Called to Be Different

This therefore connects the previous verses to this verse.

1 Peter 1:13 NKJV

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

1 Peter 1:14 NKJV

as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;

1 Peter 1:15 NKJV

but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

1 Peter 1:16 (NKJV)

because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Holy, set apart, sanctified, consecrated, saint.

So the first half of 1 Peter is speaking about the hope of the gospel

- Christ has begotten us again to a living hope. He made us born again. vs 3

- We have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that doesn’t fade away. vs 4

- We are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation. vs 5

also the genuineness of our faith being tested through trails may resound praise and honor and glory to Christ!

So from verse 1-12 speaks about the hope of the gospel.

And versus 13 speaks about the ethical responsibilities that naturally follow this hope we have in Christ.

A lifestyle of holiness.

And we meet this challenge of obedience by adopting a new mind set. WE are called to be different.

So Peter is encouraging them to be holy!

Mind you Peter is requesting holiness in the middle of persecution

this is written right after Nero’s persecution of the church in AD 64

Christians in these days where consider to be a wretched cult. And considered our belief as a foreign and deadly superstition.

Trust me if you follow Christ close enough to some in the world you will be considered to be this way a fanatic of cult like proportions.

Nero had deep hatred for Christians during his reign. vast numbers of Christian where convicted as criminals.

Once they where convicted he would cover them with wild beast skins and they were torn to death by dogs.

Christians where also fasten on crosses, and when night came they served as lamps at night. and maybe a play on Christ words of Him being the light of the world. And also believer light on a hill. A mockery

It seems like the first things that is forgot when one goes through suffering is holiness.

What does it mean to “gird up the lions of your mind” ?

Means to prepare ones mind for action.

To have ones mind ready for action.

To think clearly, to think straight.

Gird up the lion of you mind is something that us as modern day readers aren’t familiar with but in ancient oriental customs people used where long robes and they use to gather the long robe by putting it between the legs and then wrapping and tying them around the waist, to prepare for running, fast walking, or other strenuous activity.

(see 1 Kgs 18:46 ;

1 Kings 18:46 NKJV

Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Imagine running without tying the robe around you. Its going to be sloppy, unbalanced, unstable.

(1) “Prepare your minds for action” (v. 13). Obedience is a conscious act of the will. Christians in conflict need a tough-minded holiness that is ready for action.

(2) “Be self-controlled” (v. 13; cf. 4:7; 5:8; 1 Thes. 5:6, 8). This word nēphontes, from the verb nēphō (“be sober”) is used only figuratively in the New Testament. It means to be free from every form of mental and spiritual “drunkenness” or excess. Rather than being controlled by outside circumstances, believers should be directed from within.

Be sober forbids not only physical drunkenness but also (since the phrases before and after have to do with attitudes of mind) letting the mind wander into any other kind of mental intoxication or addiction which inhibits spiritual alertness, or any laziness of mind which lulls Christians into sin through carelessness (or ‘by default’).

Being sober have to do with anything that restricts spiritual alertness

Did you know there is a such thing as spiritual laziness you can be physically lazy but spiritual laziness is a completely separate category.

(3) “Set your hope fully” (1 Peter 1:13). Holy living demands determination. A believer’s hope is to be set perfectly (teleiōs, completely or unchangeably), and without reserve on the grace (cf. v. 10) to be bestowed when Jesus Christ is revealed (lit., “in the revelation [apokalypsei] of Jesus Christ”; cf. the same phrase in v. 7; also cf. the verb “be revealed” [apokalyphthēnai] in v. 5). Four times Peter has already spoken of the Savior’s return and the accompanying ultimate stage of salvation (vv. 5, 7, 9, 13).

1 Peter 1:5,9,7,13