Do This Because
Notes
Transcript
Scot McKnight says, “Theology prompts ethics. That is, beliefs about God and experiences with God undergird beliefs about what is right and wrong.”
“Theology prompts ethics.” What we do follows what we believe, or at least that’s how it should work.
I realize that doesn’t always happen; it doesn’t always happen in my life, as much as I’d like to say it does.
What we believe should have an impact on what we do.
Starting in 1 Peter 1:13, Peter launches into a bit of what we should do because of what he’s written in the prior verses.
In light of the salvation his readers have experienced from God through the person of Jesus Christ, in light of the living hope that is ours and the assured inheritance that is kept in heaven for us—in light of all this, writes Peter, you ought to be different in how you live.
The theme of this passage is the difference salvation brings to the life of the Christian.
There are four imperatives in our text for today. We’ll think of them as four to-dos, but we have to be careful.
This is not a religious to-do list in the sense that if you check all these off, you get some extra-special reward or another level of salvation.
These to-dos are motivated by what Jesus has done for us; in gratitude to Him and with a desire to please Him, we, His people, do these things.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Peter. Keep your Bible open in front of you this morning as we read these verses a few at a time.
To start, we’re going to read just verse 13:
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.
Set Your Hope (because of this salvation)
Set Your Hope (because of this salvation)
There are a couple of images here that help make sense of the main verb. The main verb translated for us as set your hope.
The sentence can be translated from the Greek like this: “Therefore, girding up the loins of your mind, being completely sober, set your hope.”
With minds that are alert is the way the NIV decided to translate “girding up the loins of your mind” because “girding up ones loins” is not a phrase that gets much traction today.
It’s like kids today saying things that make no sense. For instance, if something tastes really good, they say, “That slaps.” Or if they like the look of a car, they’ll say, “That’s tough,” or “That’s clean.”
This afternoon at the McGennis BBQ and Auction, I’ll hear no less than five times that there’s a car in the car show that’s “clean” or “tough” and I’ll have no real idea what they’re saying.
When, in reference to lunch, the kids say Thad’s BBQ “slaps” I’ll respond by saying it’s “fire” which apparently is another compliment.
All these phrases are just ridiculous.
“Girding up ones loins” is not a well-known phrase, but it provides a pretty good picture.
In the ANE and still today in some Middle Eastern countries, men would wear a long outer garment that drapes down to the ankles. This, as you can imagine, prevents moving anywhere very quickly. So, when running was a necessity, a man would tuck that outer garment into his belt, girding his loins for action.
In Exodus, on the night of the Passover, the LORD gave His people instructions about how they should eat the meal so they’d be ready to go:
Exodus 12:11 “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.”
In other words, they were to “gird up their loins” so they’d be ready to get the heck out of Dodge when it was time.
To gird up your loins is to ready yourself for action. Here, Peter applies the metaphor to mental behavior. He says with minds that are alert, that is “prepare your minds for action.”
“Roll up the sleeves of your mind,” or “take off your warm-ups and get ready to play.”
In the context of setting your hope, this preparation of mind involves a lot. But for one, it means realizing this world is temporary and preparing for the coming of Jesus.
Keep a loose grip on this world, and put your hope in the world to come. Ready your mind for what’s around the bend.
Peter uses another image here with the phrase fully sober.
What’s the opposite of sober? Drunkenness. Drunks have no control over themselves or their body.
So Peter picks up on this idea metaphorically. “Don’t let your mind be drunk and out of control; rather be fully sober and set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming.”
People who look into the future and want to live completely in light of God’s will do not want their eyes blurred by sin or other distractions.
Christians must be ready to set their hope on the grace of Jesus. Living for the future is fundamental for Peter. If fellowship in the family of God and our experience of Jesus’ love are good now, something even better awaits us in the future when Jesus is revealed at His coming.
This is what we set our hope on—minds girded up (alert), fully sober (not drunk, but focused). We set our hope on our final salvation/deliverance, the grace to be brought to us when Jesus Christ returns.
Set your hope on Him.
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.”
