BEING COMES BEFORE DOING

1 Peter 1:13

“BEING COMES BEFORE DOING”

FIRST PETER 1:13

One of my favorite examples in the bible, besides Jesus, is Peter, the apostle Peter as some of us may know him. Peter was one of the most outstanding persons of all the disciples.

Peter was a take-charge person, he was a born leader, and a man who spoke up quickly and frankly on any kind of circumstance. Peter didn’t leave no doubt in anybody’s mind as to where he stood, even when he stood on the wrong side of an issue.

He was very outgoing, Peter would never get lost in a crowd. You would always know where he was and what he was doing. To be with Peter, you would never be bored, there was never a dull moment.

He was an exciting, and sometimes troubled person who Jesus changed from a sinner to a saint, from a fisherman to an Apostle, to an outspoken leader of the twelve disciples and the mighty man of God who led the early church.

Peter makes for one of the most refreshing, instructive, and inspiring persons to study because in many ways, most of us are like Peter in some way or another. In the early part of Peter’s calling by Jesus, God was working on Peter “being” being what he wanted him to be. It takes time for all of us to become what God has intended for us to be.

When God called all of us, we were not what we are now, he had to work on our “being” who he wanted us to be. We were not, in the beginning, who God wanted us to be.

We didn’t know who we were and what we should have been doing to help promote God’s kingdom, But when he “fixed us”, we now know who we are in Christ and sort of what we are supposed to be doing.

“BEING COMES BEFORE DOING”

If we are who we should be, We will automatically be doing what we should be doing.”

Peter is not here today, but I’m sure he would agree.

“BEING COMES BEFORE DOING”

Here in this book of First Peter, the word “be” is mentioned 36 times.

We won’t cover all of them this evening. The one’s that we will talk about are the one’s that God impressed upon my heart

Please keep your bibles open this evening. We will be in the book of 1 Peter. I won’t have you flipping to other books in the bible. If you get to 1 Peter, that’s where we will spend our time.

1. Be Sober (1:13).

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”

In the book of 1 Peter, the believers were suffering persecution. They had lost their homes, property, money, possessions, and friends.

They had been forced to run for their lives, many of them carrying only what they could by hand. They were being persecuted because of Christ.

We might not have to face the kind of persecution that they faced, but many in our day are like them. We’ve lost our homes, jobs, family, and people have lost their lives due to the virus.

Peter says, BE SOBER.

Sober means two things here. Not to become intoxicated with drugs or alcohol of any kind. Yeah, that’s a given.

But it also means to be sober in our minds and our behavior. To be controlled in our minds dealing with all things.

Actually its the opposite of indulgence, of indulging in anything such as eating, drinking, gaming, or whatever it may be.

The believer is to be sober in his/her thinking as we pursue the coming grace and salvation of God.

I wear eyeglasses. There are times when I’m in a hot, moist environment and then I step into a cool area-and my glasses immediately fog up. Sometimes our thinking is like that. Sometimes we think like the world. There is a smudge on our thinking---a thin film that keeps us from thinking right, thinking sober. Peter said be sober, the word of God will wipe it off.

2. Be Holy (1:15)

1 Peter 1:15 (KJV) 1Pe 1:15 “ But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;”

Peter called for the believers in the early church as well as us to be holy.

Holy means to be righteous, to be godly. To be separated and being entirely different from all other human beings.

Peter knew the reasons why believers were to be Holy. They were to be Holy because God is Holy. We were created in his image, therefore we are to have the same virtues that he has.

God does not want us to be corruptible and dying with the world. He wants us to live with him eternally.

Scripture tells us “be ye holy, for God is holy. If we desire to be with God, we must live like God. We must live a life that is Holy.

That means that we are to be in a state of separation from the world---not that we are any better than anyone else or we live on a different planet than everyone else, but we are to strive to not let the world influence the way we think and the way we ought to act.

The only way that we can become holy like God wants us to be is by the help of the Holy Spirit

3. Be Submissive (2:18; 3:1; 5:5)—demonstrating “loving, intentional selflessness.”

1 Peter 2:18 (KJV) 1Pe 2:18  Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

The third “BE” of Peter is to be submissive. “Be subject to your masters” means to be submissive. We could update this today by saying “employers be submissive to your bosses.”

Like the apostle Paul, Peter exhorted the believers as household slaves to submit to their masters. These believers were in the Roman world under an unrighteous government, so Peter tells them how to honor God within it. Whether their masters were good or bad, believers who were slaves were to shine the light of Christ by their service. Even though their submissiveness caused them to suffer unjustly, he still recommended them to be submissive.

Being submissive to government or being submissive to a master was really like being submissive to God.

That ought to be our attitude as saints. We are serving the one true God who knows everything that we are facing. He knows what we need and when we need it.

Whatever place that we find ourselves in, guess what, he had a hand in putting us there. Be Submissive.

4. Be Unified (3:8)

“Finally, be you all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.”

Peter says to us here to be unified. To be together. This doesn’t mean that everyone should agree on every little thing with everyone else. No! We all know that that’s absolutely impossible.

What it means is for us not to be difficult when we disagree. Because we will disagree. But when we disagree, we can still cooperate with one another for the good of promoting God’s kingdom.

It’s just like a symphony orchestra, there are so many different instruments playing so many different notes but they all are performing in harmony.

We are different, but we can all harmonize together for the Lord.

5. Be Ready (3:15)—one of Scripture’s most practical verses on evangelism.

6. Be Serious and Watchful (4:7)—referring to our prayer lives.

7. Be Vigilant (5:8—guarding ourselves against the enemy.

Conclusion: Our enemy is a prowling lion, but our best defense is not found in what we do, but in who we are—God’s sober, holy, humble, eager