YouTube video sermon
1 Peter 1:13-21
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to 1 Peter 1:13-21. We’re slowing making our way through this epistle written by the apostle Peter to Christians that had been scattered throughout the Roman empire in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And most scholars agree that one of the primary purposes in writing the letter, if not THE primary purpose, was to provide these persecuted and scattered believers with hope.
There was a school system in a large city that had a program to help children keep up with their schoolwork during stays in the hospital. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with his regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in class,” his regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them, so he doesn’t fall too far behind.”
Well, the hospital teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. But no one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left, she felt she hadn’t accomplished much at all.
But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You misunderstand. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back. He’s responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”
Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, now, would
they?”
Warren Wiersbe, the late Baptist pastor and Bible teacher said, “Hope is not a sedative; it’s a shot of adrenaline, a blood transfusion. Like an anchor, our hope in Christ stabilizes us in the storms of life; but unlike an anchor, our hope moves us forward, it does not hold us back.” That’s what the church in Peter’s day was needing, and it’s what many of us are needing – hope, encouragement, a shot of adrenaline, a blood transfusion.
Hopefully, you’ve found your spot and you can follow along with me, or you can follow along on the screens.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
“Father, in the stillness of the morning hour, with our Bibles open upon our laps, once again, we turn to You. We pray that the Holy Spirit might continue to do His work in bringing the things of Jesus Christ to us with such clarity and conviction – that we’re able to do none other than to bow before Him in humility of heart and in genuine repentance and faith, and rising to walk out on the path of holiness. Hear our prayer. Give us alert minds. Help me, Lord, with the clarity of my thinking and brevity in my expression. May our gaze be unto Christ and His Word, for His sake we ask it. Amen.”
There are three imperative verbs in these verses. All the other 16 verbs are either participles or indicatives, and there’s one infinitive. It’s funny; my least favorite subjects in school were English and Literature, and yet God’s called me to a job that’s primarily engaged in both. Anyway, all that means is that there are three main commands for us – everything else is explanation and argument for those three commands.
The first is in verse 13b: “. . . set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Literally, “hope fully.” It’s a command that we feel full hope, strong hope, so that when Jesus comes back we’ll experience grace and this grace will be all-satisfying. In other words, Peter wants us to feel profoundly confident in the final outcome of our lives at the revelation of Christ. It will mean more grace. And the fulfillment of deepest longings. That’s why we’re called to hope fully – not mildly – but fully. This will be great grace. Eternally satisfying grace.
The second imperative is at the end of verse 15. But let’s read 14 and 15 to see the flow: “As obedient children, do not be conformed (that’s a participle: “not being conformed”) to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” The verb is the imperative of “be” or “become.” And specifically, the focus is on the outcome of this being and doing: Be holy in all your conduct – your way of life. Live a holy life.
So, in verse 13 we have “hope fully” and in verse 15 we have “be holy.”
The third imperative is found in verse 17, “And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” In verse 15 the command was, “in all your conduct be holy.” And in verse 17 the command is “in all your conduct fear.” And the fear is connected most closely with God’s judgment. Since your Father “judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves in fear.”
So, now, we have three commands: live in hope, live in holiness, live in holy fear. And I want to take just a few minutes and unpack them a little more.
Live In Hope
If you want to move beyond moping around, if you want to move beyond the melancholy of just trying to endure, if you want to move beyond the weight of all the bad news and the cultural decline and the woes of our day, and move to an active and exciting and engaging life, then you take your hope and wrap it around the grace of Jesus Christ. That’s what verse 13 says. That will bring life to your hope, and if you have no hope then it will bring hope to your life.
You say, “Well, now, how do I do that?” I’m so glad you asked, and so is Peter, because he tells you in verse 13. He gives two explanations of what’s involved in hoping fully. First, he says “prepare your minds for action.” If you’re reading the KJV or the NKJV or the original Greek text, then you’ll read, “having girded up the loins of your mind.” That’s literally what the text says.
