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Reading 1 Peter 1:13-21 and talking about how we need to be set apart as children of God, not acting like the rest of the world. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
To be holy means to be set apart. And we as the children of God are called to live lives of holiness, set apart, not acting like the rest of this world, but as citizens of the Kingdom of God when we understand the text.
You are listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. First Peter chapter one, we'll begin in verse 13 again today. Read through about verse 21 and then pick up where we left off yesterday. First Peter chapter one, starting in verse 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. 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. 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, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, 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.
Let's come back to verse 13 here, where Peter says, therefore, preparing your minds for action. And we talked about this yesterday, girding up the loins of your mind is literally how that reads. But the ESV translators put it in words that were a little bit easier to understand.
That's a phrase that we don't use anymore. Girding up your loins. What does girding up your loins mean? If you look this up online, you will probably find an image of a man that is dressed in a robe. And then when he girds up his loins, he kind of ties that robe up, frees the flowing garments from hindering his running and his arms.
And then he is dressed more appropriately for combat. He's able to swing a sword or charge into battle and not be tripped up by his flowing garment. So that's what it means to gird up your loins. Prepare yourself for action.
Prepare yourself for battle. So that this would be put into terms that we can better understand. The translators of the English Standard Version have put this in this phrase, preparing your mind for action.
But you still have the footnote in there that tells you exactly how this is supposed to be read literally. But this is the term. This is how we're supposed to understand it. Preparing your minds for action.
And what does it mean to prepare the mind for action? It means that we need to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us, but to do this with gentleness and respect. As Peter will say in 1 Peter 3 .15, Paul does say, Romans 12 .2, do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
This renewing of the mind means that we are daily, regularly submitting our thoughts to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10 .5, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. This few verses here that Peter has, 1 Peter 1 .13 -14 is kind of the reverse order of Romans 12 .1 -2.
Paul says to submit your bodies as living sacrifices unto the Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. And so Peter is saying here, prepare your minds for action.
So like the latter part of Romans 12 .2, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, so you also be holy in all your conduct. So 1 Peter 1 .13 -14 is like Romans 12 .1 -2, just said in a reverse order.
Same concept given in those pairs of verses by Paul in Romans 12, by Peter in 1 Peter 1. We need to have minds that are prepared for action. We need to have minds that are so conditioned with the gospel of Jesus Christ that what we think about when we interact with this world is the word of God.
The word of God comes into our minds, that we have meditated on the scriptures so much that we are looking at all this world through a worldview, Christian lens, that the word of God is ever before us.
We are not as easily tempted by the things of this world because our minds are filled with the word of God. We don't long for the things of this world. We long for the things of God because it is his word that has been stored up in our hearts.
His word is the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. And so this is what it means to prepare our minds for action. We need to be daily in the word. We need to be disciplined in the word of God so that we know how to answer each person, so that we know how to resist each temptation and instead have a mind that is filled with God's word.
Third, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, no longer chasing after the things of the flesh, no longer living in our old ways, but we are brand new in Christ.
I come back to Colossians chapter three here, where the apostle Paul says, put to death therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry, placing things in our lives above the place that God is supposed to have.
On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth, all of these things are fleshly.
All of these things are responses of the flesh. The reason why we swear about our circumstances, we get angry, we curse our situation or other people is because things are not going our way because we feel out of control because we don't see and do not trust how God is using all circumstances to shape us more in the image of Christ.
So instead we'll cuss about our situation or we'll get mad at this thing, that or the other, because that's the fleshly response. That's the response of the flesh. But we must put all of that away. We're not living in that way anymore.
We are in Christ Jesus. And so we should not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, being shaped more and more in the image of Christ as we talked about.
So this is the former ignorant stuff. We're not supposed to be there anymore. We're not supposed to be living in the passions of the flesh or responding according to our flesh. We instead need to put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, holy.
Once again, Paul saying here, holy, just as Peter is saying, be holy as your heavenly father is holy as holy and beloved chosen ones. We must have compassionate hearts. We must be kind. We must have humility and meekness and patience bearing with one another.
And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, not holding a grudge, not keeping one another's sins against each other, not keeping a list and checking it twice. But instead we are forgiving.
We are displaying grace, the same grace that God shows to us and does not hold our sins against us. As it says in Psalm 103, takes our sins and throws them as far as the East is from the West and he remembers them no more.
So why should we be tallying up one another's sins against each other if God is not doing that to us? We instead need to show grace and forgiveness. Above all these, Paul says, Colossians 3, 14, above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful, be filled with thanksgiving, being thankful for the things that God has given you.
And then you're not short to react and respond angrily when things are not going your way. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, once again, preparing your minds for action.
So the word of Christ dwells. Our minds are prepared. We know how to respond to the world, to worldliness, to temptation, to those who oppose us because we have the word of God stored up in our hearts.
Our minds are prepared for action. So Peter calls to us again, and we come back to first Peter chapter one, be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. A reference back to Leviticus 11, 44 through 45, which we talked about yesterday.
What does it mean to be holy? Well, the word literally means to be set apart. And there is no one who is more set apart than God. God is so set apart from us that we cannot even compare. We cannot even come into his presence unless he has conditioned us to be in his presence, which he has done through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Because of Christ shed blood on the cross for our sins, and we have been imputed his righteousness, we have now been made in such a way that we can come into the presence of God, that we can pray to God and our prayers are heard by God because we have been made in Christ to be received by God.
When he looks at us, he does not see our sin, but he sees the holiness and the righteousness of Christ. You worship God because you have been made to worship God before the Holy Spirit came into your life.
