Get Ready for Battle
1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
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· 29 viewsAfter a review of what God's people face in the world, the Apostle begins to instruct them in how to prepare for all that awaits them, here, and in eternity
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Introduction
Introduction
Two commands: 1. Gird up your minds for action and 2. Be holy.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
In , the Apostle Paul provides more insight on this command.
For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.
He reaffirms in in Thessalonians 3:6, but goes on to say:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
The hope he talks about in is the same hope as he assured them of earlier in 1 Pe 1:3
Gird up. 328 ἀναζώννυμι [anazonnumi /… a leather belt.
Gird up. 328 ἀναζώννυμι [anazonnumi /… a leather belt.
Imperative. Gird up with a leather belt. Get ready to run, fight, mix it up.
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Therefore - in light of what I've said before.
We are the church militant - the church here on Earth. Our counterpart in heaven is the church triumphant and we are going to join them one day. For this assignment, they must be mentally prepared, and able to concentrate. We will be persecuted because the world hates us. Christ told us that they would hate us because they hated Him. He was perfectly sinless and loving and they hated Him so much that the tortured, mocked and killed Him. Even though we are followers of Christ, we fall far short of the example He set. We come from a sinful background, we sin, we are imperfect, we make mistakes. If they hated Him, as wonderful as He was, how can they not hate us even more, since we fall far short of the example He set. They hate us because now we represent Him, His truth and His message. There is nothing you could or should do about that. They will never like you because you expose their sin. So I am commanding you to deal with it. Don't give in. Dont cave. Gird up your mind and mentally prepare yourself for the battle, because it will continue.
Be sober minded
Be sober minded
νήφω nḗphō; fut. nḗpsō. To be sober–minded, watchful, circumspect (, ; ; ; ; ). The word does not mean to abstain from the use of alcohol but rather to refrain from the abuse of it which leads to intoxication.
Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (1 Pe 1:3). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
You need to concentrate, stay focused, and rely completely on the grace, the favor that you have been assured of at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christians are in a world animated by Satan and His demons and they are surrounded. Chesty Puller at Chosin Reservoir sentiments were the opposite of what Peter is telling these disciples.
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Reaffirms the point on grace in 1:10
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
Obedience: to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may dprove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Ignorance: So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, bexcluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Eph 4:17–19). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Ro 12:2). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (1 Pe 1:2). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
You cannot dwell in your sins and do what God expects of you. Dwelling in your sin is to repeat the sin. Get it behind you. When you were an unrepentent sinner, you much of the sinning was in ignorance. Ignorance of the gravity of the sin, who it offended, the consequences and so forth. If you dwell on your sin, you are languishing in it and you will lose the fight with the enemy every time. Christ died for your sins, they are forgiven and you are justified anew.
Put those sins behind you today.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (1 Th 4:7). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
But like the Holy one which called you: For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification .
This is a pre-requisite for any assignment or mission or ministry the Lord assigns. We must be holy. How do we do that, given that we inherited a sin tendency and we sin multiple times a day - we still wallow in it? Why must we be holy? What happens when we become holy? This is the way we fight; we fight with our courage and our holiness.
because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
States this three times in , , and 10