Peter's Teachings on the Mind
A Call to Holiness in 1st Peter
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1st Peter 1.16
July 19th 2015
Okay we left off last week having covered verses 1-12 where Peter, in summary, expressed the fact that those who are His will have their faith challenged. After ensuring us of this, Peter, however, reminds us that possessing this salvation is something the prophets all anxiously looked forward to and even the angels looked into.
Then we come to our text for today – verses
1st Peter 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;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
The Mind and Its Significance
Okay, so in the face of the fact that our faith will be tried like gold and that it is such a precious possession that angels also try and examine it, Peter says at verse 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.
The verse begins with a reference to all that he has said in verses 1-12, and in the face of them, he continues at verse 13 with: Wherefore . . .(“in light of,” “looking at all of these things supports” . . . “Gird up the loins of your mind.”
The gird up part is an allusion to the manner in which the Orientals culture were accustomed to dress. They would wear loose, flowing robes, so that, when they wished to run, or to fight, or to apply themselves to any business, they are obliged to bind their garments close around them. Jesus refers to girding up in a few places in scripture. But Peter uses the illustration in a significant manner – he suggests that the believers gird up (gather in the contents of) their minds. The Greek word for mind being DEE-A NOIA and meaning your comprehension and observations and mental faculties.
Renewing and Guarding the Mind
Gather them all up, have your minds prepared to do your duties and endure the trials and tests of your life — like a person would physically prepare themselves to run or labor or race. Why the loins of your mind? I had a man years ago say: “Everything is in the mind.” I didn’t really understand what he meant but I think I’m beginning to.
There are seven or eight primary Greek words that are translated into the English word mind: Nous, Prothumia, Dianoia, Sophreneo, Meteouizo, Hupo and Ana “mim nesko.” Here the word is Dee-anoia and of the 58 times mind is used in the New Testament it is used 13 of them. It properly means your deepest thoughts. Gather them up and ready yourself as you have them in your possession and at the ready to respond and react to the trials and position you find yourself in.
When my teacher told me that all of our battles are in our minds we might automatically realize that we really aren’t sure where the mind of a human being is. Essentially, mind represents the collective everything of the being – our experiences, our memories, our intuitions, our feelings and emotions, our judgments and prejudices, our opinions and informational pools. The mind is certainly not only the gray matter between the ears but neither is it the beating heart or the emotions.
Scripture tells us to renew our minds, however, by the washing of the word, suggesting that our natural minds are polluted and therefore renewing them is essential to proper thought, which is the precursor to proper action. This must be what my mentor meant by its all in the mind. When we can ascertain all the elements of a situation or problem or habit or temptation – intellectually, intuitively, emotionally, etc., the battle can be won in the head well before it was waged in real time. Renewal of the mind means that our perspectives are in line with Him and His Spirit. To gird this renewed mind up in preparation for our walk speaks to this.
Peter adds – be sober. The Greek is Nepho and it has a literal meaning, abstain from wine, and a figurative meaning, watch and stay on alert. These definitions actually are complementary of each other because if a person abstains from wine they stand a much better chance of staying on alert.
The Context of Peter's Admonition
Alert believers would obviously have abstained from wine. Considering the context, it seems to me that Peter means to say, "Stay on alert," but for that to be possible, it would include abstaining from wine. There is a time and place for everything. Peter’s writings were to a people who were on watch – for what – Jesus' return and the end of the age. This is the context, no doubt about it.
In Matthew 24, Jesus had given to Peter and others signs and related actions they should take when the signs started popping up. “Don’t go out into the desert, stay on the rooftops, watch for this and that.” Here, Peter reminds his reader to remain watchful – to stay sober – so as to be better prepared to react and implement these directives. Then he adds, “And hope to the end.” Don’t become faint and weary in this – don’t abandon the hope of the gospel – hang on till the end. This advice was imperative to their well-being then, and it is imperative to ours now. We get weary and wondering and worried and doubtful of our course and faith – Hope to the end, Peter writes.
Hope and Expectation
In our case, I think this means to the end of our lives. If I am wrong, then to the end of the world. In either case, we are living in hope to the end of the course of our days. Peter then tells them what they are hoping for – “For the grace that is to be brought unto you.” When should they expect this grace to be brought unto them? Peter tells us in the next line: “At the revelation of Jesus Christ.” A very important biblical and historical and doctrinal insight lives in these two lines.
(First the admonition) – Gird up your minds and be watchful, brethren and sisters, and hope till the END – THE END . . .
