HOPE AND HOLINESS

1 Peter 1:13-25

I love what a commentator said on this passage:

After praising God for the gifts He bestows on faithful people, the next

verses show Christians the responsibility that goes with these gifts. The holy

God requires a holy people!

The calls to hope are based on the character of God just defined. Because you have been loved by such a God, therefore be hopeful, obedient, and holy.

V13- Holman translates this verse well: With your minds stripped for action.

New English Bible: you must, therefore, be like men stripped for action, perfectly self-controlled.

The King James translates the Greek literally as gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. Since we seldom gird up our loins any more (but I bet some of you ladies at some time wearing a skirt need to run and so hiked up those skirts!) Of course, men wore long robes in those days and for them to work or run, they would make the equivalent of pants by belting up the skirts to allow freedom of movement. So the idea here is captured in both the modern translations.

Note he challenges us to think. Christ commands all of us, our whole life, body, mind, and spirit. And Peter will mention each of them. When he says to be serious or self-disciplined, the Greek behind it is related to the word often translated “perfect.” The root is “telos” and telos has to do with the purpose of something. A car is for transportation, so if it gets you from one place to another, it has fulfilled its telos. The same for a human. If you follow Christ and obey Him you will fulfill the reason you were created. Another translation besides purpose or perfect is “mature.” Grow up! He is about to use the metaphors of being born again and as children of God. They were new Christians, and he expected them (and us) to grow toward maturity.

Set your hope only on the grace! I've read several articles lately (and Philip Yancy has an entire book on it!) that decry the church's moving away from preaching the gospel of grace to a needy world. Instead we seem to have communicated to the world a gospel of law, constantly condemning them, instead of proclaiming God's free forgiveness in Christ. Here Peter focuses on the future grace and final salvation when Jesus is revealed as Lord to the whole world.

V 14 – As obedient children - I repeat, obedience and faith go hand in hand. If we call Him Lord, we should obey his commands. His will becomes our will. Paul repeatedly called himself a bondservant or slave of Jesus Christ. A slave has no will of his own. His master's will has become the servant's will. If we rebel, very often the outside world will let us know about it.

Be not conformed to the desires you cherished in your former ignorance. Compare to Romans 12:1-2. JB Phillips translated :2 as “don't let the world around you press you into its own mould.” All kinds of forces around us are trying to shape us. Who is the potter responsible for shaping your life? “Desires” is a strong word, sometimes translated lusts. By their “former ignorance,” he is making clear that becoming a Christian makes a fundamental change in both attitude and behavior.

Note how often Peter quotes other scripture or at least partially quotes it. Either he had read much of it, which helps date the letter, or there were certain ideas or themes that were circulating among the early church. How easily does scripture come to your mind in your daily life?

V 15 – Holiness – Peter also quotes scripture here, this time from Leviticus. A section of that book is often called the Holiness Code because it challenges the reader to be holy and then describes steps on the way. The word HOLY is a big word and has been thoroughly explored. Two books for anyone inclined to pursue this are are recommended as foundational.

The Idea of the Holy, by Rudolf Otto

Worship, by Evelyn Underhill.

Both are classics and are probably out of print, but available through the used book sections of Amazon, etc. I have a copy of both in trade paperbacks that I will learn if you can handle fifty year old paper!

The word “holy” in Greek carries first the idea of separateness, being set apart. Otto calls God “the wholly other.” God is awe-inspiring, infinite to our finiteness. No way can we truly or completely understand Him. Primitive humans would stand in awe before certain places, perhaps where lightning struck. Can you imagine what it was like for Israel to gather before the sacred mountain of Sinai? In the presence of true awesomeness, we respond in fear, thus to understand “the fear of the Lord,” the awe in the presence of the infinite, unknowable yet knowable through his self-revelation to us. In His presence we move carefully in awe! We are in some sense to share that holiness, being holy because the One who saved us and calls us is holy. As obedient children we are children of holiness! So Peter challenges us to act like it!

Notice he refers to our time on earth as our temporary residence. I like the concept of Pilgrim's Progress and the old gospel song, “This World Is Not My Home, I'm Just A-passing Through.” Fellow pilgrims we are to live before God and under Him as we make our way through life.

V18 – several times in this letter, we find references to the blood of Christ. Here we see his Jewish background as he refers to a lamb without spot or blemish. Remember Gentiles also practiced sacrifice, so they would also relate to what he was saying. Sacrificial animals were to be “without spot or blemish,” and for some sacrifices should be the firstborn. I remember one day I was wandering through a fairgrounds exhibit among the cattle stalls. Some had ribbons and were prize bulls. The thought struck me that these animals were examples of what God approved in OT sacrifice. Jesus met that qualification, being without sin and Himself holy. As has been often said, the sinlessness of Jesus qualified Him to die for our sins, somehow balancing the scales of justice and giving us forgiveness.

