Holy Living

Introduction

From the mouth of babes is the expression that we often use when a child says something so true and so profound. And we recognize that many times children hear and see and observe far more than we recognize that they do. But we admit sometimes they’re still just children. And they don’t have a good understanding of concepts and ideas and and words, and we we laugh at those, and what father or mother in this group doesn’t still call something by a mispronounced word that your children called it. We still to this day, if it’s a pretty postcard chamber of commerce kind of weather day, we’ll go outside and say it’s a one-furnal day. Because our little son Blake used to say that.

Have to say the books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament. And as competitive little boys, we try to say them faster than anybody else. And my buddy Steve was trying to say things real fast, and at his young age, couldn’t pronounce things very good. And so he would always end the New Testament hurriedly with the books of Jude and Niller Wafers. Because he couldn’t pronounce Revelation, and somehow in his head it was Niller wafers. And so you know, sometimes children just don’t understand things and don’t have a good understanding of the concept of those things. They don’t know what that means. And it’s our job as parents and as teachers, isn’t it, to help them to grow out of that, to know here’s how you say that word.

And maybe more importantly, here’s what those words mean. Here’s what those concepts mean, what those idea means. You know, at what point, at what age does our child really understand what it means to be a Christian? I think from an early age they can have a concept, but their concept may be limited. It just means you mom and dad go to church. And mom and dad have a Bible, and mom and dad believe in God, and mom and dad will pray to God and read their Bible. That’s what it means to be a Christian. But hopefully, as parents, we’re doing a good job of helping them to see, no, now that’s part of it. But here, young man and young lady, is what it means to truly be a Christian.

My fear, trying not to be judgmental and condescending, but my fear is that too many grown adult Christians have no deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian than a child.

Do we truly understand what that means? And what it means for us. For our relationship to God and our relationship with our fellow man, friend and foe. The New Testament scriptures try to help us to grow. Try to help us to pull us out of those spiritual dark ages to a renaissance of knowledge of what it truly means to wear the name of Christ. Would you turn with me this morning in the book of 1 Peter chapter 1? 1 Peter chapter 1, and you’ll immediately recognize that that’s a misprint there. That’s supposed to be 1 Peter 1 13. We’re not reading this backwards. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13. The guy who prepares my PowerPoints messes up often. 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter is going to tell us and describe to us this concept of holy living, what it means to be a Christian, how we are to live our lives.

He begins our text, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13, with the familiar introductory word, therefore. That is, because of what I just said, it follows what I’m about to say. Therefore, now what has he said in the first 12 verses? Well, he has spoken of the hope that they are to have. In the midst of sufferings and persecutions that they were facing, what Peter would call their various trials that they were facing, there is hope. We have reserved for us a reward in heaven, he says. That’s part of the therefore. Because you have that hope, because you have that eternal reward, but also because, as he would say in the more immediate context, verses 10, 11, and 12, because you are receiving the end of your salvation.

This salvation that was spoken of by the prophets and seen and witnessed by the angels, but they had no concept fully of what they were talking about or what they were seeing. But we’re seeing the culmination of that. In other words, we live at the most enviable time of all human history, the fulfillment after the fulfillment of the promises of God. Because of that. Because of that hope, because of that fact that you’re receiving the salvation that the prophets only ignorantly spoke of, that the angels only ignorantly witnessed unfolded, that because of you having that, therefore, verse 13 says of 1 Peter chapter 1, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Let’s talk about this holy living and hopefully understand in a deeper, more meaningful sense of what it means to be a Christian.

1. Gird Up the Loins of Your Mind

To have the grown up, mature understanding of what that means. He says, first of all, because we have this hope, because we have this revealed salvation, he says, the gird up the loins of your mind. Now I have on the slide roll up your sleeves, and I’m going to explain why I’ve changed that phrase. I’ve kind of more modernized it. Gird up the loins of your mind. Let’s talk about what it would have meant to them to gird up their loins. You know, from your Bible classes and from the felt figures that were put on the felt board in Bible class in times go by that many times people in that day, even the men would have worn robes. And one thing about a robe, thing that hangs down loosely to your legs is that sometimes that can get in your way.

