13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Endurance Trail Races
In my thirties, I enjoyed the sport of endurance trail running. Though I was never fast, I had fun entering small local races as a way to challenge myself and meet personal goals.
One race, in particular, stands out. It was around the perimeter of the Folsom Dam in Northern California in late winter. Wet and winding, it was a miserable and muddy day. But the finish was epic. After 31 miles of trails, the race ended at a picnic area. Because these races are small, racers often finish all alone. Sometimes you cross the line, and barely anyone notices. This race was different. They spotted my race bib number from afar and, as I neared the line, they got on the sound system and announced my city and name -- "From Monterey, California, Nate Holdridge!" And the crowd -- mostly comprised of fellow racers who were now eating barbeque -- went wild! I'll admit, it was a pretty good feeling.
In our passage today, Peter will tell us more of the mentality the exile Christian life requires -- let's call it the Exile Mentality. I find it compares nicely to the mindset needed for endurance sports. First, it requires a well-placed hope on the finish line. You won't train right, execute a nutrition plan, or run the actual race well if you don't have a vision for the end. And you won't live an exilic Christianity without placing your hope fully on the grace to be revealed when Jesus returns.
Second, it requires living differently. Endurance athletes are a different breed, often misunderstood by the general population. Why would you want to run twenty miles on Saturday mornings? Why is that enjoyable? Why do you like to suffer? I'm not here to justify those decisions but to point out it takes a different lifestyle. Nutrition, sleep, and free time are all affected by the commitment to run the race. And you won't make it far in the exilic Christian life without being different. Peter calls it "holiness" in our passage.
So today, from our text, let's consider the Exile Mentality. It makes two statements:
- I will hope well (13).
- I will pursue holiness (14-16).
1. I Will Hope Well (13)
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Biblical Hope
The first statement the Exile Mentality makes is "I will hope well." I take this from verse 13: Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (13).
This is a transitional statement from Peter. After writing much about our glorious salvation in the first twelve verses, he is about to deliver a truckload of exhortations to the church. The rest of 1 Peter is one of the most exhortative passages in all of Scripture.
But Peter knows we have to set our hopes firmly on Jesus and the grace he'll bring with him when he returns. If we don't think, dream, look forward to, and anticipate the marvelous grace of his forever kingdom, we will flail when the pressures of exilic Christianity press upon us. We need to place our hope fully on Jesus' coming.
Therefore
Notice how Peter begins this exhortation to set our hope on the grace coming with Jesus -- Therefore (13). After everything Peter has told us so far our living hope, there is an appropriate response. There's something we must do.
And what we must do is set our hope fully on the grace that is coming with Jesus (13).
I should pause here to let this sink in. The Exile Mentality is able to say, "I am involved. I must get my hope in the right place. I am being asked to set my vision correctly. I am not just a passive passenger on the ride of life. I must actively engage myself in putting my hope where it belongs -- on the grace that is coming when Jesus returns."
Much of life works together to get you off this eternal perspective. We get distracted. We get discouraged. We get tempted. We get sinful. Or, to put it in the terms we've framed this letter, we want to angrily fight, retreat in fear, or give in and conform. But we must repeatedly come back to the strong acknowledgment that there's more to life and set our hope fully on the coming grace of the kingdom of Jesus.
Fully On The Grace That Will Be Brought To You
And Peter describes that future state in beautiful terms: the grace that will be brought to you (13).
It's an interesting description because the Bible often speaks of Jesus' future kingdom as glory, not grace. But, here, Peter sings of it as grace -- favor, privilege, a gift. It will be both, of course. Jesus' forever kingdom will be filled with his glory. No unrighteousness. No injustice. No pain. No suffering. Human flourishing. Beautiful community. Innate joy.
But through it all, forever and ever, we will be conscious that it is all of grace. We will always be impressed that God decided to give us such an elaborate, timeless, never-ending, always-unfolding gift.
And I like that Peter says it will be brought to you (13). It's on its way. Like the light of a distant star, taking years to travel to earth, so the grace coming with Jesus is on its way! It might seem like it's taking a long time, but it will most certainly arrive.
How To Pursue Hope
But Peter was not content to tell us we should set our hope fully on the grace coming with Jesus. Instead, knowing how pivotal this attitude is, Peter took the time to show us how to set our hope on Christ. This is why he started this new section by saying, "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded" (13). Let's consider both.
By Preparing Your Mind For Actions
If you want to hope well -- to set your hope on the grace coming with Jesus -- you will have to prepare your mind for action.
