Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”[1]

God calls His people to be holy.

Holiness is a concept that has become blurred at best in our modern world.

The call for holiness has become rare among our churches; in part, this is true because the concept has become a caricature.

Nevertheless, God does call His people to be holy.

Holiness demands discrimination.

The word “discrimination” has assumed an unenviable, even an undesirable, connotation in modern usage.

Though discrimination has become a dirty word in this enlightened day, God discriminates.

The wicked are rejected and those who receive His Son as Lord are saved.

Similarly, those who will please God must be discriminating in their attitudes and actions.

Related to discrimination is the concept of distinction; in fact, holiness may be defined through thinking of distinction.

Let me explain what I mean by inviting you to turn to the Word of God.

Peter’s admonition to Christians identified as belonging to the Diaspora contains the instruction that serves as our text for this study.

Preparation for Godly Living — If as Christians we will fulfil Peter’s instructions, we must prepare our minds for action and we must be sober-minded.

There is not a great deal in these instructions that we are liable to misunderstand, but we must acknowledge the tendency to filter what has been written through the lens of our own cultural bias.

Therefore, I urge you to take a moment to consider the implications of Peter’s words.

Certainly, we want to be clear in our thinking and we do want to understand the will of God in this matter of living in anticipation of the return of our Lord Christ, and especially as we anticipate the grace that will be brought to us at His return.

First, Peter assumes that the child of God will prepare his or her mind for action.

The participial phrase Peter used literally reads, “girding up the loins of your minds.”

His choice of words is descriptive, speaking of an ongoing action.

People in that day did not wear pants, but rather both men and women wore tunics and~/or robes.

When preparing for battle or for work, the robes would be gathered up and bound around the loins so they would not hinder movement.

Therefore, Peter is urging Christians to be always prepared for action; and in particular, the mind is to be readied for action.

The emphasis of much of contemporary preaching is for Christians to prepare the heart; however, Peter calls for preparation of the mind for action.

It is the mind, and not the emotions, that is to be prepared for action.

It is practical intellect, and not how one feels about issues and events, that Peter has in focus.

All of our rational powers, all of our reflexive abilities, are to be brought under conscious control so we can live in anticipation of the full grace of Christ at His revelation.

We are also to be sober-minded, or self-disciplined.

Peter calls for calm, steady thinking that evaluates matters correctly and that is not quickly swayed by the latest philosophical fad.

Though modern preaching depreciates the idea of abstinence, substituting instead the concept of moderation, Christians are to be alert, not permitting anything to dull their minds so that they can think clearly on every occasion.

Christ is coming again!

This is the blessed hope of the Christian [see *Titus 2:13*].

Disciplined thinking and active preparation are required to make the hope reality, however.

The modern world anesthetises us through entertainment and with a lifestyle that is so busy that we are unable to think, much less meditate.

We are indoctrinated constantly through news media and we too frequently lack the courage to resist the ridicule of the wicked.

So, we are at last lulled into adopting a laissez faire attitude toward wickedness.

Consequently, we lose sight of Christ’s return and concentrate only on fulfilling our immediate, earthly desires.

Christians no longer live in the light of Christ’s return.

I confess that I am painting with a broad brush and there are courageous exceptions, but I nevertheless observe a general retreat from godliness and from holiness.

John urged us to live holy lives when he wrote, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming…  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure [*1 John 2:28; 3:2, 3*].

Honestly, when did you last think of Christ’s return?

When did you last pause to consider the impact of what you were doing on your relationship with the coming Lord?

When did you last watch a sitcom critically, asking what was being taught through the ribald humour and through the biting sarcasm that verbally destroyed some hapless soul?

We are at first disgusted when gratuitous sexual activity is portrayed in movies and on television.

With time and repeated viewing, we become inured to the display of immorality.

However, there is an even more insidious and detrimental effect on goodness and righteousness in these presentations since such activity seldom shows the negative consequence of such action.

Thus, we become cynical and we soon begin to dismiss the coming reign of Christ, believing there is no consequence for evil.

Soon, we fall into moral anarchy and begin to live as though all life centred on ourselves.

I have lived long enough to at last qualify as a curmudgeon, and because of my age, I recall a day when evil did not triumph in the movies.

The good guys always wore white hats, and they always caught the bad guys.

The bad guys were always held to account as they were delivered over to civil authorities and justice was effectively meted out.

