Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 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;
13. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind ] The words were in any case a natural figure for prompt readiness for activity, but, coming from one who had been a personal disciple of the Lord Jesus, we cannot fail to trace in them an echo of His words as recorded in Luk 12:35, possibly also, looking to the many instances of parallelism with St Paul’s Epistles, of those which we find in Eph 6:14. The sequence of thought is that the prospect of the coming glories should be a motive to unflagging activity during men’s sojourn upon earth.
be sober, and hope to the end ] The verb for “be sober” expresses a sobriety of the Nazarite type. It meets us in 1Th 5:6; 1Th 5:8, and in this Epistle, chaps. 1Pe 4:7 , 1Pe 5:8. The marginal reading perfectly, as though he said “hope with a hope that lacks nothing of completeness,” answers better to the meaning of the adverb than the phrase in the English Version.
the grace that is to be brought unto you ] Literally, as the Greek participle is in the present tense and has no gerundial force, the grace which is being brought unto you. The communication is thought of as continuous, and finding its sphere of action in every successive revelation of Jesus Christ from that of the soul’s first consciousness of His presence, as in Gal 1:16, through those which accompany the stages of spiritual growth, as in 2Co 12:1, to that of the final Advent. The use of the phrase in 1Pe 1:7 gives, perhaps, a somewhat emphatic prominence to the last thought.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind – The allusion here is to the manner in which the Orientals were accustomed to dress. They wear loose, flowing robes, so that, when they wish to run, or to fight, or to apply themselves to any business, they are obliged to bind their garments close around them. See the notes at Mat 5:38-41. The meaning here is, that they were to have their minds in constant preparation to discharge the duties, or to endure the trials of life – like those who were prepared for labor, for a race, or for a conflict.
Be sober – See the 1Ti 3:2 note; Tit 1:8; Tit 2:2 notes.
And hope to the end – Margin, perfectly. The translation in the text is the most correct. It means that they were not to become faint or weary in their trials. They were not to abandon the hopes of the gospel, but were to cherish those hopes to the end of life, whatever opposition they might meet with, and however much might be done by others to induce them to apostatize. Compare the notes at Heb 10:35-36.
For the grace that is to be brought unto you – For the favor that shall then be bestowed upon you; to wit, salvation. The word brought here means, that this great favor which they hoped for would be borne to them by the Saviour on his return from heaven.
At the revelation of Jesus Christ – When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in his glory; that is, when he comes to judge the world. See the notes at 2Th 1:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Pe 1:13-16
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.
Tighten the belt
Wherefore, for this reason, that your salvation was so great an object of interest to prophets and to angels, it becomes you to maintain your faith, your courage, and expectation to the end. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind. The allusion is to the long loose garments worn by the Asiatics.
I. The meaning then, is, be thoroughly courageous, genuine, sincere. Make your life compact by the girdle of truth. Avoid loose, unsubstantial convictions regarding spiritual and eternal things, Remember, however little the word of revealed truth is to you, it is Gods greatest and best thought: that it is the divine record concerning yourself and His dear Son ought to make it of infinite importance to you. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Tighten the belt. You can do better work, run a better race, or be better ready for fight. Then shall you be fitted for the best service the King demands. Settled convictions of divine truth are of great value; they give stability, contentment, and influence. The girdle compact, and everything is made available for comfort and usefulness, you are stable and helpful when others are weak and vacillating.
II. This, also, will induce sobriety, gravity, thoughtfulness. And, impressed with the magnitude and sustained by the certainty of divine truth, you will set your hope perfectly on the grace, or favour, that is to be brought unto you when Jesus shall come again, to give eternal honour to His people. Stop, then; think, tighten your belt. Many are not ready for the sudden revelation of Jesus Christ. Are you? O, the supreme importance of being ready now, and each moment!
III. Tell us how we shall do this girding. Peter wrote these words in the shadow of the greatest truths: the Cross, and the possibility of your salvation. Think often of the Cross and its mystery of grace; it will fill your life with the mightiest motives. Think of the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Think; you are in possession of Gods revelation, His best thought, the sunlight of your present joy and your future hope. Think; you are in fellow ship with Jesus Christ. Do it by much prayer. (J. Parker.)
A seasonable exhortation
1. How full of their Lord were the minds of these holy writers!
2. How ardently these men expected the coming of the Lord!
3. It is equally noticeable that while apostolic men looked for the coming of Christ, they looked for it with no idea of dread, but, on the contrary, with the utmost joy.
4. Observe also, how constantly they were urging this as a motive! Peter never holds it out as a mere matter of speculation, nor exclusively as a ground of comfort; but as the grand motive for action, for holiness, for watchfulness. The teaching necessary for today is this: Gird up the loins of your mind, brace yourselves up; be firm, compact, consistent, determined. Do not be like quicksilver, which keeps on dissolving and running into fractions; do not fritter away life upon trifles, but live to purpose, with undivided heart, and decided resolution. These are equally days in which it is necessary to say be sober. We are always having some new fad or another brought out to infatuate the unstable. Be sober, and judge for yourselves. Nor is the third exhortation unnecessary: Hope to the end. Be so hopeful as to be calm mid the bewildering cry, confident of victory.
I. An argument. Wherefore. True religion is not unreasonable; it is common sense set to heavenly music. The apostle begins by saying, Elect according to foreknowledge, etc. Shall the elect of God be timorous? Shall those who are chosen of the Most High give way to despair? God forbid! There is an argument, then, in the first and second verses, forcibly supporting the precepts of the text. It well behoves the elect of God to choose His service resolutely, to abide in it steadfastly, and hope for its reward with supreme confidence. But next, Peter declares that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. O ye begotten of God, see that ye live as such! You are twice-born men; live not the low life of the merely natural man. You are descended from the King of kings; degrade not your descent! Your election and your regeneration call you to holy living. Further, the apostle goes on to say that you are heirs of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Courage, then, if this be your destiny: do not be cast down by the aboundings of sin, nor even by your own personal temptations. Then he goes on to say that you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. If the power of God keeps me, shall I be hopeless? Shall I speak like one that has no hereafter to rejoice in? Further, the apostle goes on to say that we may be passing through needful trial, but it is only for a little while. Come, then, if this fire is to be passed through, let us gird up our loins to dash through it. Let us hope to be sustained, and sanctified as the result, and let no unbelieving fear cast a cloud over our sky. Is not this good argument? Nor is this all. He tells us that even while we are in trial we are still full of joy. Once more: the apostle goes on to say that the gospel which we believe, and for which we are ready to suffer, is a gospel that comes to us with the sanction of the prophets. It seems to me that with such men as Moses and David, Isaiah and Jeremiah, to support our faith, we need not be ashamed of our company, nor tremble at the criticisms of the moderns.
II. The exhortation.
1. Gird up the loins of your mind.
(1) That certainly teaches us earnestness. We brace ourselves for a supreme effort; and the Christian life is always such.
(2) Does it not also mean preparedness? A true believer should be ready for suffering or service-ready, indeed, for anything.
(3) It means determination and hearty resolution. By conflict throughout a whole life we come to our rest; and there is no other way. You cannot go round to a back door, and enter into heaven by stealth. You must fight if you would reign. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind.
(4) Once more, the figure teaches us that our life must be concentrated. Gird up the loins of your mind. We have no strength to spare; we cannot afford to let part of our force leak away. We need to bring all our faculties to bear on one point, and exert them all to one end.
2. Be sober.
(1) This means moderation in all things. Do not be so excited with joy as to become childish. Do not grow intoxicated with worldly gain or honour. On the other hand, do not be too much depressed with passing troubles.
(2) Keep the middle way; hold to the golden mean. Make sure of your footing when you stand; make doubly sure of it before you shift.
(3) Be clear headed. Ask that the grace of God may so rule in your heart that you may be peaceful, and not troubled with idle fear on one side or with foolish hope on the other. Be sober, says the apostle. You know the word translated be sober sometimes means be watchful; and indeed there is a great kinship between the two things. Live with your eyes open; do not go about the world half asleep.
3. Hope to the end. Be strong in holy confidence in Gods Word, and be sure that His cause will live and prosper. Hope to the end; go right through with it; if the worst comes to the worst, hope still. Hope as much as ever a man can hope; for when your hope is in God you cannot hope too much. But let your hope be all in grace. Do not hope in yourself or in your works; but hope in the grace; for so the text may be read. Hope, moreover, in the grace which you have not yet received, in the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Bless God for the grace that you have not yet obtained, for He has it in store for you; yea, He hath put it on the road, and it is coming to you.
III. Expectation. What you have got to hope for is more grace. God will never deal with you upon the ground of merit; He has begun with you in grace, and He will go on with you in grace, therefore hope to the end for the grace. The grace you are to hope for is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He has been revealed once, at His first advent; hence the grace you have. He is to be revealed very soon in His second advent; hence the grace that is a-coming to you. My ship is coming home, says the child. So is mine: Jesus is coming, and that means all things to me. But what can this grace be that will be received at His coming? Justification? No, we have that already by His resurrection. Sanctification? No; we have that already, by being made partakers of His life. What is the grace that is to be revealed at His coming? Just look at the chapter, anal you will read in the fifth verse, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
1. Perfect salvation is one part of the grace which is to be brought in the last time when Christ comes. When He comes there will be perfection for our souls and salvation for our bodies.
2. The second grace that Christ will bring with Him when He comes is the perfect vindication of our faith: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Today they sneer at our faith, but they will not do so when Jesus comes; today we ourselves tremble for the ark of the Lord, but we shall not do so when He comes. Then shall all men say that believers were wise, prudent, philosophical. Those who believe in Jesus may be called fools today, but men will think otherwise when they see them shine forth as the sun in the Fathers kingdom. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian morality
The great privileges we enjoy are here urged upon us as a reason why we should live like regenerate persons.
I. The essentials of Christian character. They are-diligence, sobriety, and hope.
1. Diligence. This virtue is here exemplified by a very striking figure. Christians are not to be like pompous peacocks, mere objects of beauty, strutting about over the green fields of earth. They are not to be languid and effeminate dreamers. They are to engage in the activities of manhood, and for this purpose must brace themselves with vigour. There is much to be accomplished. There is much to be learnt. There is much to be obtained. There is much to be endured. But the apostle is particular to remind us of the spiritual nature of this work – Gird up the loins of your mind. The Christian life is not an outward thing. The mind is the battlefield. Here the battles are lost or won. How much does the mind require bracing up! It soon sinks into indifference and sluggishness, especially under trials or difficulties. A healthy soul results from moral discipline. We are to brace up our thoughts by wholesome restraint, our desires by a strong curb, our sentiments by calm deliberation. This requires patient and persevering diligence.
2. Sobriety. Be sober. This does not refer to what we call temperance. It is that calm, quiet dignity which so well befits a Christian man, and which raises him above the flighty, giddy, thoughtless throng of worldly people. There is something noble in his character.
3. Patient hope. Here is a rebuke to the restless uneasiness at the trials of life which was the cause of writing this Epistle.
II. The great Christian motive. The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And is it not worth hoping for?
1. Consider its greatness. It is not an earthly blessing-temporary, passing, and mingled with what is evil, sinful, and transitory. It is-
(1) An eternal state. All our chief sorrows here are caused by change.
(2) A perfect state. Life will be perfect; here most men only half live. Health will be perfect. Taste will be perfect. Employment will be perfect. And all the surroundings of this state will be perfect also.
2. Consider its fulness. There is no stint in the eternal life which is provided. The vastness of heaven is one of the mysteries we have to contemplate, but at present cannot understand.
III. The great end of Christian development-holiness. All discipline has one object to carry out.
1. Under the aspect of dutiful children. As obedient children, etc. Here is a grand motive-the motive of love.
2. Under the aspect of similitude. We desire to be like those whom we love. Holiness, then, makes us like God. Without it we cannot be conformed to Him. Without it we cannot associate with Him.
3. Under the aspect of universality. In all manner of conversation, i.e., in all your behaviour. Holiness is to pervade all things. (J. J. S. Bird.)
The right influence of a Christian creed
I. Mental activity. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. First: That man has a mind. He has a thinking, conscious, undying spirit. This fact is attested both by philosophy and the Bible. Secondly: That this mind has a great work. There are some minds that are very inactive. Other minds are active, but it is the activity of children playing with toys. What is the real work of the mind? Rightly to culture self, to bless society, and to honour God. The figure implies-Thirdly: That the present condition of the mind is unfavourable to this work. What are those entangling robes? Wrong thoughts, earthly sympathies, carnal tendencies, moral indifferences, etc. Gird up the loins, etc.
II. Moral sobriety. Be sober. It may include three things. First: Moral judiciousness. Judiciousness in our opinions, our affections, our expectations, and speech. Souls are often intoxicated with wild and extravagant sentiments. Second: Moral steadfastness. The soul should not reel to and fro like a drunken man; it should be steadfast. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Thirdly: Moral seriousness. Christian seriousness stands in sublime contrast both to gloom on the one hand and to levity on the other.
III. Permanent hope. Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This language implies three things. First: That the perfection of our being is to be looked for in the future. Secondly: That our future perfection is to be obtained in connection with grace. Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you. Thirdly: That the grace that is to ensure our perfection will be fully manifested at the appearance of ,Jesus Christ. The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Wise counsel
I. The preparation. Gird up, etc.
1. Righteousness.
2. Faithfulness.
3. Truth.
II. The consideration. Be sober. There is such a thing, of course, as being drunk mentally or spiritually. A drunken man is very foolish, yet conceited; and he is quarrelsome, and hazardous, and he would lie down and go to sleep anywhere.
III. The decision. Hope to the end. Your hope is to be in the perfect work of Christ. Be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
IV. The prospect. For the grace, etc. (James Wells.)
The place of mind in religion
One thing is presupposed-St. Peter counted it self-evident-the mind has place in the things of God. Orthodoxy has too often warned off reason from the things of God. It has made it sacrilege to touch the Bible. What St. Peter rebukes is the slovenly, the untidy, the dissolute mind. He does not fear the practised, the disciplined, the intense intellect. The mind of which he wrote was the rock-hewn element of thinking, equally available, for its highest processes and purposes, in palace and cottage, in philosopher and peasant. It needs not education in mans sense, classical or scientific, to gird its loins for the enterprise St. Peter has in view. That enterprise is the knowledge of a Father, in a Saviour, and in a Spirit. The enterprise is a personal knowledge, the girding up of the loins for it is a personal exertion. Shall we try to sketch one or two of the particulars of that girding?
1. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. In reference to all knowledge, what is the chief hindrance? Is it not vanity? Is it not the saying, We see? Gird up the loins of your mind by a deep humility. Thou art near, they tell, me, O Lord: but I am so far off-so ignorant, so stupid, so sin bound-O quicken me.
2. But next to it I would place its sister grace-which is patience. Patience; perhaps above all, for the reconciliation of apparently contradictory principles, and the harmonising of certain parts of Revelation with the character of God Himself the Revealer. Be willing to wait. Not indolently, not in indifference, but in a submissive waiting.
3. Hope. Hope to the end, St. Peter says-Hope perfectly are his very words-meaning doubtless, perseveringly and amidst all obstacles. And St. Peter makes hope very definite when he adds, for the grace that is being brought to us. It cannot be that this scene of confusion should be forever. As God is true, as God is holy, as God is merciful, it shall not. We see not as yet how it shall be. But, where explanation fails, where reason fails, where revelation itself fails, hope fails not. (Dean Vaughan.)
Be sober.
Sobriety
Sobriety is a virtue that keeps us not only from things unlawful, but moderates us in the use of things lawful, that we exceed not our bounds therein. These may be referred to two heads, pleasures and profits, which we are most subject to abuse.
I. For the former, which is pleasure, thereto may be referred meat, drink, apparel, recreation, etc. All which we must use soberly to the glory of the Giver, our own good, and the good also of others.
1. For our meat and drink, we must neither be excessive nor over-curious, as Dives who fared deliciously every day, making his belly his god. We must eat to live, and thereby be more fit for duty.
2. For our apparel, we must not exceed for the matter of it, nor for the fashion. God hath given it for necessity, comeliness, and decency.
3. For recreation, it must be sparing in time, place, measure, to make us more fit for our duty; for God hath not set us here to pamper the flesh, but to mortify the lusts thereof: not to play, but to do His work.
II. For the latter, namely, profits, we must also be sober, both in getting and keeping them. We must not only use no unlawful means to get the world, but use the lawful means moderately, not filling ourselves with too many businesses, and following the same too eagerly, lest we neglect good duties, or be hindered from doing them as we should. (John Rogers.)
Hope to the end.-
The duty and discipline of Christian hope
Girding up the loins of your mind, being sober, hope is the accurate reproduction of the form of the original. Hope is the principal exhortation, arid it is to be fulfilled by bracing up the mind and by sobriety. The Revised Version, which has partially shown this construction in its rendering, has given the more accurate perfectly, instead of to the end. It is a question, first, of the quality, and only after that of the duration of the hope. If our hope be perfect it will take care of itself in another respect, and be permanent.
I. The object on which this Christian hopefulness is to fasten, like a limpet on a rock. The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Here grace means the sum of the felicities of a future life. That is clear from two considerations-that this grace is the object of our hope all through life, which only an object beyond the grave can be, and also that its advent is contemporaneous with the revelation of Jesus Christ. The expression, though unusual, is valuable because it brings out two things. It reminds us that whatever of blessedness we may possess in the future it is all a gratuitous, unmerited gift of that loving God to whom we owe everything. And then there is another thought suggested by this word, namely, the substantial identity of the Christian life here and hereafter. Grace is glory in the bud, glory is grace in the flower; and all which we hope for in the future is but the evolving of that which is planted in our hearts today, if we love Him, though it may have to fight with much antagonism to itself both without us and within. The inheritance is a hope, but the earnest of the inheritance, which is of the same stuff as the inheritance, is a present possession. Further, this grace is on its way to us. It is being brought, as the margin of the Revised Version has it; or a-bringing, as Leighton translates it. It is on its road as if some band of strong-winged angels had already left the throne, and, like them who bore the Holy Grail, were steadily flying nearer and nearer to us. With all the power of strong winds and waves lifting it on, it is bearing down upon us as a ship at sea. By all the passions and convulsions of earth the day of the Lord is hastened on its course. Further, this grace, which is on its way to us, is wrapped up in the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is brought to us encased in that revelation, like a fair jewel in a golden setting. When He who is our life shall be manifested, says another apostle, then shall we also be manifested with Him in glory. As in an old picture you will sometimes see a saint represented as standing near the Master with a glory encompassing him, that rays from the Christ, so our glory in the future is all to be hut the effluence and the reflection of His glory. Why should we let our hopes go trailing along the ground, like some poor creeping plant that the gardener has forgotten to put a stick to, when they might lift themselves to the heavens? Why should you ever feed your hopes upon the bread that perishes, and sometimes upon husks, when you may feed them on angels food? Why should you confine your hope within the limits of this world when it might expand to the width of that great eternity that lies there before you through which you may let your hope wander at will? Set your hope there, and then it will never be ashamed or confounded.
II. The perfect hope which grasps the perfect object. Hope perfectly would be the true rendering, it being a question not at all of duration but of quality. There are all degrees of hope from the most doubtful peradventure up to almost certainty. But there is always a kind of doubt and dread mingling with hope. A certain wistful look as of one who knows not what may be drawing on is ever in Hopes blue eyes; and hopes, and fears that kindle hope are an indistinguishable throng. That is necessarily so, because here our hopes are fixed on contingent, external things, and are mostly born of our wishes rather than of reasonable probabilities. Therefore, this exhortation here, in effect, bids us lift our hopes higher, and set them on God that they may be sure. Are we letting our hearts lead our hopes astray after the will-o-the-wisps of earth, instead of ordering their march by the pole star of Gods faithful promise? Does our hope leap up to lay hold on that cord let down from heaven, and by it to climb above the level of mutation and disappointment?
III. The self-discipline by which the perfect hope is maintained. Girding up the loins of the mind and being sober are the two great means to that end. The first of them enjoins concentration of mind and will, a determined effort to realise the future and persistently to hope in the teeth of all discouragement. Travellers, servants, soldiers have to brace up their robes and buckle them tight with their girdles. So we have to gather up our thoughts and cultivate the habit of fixed attention to unseen things. The loosely braced mind will be unable to cherish a lively hope; a man with his robes flapping about his feet cannot run. They hinder his stride, catch in the briars, get trodden on by rivals. There are many difficulties in the way of our Christian hope. It is hard to keep its light burning through the darkness of the night and the howling of the storm. Why, a man cannot have earthly hopes bright unless he concentrates his thoughts upon them. And how can our hope of heaven be clear, triumphant, unless we coerce our vagrant imaginations and loose flowing affections and by a dead lift and effort set our hopes in God? Wherefore, brace up the loins of your minds and hope. Be sober. Rigid self-control and repression are needed for such a hope. The clear eye of hope cannot see the land that is very far off through the fogs that rise from the undrained marshes of our animal nature. In this sense, too, the flesh lusts against the spirit. But not only must bodily appetites be held well in hand, all desires that go out towards the present must be subdued. Hope follows desire. The vigour of our hopes is affected by the warmth of our desires. The warmth of our desires towards the future depends largely on the turning away of our desires from the present. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Hope
As we read this Epistle and drink in its spirit we become aware of something that lifts and enkindles; it is as if we were inhaling sea air, were basking in the glow of a genial warmth. The Peter of the Gospels was of an eager, sanguine disposition, and his hopefulness, while it was yet unchastened, repeatedly outran his real strength. The Pentecostal fire descends upon him, and he continues to be the same man, with the same basis and structure of character; but there has passed over him a refining and invigorating touch. He has become more truly a Peter; he has drawn strength from the Rock of Ages. He is the apostle of hope. To speak of hope at all is to speak of what we instinctively recognise as a condition of fruitful effort, of anything like success or satisfaction, even in the affairs of ordinary life. To take hope from a man is to paralyse him morally; if he lives on in so dreary a condition we think of him as surviving himself. The teaching of Scripture may help us to distinguish and appreciate three characteristics of that hope which apostles would recognise as true.
1. First, then, Christian hope, as St. Peter tells us, is seated in God; it is, as it has been called, one of the triad of virtues specially theological; it takes its stand on Divine revelation, it looks on to the attainment of Divine promises. It draws its life-blood from no mere surmise as to what is possible for humanity, in the race at large or in the individual, but from the manifestation of Divine truth and goodness in the Incarnate, whom St. Paul calls our hope (1Ti 1:1), because our hope is grounded on Him and centred in Him. St. Paul, indeed, cannot think of hope without thinking of Christ; it is characteristic of him that the object of his earnest expectation and hope should be the glorification of Christ in his body, whether by life or by death. So he elsewhere speaks of Christians as having been called in one hope which grows out of their calling, which derives all its force and charm from the act of grace that brought them into that sacred and supernatural fellowship. Christian hope, being rooted in faith, is, like faith, vivid, positive, and definite; it is, as St. Peter calls it, living, because it is a fruit of the resurrection life of Jesus; it gazes with calm, trustful eyes, onward and still onward, into a future literally boundless, as illuminated by the person and the work of the one everlasting Redeemer; it is a hope of eternal life, as based on Him.
2. A hope which is thus essentially religious, thus Christian from the root upwards, and impossible except on the terms of Christian belief, is strong enough to face all facts, even such as are unwelcome or austere. Certainly there will be temptations to unhopefulness; there must be the discipline of hopes deferred, of success marred, of apparent defeats and disappointments, of much that might tempt impatience to despair. A hope thus trained, while resting on august realities, is strong because it is not fanciful; it has realised the conditions of Christian life as an uphill march; it can afford to take full account of the gravest requirements of His service, who bids no one follow save where He Himself has trod; it does not dream of being exempt from anxieties, but it casts the whole weight of them on the strong hand of that good Father who has proved so well how much He careth for us.
3. True hope is a great instrument of moral and spiritual discipline. When St. Peter is about to say, make your hope perfect, he prefaces it with a call to sustained effort; we are to gird up the loins of our mind. It is remarkable also that St. Paul does not merely exhort us to cherish hope, but to see that our hope is of the right kind, that it is such as is secured through endurance, and endurance as fortified by the encouragement, the quickening impulse to Christian exertion, which the pages of Scripture will supply (Rom 15:4). It is as if he had said, The further you advance in the spiritual life, the more will you need of strength to resist temptation, or to bear outward trials bravely, brightly, and patiently; and the more you can do this, the more of true hope will you acquire. Thus we see that the hope which maketh not ashamed is always humble and always active. (W. Bright, D. D.)
How and for what to hope
The word wherefore bases the exhortation upon all that has preceded, not merely upon the sentence immediately before it.
I. The discipline needed for Christian hope. Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober. Here are two practical injunctions, given as means towards a vigorous Christian hope. The first of these is too familiar to require many words. Girding up the loose garments was instinctively done before any kind of vigorous effort, whether it was pilgrimage, labour, or conflict. Elijah girded up his loins when he ran before Ahabs chariot. The soldier tightens his belt by another hole before the great struggle comes. The symbol, then, stands definitely here as expressing effort and concentration. There must be both, as Peter thinks, if there is to be any pulse of vitality throbbing under a Christian mans hope. And, says the apostle, thus making a concentrated effort to secure the vigour and clearness of hope, do another thing, Be sober. Of course if I let my tastes, inclinations, desires, appetites, passions, run wild anywhere, there will be very little strength left me with which to hope for anything beyond. A mans mind is only capable of a given quantity of desire and expectation: and if he fritter it all away on the things seen and temporal, of course there will not be any left over for the things that are unseen. Every gardener knows that if he wants a tree to grow high he must pull off the side shoots, but if he likes to clip it at the top and take away the leader, it will grow nice and bushy down below. A mans mind obeys the same law.
II. The characteristics and qualities of this Christian hope. As you are aware, our A.V. gives one translation of part of this verse, and the R.V. gives another. Hope to the end, says the older. Hope perfectly, says the newer and the better rendering. What are the imperfections that attach to mens hopes?
1. The first glaring one which attaches to the worlds idea of hope is that it is something short of, less reliable than, certainty. We have not sufficiently concentrated our effort, nor have we sufficiently washed our hands of earthly follies and filths, so long as there is one shade of difference between the certitude with which we know today and the confidence with which, trusting to Christ, we expect the remotest eternity in the most glorious heavens.
2. Then there is another imperfection from which it is our duty and our joy to be able to clear our Christian hope, and that is that mens hopes fluctuate according to their moods and their circumstances. But the Christian mans hope should have this for the very signature of its perfection, that it is altogether independent of the changes of external circumstances. Nay! rather it should be like the pillar of fire that was only a thin film of smoke while the sunshine blazed, but kindled at its heart as darkness fell, and in the murkiest night was brightest and most blessed.
3. Then there is another imperfection which the Christian hope is permitted to put away from it; and that is that most of our hopes have no ennobling, no staying, no stimulating effect upon our lives. What a man hopes for he waits for with patience, and the perfection of the Christian hope is measured roughly by this, the extent to which it is fruitful of all lowly, persistent adherence the most uncongenial, common place, and smallest duties.
III. The object that is here proposes for hope. The apostle tells us to hope for the grace, etc. There are three things we have to note here.
1. The loftiest hope of the furthest eternity is the hope of grace. We usually keep that word in contradistinction to glory as expressive of the gifts of God which we receive here upon earth in our pilgrimage. But the apostle here goes even deeper than that, and says, Ah! it is all of a piece from the beginning to the end. The first gifts that a believing soul receives, whilst it is struggling here with darkness and light, are of the same sort as the eternal gifts that it receives when it stands before the throne, after millenniums of assimilation to the brightness and blessedness of Jesus Christ. They are all grace; the gifts of earth and heaven are one in their source and one in their nature.
2. Further, says the apostle, this grace is being brought to you. The light that set out from the sun centuries ago has not reached some of the stars yet, but it is on the road. And the grace that is to be given to us has started from the throne, and it will be here presently. We are like men standing in the crowded streets of some royal city through which the kings procession has to pass. If we listened we have heard the guns fire that told that He had left the palace; and He will sweep in front of us and sweep us up into His train before very long. The grace is being brought to us.
3. And it is being brought not merely at, but in the revelation of Jesus Christ. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall we also be manifested together with Him in glory. The Christ in me will be manifested when Christ is manifested on His throne, and that will be my glory. If you can fancy a planet away out on the edge of our system, such as that one that welters in the fields of space, I know not how far from the central sun, and gets but a little portion of his light and warmth, and moves slowly in a torpid round; and imagine it laid hold of and borne right into the orbit of the planet next the sun, what a difference in its temperature, what a difference in the lustre and the light, what a difference in the swiftness of its motion there would be! We here are moving round a half-veiled Christ, and we get but little, and oh! we give less, of His light and glory. But the day comes when we shall be swept nearer the throne, and all the light that is manifested to us shall be incorporated within us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christian hope
I. Hope in its preliminary but indispensable conditions.
II. Hope in its operation.
1. Hope is natural to the human mind, nothing more natural. It is a sweet-scented flower growing in every poor mans garden; a perennial flower, never blooming so exquisitely as in the midwinter of adversity.
2. Hope perfectly. By this St. Peter probably means the same as St. Paul when the latter speaks of the full assurance of hope, an unfaltering persuasion in the mind that we have a personal interest in the inheritance reserved in heaven, the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. When I live, wrote Latimer to Ridley, in a settled and steadfast assurance about the state of my soul, methinks I am as bold as a lion; I can laugh at all trouble; no affliction daunts me; but when I am eclipsed in my comforts I am of so fearful a spirit that I could run into a very mouse hole. Now, how to attain this perfection of hope, this full assurance? Evidently by constantly but legitimately exercising this grace according to the Divine word and testimony, for, like other things, it grows bright in use.
3. Hope unto the end. Persevere in the face of difficulties, however colossal, for he that continueth to the end shall be saved. Turn your face to the Sun, pitch your hope fixedly on the inheritance reserved for you up yonder, and the shadows will all fall behind you.
III. Hope in its immutable foundation.
1. Our hope of salvation is based on Divine grace as brought to us in the past at the first revelation of Jesus Christ.
2. But not only has grace been brought to us in the past, but fresh supplies are being brought to us in the present. The grace that is a-bringing, that is being brought to you, as the revelation of Jesus Christ. Grace came to the world in the person and work of Jesus Christ; it is still coming, a very present help in trouble, to Gods people, whether that trouble be in the shape of sufferings or temptations. John Bunyan in his immortal dream beheld a fire which burnt on brightly notwithstanding all efforts to extinguish it. What was the explanation of this persistence? Oh, a man stood the other side of the wall continually pouring oil into it. Hope perfectly, unto the end, for the gospel treasury of grace will never fail you.
3. But this hope looks forward to the future, to the final triumph of grace at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Much grace has already been revealed; but eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered the heart of man the things God hath in store for His people. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
Hope as a power in moulding character
I. The power of hope in human character. What makes the difference between human beings and beasts? Very largely, the presence of hope as a factor in character. The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests. So much the worse for them. Man is distinguished from the animals by the fact that you cannot so easily satisfy him. He may begin by living in the hole in the ground, or by lodging in the branches; but, by and by, that hole is not good enough. Something in man demands improvement. Hope is therefore one of the foremost elements in human character; distinguishing man as man, giving him a higher rank than all the rest of the animal creation. And as it is a necessary factor in character, so it is in human progress. Any conditions in human society which tend to repress hope are abnormal and unnatural, and hostile to mans well-being. Who is today at the bottom of society may, under the encouragement, of our republican institutions and freedom, rise until he occupies the highest position that the people can bestow. Hope presents a perpetual incentive to progress:-not an ignis fatuus, a will-o-the-wisp, beguiling us into mire and marsh, but impelling us continually onward to things higher and better. The hopes of boyhood do not satisfy manhood, and the hopes even of manhood do not satisfy maturer years; and so that which once beckoned you forward, as you reach up and move up toward it, keeps still ahead of you, and becomes a perpetual inspiration, urging you ever onward and upward. If hope, therefore, could be quenched or crushed, we could make no more advancement. Because hope is so important an element in character, and so essential to human development and progress, the Word of God lays such heavy stress on this essential element of all true manhood. No other grace seems more vital to a true Christian life than hope. Then see how hope helps us to bear trials. It surrounds us with a kind of elastic medium, so that when the terrible afflictions of this life beat against us, they rebound from us. There is a power in hope that prevents the severity of their blows from utterly crushing us.
II. What, now, are the objects set before the Christian hope? The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Few of us ever think of this. When we speak of the grace that is revealed we think of what is already manifested, of Golgotha with its Cross, of Gethsemane with its agony. Peter is speaking of something future, not grace already manifested. The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christs Incarnation was not a revelation. His divinity was rather hidden within the veil of His humanity: only now and then the glory of that divinity shone forth. When Jesus was here He was in disguise. God was only feebly and faintly manifested in the flesh, which obscured the glory. But when Christ conies a second time, no longer to make a sin offering, but to bring full salvation unto His people, then will be the revelation of Jesus Christ. He will come like the King in His glory. All the grace that comes to you from the hour of your regeneration to the hour of your complete sanctification is nothing in comparison with the grace that is to be revealed to you by Christ in the day when you are presented, faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
III. In view of the glorious hopes that the Bible inspires. Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let us mark these subordinate phrases: Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober. That they may not be entangled in thorns and briars, or be defiled by the dust and the filth of the way. And so the apostle says, Girding up the loins of your mind, your affections, so that they may not be defiled by earthly things. John Wesley used to say, The child of God ought to be too proud to sin. When I think of myself as the disciple of Christ, born of the Spirit, I say, How can I sin against God? Set your affections on things above; gird up your loins, and keep your white garments unspotted from the world. And then be sober. Now, it would do a pilgrim very little good if he gathered up his garments and did not maintain sobriety. He might fall in the dust of the way, bruising himself as well as defiling his robe. And so we must not only gird ourselves, but keep sober and clear-minded for the journey.
IV. What a contrast between the objects of Christian hope and worldly hope! Contrast the reality of Christian hopes with the illusiveness of worldly hopes. And consider, once more, the permanence and reliability of the Christian objects of desire and expectation. We come to a limit in this world. The glory of your possessions and your achievements will all pale and grow dim when you face the last great destroyer. But, blessed be God, the point at which human hopes are utterly blasted is the point at which Christian expectations only arrive at their consummation. What should we care for the perishing treasures of this world? for the evanescent pleasures that charm for a moment, and then lose their power? (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)
Hope
Hope is mentioned in the text and in other parts of Scripture as a distinct grace or virtue, which the Christian should cultivate.
I. I shall point out the distinctions between hope and faith.
1. Faith and hope differ as to their extent. Faith relates to all things which Almighty God has revealed in Scripture, bad as well as good; whereas hope has only to do with the good things of our Heavenly Father.
2. Again, hope may be described as ever looking forward, and advancing from one blessed prospect to another, with its eyes bent upon God and the promises. But faith has to do with the present and past, as well as with the future. With past facts.
3. Once more, there is this great difference between hope and faith; that faith has to do with certainty, hope with uncertainty. You believe with full assurance, and it is a matter of faith that the righteous go to heaven. But that you individually are righteous, and shall finally go to heaven, is the subject of hope. Now the absolute necessity of this grace in your hearts will be at once evident, if you consider that it would interest you but little to be told of the felicities of heaven, had you no hope of ever attaining them. When you read of kings of the earth, of their royal appearance and great wealth, you at once feel that these things interest you but slightly, because they are so utterly beyond your reach.