Backing up to v 17, Father was Jesus' favorite term for God. But recognize that in that day of paternalism, the father in all societies was considered the ruler of his household. We wrestle with Paul's injunction in Ephesians for wives to submit to their husbands, but the really radical part of that passage is the command for husbands to love their wives. Likewise in both Hebrew and Roman/Greek societies the wife was expected to submit to her husband. Virtually no where else do we find the command for husbands to love their wives and certainly not compared to the divine love for His church! (“...as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it.)

Peter's reasoning here is that if you call God your Father and consider yourself in His family, then you should stand before Him in awe and wonder. In the context, that awe as well as obedience is the proper response of a child of God.

V20 – Christ was chosen before the foundation of the world! This keys in with John 1: In the beginning was the Word (Gr logos, Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. We have often said that our finite minds cannot grasp the infinite God. But God expressed Himself in human form, so we can understand what those infinite concepts look like when poured into a human form. “God was in Christ!”

Yet God revealed Himself through Jesus at “the end of times.” Previous generations did not know Jesus as that generation did. They also believed they were living in the last days, as we still do. Predicting the end of the world and the second coming has become a cottage industry in some places in spite of the fact that Jesus specifically said that timing was known only to God the Father. Not even the Son had that information while He was on earth. One result of living to an old age with a good memory is that I remember all kinds of predictions over the years. Just in the identification of the anti-Christ I remember Hitler, Stalin, various popes, Saddam, Bin Laden and others. In my opinion, all the Biblical signs were long ago fulfilled, and we wait now only on God's decision.

V22 – Christian growth comes through obedience. If your soul and self has become pure, it is because of your obeying the Lord and following Him. That purity results in love for your fellow Christians with all of your strength. Remember Jesus' command to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Peter says we are in the same way to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot be Biblical Christians if we are indifferent or even hostile to others.

V23 – Again we read of being born again, harking back to John once more. The underlying idea is that you got into the world through physical birth, and you are now in the family of God through spiritual birth! But you don't come from perishable seed. You are not a flower that needs to be replanted every year, but rather you continue to bloom year after year. Perhaps a better illustration might be that we are like live oaks, evergreen and never barren.

Vv24-5 – Again Peter quotes the scriptures, this time from the OT. All flesh – that born into this world – is grass. As the grass fades, so will we one day die. But the Word of God, Jesus and the Gospel, will never perish. Many churches argue over what music to use, contemporary or traditional, but if the world keeps spinning 50 or 100 years the vast majority of songs will be gone. The oldest hymn in the books goes back around 1000 years. We would not recognize any songs sung in the early church – at least not the melodies, but as they often sang Psalms, that would endure. After all, Psalms are part of the Word of God that endures. And Peter concludes by pointing out that Word has been preached, proclaimed to them in the Gospel!

HOPE AND HOLINESS

1 Peter 1:13-25

I love what a commentator said on this passage:

After praising God for the gifts He bestows on faithful people, the next

verses show Christians the responsibility that goes with these gifts. The holy

God requires a holy people!

The calls to hope are based on the character of God just defined. Because you have been loved by such a God, therefore be hopeful, obedient, and holy.

V13- Holman translates this verse well: With your minds stripped for action.

New English Bible: you must, therefore, be like men stripped for action, perfectly self-controlled.

The King James translates the Greek literally as gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. Since we seldom gird up our loins any more (but I bet some of you ladies at some time wearing a skirt need to run and so hiked up those skirts!) Of course, men wore long robes in those days and for them to work or run, they would make the equivalent of pants by belting up the skirts to allow freedom of movement. So the idea here is captured in both the modern translations.

Note he challenges us to think. Christ commands all of us, our whole life, body, mind, and spirit. And Peter will mention each of them. When he says to be serious or self-disciplined, the Greek behind it is related to the word often translated “perfect.” The root is “telos” and telos has to do with the purpose of something. A car is for transportation, so if it gets you from one place to another, it has fulfilled its telos. The same for a human. If you follow Christ and obey Him you will fulfill the reason you were created. Another translation besides purpose or perfect is “mature.” Grow up! He is about to use the metaphors of being born again and as children of God. They were new Christians, and he expected them (and us) to grow toward maturity.