Now we don’t talk too much about loins in church, that is, unless we’re talking about sirloins, tenderloins, or pork loins. In that case, we love talking about loins. And we most certainly don’t talk about girdles. Spanks, maybe, but not girdles. That’s the image that Peter used, and it was quite common in the first century. The girdle was nothing more than a belt or waistband that was worn around the flowing robes of first century fashion. In order to do any work, in order to fight, in order to move about without any hindrance, you had to take all of that slack and tuck it into your belt. That’s what Peter is saying that we need to do with our minds. We need to “pull our thoughts together,” as it were. Don’t let anything hinder your mind as you put it to work for God.
The apostle Paul would put it this way in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “…take every thought captive to obey Christ…” You’ve got to be prepared (mentally) to run everything that goes into your mind through a sieve. If you’re watching cable news 24/7, if you’re on Facebook 8 hours a day, then it’s no wonder your hope is flat, that your hope is in despair, that your mind is a mess. If you and I want to live a hope-filled life, then we have to engage our minds and make sure that we’re feeding it healthy, biblical, honorable, noble, holy thoughts. What does Paul say in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Why? Because our natural inclination (even as redeemed people) is to feed our minds junk.
The second explanation of what’s involved in hoping fully on the grace of Christ Jesus is to “be sober-minded.” Now, when we hear the word “sober” we automatically think about someone who’s intoxicated, someone who’s drunk, and for sure that’s what this Greek word (néphó; nay’-fo) means. But here’s the interesting thing (at least it’s interesting to me), although this Greek word literally means “not drunk” or “not intoxicated,” it’s never used that way in the Bible. That’s what it means, but the biblical authors always used it figuratively. They always used it to mean “free from illusion,” “free from the intoxicating influences of sin,” “to be self-controlled,” “to have your wits about you,” “to have a clear presence of mind.”
We think sober thoughts, not when we listen to the world, not when we listen to this group over here or that group over there, or when we listen to this broadcast or that commentator, or even when we listen to ourselves, but when we listen to the mind of God. And where do we find the mind of God? In the Bible. Listen, you can find someone somewhere that will tell you what you want to hear. There’s somebody out there whose ideas and reflections and pontifications about this world are just like yours. But, as Christians, we’re supposed to take our cues from the Word of God.
That’s why it’s vitally important to take in a little bit of God’s Word daily. I’m not suggesting entire chapters or even reading the Bible from cover-to-cover, though that’s a great goal and something that will greatly enrich your spiritual life. No, I’m just suggesting 5-10 minutes of God’s Word each day. If you want to live in hope, then allow your minds to be renewed by the Word of God (Romans 12:2).
Live In Holiness
The second thing Peter tells us is to “…be holy in all your conduct…” Now, notice that Peter doesn’t use the definite article. He doesn’t say, “Be holy in the clothes you wear.” He doesn’t say, “Be holy in the language you use.” He doesn’t say, “Be holy in the things you eat.” He doesn’t say that. The definite article isn’t used. He says be holy in all your conduct. You say, “Now, pastor, I’m never going to be holy in every area of life.” Listen, you and I won’t be sinless and perfect on this side of heaven, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for it. Listen, that’s what Satan wants you to give in to. Satan wants you to say to yourself, “Well, I’m not ever going to be perfect, therefore, I’ll just live the way I want to.” No! No wonder you have no hope. Hope comes when we repent of our sin and say, “God, I’m still going to follow in Your direction. I’m still going to move forward by faith.”
In fact, just like hoping fully in the grace of Jesus, Peter gives us some clues and pointers about how we can be holy, despite the fact that we’ll never attain sinless perfection. As I look at verses 14-15, I see 5 steps, 5 things that can help us in our pursuit of holiness. Real quickly, let me give these to you. There all right here in the text.
