Now what? How should this Good News we celebrate every Sunday morning lead to lives that are different on Monday morning?

That’s what we’re going to look at today. 1 Peter 1, let’s get to it.

This is Week 5 of looking at this book together, and we’re just now getting some instruction about how we’re to go about living as elect exiles, sojourners in a foreign land.

And before we even look at the text this morning, I want to point out to you that that’s super important in itself.

We believe these words are inspired by God, amen? (Virtual amen, if you’re on Facebook chat, hit that thumbs up button to say Amen, okay? I’m recording this on Saturday and watching at home with my family right now, so I will hit the thumbs up and amen myself! Ready? Here we go…)

We believe these words are inspired by God, amen? (thumbs up!) But by definition, that also means that the structure is inspired as well, doesn’t it? And it often has things to teach us as well.

And you see this structure all over the New Testament.

  1. First comes a deep, long, rich—sometimes chapters long—explanation of who God is, who we are, and what He’s done in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

  2. And then we get to what to do in light of that.

That is super, super important for you to grab ahold of. We tend to be a very pragmatic people. Especially us guys I wold say…

We setup a little pool this week at the house. Kay set up the pool, but she was having trouble putting all the pieces of the filter together. And I have to say, I know why. I can’t draw a decent stick figure, and I think I could have done better than that diagram. Not to scale was gigantic understatement.

And yet, still, her and the kids are telling me about it, and I’m like, “Nope, don’t want to know about all the details, what you’ve done, how it made you feel… just give me the instructions, let me read the manual, and I’ll figure this thing out. Layout all the pieces. Step 1, step 2… step 25… Done! with only three spare parts left. But it holds water!”

That approach may be fine for putting together a kiddie pool, but it does not work for the Christian life. It does not hold water.

We’re switching gears today to talk about how to live as exiles, and there are specific commands that he gives us. But they are not, the Bible is not, a step by step plan, follow these 5 things and then all will be well.

You know why it doesn’t work like that? Because dead people don’t follow instructions very well. And you and I, and every person alive today was born spiritually stillborn.

Those step by step instructions are actually in the Bible… it’s called the law. And you and I could never follow the steps, because dead people can’t walk.

Which is why everything has to always start from the Gospel. Remember from last week, it’s not the ABC’s of the Christian life, it’s the A-Z of the Christian life.

You don’t graduate from it and then go on to the deep stuff, it is the very thing that works on the deep stuff in us.

The other reason the New Testament always presents its commands in this order is because the Father—like any good parent—is after your heart, not just your robotic adherence to a certain set of rules.

This is one of the things that sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world, including the kind of easy going, good ol’ boy moralism we find ourselves surrounded by here in southern Illinois.

Religion says do these things, don’t do those things, and then you’ll be loved, then you’ll be accepted. The Gospel says, “You are loved, you are accepted, no matter what. And now, spend the rest of your life letting the joy and warmth and love of my grace seep into every nook and cranny of your heart and life.

And that’s just the introduction! Let’s get to the text.

Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.

1 Peter 1:13–14

This is the word of the Lord.

I said that was just the introduction, but actually, that whole first part was about that first word, therefore. Based on what I just said, here’s what you do.

If you want to use big words, the indicative always comes before the imperative. May it always be, that we follow the same pattern as Scripture, and talk about what God has done before we talk about what we’re supposed to do.

Remember, Peter is writing to suffering Christians, he’s reminded them of the Good News, and now… what’s the first thing he commands them to do?

Look at verse 13, here it is, the first command of 1 Peter:

Hope completely

Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:13

So what’s the first thing we’re to do? What’s the first command after this glorious description of this new birth into a living hope and a lasting inheritance? To place our hope completely.

Isn’t it interesting, the first command is something internal, not external?

He didn’t just say, put your hope on the grace. He said put your hope completely on the grace. And right there is one of the greatest battles of the Christian life.

We have no problem saying, “My hope is in the grace of God.” We have a lot of problems putting every last drop of our hope there, and I think it’s especially true when times are hard. We have to fight to not let our hope be divided.

Isn’t this what we deal with all the time? We tend to set our hope partially on Him, and then we have this whole other list of things that we’re also putting our hope in, and we have a hard time letting go of those things.

We have a tendency to split our hope in a hundred different directions. James talks about this as being a double-minded man, who is unstable in all of his ways. I heard someone call it spiritual schizophrenia this week—proclaiming our hope in Christ on one hand, and clinging to all these others lesser, false hopes with the other.

Peter says to these suffering saints, “You’re hope’s got to be in one direction—forward.”

Not to a day when you finally get all the political power—even a casual reading of church history will tell you it’s always been a curse, never a blessing.

No, we’re commanded to “set our hope completely in the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

And you might say, “But isn’t hope a feeling? How can I get myself to feel that way?” Good question.

Hope is a feeling, yes, but it’s more than that. And there are things you can do that will make you feel a certain way. You do it all the time…

So let’s see what Peter says we’re to do to get to the place where we hope completely. Look at verse 13 again:

Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:13

So how do we hope completely?

Think clearly

You want to know how to feel the hope that you should feel. Think about the things you should think about, and think about them clearly.

This imagery is super interesting here. So back in that day, they didn’t wear pants like we know them today, even the men wore these long flowing clothes—think of every movie you’ve ever seen in a Roman setting, togas.

When you would need to do something intense, you would take that long robe and tuck it into your belt so that it wouldn’t get in your way. That was what was known as girding up your loins.