II. Now, let us illustrate the force and power of hope. Stories are told us of travellers journeying in other climes, who having wandered from their course, have by degrees found themselves involved in the intricacies of the wilderness without any probable chance of rescue. What so overwhelming as the feeling of utter loneliness which must press on the heart in the midst of unlimited sand? At such a time surely, a man may well give himself up as lost, and submissively lie down to perish. But there is a God beyond that sky and sun, Who has preserved men from worse dangers, and a hope springs up within his bosom, in the protection of that God. Hope cheers his soul, braces him to exertion, overcomes fatigue, and rescues from peril. He had no certainty of deliverance, but his hope was of sufficient power to make him persevere until he found the path, or was discovered by others and rescued. When the wife of the mariner sits at home solitary, what sustains her soul but the hope that all will be well? There can be no certain safety for him who is on the water; nothing, as we know, is so variable and treacherous as the waves and wind. When the prodigal child of God, like him in the parable, comes to himself and remembers his transgressions, what is to bring him to the feet of Almighty God but the hope of pardon? When the Christian soldier has taken his oath of service to Jesus Christ, and calmly considers the duties which are necessary to his reward, when he thinks of the enemies who encompass him, and of his own frailness and alienated affections, what can lead him to the contest and keep him undismayed? What but a sure and certain hope of Christs continued assistance? Lastly: There is a moment, if possible more trying than all, when hope is the stay and anchor of the tossed soul. It is in that hour when even the most saintly may look forward with something of dread to the departure from earth. In hope of eternal life, which God Who cannot lie promised before the world began; my flesh, he thinks within himself, shall rest in hope; Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy, and at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. (J. M. Chaunter, M. A.)
Hope ennobles the spirit
It is pleasing to observe how the hopes of persons, by degrees, greaten their spirits from their childhood. The proper spirit of a noble man, a prince, or a king, is greater than that of an inferior person. And the reason is because as he comes to understand his quality, his spirit grows with his hopes of what he shall attain to; his very hopes greaten his spirit, ennoble him, and make him think of living like one that expects to be in such a state as that to which he is born. And such is the property of the Christians hope. It not only makes him not ashamed, but it heightens and ennobles his spirit, makes him aspire high, and look forward to great things. (J. Howe.)
Present the germ of future revelation
I am well aware that the words of the original will bear the present signification. Hope perfectly for the grace which is being brought unto you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. But after careful consideration I am convinced that the future sense is the right one, though the fact that the present is employed is full of significance, and discloses a fact which underlies the whole Word of God. The future revelation will be but the full unveiling of the present; just as in the creation round us were our eyes cured of their films, we should see a splendour which would reveal heaven. The whole life of what lives in the world has in it the germ of that full revelation; just as when you unfold one of the soft buds of spring, sheath within sheath of delicate leafage is found there, and in the heart of it all, visible only to the aided eye, is every petal, every stamen of the flower. The forms are already perfect in their microcosm, but the colours that are to blaze in the sunlight, and the odours that are to scent the air, wait the inspirations of the spring. The colour, which is the glory of a flower, glows only under the perfect conditions of its life. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
A perfect hope
I. We note the remarkable designation here of the object of Christian hope-The grace that is to be brought unto you at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now, it is interesting to notice the various phases under which the future perfecting of the Christian life and felicity in heaven is set forth in the New Testament. Sometimes we read of the object of our hope as being the resurrection from the dead. Sometimes we read of the hope of righteousness; sometimes we read of the hope of eternal life; sometimes of the hope of the glory of God; sometimes of the hope of salvation. But all these are but the many facets of the one jewel, flashing many coloured and yet harmonious light. Peter adds another general expression when he sums up the felicities and perfectness of that future life in this remarkable and unusual phrase, the grace that is to be brought. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; and no man of the countless nations of the blessed can say, Give me the portion for which I have worked, but all must bow and say, Give me from thine own loving heart that which I do not deserve, the grace that is to be brought at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Such, then, is the object of Christian hope, stated in its most general terms, a grace which includes resurrection, salvation, righteousness, eternal life, the glory of God, and that grace ever tending towards us, and that ever tending grace to be ours in its fulness, when Christ is manifested and we shall be manifested with Him in glory. How different in its dignity, in its certainty, in its remoteness, which is a blessing-how different from the paltry, shortsighted anticipations of a near future which delude us along the path of earthly effort!
II. Notice the enjoined perfection of Christian hope. What constitutes perfect hope? First, theft it shall be certain; and no earthly hope is so. If my anticipations are set upon contingent things they must vary with their objects. You cannot build a solid house on a quagmire; you must have rock for that. So, the only perfect hope is that which grasps a perfect certainty. Christian hope ought to be, if I might so say, screwed up to the level of that on which it is fastened. It is a shame that Christian people should be wavering in their anticipations of that which in itself is certain. Again, the perfection of hope lies in its being patient, persistent through discouragements, burning bright in the darkness, like a pillar of fire by night; and most of all in its being operative upon life, and contributing to steadfastness of endurance and to energy of effort. This is exactly what the feeble and fluctuating hopes of earth never do. For the more a man is living in anticipation of an uncertain good, the less is he able to fling himself with wholeness of purpose and effort into the duties or enjoyments of the present. But a perfect hope will be the ally and not the darkener of the brightness of the present. And if we hope as we should for that we see not, then shall we with patience wait for it. Here, then, is the sort of hope which it is laid upon us Christian people consciously to try to cherish, one which is fixed and certain, one which is the mother of patience and endurance, one which persists through, and triumphs over all trouble and sorrow, one which nerves us for effort and opens our eyes to appreciate the blessings of the present, and one which wars against all uncleanness, and lifts us up in aspiration and aim towards the purity of Jesus Christ. We are neglecting a plain duty and impoverishing ourselves unnecessarily by the want of a treasure which belongs to us, unless we are making conscious efforts for our increase in hope as in faith and charity. Think of the blessedness of living thus, lifted up above all the uncertainties that rack men when they think about tomorrow. Try to realise the blessedness of escaping from the disappointments which come from all earthward turned expectations. The brightest blaze of Christian hope may be on the verge of the darkness of the grave.
III. Lastly, the discipline of Christian hope. Gird up the loins of your mind. It suggests that there is a great deal in this life that makes it very difficult for us to keep firm hold of the facts, on which alone a perfect hope can be built. Unless we tighten up our belt, and so put all our strength into the effort, the truths of the resurrection which beget to a lively hope, of the great salvation wrought by Jesus Christ, of the meaning and end of all our trials and sorrows, will slip away from us, and we shall be left at the mercy of the varying anticipations of good or evil which may emerge from the varying circumstances of the fleeting moment. Be sober. That means, not only gather yourselves together with a consecrated effort, but keep your heel well down on the necks of lower and earthly desires. The fleshly lusts that belong to everybody must be subdued. That goes without saying. But, then, there are others more subtle, more refined, but not less hostile to the perfectness of a heaven-directed hope than are these grosser ones. We must keep down all the desires and appetites of our nature, both of the flesh and of the spirit. For we have only a certain quantity of energy to expend, and if we expend it upon the things of earth there is nothing left for the things above. If you take the river, and lead it all out into the gardens that are irrigated by it, or into the stream that drives your mills, its bed will be left bare, and little of the water will reach the great ocean which is its home. We may, if we will, be as certain of the future as of the past. We may, if we will, have a hope which maketh us not ashamed. We may have a great light burning steadily, like a lamp fed with abundant oil, and shielded from every wind. We may see His coming shining afar off, and be warranted in saying, not merely we hope, but we know, that when He shall appear we shall be like Him. This Christ-given hope is the only one that persists through calamity, old age, and death. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The grace that is to be brought unto you.-
Coming grace
I. There is to be a revelation of Jesus Christ. He has promised to come; He has given His people the hope of His coming; His coming is necessary-
1. For His own final and perfect glorification.
2. For the complete salvation and glorification of His Church.
3. For the full and everlasting destruction of His and its enemies.
4. For the vindication of Gods way and the exhibition of His glorious attributes to the world.
II. What the revelation brings. Grace. The Lord keeps His best wine unto the last, but He certainly sets forth good wine even now. We may, and do, receive grace now. Now is the day of salvation. But with all the grace given now to believers, and notwithstanding its present variety, fulness, and freeness, and all that it does in Christs people, they need yet more at His revelation.
1. The grace of perfect vision of Him who is now unseen.
2. The grace of perfect likeness to Christ.
3. The grace of perfect acquittal.
4. The grace of perfect avowal and recognition.
5. The grace of perfect joy and glory forever.
III. What influence this revelation should now exert.
1. Spiritual readiness, in the loins of the mind girded, the thoughts collected, braced, prepared, and on the alert, with nothing left till the last (Luk 12:35-36).
2. Spiritual self-restraint, in sobriety; neither too elated nor too depressed.
3. Perfect hope; desiring, picturing, expecting the revelation and what it brings; hoping perfectly, never letting go hope, though the day seems far off. (Alex. Warrack, M. A.)
Grace and glory
We take grace as denoting in our text precisely what it ordinarily denotes in Gods dealing with a sinner, and wish to show you that grace thus understood may become, or rather, produce glory. We will briefly examine into the twofold achievement of grace-deliverance from sin, and consignment to Gods service.
1. As to deliverance from sin, shall not we be borne out by the experience of every believer, when we declare that it is his happiness to overcome sin, and his misery to be exposed to its assaults? If this corruption were wholly eradicated, he might continually walk in the shinings of the countenance of his Maker, and feel, so to speak, the fresh and free air of a better land circulating around him, as he passed on in his pilgrimage. So that all the interruptions of happiness are to be referred to sinfulness, and happiness becomes uniform, or rather, advances uniformly towards perfection, just in proportion as the sinfulness is subdued, and the whole man given over to a holy dominion. And if this be a correct account of a believers experience, it will show us that grace and glory are one and the same. It is to the operations of grace that we must ascribe all the progress I have made in overcoming sinfulness; and if this progress b the same as progress in happiness, we proclaim that to the operations of grace must be ascribed all the happiness which a believer attains. And if it would thus be perfect happiness to realise to the full the renewing power of grace, how can we better describe perfect happiness than by supposing grace given without measure, and acting without rival? And if, yet further, perfect happiness be one ingredient of future glory, is not the gift of grace the gift of glory, and does not St. Peter address himself to the highest and most rapturous imagination when he bids us hope for grace at the revelation of Jesus Christ? This will be yet clearer if you observe the period at which the grace will be received. The second advent of our Lord was unquestionably present to St. Peters mind. It is on this grand consummation that apostles and holy men of old delight to linger, and from this that they fetch their motives and consolations. They well knew that whatever the happiness of separate spirits, however deep and beautiful their repose after the clang and din of warfare, there can be no perfection of felicity until the widowhood be over, and the soul dwell once more in the body. They looked for grace at the revelation of Jesus Christ, because they knew with that revelation would come the resurrection of the saints, the body and soul both redeemed, both purified, both endowed with eternity. If, therefore, this consummation be glory, what is glory but grace completed?
2. We have thus far only treated of grace as producing deliverance from sin; but this is not the only achievement of grace; yet further we must consider it as consignment to the service of God. There are none but true Christians who at all fulfil the great end of their being, that of promoting the glory of their Maker; and it is not through the workings of any human principle that they propose to themselves so sublime an honour; there must have been an alienation of the affections, and a withdrawment of the heart from temporary interests. We know, indeed, that all things, wickedness as well as righteousness, one way or another, promote Gods glory; but while the Almighty, in the exercise of His sovereignty, compels a tribute from the rebellious, that tribute is offered by none but the believer. It is, therefore, to grace, the principle imparted by God, that we ascribe every effort to promote Gods glory; nothing can be presented to God which has not first been received from Him; according to the words of David-All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee; and if it be the direct result of the workings of grace that we are led to consecrate ourselves to the service of God, then let grace have unrestrained operation, and, dust and ashes though we be, should we not become ineffably glorious? It will not be the robe of light which shall make us glorious, though brighter threads than sunbeams shall be woven into its texture; it will not be the palm and the harp that shall make us glorious, though the one shall have grown on the trees of Paradise, and the other have been strung by the Mediators hands; we shall be glorious as ministering to Gods glory glorious as the servants of the Almighty-glorious with more than an angels glory, because entrusted with more than an angels commission. And, if this be our glory, poetry may give her music to what she counts more beautiful, anti painting its tints on more sparkling and captivating things, but Christianity, the scheme of human restoration, recognises no glory but the living to the glory of God. If this be glory, then where is the word which could describe glory so emphatically as grace? Grace is that which produces consecration to Gods service, and therefore grace is nothing less than incipient glory. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
At the revelation of Jesus Christ.-
The revelation of Jesus Christ
I. The grand object referred to. The revelation of Jesus Christ.
II. The blessings which result to believers in consequence of this revelation.
1. By means of this revelation the kindness of God our Saviour to man is made known.
2. This revelation brings heaven to the view of believers, and assures them that they shall inherit that glory which is yet to be revealed.
3. This revelation teaches those who in consequence of receiving it have truly believed on the Son of God, that when He shall come again it will be to con summate their salvation.
III. The entire confidence and joyous anticipation, which it becomes believers consequently to indulge.
1. It is very important to Christians that they should indulge hope-that they should perfectly hope. We are saved by hope.
2. A firm foundation is laid for the exercise of perfect hope in the promises of God, ratified by the blood of the everlasting covenant, and confirmed by solemn oaths. (W. Temple.)
Christ and His grace
The display of Him is everything. Be it therefore observed that the revelation of Him is four fold.
1. The first revelation of Him we call scriptural. This began very early, even in Paradise. There the Sun of righteousness dawned, and from thence shone more and more unto the perfect day. This exhibition of Him may be likened to a perfect portraiture of a most distinguished and endeared person age, at full length, rolled up on the side of a room, and which the owner gradually opens to the beholders, till the whole figure stands disclosed.
2. The second revelation of Him is incarnate. Thus He was not only declared but perceived. He appeared not in vision but in person. Not tremendously, as in the giving of the law, but familiarly, clothed in a body like our own. Not transiently, as when He paid visits to His people of old, but by a continuance of three-and-thirty years-for the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us-full of grace and truth.
3. The third revelation of Him is spiritual. And we call it spiritual because it is produced by the Spirit of God in the spirit of man. It is expressed by sight; not a carnal sight of Him, but by the eye of faith. It is such an acquaintance with Him as draws forth our admiration, excites our love, gains our confidence, and secured our obedience.
4. The fourth revelation of Him is glorious. After all He is now much concealed. There are millions who know nothing even of His existence. Even where He is professedly known, there are multitudes to whom He has no form or comeliness, nor any beauty, that they should desire Him. But Christians are relieved and cheered with the thought that it will not be so always. But what is to be expected at the revelation of Jesus Christ? The grace that is to be brought unto you.
Two inquiries may here arise-
1. What does the grace here spoken of mean? It comprehends the fulness of the promise, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. His invitation, Come, ye blessed of My Father.
2. But why is it called grace? Why is it not said, The glory that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ?
(1) May it not be, first, to exclude merit from all share in attaining it?
(1) And may it not be so called to show the identity of grace with glory (W. Jay.)
As obedient children.
Obedience
creature can escape. Man created to obey does not avoid this duty by separating himself from God; he only changes masters. What constitutes his greatness is that he freely responds to the design of his Creator.
2. Because as Christians we are the redeemed of Jesus Christ, and consequently the property of God. Everything in the gospel teaches obedience.
II. How must we obey? God will not be served by mercenaries nor by slaves. Who then will serve Him? The apostle answers, children.
III. What influence does this obedience exert over our life? Action is but a part of obedience; to suffer is another. For many it is the larger part; for all it is the most difficult. Walking, speaking, working are to us means of obedience.
1. Some complain at being obliged to obey, and rebel. Direct them to Nazareth, to Gethsemane, to Calvary.
2. Some apparently accept the yoke of the Lord, but reserve to themselves the right of obeying in their way. Under the cover of Divine will they accomplish their own designs.
3. Some wait till an inward impulse moves them to obedience. If it does not act they do not obey at all. In obeying at first passively and without joy, their obedience would soon, under Divine blessing, be transformed into a joyous doing of His will. One word to such as do not yet possess the truth. If they ask me what is the best way of obtaining faith, I will not hesitate to answer, Obey! (E. Bersier, D. D.)
Obedience
1. We must obey, not by halves, or where we list, but in all things (Psa 119:6; Luk 1:6; Lev 10:2).
2. We must not, on the other side, run without our errand, nor do things whereof we have no commandment; this is no obedience, be it never so costly or painful, have it never so goodly a show (Jer 7:31).
3. Moreover, we must obey the commandment of the Lord, be it never so strange, harsh, unpleasing, or contrary to custom, though all the world counsel to the contrary.
4. We must obey without reasoning the case, or consulting with flesh and blood: we must bind reason hand and foot to follow God (as it were) blindfold, as Abraham offering Isaac, and Joshua compassing Jericho.
5. We must obey, whosoever or whatever be against it. If profits, pleasure, farm, oxen, etc., call us away, and God invite us, we must follow Him, else we have no part in Him.
6. Speedily, not hereafter, but today.
7. Voluntarily, not be haled only by pain and misery. God loves a cheerful servant.
8. Constantly, not for a while only. Reasons hereof.
(1) Gods sovereignty over us. We clay, He our Maker.
(2) His will a rule of righteousness.
(3) His great mercies every way, even to the worst, but to His children wonderful ones. (John Rogers.)
Obedience a Christian virtue
The idea of the Christian life, as a new sphere in which hope is predominant, and into which by virtue of our Lords resurrection Christians enter by a second birth, leads the apostle to address those to whom he wrote as children; and among the typical excellencies of children he selects the virtue of obedience. Now it may be noticed, first of all, that obedience is not in our day one of the more popular Christian graces or virtues. There have been days in the Church when men have been possessed by nothing short of a passion for putting themselves under rule-sometimes, it must be granted, not being sufficiently careful as to the sort of rule they put themselves under. Those days have gone by; and While we hear of Church Temperance Societies and Church Purity Societies devoted to the enforcement of these particular virtues, we do not, as yet, hear of a Church Obedience Society. Now the neglect into which obedience has fallen is apparently part of a larger neglect-that of the passive virtues generally; because, although obedience has an active, sometimes a very active, side, it is in the main a passive excellence. As the soul loses touch with the great Master of love, humility, self-repression, obedience it falls back on the old pagan ideal of regulated self-assertion, and a virtue like that insisted on by St. Peter-child-like obedience-is apt to be very soon at a discount. And there is another characteristic of our time which makes obedience a more or less difficult virtue. Obedience is said to be the virtue of older social conditions, such as accompanied feudalism or absolute monarchy, older conditions to which democracy has succeeded. It was natural, we are reminded, for arbitrary rulers to make much of a temper of mind which buttressed their power, but in a democratic age liberty takes the place of obedience: liberty is the typical virtue of free, self-improved, self-governing man; obedience, as a virtue, has had its day. Again, we are reminded that we are living in an age of liberty, nor, can it be denied that the difficulties of doing justice to the virtue of obedience have been aggravated by the abuses which have gathered round the ancient centres of authority? Nothing discredits the claims of obedience like the exaggerations of the rightful claims of any who ought to be obeyed. The Monarchy of France, as Richelieu contrived to make it, was the natural forerunner of the great Revolution; the Papacy, when, among other causes, the false decrials had exaggerated a legitimate supremacy of order into a spiritual absolutism, led by reaction into that enfeeblement of Church authority which is the weakness of our part of Christendom. We have accordingly fallen upon times when, both in Church and State, the rights of liberty have been pleaded against the duties and the instincts of obedience, and pleaded more or less successfully because of abuses in the support of which obedience has been, or might be, conceivably enlisted. And, further, as a consequence of these three tendencies, attention has been in modern times largely concentrated on those parts of Holy Scripture, to the neglect of others, which lay stress upon the rights, as distinct from the duties, of a Christian; Upon his freedom from the Jewish law as distinct from his obligations to the eternal moral law; upon the liberty with which Christ has made him free, as distinct from that service which he owes to God and which is itself perfect freedom. It is impossible to mistake the charm and power which attach to this word liberty. There is, we feel, something in our own human nature which at once responds to it; it appeals to sympathies which are universal and profound. Liberty is even in one particular sense the excellence of man as man-that is to say, of man as being endowed with a free will. To attempt to crush the exercise of this endowment of freedom is regarded as a crime against human nature, while the undertaking to strengthen its vigour and to enlarge its scope appeals to mans profound desire to make the best of that which is his central self; and hence the indefinite, the magic charm which always attends upon the word and the idea of liberty. But, when in this connection we use the word liberty, two different things are often intended. The liberty to choose between good and evil, with, it must be added, in our fallen state, an existing inclination in the direction of the evil, is one thing; the true moral liberty of man is another. True liberty is secure when the will moves freely within its true element, which is moral good. Moral good is to the human soul what the air is to the bird, what the water is to the fish. Bird and fish have freedom enough in their respective elements; water is death to the bird, as the atmosphere is to the fish. A bird can sometimes drown itself, a fish can leap out of the water and die upon the bank; but the liberty of fish and bird alike is sufficiently complete without this added capacity for self-destruction; and so it is with man. Every Christian who is living in a state of grace will understand this. He knows that he would gain nothing in the way of moral freedom by a murder, or an adultery, or a lie; he knows that our Lord Jesus Christ, who did no sin, who could have done no sin, was not, therefore, other than morally free, since it is His freedom in giving Himself to death which is of the essence of His self-sacrifice for the sins of the world: No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. Nay, a Christian knows, too, that God could not choose evil without doing violence to His essential nature. But is God, therefore, without moral freedom? Is not God rather the one Being who is perfectly free because His perfections make it impossible for Him to choose evil; and would it not follow that the more closely man approaches to the holiness of God, the more closely does he approach to the true idea of liberty? We may look at this fundamental truth from another side. The sense of liberty within the soul of man is the conscious energy of the will, its felt vigour its power of making straight for the aim before it. But what is more certain than that the will acquires this two-fold excellence-strength and directness of purpose-by the discipline of obedience? The man who has never obeyed is not the man to know how to command. The steady drudgery of an apprenticeship is the necessary training for the conduct of a great business. The submissive and persistent industry of the junior clerk is the true preparation for a partnership in the firm. He would be a poor general of division who had never served as an ensign or a lieutenant, if not in the ranks. Nay, we see the operation of this law, that the strength and freedom of the will is secured by obedience, in the very quarter where we might beforehand perhaps think that it might have been dispensed with. We are told that the Divine Redeemer of the world went down to Nazareth, and was subject to His mother and His foster father until a period long past the age of manhood; and when his ministerial life, which from first to last was a life of obedience, was ended, it was ended by a supreme act of obedience. For He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; wherefore also God hath highly exalted Him. The obedience which St. Peter recommends is, let us observe, the obedience of children. It is not the obedience of slaves, of slaves who are slaves against their will. The kingdom of heaven is not fashioned on the lines of an Oriental court in which a crowd of unwilling servitors tremble before a master whose word may at any moment bring to any one of them sentence of death. There have been Christians who have understood the service of God in some such sense as this, but it is not the tendency or a danger of our time. We should perhaps do better to remember that the use which a true Christian makes of his freedom is to become willingly a slave of Jesus Christ. This is St. Pauls favourite way of describing himself, Paul, a servant-it should be, a slave of Jesus Christ. He means that he has freely surrendered himself, his soul, his body, his understanding, his affections, his will, his passions, his entire liberty, to the will, to the commands of Jesus Christ. But then this slavery is the highest expression of freedom, and it differs vitally from the involuntary slavery which has nothing to do with, though it may have at times been mistaken for, Christian obedience. In the current sense of the words, Christian obedience is not the obedience of slaves, nor is it the obedience of mercenaries. A true Christian does not serve God for the sake of what he can get from Him; he does not serve God only or chiefly even for the sake of gaining heaven, or of escaping hell. But here do not let us exaggerate. If God is to be served because He is what He is-infinitely perfect and lovable-it is not less true that a recompense does follow on Christian obedience. The picture in St. Mat 25:1-46 of the King sitting in judgment and making the eternal awards to the blessed and to the lost is not an illusion. If the recompense is not the first motive of service, it is a motive which our Lord Himself has sanctioned. Nay, in the last resort obedience to God for His own sake and obedience for the sake of the reward which He gives so blend as not to be distinguishable from each other, since God Himself is the only true and adequate reward of the human soul. He says to each true servant now, as He said to the Patriarch, I am thy exceeding great reward. And yet it remains true that the obedience which keeps an eye only or mainly on what it will get is not in keeping with the higher temper of the Christian life. Every time we say Our Father, at the beginning of the most authoritative of all prayers, we bind ourselves to a life of obedience. Of this let us be sure, that no true obedience neglects orders and duties which God has clearly prescribed. If God says by His apostle, Pray, even pray without ceasing, a true obedience does not say, My heart is cold, my prayer will be formal, lifeless, resultless-it does its best. If God says, In everything give thanks, true obedience does not say, God knows all about me and He will take my thankfulness for granted; I need not say grace after meals, or thanksgiving after Communion, or go out of my way to render praise to Him for some special deliverances and mercies-it does its best. And if God bestows on us the treasure of His Holy Word, and bids us Search the Scriptures, true obedience does not say that the Bible will not help us until we are aroused by literary curiosity, or some other sort of eagerness, to read it; it resolves to train the spiritual taste by earnest daily study-it does its best. If God desires us again and again to bear witness before the world to the faith that is in us, true obedience does not dwell on the feeble hold of the great unseen realities which is all that as yet we have, on the danger of saying more than we feel or mean, on the shifting, uncertain character of our present impressions-it goes straight to Holy Scripture and does its best. If God bids us remember the poor, visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction-in other words, look after hospitals, orphanages, homes, penitentiaries, deserted children, tramps, lone women, and the like-true obedience does not say, There is no knowing, after all, how many of these institutions are doing any real good. It does not say, We cannot possibly decide how many of these poor people are not gross impostors. It goes to work with the love of God in its heart, and, expecting to make a full percentage of mistakes, it does its best. Obedience cannot hope to be always and everywhere the product of a sustained enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a great gift of God which visits souls and visits churches at intervals, but there are also intervals when there is little or no enthusiasm abroad, but during which the persistence of obedience is not the less necessary; and it is during these colder periods that we learn the value of living by rule. No obedience worth anything is to be secured without rule. Moral force, it has well been said, is like running water in a narrow channel which confines it on this side and that; it rushes onwards towards the fields of duty as the dispenser of fertility and of life; but if it has no barriers to confine its energies and to direct its course, it will presently sink away into the sands and will do no good to any living thing. Not that child-like obedience is always, indeed chiefly, active. In the majority of human lives it is passive. It consists in acceptance of what is ordered, in submission, in resignation, rather than in anything demonstrative; and obedience of this kind is at once harder and more sublime than active obedience: it is the obedience of Gethsemane and of Calvary, rather than that of the preceding years of labour and of miracle. The Holiest, we are told, Himself learnt obedience, not by the things which He did, but by the things which he suffered. The best and most fruitful obedience may in some cases be that of the confirmed invalid, that of the closing weeks of a last illness. Obedience is the joy and glory of the great intelligences who move and worship around the eternal throne; and here below on earth the souls which grace has fashioned after the likeness of the pattern Man-aye, the finest natures among us-have a thirst, nay, they have a passion, for obedience, for they know that in freely obeying they touch nearly, or quite, the secret of moral victory and spiritual joy. (Canon Liddon.)
The obedience of hope
These words immediately follow, and are to be taken in closest connection with, the exhortation to hope perfectly for the grace that is to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Hope, then, is to be nurtured, not only by a believing contemplation of future felicities, but by exercising ourselves to godliness and practical obedience. Two points as to the words of this text must be noticed before dealing with the thoughts. As the Revised Version shows, the literal rendering is as children of obedience. The essential or permanent characteristic of a person or thing is regarded as his or its parent. So obedience is represented as the inalienable mark of a Christian. But the immediately following reference to God as our Father seems to suggest that the Hebrew idiom here is blended with the Christian thought of sonship. One other expository remark is necessary. The Revised Version reads in the margin but like the Holy One which called you. If we adopt that rendering, and connect the words closely with the preceding, Gods own holiness is proposed as the pattern by which Christians are to fashion themselves.
I. That Christian hope and Christian obedience are inseparable companions. The mark of a son is to obey. And obedience means not merely doing what we are bid, but being glad to be bidden to do it; and it means not merely the active submission of will to the loving command of the Father, but also the quiet acceptance of and bowing of the will to the wise appointments of that Father. So it is the exact opposite of that temper and attitude which are characteristic of the godless world which makes self and its own will its law. There are the two courses of life, obedience or rebellion; and there is no middle point. Does our obedience cover the whole ground-of action and of surrender and submission? Such obedience can never be parted from the great Christian hope. Hope will produce obedience. Now, many professing Christians are a great deal stronger in the department of devout emotion than in that of practical righteousness. I should like all these people who find it so good to feed their souls on the meditation and anticipation of future blessedness to notice how, as in one volume, Peter binds up the two things that they keep so distinctly apart, and how emphatically he affirms that, if we have any genuine Christian hope, it will have its effect in helping us, as children of obedience, to do and to accept all our Fathers will. There we come down to a very plain practical test. But, then, these two things which the Apostle thus couples by an iron band have a reciprocal action. They work upon each other; in fact, they are the outside and the inside of the same thing; but we may look at them as being different. Just as strong hope will produce obedience, so true obedience will nourish and strengthen hope. For a little sin will go much further towards obscuring and shattering a Christian mans hope than a great sorrow will. It is comparatively easy to keep up the temper of joyous anticipation of the future in the midst of the darkness of a present experience; but it is absolutely impossible for a man, at one and the same time, to be rebelling in heart and act against the will of God and to be entertaining and recreating his soul by the bright hope of a future heaven. No Christian mans hope will last through a sin. Therefore obedience and hope must co-exist and feed one another.
II. That hope, fed by and feeding obedience, should change us from the likeness of our former selves. Not fashioning yourselves according to the former in your ignorance-that may be said to all people who have been brought out of the darkness into the light. It is but an uncertain light, or twilight mainly, at the best, that shines upon the mysteries of human life and duty, until the sunshine of God, manifested in Jesus Christ, rises and is welcomed by our hearts. So, then, non-Christian living is, in a profound sense, ignorance; and in the ignorance, just as the wild beasts of the forest go forth in the dark and are nocturnal in their habits if they are predatory, so the lusts that war against our souls expatiate and hunt and find their prey in the darkness. But, says Peter, if, hoping, you are obedient, and obedient you hope, then there will be a process of transformation going on in you. But in a world like this, and with creatures like us, unless a man has learnt not to do wrong, there is little chance of his doing right. The evil that we have to fight against is in possession, and we have to turn it out. A large part of all practical morality, Christian or not, consists in negative precepts; and the very heart and centre, in one aspect, of Christian duty lies here; self-denial, self-suppression, self-crucifixion. You have to put off the old self as part of the process of putting on the new. I press this upon you, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts, in your ignorance. And that will be a life-long task. For nobody knows how, like a cuttlefish, holding on to its prey by the suckers upon its arm, his evil habits cling to him, until he have tried to fling away the loathly thing that prevents him from freely using his limbs. Hope? Yes! Obey? Yes! and that you may crucify the old man with his deeds, and put off the garments spotted by the flesh, that you may put on the fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints.
III. Lastly, this obedience and hope should change us into the likeness of the father. If we are children we have the Fathers life in us; and we ought to have the Fathers likeness. This is the great aim that we have to set before ourselves. And oh! what an aim it is. Nothing less august than absolute perfection is worthy to be the goal of a soul. How different it is to say, Try to be like God as you haw learned to know Him in Jesus Christ, from what it is to say, Try to be up to the ideal of humanity; try to cultivate a pure morality; be true to yourselves, and all those other sayings, noble in their way and to a certain extent, which people who turn away from Christianity try to set up as substitutes for its morality. They are all hard and icy; and no kind of inspiration comes out of them. Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, the ideal lives; the ideal loves, Yes! and more; the ideal is our Father, and so He will make His child like Himself. And that fashioning ourselves like our Father, if it does not precede obedience to the negative precept, must at all events be carried on simultaneously with it. It is a fatal mistake to try simply to obey the negative precept unless we aim along with it at obedience to the positive one. The more we come close to Him the further we withdraw from earth and evil. But notice how hope animates the effort at becoming like God. He is the Holy One which called you. Well, then, if He has called us to be holy, it will not be in vain that we shall try to be so. And unless we have this hope of His calling, sure I am that we shall never earnestly and successfully aim at being like Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Obedience in small things
Do not always be looking for the large and the heroic, the expansive, the typical, the magnificent. Do with simplicity and consecration and faith your duty as it comes, every day; that is all. The great Earl of Lincoln held all his great estates from the Crown on the condition that he gave to the king every year one white rose in the time of roses. Now, it was not much-a white rose for a title to these estates; but mind you it was enough. It was a sign that the earl held all from the throne, and that he held all for the throne; and, as he gave his white rose, year by year, it was the signal of his loyalty. And God says to us, I do not ask you for the large and the difficult and the impossible, day by day-but simple love, simple loyalty, simple service, one white rose in the time of roses. But mind you keep the white rose of love, of simple obedience, and consecration in your heart. That, then, is enough. He can see the heroic in the simplest service. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts.-
We must forsake evil before we can do good
For the order here used, he sets renouncing of our lusts first, before embracing of holiness; men put off their old rags, ere they can put on a new apparel; purge the stomach of ill humours, ere they take good nourishment; dig up the weeds, ere they sow or set herbs: so in this ease. Where, therefore, there remaineth the love of any lust or sin, there is no true grace in the heart, neither will any grow till that be rooted out. God will not plant any of His grace there, till the devils planting be plucked up. Many think they be Christians, and do many things well, though they keep the love of some sin; no, mark, the love of grace and goodness, and the love of any sin, cannot be in one heart; they are so contrary the one to the other; therefore, while thou livest in any known sin, and lovest any lust, as sure as God is in heaven thou art an hypocrite and standest in the state of damnation. (John Rogers.)
Lusts
are not sensual impulses and wants only, but desires of what is different from what God allows. (G. F. C. Frau Muller, Ph. D.)
In your ignorance.-
The sin of ignorance
I. Why is ignorance named as the special sin to set out their unregenerate estate, seeing they were guilty of many other sins? Not because men sin only by ignorance, as the Platonists think, but-
1. It may be the Holy Ghost doth of purpose do it to aggravate the hatefulness of the sin because men use to excuse it and make light of it.
2. Because it is a sin none are free from. If he had named whoredom, or drunkenness, etc., many unregenerate men would have pleaded not guilty.
3. This sin serves more to reproach the rebellious nature of man. It was the knowledge of good and evil that Adam so much aspired unto, and lo, now, he and all his were set in gross ignorance.
4. Because ignorance is the mother and nurse of all sorts of sins (Eph 4:18; 2Pe 2:12; Psa 36:2-4). But have unregenerate men no knowledge? Yes, they have some knowledge, for they are wise to do evil, and they may have great learning in arts and sciences; but yet they are justly taxed with ignorance because they know not God as a Father by the light of faith, nor Christ Jesus whom He hath sent; and besides, they have no desire to know their own iniquities or the way how to reform their own lives; they have no knowledge to do good.
II. These things being thus resolved, there are divers observations to be noted from hence.
1. That a true convert must make conscience of inward sins, as well as outward; of defects as well as evil desires or lusts, as here of ignorance as well as of wicked thoughts. The same God that saith, How long shall thy evil thoughts abide in thee? complains also of ignorance (Isa 1:3).
2. That ignorance is no small sin; it is exceeding hateful to God; contrary to doctrine of those that say it is the mother of devotion.
3. That without reformation of ignorance we cannot be truly turned to God; without knowledge the mind is not good; therefore, to tear the veil is one part of Gods work in our conversion (Pro 19:3; Isa 25:8).
4. That ignorance is wanton and full of lust (Eph 4:18).
5. That the way to be rid of lusts is to be rid of ignorance. For saving knowledge keeps us from sin (Jam 3:17). Here we may see the principal use we should put our knowledge to, viz., to cleanse our hearts of base thoughts and desires.
6. That we may live in places of great means for knowledge and yet be grossly ignorant. For he writeth here to the Jews, who had the law and the prophets, and the oracles of God and the priests, etc.
7. That all knowledge or learning without the knowledge of Gods favour in Christ, and the way how to reform our own lives, is but foolish ignorance.