And so when a man, maybe particularly a soldier, was going to engage in at least three activities. If he was going to run, or if he was going to fight, or if he was going to engage in some kind of strenuous activity, he would take a part of that robe and kind of pull it up, and either in the front or in the back, tuck it into this belt, this piece of cloth that was known as the loin. Remember, part of the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6 was to have your midsection girded about with truth. And so they would have had that, what we would call a belt, but it would have been really just a piece of narrow cloth that they would have rolled around.

That they would tuck that part of their robe into that, either in the front or in the back, kind of forming a breach, forming, making kind of breeches, we would say, uh, with that robe. And so now, now I can run uninhibited by that flowing robe, or I can fight, or I can engage in serious, strenuous activity. That’s what girding up the loins meant. Today, we would use the expression, roll up your sleeves. And if I use that expression today, I think most of us, not all of us, would understand what I mean metaphorically by that. That roll up your sleeves many times means get ready to get to work. Those long sleeves are going to be in your way. And so today, if I’m going to work, or if I’m going to fight, or let’s be honest, if I’m going to eat, I’m going to take my jacket off.

I don’t want to be encumbered by, and I may roll my sleeves up so I have freedom of movement, and I’m ready to be engaged in this exercise that I’m going to do. That’s what Peter says in regard to their salvation. Therefore, gird up, roll up the sleeves of your mind. Get ready to work. Maybe get ready to fight. But I would think maybe more in this context. Get ready to work. But he doesn’t just say roll up the sleeves or gird up the loin. Girt up the loins of your mind. He’s not saying you’re engaged in some some kind of physical struggle. We understand that. But that this is a mental exercise. And maybe what he’s telling us here is that this is going to be a deep, strenuous mental exercise.

Get ready. I can remember. Mrs. Rogers in the third grade. When it got time to do something that was going to be a little bit challenging, she wouldn’t tell us to gird up the loins of our mind. She wouldn’t even tell us to roll up our sleeves. Mrs. Rogers would say, put your thinking caps on. And what she meant was, I need your attention. You’re going to have to really think here. This is not something that you can just, yeah, yeah. And you’re going to have to study this concept. And so Peter is telling us that because of the hope that we have, because of the salvation that we’ve received, that we need to prepare ourselves for this strenuous activity. There’s something to be engaged in here.

2. Be Sober

If we get nothing else out of this lesson, get this point. That our Christianity, our hope, our salvation that Peter references in this first chapter is not something to be taken flippantly and lightly. Roll up your sleeves. This is going to take some work. It’s going to take some brain power. You’re going to have to sweat and engage in some activity here that’s going to require you rolling up your sleeves. Roll up the sleeves or gird up the loins of your mind. He will go on to say, be sober. We’ve talked about this word, this expression before, but it bears repeating here. This concept of sobriety. Today, almost exclusively, if we use the word sober or sobriety, we’re using it as the opposite of intoxication. Someone who is so overtaken by some drug or some alcohol that they are what we call intoxicated.

And let’s think about what we mean by that idea of intoxication. We don’t just mean that they’ve drunk enough alcohol by volume. We also don’t even mean it meets some legal definition of their blood alcohol level, that if we were to examine their blood, that there would be this percentage of it. What we usually mean by that is that their behavior has been altered. They are stumbling, they are bumbling, they are saying things and falling down and acting such a way as a result of their blood alcohol level and the volume of alcohol that they have imbibed in. That’s what we mean by the idea of intoxicated or drunk. Now, the opposite of that is sober. I haven’t done that. I haven’t imbibed of those alcoholic beverages or illegal substances such that my mind, my words, my behavior, even the way I can walk a straight line has not been affected.