Be Holy (because of who you are and who God is)
Be Holy (because of who you are and who God is)
The obedience mentioned at very beginning of Peter’s letter (v.2) is the response believers make to the gospel; it’s clearly an expression of conversion.
Before Peter gets to the exhortation of holiness, Peter urges his readers not to be conformed to their former passions. These passions are what dominated their lives before they became part of God’s family.
Since they are now obedient children (this is who they are), they are to be holy, just as God is holy.
What Peter has in mind here is the similarity children are to have to their parents, at least in some ways.
Each of us reflect parts of who our parents are, for better or worse. All children are the product of their parents, genetically and behaviorally.
This glorious bald head is all thanks to my Dad and every Case man in the last 17 generations. My mom’s side of the family has genetically passed on to me a disposition toward diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and dementia, and every other box you can check on that clipboard the doctor has you fill out.
My parents also taught me manners and respect. I reflect my parents in a number of ways; it’s a natural occurence.
At the volleyball game the other night, someone said, “This is going to sound strange, but you and Makai have the same toes.”
“Why’s that strange? He’s my son!”
Our toes, of course, aren’t a genetic trait. But his tendency of picking up behind Meghann is something I’ve regretfully passed on to him (sorry, love).
Children are to be like their parents, similar to their parents in a least some ways. So it is with us as God’s children. We are to reflect Him.
But God is unlike us. He’s altogether holy. Utterly holy. Entirely set apart.
And yet, the Holy God drew Israel into a special relationship with Himself and expected His people to reflect His nature, including His holiness.
Those who lived according to God’s commandments and God’s will were considered holy because they were doing what God had asked.
Christians should be holy, both because they have been converted (they are now, in Christ, obedient children), and because they are children of a God who is Himself Holy.
The exhortation to holiness, the to-do of holiness is prefaced with a description of God has holy (He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do). This is the proper order. This is how this works.
No one would say our holiness makes God holy; that’s absurd. It’s His holiness that is the model and the means of our holiness.
There is not an ounce of holiness found in any person apart from the work of God in drawing us to and making us like Him.
Practically, we are not holy (I don’t think this is news to anyone; if it is, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I love you enough to tell you: you, on your own, are the opposite of holy and there’s nothing you can do, on your own, to make yourself holy).
Practically, we are not holy. We all sin. We all screw-up 10 ways from Sunday. Practically, we are not holy.
Positionally, though, we are holy in Christ. If you belong to God, by faith in Jesus, your position is one of holiness—not your own holiness, but Jesus’ holiness.
Through His death on the cross, Jesus’ holiness, Jesus’ righteousness, Jesus’ perfection was transferred to our account. Imputed to those who were given faith to believe. Everything of Jesus was credited to us.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
That is how we can be holy as [He] is Holy.
We are commanded to “be holy.” Because of Christ we are. Because of Christ we can be.
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Fear God (because of your relationship and redemption)
Fear God (because of your relationship and redemption)
Notice the rationale: Since you call on a Father…live…in reverent fear…for you know…that you were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ.
Since believers call on God the Father who “judges indiscriminately, penetratingly, and absolutely honestly, then they had better live in [reverent] fear of this God, for He is altogether holy and will judge justly” (McKnight).
The God of the Bible is the judge of all, and He is, as Peter writes later in this letter, 1 Peter 4:5 “ready to judge the living and the dead.”
Knowing that God is judge and that He judges with equity drives us to live in a healthy, reverent fear and awe of Him.
This fear isn’t dread or anxiety; this fear is the healthy response of a human being before an altogether different kind of being—God.
This fear is a sign of spiritual health and and right understanding of our relationship with Him.
We call God “Father”, as Jesus taught us, but our familiarity with Him doesn’t mean we can dismiss Him or demean Him.
God is not the doofus dad on the TV show that everyone makes fun of and then promptly ignores. God is our Father, yes, and that’s a wonderful blessing and immeasurable privilege.
But remember: He is HOLY and OTHER and HIGHER than us.
We fear Him because of our relationship with Him: we are His obedient children; He is Holy and Just.