Set your hope only on the grace! I've read several articles lately (and Philip Yancy has an entire book on it!) that decry the church's moving away from preaching the gospel of grace to a needy world. Instead we seem to have communicated to the world a gospel of law, constantly condemning them, instead of proclaiming God's free forgiveness in Christ. Here Peter focuses on the future grace and final salvation when Jesus is revealed as Lord to the whole world.

V 14 – As obedient children - I repeat, obedience and faith go hand in hand. If we call Him Lord, we should obey his commands. His will becomes our will. Paul repeatedly called himself a bondservant or slave of Jesus Christ. A slave has no will of his own. His master's will has become the servant's will. If we rebel, very often the outside world will let us know about it.

Be not conformed to the desires you cherished in your former ignorance. Compare to Romans 12:1-2. JB Phillips translated :2 as “don't let the world around you press you into its own mould.” All kinds of forces around us are trying to shape us. Who is the potter responsible for shaping your life? “Desires” is a strong word, sometimes translated lusts. By their “former ignorance,” he is making clear that becoming a Christian makes a fundamental change in both attitude and behavior.

Note how often Peter quotes other scripture or at least partially quotes it. Either he had read much of it, which helps date the letter, or there were certain ideas or themes that were circulating among the early church. How easily does scripture come to your mind in your daily life?

V 15 – Holiness – Peter also quotes scripture here, this time from Leviticus. A section of that book is often called the Holiness Code because it challenges the reader to be holy and then describes steps on the way. The word HOLY is a big word and has been thoroughly explored. Two books for anyone inclined to pursue this are are recommended as foundational.

The Idea of the Holy, by Rudolf Otto

Worship, by Evelyn Underhill.

Both are classics and are probably out of print, but available through the used book sections of Amazon, etc. I have a copy of both in trade paperbacks that I will learn if you can handle fifty year old paper!

The word “holy” in Greek carries first the idea of separateness, being set apart. Otto calls God “the wholly other.” God is awe-inspiring, infinite to our finiteness. No way can we truly or completely understand Him. Primitive humans would stand in awe before certain places, perhaps where lightning struck. Can you imagine what it was like for Israel to gather before the sacred mountain of Sinai? In the presence of true awesomeness, we respond in fear, thus to understand “the fear of the Lord,” the awe in the presence of the infinite, unknowable yet knowable through his self-revelation to us. In His presence we move carefully in awe! We are in some sense to share that holiness, being holy because the One who saved us and calls us is holy. As obedient children we are children of holiness! So Peter challenges us to act like it!

Notice he refers to our time on earth as our temporary residence. I like the concept of Pilgrim's Progress and the old gospel song, “This World Is Not My Home, I'm Just A-passing Through.” Fellow pilgrims we are to live before God and under Him as we make our way through life.

V18 – several times in this letter, we find references to the blood of Christ. Here we see his Jewish background as he refers to a lamb without spot or blemish. Remember Gentiles also practiced sacrifice, so they would also relate to what he was saying. Sacrificial animals were to be “without spot or blemish,” and for some sacrifices should be the firstborn. I remember one day I was wandering through a fairgrounds exhibit among the cattle stalls. Some had ribbons and were prize bulls. The thought struck me that these animals were examples of what God approved in OT sacrifice. Jesus met that qualification, being without sin and Himself holy. As has been often said, the sinlessness of Jesus qualified Him to die for our sins, somehow balancing the scales of justice and giving us forgiveness.

Backing up to v 17, Father was Jesus' favorite term for God. But recognize that in that day of paternalism, the father in all societies was considered the ruler of his household. We wrestle with Paul's injunction in Ephesians for wives to submit to their husbands, but the really radical part of that passage is the command for husbands to love their wives. Likewise in both Hebrew and Roman/Greek societies the wife was expected to submit to her husband. Virtually no where else do we find the command for husbands to love their wives and certainly not compared to the divine love for His church! (“...as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it.)

Peter's reasoning here is that if you call God your Father and consider yourself in His family, then you should stand before Him in awe and wonder. In the context, that awe as well as obedience is the proper response of a child of God.

V20 – Christ was chosen before the foundation of the world! This keys in with John 1: In the beginning was the Word (Gr logos, Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. We have often said that our finite minds cannot grasp the infinite God. But God expressed Himself in human form, so we can understand what those infinite concepts look like when poured into a human form. “God was in Christ!”

Yet God revealed Himself through Jesus at “the end of times.” Previous generations did not know Jesus as that generation did. They also believed they were living in the last days, as we still do. Predicting the end of the world and the second coming has become a cottage industry in some places in spite of the fact that Jesus specifically said that timing was known only to God the Father. Not even the Son had that information while He was on earth. One result of living to an old age with a good memory is that I remember all kinds of predictions over the years. Just in the identification of the anti-Christ I remember Hitler, Stalin, various popes, Saddam, Bin Laden and others. In my opinion, all the Biblical signs were long ago fulfilled, and we wait now only on God's decision.