(NOW THE PROMISE) “For . . . the grace that is to be brought unto you.” “Hope for it, Watch for it. The grace is coming!” (When?) “At the Revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Understanding Peter's Message
From this, we can say that Peter was clearly speaking to a specific audience and was reassuring them that they ought to hang on in sobriety and hope with renewed minds because “the grace that IS TO BE brought to them was on its way AT the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” I think we can say that the exact same directives apply to us now – that we too ought to gird up our minds and be sober and live in hope for the grace that is COMING at the Revelation of Jesus Christ to each of us when we meet Him at His physical appearance in our existences – which will be at our respective deaths.
For the recipients of Peter’s epistle, this was literal – He is coming – be ready. For us, it is entirely spiritual – death is coming, be prepared. I am personally convinced that the inferences of his admonitions are also just as applicable to us today as they were then. Let me explain. Notice what Peter actually says to his readers – Gird up the loins of your minds, be watchful and hopeful FOR WHAT. . . (ready?) “For the grace THAT IS to be brought unto you.” In other words, the GRACE had NOT been delivered to them . . . yet. Saved by grace through faith the MOMENT we believe? Unlike many in the body today, I think that the salvation we receive the moment we believe is the invitation to be His sons and daughters and to enter into the Kingdom rather than the salvation assured or guaranteed.
I say this due to passages like this where Peter tells His readers who have believed and have received the Holy Spirit to keep their minds ready and watchful and in hope waiting for the arrival of the Grace AT the REVELATION of Jesus Christ – which again, for them was physically literal – and for us spiritually applicable. Looking at the context of the time and situation surrounding Peter’s letter, these folks were in all probability for the most part Jews who had converted to Christianity. Jesus had come to the House of Israel, He offered Himself up as a sacrifice for sin, He was resurrected to new life, and He had ascended into heaven – into the Holy of Holies of heaven (like one of the High Priests of old) to take His blood and make atonement for the people before God.
The Return of Jesus and Assurance of Grace
High Priests of Old did this. The Nation of Israel were not convinced that their sins had been forgiven UNTIL the High Priest existed the Holy of Holies (returned out of it), which proved to them that the offering was acceptable to God because the High Priest came back out alive. So it was with the return of Jesus from the heavenly Holy of Holies. The Grace that was to be brought UNTO THEM had not yet appeared (Jesus had not yet returned) to prove that God was pleased with His offering.
Some might say, “God showed his approval in raising His Son from the dead – which is true. But looking to the parallels of the Old Testament when the High Priest entered to make atonement he FIRST atoned for His own sin before making atonement for the people. The parallel to Jesus' resurrection was God showing that Jesus and all He said, did, and was – His life – was acceptable to God completely – which is why He individually rose from the dead.
But after the High Priest made atonement for Himself He then entered into the Holy of Holies for the people. And while He was inside they waited, as a people, to see if He would come out (or back to them) signifying that God had accepted the offering on THEIR behalf! So Peter is telling these folks (who I believe would in large part understand this) stay ready – He’s coming back, which will prove to you that grace has come to you – that you have been forgiven, that you are part of the kingdom, and God is pleased with your faith and love.
Peter's Message of Hope and Readiness
When does Peter tell them that they would receive this assurance? “At the revelation of Jesus Christ.” At the return of the High Priest out of the heavenly Holy of Holies. And here’s the thing – those who were NOT recipients of His grace because His blood taken into the Holy of Holies did NOT cover them and their sin before God, when He came back they were wiped out by sword, and famine, and armies, and fire. Which was when Jerusalem was destroyed – the City of David, the City of Peace – in 70 AD. Hence Peter’s warnings and encouragement to those who believed to gird up, and be sober, and walk in hope.
Application of Peter's Message Today
The question remains – how do these things apply to us today as believers – and how have they had application since 70 AD (or for the past one thousand nine hundred and forty-five years of believers).
On the one hand, some say that there is no application to us because gentiles are not nor ever have been under the Law, and where there is no law there is no sin, and so everyone from 70 AD forward dies, is saved, but is judged according to their works of faith on Christ and love. Others suggest that even though we have not the law written in stone, we do have His laws in our minds and are therefore culpable (without excuse) before God and must respond to the offering of His Son. Don’t respond and you will meet the same end as those in Jerusalem who were not covered by the blood – wiped out when they meet Him at death – with those who are covered by the blood being saved.