8. That habitual lusts are a sure sign of ignorance, whatsoever knowledge men pretend.
III. Lastly, seeing there is ignorance even in the children of God after calling, what are the signs of unregenerate ignorance?
1. It hardens the heart and works a continued evil disposition to sin with greediness (Eph 4:11; Eph 4:18). Now the ignorance in the godly may be where the heart is softened and the overflowings of corruption stopped.
2. It hoodwinketh the soul in the main things needful to salvation, as the knowledge of a mans own iniquities, God in Christ, the forgiveness of a mans own sins, and generally all the things of God (1Co 2:14). A wicked man may discern spiritual things carnally, but not spiritually.
3. It hath never been in the furnace of mortification; it hath never been truly repented of, whereas the ignorance of the godly hath often been confessed, mourned for, etc.
4. It will suffer no saving grace to neighbour by it; where ignorance hath not been repented of, there no fear of God, no holy contemplation, no uprightness, love of God, or His Word, or His people, will dwell. Now the ignorance that is in Gods children is well neighboured with many holy graces that can dwell by it. And as these ignorances differ in nature and working, so they differ in imputation. For unto the godly there is a sacrifice for ignorance. God doth not impute ignorance unto the godly: it shall be to them according to what they know, and not according to what they know not. (N. Byfield.)
Ignorance the cause and root of a bad life
He fathers their following of lusts on their ignorance; and ignorance is the root of a wicked life; for, till men know the will of God out of His Word, how can they do it? and what are we prone to by nature, but to all the evil in the world? Therefore the devil labours by all means to hold people in blindness, and, of all books, hath most been an enemy to the Bible, and to sincere and diligent reading, and preaching the Scriptures, for were those away, he knows all iniquity must needs abound. As, if one comes into a house at midnight, he sees no faults, but when the morning comes, then he sees a number of things out of order; so in the clear light of the gospel, we see the wickedness that then appeared not in the dark. Whither will not our nature run, and whither may not the devil and world lead one, when he hath no eyes to see whither he goes? As the raven first picks out the lambs eyes, and then kills it at his pleasure, when it cannot see to escape, so doth the devil by people. (John Rogers.)
Slavery through ignorance
I have heard a reflection often expressed by thoughtful country people when they saw a great draught horse meekly submitting to be bridled and led away to labour by a child: If the brute creatures knew their own strength, they would not submit to the yoke and the lash. These mighty quadrupeds could trample down the stripling that puts bits in their mouths. Yet they submit to whatever their master imposes, ignorant of their own strength. Oh, if man, Gods greatest creature, knew his strength, he would not submit to be the slave of vile passions! Strong men in multitudes are in our country led not only to the yoke, but even to the shambles, by the appetite of intemperance. This possessing spirit says to the right arm, Do this, and he doeth it; to the foot, Go thither, and he goeth. Oh, that these captives, driven openly in gangs, not through the marshes of interior Africa, but along the streets of British cities, were at last set free! (W. Arnot.)
Holy in all manner of conversation.-
Holiness in all things
Not where, when, to whom, and what we list, but at all times, in all places, towards all persons, and in all things, as God is holy in all His ways and works.
1. This serves to rebuke those that will yield in some things only. What is it if a man be not covetous, if he be proud, or unclean, etc.? Some will yield in great matters, but in small do as they list; as to swear by their faith and troth, especially in that which is true, talk vain a little, put a little false ware, deceive a little, etc. Some again will yield in all small matters, but in some great thing they will not; as to give all diligence to increase in every grace, and that no corrupt communication should come out of their mouths; though thou hast spoken many good words, yet hadst thou better be silent than have no more good to speak. Some in adversity will be very humble, good words, golden promises, but in prosperity nothing so. Some use their superiors well, their poor tenants or work folks hardly. Alas, there is no part of our life, wherein God gives any license to do evil; in our particular callings let us show the truth of our Christianity.
2. Let us prove the truth of holiness in us by the generality of it; keep a constant tenour, an even hand, and let there be a proportion between every part of our life, not one part, as it were, devout, another profane and wicked. (John Rogers.)
Be ye holy, for I am holy.-
The holiness of God the type and model of ours
What, then, is the sort of holiness to which He who is holy in calling us, does in fact call us?
I. Here, negatively, let us note what it is not and cannot be.
1. For one thing, it clearly is not, it cannot be, mere innocence, the innocence of one ignorant of evil, or of one who knows evil only by report, or of one who knows it only as a possibility, by a prohibitory enactment with a penalty attached to it.
2. Neither is it enough that it should be a holiness consisting merely of enforced abstinence from evil, or of such outward compliance with good as a sense of dire necessity and a dread of unpleasant consequences may produce.
3. Nor even can it be such painful discipline of self-restraint, self-denial, self-mortification, as may spring from better and more respectable motives-sometimes from motives of deep religious earnest ness.
4. For, as to its essential character, our holiness, if it is to be like the holiness of God, must, at the very outset, pass out of the region of the merely negative, which implies a continual struggle to dethrone a tyrant, into the region of the positive, which is realised in our acknowledgment of Him who buys us to be His freedmen.
5. For, finally, it is indeed now a new influence, a fresh and new power.
II. The positive aspect of the grace in question-how, in that changed aspect of affairs, with our new mind towards God, as connected with His new mind towards us, may His holiness thus purely and simply bear upon us? How otherwise than by our being made partakers of His holiness, in such a sense and to such an effect that we do now really become as God, knowing good and evil? We know evil as God knows it; because we know good as God knows it. For we are partakers of the Divine nature, through our faith in Gods exceeding great and precious promises (2Pe 1:4). We are thus partakers of His holiness (Heb 12:10). (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Holiness
I. Explain the exhortation.
1. The nature of holiness.
2. Its different stages and degrees.
3. Its objects.
4. Its effects.
II. Consider the motive.
1. God is holy, and therefore without holiness we cannot be like Him.
2. God is holy, and therefore those only who are so can truly serve Him.
3. God is holy, and without holiness it is impossible to please Him in anything we do.
4. God is holy, and unless we be so too, we cannot be owned or acknowledged by Him.
5. God is holy, and we must be holy in order to enjoy Him. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Holiness
I. Holiness in the heart, or as it works its way down to the depth of our nature. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.
1. In their unregenerate state men always fashion themselves after the pattern of their lusts or inward sinful desires.
2. The power of evil, however, though not expelled, is dethroned in the believers heart, and the principle of dutiful obedience takes its place. Gods people-ideal, and to a certain extent actual, people-are emphatically the children of obedience.
(1) This implies for one thing that they inwardly approve the Divine law, that they love Gods commandments. It is not a law they would alter if they could.
(2) Obedience, however, contains another element, namely, that the mind throws itself actively and energetically into the duties prescribed.
II. Holiness in the life, or as it widens out over the whole area of conduct. As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
1. This enjoins holiness in all our thinking and reading.
2. Holiness should also be observed in all your conversation, in the modern sense of the word. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt.
(1) On the one hand, you must renounce filthy and blasphemous language.
(2) But as you should avoid evil communications, so, on the other hand, your speech should be such as to cause grace in the hearers. We do not faithfully mirror the Divine holiness when we foul each others character.
3. Christian holiness, furthermore, extends to our acts as well as to our words and thoughts. Be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Christianity influences the whole area of life private and public; it is commensurate with our existence.
III. Holiness in its standard. Be ye holy, for I am holy.
1. Why is holiness a virtue, and therefore required of us? The Bible answer is, Because God is holy. The essence of God-that is to say, that which makes God to be God-is His infinite holiness and infinite love. Hence the Bible continually summons men to holiness; not to learning or culture, but to holiness, for only in holiness and love can we resemble our Maker. By growing in other things, however much to be coveted in themselves, we do not grow in likeness to our Maker.
2. In the text God is styled He that called you. And His calling imposes a fresh obligation upon you. You are called by God-to what? To holiness, to show forth the virtues of Him that called you. If you seek not holiness, you overlook the very purpose of your separation from the world and your incorporation into the Church. Your call has been in vain.
3. As the ground of our holiness is in God, so the standard of our holiness, that to which it is to grow, is the holiness of God. Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Infinite holiness surely presents a standard lofty enough. Christianity in the morality, the holiness, it demands can never be outdone. One argument Herbert Spencer urges against it is that the standard of character it offers for our imitation is too high. Observe that the objection carries in it a homage to the pure ethics of the Teacher of Nazareth. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
The family likeness
I. The pattern of holiness. Religion is imitation. The truest form of worship is to copy. All through heathenism you find that principle working. They that make them are like unto them. Why are heathen nations so sunken in their foul nesses? Because their gods are their examples, and they, first of all, make the gods after the pattern of their own evil imaginations, and then the evil imaginations, deified, react upon the makers and make them tenfold more children of hell than themselves. Worship is imitation. For religion is but love and reverence in the superlative degree, and the natural operation of love is to copy, and the natural operation of reverence is the same. So that the old Mosaic law, Be ye holy as I am holy, went to the very heart of religion. And the New Testament form of it, as Paul puts it in a very bold word, Be ye imitators of God, as beloved children, sets its seal on the same thought. But then, says somebody or other, it is not possible. Well, if it were not possible, try it all the same. For in this world it is aim and not attainment that makes the noble life; and it is better to shoot at the stars, even though your arrow never reaches them, than to fire it along the low levels of ordinary life. I do not see that however the unattainableness of the model may be demonstrated, that has anything to do with the duty of imitation. Instead of bewildering ourselves with questions about unattainable or attainable, suppose we asked, at each failure, Why did I not copy God then; was it because I could not, or because I would not?
II. The field of this Godlike holiness. Here is no cloistered and ascetic holiness which taboos large provinces of every mans experience, and says we must not go in there, for fear of losing our purity, but rather wherever Christ has trod before we can go. That is a safe guide, and what ever God has appointed there we can go and that we can do. In all manner of conversation. There is nothing so minute but it is big enough to mirror the holiness of God. The tiniest grain of mica, upon the face of the hill, is large enough to flash back a beam; and the smallest thing we can do is big enough to hold the bright light of holiness.
III. The motive or inspiration of holiness. Peter would stir his hearers to the emulation of the Divine holiness by that thought of the bond that unites Him and them. He hath called you. In which word, I suppose, he includes the whole sum of the Divine operations which have resulted in the placing of each of his auditors within the circle of the Christian community as the subjects of Christs grace, and not only the one definite act to which the theologians attach the name of calling. In the briefest possible way we may put the motive thus-the inspiration of imitation is to be found in the contemplation of the gifts of God. And not only so, but in this thought of the Divine calling there lies a fountain of inspiration when we remember the purpose of the calling. As Paul puts it in one of his letters: God has not called us to uncleanness but to holiness. And so, if in addition to the fact of His gift and calling and all that is included within it, if in addition to the purpose of that calling we further think of the relation between us and Him which results from it, so as that we, as the next verse says, call Him who hath called us, Our Father, then the motive becomes deeper and more blessed still. Shall we not try to be like the Father of our spirits, and seek for His grace, to bear the likeness of sons? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Of imitating the holiness of God
I. The obligations we are under to imitate the God whom we worship. This is an original obligation, founded in nature itself, requiring us to imitate what it necessitates us to admire. And this obligation is confirmed by the light of reason, teaching us further that imitation of God, as it is most fit in itself, so it cannot but be likewise most acceptable unto Him and agreeable to His will. For the same absolute perfection of the Divine nature which makes us certain that God must Himself be of necessity infinitely holy, just, and good, makes it equally certain that He cannot possibly approve iniquity in others. And the same beauty, the same excellency, the same importance of the rules of everlasting righteousness, with regard to which God is always pleased to make those rules the measure of all His own actions, necessarily prove that it must likewise be His will that all rational creatures should proportionately make them the measure of theirs. In the revelation which God has been pleased to make to us of Himself in Scripture, the necessity of the same duty is more expressly and more clearly enforced (Lev 11:44; Lev 19:1; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10; 2Pe 1:4).
II. The true extent and proper limitations of this duty.
1. All imitation of God must be understood to be an imitation of His moral attributes only, and not of His natural ones.
2. Even in these moral excellencies it is evident further that it must necessarily mean an imitation of likeness only, and not of equality.
3. Yet ought we also to consider that even in the degrees of goodness it is our duty continually to improve. A perfect example is set before us that aiming always at that, we may make a perpetual progress in the ways of virtue.
Conclusion:
1. If true religion consists in the imitation of God, and all imitation of God is of necessity confined to His moral perfections only, then it hence evidently follows that moral virtue is the chief end of religion, and that to place the main stress of religion in anything else besides true virtue is superstition.
2. If true religion consists in the imitation of God, and that which is imitable in God be His moral perfections, hence it follows necessarily that moral excellences, justice, goodness, truth, and the like, are of the same kind in God as in men.
3. From hence it appears of how great importance it is to men to frame to themselves right and worthy notions of God. For such as are the conceptions men have of the object of their worship, such also will proportionably be their own behaviour and practice. (S. Clarke, D. D.)
The true ideal of life, its sublime grandeur and implied attainability
I. Its sublime grandeur. The holiness of God. To be holy is to possess, not one virtue or grace, but all virtues. The moral magnates of the old world, says Luthardt, are strong in this or that particular virtue; but they fail to give us the impression that the central point of their being is penetrated and renovated by the spirit of morality, and that we have in this a guarantee that the moral spirit by which they are animated would manifest itself in all aspects as occasion offered. They represent only single virtues: Aristides, justice; Epaminondas, truthfulness; Cimon, liberality; Leonidas, patriotism, etc.; but they do not represent morality itself. Socrates is the model of a noble Greek; but in his last hours he was un feeling to his wife and children. Plato and Aristotle were teachers of wisdom; but their verdict on the sensual errors of their fellow countrymen was more than lenient. Carp was proverbial for his integrity in public life, but was cruel to his slaves; and we might adduce many more such instances. Everywhere we see single virtues; nowhere do we find the spirit of morality filling the whole man. Gods character is the totality. God is light. By a prism we can divide the light of the sun into various coloured rays, each of which is an object of interest and deserves study. But as in the light there is the combination of all these colours, so in the character of God we have the combination of all actual and conceivable virtues. This is our standard, nothing lower. First: Anything lower than this would not suit our nature. We are so constituted that our faculties can never unfold themselves vigorously, fully, without having some grand object ever before us; when that object is reached they collapse, and the soul sinks into dormancy if not death. Secondly: Anything lower than this would damage the universe. The well-being and blessedness of the intelligent creation depends upon every member aiming at the highest holiness, the holiness of God.
II. Its implied attainability. No character ever appeared in history so imitable as the character of Christ. He is the most imitable character-First: Who has the most power to command admiration-the admiration of the soul. Secondly: Who is the most transparent in character. Thirdly: Who is the most unalterable in purpose. Therefore follow Him. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Personal holiness
This great gift and demand of the Gospel, I wish to regard as a thing simply personal and individual. I have called it a gift, for holiness is no longer natural to, no longer rises spontaneously in the soul of man: it needs to be inspired and called forth by the Spirit of holiness, which is the Spirit of God. And what is this gift of holiness, so needful for the Christian, the work of the Holy Ghost in His own individual soul and nature? Now if holiness has its seat in the soul, it is clear that it does not consist merely of a certain number of ceremonial, or even of religious acts, but that it consists first of a principle, and then of habits springing from that principle. It does not consist merely of religious acts, although these acts are quite necessary to a holy life. It consists in the soul of man being brought into communion and concord with God, the source of holiness. And this is done on mans part by the exercise of two qualities in his nature directed towards God-faith and love. The spiritual power of these two great gifts is unbounded, is miraculous. They transform the soul; they make it, according to its capacity, like God; they awaken new affections; they give a new bias to the will; they inspire new hopes, desires, and aims; they raise the spirit into a higher atmosphere, while they invest the commonest duties of life with a hallowing influence. This is its principle; but it is not merely an excited or elevated state of mind or feeling. It will not evaporate in sentiment, but will go forth into habits, and mix itself with all the acts of this life. Where the will of man is brought into harmony with the will of God, it must run out into deeds and habits of love and self-sacrifice, into all that is pure and holy. And if we look for a perfect exhibition, an unique pattern of the holiness here enjoined, we find it in the character and life of our Divine Redeemer. To be holy is to be like Christ; this is the final test, the consummation of human nature, wholly sanctified in body, soul, and spirit. For in that heavenly character, what is the leading idea? One stands forth pre-eminent-the supreme lesson of His life. It is the sacrifice of His will, in love to God and man. (A. Grant, D. C. L.)
The holiness of God
Why ought the holiness of God to be a reason for our holiness?
I. Because holiness is that idea of himself which God is most intent upon communicating to man.
II. Every other moral conception that you can form of God when you analyse it will carry you back to the fundamental thought that God is a holy being. He is said to be good. Goodness, if you analyse it, will bring you back to the idea of doing that only which is pure and fit and just and right.
III. The relation which subsists between man and God makes it indispensable that man should be holy, or pure in his purpose, and this for several reasons. The Scriptures inquire, How can two walk together, except they be agreed? What harmony can there be between light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong, purity and impurity, sin and holiness? Two persons may be most strongly attached where one supplements the other. So, even in the marriage relation, absolute identity of tastes is not always essential to the highest happiness; but, while there may be the supplementing of one with the other, if there be antagonism, there can he no sympathy or union. So that, if we are expecting to be accounted the children of God, there must be sympathy, truth, identity. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
God and obligation, or the pattern of sanctity
A holy thing is a thing that has been withdrawn from common uses and reserved for specific religious ends. A holy man is one upon whom there has been laid an authoritative interdict irrevocably separating him from the pursuits of common life, and binding him to the Divine service. But how can God be called holy in this earliest meaning of the term? He is eternally pure and perfect and separate from sinners, and does not need to draw a line between Himself and the world by a special consecration act. Well, God is separate from all those gods of the heathen kingdoms who may be thrust into competitive relations with Him. Even when the gods of the heathen are made to represent virtues and heroisms, when they incorporate the fairest ideals of the human imagination and conscience, in disposition and conduct and benign economy they fall immeasurably short of the perfection of the Most High, and He is still separate and alone. By acts that are from everlasting to everlasting in their range, He makes for Himself a consecrated sphere of life that must be ever and only His own (Mic 7:18). Is the time-honoured logic of this injunction sound? Is Gods pattern a spring of motion and obligation to us? The logic has stood the strain of many centuries: will it do for our critical decade?
I. The argument at the outset sounds like an argument basing itself upon the authority which takes its rise in supreme and boundless power. The Divine Speaker seems to assume unlimited proprietorship over us because He imparts life and determines all the outward conditions under which life maintains itself. Now a Jew would have submitted himself at once. We, however, are disposed to go a little further into the subject than that, and ask, Does mere power, however gigantic its scale, create obligation? It is our privilege to live after the French Revolution, and we are not disposed to submit to superior power for the simple reason that it is superior power. For God to bind upon us the law of His personal life because He is stronger than we is surely not unlike Fate trying to vanquish Prometheus bound to the rock in the Caucasus. Well, whilst usurped power can bring no sanction with it, if the power be original, creative, unlimited in time and space, it does bring essential obligation in its train. God does not want our conformity to His pattern because His power out powers other types of power, but because it is spontaneous, eternal, and a part of Himself. He whose breath brings the secret of life, whose word makes every wavelet of sunshine or starlight that visits the eye, every atom of air that sweetens and vitalises the blood, whose hand prepares the foundation upon which all life rests, and strikes the blow which brings our truest enfranchisements, has the right to bind men by His pattern. The rights of all fatherhoods, the prerogatives of all crowns and thrones and sovereignties, the sanctions of all law and ethic speak in this imperative Be ye holy, for I am holy.
II. The authority that here addresses us is not that of supreme power only, but also of absolve loveliness and perfection. In bidding us be like Himself God is bidding us be like that we most esteem, for has He not captivated the entire range of our reverence and admiration? The crown of supremacy belongs to God, not by an arbitrary coronation act, but by His own inherent fitness to wear it. We must set ourselves to copy that which we irresistibly worship. The musician whose soul has been visited by dream-like melodies from other worlds, is bound to so group his notes as to realise, for those to whom he sings, the mystic enchantments that have smitten his own soul with wonder. The painter to whose inner sense the subtle charm and secret of glowing sky, or flowered landscape, or fretting sea, has made itself known, is bound to suggest, as far as the play of colours will do it, the magnificent vision that has possessed his own imagination. All admirations have as their very core and essence the force of a vast moral constraint; and if God be the best of which we can think, or reason, or dream, if He has conquered all our moral admirations, if He is the loftiest pattern a quick and healthy and highly stimulated conscience can conceive, we are bound to copy Him. The highest form of worship is imitation. The trisagion of the cherubim, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, confesses the law under which earth and heaven alike are placed to be like God. I need not remind you how in His pattern prayer Christ makes us subscribe to the principle whose gracious operation and benefit we need for ourselves-Our Father, which art in heaven. Where there is fatherhood there is sonship and its duties, the first of which is to copy the qualities of the highest fatherhood. As we confess the Divine perfection the voice of unfailing response comes back in reply to our homage, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
III. These words are an argument from the affinities and similitudes of the divine and human natures. Gods nature is the archetype of ours. What does it mean when it is said we are made in Gods image and quickened to life with Gods breath, but that God has put within us the rudiments of His own holiness? The power to grow like God is implanted in man at the very beginning. There is a long-buried seed of spiritual excellence in him, old as his dim origins, which the processes of grace are destined to awaken and perfectly fructify. And to give us further assurance on the subject we are not only reminded of that image whose faint outlines and affinities we still bear, but we are told that this high and holy One has made Himself in our image. The correspondences are guaranteed from two standpoints. He has lived out His perfect life in an environment that is one with our own. In the person of His spotless and eternal Son, God has bowed Himself to the most abject conditions of our life, giving us a vision of that we are charged to copy, notwithstanding the strain of fierce and varied temptations. The grace that surrounds us on every side enters our natures and tends to produce there a reflection of the Holy One who has been our Friend and Saviour. In one of his books Mr. Ruskin says: Some years ago a young Scotch student came to put himself under me, having taken many prizes justly with respect to the qualities looked for by the judges in various schools of art. He worked under me very earnestly and patiently for a time, and I was able to praise his doings in what I thought very high terms. Nevertheless there always remained a look of mortification on his face after he had been praised, however unqualifiedly. At last he could hold no longer, but one day when I had been more than usually complimentary, turned to me with an anxious yet not unconfident expression, and asked, Do you think, sir, that I shall ever draw as well as Turner? I paused for a second or two, being much taken aback, and then answered, It is more likely you should be made emperor of all the Russias. There is a new emperor every fifteen or twenty years on an average, and by strange hap and fortunate cabal any body might be made emperor. But there is only one Turner in five hundred years, and God decides without any admission of auxiliary cabal what piece of clay his soul is to be put into. Come with your largest aspirations to the feet of Jesus Christ, and you may count upon a very different answer from that. I am the Firstborn amongst many brethren, and you shall be like Me, and shall realise the very qualities of Him whose manifestation I am. Trust Me, and go forward at My word, for you may be merciful and holy and perfect as the One in whose image you are made. The seed of the forgotten possibility is still in you, and I come to quicken that seed again, and in that quickening to bestow all spiritual grace and perfection. Yours is the very clay into which God determines to put His eternal ideal.
IV. The argument is an argument from the living contact and mystic immanency of the most high himself. The very self-same energy that makes God holy dwells in us and blends itself with our life. The very motive which determines Gods eternal and unspotted life of blessedness comes to infix itself in us. The power of Gods personal holiness, with all its magnificent achievements, lends itself to us for our perfecting.
1. God comes very near to every man who wants to copy His personal perfection, and the reason He seems far off from some is that they have never been inspired with the desire to emulate His character. He is a model who lends Himself to the most intimate handling of reverential natures, and to the closest study of all who love Him and desire to conform themselves to His spiritual similitude.
2. God is not only accessible, but He has the art of imparting Himself to those who seek Him in sincerity and love. If we may use the term without irreverence, He is the most magnetic being in the universe, inspiring those about Him with His own thought and love and sacred spiritual ardour. He is ever ready to make known His deepest secret to us.
3. He comes also to dwell within us, and inform our nature with His hourly inspirations. And if God be in us, the imitation of God is not an extravagant or fantastic hope. And so our obligation is not measured by what we are in ourselves, but by those new ranges and outbursts of energy the Holy Spirit brings into our natures. His forces must be added to our own; the marvellous possibilities arising out of His inhabitation of human souls, the capacity attainable through His infinite and unfaltering succours, must be discerned and brought into the estimate if we would know the sum of oar obligation, the breadth of the law under which we are placed, the lofty standard we are summoned to reach. To be like God is a costly thing, involving stern self-abnegation, and the strenuous application of all that is within you to one end. Well, is Gods holiness a cheap and easy and self-indulgent thing? Did it not cost Him the most cherished treasure of His universe to exercise that holiness and compassionate an offending race? It is only by the renunciation of self that you can begin, however faintly, to be like God. (T. G. Selby.)
Holiness after the Divine type
The word holy has received various interpretations, according to the culture of those employing it, In the law of Moses, the word of which it is the translation seems to mean nothing more than ceremonial cleanliness. Then, certain moral ideas got associated with it, and to be holy signified to be virtuous. By and by the idea of pure feeling was added on, and it was seen that there must be an inward as well as outward purity in order to make a man holy. Our English word starts from an altogether different basis. Its fundamental conception is that of health; the holy man is the healthy, sound, whole man. But, then, it went through the same spiritualising process; first of all, health, holiness, consisted simply in soundness of body, then of mind, then of morals, and, finally, of the whole being. I like this conception better than the Hebrew; it gives one an idea more completely in harmony with the truth. I find it very hard to work my way up to spiritual holiness from the Hebrew standpoint of ceremonial cleanliness. But I discern this holiness, in the highest sense, to be wholeness, soundness, or health, that is, existence in the normal state, according to the laws of my whole being. And that, surely, is the holiness of God. He lives, He acts, according to the condition of His own absolutely perfect nature-from Himself, according to the truth of His own being. The text, then, is a call to Christian people ever to be striving after higher attainments in this holiness, ever to be setting before them the absolute holiness of God as the ideal after which they should form themselves.
1. First of all, I feel there are a great force and beauty in the terms the writer employs: Not fashioning yourselves according to your former desires, in your ignorance. The idea is that of constructing the outward form of your life according to the inward scheme you have formed of it. And so, again, when he says, Be ye holy in all manner of conversation, it means, in every turn of your conduct, in deeds as well as words; let your outcoming be according to the perfect law of your nature. Words, actions, are simply the covering, habitation, exuded from ones soul which shows clearly what the soul is-its character, tone, refinement, thought, feeling, purposes, life. Every instant we are thus giving out from ourselves and proclaiming to those who are by us what we are. And when I say this, I do not forget that a great deal of what we say and do is done according to custom and etiquette of the set of people amongst whom we live. Very few live according to the pure, free, spontaneous impulses of their own nature. But, then, it must be remembered that these social usages of thought and expression have entered into and become a part of our inner being before they get themselves outwardly observed by us. You mingle, for example, with coarse people; their coarseness, sooner or later, consciously or unconsciously, insinuates itself into your soul; then you fall into coarse ways; that is, the coarseness your soul has grown into, comes out in coarse words and manners. Or, let us hope, you associate with refined people; the influences of their refinement purify your soul, and it, too, becomes refined; the manners, morals, modes of life which you henceforth exhibit become, of necessity, the expression of that refinement. A noble soul puts its nobleness into the smaller acts of its life as well as into the greatest: two sentences will disclose the want of order in an illogical mind; Divine love radiates its tenderness through the simplest expression; the pure soul indicates its purity by the kind of its response to purity and coarseness, as the thermometer responds to heat and cold. The only way of being good, pure, noble, holy in the high Anglo-Saxon sense of the word, is to have the soul filled with truth and goodness, and then act from the inward impulses freely. Schematise, fashion your outward life by the plastic energy of your own soul.
2. Secondly, I think this text intimates the progressive character of holiness in each individual. A past and a future are referred to; the present is the transition point from the one to the other. In the past, the outward life was fashioned by ignorance, or rather, in ignorance; now, knowledge is to take its place, and a higher ideal is to give the model of the conversation. Yet, observe, as much as the writer supposes his hearers to have risen above that former state, it was one of comparative evil rather than of positive-of privative knowledge rather than absolute ignorance. However high the attainments of today, and however pure the life of today may seem, when the higher knowledge and life of tomorrow come, we shall look back upon all we have attained today, as today we look back upon what we were yesterday. The youth at sixteen or seventeen thinks himself a man, and laughs at the childishness of ten years ago. When he has grown to forty or fifty years he will look back upon his present age as that of his boyhood. And so it always happens that our past seems to us folly, weakness, evil, in the light of the grace we have now reached. But that just leads the thoughtful to see how the past belongs to the present, and forms an essential part of it, containing within itself the rudiments of all that is truest and best in us now.
3. But thirdly, we have here given to us the primal condition of this increasing holiness; namely, the setting before us of a perfect ideal. As He calling you is the holy One, be ye holy in all forms and turns of your life, for it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now, you will observe, this is quite accordant with all I have said about the holiness being dependent upon, not an outward rule, but an inward principle. For, although correctly, God is set before us as the pattern, type or object with which we are to conform ourselves in holiness, yet, clearly, it is not God existing outwardly and beyond ourselves, but as He is known to, and conceived in our own minds. The outward revelation of God must be construed to the mind in the form of its own ideas, before it can possibly produce the least spiritual effect upon the soul. And that is true, whether the revelation be given in nature or in books. And now, consider a little the principle that it is the forming of higher ideals which is the one primal condition of progress in holiness. You can never rise above your own thoughts, that is certain. There is nothing which you have out of which anything higher and better could come; you are kept down to that level by a law harder than fate. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Blessed are those who can realise their thoughts to the full! For, whilst it is true that we cannot rise higher than our ideals, our thoughts, it is not true that we can always rise as high. The reverse is the truth. We never can shape the material on which we work so readily as we shape our thoughts. The thing done is never so true and good and beautiful as the idea we had of it. Sometimes the fault lies in the unshapeable, unplastic materials. More often with the untrained, disobedient hand, or other powers with which we do the work. What Divine songs our fancies, for instance, sometimes sing, and how they get never sung by the unmanageable organs of speech! What fame some artists would have, if the hand could but create the idealised picture or sculpture! And all this is still more true of the moral qualities of things, for in them we meet with more hindrances to realisation. We picture goodness, which a little passing appetite is strong enough to mar in operation, We idealise justice, and the chance of some palpable advantage causes the idea to get sadly distorted when it comes out in deeds. Wonderful and mysterious is that plastic power of the soul! as it thinks of Divine things it becomes Divine, and forthwith the divineness spreads through words and deeds; and although in spreading the divineness becomes diffused, attenuated, yet it is divineness still, which, radiating through, glorifies the character, and, in proportion to the fulness of the original thought, renders the outward life Divine. Wonderful power! mirroring Thine, great Father, Thou supernal power of all, who clothest Thyself with this universe wrought out of Thine eternal ideas-ever energising the forms of beauty and life we dimly see around-dimly see, because not for us, the finite, is it to comprehend Thine infinite thoughts. But as we comprehend and rise in our conceptions of Him-as more and more our souls conceive truly and fully goodness, love, the perfect life to which we are called and of which we are capable-it issues forth into the conversation, the character, the moulding and turning of words and deeds; and we become holy as the Holy One is holy. (James Cranbrook.)
Holiness
I. Holiness: what is it?
1. Holiness does not consist in bodily austerities, or in ritual observances. This view of it has widely prevailed among men; for it is the natural result of that dislike of true holiness by which they are universally characterised, when associated with the conviction that holiness of some kind is indispensable with their acceptance with God.
2. Holiness has been identified with mere external morality. This defective view of it prevails among the worldly minded, as the false view already considered is cherished and acted on by the superstitious.
3. In what, then, does true holiness consist?
(1) The words of God, Be ye holy, for I am holy, obviously imply that holiness consists in resemblance to God, or in conformity to His moral character. God is holy-infinitely and unchangeably holy.
(2) Though holiness consists in resemblance to God, something more specific than the mere statement of this truth is requisite to give you a clear conception of its nature. In order to this, you must not only know how God thinks and feels and acts; but, seeing that the position which you occupy as creatures is widely different from that which belongs to Him as the Creator, and different, too, in many respects from that which is occupied by other creatures whose nature is dissimilar to that of man, you must be able to apply your knowledge of the thoughts and sentiments and conduct of God to your own condition and circumstances. The means of doing so has been provided; for His law-under which term in this statement the whole revelation of His will respecting human duty, contained in Scripture, must be regarded as included-is an expression of His own excellence, a declaration of the manner in which the moral perfections that compose His character must operate when communicated to creatures who sustain the relations to Him and to one another which are sustained by you.
(3) But the intimation that the likeness to God which constitutes true holiness denotes conformity in heart and life to His revealed wilt, is not all that is necessary to enable you to form a clear and accurate conception of the nature of holiness. You must be aware of what is implied in conformity to the Divine law. It contains both prohibitions and commands; it tells you both what you should shun, and what you ought to do. Now, the injunction, Be ye holy, requires conformity to the law of God in both these departments; and none but he who hates and avoids whatever it condemns and forbids, and who loves and practises whatever it commends and enjoins, is a holy person.
II. Holiness: why should we seek it?
1. You should seek holiness as an appropriate means of testifying gratitude to God for the blessings of His salvation.
2. You should seek holiness as an appropriate means of ascertaining and attesting your interest in Gods salvation.
3. You should seek holiness as an appropriate means of securing present happiness. The possession of it imparts release from the distressing doubts and fearful apprehensions with respect to futurity which harass the ungodly, and gives that persuasion of interest in Gods favour, and that hope of eternal blessedness, which communicate a peace that passeth all understanding, and a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
4. You should seek holiness as an appropriate means of recommending religion, and thereby advancing the glory of God.
5. You should seek holiness as an appropriate means of preparing you for the happiness of heaven, and thus insuring your reception of it.
III. Holiness: how may we acquire it? The acquisition of holiness is in Scripture made the subject both of exhortation and of prayer. Being made a subject of prayer, holiness must be regarded as a privilege, or blessing, communicated to men by God. In harmony with this view of it, the work of their sanctification, both in its commencement and in its progress, is attributed to the powerful operation of the Divine Spirit. But while the Scriptures declare that holiness is a Divine gift, imparted to men by the efficacious operation of the Holy Spirit, and, on this ground, a proper subject of prayer and thanksgiving, they also teach certain important truths in regard to the operations of the Spirit as the Sanctifier, which show that the acquisition of holiness may appropriately be made the subject of exhortation and injunction. That the acquisition of holiness is a duty incumbent on men; that they ought not merely to pray for it, but to strive after it, is a truth very plainly taught in the word of revelation-a truth which no man who searches the Scriptures with an unbiased mind will hesitate to receive.
1. Release from the curse of the law and reconciliation to God are an indispensable prerequisite to the operations of the Spirit as the Sanctifier.
2. The operations of the Spirit as the Sanctifier do not supersede activity on the part of the subjects of them. They are created anew. But the change effected on them in this new creation does not destroy the powers or faculties which constitute them voluntary agents. Ii only gives a new direction to their activity; and hence, though the continued operation of the Spirit is necessary to preserve and strengthen the principle of spiritual life which has been implanted in them, yet its actings are the actings, not of the Spirit, but of the individuals to whom it has been imparted.
3. The truth revealed to us in Scripture is the means or instrument employed by the Spirit in all His operations as the Sanctifier. As His agency does not supersede human activity, so, in imparting to them the earnest desires, the ability, and the direction which are necessary to the acquisition of holiness, He always makes use of the disclosures of the mind and will of God contained in the word of revelation
4. The operations of the Spirit as the Sanctifier are the result of prayer-of earnest, believing prayer. The atoning sacrifice of Christ has opened a channel through which the influences of the Spirit may be communicated to men, in consistency with the holiness of the Divine character, the honour of the Divine law, and the rectitude and stability of the Divine administration. (D. Duncan.)