I’m really not certain when the transition began, but an attitude of vengeance and vigilantism seems to have become fashionable and now prevails.

In movies, evil people are no longer turned over to civil authorities for justice, but instead they are simply killed.

What I find especially disturbing about this trend is the subtle attitude that continues to grow in our subconscious mind that there is no justice in the world, that we must somehow take matters into our own hands.

Tragically, we Christians are equally susceptible to adopt this attitude as are those of the world, and we begin to “take control” of the church, “take control” of our relationships, “take control” of our lives.

We do this, despite knowing that we are to seek the will of God in congregational life, knowing that we are to accept one another in Christ and to encourage one another toward godliness, and knowing that our times are in God’s hands.

Neither am I alone in observing a grievous degeneration of language in contemporary culture.

Crude language and insensitivity to personal dignity increasingly mark contemporary speech.

Perhaps such uncouth language is inevitable given the quality of “entertainment” that influences the minds of both youth and adults.

Throughout society, I observe a growing tolerance of attitudes that were once intolerable.

We have become a generation that no longer wishes to be thought extreme in goodness, and so we remain silent as evil grows bolder.

Though often offended, we will speak quietly among ourselves, but we no longer openly insist upon righteousness.

I am always astonished that Christians appeal to the courts for redress concerning the loss of religious freedom or that Christians petition Parliament for restoration of righteousness, and yet they resist being a holy people that make the doctrine of Christ attractive [see *Titus 2:10*].

I marvel at the number of decent people that will attend a noisy march or participate in a large rally, but who fail to speak to their neighbours concerning the hope that Christ has given to us as Christians.

Even when we are temperate in language and kindly in actions, too often we choose the elements of this dying world as of greater value than service to God.

We will make any sacrifice if only our children are advantaged, forgetting that godliness with contentment is a great gain [*1 Timothy 6:6*].[2]

Are we teaching our children to be holy, or is a successful career of greater importance in our estimate?

Do our children witness us making the effort to be holy, or is their social development of greater importance?

If we will be pleasing to God, this congregation must be marked with a radical righteousness.

I am not suggesting you become nut cases, but on the authority of God’s Word, I do expect the people of this congregation to be a holy people as befitting the Name by which we are called.

The distinctive nature of God’s holiness as expressed throughout creation will occupy the remainder of our time in this message.

Warnings Against Godless Living — Christians are repeatedly cautioned against being co-opted by the world about them.

Some attitudes are characteristic of the world, and all such attitudes are in opposition to righteousness and are antithetical to holiness.

Peter warns Christians, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

Certainly, we can think of attitudes that mark the world about us and which are opposed to godliness.

If we have difficulty recognising what Peter is warning against, we need but turn to *1 Peter 4:1-3*.

Arm yourselves with [Christ’s] way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Paul, likewise, cautions against sexual immorality, which obviates sanctification.

In *1 Thessalonians 4:3-8*, we read a strong indictment of modern sexual attitudes.

This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Approval of or participation in sexual immorality is an expression of ungodliness.

We are so inundated with sexual themes that we no longer recognise the impact immorality has on our lives.

We are perhaps at first repelled by the blatant nature of this immorality, then as time passes we become inured to the presence of the wickedness, and at last we find ourselves approving of the very things that once appalled us.

Music seems profoundly preoccupied with sexual themes.

Rap music is almost totally concerned with themes that can only be described as misogynist, hateful and utterly focused on sexual gratification.

Rock is likewise increasingly ribald and crude.

Country music is too often focused on cheatin’, being cheated on and drinkin’.

The music we choose does have an impact on our worldview.

The movies Hollywood produces and promotes are almost utterly dependent upon crude language, sexually explicit situations and gratuitous violence.

This is in spite of the fact that movies espousing family values are a virtual certainty to generate money.

Unfortunately, when we support “family friendly” movies, we are underwriting “family destructive” movies.

The same Walt Disney Studios that team with Pixar Studios to make G-rated titles also owns Miramax Studios that produces R-rated movies.

Television has become an even more arid wasteland than it once was.

Contemporary programming is so utterly occupied with promoting deviancy as normal that few of us are even aware that we are being amused into accepting unholy attitudes.

Sitcoms writers seem preoccupied with scatological humour and bodily functions performed below the waist, and “action” shows increasingly focus on the bizarre and violent.