1 Peter 1:13-14
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
1 Peter 1:13-14
Turn to 1 Peter 1. We’re just going to look at five verses this evening and start a subject that we’ll finish next week. Peter began the letter talking about our “living hope.” It’s a “living” hope because our hope is in a living savior. Jesus died for our sins and then rose from the dead. Peter then immediately turns to how we should live as a result of this hope we have. This instruction can be summed up in one word “holiness.” Peter says that we are to be holy. Of course like most things, it’s a lot said than done.
What can we learn from Peter about living a holy life?
First, Peter says we need to develop a clear head.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.
Peter’s command to develop a clear mind has three parts. The first part is really quite interesting. Peter says we are to have minds that are alert. That translation is not very accurate. The KJV is the more accurate translation and a lot more graphic. The KJV says:
1 Peter 1:13a (KJV) Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. . . .
Actually, I didn’t know my mind had any loins and I’m not exactly sure how to gird them up. As confusing as that may be, it is the most accurate translation. It’s also a phrase used often in the Bible though it’s only found here in the New Testament. As everyone knows, they didn’t wear pants in Bible times, but a long robe that reached down to the ankles. This kind of long clothing was not conducive to quick motions or strenuous work. As a result, when such actions were needed a man would need to gird up his loins. The website “Art of Manliness” gives a six step process for girding up your loins.
1. The tunic wouldn’t allow you to do heavy labor or fight in battle, necessitating the “girding” of one’s loins.
2. First, hoist the tunic up so that all the Fabric is above your knees. This will give you mobility.
3. Gather all the extra material in front of you, so that the back of the tunic is snug against your backside.
4. Once the excess fabric is gathered in front, pull it underneath and between your legs to your rear. This feels much like a diaper.
5. Gather half of the material in each hand, bringing it back around to the front.
6. Finally, tie your two handfuls of material together, and you’re all set for both battle and some hard labor. Go forth, be ye men, and gird up your loins.
By girding up his loins, a man – I guess a woman could have done it too – was preparing himself for action. Thus the NASB translates the phrase saying:
1 Peter 1:13a (NASB) Therefore, prepare your minds for action. . . .
Notice then that holiness doesn’t start with our body but with our minds. Surely that is why Paul wrote to the Romans saying:
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Holy living begins with holy thinking. Therefore, we’ve got to start with a clear head. We need to prepare our minds for action.
The second part it to be fully sober. Peter is not talking about not being drunk with alcohol, but that is an illustration of what not to be. We can get an idea of what Peter is saying by imagining someone who is drunk. Someone who is drunk has no control of their body. They might stager about, say foolish, or not remember the next day what they’d done the night before.
There was a man who went out one night and got drunk. When he came home his face was covered with bumps and scratches because he had gotten into a fight. He knew that if he went to bed like that he would surly get in trouble with his wife. So he snuck into the bathroom, staggered around for a while, found the bandages and fixed himself up. He went to bed smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. When morning came, he opened his eyes to find his wife standing over him. “You were drunk last night weren’t you?” “No honey. No way. I wasn’t” “Well,” she replied, “If you weren’t, then who put band-aids all over the bathroom mirror.”
If that’s what not being sober looks like we are to be the opposite. We are to be in control of ourselves and more specifically of our minds.
Third, we’re to “set our hope.” Because we have a living hope we are to be living in a future tense. That means that our present decisions and actions are to be governed by our convictions concerning our future with Jesus.
Monday the Town of Unicoi Police Department put up this Facebook post:
Expecting: Zero (0) to 85 inches of snow.
Starting: Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday maybe, but probably not happening at all.
Recommendations: Stock up on all necessities immediately and prepare for a snowpocalypse or a beautiful week, either one is possible.
They were right. We got between zero and eighty-five inches of snow. What would you do if you were certain we are going to receive a foot of snow this weekend? You’d stock up on everything you thought you might need for a few days. With a foot of snow it might be a couple of days before you could get to the store. Your conviction about the coming snow would dictate your actions today.
We have a living hope. We have a confidence that one day we will be with Jesus. As a result, that conviction should guide our actions today. Just as all those people heading to Wal-Mart every time there’s a prediction of snow, we should be living with the expectation of what will take place when Jesus returns. Preparing and disciplining of our minds will help us to focus on our blessed future. As Paul wrote to the Colossians:
Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Living holy lives begins with the proper clearing of our heads. As one person put it, “we’ve got to roll up the shirt-sleeves of our minds. We’ve got to discipline our minds and focus on things above. So let’s keep our minds alert, fully sober, and focused on Christ’s return. Our living hope will result in a commitment to purity and holiness.
Second, develop a clean life.
1 Peter 1:14-16 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Have you ever thought about how easy it is to live for Jesus, to pray, to read the Bible, to treat others as God wants us to treat them, and to live a holy life . . . when you’re in church? But it becomes much more difficult once we leave the building. Why is it so much easier to live for Jesus when we are at church than when we walk out the doors? Jeffery Anselmi writes:
The world around us is not too pure. One of the most difficult things for the Christian can be trying to stay pure. I believe this gets more difficult as time passes because of the way society is today. Each year, television, movies, and commercials are putting images into our heads that we do not need. The internet is traffics a lot of stuff that can cause us problems. Our society is becoming increasingly more permissive in what it considers “decent.” We are introducing things to children at younger ages what they are not ready to have to deal with. God has called us to be different. He has called us to live our life as one who belongs to Jesus.