On being holy
Hence this command to be holy requires that we bring ourselves into a moral adjustment to God and our entire moral duty.
I. Why should we be holy?
II. What are the reasons of this requirement?
1. We cannot but require it of ourselves. Our own nature irresistibly demands it of us-his own individual conscience of every moral agent. He knows he ought to, and therefore, by a necessity as strong as his own nature, he must become holy, or fail of peace and conscious self-approval. No moral agent can respect himself unless he is holy. Need I urge that self-respect is a thing of very great importance? Few are fully aware how very important self-respect is to themselves and to others, This form of self-respect pertains to our relations to this world and to society. But suppose a moral agent in like manner to lose his self-respect towards God. How fearful must be the influence of this loss on his heart! How reckless of moral rectitude he becomes in all that pertains to his Maker!
2. Another reason why we should be holy is, that God requires it of us. He has made us in His own image; and therefore, for the same reasons that make Him require holiness of Himself, He must require it of us. He requires us to be holy because He cannot make us happy unless we will become holy.
Remarks:
1. Sinners know they are not holy.
2. The hope that unconverted people often have that they shall be saved, is utterly without foundation.
3. Many who know they must become holy, are yet very ignorant of the way in which they are to become so. Having begun in the Spirit, they try to become perfect in the flesh.
4. Pardon without holiness is impossible, in this sense: that the heart must turn from its sins to God before it can be forgiven.
5. The command to be holy implies the practicability of becoming so.
6. Christs promises and relations to His people imply a pledge of all the help we need. The entire gospel scheme is adapted to men-not in the sense of conniving at their weakness, but of really helping them out of it.
7. God sympathises with every honest effort we make to become holy.
8. If we become partakers of His holiness, we are made sure of the river of His pleasures!
9. All men will sometimes feel the necessity of this holiness. In some cases it is felt most deeply.
10. There is no rest short of being holy. Many try to find rest in something less, but they are sure to fail.
11. Many insanely suppose that when they come to die, they shall be sanctified and prepared for heaven.
12. No man has any right to hope unless he is really committed to holiness, and in all honesty and earnestness intends to live so. (C. G. Finney.)
Holiness repugnant to sin
True holiness hath a repugnancy and contrariety to all sin. It is not contrary to sin because it is open and manifest, because it is private and secret, but to sin as sin, whether public or private, because both one and the other are contrary to Gods will and glory, as it is with true light, though it be but a beam, yet it is universally opposed to all darkness; or as it is with heat, though there be but one degree of it, yet it is opposite to all cold; so if the holiness be true and real, it cannot comply with any known sin. You can never reconcile them in the affections; they may have an unwilling consistence in the person, but you can never make them agree in the affection. (Obadiah Sedgwick.)
How to become holy
There is only one way of becoming holy as God is; and it is the obvious one of opening the entire being to the all-pervading presence of the Holy One. None of us can acquire holiness apart from God. It dwells in God alone. Holiness is only possible as the souls possession of God; nay, better still, as Gods possession of the soul. It never can be inherent, or possessed apart from the Divine fulness, any more than a river can flow on if it is cut off from its fountain head. We are holy up to the measure in which we are God possessed. The least holy man is he who shuts God up to the strictest confinement, and to the narrowest limits of his inner being; curtaining Him off from daily life by heavy curtains of neglect and unbelief. He is holier who more carefully denies self, and who seeks a larger measure of Divine indwelling. The holiest is the man who yields himself most completely to be influenced, swayed, possessed, inspired by that Spirit who longs to make us to the fullest extent partakers of the Divine nature. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Holy in all manner of conversation
The demand is, Be holy in all manner of conversation. The meaning is, in all your intercourse with men, in every turning of your history. At home, or abroad; with your own family, or in presence of strangers; at work, or enjoying relaxation; at church, or in the market; wherever you may be, or however employed-let lips and life be holiness to the Lord. A life is like a stream issuing from a mountain lake. The water cannot be of different colours at different places. It cannot be pure at one spot and turbid a few yards further on. If the fountain is transparent, the outflowing stream will be clear over all its breadth. The holiness that is put on, as suitable at certain times and in certain places, is not holiness; it is hypocrisy. When the streams of a life, as they disperse themselves over the individual history, are found, like the waters of Jericho, to be all bitter, it is not possible, by any medicament, to sweeten portions of them here and there, where travellers may be expected to taste them. There is only one way of cure: a certain salt must be cast into the spring, and then all the water that flows over its brim will be wholesome-all wholesome alike. (W. Arnot.)
Likeness to God
To change our physical relation to God, of absolute dependence and incommensurable littleness, is no more possible than for the wave to become the ocean; but just as the same laws that sway the masses of the sea also trace the ripple and shape the spray, so may the very same Divine principles, the same preferences, the same constancy which belong to the spiritual life of God, reappear in the tiny currents of our will, and even the very play and sparkle of our affections. It is but the affectation of humility or the dislike of noble claims that can make us shrink from our affinity with the Father and Inspirer of all souls. (J. Martineau, LL. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Gird up the loins of your mind] Take courage from this display of God’s love now made known to you; and though you must expect trials, yet fortify your minds with the consideration that he who has given you his Son Jesus will withhold from you no manner of thing that is good. The allusion here is to the long robes of the Asiatics, which, when they were about to perform any active service, they tucked in their girdles: this they did also when they waited on their superiors at meals.
Hope to the end for the grace] Continue to expect all that God has promised, and particularly that utmost salvation, that glorification of body and soul, which ye shall obtain at the revelation of Christ, when he shall come to judge the world.
But if the apostle alludes here to the approaching revelation of Christ to inflict judgment on the Jews for their final rebellion and obstinacy, then the grace, , benefit, may intend their preservation from the evils that were coming upon that people, and their wonderful escape from Jerusalem at the time that the Roman armies came against it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wherefore; the following exhortation may be connected, either with 1Pe 1:4, Being so glorious an inheritance is reserved in heaven for you,
gird up, & c.; or with 1Pe 1:12; Seeing ye know those things, which the prophets that foretold them did not fully see, and the angels themselves desire to look into; the grace of God vouchsafed to you is so excellent and admirable, gird up, & c.
Gird up the loins of your mind; i.e. let your minds be attent, prompt, ready, prepared for your spiritual work, restrained from all those thoughts, cares, affections, and lusts, which may entangle, detain, hinder them, or make them unfit for it. It is a metaphor taken from the custom of the Oriental nations, who wearing long loose garments, were wont to gird them up about their loins, that they might not hinder them in their travelling or working, 1Ki 18:46; 2Ki 4:29; Luk 17:8; See Poole on “Luk 12:35“, See Poole on “Luk 12:37“. Perhaps it may have a special respect to the like rite used at the Passover, Exo 12:11, when the Israelites were just ready to enter upon their journey, aud go out of Egypt.
Be sober: this may relate, either:
1. To the body; and then the sense agrees with Luk 21:34, where the cares of this life seem to be opposed to the girding up the loins of the mind, and surfeiting and drunkenness, to sobriety here. Or rather:
2. To the soul; and then girding up the loins of the mind, may refer to the understanding, and thoughts, and sobriety, to the will and affections, and may signify that moderation which belongs to them, in opposition to their inordinateness, which is a sort of drunkenness. Or, it may be rendered, be watchful, as it is translated, 2Ti 4:5, and with which it is joined, 1Th 5:6,8; and so it agrees well with the former clause; they that have the loins of their mind girt up, being of a vigilant, present mind, and ready for any work they are to undertake.
And hope to the end; Greek, perfectly, as in the margin, i.e. sincerely, entirely, with a firm confidence; but the following words favour our translation, which signfies perseverance in hope. See Heb 3:6.
For the grace that is to be brought unto you; final salvation, which is the gift of grace, Rom 6:23, and is called the grace of life, 1Pe 3:7.
At the revelation of Jesus Christ; called the appearing of Jesus Christ, 1Pe 1:7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. WhereforeSeeing that theprophets ministered unto you in these high Gospel privileges whichthey did not themselves fully share in, though “searching”into them, and seeing that even angels “desire to look into”them, how earnest you ought to be and watchful in respect to them!
gird up . . . loinsreferringto Christ’s own words, Lu 12:35;an image taken from the way in which the Israelites ate the passoverwith the loose outer robe girded up about the waist with a girdle, asready for a journey. Workmen, pilgrims, runners, wrestlers, andwarriors (all of whom are types of the Christians), so girdthemselves up, both to shorten the garment so as not to impedemotion, and to gird up the body itself so as to be braced for action.The believer is to have his mind (mental powers) collected and alwaysready for Christ’s coming. “Gather in the strength of yourspirit” [HENSLER].Sobriety, that is, spiritual self-restraint, lest onebe overcome by the allurements of the world and of sense, and patienthopeful waiting for Christ’s revelation, are the true ways of”girding up the loins of the mind.”
to the endrather,”perfectly,” so that there may be nothing deficient in yourhope, no casting away of your confidence. Still, there may bean allusion to the “end” mentioned in 1Pe1:9. Hope so perfectly (Greek, “teleios“)as to reach unto the end (telos) of your faith andhope, namely, “the grace that is being brought unto you in (sothe Greek) the revelation of Christ.” As graceshall then be perfected, so you ought to hope perfectly.“Hope” is repeated from 1Pe1:3. The two appearances are but different stages of the ONEgreat revelation of Christ, comprising the New Testament from thebeginning to the end.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,…. With the girdle of truth; see Eph 6:14 since angels desire to look into the mysteries of grace, do you apply your minds, and diligently attend unto them, in opposition to all loose and vagrant thoughts of the mind, about other things: give yourselves up wholly to them, meditate upon them, employ yourselves in them, and about them; seeing they are the study and inquiry of angels, and what the prophets have prophesied of, and searched into and ministered, and the apostles of Christ have preached; and besides, are things which relate to the person, office, sufferings, and glory of Christ, and the salvation of immortal souls. Though the phrase is sometimes used to denote preparation and readiness, and to be in a fit position to do anything, as the Israelites were at the eating of the first passover, to march at the least notice out of Egypt; and so to go a journey, to run a race, to serve another, to wait on him, and for him, and also be prepared for battle; and is a metaphor taken from the custom of the eastern nations, who used to wear long garments, which they gathered up close to them, and girt about them, when they were about any of the above things, that they might be no hinderance to them, and that they might perform them with more expedition and dispatch; and so may be expressive of the readiness of believers, as pilgrims and travellers, for their journey towards the heavenly country, and to run the race set before them, and also to do every good work, according to the station they are placed in, to serve their Lord and master Jesus Christ in whatsoever he calls them to, and to wait for his coming; see Lu 12:35 and also to fight his battles, to quit themselves like men, and be strong in defence of his Gospel, and against every enemy of his and theirs.
Be sober; which is not only opposed to intemperance in eating and drinking, which greatly disqualifies for the above readiness and attention, but also to a being inebriated with the cares of this life, which choke the word, and make it unfruitful, and lead men into temptation, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, and from the faith of Christ; and likewise to a being intoxicated with errors, and false doctrine, which lull men asleep, and render them incapable of serving Christ, and his church; and turn their heads from faith to fables, and are contrary to the words of truth and soberness; so that to be sober, is not only to be moderate in eating and drinking; but to be disengaged from the anxious cares of the world, and to be disentangled, recovered, or awaked from the error of the wicked:
and hope to the end; or “perfectly”, as the Greek word may be rendered, and as it is in the Syriac version, which joins it with the other phrase, and renders it, “be ye perfectly awaked”. The Arabic version renders it, “trusting with a perfect confidence”; so that it designs either the nature of that lively hope, to which they were begotten again, and are here exhorted to exercise, it being perfect, sincere, and without hypocrisy; not like the hope of the hypocrite, which shall perish, and stand him in no stead, but an undissembled one; for as there is faith unfeigned, and love without dissimulation, so hope without hypocrisy; and also the full assurance of it, for as there is a plerophory of faith and love, and of understanding, so of hope; see Heb 6:11 or it intends the duration of this grace, and the exercise of it: it is a grace that does, and will remain, and it ought to be continually exercised, and the rejoicing of it to be kept firm, to the end; to the end of life, and until the saints come to the enjoyment of what they are hoping for; even
for the grace that is to be brought unto you as the revelation of Jesus Christ; and which may be rendered for the grace that is brought unto you, in or by the revelation of Jesus Christ: and the sense may be, that there is grace that is now brought to light by the Gospel, and that is brought home to the souls of God’s people through it; as electing grace, redeeming grace, justifying grace, pardoning grace, adopting grace; and, in short, salvation, as all of grace; which Gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ: it is a revelation that is made by him; and it is a revelation that is made of him; it is a revelation of the glory of his person and offices; herein is his righteousness revealed from faith to faith; and here the riches of his grace are made manifest, and laid to open view; life and immortality are brought to light by Christ in it; and the way to eternal life, glory, and salvation, as being by Christ, is pointed out by it; and all this grace that is brought, and set before the saints in the Gospel, they ought to hope for, and comfortably believe their interest in; and continue thus hoping, believing, and trusting to the end of their days: or if our version, and which is that of others also, be retained, the meaning is, that eternal glory and happiness, which is called “grace”, because it is the free gift of God through Christ, to his children and flock, and is the finishing of the grace that is bestowed on them, and wrought in them, and is future, “is to be brought”; is a glory that shall be revealed in them, and a salvation ready to be revealed to them; and which will be done when Christ shall be revealed from heaven, when he shall appear a second time, and in glory; and is, and ought to be, the object of their hope, for it is laid up, and reserved for them; and they have the earnest of it in them, as well as the promise of it to them. The Syriac and Ethiopic versions, instead of “grace”, read “joy”; and is the same with eternal glory, the joy of the Lord prepared for them, and which they shall enter into.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Sobriety and Holiness; Exhortation to Brotherly Love. | A. D. 66. |
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. 17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Here the apostle begins his exhortations to those whose glorious state he had before described, thereby instructing us that Christianity is a doctrine according to godliness, designed to make us not only wiser, but better.
I. He exhorts them to sobriety and holiness.
1. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, c., <i>v. 13. As if he had said, “Wherefore, since you are so honoured and distinguished, as above, Gird up the loins of your mind. You have a journey to go, a race to run, a warfare to accomplish, and a great work to do; as the traveller, the racer, the warrior, and the labourer, gather in, and gird up, their long and loose garments, that they may be more ready, prompt, and expeditious in their business, so do you by your minds, your inner man, and affections seated there: gird them, gather them in, let them not hang loose and neglected about you; restrain their extravagances, and let the loins or strength and vigour of your minds be exerted in your duty; disengage yourselves from all that would hinder you, and go on resolutely in your obedience. Be sober, be vigilant against all your spiritual dangers and enemies, and be temperate and modest in eating, drinking, apparel, recreation, business, and in the whole of your behaviour. Be sober-mined also in opinion, as well as in practice, and humble in your judgment of yourselves.” And hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Some refer this to the last judgment, as if the apostle directed their hope to the final revelation of Jesus Christ; but it seems more natural to take it, as it might be rendered, “Hope perfectly, or thoroughly, for the grace that is brought to you in or by the revelation of Jesus Christ; that is, by the gospel, which brings life and immortality to light. Hope perfectly, trust without doubting to that grace which is now offered to you by the gospel.” Learn, (1.) The main work of a Christian lies in the right management of his heart and mind; the apostle’s first direction is to gird up the loins of the mind. (2.) The best Christians have need to be exhorted to sobriety. These excellent Christians are put in mind of it; it is required of a bishop (1 Tim. iii. 2), of aged men (Tit. ii. 2), the young women are to be taught it, and the young men are directed to be sober-minded, Tit 2:4; Tit 2:6. (3.) A Christian’s work is not over as soon as he has got into a state of grace; he must still hope and strive for more grace. When he has entered the strait gate, he must still walk in the narrow way, and gird up the loins of his mind for that purpose. (4.) A strong and perfect trust in God’s grace is very consistent with our best endeavours in our duty; we must hope perfectly, and yet gird up our loins, and address ourselves vigorously to the work we have to do, encouraging ourselves from the grace of Jesus Christ.
2. As obedient children, c., <i>v. 14. These words may be taken as a rule of holy living, which is both positive–“You ought to live as obedient children, as those whom God hath adopted into his family, and regenerated by his grace;” and negative–“You must not fashion yourselves according to the former lusts, in your ignorance.” Or the words may be taken as an argument to press them to holiness from the consideration of what they now are, children of obedience, and what they were when they lived in lust and ignorance. Learn, (1.) The children of God ought to prove themselves to be such by their obedience to God, by their present, constant, universal obedience. (2.) The best of God’s children have had their times of lust and ignorance; the time has been when the whole scheme of their lives, their way and fashion, was to accommodate and gratify their unlawful desires and vicious appetites, being grossly ignorant of God and themselves, of Christ and the gospel. (3.) Persons, when converted, differ exceedingly from what they were formerly. They are people of another fashion and manner from what they were before; their inward frame, behaviour, speech, and conversation, are much altered from what they were in times past. (4.) The lusts and extravagances of sinners are both the fruits and the signs of their ignorance.
3. But as he who hath called you, c., 1Pe 1:151Pe 1:16. Here is a noble rule enforced by strong arguments: Be you holy in all manner of conversation. Who is sufficient for this? And yet it is required in strong terms, and enforced by three reasons, taken from the grace of God in calling us,–from his command, it is written,–and from his example. Be you holy, for I am holy. Learn, (1.) The grace of God in calling a sinner is a powerful engagement to holiness. It is a great favour to be called effectually by divine grace out of a state of sin and misery into the possession of all the blessings of the new covenant; and great favours are strong obligations; they enable as well as oblige to be holy. (2.) Complete holiness is the desire and duty of every Christian. Here is a two-fold rule of holiness: [1.] It must, for the extent of it, be universal. We must be holy, and be so in all manner of conversation; in all civil and religious affairs, in every condition, prosperous or reverse; towards all people, friends and enemies; in all our intercourse and business still we must be holy. [2.] For the pattern of it. We must be holy, as God is holy: we must imitate him, though we can never equal him. He is perfectly, unchangeably, and eternally holy; and we should aspire after such a state. The consideration of the holiness of God should oblige as to the highest degree of holiness we can attain unto. (3.) The written word of God is the surest rule of a Christian’s life, and by this rule we are commanded to be holy every way. (4.) The Old-Testament commands are to be studied and obeyed in the times of the New Testament; the apostle, by virtue of a command delivered several times by Moses, requires holiness in all Christians.
4. If you call on the Father, c., <i>v. 17. The apostle does not there express any doubt at all whether these Christians would call upon their heavenly Father, but supposes they would certainly do it, and from this argues with them to pass the time of their sojourning here in fear: “If you own the great God as a Father and a Judge, you ought to live the time of your sojourning here in his fear.” Learn, (1.) All good Christians look upon themselves in this world as pilgrims and strangers, as strangers in a distant country, passing to another, to which they properly belong, Psa 39:12; Heb 11:13. (2.) The whole time of our sojourning here is to be passed in the fear of God. (3.) The consideration of God as a Judge is not improper for those who can truly call him Father. Holy confidence in God as a Father, an awful fear of him as a Judge, are very consistent; to regard God as a Judge is a singular means to endear him to us as a Father. (4.) The judgment of God will be without respect of persons: According to every man’s work. No external relation to him will protect any; the Jew may call God Father and Abraham father, but God will not respect persons, nor favour their cause, from personal considerations, but judge them according to their work. The works of men will in the great day discover their persons; God will make all the world to know who are his by their works. We are obliged to faith, holiness, and obedience, and our works will be an evidence whether we have complied with our obligations or not.
5. The apostle having extorted them to pass the time of their sojourning in the fear of God from this consideration, that they called on the Father, he adds (v. 18) a second argument: Because or forasmuch as you were not redeemed with corruptible things, c. Herein he puts them in mind, (1.) That they were redeemed, or bought back again, by a ransom paid to the Father. (2.) What the price paid for their redemption was: Not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. (3.) From what they were redeemed: From a vain conversation received by tradition. (4.) They knew this: Forasmuch as you know, and cannot pretend ignorance of this great affair. Learn, [1.] The consideration of our redemption ought to be a constant and powerful inducement to holiness, and the fear of God. [2.] God expects that a Christian should live answerably to what he knows, and therefore we have great need to be put in mind of what we already know, Ps. xxxix. 4. [3.] Neither silver nor gold, nor any of the corruptible things of this world, can redeem so much as one soul. They are often snares, temptations, and hindrances to man’s salvation, but they can by no means purchase or procure it they are corruptible, and therefore cannot redeem an incorruptible and immortal soul. [4.] The blood of Jesus Christ is the only price of man’s redemption. The redemption of man is real, not metaphorical. We are bought with a price, and the price is equal to the purchase, for it is the precious blood of Christ; it is the blood of an innocent person, a lamb without blemish and without spot, whom the paschal lamb represented, and of an infinite person, being the Son of God, and therefore it is called the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. [5.] The design of Christ in shedding his most precious blood was to redeem us, not only from eternal misery hereafter, but from a vain conversation in this world. That conversation is vain which is empty, frivolous, trifling, and unserviceable to the honour of God, the credit of religion, the conviction of unbelievers, and the comfort and satisfaction of a man’s own conscience. Not only the open wickedness, but the vanity and unprofitableness of our conversation are highly dangerous. [6.] A man’s conversation may carry an appearance of devotion, and may plead antiquity, custom, and tradition, in its defence, and yet after all be a most vain conversation. The Jews had a deal to say from these heads, for all their formalities; and yet their conversation was so vain that only the blood of Christ could redeem them from it. Antiquity is no certain rule of verity, nor is it a wise resolution, “I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so.”
6. Having mentioned the price of redemption, the apostle goes on to speak of some things relating both to the Redeemer and the redeemed, 1Pe 1:20; 1Pe 1:21.
(1.) The Redeemer is further described, not only as a Lamb without spot, but as one, [1.] That was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, fore-ordained or foreknown. When prescience is ascribed to God, it implies more than bare prospect or speculation. It imports an act of the will, a resolution that the thing shall be, Acts ii. 23. God did not only foreknow, but determine and decree, that his Son should die for man, and this decree was before the foundation of the world. Time and the world began together; before the commencement of time there was nothing but eternity. [2.] That was manifested in these last days for them. He was manifested or demonstrated to be that Redeemer whom God had fore-ordained. He was manifested by his birth, by his Father’s testimony, and by his own works, especially by his resurrection from the dead, Rom. i. 4. “This was done in these last times of the New Testament and of the gospel, for you, you Jews, you sinners, you afflicted ones; you have the comfort of the manifestation and appearance of Christ, if you believe on him.” [3.] That was raised from the dead by the Father, who gave him glory. The resurrection of Christ, considered as an act of power, is common to all the three persons, but as an act of judgment it is peculiar to the Father, who as a Judge released Christ, raised him from the grave, and gave him glory, proclaimed him to all the world to be his Son by his resurrection from the dead, advanced him to heaven, crowned him with glory and honour, invested him with all power in heaven and earth, and glorified him with that glory which he had with God before the world was.
(2.) The redeemed are also described here by their faith and hope, the cause of which is Jesus Christ: “You do by him believe in God–by him as the author, encourager, support, and finisher of your faith; your faith and hope now may be in God, as reconciled to you by Christ the Mediator.”
(3.) From all this we learn, [1.] The decree of God to send Christ to be a Mediator was from everlasting, and was a just and merciful decree, which yet does not at all excuse man’s sin in crucifying him, Acts ii. 23. God had purposes of special favour towards his people long before he made any manifestations of such grace to them. [2.] Great is the happiness of the last times in comparison with what the former ages of the world enjoyed. The clearness of light, the supports of faith, the efficacy of ordinances, and the proportion of comforts–these are all much greater since the manifestation of Christ than they were before. Our gratitude and services should be suitable to such favours. [3.] The redemption of Christ belongs to none but true believers. A general impetration is asserted by some and denied by others, but none pretend to a general application of Christ’s death for the salvation of all. Hypocrites and unbelievers will be ruined for ever, notwithstanding the death of Christ. [4.] God in Christ is the ultimate object of a Christian’s faith, which is strongly supported by the resurrection of Christ, and the glory that did follow.
II. He exhorts them to brotherly love.
1. He supposes that the gospel had already had such an effect upon them as to purify their souls while they obeyed it through the Spirit, and that it had produced at least an unfeigned love of the brethren; and thence he argues with them to proceed to a higher degree of affection, to love one another with a pure heart fervently, v. 22. Learn, (1.) It is not to be doubted but that every sincere Christian purifies his soul. The apostle takes this for granted: Seeing you have, c. To purify the soul supposes some great uncleanness and defilement which had polluted it, and that this defilement is removed. Neither the Levitical purifications under the law, nor the hypocritical purifications of the outward man, can effect this. (2.) The word of God is the great instrument of a sinner’s purification: Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. The gospel is called truth, in opposition to types and shadows, to error and falsehood. This truth is effectual to purify the soul, if it be obeyed, John xvii. 17. Many hear the truth, but are never purified by it, because they will not submit to it nor obey it. (3.) The Spirit of God is the great agent in the purification of man’s soul. The Spirit convinces the soul of its impurities, furnishes those virtues and graces that both adorn and purify, such as faith (Acts xv. 9), hope (1 John iii. 3), the fear of God (Ps. xxxiv. 9), and the love of Jesus Christ. The Spirit excites our endeavours, and makes them successful. The aid of the Spirit does not supersede our own industry these people purified their own souls, but it was through the Spirit. (4.) The souls of Christians must be purified before they can so much as love one another unfeignedly. There are such lusts and partialities in man’s nature that without divine grace we can neither love God nor one another as we ought to do; there is no charity but out of a pure heart. (5.) It is the duty of all Christians sincerely and fervently to love one another. Our affection to one another must be sincere and real, and it must be fervent, constant, and extensive.
2. He further presses upon Christians the duty of loving one another with a pure heart fervently from the consideration of their spiritual relation; they are all born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, c. Hence we may learn, (1.) That all Christians are born again. The apostle speaks of it as what is common to all serious Christians, and by this they are brought into a new and a near relation to one another, they become brethren by their new birth. (2.) The word of God is the great means of regeneration, Jam. i. 18. The grace of regeneration is conveyed by the gospel. (3.) This new and second birth is much more desirable and excellent than the first. This the apostle teaches by preferring the incorruptible to the corruptible seed. By the one we become the children of men, by the other the sons and daughters of the Most High. The word of God being compared to seed teaches us that though it is little in appearance, yet it is wonderful in operation, though it lies hid awhile, yet it grows up and produces excellent fruit at last. (4.) Those that are regenerate should love one another with a pure heart fervently. Brethren by nature are bound to love one another but the obligation is double where there is a spiritual relation: they are under the same government, partake of the same privileges, and have embarked in the same interest. (5.) The word of God lives and abides for ever. This word is a living word, or a lively word, Heb. iv. 12. It is a means of spiritual life, to begin it and preserve in it, animating and exciting us in our duty, till it brings us to eternal life: and it is abiding; it remains eternally true, and abides in the hearts of the regenerate for ever.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Wherefore (). “Because of which thing,” the glorious free grace opened for Gentiles and Jews in Christ (verses 3-12).
Girding up (). First aorist middle participle of , late and rare verb (Judg 18:16; Prov 29:35; Prov 31:17), here only in N.T., vivid metaphor for habit of the Orientals, who quickly gathered up their loose robes with a girdle when in a hurry or starting on a journey.
The loins ( ). Old word for the part of the body where the girdle () was worn. Metaphor here as in Luke 12:35; Eph 6:14.
Mind (). Old word for the faculty of understanding, of seeing through a thing (, ) as in Mt 22:37.
Be sober (). “Being sober” (present active participle of , old verb, but in N.T. always as metaphor (1Thess 5:6; 1Thess 5:8, etc., and so in 4:7).
Perfectly (). Adverb, old word (here alone in N.T.), from adjective (perfect), connected with (set your hope, first aorist active imperative of ) in the Revised Version, but Bigg, Hort, and most modern commentators take it according to Peter’s usual custom with the preceding verb, (“being perfectly sober,” not “hope perfectly”).
That is to be brought ( ). Present passive articular participle of , picturing the process, “that is being brought.” For “revelation” () see end of verse 7.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Gird up [] . Lit., having girded up. Used here only. The metaphor is suggested by the girding up of the loose eastern robes preparatory to running or other exertion. Perhaps recalling the words of Christ, Luk 12:35. Christ ‘s call is a call to active service. There is a fitness in the figure as addressed to sojourners and pilgrims (ch. 1Pe 1:1; 1Pe 2:11), who must be always ready to move.
Mind [] . See on Mr 12:30.
Be sober [] . Lit., being sober. Primarily, in a physical sense, as opposed to excess in drink, but passing into the general sense of self – control and equanimity.
Hope to the end [ ] . Better, as Rev., set your hope perfectly : wholly and unchangeably; without doubt or despondency. That is to be brought [ ] . Lit., which is being brought, as Rev., in margin. The object of hope is already on the way.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” To gird up the loins of the mind is a phrase of ancient athletic terminology. The brethren were admonished to get their minds “psyched up”, emotionally prepared, for the Christian race necessary in the full salvation.
2) “Be sober and hope to the end” (G k. nephontes) being in a state of sobriety or seriousness, hope ye, or hope perfectly to the end. Heb 6:19-20.
3)“For the grace that is to be brought unto you. Place your hope upon the grace gently being brought to you. One has enabling, growing grace now and more awaits the believer to meet future needs. 2Pe 3:18.
4) “At the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gk. apokalupsei) at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Rom 3:24; 1Pe 5:12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
From the greatness and excellency of grace he draws an exhortation, that it surely behoved them the more readily to receive the grace of God, as the more bountifully he bestowed it upon them. And we must notice the connection: he had said, that so elevated was the kingdom of Christ, to which the gospel calls us, that even angels in heaven desire to see it; what then ought to be done by us who are in the world? Doubtless, as long as we live on earth, so great is the distance between us and Christ, that in vain he invites us to himself. It is hence necessary for us to put off the image of Adam and to cast aside the whole world and all hinderances, that being thus set at liberty we may rise upwards to Christ. And he exhorted those to whom he wrote, to be prepared and sober, and to hope for the graces offered to them, and also to renounce the world and their former life, and to be conformed to the will of God. (15)
Then the first part of the exhortation is, to gird up the loins of their mind and to direct their thoughts to the hope of the grace presented to them. In the second par, he prescribes the manner, that having their minds changed, they were to be formed after the image of God.
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind It is a similitude taken from an ancient custom; for when they had long garments, they could not make a journey, nor conveniently do any work, without being girded up. Hence these expressions, to gird up one’s-self for a work or an undertaking. He then bids them to remove all impediments, that being set at liberty they might go on to God. Those who philosophize more refinedly about the loins, as though he commanded lusts to be restrained and checked, depart from the real meaning of the Apostle, for these words mean the same with those of Christ,
“
Let your loins be girded about, and burning lamps in your hands,” (Luk 12:35,)
except that Peter doubles the metaphor by ascribing loins to the mind. And he intimates that our minds are held entangled by the passing cares of the world and by vain desires, so that they rise not upward to God. Whosoever, then, really wishes to have this hope, let him learn in the first place to disentangle himself from the world, and gird up his mind that it may not turn aside to vain affections. And for the same purpose he enjoins sobriety, which immediately follows; for he commends not temperance only in eating and drinking, but rather spiritual sobriety, when all our thoughts and affections are so kept as not to be inebriated with the allurements of this world. For since even the least taste of them stealthily draws us away from God, when one plunges himself into these, he must necessarily become sleepy and stupid, and he forgets God and the things of God.
Hope to the end, or, Perfectly hope. He intimates that those who let their minds loose on vanity, did not really and sincerely hope for the grace of God; for though they had some hope, yet as they vacillated and were tossed to and fro in the world, there was no solidity in their hope. Then he says, for the grace which will be brought to you, in order that they might be more prompt to receive it. God ought to be sought, though far off; but he comes of his own will to meet us. How great, then, must be our ingratitude if we neglect the grace that is thus set before us! This amplification, then, is especially intended to stimulate our hope.
What he adds, At the revelation of Jesus Christ, may be explained in two ways: that the doctrine of the Gospel reveals Christ to us; and that, as we see him as yet only through a mirror and enigmatically, a full revelation is deferred to the last day. The first meaning is approved by Erasmus, nor do I reject it. The second seems, however, to be more suitable to the passage. For the object of Peter was to call us away beyond the world; for this purpose the fittest thing was the recollection of Christ’s coming. For when we direct our eyes to this event, this world becomes crucified to us, and we to the world. Besides, according to this meaning, Peter used the expression shortly before. Nor is it a new thing for the apostles to employ the preposition ἐν in the sense of εἰς. Thus, then, I explain the passage, — “You have no need to make a long journey that you may attain the grace of God; for God anticipates you; inasmuch as he brings it to you.” But as the fruition of it will not be until Christ appears from heaven, in whom is hid the salvation of the godly, there is need, in the meantime, of hope; for the grace of Christ is now offered to us in vain, except we patiently wait until the coming of Christ.
(15) Pareus observes, that the Apostle, in this part of the chapter, exhorted the faithful to sobriety, holiness, humility, and brotherly love, by five reasons: 1, because they were the children of God, 1Pe 1:14; 2, because God is holy, and requires holiness, 1Pe 1:15; 3, because God is no respecter of persons, 1Pe 1:17; 4, because of the value of the price for their redemption, 1Pe 1:18; and 5, because they had been born again of an immortal seed, 1Pe 1:23. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Pe. 1:13. Be sober.The word suggests a sobriety of the Nazarite type. To the end.Margin, perfectly; hope with a hope that lacks nothing of completeness.
1Pe. 1:14. Obedient children.Lit. children of obedience. Read lusts which were formerly yours in the time of your ignorancebefore the first revelation of Christ was made to you. It is implied that the ignorance is the mother of the lusts. The words are quite as applicable to unregenerate Jews as to unregenerate Gentiles.
1Pe. 1:15. Conversation.Behaviour, conduct; turning about in daily relationships; moving to and fro with others. Swift is the first writer who limits the word to talking. Read the first clause of the verse: After the pattern of the Holy One who called you.
1Pe. 1:16. Be ye holy.Or future Ye shall be holy, but with the force of an imperative. For application to Jewish nation see Lev. 11:44; Lev. 19:2; Lev. 20:26.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Pe. 1:13-16
Self Discipline.Christian privilege ought always to act upon us as an inspiration to duty. But the first sphere of the Christians duty is himself, his own character, habits, and relationships. It never can be too constantly or too persuasively presented, that a Christians power lies first in what he is. The service a renewed man can render, and is called to render, is the service of his own cultured self. Among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. Ye are the salt of the earth. St. Peter has in mind, however, not only the duty of self-discipline, but the security that lies in it. The Christian who is diligently attentive to spiritual self-culture is guarded round, and protected safely from all the assaults of evil. Too much engaged, too interestedly occupied, to be overborne by any outward circumstances of persecution or trial. It may further be said that, in a well-ordered self-discipline the Christian finds so much personal pleasure that he is fully compensated for all losses of worldly pleasure which the self-culture may involve. Christian self-discipline is here seen to include:
I. Bracing up.Girding up the loins of your mind. To His disciples our Lord gave the same counsel. Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning (Luk. 12:35). The figure is a familiar one, but it is more forcible when associated with the long, flowing garments of the East. The loose dress had to be turned up and bound round the waist, when active exertion was required. Thus, Elijah is said to have girded up his loins when he ran before the chariot of Ahab from Carmel to Jezreel (1Ki. 18:46), and the Lord required Job to gird up his loins like a man, to listen to His sublime response (Job. 38:3). In modern times athletes brace up, or gird, the body before exertion. What is represented in the moral sphere we can well understand. There is a resolute dealing with ourselves in the face of difficultiesto use a familiar expression, a pulling of ourselves togetherwhich enables us to present a strong front to the adversary, and to endure what may involve serious strain. Something of this severe self-dealing is indicated in the psalmists expression, My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Illustration may be taken from the soldiers in an enemys country, and on some dangerous expedition. Day and night they keep fully attired and armed, get what sleep they can beside their horses, ready at any moment to spring into the saddlealways braced up. The loins of the mind are the resolves and purposes. They keep the mind occupied, and brace it up for its duty. A striking instance of bracing up the loins of the mind, and standing four square to every temptation and every foe, may be found in Joshua, who was strong, and could say, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
II. Self-restraint.Be sober. Temperate in all things. Weakness attends upon excess in anything, partly because a rebound is sure to follow it, and all rebounds are perilous; partly because every excess tends to repeat itself, and the repetition involves entire loss of self-control. Moderation is essential to Christian virtue; and it has its application in the religious as well as the moral spheres. This, however, is seldom wisely insisted on, and many religious persons actually lose their power of self-restraint by excess in religious meetings, duties, and services. Self-restraint needs to be cultured in relation to everything. Physical health depends on our working up to, but never beyond, the limit of our powers, and so does moral health. But it is more practically helpful to show that each individual will find some particular sphere in which he is called to be sober. And the mastery of himself in that particular thing will be found a triumph which carries with it his easy restraining and ruling of all other things. It may be shown that we all need to win the power of self-restraint in relation to the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. And the evils into which the unrestrained man falls may be vigorously described, as a warning against neglecting self-culture.