You could not worshiping, you could not worship God and you were not even seeking after God to worship him. You have been made in Christ to worship God. This is a holiness that we pursue with our whole hearts.
We will never attain until we die in these fleshly bodies and we go to be with him in glory. We never come to the end of this sanctification until we die. So you are continually pursuing sanctification, being shaped and made holy in Christ Jesus.
Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. The apostle Paul, the way that he put this with the Philippians in Philippians chapter three, not that I am already perfect, but I seek to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.
We have not attained perfection and we will not as long as we walk this earth, but we seek it. We seek after it. We desire to be perfect, to be perfected, to be holy because Christ is holy and because he has died for our sins so that we might be holy with him.
So if being holy means to be set apart and there is no one more set apart than God, then what does it mean for us to be holy? How do we be set apart? And again, coming back to Romans 12, do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world.
Peter, preparing your minds for action, being sober minded, setting your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not looking to the things of this world, but instead looking to the things of God.
That is the pursuit of holiness that we are to have. We're not to look like the world. This is Peter addressing the saints as exiles. We are journeymen in this world. We're nomads. We are not settled here.
This world is not our home. We're just a passing through as the old spiritual goes. And so we don't act or look like the rest of the world. We are holy and we are set apart. We are not entertained by the same things that the world is entertained by.
We don't speak the way that they speak. We don't use the same words that they use. We don't behave in such a way as they behave. We don't complain like the rest of the world complains. We're thankful and we rejoice in all circumstances when the way of our culture is to complain about everything, to head to the streets and riot when you don't like the president that got elected.
It wasn't your president. So hey, you can say that's not my president. I choose this president. On and on it goes. I mean, all the ridiculous things that this world does in the way that they behave. We don't act like them.
We are thankful for all circumstances. We are at peace with a peace that surpasses all understanding which has been given to us in Christ Jesus. This is what it means to be holy, to be set apart, being shaped in the image of Christ who is holy.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world. Do not continue to live in the ways of your former ignorance. You are not that person anymore. The old self is gone. The new has come. We are in pursuit of the holiness of God.
You be holy as God is holy. Verse 17. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds. First of all, let's just consider how wonderful it is to be able to call on God as father.
Remember, verse 14, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. So as obedient children, we call on God as father and we're able to call on him as father because we have been adopted through Jesus Christ into the family of God.
We have John saying to us, 1 John 3 verse 1, see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called the children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
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.
That's 1 John 3 verses 1 through 3. Sounds very similar to what we're reading here, right? So 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.
Now we're where Peter says that we call on God as father. It's a loving, endearing term, and yet we see him being spoken about here as a judge who judges impartially according to each one's deeds. So we call on him as father, but he's not our judge, right?
Because in Christ we have been forgiven our sins. We are spared the wrath of God. We're no longer under the judgment of God, correct? No, God is still our judge. He is our father. He is also our judge.
God is judging us even now. We read about this in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12. Hang on, my pages are sticking together trying to get there. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 4. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure.
God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and are not sons.
So in other words, it's because God loves us that he disciplines us. He is our judge and so he disciplines his children. As we are not perfect, as we have not yet been glorified or received our glorified bodies yet, and so he judges each one impartially according to each one's deeds.
So God does still judge us and we still must be in fear of that judgment. When you were a child and you were being disciplined by your parents, didn't you feel, I'm sorry, didn't you fear your parents' judgment so you didn't do wrong?
You would abstain from doing something wrong because you did not want to incur the punishment that your parents were going to hand down to you if you were disobedient. And so it's the same way with God.
We fear the judgment of God and so we do not do the things that would incur his judgment if we were to behave disobediently. Now you might be saying, but hang on, hang on. We're in the perfect love of Christ and it says in 1 John 4, 18, although you probably didn't know the reference, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
Well, let me read the whole verse to you. 1 John 4, 18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. So this is a kind of fear that we experience after we have done wrong, not the kind of fear that we should have in holy reverence that would keep us from doing wrong.
Make sense? So those of you who are married in your marriages, there is a certain kind of fear where you are afraid of letting your spouse down or hurting their feelings or breaking their heart. And that kind of fear keeps you on the straight and narrow doing the things that instead enliven their hearts are sacrificial and loving because we don't want to break our spouse's heart.
We don't want to hurt this person that we love. And so this is the same way with God. Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. This time that we are strangers in this world as we exist in these fleshly bodies, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
And when we understand the blood of Christ as being something precious, something that cannot be bought, but was given for us, then it's in that reverence drives us all the more to worship God because of this love that he has given to us.
As we read in First Corinthians chapter six, your body is not your own. You were bought with a price. So honor God with your body. The apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, very same thing we've been talking about here today, submitting ourselves as living sacrifices unto the Lord.
And this is your spiritual act of worship as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto God, because we have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, that lamb who is without blemish or spot. It required the death of the son of God to pay for the sins that we had committed against the high king of heaven.
What a great sacrifice was needed for us to be able to have right standing with God. And so therefore, because of a great sacrifice, let us worship our great God who loves us and gave himself up for us, redeeming us from all lawlessness and has purified for himself a people who are zealous for good works.
So let us work for our Lord God, because he has been faithful to us. Our great God, as we wrap these things up, help us to understand more what it means to live lives of holiness, to not be like the rest of the world, but to be set apart, to be shaped in the image of Christ.
And may we behave in such a way that we truly show ourselves to be exiles. People will recognize that there is something different about them that's not like the way everybody else in the world lives, because this world is not our home.
We are looking forward to that future heavenly kingdom that will be ours if we endure in Christ Jesus the Lord.
It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com, and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.