And a literal translation of this phrase would be “girding up the loins of your mind.” It’s battle imagery. You’re about to do something that is intense, and you’re going to need nothing to be getting in your way. A similar phrase in our day would be rolling up your sleeves… it’s about to get messy.

Christian, you are going to have to fight to put your hope completely in future grace. And most of that battle is going to happen right here (point to head).

And then he uses a second analogy, “be sober minded”—what’s that? The opposite of drunk. And I think it’s super helpful.

It means you know where you’re at. You’re not naively unaware of the environment you’re in. You’re in a hostile environment; engaged in a cosmic spiritual battle for the souls of men and women, across the world and across the street.

It means you’re not spiritually intoxicated by the world’s false hopes—because your minds are ready for action, you’re sober-minded, you’re prepared. You’re not drinking what their offering…

Ever heard the term “drunk on power”? It’s an intoxicating feeling to feel like you have the control.

It feels really good to have money, doesn’t it? You ever have a lot of cash (a lot is relative I know, how much ever a lot is to you), and you feel that little endorphin rush? Yeah. But it goes away quickly, doesn’t it? Both the feeling and the money.

Here’s one that may come out of left field: hatred and blame. In some strange way, hatred can feel good, especially when you’re sharing it with someone else who hates and blames the same people you do.

Just to cover all the bases: if you got a ping on your phone that either Governor Pritzker or President Trump had dropped dead of a massive heart attack, would your first emotion be gladness or relief?

That’s a symptom, a warning sign that you’ve been drinking bit too much of that Kool-Aid—in this case, it’s been spiked, and it’s clouded your thinking, enough that you’ve forgotten Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.

Matthew 5:21–22

Thinking clearly means analyzing the hope-stealers in your life, and doing whatever is necessary to get rid of them.

I’m preaching to me as much as you. I deleted the app from my phone this week. It’s too much right now. Because I realized, even while studying for this sermon, that I felt a little less hopeful every time I opened it.

Do you see why you need to think clearly in order to hope completely? Everything around you is telling you to be intoxicated with all the things of this world, and Peter’s saying, “Don’t, it’ll rob you of your hope.”

Honestly, when I get in the most trouble in my Christian life is when I don’t stop to… think. How many times does the Spirit convict you, you’re repenting of something you did, and you think to yourself, “If I’d only stopped to think for a minute…”

That phrase, “Therefore, with your minds ready for action…” what kind of action is that? It’s looking for the truth! You see that in verse 14: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.”

So you were ignorant—how’s that for an encouraging message—but thankfully, that’s former. And it should be more former every day. But in order to get there, we have to think carefully, and critically, now more than ever.

I think we can all agree that there is a level of childishness in the thinking around us, isn’t there? We live in this strange time where thinking deeply and critically about something, and having opinions that cannot fit in 240 characters is somehow looked down upon. Where people who’ve spent their whole adult lives studying something, written books and dissertations on their respective fields, are just ignored or even scoffed at while a random person who’s opinion is not based on years of careful study but something they thought of in the shower this morning can have literally millions and millions of people reading it within hours.

That’s a recipe for disaster, and we’re seeing the results all around us. Truth, careful thought, and reasoned arguments have taken a second place to likes, shares, and political points scored.

The New Testament talks about thinking in a few different places, and I think they’re helpful to get the overall theme…

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

2 Timothy 2:7, ESV

So apparently thinking was valuable in Paul’s mind, because the Lord was going to use Timothy’s thinking to give him understanding in everything.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

1 Corinthians 13:11

There are a lot of men and women who never got there. Is there anything more grotesque than a 45 year old teenager?

Brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your thinking, but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking.

1 Corinthians 14:20

So be innocent as a child in regards to sin and evil, but you have to think like an adult. How do adults think differently than children?

Can you just imagine what a shining beacon of light followers of Christ could be in this world right now if “Brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your thinking” became our rallying cry for the next few months.

What if every conspiracy theory and outright lie about our leaders was met with a gracious but forceful rejection by every Christian.

Seriously, I have heard in the last two weeks that President Trump knew all along that this was a Chinese weapon of mass destruction but didn’t stop it because he didn’t want to look bad, and that Governor Pritzker hasn’t actually been in Illinois at all this whole time, the last two months, he’s been in Florida taping those daily updates.

Both of those things are ridiculous, and fall under false witness and slander. Spreading either one of those things is sinful and childish.

What if every time you hear another Christian say something like that, we just respond with this:

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior

1 Timothy 2:1–3

It might be uncomfortable, but don’t let them off the hook with “well, yeah, but I just heard…” So, gossip? “What, are you on their side now?” No, I’m on the truth’s side, and I’m on pleasing God’s side.

It might be uncomfortable for a while, but eventually we’d get to a place where bearing false witness against people would be once again unacceptable in the body of Christ.

There is an opportunity hear, church, to show a different way. A way that full of deep thought, deep conversation, grace, love, and TRUTH. And a way that is full of hope, not in this life, but in the life to come.

So, therefore, in light of the truth of the Gospel, what’s the first thing suffering Christians are instructed to do?

Hope completely in the grace of Jesus. And how do we go about doing that?

By thinking clearly, girding up the loins of our minds, turning that robe into running shorts, rolling up our sleeves, not being spiritually/mentally drunk on the things of this world, but daily fighting the battle to put our hope completely in the grace that is to come.

Questions