thought that only they had the knowledge regarding the true God ( ). It is true that God revealed Himself to them in a special way. However, that’s what made them arrogant. Their whole history has shown that they only boasted in their outward position and at the same time they were following their fleshly lusts. Before the time that the Jews, to whom this letter is addressed, had come to faith in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, they were also living like that. They abandoned that when they converted, but the danger to fall back is always there. For that reason they need to be warned not to live like that again. . After this warning not to do something an exhortation follows to do something. The Scripture is always balanced. Scripture speaks about putting aside something and putting on something ( ). The point here is about not being conformed to something of the past and instead becoming holy in all your behavior. In this respect, you can compare your life to a garden. A garden is more than the absence of weed. It is necessary to weed, but it is not an occupation in itself. The important thing is that the garden exposes a sea of flowers or that it bears fruits. This is how your life as a Christian is like. That life is not characterized by things that are not there, but by things that are there or things that are still to come. Here the point is that everything in your life, “all [your] walk”, thus your whole appearance, is holy, meaning completely consecrated to God. The essential thing is that Christ, the Man Who is completely consecrated to God, becomes visible in your life. To be holy seems negative. That is true if you only see it as being set apart from the wrong. But to be holy is positive. The main idea is in fact: to be set apart for (something). You derive that from the first time the word ‘sanctify’ in the Bible is used. That is at the creation when God sanctifies the seventh day ( ). At that time there was nothing wrong yet in the creation. Everything that God had made was very good. Still God sanctified the seventh day. He set that day apart from all the other days as a day for Himself. . To underline the importance of holiness Peter quotes a verse from the Old Testament. There God appeals to His people to be holy, because He is holy ( ). But would His holiness only apply to the Old Testament and not to the New Testament? If you give this some thought, it will be clear to you that the holy God of the Old Testament is the same holy God of the New Testament. Nowhere has that become more evident than when He did not spare His own Son on the cross. In the Old Testament He could not have anything to do with sin and in the New Testament He cannot either. The appeal to be holy is obvious because God is holy. He can apply no lower standard than Himself to a people associated with Him, regardless of whether they are an Old Testament or a New Testament people. The message concerning God’s holiness that resounds in the Old Testament resonates just as clearly here through Peter here in the New Testament. That call should lead you to consecrate yourself completely to Him. Now read 1 Peter 1:13-16 again. Reflection: Why is it important to be ‘sober’ and ‘holy’?

‏ 1 Peter 1:13

Be Sober and Holy

1Pet 1:13. After the explanation about what has to do with Christ and His suffering and His glory, Peter speaks about the practical consequences that go together with these facts. You may know what your blessings are, but according to God’s thoughts you only have a right understanding of them if they also have an effect in your life. To work that out, Peter exhorts to take certain actions. He does so in forceful, imperative language.

First he says that you must “prepare your minds for actions” or “having girded up the loins of your mind” (Darby Translation). To ‘gird up’ has to do with making yourself ready to set out, prepare yourself to leave. You see that when the people of Israel had to make themselves ready to leave Egypt (Exo 12:11). This is how you should be ready for the call of the Lord to leave the world and enter into the kingdom. This is the proper attitude of the pilgrim and that prevents you from settling yourself here on earth as if your future is here below. Other aspects that are related to girding up, are service and struggle (Lk 12:35 ; 37; Jn 13:4-5; Eph 6:14).

What we must gird up, is ‘the loins’. The loins indicate the strength to walk (Deu 33:11; Job 40:16; Pro 31:17). If you have an ailment in your loins you can forget about a brisk walk. Here the loins are connected to your mind. The exhortation to gird up the loins of your mind means that you are exhorted to let yourself to be guided in your thinking by Christ from Whom you have received your mind, to be strengthened with power and spiritually be enlightened (1Jn 5:20). You have a mind, which means insight by God’s Spirit and God’s Word, of the things that will happen. Remain focused on those things and don’t let yourself be distracted by all kinds of matters that may seem interesting, but which are only ideas of people.

To that the next exhortation, “keep sober”, is connected. You are sober if you see reality as it really is. That reality is the coming revelation of Jesus Christ Who will come to judge the world and to establish His kingdom.

Your soberness will disappear if you do not focus your mind on the future, but on the here and now. I have heard about a quite serious story that illustrates this biblical soberness well. It is about the proclamation of the gospel to cannibals. Some evangelists went to cannibals to preach the gospel to them. Two of them were killed and eaten by them. Another one had the chance to escape. Still, a certain John persisted to go there to bring the gospel to those people. When he talked about this with an old theologian, the latter tried to persuade him with apparently sober argument to stop him from going.