III. Trust in provision and promise.Set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you. It is possible to present the duty of self-restraint only on its sterner side, as the resolute mastery of tendencies that are evil. And doing this may give a severer view of the Christian life than is necessary. Self-culture is the nourishing of the good. There is the call to self-restraint that we may win good, as well as that we may control evil. St. Peter would have those he addressed master all depression, and fear, and indifference, and so set the Christian hope before them, that they should always be working towards its attainment. He really speaks of the grace that is being brought day by day, and not of some grace that is to be brought some one day. But it involves self-restraint for us to loosen the self-confidence so that we may wisely trust.
IV. Distinct aim at holiness.Be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living. Our Lord set this aim before His disciples. Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Self-discipline needs a pattern, a standard. It cannot be intelligent; it will not be wisely directed; it cannot hope to reach an effective result;unless a man sees what he is restraining, disciplining himself unto. He is working at himself, at his moral character and relations; but to what end, after what pattern? When he has done his self-culturing work, what does he expect to be? Holiness, as Gods holiness, is the distinctly Christian aim, and it is the aim of no other religion besides Christianity. Holiness is more than cleanness and fitness of relations. It is an inward state of mind and feeling which ensures that the relations must be pure and right. And it is purity with a bloom on it, that makes it attractive, and gives it a peculiar power of influence. But it is practical, not dreamy and sentimental; and therefore St. Peter says, Be ye holy in all manner of conversation; holy in all the turning about, all the associations, of life. That tone on all life would in the most marked way distinguish the Jewish Christians from the older Jews, and from all the heathen world around them.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Pe. 1:13. Girding the Loins of the Mind.The figure is Oriental. The Orientals wore a loose and flowing robe, which, dangling about the feet, hindered swift, straight motion. When they would move quickly and with precision, they must needs gather the trailing garment into the girdle about the waist. You remember how the children of Israel were commanded to eat the passover. The passover was the door of their deliverance. The lamb, slain, and roasted whole, they were to eat. How? Standing, with travelling-staff in hand, with loins girded. A journey was before them, They were to go forth from Egypt. On that journey no trailing robes were to hold them back. A definite aim was theirsto leave Egypt, and march toward freedom and nationality. They were to be harnessed toward that aim. Robes, trailing, flowing down and out, catching at stones, sweeping up sticksrobes to be trodden on, and so the cause of stumblingmight do for the smooth floors of Pharaohs palace, might do for the even paths about their villages; but they would not do for men on the march. With girded loins they were to go forth. So, before these Christians to whom Peter wrote, there was an aim. They were to be sober, to hope to the end, to be obedient children, to refuse to live after the fashion of their former heathen lusts; they were to be holy, since He who had called them was holy. A shining and gracious aim was theirs. And there was but one way for them to reach it; wherefore toward this aim gird up the loins of your minds, says the apostle. Thoughts, loose and wandering; thoughts heedlessly trailing over this thing and that; allowed imaginings of your former heathen lusts; the robes of your minds unbound, and let down to flow over whatever they may list;such ungirded thoughts will be as hindering to you, O Christians, as would have been the loose robes of the Israelites on their desert march. Girded thoughts are what you need. All this is very close and practical. Here is a young man who has come to the consciousness of lifes meaning and solemnity. Ah, he says, I must be sober; I must take for my life a strong and noble aim. But how may the young man make real and actual such aim? Here our Scripture comes in. By girded thought, not by thoughts loose and wandering.
1. What ungirds thoughts?
(1) Pleasure as an end for life ungirds them. Duty is the sacrifice for the great altar of the life, and pleasurerecreationis to come in only as it helps us lay that sacrifice more constantly and worthily upon that holy place.
(2) Aimless and frivolous reading ungirds thoughts.
(3) Bad associations, also, ungird thoughts.
(4) Neglected Bibles and neglected secret prayers ungird thoughts.
(5) Carelessness of attendance on religious services ungirds thoughts.
(6) Sunday secular newspapers ungird thoughts.
2. What girds thoughts?
(1) A high and determined purpose girds them.
(2) Quick decisions for the Right gird thoughts.
(3) Love for the true and good girds thoughts. The best and most helpful girdle for the thoughts is passionate devotion to the personal Christ.Anon.
Spiritual Sobriety.This injunction may refer inferentially to the practice of temperance as commonly understood; but its significance and scope are much deeper and wider than that. Writing of the surpassing excellence of that great salvation of which prophets had prophesied, into which angels desired to look, which had really been made known by the Spirit of God (1Pe. 1:12), Peter urges his readers to gird up the loins of their mindi.e., to call forth all their spiritual resources, that they may understand and appreciate it; he then bidsthem be soberi.e., exercise in this great matter a sound judgment, command themselves, not to be led to harmful extremes, or give way to illusions that would disappoint them, but maintain a manly, intelligent, healthful self-restraint. Doing this, they might set their hope perfectly [to the fullest possible limit] on the grace that was being brought unto them at the revelation of Jesus Christi.e., they might confidently expect the largest and richest blessings which the manifestation of the grace of Christ was fitted to bring with it. We may strive and we may look for the greatest good, the fullest prosperity, in connection with the gospel, but at the same time we must cherish and exercise spiritual sobriety.
I. In the acceptance of Christian doctrine.
1. The Church at Thessalonica had a strong hold on the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh was its watchword, its prevailing thought. It had a right to anticipate the hour when there would be another manifestation of its Lord. But it fell into insobriety of thought and of conduct in this matter. Its members thought that, as Jesus Christ might appear among them at any hour, they need not concern themselves with the ordinary duties of life, with provision for its bodily necessities; and they began to be disorderly. They had to be rebuked by the apostle Paul (2 Thessalonians 3), and summoned to be sober in doctrine and in deed.
2. The Church of Corinth had an unusual share of gifts, particularly of this gift of tongues. The members of that Church had a perfect right to make the most of its possession. But they were bound to hold their special powers in subordination to the great ends of glorifying Christ, and of edifying one another. This they did not do; they were not taking a sober view of the subject, and had to be corrected (1 Corinthians 14).
3. It is a distinct Christian doctrine that we must be separate from the world; that while in it we are not to be of it. But the hermits of the earlier time, and the monks and nuns and the ascetics of a later, and of the present, time, fell into sad insobriety when they sought to retire altogether from the engagements and relationships of human life. Painful facts have superabundantly proved that we cannot decline what our heavenly Father offers us without doing ourselves harm rather than good. On the other hand, proof abounds on every side that in accepting the joys and filling the spheres which open to us in the providence of God, we may walk holily, righteously, and blamelessly, and adorn the doctrine of our Saviour in all things. It is the sober view of separateness from the world which is the right, wise, Christian one.
4. That we are justified by faith is according to Scripture. By faith in Jesus Christ we have access to the grace of God; believing on Him we have eternal life. But when men say, as they have said, that when we have once believed, and been restored to the favour of God, we cannot forfeit His friendship by any folly, or even by any sin, they fall into the gravest spiritual insobriety; they push certain statements to an extreme, and they fall into dangerous, even destructive, error.
5. We are sanctified by the Spirit of God. When we have returned unto God and been received by Him, there remains much in us that has to be removed from us; there is much absent from us that has to be gained by us. We are not complete in Him. The process of spiritual completion is the work of the Divine Spirit. But when it is maintained, as it has been, that if we only give our hearts to Him, and invite His entrance, and make entire surrender of ourselves, we may be instantaneously lifted up to the full height of holiness, then the mistake is made of not being sober in thought and in belief. Christian maturity is a growth; it is the gradual upbuilding ourselves on our holy faith; it is the result of a strenuous struggle; it is the consummation of a wise and true Christian course; it is the blessed consequence of daily prayer, of the continual reception into our minds of the thoughts of God, of much fellowship with Jesus Christ, of the wise use of all forms of Christian privilege, of active work in the field of sacred usefulness, of the lighter and also the severer discipline of the Lord of our life, of the wise Father of our spirit. That is the sober view, strongly substantiated by Scripture, constantly confirmed by the experience of the good.
II. In the regulation of Christian life.
III. In the nourishment of Christian character.There is a kind of spiritual sustenance which is pleasant to the flesh, but which is dangerous, if not delusive; it is that of perpetual religious excitement; the reading of those books, and the hearing of those sermons, which make an almost unbroken appeal to the imagination. This cannot be said to be taking milk (1Co. 3:2), but drinking champagne. If we would build up a robust and fruitful Christian character we must eat the strong meat of Divine truth, which informs the mind, which enlarges the view, which braces the will, which sustains and strengthens the soul. There is much occasion here for attention to the apostolic admonitionbe sober.William Clarkson, B.A.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
1Pe. 1:16. An African Figure of Holiness.Dr. Livingstone once asked a Bechuana what he understood by the word holiness (foitsepho). He answered, When copious showers have descended during the night, and all the earth and leaves and cattle are washed clean, and the sun rising shows a drop of dew on every blade of grass, and the air breathes freshthat is holiness.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
III. CALL TO HOLINESS
1:132:12
1. Sobriety and Spiritual Readiness 1:13, 14
1Pe. 1:13 Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Expanded Translation
Wherefore (on this account) girding up the loins of your mind (and thus preparing it for whatever difficulties you may encounter), be perfectly self-controlled and fix your hope unswervingly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the time Jesus Christ comes again.
_______________________
Wherefore
i.e., Because of what I have just stated . . .
girding up the loins of your mind
This phrase is a metaphor signifying preparedness. It is derived from a practice of the Orientals. In order to be unimpeded in their movements, they were accustomed, when about to start on a journey or engage in any work, to bind their long and flowing garments closely around their bodies and fasten them with a leathern girdle. The thought is that of mental and spiritual preparedness for the assignments and work of a Christian, being similar in meaning to our expression, Roll up your sleeves.
Notice here that we are to gird up the loins of our minds. It is as if the Apostle pictured the minds of some as though they were a loose, hanging, flowing garment. His advice is, pull it together. Thus Souter, in commenting on this phrase, says the opposite of mental slackness is referred to. The word rendered girding up is here in the middle voicethe action being done to or for ones self.) Our minds must be braced and prepared for the vicissitudes of life and the trials that come our way.
be sober
nepho, literally meaning to be sober in the sense of being unintoxicated, We must be free from every form of mental and spiritual drunkenness, from passion, rashness, etc. The word refers to one who is calm and collected in spirit, temperate, well-balanced and self-controlled. Living in this manner, we are better equipped to ward off Satan, as is shown also in 1Pe. 4:7 and 1Pe. 5:8.
and set your hope perfectly
That is, altogether or completely. Most critics connect the perfectly, with the hope. However, some connect it with the be sober, translating the phrase with perfect soberness set your hope . . . or with the strictest self-control fix your hope . . . etc.
on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
Obviously referring to our ultimate salvation which will be granted to us when Christ returns to earth. Compare the use of grace in 1Pe. 1:10.
On this whole passage, compare Luk. 12:35-36.
1Pe. 1:14 As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance:
Expanded Translation
In the manner of children who practice obedience, not conforming yourself in mind, character, speech or action to the strong desires which formerly ruled you in the days in which you lacked knowledge:
_______________________
As children of obedience
A Hebrew idiom referring to those whose obedience is their outstanding quality or characteristic; i.e., as obedient ones . . . Compare Eph. 2:2 and the term sons of disobedience.
not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts
The word suschematidzo (fashioning yourselves) is derived from sun, with, and schema, figure, fashion, form. When used of people, sun indicated everything in a person which strikes the senses: the figure, bearing, discourse, actions, manner of life, etc. Fashioning yourselves, then, is to fashion in accordance with, conform or assimilate Ones self to, etc., and would include the whole pattern or shape of ones life. Please carefully notice the only other passage in the New Testament where this word occurs, Rom. 12:1-2. We must fashion ourselves after Christ, not after our former desires of the flesh.
in the time of your Ignorance
Agnoia simply indicating lack of knowledge. See Act. 17:30, Eph. 4:18. We must not go back to those days before we were enlightened by the Gospel Message.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(13) Gird up the loins of your mind.A metaphor from persons gathering up the flowing Oriental dress (which had been let down for repose), so as to be ready for energetic action (e.g., 1Ki. 18:46, for running; Job. 38:3, for arguing). What exact kind of action St. Peter meant them here to prepare for we need not inquire. A mind, rather than soul or heart, seems to bespeak practical intelligence. Thus when the Galatians, too, began to fall from evangelical to Judaic religion St. Paul calls them senseless (Gal. 3:1).
Be sober.Not in the literal sense, but with the same notion of alertness as in gird up; sobriety and wakefulness are often combined (e.g., 1Pe. 5:8; 1Th. 5:6).
Hope to the end.Literally, hope perfectly, or, thoroughly, or, with completeness. Indeed this hope, says Leighton, is perfect in continuance, it is a hope unto the end, because it is perfect in its nature. The chief thought, however, is that the hope should not be half-hearted, dispirited. St. Peter brings us back to what he began with, that ours is a living hope. The exhortation is exactly of the same nature as that which pervades the Epistle to the Hebrews (see, for instance, Heb. 3:6; Heb. 3:14; Heb. 6:11), and for the same reasoni.e., that spiritual sloth, combined with fear of man, was beginning to turn these Jewish Christians back to dead works. Hope on, in these passages, is tantamount to remain Christians.
For the grace.Not exactly hope for the grace, i.e., expect confidently that it will come: rather, hope upon the grace, as in 1Ti. 5:5, the only other place where the same construction is used, and where it is rendered trusteth in God. Here, therefore, it is, confidently hope (for salvation, glory, &c.) on the strength of the grace. The grace is the same as in 1Pe. 1:10.
That is to be brought.If we will render it strictly, it is, That is a-bringing to you. That blessedness, that consummation of grace, the saints are hastening forward to, walking on in their way, wheresoever it lies indifferently, through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report. And as they are hastening to it, it is hastening to them in the course of time; every day brings it nearer to them than before; and notwithstanding all difficulties and dangers in the way, they that have their eye and their hopes upon it shall arrive at it, and it shall be brought safe to their hand; all the malice of men and devils shall not be able to cut them short of this grace that is a-bringing to them against the revelation of Jesus Christ (Leighton). On the tense, see also Note on 1Th. 1:10. Notice also that it is now the personal Name, not the official title. St. Peter is enforcing the gospel as we know it; we no longer search unto whom the title of the Messiah belongs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(13-25) GENERAL APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING.This salvation being so magnificent, the Asiatic Hebrews must cling to it tenaciously, in holiness, in reverence caused by consideration of the cost of it, and in charity: the gospel they have received cannot be improved upon.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(13-4: 6) EXHORTATION TO KEEP A PURE CONSCIENCE.It is the only charm against persecution. It is like Christ to suffer with a good conscience; and He had His reward for it, in bringing us, and even the spirits of men who had died impenitent, to God thereby. It is the very meaning of the baptism by which He saves us. To feel its beauty and safety, we have but to consider the ugliness and danger of our former life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. General exhortations based upon the excellency of the gospel salvation, 1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:8.
a. Exhortation to firm, enduring hope, 1Pe 1:13 .
13. Wherefore Referring to the entire foregoing description.
Gird up Literally, having girded up, aorist, once for all, showing the completeness of the condition in which the hope is to be exercised. The figure (as in our Lord’s words in Luk 12:35, “Let your loins be girded about”) of the tucking up of the long flowing robe and tightening the girdle implies preparation for work, running, fighting, or other energetic action. The meaning is, Let your whole spiritual nature be so disentangled from earthly things, and intently fixed on the heavenly and eternal, that you will be always ready and on the alert for your business as Christians.
Sober Being sober, self-restrained, and held well in hand against temptation, appetite, cares, pleasures, and spiritual sloth.
Hope The emphatic word. Desire it as of infinite worth; expect it because bought and promised.
To the end Rather, perfectly, entirely, with no doubt, diminution, interruption, or failure.
Grace The inheritance and eternal salvation, named from its source.
Revelation At the visible second advent. St.
Peter uses the word , or its verb, five times in this epistle in reference to that day. 1Pe 1:5; 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 1:13 ; 1Pe 4:13; 1Pe 5:1.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For which reason, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’
Because of what he has said they are to ‘gird up the loins of their mind.’ The flowing robes that men wore hindered strenuous activity so that, for example, in order to run for any distance or go into warfare men had to ‘gird up their loins’, that is, gather up their robes in a girdle so that they would not interfere with their movements. (We might speak of rolling up our sleeves ready for action). So here ‘girding up the loins of your mind’ indicates ‘gathering yourselves together and tightening up the discipline of your minds and wills’, thus avoiding all loose thinking. This call to action was in total contrast to many of the religious experiences of those days which were actually intended to lift men out of their rational minds into an unthinking ecstasy. But those who follow Christ do not stop thinking, rather they think more deeply, but with a deeper understanding (see Rom 12:2; Eph 4:17; Eph 4:23).
There may be in this phrase ‘gird up the loins’ a glance back to the Exodus when on Passover night the people had to eat their Passover meal with their loins girded (Exo 12:11). Perhaps there is here the hint of a new Exodus (see introduction), as they are called on to leave the world behind and travel towards their inheritance.
And this is to result in sober and thoughtful living, with their eyes fixed on the goal that lies ahead. Their hope is to be set, not on worldly things, but on the riches of the grace of God which will finally be revealed in the good things that will be brought to them when Jesus Christ is openly manifested at His coming, and they share with Him His glory. They must live in the light of His coming remembering that the things which are seen are temporal, while the far more abundant things which are not seen are eternal (2Co 4:18). They must thus count worldly things as nothing, and eternal things as everything.
‘Be sober.’ In other words, do not be befuddled by wine, or by other detrimental things which can have the same impact (1Jn 2:15-17). Rather they are to see things as they really are.
‘In the “being brought to you grace” in the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ This present participle may refer to the grace being brought to them in the present revelation of Jesus Christ, speaking of the impact of His first coming. Or it may refer to the grace which will be brought to them at His second coming. In the light of 1Pe 1:7 we should probably see it as having in mind the grace to be brought to them in His second coming. But both equally apply. We receive grace now as Christ is revealed in our hearts. We will receive grace then when he is revealed in His glory.
‘The revelation of Jesus Christ.’ That is the time when the King’s presence is openly revealed, when the curtain is drawn back and He is seen in all His glory and authority. Compare 1Co 1:7 ; 2Th 1:7. That revelation is made individually in every Christian heart even now when they come to Him with the eyes of their hearts being enlightened (2Co 4:6), but it will one day be made to all. Every eye will see Him (Rev 1:7; compare Mat 24:27). >p> 1Pe 1:14-15 ‘As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your then-time ignorance, but like as he who called you is holy, be you yourselves also holy in all manner of living.’
And they must do this because they are now ‘children of obedience’, because they have been begotten again through the Obedient One, in the power of His resurrection (1Pe 1:3). By submitting to Christ they have entered into the obedience of Christ, and their lives are thus to reveal that obedience. Thus those who are Christ’s are called on to be Christ-like, they are to be ‘children of obedience’, following the way of obedience into which they have entered in Christ.
Peter remembered well Jesus’ words, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do the things that I say?” (Luk 6:46). They will thus no longer think like the world thinks. They will not live as they had done when they were ignorant of eternal things, and of the living Christ. Then their lives had been fashioned, ‘cobbled haphazardly together’, by their foolish desires. They had lived to please themselves, driven by their own lusts. They had been ignorant (‘unknowing’), with no knowledge of God and without genuine moral standards. They had been ‘sons of disobedience’ (Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6). But now that they have become ‘children of obedience’ they are to be holy as the One Who has called them is holy. They are to be children of holiness, wholly set apart for God.
Note the contrasts. Firstly between ‘gird up the loins of your mind’ in contrast with ‘fashioning yourselves haphazardly. Secondly between ‘Be sober’ in contrast with living ‘according to your former desires’. And thirdly between ‘Set your hope perfectly’ in contrast with being ‘in your ignorance’. The Christian life is positive in its aims.
For the idea of ‘children of –’ compare the ‘children of wisdom’ implied in Mat 11:19, and the ‘children of light’ spoken of by Jesus (Luk 16:8; Joh 12:36). They are the product of, and ‘follow after’, wisdom and light, and in this verse they are the product of the obedience of Christ and are to follow after obedience.
‘As He Who called you is holy, be you yourselves also holy in all manner of living.’ The purpose of the Spirit’s sanctifying work (work of ‘making holy’ – 1Pe 1:2) is in order to make them holy, just as God, Who has foreknown and called them (1Pe 1:2), is holy (Isa 57:15; and often as ‘the Holy One’). And that is therefore what they should set their minds on. The holiness in mind here is that of moral holiness, for it is to be in ‘all manner of living’. They are to live in accordance with all God’s requirements. They are to be Christ-like in all their ways.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
In The Light Of Their Great Privilege And Blessing They Should Set Themselves To Live Accordingly ( 1Pe 1:13-16 ).
In the light of the wonder of the message that has come to them, and of the sanctifying work of the Spirit, His people are to tighten up the discipline of their minds and wills, fixing them on the goal that lies ahead. As a result they will receive the full benefits of God’s gracious and undeserved favour, ‘the riches of His grace’ (Eph 2:7; compare 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 2:4), which are to be brought to them when Jesus Christ is openly manifested at His second coming.
Thus, as ‘children of obedience’ (1Pe 1:14), that is, as those who follow in the way of the obedience of Christ, they are to fashion themselves in accordance with that obedience to which they have been set apart in the obedience of Christ (1Pe 1:2; Rom 5:19; Heb 10:5-14). And this is to be in deliberate contrast to the way in which they had previously fashioned themselves in accordance with their worldly lusts and desires (1Pe 1:14) when they had been caught up in the ways of the world. In other words they are to turn their backs on the sinful ways of the world and are to set their hearts on being holy like God is holy (1Pe 1:15-16), by being obedient to His truth. Here is ‘sanctification in the Spirit unto the obedience of Jesus Christ’ being fully worked out.
If we see the first section from 1Pe 1:3-9 as calling to ‘hope, faith and love’, we may see this second section as calling to ‘soberness, obedience and holiness’; that is, to sensible living, obedient living, and clean and holy living. That is what is to result from their hope, faith and love.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Summary Statement Our glorious hope of an eternal inheritance has been described in 1Pe 1:3-12, and summarized in 1Pe 1:13 as an exhortation to be mindful this living hope. The rest of this Epistle will now take us on a journey to show us how to “hope fully until the end” (1Pe 1:13).
1Pe 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;
1Pe 1:13
1Pe 1:13 “ gird up the loins of your mind ” – Comments – When Peter tells his readers in 1Pe 1:13 to “gird up the loins of your mind,” he is telling them to assemble their attire for a journey and be in a state of readiness. This statement paints an image in the minds of his readers of a sojourner who is getting ready to embark upon a long journey. The journey is our life of divine election whereby we live as those who are looking for a blessed, eternal hope in Heaven. Goodspeed translates this phrase, “Prepare your minds for action.” Therefore, Peter will spend the rest of this Epistle telling us how to prepare our minds to persevere and complete this spiritual journey. We are to first sanctify ourselves with the Word of God (1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:10). We are to walk in obedience with good words in the midst of persecutions (1Pe 2:11 to 1Pe 4:11). We are to rejoice in hope of our eternal inheritance laid up for us in glory (1Pe 4:12-19).
We find a similar statement in the Gospels. When Jesus taught of His Second Coming, He said to His disciples, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning,” (Luk 12:35). The figurative phrase “let your loins be girded about” implies that a person be in a state of readiness. Regarding the phrase “your lights burning”, we may compare it to The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mat 25:1-13), where Frances Roberts says that the lamp represents the Word of God, while the oil represents the Holy Spirit that illuminates the Word and the fire of the lamp represents the fire of testimony that goes forth from those who witness to others of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in particular of the Second Coming of Christ. [87] Thus, Jesus is describing a person in Luk 12:35 who is ready and looking for Christ’s Return while proclaiming to others to prepare themselves for this eminent event.
[87] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 159.
Luk 12:35, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;”
Paul told the Ephesians to “have their loins girt about with truth”. We do this by renewing our minds with the Word of God.
Eph 6:14, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”
“ be sober ” – Comments – The idea of being sober means that a person must be in his right senses while living among the cares of this world. We live in the world, but we are not to pursue the things of this world and set our heart upon them.
“and hope to the end” – Comments – Then he tells them to “hope to the end,” which is a way of having them focus upon a destination at the end of this journey. In order to persevere until the end we are told in 1Pe 1:13 to fix our hope upon the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, our focus is to be in a state of readiness for His Second Coming in much the same way the children of Israel girded up their loins on the night of the first Passover awaiting the call to come out of Egypt (Exo 12:11).
Exo 12:11, “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’S passover.”
In the same way that Jesus set His face towards the joy that the Father set before Him (Heb 12:1-3), so does Peter set before his readers a hope and expectation to help them endure their journey as a pilgrim here on earth.
Heb 12:1-3, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
1Pe 1:13 “for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” Comments – In 1Pe 1:13 the author refers to our redemption at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as “the grace that is to be brought unto you.” The emphasis in this phrase is upon God the Father’s role in divinely electing us unto salvation and providing redemption through His Son Jesus Christ. The use of the word “grace” emphasizes the fact that our redemption is a free unmerited gift from God. In the next verse Peter will emphasize our role in order to partake of this grace by saying, “as obedient children” (1Pe 1:14). Our obedience will then be discusses as a life of holiness (1Pe 1:15-16)
1Pe 1:13 Comments – The rest of this Epistle will now tell us how to gird up our loins and hope until the end for our blessed salvation at the Second Coming of Christ Jesus.
Sanctification by the Spirit (Explanation of Sermon): The Believer’s Response is to Decide to Sanctify Himself Through Partaking of God’s Word in Light of This Blessed Hope Once we have been enlightened to our blessed hope of the Heavenly Father (1Pe 1:3-12), Peter explains how we are in the position to make the choice to sanctify ourselves by growing in the Word of God through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:10).
This passage of Scripture in 1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:10 tells us that this work of sanctification is based upon our willingness to grow in the Word of God. We are first given the charge to become holy (1Pe 1:14-16). Peter makes this appeal to be holy based upon the price that God the Father has paid for our redemption, which is the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ (1Pe 1:17-21). Since our new birth came about when we partook of the eternal, living Word of God (1Pe 1:22-25), then it means our spiritual growth into holiness is also accomplished by this same living Word of God (1Pe 2:1-3). Peter then explains how we are a chosen people of God set apart, or sanctified, with a purpose, which is to effect redemption for mankind (1Pe 2:4-10).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Summary Statement 1Pe 1:13
2. Calling: The Charge to be Holy 1Pe 1:14-16
3. Justification: The Price of our Redemption 1Pe 1:17-21
4. Sanctification: The Love Walk 1Pe 1:22-25
5. Sanctification: Indoctrination 1Pe 2:1-3
6. Sanctification: Spiritual Service 1Pe 2:4-10
An Admonition to Lead a Godly Life.
The need of holiness:
v. 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;
v. 14. as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance;
v. 15. but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
v. 16. because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
Because the believers are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, therefore there is need that they be strengthened in faith and a holy life day by day, as the apostle writes: Therefore, girded up in the loins of your mind and with soberness of spirit, set your hope definitely upon the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ. The picture is that of a person who is altogether ready for a journey or for a piece of work in the performance of which he wants to be unhindered, with no loose garments impeding his progress by wrapping themselves about his limbs. The mind of the Christians must ever be alert, full of intent watchfulness, ready for the business of the Master, and sober, not engaged in the lusts and desires of the world. Their minds must be directed exclusively toward Christ and toward the goal which they have set before them. In this condition, in this state of mind, Christians should set their hope definitely, without wavering, without the slightest indication of uncertainty, upon the grace of God as it is set before us again and again in the revelation of Jesus Christ, upon the future salvation which God gives to us out of pure grace and mercy. When Christ will be revealed to our eager eyes on the last day, it will be for the purpose of putting us, the elect sojourners here on earth, into the possession of our heavenly inheritance. This we know; and therefore our hope is so sure, so steadfast.
The apostle now shows what attitude, what conduct agrees with the hope of the future grace: As children of obedience, not molding yourselves after the former lusts in your ignorance. Christians must at all times show themselves children of obedience; that is the sphere in which they should be found, in obedience to the gracious will of God, to the Gospel. For this reason they will avoid everything that might endanger their chances of salvation. They will not fashion themselves, they will not mold their opinion, their conduct, according to the lusts and desires which formerly, while they were still in ignorance of the holy will of God, ruled in them. Every unconverted person, every heathen, knows no better than to seek his fortune, his happiness, the gratification of his ambitions in doing after the lusts of his heart. All this the believers have renounced, with all this they have nothing in common any more.
The thought which governs the life of the Christians is this: But as He that called you is holy, so be also you holy in your entire conduct; for it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. God is the absolutely Pure and Holy One; in Him is no darkness, but He is light. It is He that has called the Christians by the Gospel, converting them to faith in Jesus Christ, their Savior. In accordance with this call, therefore, and with the fact that it is the Holy One that issued the call, the Christians should likewise prove themselves holy, striving in their whole life and conduct after the purity, the righteousness, which is well-pleasing to Him. Instead of bearing in their attitude the form of evil lusts, they should be renewed to the image of God. This is the will of God, as He Himself has stated in His Word, Lev 11:44; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:26. That is the unchangeable will of God with reference to His children, that they make the holiness which He has in His essence their ideal, that the hope and the faith of their hearts find its expression in the sanctification of their lives, Col 1:12; Heb 12:14.
1Pe 1:13. Gird up the loins of your mind, The apostle seems here to allude to the precept which he had heard from our Lord, Luk 12:35; Luk 12:59 which is the more probable, from his immediately adding the words, , being constantly upon the watch. The meaning is, that Christians are to endeavour to have their minds in such a frame for the coming of Christ, as servants have their bodies for their master’s coming to his marriage-feast, when he is to entertain his friends in the most agreeable manner. See 1Ki 18:46. Luk 17:8.
1Pe 1:13 . The first group of exhortations extends from this verse to the end of the chapter. 1Pe 1:13 . First exhortation, which forms the basis of those which follow. The is the foundation upon which the whole moral-religious life of the Christian must be raised.
] does not refer back to any single thought in what precedes, certainly not to the glory of the touched upon in 1Pe 1:10 ff. (Calvin: ex magnitudine et excellentia gratiae deducit exhortationem), still less to the thought expressed 1Pe 1:5-9 : “that the Christian goes through trial towards a glorious destiny” (de Wette), but to the whole of the foregoing lines of thought (Schott), which, however, have their point of convergence in this, that unto the Christian begotten again , the is appointed as the (similarly Brckner).
] a figurative expression taken from the runners (and others) who tucked up their dress, so as to prosecute their work with less hindrance. , . . (Pro 31:17 ; LXX., ed. van Ess 29:17), means to tuck up ; Luther incorrectly: “therefore so gird yourselves” (thus Wiesinger also translates, although he justly says: “The figure taken from the tucking up of a long under garment denotes preparedness for something,” etc.); cf. the passages, Luk 12:35 and Eph 6:14 (in both passages, however, ). The figure is the more appropriate, that the Christian is a , on his way to the future . The figurative finds its own explanation in the epexegetical genitive . Aretius interprets incorrectly: lumbi mentis i. e. ipsa recta ratio renati hominis recte judicans de negotio pietatis; means here, as in Col 1:21 : the “disposition of mind.” The meaning of the phrase applies not only to deliverance from evil desires (Gerhard: quarumvis passionum et cupiditatum carnalium refrenatio praescribitur), but to all and every needful preparation of spirit for the fulfilling of the exhortations following; “it is the figure of spiritual preparedness and activity” (de Wette). The aorist participle points to this spiritual preparedness as the preliminary condition of (Schott).
] cf. chap. 1Pe 4:7 , 1Pe 5:8 (1Th 5:6 ; 1Th 5:8 ; 2Ti 4:5 ). Calvin correctly: non temperantiam solum in cibo et potu commendat, sed spiritualem potius sobrietatem, quum sensus omnes nostros continemus, ne se hujus mundi illecebris inebrient; similarly most interpreters. Otherwise, however, Weiss (p. 95 f.), who supposes an antithesis between and , inasmuch as the former is opposed “to want of courage and apathy,” the latter to “unnatural overstraining and excitement,” and “unhealthy exaltation.” But no such antithetical relation is (as little as there is in chap. 1Pe 5:8 and 1Th 5:6 ; 1Th 5:8 , between and ) here anywhere hinted at, nor is there anything in the whole epistle to lead us to suppose that Peter considered it necessary “to warn his hearers against the extravagant enthusiasm of a Messianic glory.” Rather in is prominence given to an important element in the , without which a cannot exist, namely, the clearness and soberness of mind with which the goal of hope and the way leading thither is kept in view.
. . .] , . ., belongs not to (Oecumenius, Benson, Semler, Mayerhoff, Hofmann), but to ; [79] it shows emphatically that the hope should be perfect, undivided, unchangeable (“without doubt or faint-heartedness, with full surrender of soul,” de Wette; Wiesinger adds further: “excluding all ungodly substance and worldly desire, and including the ., 1Pe 1:14 ;” and Schott: “with reference also to the moral conduct of earnest sanctification”). Weiss (p. 93) finds the of hope in this, that it does not allow itself to be overcome by suffering but of suffering there is here no mention. Erasmus, Grotius, Bengel take it unsatisfactorily, only ratione temporis, i.e. “ad finem usque.”
, frequently with , , c. dat., is construed with cum. accus. only here and in 1Ti 5:5 ; it means “ to place his hope on something .” The object connected with it by means of is not the proper object of hope; the latter stands in the accusative, or is expressed by a verb, either in the infin. or with ; but it is that from which the fulfilment of hope is expected. [80] If, as here, be construed with the accusative, the disposition of mind with respect to the object is expressed; whilst if it be taken with the dative, the object is presented to us as the basis of hope, that on which it is founded.
. ] Several commentators interpret so that the sense runs: “place your hope on the grace which has been shown you by the revelation of Jesus Christ;” thus Erasmus, Luther, Calov, Bengel, Gerhard, Steiger, etc.; according to this, is the of ( i.e. “which has been already offered or communicated to you”), , “the forgiveness of sins effected by Christ,” and , “the revelation of Christ which has already taken place.” In the more exact definition of the term , these interpreters again diverge from one another; whilst Luther, Calov, Steiger, and others hold it to be “the revelation which has taken place in the gospel;” Bengel, etc., on the other hand, understand it of “the incarnation of Christ.” Erasmus gives both: sentit de mysterio evangelii divulgato per quod Christus innotuit, seu de adventu Christi. Steiger, in support of the first view, appeals to Luk 2:32 ; Rom 16:25 ; Gal 1:16 ; Eph 1:17 ; 2Co 12:1 ; Eph 3:3 ; but all these passages do not furnish the proof desired. In no passage is the revelation of the gospel called the . But the other view is opposed by the N. T. usus loquendi, according to which . always denotes the future coming of Christ only. It must also be held to be unwarrantable to interpret . . . here in a different sense from that given shortly before in 1Pe 1:7 (and chap. 1Pe 4:13 ).