V22 – Christian growth comes through obedience. If your soul and self has become pure, it is because of your obeying the Lord and following Him. That purity results in love for your fellow Christians with all of your strength. Remember Jesus' command to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Peter says we are in the same way to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot be Biblical Christians if we are indifferent or even hostile to others.

V23 – Again we read of being born again, harking back to John once more. The underlying idea is that you got into the world through physical birth, and you are now in the family of God through spiritual birth! But you don't come from perishable seed. You are not a flower that needs to be replanted every year, but rather you continue to bloom year after year. Perhaps a better illustration might be that we are like live oaks, evergreen and never barren.

Vv24-5 – Again Peter quotes the scriptures, this time from the OT. All flesh – that born into this world – is grass. As the grass fades, so will we one day die. But the Word of God, Jesus and the Gospel, will never perish. Many churches argue over what music to use, contemporary or traditional, but if the world keeps spinning 50 or 100 years the vast majority of songs will be gone. The oldest hymn in the books goes back around 1000 years. We would not recognize any songs sung in the early church – at least not the melodies, but as they often sang Psalms, that would endure. After all, Psalms are part of the Word of God that endures. And Peter concludes by pointing out that Word has been preached, proclaimed to them in the Gospel!

HOPE AND HOLINESS

1 Peter 1:13-25

I love what a commentator said on this passage:

After praising God for the gifts He bestows on faithful people, the next

verses show Christians the responsibility that goes with these gifts. The holy

God requires a holy people!

The calls to hope are based on the character of God just defined. Because you have been loved by such a God, therefore be hopeful, obedient, and holy.

V13- Holman translates this verse well: With your minds stripped for action.

New English Bible: you must, therefore, be like men stripped for action, perfectly self-controlled.

The King James translates the Greek literally as gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. Since we seldom gird up our loins any more (but I bet some of you ladies at some time wearing a skirt need to run and so hiked up those skirts!) Of course, men wore long robes in those days and for them to work or run, they would make the equivalent of pants by belting up the skirts to allow freedom of movement. So the idea here is captured in both the modern translations.

Note he challenges us to think. Christ commands all of us, our whole life, body, mind, and spirit. And Peter will mention each of them. When he says to be serious or self-disciplined, the Greek behind it is related to the word often translated “perfect.” The root is “telos” and telos has to do with the purpose of something. A car is for transportation, so if it gets you from one place to another, it has fulfilled its telos. The same for a human. If you follow Christ and obey Him you will fulfill the reason you were created. Another translation besides purpose or perfect is “mature.” Grow up! He is about to use the metaphors of being born again and as children of God. They were new Christians, and he expected them (and us) to grow toward maturity.

Set your hope only on the grace! I've read several articles lately (and Philip Yancy has an entire book on it!) that decry the church's moving away from preaching the gospel of grace to a needy world. Instead we seem to have communicated to the world a gospel of law, constantly condemning them, instead of proclaiming God's free forgiveness in Christ. Here Peter focuses on the future grace and final salvation when Jesus is revealed as Lord to the whole world.

V 14 – As obedient children - I repeat, obedience and faith go hand in hand. If we call Him Lord, we should obey his commands. His will becomes our will. Paul repeatedly called himself a bondservant or slave of Jesus Christ. A slave has no will of his own. His master's will has become the servant's will. If we rebel, very often the outside world will let us know about it.

Be not conformed to the desires you cherished in your former ignorance. Compare to Romans 12:1-2. JB Phillips translated :2 as “don't let the world around you press you into its own mould.” All kinds of forces around us are trying to shape us. Who is the potter responsible for shaping your life? “Desires” is a strong word, sometimes translated lusts. By their “former ignorance,” he is making clear that becoming a Christian makes a fundamental change in both attitude and behavior.

Note how often Peter quotes other scripture or at least partially quotes it. Either he had read much of it, which helps date the letter, or there were certain ideas or themes that were circulating among the early church. How easily does scripture come to your mind in your daily life?

V 15 – Holiness – Peter also quotes scripture here, this time from Leviticus. A section of that book is often called the Holiness Code because it challenges the reader to be holy and then describes steps on the way. The word HOLY is a big word and has been thoroughly explored. Two books for anyone inclined to pursue this are are recommended as foundational.