Now, when the New Testament uses the word sober, it doesn’t use it necessarily as I’m not drunk. But it does use it in that sense that I am using my mental faculties properly. They’re there. And so be sober means kind of what the first expression, gird up the loins of your mind, be prepared. Know that you’re engaged in a fight or in a mental exercise that’s going to require some exertion on your part. But it also carries with it the idea of just simply being level-headed, of having your mind about you and knowing what you’re doing. It also carries with it the idea of seriousness. Be sober, be serious. We even have an expression today someone’s as sober as a judge, and it carries with it a little bit of bit of that sternness and seriousness.

Now we understand that by this command to be sober, that Scripture is not condemning laughter. The Bible speaks about laughter in the place of laughter. Doesn’t mean that you can’t have a good time in life and smile and enjoy. In fact, if anybody should enjoy this life, it’s those who have the hope of the other life. We ought to be the happiest, most smiling, laughing people on this planet. But it does mean this imperative to be sober, that in the midst of that, that we understand the seriousness of this thing called Christianity. That we understand that it’s not a thing to be taken with frivolity. That I take the fact that I’m a child of God very seriously. Doesn’t mean there’s no joy in it, no laughter in it, but it means that I understand what this means.

That this relationship has with it not just blessings, but some serious responsibilities.

3. Rest Your Hope Fully Upon the Grace

After having earlier referenced the concept of hope that would get them through, that would cause them to endure the various fiery trials, he says that we are to live with hope. There, 1 Peter 1, verse 13, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Rest your hope fully upon the grace. You’ve heard, we’re talking a lot about modern day expressions this morning for some reason, but you’ve heard the other modern day expression, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. And I think what we know, we know what that means, and that’s probably sage advice at times, but there’s times when that’s not sage advice.

And here he’s telling us to put all our eggs in one basket. Let your hope rest your hope fully upon the grace. That it when it comes to God and the promises of God, we can go all in. We can put all of our hope fully upon the grace of God that will be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We can fully invest ourselves into God. We can put everything in that basket, if you want to borrow the expression. That we can put everything into our commitment and our relationship to God. There’s no hedging of our bets. There’s no plan B when it comes to this. We understand the hope that we have and what that means. Let’s back up a little bit there in chapter one to see the basis of that hope.

Chapter 1, verse 3. I’m still in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Let’s pause there. He says he has begotten us, he’s given birth to us to a living hope. When the term living is used in Scripture, it’s not something that’s just kind of thrown in there casually. It’s intentional. Here it’s a little bit intentional to play on words. Our living hope is based upon the death of Jesus. You see the irony of that? That our life is based upon his death. But also it carries with it the idea that this is a living hope.

These Christians were facing the threat of death. And maybe even had witnessed the death of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But he was telling them, in the midst of death, in the midst of a dying world, you can have a living hope. That brother who you saw wrestled away from his family and taken to the magistrate and put to death because of his faith had a living hope. That death wasn’t the last of that. And so we can have that living hope in the midst of a dying, even spiritually dying and dead world. We can have that living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, because though our life is based upon his death, it’s not based just upon his death, because death wasn’t the final word in his life.

He goes on to say to verse 4 to an inheritance, he’s begotten us, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. It’s living in the sense that it does not fade away, that it does not defile, it does not corrupt, and it is reserved in heaven for you. Let’s talk just briefly about that concept. We understand what a reservation is. That means you’ve put your name in and a place is being saved for you. And we read that, and we might think that our place, what he’s talking about is our place has been reserved, that some hope has been reserved, that he’s talking about heaven or the pleasures of heaven, but he’s really talking about the people. When he says in verse 5, he doesn’t say reserved in heaven for you, which is kept.

He says, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. It’s not just that God has promised a reward for us, and he is protecting and guarding and reserving that reward. He says that God has chosen you, and you are protected. You are reserved, you are kept and guarded by the power of God. And so no wonder then he would say later in that chapter in verse 13 that we are to rest our hope fully on the grace that is be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In our Bible classes here in the auditorium, we’re examining that spirit world and trying to make it real to us, although it is largely unseen by us for this concept, for this reason, so that we can fully put our hope and our trust in him.

Doesn’t mean that we just live with the promise of heaven when this life is over. It means that we live with the promise of heaven. That changes everything about us.

