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1 Peter Week 4
Pray Read
1 Peter 1:13-21
v.13 – Peter transitions from the last section of talking about the joy salvation brings us and the grace that God has shown us in the fulfillment of thousands of years of prophecy being fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ to now talking about the difference salvation should bring to the life of one who is born again. He begins in verse 13 by telling us to prepare our minds for action. Some of your Bibles may say “gird up the loins of your mind.” This is a reference to the clothing that the people wore back in Peter’s time. The men would wear ankle long shirts that would restrict their movement. If they had to get any real work done they would lift up their shirts and gird or tie them at their waist so they could prepare themselves to work. To gird up our minds is to prepare our minds by getting anything out of our minds that would interfere with living a holy life. Then peter goes on to tell us to be sober minded. In other words we are to be in complete control of our minds, not letting anything pollute it. When a person is drunk, they don’t have control over themselves, what they say, how they act, or what they think. Peter is warning us not to let anything cloud our minds and get in the way of our hope on the grace of God that we will one day fully realize. Our focus needs to be on Christ, not on anything else in this life. Even in the midst of suffering, we need to have the mind of Christ and think towards our future hope in Him. When you focus on the future fulfillment of grace, it will spur you on to obedience.
v. 14-16 – Peter calls his readers, obedient children in the beginning of verse 14. This is more of an encouragement than anything; he is encouraging his readers to be obedient by not conforming to the passions of our former ignorance. In other words Peter is telling us that once we are born again we cannot live the same way as we did before. Before we are born into the family of God we are dominated by our flesh. We desire things that are contrary to what God has for us. But once we are born again we now have a perfect example to follow. We look to God the author and perfecter of our faith and we see Him as holy so we in turn, should strive to be holy in all that we do. We should be holy for 2 reasons. First because we have been saved and second because God is holy; these two things should spur us on to live a life set apart from this world.
v.17-21 – Peter then tells us that if we are going to call God our father, then we need to understand something. He is God, and He will judge us. One day we will stand before God, and He will judge us, not on our level or our scale, but on His. He will judge us indiscriminately, penetratingly, and absolutely honestly. We should live in such a way that when we stand before our holy and just God,we can be confident. That confidence does not come from anything we do but rather from Christ. And if we truly grasp what it means to be holy, like God is holy, then we will live out our lives as best we can to mirror the way we see Christ live as we read the Word. We should live in fear and reverence, in awe of who God is and this should lead us to live holy. Here is where we need to understand something. Just because there is a history in your life of doing something one way or another, does not mean that it is the right way. Just because your parents got divorced does not mean that is the right way to look at marriage. Just because people around drinks or does drugs, does not mean that it is the right thing to do. Just because all of your friends are having sex, does not mean it is acceptable for you as a Christian to do. We have been saved from those “futile ways” by the payment of Christ’s death on the cross and saved and set apart for a new life by His resurrection. This was God’s plan from the beginning. God’s design for salvation that we are privileged to reap the benefits of. Being a Christian is more than church every now and then. Being born again changes us, having a holy, just God should spur us on to live holy, thinking on what is to come, the culmination of our faith, and living our lives according to Christ, not the flesh.