My thought is those who were saved in 70 AD believed on Him and received His invitation to join the Kingdom. But GRACE had NOT fully been extended to them until they stood by faith trusting in Him until He arrived. The implication to us today remains the same. All believers remain in the vine by faith, proving they are His Son’s and Daughters by the love they share, and receive the fullness of His grace only when He reveals Himself to them at death. Those who have not girded up their minds, and remained watchful, and hopeful in Him will meet the same fate as those in 70 AD who failed to do the same.
But like the victims of the Roman wrath on Jerusalem at His coming, those who have either received His invitation but failed to abide, and those who never received it all WERE NOT SAVED from the destruction at Jerusalem – nevertheless they did continue on after that destruction was over. Just my thoughts. Take them according to the Word.
Peter's Admonition
Peter continues with his admonition. In verse 13 he said:
Wherefore gird up the loins of
Milk and Meat in Spiritual Teaching
"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; Then adds—
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance."
Okay, before we discuss this passage and the verses that follow I want to point something out.
We call the first gathering we hold here on Sundays Milk and this afternoon we call Meat. People who attend both will say things like – they are both meaty. I smile inside at this because their observation is true. My approach to the word is pretty much the same no matter where I’m teaching. The subject matter helps define Milk and Meat as teaching Matthew can be much lighter fare than teaching Hebrews.
Expectation of Conformity
But nevertheless, I am not altering the approach to content all that much except in one area – Do you know what it is? Expectation of conformity. When I teach Milk I anticipate those who are receiving it to fail in application. Why? Why are primarily babes. They are being nurtured on the Milk of the Word – not because what is fed to them is Milk but because the way they ingest it is milk to many of them. Many are relatively new Christians and God receives and accepts them in all of their faults and failures.
If I was ever to alter the content it would be an emphasis on grace, and His love, and His longsuffering, and His unconditional acceptance of people. That being said (and this is NOT always the case unfortunately) but when I teach in the afternoons I tap on the things that show God has expectations of His children – those who are truly His, those who are joint-heirs with Christ and if I ever get heavy handed here it is with the FACT – not the assumption but the fact – that God has extended to us an invitation and there are expectations of believers who, having been in His care and know better, to mature and grow in the Word and to set aside those things that abided in us when we were babes and children.
These things are evident as we study the books we have studied together in Meat. That the fanciful, coddling, nurturing message of His unconditional love MUST be tempered with the fact that as we grow in Him He (not other people and certainly not religion) but He expects maturation, fruit, and for us to put away former things.
We might liken our Meat gatherings to upper division Christianity – even though I am frequently the one to dumb the whole thing down. In my estimation one of the most disturbing things to witness are people who have gone to church for decades of time and remain babes in action and attitude.
So here Peter brings this subject to the forefront and says:
"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; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:"
Spiritual Maturity
Can you imagine the reaction from the heart people would have who have just come to understand Jesus and His unconditional love and then they have this passage put on them? It’s too much too soon – and if you are in that place as a babe tune out now. You should be getting the Milk of the Word well before you try and understand and consume the Meat. But if you have been in the word, and you have walked with Christ and you understand what it means to be a Christian both in Word AND in deed – listen up. Peter is clear.
Conduct yourselves as a child of God would conduct themselves and obey His commands (to believe and love) and submit to His will – as Christ submitted. In this model we have something occurring that cannot be ignored. We are moving from Jesus being our Savior to being our King. In our Christian infancies we look to Him with utter adoration, in our maturity we look to Him with utter immolation. Initially we realize that He died for us and rejoice only to later realize the call for us to die for Him and to suffer.
As babes we are fed the Milk of His word – it is placed on our lips and we respond, sucking it all down and growing thereby. As men and women in Him we…
Living as Mature Believers
are given meat, and we have to build and light our our fires, and gather our seasonings, and cook the content, cut it up and chew it with adult molars so as to be able to swallow it – or choke. All as a means to produce fruit – an impossible demand when we find ourselves unable to grow into healthy, strong adult vines.
The times were getting tough in Peter’s day. Tremendous forces were pushing down on believers and Peter wants them to have the ability to withstand it all. He wants them to not just survive but to thrive, as mature fruit-bearing believers waiting for the revelation of Christ to come to deliver the fullness of His grace upon them.