The apostle John wrote:
1 John 3:2-3 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Like John, Peter reminds us that we are children, children of God. John wrote in the introduction to his gospel:
John 1:12-13 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Because of our faith in Jesus we are now a part of God’s family. We are his sons and daughters. We are his children. Peter adds an additional qualifier though. We are to be “obedient children.” If we are children of God, then we will want to be obedient children. I think we understand what it means to obey. We are to do what God calls us to do. Developing a clean life begins with obedience.
Turn to 1 Samuel 15. I’m reminded of the Saul and his disobedience to God. Through his prophet Samuel, God instructed Saul to attack the Amalekites. The Amalekites were the descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau and great-grandson of Abraham. That made them distant cousins to the Israelites. The Israelites first met the Amalekites on their way from Egypt to Mount Sinai. Unprovoked, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites and were defeated when Moses went up on the hillside and held up his hands to God. When the Amalekites had been defeated God had told Moses that one day the Israelites would completely wipe out the Amalekites because of the way they treated them. That day came when Saul was king.
1 Samuel 15:1-3 1 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
What was Saul to allow to live? Nothing. He was to direct his army to kill everyone and everything. If you remember this story you’ll remember that’s not what he did though. After the battle was over Samuel returned to see how it had gone and he was not very happy.
1 Samuel 15:13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”
Saul declared that he had completely obeyed God’s command.
1 Samuel 15:14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
If Saul had indeed completely obeyed God, he would have killed all of their animals. But Samuel could clearly hear some animals. That meant that Saul had not obeyed.
1 Samuel 15:15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”
Saul says they killed all but the best of the sheep and cattle so they could offer them as a sacrifice to God. Incidentally, that’s not what we’re told happened earlier in the story. In verse 9 says they were unwilling to destroy the good ones. The weak and ugly ones they killed, but it sounds like they planned to keep the good animals. The reason Saul allowed it to happen is because he was afraid of his men. He was afraid of what they’d think of him if he commanded them to kill the animals. Maybe he was afraid they wouldn’t obey. Saul admits to his fear later. He was more afraid of them than he was of God. Then, to cover for it, Saul says they planned on offering them to God as a sacrifice. In other words, they disobeyed God in order to make God happy. It just doesn’t make much sense and it didn’t make sense to Samuel either. Saul continued to defend his disobedience, but Samuel wouldn’t have it.
1 Samuel 15:22 But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
If we want to make God happy the way to do it is through obedience. We’re to do what God tells us to do. Then, if we’re not sure what God thinks about disobedience Samuel says:
1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
Divination is the practice of trying to tell the future. God said those who practiced it were to be cast out. That’s how seriously God took the practice. And here it is compared to disobedience. Saul disobeyed and then started making excuses for his disobedience.
As children of God we are to obey. Children who love their parents want to please them, and if their parents are worthy of respect, then they want to be like their parents. So it is with the children of God. Saul’s problem is he feared his men more than he feared God. As a result, he gave in to their desires and disobeyed God. Holy living must be obedient to God’s commands.
Next, Peter says we are to stop giving in to the desires of the flesh. We must not be conformed to our former, evil desires. As children of God we have a new pattern of life to follow. We read in 2 Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
The old things that pass away include the old patterns of life. They must be replaced with the new patterns that Jesus has shown us.
I’ve never gone on a diet and I don’t know a whole lot about them. What I do know is if you lose weight on a diet and you want to keep that weight off you’ve got to stay on the diet. The problem is so many people go on a diet adopting some new eating patterns, lose some weight, and then go back to their old eating patterns. Before long they’ve gained back everything they’d lost. When they go back to the old ways they experience the same old results. The way to keep off the weight is the same way you lost it. You have to replace the old eating patterns with some new ones.
Peter illustrates this point in his second letter.
2 Peter 2:20-22 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
We will have the same problems with sin if we do not establish new patterns of life. If we go back to the same things we have done before Jesus we will get the same results we were getting. The patterns of life we were following were out of ignorance.
So many people today don’t even realize that sin is sin. We live in a time when there is much confusion about what is right. Paul said that right and wrong should be clear. He told the Galatians:
Galatians 5:12-21 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul says these sins should be obvious, but for some reason they aren’t. What is wrong is now considered right, and what is right is considered wrong. With God’s help we must eliminate everything that is worldly and sinful. Peter says that we must live lives that are holy.
Actually, it’s not Peter that calls us to live holy lives, but God. Peter was just quoting what God had already said to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
Leviticus 11:44-45 44 I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45 I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
So Peter’s call to holiness is not something new, but was a command often echoed in the Old Testament.
What does it mean to be holy? Certainly it doesn’t mean being sinless. We will never be sinless in this world, but we can be holy.
In 1 Samuel 2, Hannah declared:
1 Samuel 2:2 There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
Hannah was saying that God is holy because there is no one like him. When God calls us to be holy he telling us not to be like everyone else. Instead, we are to strive to be like him. As we will grow in our salvation we develop a commitment to live a clean life – to be holy, like God our Father is holy.
Role models are important to us. We seek out role models, people to emulate, especially when we’re young. Often children what to be like their parents. As we grow we see other people to copy. Often we start comparing ourselves to other people to gage how we are doing. And too many times we look to the wrong people and places for our examples. God says that we are to look to him as our example. We are to be like him.
Two college students went on their first and last date. The young woman was raised in a Christian home where she was raised with strict morals. Her date was not. Throughout the evening, the young man kept hounding her to do things she knew were wrong and contrary to her Christian upbringing. Frustrated, the young man lamented, “What is wrong with you. No one will see you. Who is it going to hurt?” His date responded, “I’m thinking of my father.” The boy asked, “Are you afraid he will hurt you?” “No, responded the young woman, I am afraid I will hurt him.”
Peter says that because of our living hope we should develop a clear head and a clean life that we might live holy lives for God.