iving Before God Our FatLher
13 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; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy” (NKJV).
Therefore, what do we do when we read this word? We go back and remind ourselves of what presided. So in verse 12 it stated, “To them, it was revealed that not to them, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things which angels desire to look into.”
What those Old Testament prophets were prophesying was for the time of the New Testament saints. The Old Testament prophets were “ministering” to us. They were serving us. All the reports of Christ and the New Creation that was emerging, God had in mind long before. Note that God chose to do things through preaching the “good news” of the gospel. Preaching is “preaching by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit was sent from heaven. This is very important because the Holy Spirit being sent is really the essence of the gospel.
The gospel is that heaven has come to earth to bring change through a new creation emerging in the midst of the old creation. The first Adam and the Last Adam are on earth together. The gospel, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is coming to Adam’s race and declaring repentance because the Last Adam has overcome sin and the devil.
This leads us to verse 13, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” What are the “loins of your mind?”
1 Kings 18:46 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.
Isa 11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
Hebrews 7:5-7 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 10 For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
As you can see, the lions speak of “strength” and “reproduction.” Both are vital to whom God made us to be in Christ. Those who are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. As well as those who are called to reproduce as carriers of this new creation seed that comes by the “Word of God” and in the “Power of the Holy Spirit.” Being converted speaks of a mind being changed to think from God’s Word and not by human means. As Peter states, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” All believers must think like Abraham thought, “looking to the promises.” Every believer is to have the “faith of Abraham” (Romans 4:3, For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Again in Romans 4:16, Paul states, “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Please consider all of Romans 4 concerning the “girding up of your minds.
Be sober! Don’t be drunk on alcohol, but also “be sober-minded.” The world is “drunk” on many philosophies, religious ideas, and just plain “pride of life.” Pride of life is the man thinking of himself more highly than he ought to think. In reality, it is a person making themselves a god of their thoughts and of their actions.
A sober-minded person is one who has their thinking aligned with the truths and principles of God’s word. There are people who have not put their faith in Christ to receive redemption, but they have learned godly principles that have kept them from the snares of human idolatry. They need to be convicted of the “depravity” of the human heart and receive Christ as Lord and Savior to settle eternity and come to the saving of their souls. My point here is that even the unsaved person can experience stability in this life by “sober-mindedness.”
The sober-minded person needs to learn to “rest their hope fully upon the grace of God.” That grace comes at the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” The natural mind does not just accept Jesus and change. The natural mind might accept the idea of Jesus and desire eternal life. Still, the actual transformation comes from a revelation of God’s grace revealed in Christ and one’s decision to receive that grace by faith, believing what God has said to be true. The proof of the believing is in the manifestation of a changed mind that is now being brought to “sober” thinking and evidence of “divine” characteristics produced by the Holy Spirit. Paul calls the divine attributes “the fruit of the Spirit made manifest” in Galatians 5.
In verse 14 Peter says, “as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance.” There is the “former,” and there is the “present.” The present is the continuing growth of Christ’s nature developing in the believer, as we discussed last week. Growing up into Christ, Christ’s goal manifested in each of our lives through the washing of the word and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (see Titus 3:15).
The keyword is “obedient.” We have to be called “obedient children.” That is, obedient to our heavenly Father. Putting His Kingdom’s purpose, that is His Will, before our own desires. It is discovered in the choosing of His righteousness, purity, holiness over our former lusts. This can be a daily process and pursuit of God our Father, who is altogether holy. It is walking out the prayer Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-11.
In times past, we were “ignorant.” If we are born of His Holy Spirit and washed by the water of His word, having our minds renewed daily, we are no longer ignorant regarding lusts and the trickery of the devil. Once God winked at the ignorance of man, but no longer, according to Paul recorded in Acts 17:30-31. Listen to what Paul declares,
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (NKJV).
We finish today with what Peter says in verses 15 and 16, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Here are our marching orders, the clear definition of what our Father wants to see manifested in our life. That is, in our thoughts and our lifestyle. It is called purity and holiness, coming from the “righteousness of Christ” given to us by His grace in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is imputed righteousness, and we did not perform it, we did not produce it, this righteousness was freely given to us as it was too faithful Abraham. We are to receive His righteousness, which is our calling. Then we are to obey all that it requires of us, not through our effort, but by His grace-filled life, with His power given by the Holy Spirit. His life—a new man and woman, created in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are to live by the power of Christ’s resurrection life.
This is what God required of Israel under Moses and the Law that they were given, but they refused to obey, and the majority missed out on the promises that Abraham saw by faith and through his obedience received. He saw Jesus, He saw the promise Seed by faith, and he obeyed and set the standard for each of God’s children. Abraham saw “Jesus’ Day” and believed. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56 KJV).
We close with this question, are we glad? Yes, I am sure we are all glad that our sins have been forgiven. That we are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and have access to the Father, through the Son. We should be glad for all these things. But a higher level of “joy” is in what Jesus said about Abraham, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day,” He saw it in the present, in the now of His life, as well as the future. Jesus said, “and he saw it.” This was not a weird dream or a trance. Abraham saw it by faith. What he saw was so real that it was in the now and he experienced it throughout his life. By faith, what Abraham saw, determined how he lived his life in the flesh of his natural being. How he established his family and how he directed their steps for their future part in the plan of God.