The Idea of the Holy, by Rudolf Otto

Worship, by Evelyn Underhill.

Both are classics and are probably out of print, but available through the used book sections of Amazon, etc. I have a copy of both in trade paperbacks that I will learn if you can handle fifty year old paper!

The word “holy” in Greek carries first the idea of separateness, being set apart. Otto calls God “the wholly other.” God is awe-inspiring, infinite to our finiteness. No way can we truly or completely understand Him. Primitive humans would stand in awe before certain places, perhaps where lightning struck. Can you imagine what it was like for Israel to gather before the sacred mountain of Sinai? In the presence of true awesomeness, we respond in fear, thus to understand “the fear of the Lord,” the awe in the presence of the infinite, unknowable yet knowable through his self-revelation to us. In His presence we move carefully in awe! We are in some sense to share that holiness, being holy because the One who saved us and calls us is holy. As obedient children we are children of holiness! So Peter challenges us to act like it!

Notice he refers to our time on earth as our temporary residence. I like the concept of Pilgrim's Progress and the old gospel song, “This World Is Not My Home, I'm Just A-passing Through.” Fellow pilgrims we are to live before God and under Him as we make our way through life.

V18 – several times in this letter, we find references to the blood of Christ. Here we see his Jewish background as he refers to a lamb without spot or blemish. Remember Gentiles also practiced sacrifice, so they would also relate to what he was saying. Sacrificial animals were to be “without spot or blemish,” and for some sacrifices should be the firstborn. I remember one day I was wandering through a fairgrounds exhibit among the cattle stalls. Some had ribbons and were prize bulls. The thought struck me that these animals were examples of what God approved in OT sacrifice. Jesus met that qualification, being without sin and Himself holy. As has been often said, the sinlessness of Jesus qualified Him to die for our sins, somehow balancing the scales of justice and giving us forgiveness.

Backing up to v 17, Father was Jesus' favorite term for God. But recognize that in that day of paternalism, the father in all societies was considered the ruler of his household. We wrestle with Paul's injunction in Ephesians for wives to submit to their husbands, but the really radical part of that passage is the command for husbands to love their wives. Likewise in both Hebrew and Roman/Greek societies the wife was expected to submit to her husband. Virtually no where else do we find the command for husbands to love their wives and certainly not compared to the divine love for His church! (“...as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it.)

Peter's reasoning here is that if you call God your Father and consider yourself in His family, then you should stand before Him in awe and wonder. In the context, that awe as well as obedience is the proper response of a child of God.

V20 – Christ was chosen before the foundation of the world! This keys in with John 1: In the beginning was the Word (Gr logos, Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. We have often said that our finite minds cannot grasp the infinite God. But God expressed Himself in human form, so we can understand what those infinite concepts look like when poured into a human form. “God was in Christ!”

Yet God revealed Himself through Jesus at “the end of times.” Previous generations did not know Jesus as that generation did. They also believed they were living in the last days, as we still do. Predicting the end of the world and the second coming has become a cottage industry in some places in spite of the fact that Jesus specifically said that timing was known only to God the Father. Not even the Son had that information while He was on earth. One result of living to an old age with a good memory is that I remember all kinds of predictions over the years. Just in the identification of the anti-Christ I remember Hitler, Stalin, various popes, Saddam, Bin Laden and others. In my opinion, all the Biblical signs were long ago fulfilled, and we wait now only on God's decision.

V22 – Christian growth comes through obedience. If your soul and self has become pure, it is because of your obeying the Lord and following Him. That purity results in love for your fellow Christians with all of your strength. Remember Jesus' command to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Peter says we are in the same way to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot be Biblical Christians if we are indifferent or even hostile to others.

V23 – Again we read of being born again, harking back to John once more. The underlying idea is that you got into the world through physical birth, and you are now in the family of God through spiritual birth! But you don't come from perishable seed. You are not a flower that needs to be replanted every year, but rather you continue to bloom year after year. Perhaps a better illustration might be that we are like live oaks, evergreen and never barren.

Vv24-5 – Again Peter quotes the scriptures, this time from the OT. All flesh – that born into this world – is grass. As the grass fades, so will we one day die. But the Word of God, Jesus and the Gospel, will never perish. Many churches argue over what music to use, contemporary or traditional, but if the world keeps spinning 50 or 100 years the vast majority of songs will be gone. The oldest hymn in the books goes back around 1000 years. We would not recognize any songs sung in the early church – at least not the melodies, but as they often sang Psalms, that would endure. After all, Psalms are part of the Word of God that endures. And Peter concludes by pointing out that Word has been preached, proclaimed to them in the Gospel!