A Christian’s Conduct in a Crazy World 1 Peter 1:13-21

Scripture: Dale Shreve

Intro:

Woke up Friday morning with this foreboding feeling

What came crashing down was the thoughts of how crazy our world has become

Common sense and common decency has been replaced by crazed lunatics

If you call out sexually deviant behavior you have some large lady with rainbow colored hair screaming at you

If you are in favor of having criminals who are in the country illegally deported you are called a facist

People are all in favor of Jesus as long as it is all about love, but once you mention that sin is wrong they disappear

But people are waking up

They’ve seen the behavior and corruption of liberals, the celebration of wickedness, and now the assasination of Charlie Kirk and God is opening their eyes

People are flooding into churches looking for hope

In the first section of this chapter, Peter emphasized walking in hope; but now his emphasis is walking in holiness.

The root meaning of the word translated holy is “different.”

A holy person is not an odd person, but a different person.

His life has a quality about it that is different.

His present “lifestyle” is not only different from his past way of life, but it is different from the “lifestyles” of the unbelievers around him.

How are we most different?

It is through our conduct

How are we to live in this wilderness world? Peter’s prescriptive answer centers on the Christian’s conduct (v. 15).

1 Peter 1:15 ESV

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

The word translated “conduct” in this verse is used only twenty-four times in the entire New Testament and yet nearly half of those come from Peter. He uses it eleven times

Prepare Your Mind vs. 13-16

To have the conduct that we need to navigate this crazy world we need to prepare our minds

What does it mean to prepare our mind

Prepare literally means “gird up” and can refer to tightening a belt, cinching up a cord or rope, or tying something down in preparation for a certain action

In Peter’s times if they had to do something quickly and wanted to be unencumbered they would pull their robe between their legs and tie it in their belts

To gird up the loins of your mind is to get rid of loose and sloppy thinking; to bring the rational and reflective powers of your mind under control.

It means to control what you think about, those things you decide to set your mind upon

He urges believers to pull in all the loose ends of their lives, meaning to discipline their thoughts, live according to biblical priorities, disentangle themselves from the world’s sinful hindrances, and conduct life righteously and godly

So how do we prepare our mind?

Peter shows us

Be Sober Minded

The first thing we need to do in preparing our mind is to be sober minded

Be sober: “It denotes a condition free from every form of mental and spiritual loss of self-control; it is an attitude of self-discipline that avoids the extremes.”

1 Peter 4:7 ESV

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Set Your Hope on Grace

The second thing we see in this passage is that we need to set our hope on grace

Genuine hope is a vital spiritual reality, one of the three supreme virtues of the Christian life

Hope is the Christian’s attitude toward the future

In its essence, hope is equivalent to faith; it is trusting God

The major difference between the two attitudes is that faith involves trusting God in the present, whereas hope is future faith

Completely means unreservedly, and could also be rendered “fully” or “perfectly.” Christians are not to hope half-heartedly or indecisively, but with finality

it is also a form of worship that rests in the faithfulness of God

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Grace isn’t just for the past, when we first gave our lives to Jesus.

It isn’t only for the present, where we live each moment standing in His grace (Romans 5:2).

It is also for the future, when grace will be brought to us. God has only just begun to show us the riches of His grace.

Do Not be Conformed

1 Peter 4:2 ESV

so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Be Different

I shared earlier how holiness is being different, especially in our conduct

We are called to be different in this world

The problem is that people have a fear of being different

Teenagers love to be independent and express their individuality, but have you ever noticed how much they all look alike

From the hair, to the clothes, to the shoes, to the accesories

They think they are being different by getting shade or version of the same thing

They want to have what everyone else has, but the same exact thing

Boys want their hair a same way but they all end up looking like their grandma, short on the sides and curly on the top

God isn’t so much concerned about our attire, as long as it is modest, as he is about our conduct

Leviticus 11:44 ESV

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Call on Christ vs. 17-19

We can pursue being Holy because we can call on Christ

Impartial Judge

Acts 10:34 ESV

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,

Conduct Yourself w/ Fear

Proverbs 21:8 ESV

The way of the guilty is crooked, but the conduct of the pure is upright.

Redeemed by His Blood

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

A Settled Hope vs. 20-21

We are called to be holy because our hope has been settled

Jesus was Made Manifest

Galatians 4:4 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

Raised from Dead to Glory