The answer of John was: ‘You will soon be buried and be eaten by worms. It is not a big difference whether I will be buried here and be eaten by worms or go there and be eaten by cannibals.’ That is ‘soberly thinking’ in the biblical sense of the word. The result is that the gospel reached that place and people came to faith there.

This soberness focuses the thoughts on the future that is totally controlled by the Lord Jesus. If you belong to Him, you will also share in His future, in His revelation or appearance. Then, after the exhortations to gird up your mind, you are exhorted to fully hope “on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. You must “fully” hope on that. Therefore you should not allow anything to diminish that hope. No worry or illness should cause you hope less on that grace.

It goes without saying that you are not to allow a certain sin to be the cause of that. When there is sin in your life you will not even hope on that grace. Then you will keep the thought of the revelation of the Lord Jesus at a distance. To look forward again to His coming with desire it is necessary for you to confess your sin. If there is sin in your life, you must make haste to remove that hindrance.

1Pet 1:14. Maybe there is no concrete sin in your life, but there is the inclination to give in to sin. You feel that you are drawn to commit a certain sin. That may be caused by your desires of the past. Considering that, the next exhortation comes to you: ‘Be as a child of obedience not conformed to the former lusts.’ Do you remember what 1Pet 1:2 says? You have been called to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

Literally it is not ‘obedient children’, but “children of obedience”, children who live according to the principle of obedience. That you are able to live as a child of obedience is the result of the fact that you are a child of God. You are born of God and due to that you have received God’s nature (2Pet 1:4).

It seems strange that Peter speaks to them about “former … in your ignorance”, while in their past they were so familiar with God. The Jews were treating the ignorant Gentiles with contempt and thought that only they had the knowledge regarding the true God (Rom 2:17-20). It is true that God revealed Himself to them in a special way. However, that’s what made them arrogant. Their whole history has shown that they only boasted in their outward position and at the same time they were following their fleshly lusts.

Before the time that the Jews, to whom this letter is addressed, had come to faith in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, they were also living like that. They abandoned that when they converted, but the danger to fall back is always there. For that reason they need to be warned not to live like that again.

1Pet 1:15. After this warning not to do something an exhortation follows to do something. The Scripture is always balanced. Scripture speaks about putting aside something and putting on something (Col 3:8 ; 12). The point here is about not being conformed to something of the past and instead becoming holy in all your behavior. In this respect, you can compare your life to a garden. A garden is more than the absence of weed. It is necessary to weed, but it is not an occupation in itself. The important thing is that the garden exposes a sea of flowers or that it bears fruits.

This is how your life as a Christian is like. That life is not characterized by things that are not there, but by things that are there or things that are still to come. Here the point is that everything in your life, “all [your] walk”, thus your whole appearance, is holy, meaning completely consecrated to God. The essential thing is that Christ, the Man Who is completely consecrated to God, becomes visible in your life.

To be holy seems negative. That is true if you only see it as being set apart from the wrong. But to be holy is positive. The main idea is in fact: to be set apart for (something). You derive that from the first time the word ‘sanctify’ in the Bible is used. That is at the creation when God sanctifies the seventh day (Gen 2:3). At that time there was nothing wrong yet in the creation. Everything that God had made was very good. Still God sanctified the seventh day. He set that day apart from all the other days as a day for Himself.

1Pet 1:16. To underline the importance of holiness Peter quotes a verse from the Old Testament. There God appeals to His people to be holy, because He is holy (Lev 11:44 ; Lev 19:2 ; Lev 20:26-27). But would His holiness only apply to the Old Testament and not to the New Testament? If you give this some thought, it will be clear to you that the holy God of the Old Testament is the same holy God of the New Testament. Nowhere has that become more evident than when He did not spare His own Son on the cross.

In the Old Testament He could not have anything to do with sin and in the New Testament He cannot either. The appeal to be holy is obvious because God is holy. He can apply no lower standard than Himself to a people associated with Him, regardless of whether they are an Old Testament or a New Testament people. The message concerning God’s holiness that resounds in the Old Testament resonates just as clearly here through Peter here in the New Testament. That call should lead you to consecrate yourself completely to Him.

Now read 1 Peter 1:13-16 again.

Reflection: Why is it important to be ‘sober’ and ‘holy’?