The image Peter uses in this phrase comes from his society. He literally said, "gird up the loins on your mind." In those days, when a person needed to run or work or exert themselves in some way, they would take their long robes and tie them up into their belt. They would gird up their robes so they could move more swiftly.
Peter knows we cannot expect our minds to naturally drift towards the grace coming with Jesus. We need to reverse-engineer our lives from eternity's viewpoint. What is important forever is what we should be about today.
But there are too many distractions for this mentality or hope to occur naturally. Instead, we must prepare our minds for action. We must continually plot and plan and pursue this eternal hope. We must conceive of ways to refocus our minds on the all-important grace coming with Jesus.
Do not have a lazy mind. Jesus said we are to love God with our minds (Mark 12:30). We are to put on the right mentality. Peter knows that if we don't, we won't live the true exilic Christian life.
Imagine a CrossFit box (that's what they call their "gyms"). At the designated hour, people park their cars, walk up to the building, and the class begins. What are you imagining? I'm sure you are thinking of men and women dressed appropriately for the physical suffering they are about to endure. You aren't imagining people in business suits. You aren't imagining flip-flops and Hawaiian shirts. No, they all have workout gear on. Spandex. Tank tops. Shorts. Sneakers. They are ready to roll.
But many of us approach the Christian life without any shift of mentality. We hope it will just happen. But discipleship and growth require a mentality, a plan. We read, we think, we study, we pray, we fast, we exercise our gifts, we train for godliness -- this all takes an engaged mentality.
Have you ever been in a gym when someone walks in who clearly has no plan? They are sporadic in their efforts. They try every machine. They use some of them incorrectly. They get to talking for a while. They drift about without any discipline. Peter doesn't want us to be this way. Instead, he tells us we must ready our minds to live in the light of eternity.
By Being Sober-Minded
But he also tells us we must be sober-minded (13). This definitely includes sobriety -- Christians should not allow their minds to be recreationally clouded by any substance.
But Peter was thinking of more than physical sobriety. He's addressing a sober mind because he knows physical intoxication is a danger, but so is mental intoxication.
How do we become intoxicated in the mind? With a lack of moderation. When we consume too much of something, we lose our sobriety in that area of the mind.
Consider your own life and heart. There are areas and even pleasures of life that are good in their proper place, but when enjoyed beyond moderation, they can deaden your senses towards the grace coming with Jesus. Too much entertainment. Too much news. Too much fashion. Too much exercise. Too much work. Too much home improvement. Too much wealth accumulation. Too much family time. Good things that should never turn into God-things. And, without moderation, they can cloud our vision of Jesus, replacing our hope in his coming grace with distraction, discouragement, or disappointment.
So the exile Christian is determined to place their hope in the right place. We say, "I will place my hope well." And with discipline, we reorient our lives around this great hope.
But this passage shows us something else the Exile Mentality says.
2. I Will Pursue Holiness (14-16)
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
God Shows Me What Holiness Is
The holy life is a beautiful life. Unfortunately for many of us, the word "beauty" is not the word we'd usually connect with "holy."
But don't buy the lie. Satan has whispered into the ears of the sons and daughters of Eve for thousands of years now, telling us God is keeping good from us. If we eat the forbidden fruit, he says, we will find life. Our eyes will be opened.
But the holy life is beautiful because it's the life God designed us to live. The distinction that God is our designer, and therefore the one we should follow, is an important shift modern believers must make.
I say shift because it is clear we are in the age of the dominance of the inner person. What we feel, our impulses and inner drives, have become the most important identifiers of who we are in our society. It is the age of the psychological man, where desires define us.
But the exilic Christian life turns from within to God above. He is the standard.
That's what Peter shows us in this brief passage. He said that we should be holy in all our conduct because God is holy. He even quotes Leviticus. There, God said, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (16). So God is the new standard we are to submit to -- not our inner person or desires or drives. Contrary to popular opinion, we aren't a bucket of desires society has oppressed. Our mission isn't to buck societal norms in an attempt to be our true selves (which is a mission that makes us like the rest of society). Instead, God's holiness is our pursuit.
And this pursuit of holiness will make us different. You just can't live the exilic Christian life without this understanding. You will be different.
I recently officiated a beautiful wedding on Carmel beach. It was a small gathering, and it was made beautiful by the couple who married that day. The man was a student at the DLI -- a serious Jesus-follower who was part of Calvary while here in Monterey. The woman had been a student of mine during a brief block class I'd taught at my old bible college. They met online, and when he moved to Monterey, she encouraged him to look our church up.