Not less opposed to the former interpretation is the present participle , since the present may not arbitrarily be taken in the sense of the preterite, but must be looked upon as a realization of the future. Steiger is no doubt right in holding that . . “does not speak of the object of hoping, but the ground on which hope is built.” But from this it does not follow that by the phrase “something already accomplished” must be understood, for why should the Christian not be able to set his hopes of salvation on the grace which in the future will be offered to him at and with the return of Christ? Piscator incorrectly explains : coelestis felicitas et gloria, quam Deus nobis ex gratia daturus est. Aretius, again, is right: benevolentia Dei, qua nos amplectitur in filio: the grace of God from which the Christian has to expect the coelestis felicitas.
With , cf. Heb 9:16 . : “ to bring, to present ” (not “ to bring nearer ,” Schott), points here to the free grace of God. That is, then: “ place your hope on the grace which will be brought to you at ( in and with ) the revelation ( the second coming ) of Christ .” It is rightly interpreted by Oecumenius, Calvin (who errs in this only, that he takes for , i.e. usque ad adventum Christi), Beza, Grotius, Estius, Semler, Pott, de Wette, etc.
[79] The reasons which Hofmann brings forward for the combination of with are not by any means conclusive; for as the chief accent lies on , a strengthening of this expression by is entirely appropriate, whilst requires no such support. The position of the word, too, is in favour of the connection with .
[80] The expression “to hope for something,” confidently to expect it, may lead to the supposition that this meaning is expressed by . In the N. T. this is usually rendered by . Even in the construction with the thing accompanying it is not the object of hope, cf. Joh 5:45 ; 2Co 1:10 ; only in Sir 2:9 is the object of construed with ( ). Hofmann wrongly attaches importance to whether is followed by a person or a thing, asserting that in the latter case the thing is the object; for it is quite as possible to set one’s hope on a thing as on a person. Cremer rightly quotes this passage as one of those in which has the meaning of “setting one’s hope on something.”
REMARK.
The more recent interpreters take up different positions with respect to the view here presented. Wiesinger, Brckner, Schott, Fronmller, Hofmann, agree with the interpretation of , but are opposed to that of . Weiss and Zckler ( De vi ac notione voc. in N. T. 1856, p. 15 ff.), on the other hand, are against the latter, but in favour of the former.
As regards . Zckler: Ea est vis praepositionis c. acc. constructae, ut finem designet s. localem s. temporalem s. causalem, in quem tendat actus verbi. Qui tamen finis s. terminus sperandi ita discernendus est a simplici objecto sperandi, ut hoc significet rem, quam sibi obtingere speret subjectum, finis vero ille simul auctor sit, e quo pendeat vel satisfacere votis sperantis, vel deesse; [81] in support of which he justly quotes, in addition to this verse, 1Ti 5:5 (to which Wiesinger appeals without any justification), and a not inconsiderable number of passages from the LXX.; cf. Weiss also (p. 36 f.). De Wette interprets correctly, but thinks that inasmuch as the is conceived as a , it is at once the ground and the object of the hope. With this Brckner agrees, finding “in this intermingling a part of the peculiarity of the thought;” whilst, on the other hand, Weiss sees in it only a makeshift, conveying no clear idea at all.
With regard to the term , Weiss explains it as: manifestatio Christi, quae fit in verbo evangelii in hac vita (Gerhard). But this interpretation is decidedly opposed to the N. T. usage; in no passage is the revelation, of which by the gospel we become partakers, described as an , although is used of the different kinds of revealing. The reference to the gospel is an evident importation. Weiss raises two objections to the correct view (1) “It is, as a matter of fact, impossible that the Christian should set his hope on the grace that is to be brought at the revelation of Christ;” but why should this be impossible? How often does it happen that the individual bases his hope for the fulfilment of his wish on an event as yet future, but which he is assured will happen! (2) “That the second coming of Christ is not a revelation of grace at all, but of just judgment;” but the latter in no way excludes the former; and how could the Christian contemplate the second coming of Christ with calm, yes, even with joy, if there were no grace?
[81] This interpretation is correct. The only point under dispute is “simul.”
1Pe 1:13-21
Analysis:Exhortations to firmness and sobriety, to holiness in mind and conversation, to filial reverence of God,all founded on love and gratitude for the precious redemption by the blood of Christ.
1913Wherefore 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;2014As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:2115But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner 16of conversation;22Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.23 17And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:2418Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers25; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot:2620Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,27but was manifest in these last times for you, 21Who by him do believe in God,28 that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory;29that your faith and hope might be in God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Pe 1:13. Wherefore, refers to all the preceding account of the possession (by grace) of the elect. The New Testament state of grace is mainly designed to beget a perfect hope in the future consummation and perfecting of salvation. This hope essentially facilitates the full use of salvation with a view to holiness, to which exhortation is made in 1Pe 1:14, etc. In 1Pe 1:13, hope should be regarded as the central and leading idea, the other exhortations being added as participles. The object of that hope is the grace, which manifests itself in , in perfect salvation. The preposition does not indicate the ground and strength of hope as Steiger and Weiss maintain, for it is not contrary to the New Testament usus loquendi to connect with the object, cf. 1Ti 5:5; Act 9:42; Act 11:17; Act 22:19; Winer, 5th edition, p. 241; 1Jn 3:3; 2Co 1:10; Act 24:15.Join not with but with . The hope existing in its first beginnings shall become so firm, that no suffering shall be able to shake it, and that it shall embrace whatever it contains in itself, and that it shall ever continue to the end. [ita, ut nihil disideretur.Wahl.M.]
For the gracebrought to you. . The proper meaning of this expression depends on the interpretation of . The verb occurs indeed in a wider sense, to denote the revelation of the truth to the mind, or that of Jesus Christ, Mat 11:25; Mat 16:17; Luk 10:21; Gal 1:16; Gal 3:23; 1Co 2:10. Hence Rom 16:25; and several times . It is applied to inward revelation as contrasted with human instruction, Gal 1:12; Rev 1:1; cf. Eph 1:17; Eph 3:3; 2Co 12:1. But without the article, and without further specification, is the constant expression denoting the visible return of Christ. It is never used of His first advent in the flesh, cf. 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 4:13; 1Pe 5:1; 2Th 1:7; Rom 8:18-19; 1Co 1:7. Particularly decisive are 1Pe 1:5 and 1Pe 1:7, where the reference is evidently to the second advent of Christ in the flesh. So cum. Theophylact, Grotius, Carpzov, Starke and others. It is difficult to combine both ideas, viz.: an inward and an outward revelation (Calvin, Beza, Bengel), and a clear sense possible only on the consideration that the revelation or advent of Christ to judgment is necessarily both inward and outward. The Apostle sees the advent of Christ as nearly impending, indeed as already present, 1Pe 4:7; 1Pe 1:20, and consequently speaks of grace, not as to be brought unto them hereafter, but as already brought to them [even now bearing down upon them.M.]. In this sense is used in the LXX. at Gen 33:11. Hence it is unnecessary to assume a confusion of the present and future tenses. in the usual sense, not=, as Grotius maintains. The objection of Weiss that the general biblical representation makes the second advent of Christ not a second revelation of grace, but a revelation of righteous judgment, 1Pe 4:5; Rom 2:5, is met by clear passages, e. g. Luk 21:28. To the ungodly it will be a day of terror, but to believers a day of honour and glory. Then, at the appearing of Christ, it will become manifest, what is meant by being in favour (by standing in grace) with God, Mal 4:2. It has already been announced to you by the prophets (1Pe 1:12) but by Christ it is laid at your door, yea, laid in your bosom.
Gird upsober. . The perfect hoping is more clearly defined and confirmed by two participial additions. The first exhorts to girding up the loins. Peter thinks doubtless of the words of Jesus, Let your loins be girded about, Luk 12:25 and with a view to avoiding all misunderstanding, adds, the loins of your mind. Perhaps he alludes also to the significant commandment, With your loins girded Exo 12:11; and in that case the explanation of the addition is more simple and evident, cf. Jer 1:17; Eph 6:14.The loins were girded by gathering the long folds of the wide undergarment in a girdle in order to supply the body with a firm stay and to remove all hinderances, when the object was to work, to set out on a jourdey, to run, to carry a burden, to wrestle or to go to war. So the Christian should gird the , gather up all distractedness and fickleness, and be astir and ready, that is, his thoughts and his will should be alive and concentrated when there is a call for work, for fight and for suffering. Beware of distractedness and idleness, but also of irritation, morbid excitement and exaggeration and eccentricity. Sobriety is to be the preventive of the latter. Both the girding and the sobriety are to be taken figuratively, although sobriety of the body is taken for granted. Compare the exhortation at Luk 21:34, and Rom 13:14. Elsewhere sobriety is joined with vigilance that shall ward off all sleepiness and indolence, 1Th 5:6; 1Pe 5:8; sometimes it occurs, as here, alone, 1Th 5:8; 2Ti 4:5; 1Pe 4:7. [Mentis sobrietas et vigilantia requiritur, sicque metaphora in lumborum cinctura prius reposita explicatur. Gerhard. Non temperantiam solum in cibu et potu commendat, sed spiritualem potius sobrietatem, quum sensus omnes nostros continemus, ne se hujus mundi illecebris inebrient.Calvin.M.] The hope of Christians might become mixed up with foolish and fanatical fancies of the glories of a temporal Messianic kingdom and premature expectations of the same as in the case of the Thessalonians (cf. 1Th 5:6; 1Th 5:8; 2Th 2:2, etc.) against which the Apostle wishes to warn them. The present tense denotes necessary endurance in sobriety, while the Aorists and concentrate the lasting action, as it were into one moment and denote them to depend upon one principal act.
1Pe 1:14. As children of obedience.Who sets his hopes in grace alone acquires the impulse and ability to fulfil the commandment of holiness. The exhortation proper is contained in 1Pe 1:15. The contrary of children of obedience, are children of disobedience, in whom the devil is working, Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6; who are consequently called children of wrath, Eph 2:3; 2Pe 2:14. Obedience comprises here, as in 1Pe 1:2. both the willing reception of the word of God and subjection to its precepts. Children of light, Eph 5:8, are such as are born out of light and into light, with the property and calling to shine as lights; so children of faith are such as are born out of faith and into the life of faith and obedience. Our heavenly Father is their begetter, 1Pe 1:3; 1Pe 1:17, and assurance of faith coupled with obedience their mother, while on the other hand the devil is the father of unbelievers Joh 8:44; and evil concupiscence their mother. denotes the reason, because you are children of obedience, cf. Joh 5:19; 1Pe 2:13; 1Pe 4:16. [ . This phraseology, says Winer, Gram., 6th ed. p. 252, is to be attributed to the vivid imagination of Orientals, which represents mental and moral derivation or dependence under the form of son or child. Sir 4:11. Children of disobedience are those who are related to as a child to a mother, those in whom disobedience has become predominant and a second nature.M.]
Not fashioningignorance.The exhortation to holiness is now more clearly defined by reference to their ante-Christian state. As Christians, you dare not pursue a course that is in unison with your former walk in sinful lusts. (from , the form of a thing, the fashion and mode of life, the manner in which one appears) to form or fashion ones self after something, to conform to it, Rom 12:12; to make oneself like to, cf. Rom 8:12; 1Th 5:22. Lusts are not sensual impulses and wants only, but desires of what is different from what God allows, desires of evil comprehensively described by John (1Jn 2:16) as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life; cf. Gal 5:19 etc. They include, also, the proud aims of ambition, of the lust of power and of the desire of knowledge. The lusts are more clearly defined by in your ignorance. Sin darkens the understanding by the cloud of prejudices and false notions, cf. Rom 1:21; Eph 4:18; and ignorance on the other hand, is the mother of many sins. A hint might be found in the circumstance that the Epistle is addressed to former heathens, who were devoid of all clear moral consciousness, of all definite discrimination between good and evil, between right and wrong; but the Jews also are charged with ignorance as the reason of their rejecting Christ, Act 3:17, etc., and the degree to which their moral consciousness had been confused and clouded by the tenets of the Sanhedrim, is well known. This passage therefore is not decisive. In the case of believers, lusts belong to the past, inasmuch as their power is virtually broken and the spirit has the supremacy, although it must ever contend with the law in their members.
1Pe 1:15. But according to the pattern of that Holy One who hath called you.What is in the heart must appear in the life. Conform not to your former lusts but aspire after conformity to the Holy God; may be understood; so cumenius and Theophylact. Calling is closely connected with election, being the realization and assurance of it. It takes place sometimes mediately sometimes immediately; its end is the light and salvation of God out from the darkness, 1Pe 2:21. If God calls, it is mans duty to hear and to follow, cf. 1Sa 3:10. Thus he becomes, by constant yielding, a child of obedience. Weiss sees in the reference to the Holy God a hint of the Old Testament character of the Epistle, but this is not conclusive per se. The Aorist Imperative donotes an action that is to take place immediately, cf. Winer, Gram. 6th ed. p. 329.
All manner of conversation, in all your behaviour toward God and your neighbour. [Nulla sit pars vit qu, non hunc bonum sanctitatis odorem redoleat. Calv.M.]
1Pe 1:16. Because it is written. gives the reason why holiness is necessary. For , Lachmann and Tischendorf read . The end and aim of believers is the same in the New Testament and in the Old Testament, although the ways are different. Mans holiness is effected by his participating in the holiness of God in Christ, Heb 12:10; Lev 20:8.
And if ye call upon as Father Him. If, does not denote doubt, but the necessary consequence of the one from the other. [Si non dubitantis est, sed supponentis rem notam. Est enim omnium renatorum communis oratio, Pater noster qui es in clis. Estius.M.] You ought not to regard God as your Father nor call upon Him as such in the Lords Prayer, if you will not walk before Him in holy fear. The exhortation to a holy conversation is parallel to a conversation in the fear of God; both are founded on the filial relation. may mean simply to call or to call upon or pray to. Gerhard recognized already a reference to the Lords Prayer. If you confess before the world in your prayer that God is at once your Father and Judge, then ; cf. 1Pe 1:14; 1Pe 2:2; Mat 5:45; Mat 5:48; Luk 6:35. In the Old Testament God is called the Father of Israel on account of the peculiar covenant-relation, into which He had entered with Israel, Mal 2:10; Mal 1:6; Deu 32:6; cf. 2Sa 7:14. The Apostle doubtless thinks here of Mal 1:6 etc. where a similar condition is found, where Gods relation of Father and Master is made the reason of an exhortation to reverence, where at Mal 1:8-9 the question is twice asked, Will He regard your persons? and where Mal 2:2, the judicial revelation of God is mentioned, cf. Mal 2:9; Mal 3:5; Mal 3:18; [S. Barnabas, Ephesians 4; Meditemur timorem Dei, Dominus non accepta person judicat mundum; unusquisque secundum quod facit accipiet.M.]
Who without respect of personswork. , Luk 20:21 is to regard the person, to take cognizance of outward relations, to make injurious distinction between rich and poor, the talented and the untalented, high and low, citizens and strangers, Jam 2:4. God judges very differently; He looks at the heart and the character of men and at their exhibition in deeds. Justification at the last judgment depends upon the inward state and the outward works of believers and unbelievers. So taught our Lord Himself, Mat 16:27; Mat 7:19; Mat 25:31 etc.; and with this agree John, Rev 22:12; Rev 3:11; John Joh 8:51; cf. Joh 13:15; James, 1Pe 2:13 etc.; Peter, 1Pe 2:12 and Paul, Rom 2:6 etc.; Rom 8:13; 2Co 5:10; Eph 6:8; Col 3:24-25; Gal 6:7-9. The Scriptures uniformly teach that forgiving grace is not conditioned by any work; it is absolutely free and unmerited and presupposes nothing beyond a penitent mind and an appropriating of the righteousness of Christ; but it insists upon a life corresponding with the will of God, and even supplies the needed strength to lead it. Faith must work by love, Gal 5:6. It is the living root of all good works, while unbelief is the father of every sin. God looks upon the life of a man as one connected work. Hence we have here the singular as at Mat 16:27 ; for God looks at the one source of all our work, on our relation to the truth revealed in our conscience and in His word. But since all rational creatures ought to know the perfect justice of His decision, He judges them according to their works and here all mankind fall into only two classes. There is no inconsistency between this passage and Joh 5:22, where it is said that the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son [for, as Didymus says, the Father is the fons judicii, judicante filio Pater est qui judicat.M.], just as the creation of the world is ascribed to the Father, although mediated by the Son, Joh 1:1 etc.; cf. 1Pe 3:12; 1Pe 3:22; 1Pe 4:5; 1Pe 5:4; 2Pe 2:9. [Joh 5:22 clearly implies that He who has delegated the judgment to the Son is the Judge.M.]
In fear.This does by no means militate, as Weiss maintains, against the Petrine and Johannean fundamental conceptions of the Christian life, as expressed Rom 8:15; 2Ti 1:7; 1Jn 4:18. These passages speak of a slavish fear which in believers makes room to filial love; filial fear and dread remains also in the children of God, while they continue in a state of imperfection; it flows from the contrast between themselves and God, from their dependence on Him and their remembrance of His holiness and justice, from the possibility of a relapse, cf. Php 2:12, and mostly exhibits itself as a holy fear to grieve his love, to displease Him and to provoke His disfavour. Calvin: Fear is here opposed to security, cf. Rom 11:20; 2Co 7:1; 2Pe 3:17; Psa 34:10; Psa 19:10.A reason of fear is also contained in the additional clause: the time of your sojourning, while you tarry here below among strangers. You are not yet at home, but only on the way; like seafaring men you may possibly be cast on a strange coast. At all events you must fight your way through the worlds hatred. Joh 15:19.
[Wordsworth: Here is a connected series of arguments and motives to holiness, derived from a consideration, 2. Of His office as Judge, rewarding every man according to his work, whom therefore we ought to fear.
3. Of Christs office as Redeemer, and of His nature as an all-holy Redeemer, paying the costly price of His own blood to ransom us from a state of unholiness, and purchasing us to Himself, with His blood. Therefore we are not our own, but His; and being His, bought by His blood, we owe Him, who is the Holy One, the service of love and holiness. Cf. 1Co 6:19-20; Eph 1:7; Eph 1:14; and Clem. Rom 1:7. , . . cf. S. Aug. Serm. 36.
4. Of our transitory condition in this life. On the special allusion in , sojourning see 1Pe 2:11.
5. Of the gift of the spirit of holiness. 1Pe 1:18. Forasmuch as ye know.The consideration of the inestimable benefit of salvation supplies a new argument for aspiration to holiness of mind and conversation, v. 1Pe 1:18-19. Bede gives the right connection. In proportion to the price at which you have been redeemed from the corruption of carnal life should be your fear not to grieve your Saviours heart by a relapse, for the punishments will correspond to the worth of the ransom. This knowledge is the knowledge of faith, flowing from the fundamental consciousness of Christians, cf. 1Pe 3:9; 1Pe 5:9; Jam 1:3.
Redeemed. denotes not any release or deliverance, but to release by payment of a corresponding ransom. It corresponds to the Hebrew and , Exo 6:6; Psa 74:2; Psa 77:16; Psa 106:10; Deu 7:8; Deu 9:26; Jer 15:21; Jer 31:11. So Christ says that He was giving His life as a ransom for many, Mat 20:28 : cf. Mar 10:45; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 2:14. The comparison of the blood of Christ with gold and silver proves that the word must be taken in its original sense. is used in the same sense at Gal 3:13; 1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23; Rev 5:9. The manner in which the redemption has been effected, is therefore the production and payment of an equivalent, viz.: the satisfaction, the substitution, cf. Eph 5:2; Eph 1:7; Rom 3:24; Heb 9:15.Who received the ransom? Not the devil as maintained by some, but the Supreme Lawgiver and Judge. The justice of God, outraged by sin, was satisfiedthe satisfaction itself, however, being appointed by the love of God Himself; allusions to which are even found in the sacrifices of the Old Testament, Lev 17:11. Because this last passage states that the soul of the flesh is in the blood and that it is the blood which maketh atonement by the soul, cf. 1Pe 1:14; blood is designated as the means of atonement both here and Rom 3:24-25; Rom 5:8-9; while elsewhere the soul, the life of Christ is said to have been given. Blood has atoning virtue, for without shedding of blood is no remission, Heb 9:22. Redemption relates therefore primarily to the curse and guilt of sin and secondarily to its enslaving power. The two ideas are not very sharply separated in Holy Writ, cf. 1Pe 2:24; Isa 53:7. It is most dear, most precious blood because it is undefiled by sin and passion and because it is the blood of the God-man and more valuable by far than the blood of many thousand valiant warriors. The addition 1Pe 1:19, , etc., confirms our explanation. indicates a well-known reason and refers to Isaiah 53. While in Isaiah the figure of the Lamb denotes immediately only the patient, silent suffering of the Messiah in His atoning death, the predicates used by the Apostle, clearly relate to sacrificial lambs, and particularly to the Paschal Lamb, cf. Joh 1:29; Joh 1:36. Every sacrificial lamb had to be without blemish, Lev 4:32; Lev 3:6; Lev 22:20 etc.; Lev 1:10; Lev 12:6; Lev 14:10; Num 28:3; Num 28:11; Exo 12:5. Christ as the Spiritual Sacrificial Lamb (1Co 5:7; Joh 19:36) was perfectly pure within and unstained by sin without, as Bengel rightly explains. In se non habet labem, neque extrinsecus maculam contraxit. Cf. 1Jn 3:5; 2Co 5:21; Heb 7:26; Eph 5:27. From what are the children of God redeemed?
From your vain conversation, inherited from your fathers. [So the German.M.] This describes the being of this world as untrue, as having its root in appearances, and as devoid of all foundation, strength and vitality, cf. Rom 1:21; Eph 4:17; 1Co 3:20; 2Pe 2:18; Rom 8:20. Its main stay and support lies in the force of habits, ideas, views, principles and maxims transmitted from father to child through successive generations. Men justify their ways, saying, Such was the practice of our fathers and our forefathers, and continue in the bonds of error and sinful lusts. Calov. explains of original sin and of imitating paternal examples. The deep-rootedness of this vain conversation notwithstanding, deliverance and redemption from it is found in the death and blood of Jesus Christ. The Apostle does not specify how the atonement of Christ effects redemption from the power of sin; we may doubtless supply this solution (cf. 1Pe 2:24) thus: having been redeemed from the curse of the law by the blood of Jesus, we are enabled to be cleansed from sin, to be united to God and to approach Him with joy and courage. The Holy Spirits power is present to deliver us from the dominion of sin., an explanatory addition serving as a transition to what follows.
1Pe 1:20. The personality and work of Christ were neither the natural result of the worlds development nor the suddenly formed decree of God in time [as distinguished from eternity, M.], as if after the lapse of four thousand years He had suddenly thought of contriving this way of salvation, but Christ was destined and ordained from before the foundation of the world to redeem us by His blood; hence the prophets did foretell His life and sufferings, His death and glorious exaltation, 1Pe 1:11-12. The antithesis does not warrant the positive conclusion that the Apostle thinks of the real (opposed to ideal) prexistence of Christ. The sense might be as follows: The Messiah having ideally existed in the Spirit of God, in the fulness of time became also really manifest. But reverting to 1Pe 1:11, where mention is made of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, and considering that correctly speaking the , is the manifestation of a previously hidden existence, and that while believers are said to have been fore-ordained it is never affirmed that they were manifested, we feel inclined to agree with Lutz and Schumann that the real prexistence of Christ is probably presupposed here; , however, relates also to the continuing manifestation of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel.
Before the foundation of the World., the act of denotes laying something down, laying the foundation; applied to the foundations of the earth (Job 38:6; Pro 8:29)=founding, creation, cf. Joh 17:24; Eph 1:4; 1Co 2:7; 2Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2-3; Col 1:26. The remark of Oettinger that the creation of the world is called because the Visible originated from the Invisible by a fall, is ingenious, but far-fetched and untenable. He maintains that the word signifies casting off. ; Tischendorff and Lachmann read . periods of time shorter than aeons. The are definite portions of those periods. They are called, Act 2:17; 2Ti 3:1, the last days. They form, since they have a similar character, a unit, and are called on that account the last hour, 1Jn 2:18, or the last time, Judges 18. It would seem to signify therefore the period from the glorification of Christ to His first visible advent [vulgo, his second advent, M.] cf. 1Pe 1:5; but may also mean, near at hand, a sense in which it may be shown to be used at least with local reference. to be taken as neuter on account of the succeeding Article.
For you who.Believers are the end and aim in the manifestation of the Redeemer: you may therefore view it, as if Christ had come for you only, cf. 1Co 2:7. The design of His manifestation was to make you also believers. You owe it to Him that you are able to believe ( ). Weiss gives the following connection: The manifestation of Christ effected by means of the preaching of the Gospel (1Pe 1:12) and culminating in His resurrection and exaltation to glory, begets believing trust in God, who did work this miracle of miracles. He that has done such great things is also able (humanly speaking) to accomplish the greatest and highest expectations we can cherish. Thus faith becomes hope in God, who has done this miracle. Hope appears here as a new feature superadded to faith, cf. Rom 5:2; Eph 1:18. [Your faith rests on Christs resurrectionit was God who raised him; your hope on Christs glorification; it is God who has given him that glory. Alford.M.] signifies resting in, entering into God. Petr. Lomb. Credendo in Deum ire. denotes sequence not purpose. The exhortation here reverts once more to 1Pe 1:12, with this difference, that what there is urged, is here supposed to exist.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The disciple of Jesus must intimately combine with confident repose in the grace of atonement, the desire after the pattern of God to become holy and to walk in holiness before Him, 1Pe 1:13-15.
2. The state of Christians is marked by the singular characteristic that they must become what they are: born into lively hope, they have to learn daily to hope anew. They stand in faith and love, 1Pe 1:5; 1Pe 1:8, yet must ever suffer themselves to be anew excited thereto, 1Pe 1:13. They are dead with Christ, Col 3:3, yet must daily mortify anew their sinful members, Col 3:5, etc. The riddle is solved by distinguishing between what we are in the eternal view of God and what in empirical reality, or between what we are in the new principle of life and what in its gradual development. That which is implanted in the idea and in the germ must be followed by a voluntary and all-sided development. [This sentence may have a misty air to some, but I found it difficult to give the sense of the original without a long circumlocution. Light is shed upon it by the consideration that idea is not used in the popular, but in the philosophical sense. It appears to come nearer to ideal than to idea proper.M.] By the side of the new man there continues, until we die, the old man who must be crucified day by day.
3. All exhortation to holiness of mind and conversation will prove ineffectual and unsuccessful, unless the firm foundation of it lies in confidence in the grace of God that meets us half-way in Christ, 1Pe 1:13. The hope to which that confidence gives rise, namely, the hope of the glorious possession of heaven, supplies the power of victory in view of the temptations and enjoyments of this earthly world.
4. The agreement of the Old and New Testaments is evident from the circumstance that holiness after the pattern of God is in both the chief requirement and end of our vocation. Compare the Sermon on the Mount. The only difference being that the idea of holiness in the New Testament is more profound and spiritual than in the Old.
5. Justification at the last judgment will depend on our works; our works, whether flowing from faith or unbelief, will determine our respective destiny, 1Pe 1:17; cf. Rom 2:13; Rom 2:6-7; Mat 25:34; Rev 20:12; 2Co 9:6.
6. The blood of Jesus Christ is not the same as His death. Elsewhere also it is specially emphasized as the means of redemption, the ransom, Rom 3:25; Rom 5:9; 1Jn 5:6; Heb 10:29; Heb 9:22; Heb 13:20; Act 20:28; Eph 1:7; Col 1:20; 1Jn 1:7; Rev 1:5; Rev 5:9; Rev 7:14; Rev 12:11. Gods law for the government of the world having been broken by sin, the blood of the holy God-Man is needed as an atonement, 1Pe 1:19.
7. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the seal set to the atoning virtue of His blood and at the same time the pledge of the perfecting of those, who as members of His body are united to Him, the head.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The tightened girdle of faith is a main essential to the pilgrim passing through the world to heaven.The loins serve the purposes of walking, warring and carrying; the powers of the soul corresponding to these purposes have need to be strengthened.The Christian in the heavenly race, Must firmly set and keep his face, Fixed on Jerusalem.Tersteegen. The blissful end of Christian hope, 1Pe 1:13.The grace offered by Christ is the solid foundation for the souls anchor to rest upon.True faith is not an idle dream nor hollow talk.The features of the regenerate exhibit the impress of their heavenly Fathers image.Spiritual blindness both the consequence and cause of the dominion of sinful lusts. 1Pe 1:14.Fear of self-deception, relapse and new offences against God is the sure guardian of our hope.How do we recognize the time of our visitation?What glorious hopes flow from the glory which Christ has obtained from His Father? Starke. Would you be Gods child, you must imitate Him, Eph 5:1-17. What a great alliance! a bought slave, preferred to the distinction of an adopted child, it is to be hoped, will not complain of having to render to his Redeemer a reasonable and joyful service, after his former experience of the rudder and the whip.If you meet with some adversity, think yourself for a night in uncomfortable quarters, you will have better accommodation when you get home.You are greatly in error, and abuse the Gospel, if you consider all manner of vain conversation to belong to Christian liberty. In the work of salvation, redemption as the cause of salvation cannot be dissociated from the condition annexed to it, which is the renunciation of every evil workthe two, redemption and renunciation should go hand-in-hand, Luk 1:74-75.We are bound to honour, love and obey our parents and ancestors, but not to follow them in the vanity of conversation and sinful habits, Eph 6:1-2; Mat 10:37. Beware to form too low an opinion of any man, and still more to injure his souls welfare, for every one has been redeemed by the inestimable price of the blood of Jesus.If the atoning blood of Jesus is to benefit us, we must also carry the innocence, gentleness and patience of the Lamb of God, Col 1:22.Who, after the Apostles doctrine preaches another Gospel is not of God, but of the devil, and he is by no means to be heard, Gal 1:8.
Lisco:Motives to zeal for holiness: (a) the grace offered to Christians; (b) the blessedness of their filial relation to God; (c) the redemption effected by Jesus Christ.The real character of Christs redeemed people: (a) they are full of faith in God and Jesus Christ; (b) earnestly struggling with sin they strive after holiness; (c) they walk in righteousness and obedience to the commandments of God; (d) they abound in zeal to do good and are rich in faithful love of the brethren.How the preciousness and assurance of our hope founded on the resurrection of Christ should influence our whole behaviour. The value of the blood of Christ: (1) what makes it invaluable: (a) the holiness of Him who shed it; (b) the glory of the work accomplished by it; (2) what is the evidence of our appreciation of the value of it.
Besser, in illustration of 1Pe 1:19, supplies the following narrative: A wealthy and kind Englishman once bought in the slave-market a poor negro for twenty pieces of gold. His benefactor presented him moreover with a certain sum of money, that he might buy therewith a piece of land and furnish himself with a home. Am I really free? May I go whither I will? cried the negro in the joy of his heart; well, let me be your slave, Massa: you have redeemed me, and I owe all to you. This touched the gentleman to the quick: he took the negro into his service, and he never had a more faithful servant. But, said that Englishman, I ought to learn a lesson from my grateful servant, which until then, alas, had little engaged my attention, namely, what is meant by the words: Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and goldbut with the precious blood of Christ.
[1Pe 1:13. Grace is bearing down upon, coming to meet the Christian who with girded loins sets out on his pilgrimage. The prodigal son was met by his Father.M.] Faith establishes the heart on Jesus Christ, and hope lifts it up, being on that rock, over the head of all intervening dangers, crosses and temptations, and sees the glory and happiness that follow after them.Gather up your affections, that they hang not down to hinder you in your race and so in your hopes of obtaining; and do not only gather them up, but tie them up, that they fall not down again, or if they do, be sure to gird them straiter than before.We walk through a world where there is much mire of sinful pollutions and therefore cannot but defile them; and the crowd we are among will be ready to tread on them, yea our own feet may be entangled in them and so make us stumble and possibly fall.
Leighton:
1Pe 1:14. The soul of man unconverted is no other but a den of impure lusts, wherein dwell pride, uncleanness, avarice, malice, etc. Just as Babylon is described Rev 18:2; or as Isa 13:21. Were a mans eyes opened he would as much abhor to remain with himself in that condition, as to dwell in a house full of snakes and serpents, as St. Austin says. As the offices of certain persons are known by the garb or livery they wear, so transgressors: where we see the worlds livery we see the worlds servants; they fashion or habit themselves according to their lusts; and we may guess that they have a worldly mind by their conformity to worldly fashions.
Clarke:Obedience to God is as much the mark of right knowledge, as a sinful life is the sure sign of ignorance of God.
1Pe 1:15. Summa religionis est imitari quem colis (In Leighton).Clarke:Heathenism scarcely produced a god whose example was not the most abominable; their greatest gods, especially, were paragons of impurity; none of their philosophers could propose the objects of their adoration, as objects of imitation.
Leighton:
1Pe 1:17. This fear is not cowardice, it doth not debase, but elevate the mind, for it drowns all lower fears, and begets true fortitude and courage to encounter all danger for the sake of a good conscience and the obeying of God. The righteous is as bold as a lion, Pro 28:1. He dares do any thing but offend God: and to dare to do that is the greatest folly, and weakness, and baseness in the world. From this fear have sprung all the generous resolutions and patient sufferings of the saints and martyrs of God; because they durst not sin against Him, therefore they durst be imprisoned, and impoverished and tortured, and die for Him. Thus the prophet sets carnal and godly fear as opposite, and the one as expelling the other, Isa 8:12-13. And our Saviour, Luk 12:4, Fear not them which kill the body, but fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you fear Him. Fear not, but fear, and therefore fear, that you may not fear.He made all the persons and he makes all those differences Himself, as it pleaseth Him; therefore He doth not admire them as we do; no, nor at all regard them: we find very great odds betwixt stately palaces and poor cottages, betwixt a princes robes and a beggars cloak; but to God they are all one, all these petty grievances vanish in comparison of His own greatness; men are great and small compared one with another; but they all amount to just nothing in respect of Him; we find high mountains and low valleys on this earth, but compared with the vast compass of the heavens, it is all but as a point, and hath no sensible greatness at all.
[Our sojourn on earth is a state of probation, from which the fear of God is inseparable.M.]
[1Pe 1:18. The doctors of the synagogue had delivered traditions to the Jews which made the worship of God vain, Mat 15:9; and the Gentiles sought to justify their vain idolatry on the plea of tradition, saying (on the authority of Plato, Tim. p. 1053 E. and Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 3, n. 3, 6.) That they were not to be moved, by any persuasions, from the religion which they had received from their forefathers.M.]
[1Pe 1:19. All glory be to Thee, almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that Thou, of Thy tender mercy, didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world. Book of Common Prayer, Communion Office.M.]
[1Pe 1:20. The Jews say, that When God created the world, He held forth His hand under the throne of glory, and created the soul of the Messiah and His company, and said to Him, Wilt thou heal and redeem my sons, after six thousand years? He answered, Yes. God said to Him, If so, wilt thou bear chastisements, to expiate their iniquity, according to what is written, (Isa 53:4) Surely, He bore our griefs? He answered, I will endure them with joy. And to this representation of this covenant made with the Messiah before the creation of the world it may be the Apostle here refers. In the style of Philo, he is , the Eternal Word, the first born and the most ancient Son of the Father, by whom all the species were framed. This therefore is according to the received opinion of the Jews. Whitby citing Cartw. Mellif. I. p. 2974, 75, and De Plaut. Noe, p. 169, D.M.]