We also fear Him because of the nature of our redemption (vv. 18-21).
Peter starts by reminding his readers what didn’t redeem them. It wasn’t the empty way of life handed down by their ancestors, that is, the empty tradition and works of religiosity.
A new way, rooted in Jesus, is what they needed.
Reverent fear and awe is the obvious reaction of those who have been redeemed—purchased with a price, the blood of Jesus.
Mankind has sinned. One moral offense after the other. We are, in fact slaves to sin, all of us on our own under the power of sin.
What Jesus—the perfect, spotless Son of God, a lamb without blemish or defect, the One chosen before the creation of the world—what Jesus accomplished by His precious blood was to purchase us from the slave market of sin, never to return again.
Christians are those who are back in God’s ownership as His servants, free from sin and death.
Since we know we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, ours is to praise God and live in reverent fear before Him.
It’s through Jesus we believe in God. And it follows, logically, that through Jesus, our Redeemer, we believe in the God who raised Him from the dead. Hence, God is the object of our faith and hope.
It’s Him we fear, reverently, because of our relationship to Him and our redemption by Him.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
Love One Another (because of your purification and regeneration)
Love One Another (because of your purification and regeneration)
Peter gives his readers—then and now—one more exhortation, one more imperative, one more to-do. It, too, is rooted in the before-and-after of conversion.
The final imperative/to-do is found there in verse 22: love one another deeply.
The basis, the foundation of this love is that his readers have purified yourselves by obeying the truth. Their response to God was obeying the truth of the gospel.
They’ve been obedient to the truth of the gospel; they are obedient children because of the gospel’s work in their lives. They have been converted by the gospel and are obeying the truth. This is how they are able to love.
Love one another deeply, from the heart.
Peter expects these churches—the people of God in Christ scattered all over Asia Minor, in whatever city they might be living in—Peter expects these people to love one another deeply, to understand one another, to give one another the benefit of the doubt, to reach out to others with the same deep love.
The foundation of the Church’s love is their regeneration, new birth; having been born again. The new birth gives God’s people a new likeness to God and a new family.
Believers are born anew through the living and enduring word of God, meaning the whole of written Scripture, and especially the saving message of the gospel.
The new birth is rooted in the living word of God. The living word of God endures, even when everything else passes away.
Every person and every created thing will perish, just like grass and flowers.
But the Word of God—the word that has been preached to Peter’s audience; the gospel that has been preached to us—endures forever.
We love because He first loved us. We have been taught to love by having His Word written on our hearts.
We can love one another—no matter what that guy did to you, no matter what that lady said about you—we can love one another (indeed, we’re commanded to love one another) and it’s possible because the LORD has done a work in us, purifying us and regenerating us by the power of His Word.
>In the second half of 1 Peter 1, Peter is exhorting us, urging Christians of Asia Minor and Western Missouri to live lives rooted in the salvation God has given, based on the holy and loving character of God.
It’s not “do a bunch of religious things.”
The last thing anyone needs is more of religious people doing religious things for the sake of some religious identity.
It’s not “do a bunch of religious things so that people will think you’re super religious.”
What Peter is saying is that people who go by Christ’s name—those who have been saved, redeemed, transformed, made new because of Jesus—THESE people are those who WILL live in certain ways to the glory of God.
Christians will DO THIS BECAUSE of what God has done for us.
Too often, religious people tie their hope to their performance of religious deeds. If they do enough, they’ll get where they want to be; they’ll earn their way there.
I’ll tell you, that’s a recipe for utter disaster. All the religious effort in the world—a lifetime of religious achievement and perfect attendance at church and Sunday School never earned anyone anything but a very religious seat in hell.
A hope tied to religious performance is no hope at all.
The Christian hope, on the other hand, is a LIVING HOPE because it is tied to the Risen Savior, Jesus Christ, and what He has done in our stead.
We “DO THIS BECAUSE” of what He has done for us. Not to earn anything, but to worship.
We set our hope on Him.
We are holy in Him and for Him.
We live lives of reverent fear before Him.
And we love one another because of Him.
Do all this because of Him and what He’s done.