It was an honor to officiate their wedding because they had clearly adopted a different ethic than the world system they live in. Society would tell them, "You have desires. You are attracted to one another. We've created ways to enjoy those pleasures without the responsibility of having a family. Go for it. Be your true self."
But they instead committed themselves to a holy God, regarding him as their designer. He created the gift of sex as a glue that would help bind them together after they'd made a lifelong commitment to one another. They saw it as a holy act designed by a holy God. And they looked to him to define when they could enjoy each other physically.
I use this example to highlight the beautiful shift that occurred in them. They let God define holiness -- what is right and wrong -- for them.
Not My Old Passions
Part of this pursuit of holiness is the rejection of our passions (14). Peter said, "Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance" (14).
The fact Peter gave such a command means he knew those desires still rage within us. The passions exist. But we are not to be conformed to those passions.
This is sometimes a slow and painful process. We need God's grace and mercy every day while on this journey. Fortunately, his mercies and compassions are new every morning (Lamentation 3:22-23).
But why does Peter exhort his readers to avoid their old life's passions? On the one hand, it sounds like any standard Christian exhortation. On the other hand, these were exile Christians. And when you are on the fringes of society for your faith, sometimes life gets testy. You might get discouraged. You might feel too different. You might need a break from the hostility. It's in those moments we might excuse ourselves if we give in to some of our passions. It's only for a little while, we tell ourselves.
But we mustn't give ourselves permission to sin! We cannot look back to the old life. We must not be like Lot's wife in Genesis, a woman who looked back fondly on the old life in Sodom, a life God had judged (Genesis 19:26). Instead, we must keep our gaze forward and on the new life God has designed for us in Christ.
But My New Nature
Now, you might hear these exhortations to holiness from Peter as an impossible mission. How can I be holy like God? How can I pursue holiness?
Well, all through the text, Peter gives us a hint. He reminds us that God has changed us. If you are a believer, you are born again, and God's Spirit lives in you. This is why Peter said we should be holy "like obedient children" (14). We are God's kids. He has made us new. He has given us a new nature -- his nature. He has called us (15). A new way of living fits us because it is our new spiritual DNA.
Ephesians 5:1 (ESV) — 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
The point is that we are God's kids. If you believe in Jesus, you have his holiness deposited to your account. Positionally before God, you are holy. Now we are to live out the holiness he has placed inside us.
And he will help us on this journey. This is why I said the Exile Mentality says I will pursue holiness. In one sense, it's already ours. In another sense, we are called to make it our aim. With God, we are to learn to live holy lives because it's who we already are.
If I were to introduce you to a child with some outrageous name -- let's go with "Snowfall Ocean Panda Love" -- you would think something about their parents, right? Wouldn't you be drawing a mental image in your mind of what their parents are like? I can picture Snowfall's parents driving up right now in their 1966 Volkswagen Bus, some strange smoke emanating from the passenger's seat window, with The Grateful Dead playing on the sound system.
Well, if you are in Christ, you are God's child. Born again, you are invited by God into a life of holiness. He wants to help you look more like him. And this is the best life.
God Invites Us Into This New Holy Community
But I want to show you one more thing about this life of holiness. It's not only an individual invitation but an invitation to a community. You see, in the last verse of our text, Peter said, "Since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (16).
I love this quotation for many reasons, one of which is that it comes from Leviticus! I am rounding the corner on Exodus in our through-the-Bible-Tuesday-night-study, and I am looking forward to teaching through Leviticus. And, here, I love how Peter applied the principle of Leviticus to the new Christian age. We don't offer animal sacrifices as they did in that era, but the timeless truth Peter mined from Leviticus is that we are to live holy lives. So I love Peter's apostolic ability to apply the entire Bible to today's church.
But what was Leviticus? It wasn't only for individuals; it was for a nation. God was inviting an entire group of people to live holy lives before the nations.
That's precisely what God is inviting us into today. We are exiles. We are different. We have set our hope on the grace that will be ours when Jesus comes again. And we are going to live holy lives -- lives on display for the world to see.
As Jesus said,
Matthew 5:16 (ESV) — 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
We cannot be the community we are meant to be without a commitment to holy living. And holy living cannot be pursued alone; we need the encouragement of the community. So, together, let's accept God's invitation to live this holy life.
Conclusion
Remember, this is a different kind of life we are called to live. On Saturday mornings, when everyone else is sleeping in, the endurance athletes are out there logging mile after mile, making disciplined life decisions, all with the finish line of the next race in mind. Let us be the same, a people willing to be holy, different, because of the grace that will be ours when Jesus arrives.