Leighton:
1Pe 1:21. When you look through a red glass, the whole heavens seem bloody; but through pure unclouded glass, you receive the clear light, that is so refreshing and comfortable to behold. When sin unpardoned is betwixt, and we look on God through that, we can perceive nothing but anger and enmity, in His countenance; but make Christ once the medium, our pure Redeemer, and through Him, as clear transparent glass, the beams of Gods favourable countenance shine in upon the soul; the Father cannot look upon his well beloved Son, but graciously and pleasingly.
[Redemption flows from the precious blood of Christ, faith and hope from His glorious resurrection.M.]
Footnotes:
[19] 1Pe 1:13. [ German:Wherefore with the loins of the mind girded and with soberness of spirit, fix all your hope on the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.M.]
[Translate:Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, being sober, and hope perfectly for the grace which is being.M.]
[20]1Pe 1:14. [ Children of obedience, so Greek. German.M.]
[21]1Pe 1:15. [ But after the pattern of that Holy One.de Wette, Alford.M.]
[22] 1Pe 1:15. [ Conversationbehaviour.M.]
1Pe 1:16. [Cod. Sin. 10. for of Text. Rec.,omits .M.]
[23] 1Pe 1:17. [ And if ye call upon as Father, Him, etc., so German after the Greek.M.]
[Cod. Sin. *.M.]
[24]1Pe 1:18. [ Knowing that.M.]
[25]1Pe 1:18. [ Out of your vain conversation, delivered to you from your fathers (Alford), inherited from the fathers, German.M.]
[26]1Pe 1:20. [ Who indeed, instead of, Who verily.M.]
[27] 1Pe 1:20. [ But was manifested.M.]
[Cod. Sin. * .(** )M.]
[28]1Pe 1:21. [ Who through Him believe on God.M.]
[29] 1Pe 1:21. [ So that your faith and hope are on God.M.]
[German:So that your faith may also become hope in God.M.] DISCOURSE: 2385 1Pe 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.
THE truths of God deserve our attention on account of their own excellence; but they are principally to be valued for the effects they produce on our lives. The Apostles never rest satisfied with stating a mere system of doctrines, they invariably proceed to make a practical application of them to the soul. St. Peter had briefly opened the blessed state of true believers. He had represented them as begotten to a glorious inheritance, of which their joy in Christ was an earnest, and to which, through their present trials, they would be advanced. He then urged the near approach of that glory, as a reason for exerting themselves more diligently in their Christian callingWherefore, &c.
The words of the text lead us to consider,
I.
The great object of a Christians pursuit
There are in Scripture many beautiful descriptions of heaven, but none more interesting than that contained in the words before us. In that day, grace will be brought unto us In the meantime it becomes us to seek it with all earnestness.
II.
In what manner we ought to seek it
The directions given by the Apostle are very suitable and instructive 1.
Activity of mind
[The Jews were accustomed to wear long garments; these they girded about their loins, when it was needful to use expedition [Note: Luk 12:35-37.]. By this figure, familiar to them, the Apostle represents our duty. Our minds are dissipated by ten thousand vanities, and our affections, for the most part, flow loosely round us, but our thoughts and desires should be carefully gathered in. We should pray, like David, Unite my heart to fear thy name [Note: Psa 86:11.]. Heaven is not to be sought with a divided heart. Earthly affections would impede our progress, as flowing garments in a race: the prophet compares them to an incumbrance of thick clay upon the feet [Note: Hab 2:6.]. We should therefore gird up the loins of our mind, and give all diligence to make our calling and election sure.]
2.
Sobriety of manners
[Sobriety, in the scripture use of the term, means moderation. Excessive cares, and inordinate attachments, are very unfavourable to the soul: they so engross the mind with present things, as to draw it away from those which are eternal. We cannot therefore too carefully watch against these evils. We should endeavour to be dying daily to the world. We should be as one crucified to it; and it, as one crucified to us [Note: Gal 6:14.]. This is the state and character of every true Christian [Note: Gal 5:24.]; and we must attain it, if we would successfully pursue the one thing needful.]
3.
Steadfastness of faith
[Faith respects the certainty of the promises; and hope, the accomplishment. Now, our faith is apt to waver, and our hope, to languish. Temptations often allure us to forego our interest in heavenly things, and unbelief would often persuade us that we have no part or lot in them. But we must be careful never to be moved away from the hope of the Gospel [Note: Col 1:23.]. Hope is the very anchor of the soul, that must keep us steadfast in this tempestuous world [Note: Heb 6:19.]. We must therefore hold fast our confidence and the rejoicing of our hope firm to the end [Note: Heb 3:6.]. The nearer we come to the prize, the more earnest should be our expectation of it. If our conflicts be many, we should, even against hope, believe in hope [Note: Rom 4:18.]. The proper disposition of our souls is well described by the Apostles [Note: 2Pe 3:12.]; and it is to persons of this description only, that Christs appearance will be a source of joy [Note: Heb 9:28.].]
Address Those who are only nominal Christians
[Your loins indeed are girt, but it is for the pursuit of earthly objects. Instead of having your souls engrossed with heavenly things, you are perfectly indifferent towards them. As for your hopes they extend to nothing but what relates to this present life. Alas! what an awful contrast is there between you and the true Christian! What then, suppose ye, shall he brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ? The Apostle, in a fore-cited passage, tells you, it will be vengeance [Note: 2Th 1:7-8.]; yes, and Jesus will bring it with his own hand. It is in vain to think that your portion will be the same with that of a diligent, self-denying Christian. But, blessed be God, grace is now brought to you by the Gospel; yea, all the glory of heaven is now offered you by God himself [Note: Act 2:38-39.]. Only repent, and go unto God as reconciled in Christ Jesus, then shall you pass from death to life, and from hell to heaven.]
2.
Those who are Christians indeed
[There are some, who shine as lights in a dark world: some, who, while living on earth, have their conversation in heaven. Doubtless, ye meet with many conflicts and troubles in your way. To you then in particular is the text addressed: for persons circumstanced like you these words were written [Note: 1Pe 1:1; 1Pe 1:6.]. Survey that grace which is now speedily to be brought unto you. Take a view of all the glory and felicity of the heavenly world; compare with that your light and momentary afflictions: you will then soon form the same estimate as St. Paul before you did [Note: Rom 8:18.]. Be not then diverted from the great object of your pursuit. Remember the solemn caution which God himself has given you [Note: Heb 10:38.]; and take for your encouragement that faithful promise [Note: Mat 24:13.]]
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
Re 1-22, and live upon that inheritance which is Christ himself, now by faith, as ere long you will in full fruition. And as all communications from the Lord towards you, are in a way of grace, and for the glory of his grace, and all is from the Lord himself, to himself; see that that life of grace is daily maintained, and kept up, and carried on, by constant communications from him. And, Reader! do observe, how the Holy Ghost, by his servant, points out the method by which this life is preserved. As he which hath called you, is holy; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. God’s call is to holiness. And God’s grace works in us this holiness in Christ, and from Christ. And hence, when he saith, be ye holy, for I am holy; this is not a bare precept, but the communication of grace enabling. He wills his people, into what He hath himself appointed. He worketh them, both to will, and to do of his pleasure. His grace is to this express purpose. And it is to the praise of the glory of his grace, when this is done. And which proves, that the work is his grace, and not man’s labors, or man’s merit; for then it could not be in either sense, to the praise of his grace. And, as it is on earth in, grace; so hereafter in heaven in glory, the final and full presentation of the Church is to himself, and for himself, to be to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved! Oh! the unspeakable riches of God in Christ! See a similar precept of Christ, Joh 15:4 and Commentary.
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;
Ver. 13. Wherefore gird up, &c. ] We are seldom comforted, but we have need to be exhorted. So apt are our hearts to security, and so apt is Satan to interrupt our joys with his base injections. How soon did Hezekiah fondly overshoot himself to the Babylonish ambassadors, after his sweet intercourse with God in holy duties! And how shamefully did Jonah forget himself and break out into a brawl with God, after his embassage faithfully discharged to the Ninevites, and the sweet comforts that came in to his soul thereupon!
Gird up the loins of your mind, &c. ] Gird yourselves and serve God, Luk 17:8 . A loose, discinct, and diffluent mind is unfit for God’s service. Girding implies, 1. Readiness; 2. Nimbleness, handiness, and handsomeness. The main strength of the body is in the loins. Therefore some say, the strong purposes and resolutions of the mind are here meant.
Hope to the end ] Gr. , hope perfectly or entirely; q.d. do it not by halves; let there not be any odd reckonings between God and you, but work out your salvation,Phi 2:12Phi 2:12 . See Trapp on “ Php 2:12 “
For the grace ] That is, for the glory.
That is to be brought unto you ] It must be brought unto us (such is our dulness), we will scarcely go seek it, hardly be persuaded to live happily, reign everlastingly.
13 .] First exhortation to WATCHFULNESS and ENDURANCE OF HOPE. Wherefore ( , , , , , , , . . c. This connexion is better than that imagined by some Commentators, with 1Pe 1:5-9 generally; nor is the reason underlying , “because the Christian must through trial and proof reach glory” (De Wette), which rather lies in 1Pe 1:5-7 , and is not again mentioned in the course of these exhortations) gird up (dynamic middle: the aor. conveying the sense of completeness and once-for-all-nature of the action) the loins of your mind (the figure is one throughout, not your loins , viz. those of your mind , . On , see note on ref. 2 Pet. The exhortation seems to be taken from our Lord’s command, Luk 12:35 , where, as here, the girding up is a preparation for the coming of the Lord. On the figure see Eph 6:14 ff., and c, above), being sober (“Mentis sobrietas et vigilantia requiritur, sicque metaphora in lumborum cinctura prius reposita explicatur.” Gerhard in Wiesinger. Calvin explains it well, “Non temperantiam solum in cibo et potu commendat, sed spiritualem potius sobrietatem, quum sensus omnes nostros continemus, ne se hujus mundi illecebris inebrient.” Observe , pres. part., indicating the continuing state in which the and the take place), hope perfectly (i. e. “without doubt or dejection, with full devotion of soul,” De W.: even better Wahl, Lex., “ita, ut nihil desideretur.” Erasm., Grot., Bengel take as merely temporal, “ in finem usque ;” and so E. V., “ hope to the end :” but this clearly does not reach the full meaning. Syr., c., Jer [3] , Benson, Semler, al. join with , which is of course possible, and better satisfies the rhythm of the sentence, in which on the other view stands rather feebly alone. But all things considered, I feel persuaded the majority of Commentators are right in making it an emphatic adjunct to the great word of exhortation, ) for (in the direction of: so ref. 1 Tim.) the grace (i. e. the great gift of grace, the crowning example of grace. Syr., c., al. read ) which is being brought (E. V., “ is to be brought ;” not amiss, but not giving, what expresses, the near impending of the event spoken of: q. d. ‘which is even now bearing down on you’) to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ (the meaning of St. Peter’s own , as applied to the revelation of the Lord at His second advent, 1Pe 1:7 , seems to fix the meaning of the above words as here given, and to preclude the rendering of Erasm. (“dum vobis patefit, seu manifestatur, Jesus Christus:” but doubtfully), Luther, Calov., Bengel, Steiger, al., who take the whole as referring to the present revelation of grace made by the gospel, in which Jesus Christ is revealed. The right meaning is given by c., Calv. (but taking for “usque ad”), Beza, Grot., Est., Semler, Pott, De W., Huther, Wiesinger).
[3] Jerome , fl. 378 420
13 2:10 .] GENERAL EXHORTATIONS FOUNDED ON THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE CHRISTIAN STATE.
1Pe 1:13-21 . Practical admonitions . In this section St. Peter is engrossed with the conception of the Church as the new Israel which has been delivered from idolatry the spiritual Egypt by a far more excellent sacrifice . Jesus Himself endorsed such adaptation of the directions given for the typical deliverance (Luk 12:35 ) and the principle that the worshippers of Jehovah must be like Him (Joh 4:23 f.; Mat 5:48 , etc.).
1Pe 1:13 . introduces the practical inference. , . . ., the reference to the directions for celebration of the Passover (Exo 12:11 , ) is unmistakable. The actual deliverance of the Christians is still in the future; they must be always ready against the coming of the Lord. Oec. refers to Job 38:3 . The particular compound occurs only twice in LXX once in this phrase of the manly woman in Pro 31:17 , , where it implies preparation for serious work. In 2Ki 4:29 ff. (Elisha’s mission of Gehazi which is in some ways a type fulfilled by Jesus’ mission of the Seventy, cf. Luk 10:4 ), is the preparation for an urgent errand. The addition of implies that the readiness required is spiritual. St. Paul uses in the same way (Eph 1:18 , ) and from Mar 12:30 = Deu 6:4 f. it appears that is a recognised equivalent of heart . . In cases like this it is natural to take the adverb with the preceding verb. (only here in N.T.) has much the same force as ; so the adjective is applied to the antitype as contrasted with the type in Heb 9:11 , and Jas 1:25 , . For cf. 1Pe 4:7 and 1Pe 5:8 , , 1Th 5:8 , . Sobriety is necessary to watchfulness. The origin of this use of the word (not in the LXX) is to be found in the parable of Luk 12:45 f.; it has special point in view of the and , in which they were prone to indulge. is an adaption of the common Greek idiom (Homer downwards) ., to confer a favour ( cf. Sir 8:19 , ) and is thus analogous to St. Paul’s use of (see Rom 8:32 ). The present participle has its natural force. Peter does not distinguish between the present and the climax; already the new age which is the last has begun. The is the final deliverance and its use here is another link with the type: (Exo 12:36 ). , Jesus Christ is being revealed or is revealing the salvation. The revelation began with the resurrection cf. and continues to the culmination (7).
1 Peter
HOPE PERFECTLY
1Pe 1:13 .
Christianity has transformed hope, and given it a new importance, by opening to it a new world to move in, and supplying to it new guarantees to rest on. There is something very remarkable in the prominence given to hope in the New Testament, and in the power ascribed to it to order a noble life. Paul goes so far as to say that we are saved by it. To a Christian it is no longer a pleasant dream, which may be all an illusion, indulgence in which is pretty sure to sap a man’s force, but it is a certain anticipation of certainties, the effect of which will be increased energy and purity. So our Apostle, having in the preceding context in effect summed up the whole Gospel, bases upon that summary a series of exhortations, the transition to which is marked by the ‘wherefore’ at the beginning of my text. The application of that word is to be extended, so as to include all that has preceded in the letter, and there follows a series of practical advices, the first of which, the grace or virtue which he puts in the forefront of everything, is not what you might have expected, but it is ‘hope perfectly.’
I may just remark, before going further, in reference to the language of my text, that, accurately translated, the two exhortations which precede that to hope are subsidiary to it, for we ought to read, ‘Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, and being sober, hope.’ That is to say, these two are preliminaries, or conditions, or means by which the desired perfecting of the Christian hope is to be sought and attained.
Another preliminary remark which I must make is that what is enjoined here has not reference to the duration but to the quality of the Christian hope. It is not ‘to the end,’ but, as the Margin of the Authorised and the Revised Version concurs in saying, it is ‘hope perfectly.’
So, then, there are three things here–the object, the duty, and the cultivation of Christian hope. Let us take these three things in order.
I. The object of the Christian hope.
Now, that is stated, in somewhat remarkable language, as ‘the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ We generally use that word ‘grace’ with a restricted signification to the gifts of God to men here on earth. It is the earnest of the inheritance, rather than its fulness. But here it is quite obvious that by the expression the Apostle means the very same thing as he has previously designated in the preceding context by three different phrases–’an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,’ ‘praise and honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,’ and ‘the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.’ The ‘grace’ is not contrasted with the ‘glory,’ but is another name for the glory. It is not the earnest of the inheritance, but it is the inheritance itself. It is not the means towards attaining the progressive and finally complete ‘salvation of your souls,’ but it is that complete salvation in all its fulness.
Now, that is an unusual use of the word, but that it should be employed here, as describing the future great object of the Christian hope, suggests two or three thoughts. One is that that ultimate blessedness, with all its dim, nebulous glories, which can only be resolved into their separate stars, when we are millions of leagues nearer to its lustre, is like the faintest glimmer of a new and better life in a soul here on earth, purely and solely the result of the undeserved, condescending love of God that stoops to sinful men, and instead of retribution bestows upon them a heaven. The grace that saved us at first, the grace that comes to us, filtered in drops during our earthly experience, is poured upon us in a flood at last. And the brightest glory of heaven is as much a manifestation of the Divine grace as the first rudimentary germs of a better life now and here. The foundation, the courses of the building, the glittering pinnacle on the summit, with its golden spire reaching still higher into the blue, is all the work of the same unmerited, stooping, pardoning love. Glory is grace, and Heaven is the result of God’s pardoning mercy.
There is another suggestion here to be made, springing from this eloquent use of this term, and that is not merely the identity of the source of the Christian experience upon earth and in the future, but the identity of that Christian experience itself in regard of its essential character. If I may so say, it is all of a piece, homogeneous, and of one web. The robe is without seam, woven throughout of the same thread. The life of the humblest Christian, the most imperfect Christian, the most infantile Christian, the most ignorant Christian here on earth, has for its essential characteristics the very same things as the lives of the strong spirits that move in light around the Throne, and receive into their expanding nature the ever-increasing fulness of the glory of the Lord. Grace here is glory in the bud; glory yonder is grace in the fruit.
But there is still further to be noticed another great thought that comes out of this remarkable language. The words of my text, literally rendered, are ‘the grace that is being brought unto you.’ Now, there have been many explanations of that remarkable phrase, which I think is not altogether exhausted by, nor quite equivalent to, that which represents it in our version–viz. ‘to be brought unto you.’ That relegates it all into the future; but in Peter’s conception it is, in some sense, in the present. It is ‘being brought.’ What does that mean? There are far-off stars in the sky, the beams from which have set out from their home of light millenniums since, and have been rushing through the waste places of the universe since long before men were, and they have not reached our eyes yet. But they are on the road. And so in Peter’s conception, the apocalypse of glory, which is the crowning manifestation of grace, is rushing towards us through the ages, through the spheres, and it will be here some day, and the beams will strike upon our faces, and make them glow with its light. So certain is the arrival of the grace that the Apostle deals with it as already on its way. The great thing on which the Christian hope fastens is no ‘peradventure,’ but a good which has already begun to journey towards us.
Again, there is another thought still to be suggested, and that is, the revelation of Jesus Christ is the coming to His children of this grace which is glory, of this glory which is grace. For mark how the Apostle says, ‘the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ And that revelation to which he here refers is not the past one, in His incarnate life upon earth, but it is the future one, to which the hope of the faithful Church ought ever to be steadfastly turned, the correlated truth to that other one on which its faith rests. On these two great pillars, rising like columns on either side of the gulf of Time, ‘He has come,’ ‘He will come,’ the bridge is suspended by which we may safely pass over the foaming torrent that else would swallow us up. The revelation in the past cries out for the revelation in the future. The Cross demands the Throne. That He has come once, a sacrifice for sin, stands incomplete, like some building left unfinished with rugged stones protruding which prophesy an addition at a future day; unless you can add ‘unto them that look for Him will He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.’ In that revelation of Jesus Christ His children shall find the glory-grace which is the object of their hope.
So say all the New Testament writers. ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory’ says Paul. ‘The grace that is to be brought unto you in the revelation of Jesus Christ,’ chimes in Peter. And John completes the trio with his ‘We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him.’ These three things, brethren–with Christ, glory with Him, likeness to Him–are all that we know, and blessed be God! all that we need to know, of that dim future. And the more we confine ourselves to these triple great certainties, and sweep aside all subordinate matters, which are concealed partly because they could not be revealed, and partly because they would not help us if we knew them, the better for the simplicity and the power and the certainty of our hope. The object of Christian hope is Christ, in His revelation, in His presence, in His communication to us for glory, in His assimilating of us to Himself.
‘It is enough that Christ knows all,
And we shall be with Him.’
‘The grace that is being brought unto you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.’
II. And now notice the duty of the Christian hope.
Hope a duty? That strikes one as somewhat strange. I very much doubt whether the ordinary run of good people do recognise it as being as imperative a duty for them to cultivate hope as to cultivate any other Christian excellence or virtue. For one man that sets himself deliberately and consciously to brighten up, and to make more operative in his daily life, the hope of future blessedness, you will find a hundred that set themselves to other kinds of perfecting of their Christian character. And yet, surely, there do not need any words to enforce the fact that this hope full of immortality is no mere luxury which a Christian man may add to the plain fare of daily duty or leave untasted according as he likes, but that it is an indispensable element in all vigorous and life-dominating Christian experience.
I do not need to dwell upon that, except just to suggest that such a vividness and continuity of calm anticipation of a certain good beyond the grave is one of the strongest of all motives to the general robustness and efficacy of a Christian life. People used to say a few years ago, a great deal more than they do now, that the Christian expectation of Heaven was apt to weaken energy upon earth, and they used to sneer at us, and talk about our ‘other worldliness’ as if it were a kind of weakness and defect attached to the Christian experience. They have pretty well given that up now. Anti-Christian sarcasm, like everything else, has its fashions, and other words of reproach and contumely have now taken the place of that. The plain fact is that no man sees the greatness of the present, unless he regards it as being the vestibule of the future, and that this present life is unintelligible and insignificant unless beyond it, and led up to by it, and shaped through it, there lies the eternal life beyond. The low flat plain is dreary and desolate, featureless and melancholy, when the sky above it is filled with clouds. But sweep away the cloud-rack, and let the blue arch itself above the brown moorland, and all glows into lustre, and every undulation is brought out, and tiny shy forms of beauty are found in every corner. And so, if you drape Heaven with the clouds and mists born of indifference and worldliness, the world becomes mean, but if you dissipate the cloud and unveil heaven, earth is greatened. If the hope of the grave that is to be brought onto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ shines out above all the flatness of earth, then life becomes solemn, noble, worthy of, demanding and rewarding, our most strenuous efforts. No man can, and no man will, strike such effectual blows on things present as the man, the strength of whose arm is derived from the conviction that every stroke of the hammer on things present is shaping that which will abide with him for ever.
My text not only enjoins this hope as a duty, but also enjoins the perfection of it as being a thing to be aimed at by all Christian people. What is the perfection of hope? Two qualities, certainty and continuity. Certainty; the definition of earthly hope is an anticipation of good less than certain, and so, in all the operations of this great faculty, which are limited within the range of earth, you get blended as an indistinguishable throng, ‘hopes and fears that kindle hope,’ and that too often kill it. But the Christian has a certain anticipation of certain good, and to him memory may be no more fixed than hope, and the past no more unalterable and uncertain than the future. The motto of our hope is not the ‘perhaps,’ which is the most that it can say when it speaks the tongue of earth, but the ‘verily! verily!’ which comes to its enfranchised lips when it speaks the tongue of Heaven. Your hope, Christian man, should not be the tremulous thing that it often is, which expresses itself in phrases like ‘Well! I do not know, but I tremblingly hope,’ but it should say, ‘I know and am sure of the rest that remaineth, not because of what I am, but because of what He is.’
Another element in the perfection of hope is its continuity. That hits home to us all, does it not? Sometimes in calm weather we catch a sight of the gleaming battlements of ‘the City which hath foundations,’ away across the sea, and then mists and driving storms come up and hide it. There is a great mountain in Central Africa which if a man wishes to see he must seize a fortunate hour in the early morning, and for all the rest of the day it is swathed in clouds, invisible. Is that like your hope, Christian man and woman, gleaming out now and then, and then again swallowed up in the darkness? Brethren! these two things, certainty and continuity, are possible for us. Alas! that they are so seldom enjoyed by us.
III. And now one last word. My text speaks about the discipline or cultivation of this Christian hope.
It prescribes two things as auxiliary thereto. The way to cultivate the perfect hope which alone corresponds to the gift of God is ‘girding up the loins of your mind, and being sober.’ Of course, there is here one of the very few reminiscences that we have in the Epistles of the ipsissima verba of our Lord. Peter is evidently referring to our Lord’s commandment to have ‘the loins girt and the lamps burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.’ I do not need to remind you of the Eastern dress that makes the metaphor remarkably significant, the loose robes that tangle a man’s feet when he runs, that need to be girded up and belted tight around his waist, as preliminary to all travel or toil of any kind. The metaphor is the same as that in our colloquial speech when we talk about a man ‘pulling himself together.’ Just as an English workman will draw his belt a hole tighter when he has some special task to do, so Peter says to us, make a definite effort, with resolute bracing up and concentration of all your powers, or you will never see the grace that is hurrying towards you through the centuries. There are abundance of loose, slack-braced people up and down the world, in all departments, and they never come to any good. It is a shame that any man should have his thoughts so loosely girt and vagrant as that any briar by the roadside can catch them and hinder his advance. But it is a tenfold shame for Christian people, with such an object to gaze upon, that they should let their minds be dissipated all over the trivialities of Time, and not gather them together and project them, as I may say, with all their force towards the sovereign realities of Eternity. A sixpence held close to your eye will blot out the sun, and the trifles of earth close to us will prevent us from realising the things which neither sight, nor experience, nor testimony reveal to us, unless with clenched teeth, so to speak, we make a dogged effort to keep them in mind.
The other preliminary and condition is ‘being sober,’ which of course you have to extend to its widest possible signification, implying not merely abstinence from, or moderate use of, intoxicants, or material good for the appetites, but also the withdrawing of one’s self sometimes wholly from, and always restraining one’s self in the use of, the present and the material. A man has only a given definite quantity of emotion and interest to expend, and if he flings it all away on the world he has none left for Heaven. He will be like the miller that spoils some fair river, by diverting its waters into his own sluice, in order that he may grind some corn. If you have the faintest film of dust on the glass of the telescope, or on its mirror, if it is a reflecting one, you will not see the constellations in the heavens; and if we have drawn over our spirits the film of earthly absorption, all these bright glories above will, so far as we are concerned, cease to be.
So, brethren, there is a solemn responsibility laid upon us by the gift of that great faculty of looking before and after. What did God make you and me capable of anticipating the future for? That we might let our hopes run along the low levels, or that we might elevate them and twine them round the very pillars of God’s Throne; which? I do not find fault with you because you hope, but because you hope so meanly, and about such trivial and transitory things. I remember I once saw a sea-bird kept in a garden, confined within high walls, and with clipped wings, set to pick up grubs and insects. It ought to have been away out, hovering over the free ocean, or soaring with sunlit wing to a height where earth became a speck, and all its noises were hushed. That is what some of you are doing with your hope, degrading it to earth instead of letting it rise to God; enter within the veil, and gaze upon the glory of the ‘inheritance incorruptible and undefiled.’
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Pe 1:13-16
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1Pe 1:13 “Therefore” This (dio, cf. 2Pe 1:10; 2Pe 1:12; 2Pe 3:14) shows that the exhortations that follow are the result of the previous discussion.
NASB”prepare your minds for action”
NKJV”gird up the loins of your mind”
NRSV”prepare your minds for action”
TEV”have your minds ready for action”
NJB”your minds. . .ready for action”
This is an aorist middle participle used as an imperative. Its form denotes that a decisive act of personal choice is demanded. This is a Hebrew idiom, literally “gird up the loins of your mind.” In the Ancient Near East both men and women wore robes. By reaching through the legs and pulling the back of the robe forward and tucking it into the belt, the robe became pants, which allowed strenuous action. Similar admonitions of preparation for mental activity is found in Rom 12:2; Eph 4:17; Eph 4:23.
“keep sober in spirit” This is a present active participle in a series of imperatives and participles used with imperatival force. This is not a call to sobriety, but a metaphor for mental alertness and level headedness (cf. 1Pe 4:7; 1Pe 5:8; 1Th 5:6; 1Th 5:8; 2Ti 4:5).
“fix your hope completely” This is an aorist active imperative which means make a decisive choice to trust completely in Christ’s return. “Hope” in the NT often refers to the Second Coming (cf. Tit 2:13). Our hope is based on the settled and sure character and actions of the Triune God (cf. 1Pe 1:2-5).
“on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” This is the same grace for which the OT prophets made careful search (cf. 1Pe 1:10). This clearly shows that the believers’ hope is in the character and actions of the Triune God (cf. 1Pe 1:2-5) and that His grace will be fully manifested at Jesus’ return (cf. 1Jn 3:2). Salvation is described by all Greek verb tenses. See Special Topic at 1Pe 1:5.
1Pe 1:14 “obedient children” This is a Hebrew idiom of our family relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son (negative expressions are found in Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6). Believers are co-heirs through Him (cf. Rom 8:15-17). Amazingly, sinners are part of the family of God by His invitation and Jesus’ sacrifice.
NASB, NRSV”do not be conformed”
NKJV”not conforming yourselves”
TEV”do not allow your lives to be shaped”
NJB”do not allow yourselves to be shaped”
This is a present middle or passive participle used as an imperative. As so often in the NT believers are described as being acted upon by God or the Spirit (passive voice), but there is the grammatical possibility that believers are being called on to clearly live out their new relationship to God through the power of His Spirit (middle voice).
As salvation is a conditional covenant, initiated by God but with a mandated response, so too, the Christian life. Eternal life has observable characteristics (cf. 1Pe 1:15). Much of Peter’s terminology is from Paul’s letters, here Rom 12:2.
“to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance” This refers to the Gentile believers’ immoral and godless pagan past (cf. 1Pe 4:2-3; Eph 4:17-19).
1Pe 1:15
NASB”but like the Holy One who called you”
NKJV”but as He who called you is holy”
NRSV”instead, as he who called you is holy”
TEV”instead. . .just as God who called you is holy”
NJB”after the model of the Holy One who calls us”
This is an emphasis on God’s character and sovereign choice (cf. 1Pe 2:9; 1Pe 5:10). No one can come to God unless the Spirit draws them (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65). This is another theological way of repudiating divine acceptance by means of human performance (cf. Eph 2:8-9). My sermon title on this text is “The Holy One’s holy ones.”
“be holy yourselves also” This is an aorist passive (deponent) imperative. Believers are called to holiness. God’s will has always been that His children reflect His character (cf. Tit 2:14). The goal of Christianity is not only heaven when we die, but Christlikeness now (cf. Rom 8:29-30; 2Co 3:18; 2Co 7:1; Gal 4:19; Eph 1:4; Eph 2:10; Eph 4:13; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:3; 1Th 4:7; 1Th 5:23). Jesus’ task was not only remission of sin, but the restoration of the image of God in fallen mankind. We must always be suspicious of an assurance of salvation that lacks Christlikeness! The gospel is (1) a person to welcome; (2) a truth about that person to believe; and (3) a life emulating that person to live (cf. Eph 4:1; Eph 5:1-2; Eph 5:15; 1Jn 1:7; 1Jn 2:4-6). Remember the shocking words of Jesus in Mat 5:20; Mat 5:48! Always be careful of “what’s-in-it-for-me” Christianity. We are saved to serve. We are called to holiness in no uncertain terms. God have mercy on a western church trapped by (1) prosperity; (2) materialism; and (3) health/wealth preaching!
SPECIAL TOPIC: NEW TESTAMENT HOLINESS/SANCTIFICATION
“in all your behavior” Notice the emphasis on “all.” The challenge is not selected righteousness, but pervasive holiness (cf. 1Jn 3:3).
1Pe 1:16 “because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy'” “Written” is a perfect passive indicative, which is an idiom for Scripture used so often by Jesus, but only here in Peter. This is a quote from Lev 11:44-45; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Lev 20:26. This is not a new requirement, but a repeated requirement (cf. Mat 5:48). Holiness in the OT sense was not sinlessness, but a conformity to the covenant requirements of God (i.e., Exo 19:6; Exo 22:31; Deu 14:2; Deu 14:21; Deu 26:19). The NT also has covenant requirements which issue in Christlikeness (cf. Rom 8:28-29; 2Co 3:18; 2Co 7:1; Gal 4:19; Eph 1:4; Eph 4:13; 1Th 3:13; 1Th 4:3; 1Th 4:7; 1Th 5:23). See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: HOLY
gird up. Greek. anazonnumi. Only here.
be sober, and = being sober. Greek. nepho. See 1Th 5:6.
to the end = perfectly. Greek. teleios. Only here. See App-125.
to be = being.
revelation. Same as “appearing”, 1Pe 1:7.
13.] First exhortation-to WATCHFULNESS and ENDURANCE OF HOPE. Wherefore ( , , , , , , , . . c. This connexion is better than that imagined by some Commentators, with 1Pe 1:5-9 generally; nor is the reason underlying , because the Christian must through trial and proof reach glory (De Wette), which rather lies in 1Pe 1:5-7, and is not again mentioned in the course of these exhortations) gird up (dynamic middle: the aor. conveying the sense of completeness and once-for-all-nature of the action) the loins of your mind (the figure is one throughout,-not your loins, viz. those of your mind, . On , see note on ref. 2 Pet. The exhortation seems to be taken from our Lords command, Luk 12:35, where, as here, the girding up is a preparation for the coming of the Lord. On the figure see Eph 6:14 ff., and c, above), being sober (Mentis sobrietas et vigilantia requiritur, sicque metaphora in lumborum cinctura prius reposita explicatur. Gerhard in Wiesinger. Calvin explains it well, Non temperantiam solum in cibo et potu commendat, sed spiritualem potius sobrietatem, quum sensus omnes nostros continemus, ne se hujus mundi illecebris inebrient. Observe , pres. part., indicating the continuing state in which the and the take place), hope perfectly (i. e. without doubt or dejection, with full devotion of soul, De W.: even better Wahl, Lex., ita, ut nihil desideretur. Erasm., Grot., Bengel take as merely temporal, in finem usque; and so E. V., hope to the end: but this clearly does not reach the full meaning. Syr., c., Jer[3], Benson, Semler, al. join with , which is of course possible, and better satisfies the rhythm of the sentence, in which on the other view stands rather feebly alone. But all things considered, I feel persuaded the majority of Commentators are right in making it an emphatic adjunct to the great word of exhortation, ) for (in the direction of: so ref. 1 Tim.) the grace (i. e. the great gift of grace, the crowning example of grace. Syr., c., al. read ) which is being brought (E. V., is to be brought; not amiss, but not giving, what expresses, the near impending of the event spoken of: q. d. which is even now bearing down on you) to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ (the meaning of St. Peters own , as applied to the revelation of the Lord at His second advent, 1Pe 1:7, seems to fix the meaning of the above words as here given, and to preclude the rendering of Erasm. (dum vobis patefit, seu manifestatur, Jesus Christus: but doubtfully), Luther, Calov., Bengel, Steiger, al., who take the whole as referring to the present revelation of grace made by the gospel, in which Jesus Christ is revealed. The right meaning is given by c., Calv. (but taking for usque ad), Beza, Grot., Est., Semler, Pott, De W., Huther, Wiesinger).
[3] Jerome, fl. 378-420
1Pe 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;
This is Peters practical application of the greet truths of which he had been writing. Look ahead, and expect great things. Live in the future. Project your thoughts beyond the centuries that are passing away into the ages which will never die.
1Pe 1:14-15. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
Remember that you can never be really whole till you are holy, for holiness is spiritual sanity; it is the curing of the mind and heart from the disease which sin brought upon them.
1Pe 1:16. Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Children of God, be like your Father; prove that you are his true children by manifesting his character. Let his lineaments be seen in your countenance: Be ye holy; for I am holy. The Revised Version is, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.
1Pe 1:17. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
Be not presumptuous. Ever remember that, as there is a God who is to judge every man, you are to be judged; and oh, that you might, through his grace, be in such a condition of heart that you shall stand the last test, and be found to be full weight when you are put into the balances of the sanctuary which God shall hold with steadfast hand!
1Pe 1:18-19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
You have seen the character of your Father who is in heaven; this should urge and help you to be like him, holy. Now you see the character of your Redeemer, a lamb without blemish and without spot. Let this influence you to be holy, too.