First, is the call. Verse 15: “As the Holy One who called you.” This is virtually the same as God’s giving new birth back in verse 3, “He caused you to be born again to a living hope.” Listen, if you’ve responded to the call of God and repented of you sin and turned to Jesus Christ in faith, there’s something in that whole process that was initiated by the Holy Spirit.
After the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus concludes by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15). You say, “That’s silly. We all have ears to hear.” Listen, you might be hearing words and comprehending the grammar and the language, but you can still miss the message. That’s what Jesus is saying. It’s almost like He’s speaking in code. In today’s youth and young adult vernacular you’ll sometimes hear somebody say, “If you know, you know.” It’s like, if you have to ask, then you don’t know. Jesus is saying, “If the Holy Spirit has awakened your spirit to the reality of who I am and the truth of My words, then you’ll respond.”
Second, the effect of this call is that we become the children of God. Verse 14 says, “As obedient children…” In the new birth we receive a new nature in the likeness of our Father in heaven. This is why verse 3 says we are born again to a living hope. Nothing is more hopeful than to be in God’s family.
The third step is new sight. This new birth overcomes the spiritual blindness and ignorance we once had, and now we can see what’s truly desirable. We see things radically differently now. Verse 14 continues, “Do not be conformed to your former lusts [desires] which were yours in ignorance.” We’re not blind and ignorant and foolish anymore. We’re not ignorant of God’s infinite worth any more. Now we see the holiness of God as the supreme value in the universe.
The fourth step is new desires. Instead of old desires in ignorance we have new desires in knowledge of the truth. This is what we’re doing when we gird up the loins of our minds in verse 13; we’re using our minds to know truth. And that knowledge is mainly all the reasons for hope that have been laid out so far in chapter 1.
And the fifth step is that we obey. Verse 15, “be holy in all your conduct.”
So, here’s the flow, as I see it. Holiness is born 1.) by God’s call – the new birth, 2.) that leads to a recognition that we have a new family, 3.) which leads to new sight, new knowledge, 4.) which leads to new desires, and finally 5.) a growing experience of holiness in all of life. All of those steps, all of those clues, all of those pieces of the puzzle are there – it seems to me.
Live In Holy Fear
So, live in hope. Live in holiness. Finally, live in holy fear. Look at verse 17, “And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile…” Verses 18, 19, 20 and 21, all feed back into what it means to live in holy fear. Why fear God? Because you were redeemed with something that is infinitely valuable and something that won’t perish. In other words, conduct yourselves in holy fear because Christ paid infinitely to free you from perishing. And the argument continues in verses 20-21. Fear God. Why? Because God raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him glory. Reverence God, be in awe of God, find a holy terror in the One who redeemed you, because it’s Him who resurrected Jesus and glorified Jesus and has established our hope in Jesus.
The kind of holy fear that Peter describes doesn’t destroy our hope, but exists beside it and deepens it and strengthens it, and leads to a wonderful and holy life. John Piper illustrates the holy fear of God with this story from when his children were young. He writes:
“The Tiegens had a huge dog when we went to visit them, and our son Karsten was almost eye to eye with the dog. When I asked Karsten to run back to the car and get something, the dog loped after him with a low growl. Mr. Tiegen called out to Karsten: ‘You better just walk, he doesn’t like it when people run away from him. He’d rather go with you.’
That was a picture of God for me. He is very scary – when you’re running from Him or against Him – putting all your hope and all your desires somewhere else. But if you’ll hope fully in the grace that He gives and the treasure that He is, then He’ll walk with you and be your friend and your protector and your Father, all the way home.”
“Our God and our Father, help us, this week, to prepare our minds and think soberly about the enormous hope that we have in You through the grace given to us in Jesus Christ. May our outlook on life, here on earth, not be so clouded by the bad news we see on TV or social media or the internet that we lost sight of You and Your mercy. Would You, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, cause us to be obedient to the Bible and the call to be holy, recognizing that Your character is being formed in us all the time. For we offer this prayer in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.”