This will date myself or age myself. But growing up, one of my favorite TV shows was Leave It to Beaver. You’re old enough to remember, leave it to Beaver, Beaver and his friend Wally and Mom and Dad Ward and June. And every episode was the same. Let’s just be honest. It was the same episode. It started out good. Somewhere in the middle, Little Beaver would get into trouble. He’s going to do something, and he’s worried. He’s broken a window. He’s lost in a cave somewhere. He’s just, he’s in trouble, and he’s just worried that this isn’t going to turn out good, and that mom and dad aren’t going to love him anymore, or this is the end of his world. And oh no, we’re in that low.

But it all always ends up with that good moral of the story that dad, mom tries to teach him, no, we still love you. You’re still large enough. Yeah, you made a mistake, but it’s all. And it always ended good. I’ve shared with you that when I’m reading a book or watching a television show or a movie, I’m too invested in it. They grab me and draw me in. I’ll cry at a movie or a TV. I’ll cry at an ATT commercial. I’m in it. I mean, I just this way I am. And I was that way as a child. I would leave it to Beaver, and I would just get nervous, and I would be biting my nails and wondering what’s going to happen. Is it going to, is it?

And I had to, even as a child, kind of have a heart-to-heart talk with me in the midst of this anxiety. Wait a minute. You know how this is going to end. He’s not going to die. The show’s named after him. It’s going to be okay. And part of living with hope is that concept, isn’t it? We’ve read the last chapter of the book. We know how this story ends. Is it tough for these Christians who he would say, in this verse 6, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you’ve been grieved by various trials. It’s rough right now, Peter says. We’re in the middle of that show when it looks like there’s no hope, and this is it. This is the episode where the bad thing really happens.

4. Be Holy, for I Am Holy

But in this we greatly rejoice. In this what? This hope. We know how that story ends. And so we gird up the loins of our minds, and we are sober because we know. We know that we have hope. Our hope is fully engaged. But also it affects our behavior. And so he’s going to go on to say, as obedient children, verse 14 of 1 Peter 1, not conforming yourselves to former lust, as in your ignorance. As he who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. What is the mature concept of Christianity mean? It means he is my father.

Because my hope is fully trusting in him.

What I’m engaged in here. And I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work and invest the sweat equity that’s going to be required to be a child of God. And I want to be his in every sense of the word. God’s chosen me through the gospel. God has devoted himself to me in the blessings that a father bestows to his children, in the salvation that a redeemer brings to his people. And so I want to be invested in him. And I’m going to be holy as he is holy. I want to be separate and set apart, not as conforming yourselves to the former lust. But I’m going to be obedient, children to a holy father. And I’m willing to be distinct and different and unique.

Conclusion

Because that’s what God is for me. And I want to be that to him. May God grant us the maturity to understand the depth of what it means to be a Christian. And let’s roll up the sleeves of our mind and be serious about this thing that we claim to be. And let’s fully invest ourselves in the hope that we have. And let’s chase and pursue our Father in His holiness. Maybe you haven’t become a Christian and you need to begin this exercise, knowing, as Jesus would caution those would-be followers of His day. Stop and count the cost. And I don’t think Jesus, when he was saying, stop, count the cost, just said, you know, you might get beat for this. You might die for this.

Certainly it involved that, but surely it meant part of what we talked about here. Jesus is saying, Do you know what it means to be my follower? It’s not just wearing my name. It’s not just going to church on Sunday. It’s going to mean everything about you is mine. You’re going to love God with your heart, soul, body, everything. Count that cost. But I’m sure Jesus was confident as we are this morning that when you honestly count that cost, you will say it is worth it. And I still want to follow him. In fact, I want to follow him even more. Would you believe in him? Repent of your sins. Turn your back on those former ignorant lusts that you followed after. Confess your faith before men, not just this day, but every day and every way in your life.

And to be baptized this morning for the forgiveness of your sins. Would you do that? And then roll up the sleeves of your mind and be serious and rest your hope fully upon the grace of God. Can we help you that this morning or help you in any way? As together we stand and as we sing.