Obedience and Transformation
So Peter gives meaty instruction. And says: “as obedient children,” The Greek is Hoop AK O AY and it means to earnestly submit to something or someone – in this case, as children earnestly submitting to the will of God. What is the will of God that He would want His children to earnestly submit? To this question men have created ten thousand answers. But the summary of the answer in the Christian era is He would desire us to earnestly submit to being loving. And all we need to do is look at His only begotten to see the model – listen – both in the things He was about AND in the things that He was not. The combination of all He was and not just one or two or three sides of Him. Him. I would suggest that the summary of Jesus' life – what it was about and what it was not about – can (I would suggest) be described as . . . HOLY.
Renewing Our Minds
So as a means to pursue this life Peter says: “not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:” Peter’s advice here dovetails perfectly with Paul’s who wrote in Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” In other words, we don’t embrace Jesus as Savior, rejoicing in being free from the guilt of sin and death and then begin to “Slouch toward Gommorrah” but we truly assume the title of Child of God (verse child of this world) and follow Him.
Peter says, “Not fashioning yourselves,” which is another way to suggest that we don’t model our life in Christ after the lives we came from but instead, with minds constantly being renewed we fashion ourselves after the ONLY model, the only arche a Christian would adopt – Christ Jesus.
So, prior to conversion we were supremely selfish – this would suggest that post-conversion we become supremely unselfish. Prior to conversion we lived for personal gratification – very close to selfishness – post-conversion we seek to gratify others, to serve them, to help them, and to lighten their load. Prior to conversion we operated by the rules of an earthly kingdom and had citizenship here. Post-conversion our citizenship is found in a kingdom on high, one that thrives not in the things of this world but in Spiritual things, and things that bear the fruits of love.
Wealth and fame and domination often accompanied our former lives but in Him (and looking at Him and His Life) all that is in the world is not of the Father but is of this world. Looking to the three temptations of Christ (and His responses to them) we can readily tell what is of this world and what is of Him. The balance and the tenuous nature of the balance can easily be tipped – even in the name of doing God’s will.
Unfortunately for me, and probably out of tremendous immaturity, I have lived my nascent Christian faith in a very public sense. I only really started reading the Bible as a Christian in 2004 and I hit the public eye as a babe in 2005. Where I began and where I am now has been recorded and archived since day one. And though I have grown in and through Him and His Spirit and grace I have also had a number of public setbacks and failures and lessons.
Here Peter speaks of “not fashioning ourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance.” And then Peter gets down to business and says:
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
Holiness in Actions and Conduct
Since God Himself who has called you to be His, and is Holy, Peter says, “So be you holy in all manner of conversation.” The King James makes this sound like being holy in the things we say to each other (due to the use of conversation) but of all the translations I consulted the Greek is translated into Actions, Conduct, Habits of life, and Behavior. What we do is the better definition than what we say. And what does that LOOK LIKE?
Walking in Holiness
Paul says in Ephesians 4:
Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
That is how Jesus walked. That is Holy living. It is a relation to the world that is lowly, and humble, and meek, and longsuffering. It forebears in love one toward another IN LOVE. It endeavours to keep the UNITY of the Spirit in the Bond of peace. Isn’t that radical? It truly pictures who Jesus was from the heart. What holiness looks like. We think, sometimes automatically, that holiness looks like asceticism – abstinence and celibacy and strict codes of dietary and outward appellations. But true holiness is a condition of the heart, it is love, peacemaking, patience, humility, longsuffering. Since the one who called us is holy Peter says we ought to pursue the same course. Then adds:
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Imitating Our God
This passage hearkens all the way back to Leviticus 11:44. Moses was talking to the COI about eating strange things and God said: “For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” The point of this is to show that if God whom we love and follow is holy we ought to be Holy too.
Think about this concept closely – we naturally imitate the gods we look up to most. If it's Gene Simmons we will wear face paint and elongate our tongues. If it's Bill Gates or the founder of Apple or Lance Armstrong we will incorporate and begin to reflect their attributes – almost without thinking. Isaiah pointed this out when he mocked the COI for worshipping insensate objects like carved idols, telling them that they would only see as far as the idol could see (which is nothing).
The point being IF we truly do love and worship whatever God we love and worship we will embrace and mimic and embody all that our chosen God is about. And if we are going to embrace and love and follow the true and living God those who love Him will – will – be as He is. Here we can clearly see from Peter that He is holy – listen – with HOLY being best defined in the life of a person here on this earth as all things Jesus was when He was here. And in the end, I think we can safely say that He was:
Humble
Not of this world
Longsuffering
Patient
Full of faith
Kind
Truthful
Someone with a heart for the lost and broken
Forgiving
Someone who did the will of the Father
Someone who loved.
Let’s stop there.