1Pe 1:20-21. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
It is no use to place them anywhere else. All other vessels are too frail to bear such a heavy burden; but, if your faith and hope are in God, then you have a security which none can destroy.
1Pe 1:22-25. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Blessed be God for an everlasting gospel, founded on the everlasting covenant, which bringeth with it everlasting life to all those who believe in Christ Jesus the Lord.
1Pe 1:13. , wherefore) An exhortation is now derived from those things which have been said.-, girding up) to collect the strength. Comp. the expression, to stir up, 2Pe 1:13.- , the loins) A similar phrase occurs, Job 38:3.-) sober: ch. 1Pe 5:8.- , hope [Engl. Vers. to the end], hope perfectly) have that hope which may grasp the end () placed before it, 1Pe 1:9. Hope is repeated from 1Pe 1:3.-) which is afforded and held forth. The same word is used, Heb 9:16. Grace is given to us in perfect measure, and with that our hope ought perfectly to correspond. They are correlatives.- , at the revelation) There is but one revelation, which takes place through the whole time of the New Testament, by the two appearances of Christ: Tit 2:11; Tit 2:13.
1Pe 1:13-21
SOBERNESS AND GODLINESS ENJOINED
1Pe 1:13-21
13 Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind,– “Wherefore” (dio, on which account, therefore) is a connective, introducing the inference which the apostle draws from considerations earlier presented. The meaning is, Notwithstanding the fact that you are now called upon to suffer a variety of trials (verse 6) because of your faithfulness to Christ and fidelity to his cause, and in view of the glorious and unfading inheritance which awaits, being reserved in heaven for you (verses 3-6), gird up “the loins of your mind . . .” It is possible that the connection is even closer, and that Peter also connects this statement with that which had immediately preceded, viz., the reference to the participation of the prophets, the earlier evangelists, and the angels (verses 10-12), thus gathering up all matters mentioned earlier in the chapter, and on them basing the admonition which follows.
“Girding” (anaxonnumi, to gather up long, flowing garments by means of a belt or girdle) is a reference to the mode of dress characteristic of people in Oriental lands who, when they desired to run, set out on a trip, work, or otherwise engage in activity, gathered up their outer garment about them tightly so as not to be impeded or hindered in that which they sought to do. The usage here is, of course, figurative, and refers to the gathering up of all improper thoughts, feelings and activities of the mind and restraining them that they may not hinder one’s progress toward heaven. There is a possible allusion in this to the instructions which Moses gave the Israelites in connection with the observance of the passover feast on the eve of their departure from the land of Egypt: “And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand and ye shall eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s Passover.” (Exo 12:11.)
Be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; –Two exhortations are here given: (a) be sober; (b) set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought. The sobriety enjoined is that which evidences itself in selfcontrol; and is a soberness produced by continual calmness of mind and dispassionateness of spirit. One thus possessed exhibits great restraint of temper, controlled habits of thought and a calm and collected attitude toward irritations of whatever nature. The verb occurs in 1Th 5:6; 1Th 5:8 and in 1Pe 4:7; 1Pe 5:8. It is a grace which tempers enthusiasm and keeps it in proper bounds. When Paul was charged with fanaticism for preaching the gospel so fervently, he could reply: “I am not mad, most excellent Festus; but speak forth words of truth and soberness.” (Act 26:25.)
The “hope” to which the apostle alludes, described as “perfectly” set, is composed of expectation and desire fused into an attitude that is unwavering, complete, lacking nothing in the assurances which it affords. This hope is directed toward (epi, with the accusative) -grace indicating the constant reaching for of grace which should be characteristic of the faithful Christian. (Cf. Jas 4:6 : “He giveth more grace.”) Grace is the unmerited favor of God; and it exhibits itself in the manifold blessings which are available to those who seek and serve him faithfully. The phrase, “that is to be brought,” is translated from an article and a participle, (ten pheromenen) in the present tense, indicative of the fact that the grace referred to is being brought now in a present revelation of Christ. Every gift of grace which the Christian receives is a further and additional revelation to him of Christ and what he means to the human soul.
14 As children of obedience,–This phrase is a Hebraism, a form of expression often occurring in Hebrew and other Oriental languages, in which matters closely and intimately related are presented under the figure of the relationship which exists between a child and his parents. Thus, “a child of obedience” is one who belongs to obedience and has partaken of its nature as a child belongs to, and has inherited the nature of, its parent. This is a mode of expression often appearing in the scriptures, e.g.: “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:3); “children of light” (Eph 5:8); “sons of this world” (Luk 16:8); “son of perdition” (2Th 2:3); “children of cursing” (2Pe 2:14). The figure originated in the Hebrew ben- “son,” followed by a word indicative of quality, nature, characteristic, etc. The phrase emphasizes the essentiality of obedience to sonship, pointing to the fact that one becomes a child through obedience, and in obedience continues as a child. The blessings, hopes, joys and privileges of sonship cannot exist in the absence of obedience. (Mat 7:21; 1Jn 2:4; Rev 22:14; 2Th 1:7-9; Gal 6:5; Jas 2:24.)
Not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance:–Here is evidence of the fact that Peter did not have solely in mind people of Jewish ancestry when he penned his epistle to “the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion.” (1Pe 1:1.) See the Introduction to the Epistle. Reference to “former lusts” and “the time of your ignorance,” while in some measure descriptive of the manner of life characteristic of the Jews before obedience to the gospel, are terms especially applicable to Gentiles, and often elsewhere applied to them. (Act 17:30.) The Jews regarded the Gentiles as ignorant, and frequently stigmatized them as such. As a matter of fact, the New Testament writers described the whole life of men, whether Jews or Gentiles, before the appearance of Christ, as a period of ignorance and to be considered as such in determining the relative guilt of those who then lived. Of the Gentiles Paul wrote, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.” (Eph 4:17-18.) The Jews were similarly regarded as in spiritual darkness, though they were in possession of the “oracles of God.” (Rom 2:1-29; Rom 3:1-2.) The Jews had sinned against the light of truth and were in darkness; and the Gentiles, through long oenturies of depravity, had lost the light they once had through the revelations of the patriarchal period. While there were notable exceptions to this on the part of both Jew and Gentile (Cornelius being a remarkable example of the latter; Nathaniel of the former), such was generally characteristic of the races as a whole. The ignorance of Jews and Gentiles differed in character, however; the ignorance of the Jew consisting of blindness with reference to the true character of the Messiah and his reign; and not of the moral law–the type of ignorance referred to by Peter. The Jews were in possession of the law and the prophets, and were thus acquainted with the will of God as revealed in the Old Testament scriptures. The ignorance contemplated by Peter, and such as was characteristic of Gentiles prior to their obedience to the gospel, was that with reference to moral conduct. In the ignorance which then possessed them and by which they were motivated, they indulged in “lusts.” The word “lust” signifies passionate desire ; and its contextual desire evil force here is descriptive of “Fashioning,” a participial form of the verb which occurs in the familiar text, “And be not fashioned according to this world,” refers to a common tendency of the race to affect the manner of speech, dress, mode and manner of life of those about us. In Rom 12:2, the warning is against conformity to the age, and here to the manner of life which these to whom Peter wrote had followed before they obeyed the gospel. The warning is an important one. The disposition to partake of the manners, morals, and modes of conduct of those about us is a common and dangerous one, and must be resisted. Compare the apostle’s injunction with the edict of Moses: “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” (Exo 23:2.)
15, 16 But like he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living: because it is written, Ye shall be holy: for I am holy.–In verse 1, those to whom Peter wrote are described as “elect”; here, as having been “called.” God “called” through the gospel, “Whereunto he called you by our gospel (2Th 2:14); and inasmuch as the gospel is addressed to all nations and to every creature (Mat 28:18-20; Mark 16 15, 16), it follows that all who heed the call become, through obedience, the elect of God. The design of God’s calling is holiness, the sanctification of the whole life to him: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication; . . . For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.” (1Th 4:3; 1Th 4:7.) This holiness to which all are called is, essentially, separation from a life of habitual sin and all worldly defilement. Such is the meaning of the word translated “holiness” (hagios). The words sanctify, sanctification, saint, holy and holiness all derive from this same root and thus bear related meanings. Here God, as a perfect pattern of holiness, is set forth for our emulation in “all manner of living.”
The verb “be” is not the ordinary word for simple being, but one which means, literally, “to become.” The tense of the verb (ingressive aorist) suggests the ushering in of one into a new state. This reveals that the holiness enjoined for the Christian is not such as is a necessary consequence of having obeyed the gospel, but a manner of life attained through a positive renunciation of the world by the individual himself. Sanctification is thus not some mysterious change wrought in the soul by an incomprehensible operation of the Holy Spirit, but a manner of life affected through godly conduct. In these words, there is an undoubted allusion to an admonition of the Lord in the sermon on the mount (Mat 5:48), another indication of the profound influence the Lord wrought upon the impulsive apostle during the public ministry.
The words, “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy,” occur five times in the book of Leviticus from which they are cited. (Lev. 11:44; 11:45 9:2 20:7; 20:26.) The words were, on some occasions, addressed to priests at other times, to the whole nation of Israel. Peter regarded all Christians as priests (individuals qualified and empowered to engage in worship) and as constituting the “holy nation” of spiritual Israel, and thus worthy indeed to have the admonition applied to them. As the Israelites were required to be a holy nation and a peculiar people in the midst of the nations, so Christians who have succeeded to their spiritual status as the chosen people of the Lord must maintain the same separateness from the world about them. It is a characteristic of people to imitate the God whom they worship; and since he is wholly pure, followers of Jehovah have the perfect standard of excellence that is theirs to emulate. The word “I” in the quotation, “I am holy,” is emphatic in the Greek text, signifying, “I, myself, apart from all others, am holy.”
The quotation is introduced with the familiar formula, “It is written.” The verb is in the perfect tense in Greek, thus indicating past action with existing results. Expanded, the phrase means, It was written and now remains as a record. The phrase was used by the Lord in his encounter with Satan on the mount of temptation, and it constitutes a monument to the unchanging, inerrant and eternal word of God.
17 And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.–The word “if” is not to be taken as indicating doubt, but rather as the introduction of a condition which, being assumed, establishes a definite duty. It is nearly equivalent to “since.” The meaning is “Since (or, inasmuch), as ye call on God as Father . . .” There is no article before the word Father in the Greek text, the implication of which is that those to whom Peter wrote were not worshiping a cruel and inhuman tyrant but one whose attributes and characteristics are those of a father. While the idea of the fatherhood of God was not advanced for the purpose of eliminating the idea of a judgment, it does reveal the conforting fact that our judge is also our Father!
We thus learn that (a) our heavenly Father is our judge; (b) the judgment is to be “according to every man’s work”; and (c) it is to be conducted “without respect of persons,” i.e., with complete fairness and impartiality. The phrase, “without respect of persons,” is the translation of one Greek word, aprosopoleptos, an adverb indicating complete impartiality, meaning literally, “who does not receive face.” (See Thayer.) God does not judge individuals on the basis of such outward characteristics as wealth, cultural background or social position, but with reference to their work. The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1Sa 16:7 A.V.) The idea here expressed is a frequent one throughout the sacred writings. (Act 10:34; Mat 22:16; Rom 2:11 ; Gal 2:6.) “Work” in the text, is in the singular number, thus revealing the significant fact that the judgment alluded to is with reference to the life as a whole, and in its comprehensive aspect.
In an admonition based on these premises, those to whom Peter wrote were instructed to pass the time of their sojourning in fear. For the significance of the word “sojourning” see the comments on verse 1, and compare with 1Pe 2:11, for an expansion of the same thought. In the word there is a continuation of the thought drawn from the relation of God as Father. In view of the fact that God is indeed the Father of his children, heaven–God’s abiding place (Joh 14:2)–thus becomes the children’s permanent home, and they are but sojourners and pilgrims here. (See Eph 2:18-19; Heb 11:13.)
The “fear that is to characterize those thus sojourning is not the terror of slaves, but the worshipful awe of obedient children toward their beloved parents. It is the fear of displeasing, the fear of causing pain on the part of those we love by conduct inconsistent with their wishes. It is such a fear as God approves, and which his faithful children feel. It is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. (Psa 111:10; Deu 6:2; Pro 1:7; Pro 3:13; Pro 14:26-27.) Such fear is not the shrinking attitude of cowardice, but a courageous emotion which above all else dreads to displease God! “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom ye should fear: Fear him, who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yes, I say unto you, Fear him.” (Luk 12:4-5.)
18 Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers,–Verse 16 contains an admonition to holiness–godly living–founded on the example of God himself. Verse 17 is an exhortation to godly fear, based on the fact of a judgment conducted with impartiality and without respect of persons. Here, as in verse 18, there is an argument for holiness from the premise of the redemption which has been obtained for us from the bondage of sin at such infinite cost.
The word “redeemed,” from lutroo, means to set free by pays ment of a ransom, and was frequently used in the days of slavery to indicate the act of obtaining freedom for enslaved persons through the payment of a sum of money for their release. The noun form of the word occurs in the word ransom (which Peter heard from the lips of the Lord during his public ministry when he said, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” [Mat 20:28]). Peter’s reference to these matters, and use of these terms is doubtless an echo of that which he received from the Lord on that and other occasions. Here, perhaps more clearly than anywhere else in the New Testament, there is revealed the chief purpose of redemption: the deliverance of us all from sin. It establishes, beyond reasonable controversy, the fact of vicarious suffering; that Jesus gave his life, not only in our behalf, but actually instead of us, and thus became the satisfaction for our sins. Even more, it teaches us that the liberty thus obtained is not only freedom from the penalty of sin, but from a sinful life itself On this ground the apostle based his exhortation for a life of godliness and holy living. The central idea here is a common one in the New Testament: “For ye are bought with a price.” (1Co 6:20.) “The master that bought them . . .” (2Pe 2:1.) “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.”
The redemption was not obtained with “corruptible things,” things subject to dissolution and decay, specifically here, silver and gold. The words, “silver” and “gold,” in the text, are in diminutive form, the little things of the species, thus indicating that the ransom under consideration did not consist of the little silver and gold coins ordinarily used in obtaining the freedom of enslaved people. The medium, not mentioned in this verse, but described in the one which follows, was the “precious blood” of Christ.
The manner of life from which they had been delivered through the ransom which had been made for them is described as “vain” (a word used to describe idolatrous practices in Act 14:15), and as having been received by tradition from their fathers. Here, it appears that reference is made primarily to Gentiles who, before their conversion to Christianity, had been disposed to engage in the heathen rites of idolatrous worship, a disposition which they had passed on to their children.
19 But with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ–The adjective “precious” (timios) is in contrast with the “corruptible things” of verse 18. The word is properly applied to that which is costly ; hence, descriptive of anything regarded as highly valuable or precious. It occurs in the phrases, “most precious wood” (Rev 18:12), and “a stone most precious” (Rev 21:11.) The blood, in contrast with the silver and gold alluded to in the verse preceding, is (a) intrinsically more valuable than such metals; and (b) accomplishes that which gold and silver cannot: ransom our souls from the slavery and guilt of sin.
In comparing the blood of Christ with that of a lamb “without blemish and without spot,” the doctrine of atonement through the sacrifice of Christ and by means of his shed blood, is clearly and unmistakably taught. Peter had heard it earlier stated by John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29), and he repeats and gives emphasis to it here. The law of Moses required that all sacrifices be without blemish or spot (Lev 4:32; Lev 22:22-24; Num 28:3; Num 28:11), so that in them there should be no pollution or defilement whatsoever. In any atonement, it is necessary that the sacrifice should itself be free of the pollution it is designed to expiate; and Jesus, in the absolute sense, complied with this requirement, being utterly and wholly without sin. He was “without blemish,” being perfect; and “without spot,” undefiled by the world.
From the idea of redemption obtained by ransom (verse 18), there is a transition here to that of expiation, as in verse 19. Reference to gold and silver indicates the former; the blood and the lamb, the latter. The ransom effected man’s deliverance from the power of sin expiation from the guilt and pollution thereof. The blood of animals was powerless to remove sin (Heb 10:1-3), being typical and anticipatory in nature only, and foreshadowing the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
20 Who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake.–The antecedent of the pronoun “who” is Christ. As a lamb without spot and without blemish, Christ was “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world.” “Foreknown” means to know before; hence, Christ was so recognized from before “the foundation of the world.” “Foundation” (kataboles, to throw down, thus, the first part of a building; the foundation) indicates here the beginning, and contextually, the beginning of the “world.” The word “world” is from the Greek kosmos, an orderly system, hence age, or dispensation. Thus, Christ, as a lamb, was foreknown as such from before the beginning of the age or dispensation. What age? Creation, so some expositors affirm, thus projecting the time when Christ was ordained as a sacrifice into the period before creation of the universe. Though such a view is widely held, and many eminent commentators may be cited in support, the . difficulties associated with it are, to this writer, insuperable. It is impossible to distinguish between the foreknowledge of God with reference to such a plan of redemption and the will that originated it. The two are in the nature of the case inseparable. To project a plan of redemption into the period prior to the fall of man raises immediately and inevitably the question of the free agency of Adam and Eve.
If God had already devised a plan for the redemption of man from a sin which was certain to be committed, how could Adam and Eve avoided its commission? If Christ was a lamb for expiation of sin from before creation, how could the transgression have been other than inevitable since not only it, but the consequences therefore had been provided for in the councils of etrnity. Since, in such a view of the case, our first parents were but passive actors in a drama written and stereotyped before they had existence, ought they not to be commended for obedience in dutifully furthering a plan ordained for them in eternity and which they could not possibly have altered without falsifying God’s foreknowledge? Should they not, we repeat, be commended for obedience, rather than condemned for disobedience? Such must, in consequence, follow, if the popular view be true. The difficulties it entails are insurmountable.
The word “world,” from the Greek kosmos, means an orderly system, an age or dispensation, and as such is often applied to the Mosiac age or dispensation. For examples of such see Luk 11:50; Heb 9:26; Eph 1:4. Thus, Christ, before the beginning of the Mosaic age, and before the intricate and detailed system of sacrifices which characterized it was originated, was ordained by the Father to suffer as a sacrificial lamb in expiation of the sins of the world; and the Mosaic age was arranged and its animal sacrifices provided as types and shadows of the redemption awaiting through Christ. For other references to the foreknowledge of God, see Act 2:23; Act 3:18; Act 4:28.
Christ, as a lamb, was foreknown as such from before the beginning of the sacrificial system originating on Sinai, and was manifested (made known, revealed) “at the end of the times,” i.e., near the close of the age whose sacrifices typified and foreshadowed his own. Such provisions were, so the apostle declares, “for your sake,” the revelation being for all men.
21 Who through him are believers in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory: so that your faith and hope might be in God.–The pronoun “him” refers to Christ. Through Christ, these to whom Peter wrote became believers in God. These words apply with special force to the Gentile converts among them who, through the preaching of the gospel of Christ, were brought to God, though such is equally true of all Christians, both Jew and Gentile, since there is no saving knowledge of God apart from Christ. “And he came and preached peace to them that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.” (Eph 2:17-18.) In the resurrection, ascension and consequent glorification at God’s right hand we have the basis of our faith and hope in God. In Peter’s speeches recorded in Acts. much emphasis is given to this theme. (Act 2:32-36; Act 3:15; Act 4:10.)
Commentary on 1Pe 1:13-21 by N.T. Caton
1Pe 1:13-Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.
While the expression is rugged, it is striking and bold, and characteristic of its author. The metaphor is drawn from eastern customs. The angel that delivered Peter from prison said to him: “Gird thyself, and cast thy garments about thee” (Act 12:8). We gather, then, that in that country and age garments were worn loose, and needed to be girded for convenience, so that a journey might be made without interference from the drapery. The persons addressed understood the figure. Now, as the loins are girded to strengthen them, and to prevent encumbrance from the flowing garment, so gird the loins of your mind. The faculties of the mind want to be prepared, so that all the powers thereof can be brought into activity. There must be no clinging drapery of vice, but every faculty must be placed on proper objects, and all the passions held in subjection and governed by the divine will And this is girding the loins of the mind. Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, said: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph 6:14). And the Master gave similar advice in these words: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning” (Luk 12:35).
1Pe 1:13 –Hope to the end.
The exhortation is based upon the certainty of the reward at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Knowing the Lord will come again, and the crown of life will be bestowed upon the faithful, the apostle urges the continuance and constancy in hoping to the end. The end; that is, until the struggling saint shall lay his armor down at the hour of death-death of the body.
1Pe 1:14-As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves.
Recognized as children-that is, children and heirs as set forth in verse 4. And more than children-obedient children; you must not fashion yourselves as you once did. You well remember that before you became children you followed a course of conduct and conversation fashioned after the world. The course then pursued by you was evil. Your present course must not be so fashioned, but fashioned after the teachings you now receive as obedient children.
1Pe 1:14 –In your ignorance.
Your course of evil, while you had no information of the demands of the divine Father upon the children of men, was the result of your ignorance; that is to say, you were ignorant of the divine requirements as to your course. Now, this can not be wholly applicable to a Jewish Christian. In his case he had knowledge of the one true and living God, and under the economy under which he was reared he learned that God required him to lead a holy life. Those commentators who claim that this Epistle was written to Jewish Christians only seem to have overlooked the plain teaching of this verse.
1Pe 1:15-But as he which hath called you is holy.
God called you. God is holy. Now, as you are called of God, and are his children, God is your Father. Every obedient child seeks to please, and, as far as in him lies, strives to be like that Father in character and conduct. His obligation and duty is to be holy, for these rest upon the relationship which subsists between father and child.
1Pe 1:15 –In all manner of conversation.
The holy character is to be exhibited in everything you say or do; your whole manner of living, your behavior in every respect. In all this you must seek a close imitation of the divine model.
1Pe 1:16-Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
I take this to be a quotation from Lev 19:2, which reads: “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Twice before, God had uttered the same thought, in chapter 11: and in verses 44 and 45. In the latter verse occurs the expression: “Be holy, for I am holy.” Mere verbal differences in quotations may be expected, as the prime object is always to advance and make prominent the thought only. Heathen deities were by their devotees regarded as patrons and practicers of every species of vice. The influence upon the worshipers would necessarily, therefore, be pernicious. Their morals would be corrupted, since they imitated their vile gods. Like god, like man. In strong contrast with all this, we, as Christians, have a different worship enjoined upon us, and which is to be observed by us. God being far removed from all evil, and being the author of all moral excellence, imitation of his lofty and holy character is enjoined upon his intelligent creatures for their good here, and as a necessary preparation for an entrance into, and the enjoyment of, his presence in the world to come.
1Pe 1:17-And if ye call on the Father.
The idea is, if God is called on as Father, which would follow as a matter of course if we be his children, then we should pass the time in fear. To call on the Father is to worship him as he directs. To observe his commands, doing just what he requires, and in the way he has enjoined, is exhibiting the fear mentioned by the apostle. Nothing less is the fear of God. What does Peter say of this Father, upon whom we, as children, are to call? “Who without respect of persons.” God regards not the race or station of men. He judges them by their acts; by what they do and say; by their works. Peter’s utterance at the house of Cornelius obtrudes itself upon our attention at this point: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation he that fearth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him” (Act 10:34-35).
1Pe 1:17 –Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
While living here on earth, before passing away in death, the common lot of all, we should pass the time in fear. This time of sojourning embraces the whole period of the natural life. In fear. Of this we have already spoken; but a thought or two more will not be amiss. Now, fear of what? The apostle has just spoken of God’s impartial judgment. Evidently, therefore, he means that our conduct here in this life must always be such as will pass safely that impartial judgment. Acting with constant reference thereto is acting in fear. As we have said before, doing what he requires is the acceptable way to show fear.
1Pe 1:18-Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed.
This is as much as to say that the parties here addressed did know, for the sense is, since ye know how they were redeemed. The apostle states the manner of their redemption first negatively, and afterwards affirmatively. Redemption from what? The answer given is, from your vain conversation; that is, your foolish behavior, vile course of life. From whence came this vain conversation? From tradition handed down by their fathers. Now, from this they were not redeemed by corruptible things, that is, things that perish, and the most precious things known to man are named-silver and gold. Even these, however important in the affairs of life, could not accomplish the redemption of man. However powerful in the estimation of the world, they are wholly inadequate to redeem.
1Pe 1:19-But with the precious blood of Christ.
Here the manner of the redemption is stated affirmatively. Negatively, not with gold or silver; affimatively, with the precious blood of Christ. Under the Jewish economy a sacrifice had to be without blemish. (See Lev 22:21-23.) So the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, is the means by which redemption is had, atonement is made. It behooves not the true follower of the Lord to stagger at this point, nor to philosophize as to how this precious blood could procure this redemption. It is enough for the trusting soul to know that the all-wise Father so ordained and announced the fact to be, and trustingly it ought to be accepted. The New Testament writers with a singular unanimity recognize and refer to Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8).
1Pe 1:20-Who verily was foreordained.
Christ as the sacrifice was foreordained. In the purpose of God as the sacrifice was determined upon, was appointed as the center and the soul of the scheme of human redemption. This appointment was made before the foundation of the world.
1Pe 1:20 –Manifest in the last times for you.
While the sacrifice of Christ was foreordained, it was not made manifest-that is, the sacrifice did not take place at the time it was so foreordained-until the end of the Mosaic economy. The Christ then died, then shed his blood. On Calvary’s cross the sacrifice took place, the offering was made. This sacrifice was made for the whole world. All may, if they will, receive the benefits of this atonement. It is to be accepted and appropriated in the manner God has specified, and in no other way.
1Pe 1:21-Who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead.
Who by him-that is, by Christ-do believe in God. Now, this can not be said of the Jew. He believed in God before Christ came. Of the Gentile, however, it can be truly said. It was through the gospel preached, and through this channel only, that the Gentiles were made believers in the. God that raised up Christ from the dead; and that he not only raised him from the dead, but gave him glory by seating him at his own right hand, and constituted him both Lord and Christ; and, in addition to this, he gave him all authority, so that he now rules as King in and over the entire universe of God.
1Pe 1:21 –Your faith and your hope might be in God.
The result to the believer in this glorification of Christ is the assured foundation upon which rest both his faith and his hope-faith in Christ, hope of eternal life. Faith is essential to salvation. Ultimate salvation is God’s gift, God’s promise. These, we are here assured, are founded in the power and word of God. This power, and the veracity of this promise, we have demonstrated to us in the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
Commentary on 1Pe 1:13-21 by Burton Coffman
1Pe 1:13 –Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Founded upon the Old Testament requirement that the Jews should observe the Passover with their “loins girded,” a few have imagined all kinds of vain things, alleging that 1Peter is a sermon delivered in connection with observing the Lord’s supper;[43] but the scholars should look, not always to the Old Testament, but to the words of Christ, for what Peter meant by this (Luk 12:35-36). Jesus used these words of being prepared for the Second Advent, and that is exactly the way Peter used them here.
Girding up the loins of your mind … As he did frequently, Peter here gives a metaphorical meaning to well known expressions. “Girding up the loins” meant tying up one’s loose outward garments as a prerequisite to being able to work unencumbered. It had the rough meaning of “Roll up your sleeves, and go to work.” Sure enough, the mind cannot roll up any sleeves; but the mind can be disciplined and prepared for the future by diligent prayer, study and contemplation. It was of this that Peter spoke. From this, and many other instances in this letter, Peter’s usual figurative method of expressing himself lends strong presumptive evidence to the conclusion that “Babylon” is a mystical name for “Rome.”
ENDNOTE:
[43] J. H. A. Hart, op. cit., p. 48.
1Pe 1:14 –as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance:
As children of obedience … “Despite its emphasis on Christian freedom, obedience is one of the cardinal virtues of the New Testament.”[44] Here is another metaphor. Obedience is represented as the mother of Christians.
Not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts … A noble principle is in view here. Through the practice of wickedness, people fashion themselves in the likeness of the sins they commit; and thus they become “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2 Eph 5:6; Col 3:6), the very opposite of what Peter required for Christians here.
In the time of your ignorance … The very nature of the Christless life is that it is controlled by lust, grounded in ignorance, and destined to end in futility.
ENDNOTE:
[44] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 100.
1Pe 1:15 –but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living;
Hunter properly discerned that the requirement here is about the same as that of Mat 5:48, namely, perfection.[45] Isaiah referred to the Father as “the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 30:15); and the great premise here is that children of such a God must themselves be holy “in all manner of living.” The writer of Hebrews likewise admonished to “Follow … holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14 KJV). The theologians may speak as long and as lustily as they like about being saved “through faith alone,” but this and a thousand other New Testament passages teach otherwise. Nor is this to allege that man has the ability to achieve this apart from being “in Christ.”
ENDNOTE:
[45] Ibid., p. 101.
1Pe 1:16 –because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.
As Kelcy observed, “Thus it is seen that holiness is basic to true religion in both the Old Testament and the New Testament; without it, no one shall see the Lord (Heb 12:14).”[46]
ENDNOTE:
[46] Raymond Kelcy, op. cit., p. 33.
1Pe 1:17 –And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear:
And if ye call on him as Father … This does not imply any doubt of their calling upon the Father, being like Jesus’ words, “If I go and prepare a place for you, etc.” (Joh 14:3). Peter’s familiarity with Jesus’ instructions with reference to God as Father is reflected in this; but his admonition seems to be that, “Although you familiarly address God as Father, do not overlook the fact that he is also the Judge of every man: “Who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work.”
According to each man’s work … This teaching is not peculiar to Peter; Paul declared that “God will render to every man according to his works” (Rom 2:6). The notion that being under the grace of God, and being saved by grace through faith, nullifies Scriptures such as these is extremely erroneous.
Pass the time of your sojourning in fear … Another strand of the epistle’s thought surfaces again here, as in 1Pe 1:1. Some have alleged a contradiction between this and John’s words, “Perfect love casteth out fear” (1Jn 4:18); but, as Caffin pointed out:
The fear which both Peter and Paul (Php 2:12) commended is holy fear, the fear of a son for a loving father, the fear of displeasing God before whom we walk, the very God who gave his blessed Son to die for us, and will judge us at the last.[47]
ENDNOTE:
[47] B. C. Caffin, op. cit., p. 9.
1Pe 1:18 –knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;
Ye were redeemed … This is one of the great ransom passages of the New Testament, along with Mar 10:45; 1Co 6:20; 1Ti 2:5; Rev 1:5, and many others.
Not with silver or gold … These are some of the corruptible things cited as examples; nothing of earthly value or merit made up the purchase price of Christians, but only the blood of Christ.
From your vain manner of life … Inherent in all redemption is the state from which we are redeemed, namely, a state of sin. Peter here notes that the Christians were redeemed “from the vain manner of life”; and this is in every way consonant with what the angel said to Joseph, speaking of Christ, “It is he that shall save his people from their sins.” The vanity, futility, lustfulness and ignorance of the Christless life are pointedly stressed in this chapter.
Handed down from your fathers … Ah, here is the secret of most of the error on earth. “In general, the strongest argument for false religions, as well as for errors in the true, is that men have received them from their fathers.”[48]
ENDNOTE:
[48] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 444.
1Pe 1:19 –but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ:
Again, Peter appropriates the corresponding Old Testament figure in describing the glorious redemption of the Christians. As Polkinghorne said:
The Passover lamb (Exodus), as the sacrifice whereby Israel was delivered from bondage and separated to the Lord, is richly significant in context, as is also the lamb of Isaiah 53, the passage so largely quoted in 1Pe 2:22-25.[49]
But with precious blood … This passage, with the preceding verse, sets forth Christ as the paschal lamb for Christians and describes the nature of the ransom price. Christ’s purpose of redeeming people was the great motivation of coming into the world.
WHY CHRIST CAME
He came to save us from our sins (Mat 1:21).
He came to give his life a ransom for many (Mar 10:45).
He came to suffer and rise again (Luk 24:46; Mat 20:28).
He came to take away the sins of the world (Joh 1:29).
He came to be a propitiation for sin (Rom 3:25).
He came that we might receive the reconciliation (Rom 5:11).
He came to buy us with a price (1Co 6:19).
He came to give himself a ransom for all (1Ti 2:5).
He came that he might redeem us from all iniquity (Tit 2:14).
He came that he might purify unto himself a people (Tit 2:14).
He came to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Heb 2:17).
He came to bear the sins of many (Heb 9:27).
He came to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself (Heb 9:26).
He came to offer one sacrifice for sins forever (Heb 10:12).
He came to redeem us with his blood (1Pe 1:18).
He came to bear our sins in his body on the tree (1Pe 2:24).
He came to suffer for sins that he might bring us to God (2Pe 3:18).
He came to be the propitiation for our sins (1Jn 2:2 1Jn 4:10).
He came to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
He came to take away sins (1Jn 3:5).
He came to loose us from our sins by his blood (Rev 1:5).
Therefore, salvation by the blood of Christ is the crimson thread that runs from Matthew to Revelation, and there is no adequate theology that fails to take this into consideration.
ENDNOTE:
[49] G. J. Polkinghorne, op. cit., p. 588.
1Pe 1:20 –who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake,
Who was foreknown indeed … The redemptive visitation of our world by the Son of God was known in purpose from the beginning, but “was kept in silence through times eternal” (Rom 16:25); it “in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men” (Eph 3:5); it was “hidden for ages and generations” (Col 1:26).
Before the foundation of the world … “This means `before Creation.'”[50] God chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 4:16). There is no full understanding of such a thing as this by finite intelligence; but the heart of faith believes it without reservation or doubt.
The Christian dispensation, the point and period in history of Christ’s coming, is here regarded as the climax and consummation of previous ages (see Heb 1:1-2 Heb 9:26).[51]
By his use of “manifested,” Peter also witnesses in this to the preexistence of Christ and the doctrine of the incarnation. It cannot be said of any ordinary man that he “was manifested.”
At the end of the times … “Peter regarded the Christian era as the last period in the religious history of man.”[52]
[50] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 103.
[51] Alan M. Stibbs, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 1Peter (London: The Tyndale Press, 1959), p. 92.
[52] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 103.
1Pe 1:21 –who through him are believers in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.
Who through him are believers in God … This tells to whom Christ has been manifested, those who believe in him and his resurrection and in the glory that God gave him. “Not that any secrecy was kept from the world in general, for the gospel was preached to every creature under heaven.”[53]
So that your faith and hope might be in God … This translation makes the purpose of Christ’s resurrection and glory to be that of creating faith in God; however the RSV rendition has it, “So that your faith and hope are in God.” However, this makes no difference, for the passage is true either way. “In fact, faith and hope in God are both the purpose and the result of Christ’s resurrection and ascension.”[54]
[53] E. M. Zerr, op. cit., p. 254.
[54] David H. Wheaton, op. cit., p. 1240.
Redeemed and Purified
1Pe 1:13-25
The appeal for a holy life is enforced by considering the great cost of our redemption and the great hope which is opened before us. Ours must be the girded loins, lest our desires trail after forbidden things, or be sullied by the mud on the road. We must be holy, as God is: and this can be realized only when we allow God, by His Holy Spirit, to pour Himself into our natures.
There is no fear like that which love begets. We do not fear God with the fear of the slave or felon, but with the fear of the love that cannot endure the thought of giving pain to the loving and loved. Who can think of returning to Egypt, when such a Passover lamb has redeemed us! Our redemption was not an after-thought with God. It is part of an eternal plan; let us not get entangled in the meshes of mere earthly ambition. Notice the familiar combination of faith, hope and love, 1Pe 1:21-22. But these graces are only indigenous in those who have been twice born by the Spirit through the Word.
for the grace
Grace (in salvation). 1Pe 5:12; Rom 3:24 (See Scofield “Joh 1:17”).
gird: Exo 12:11, 1Ki 18:46, 2Ki 4:29, Job 38:3, Job 40:7, Isa 11:5, Jer 1:17, Luk 12:35, Luk 17:8, Eph 6:14
be sober: 1Pe 4:7, 1Pe 5:8, Luk 21:34, Luk 21:35, Rom 13:13, 1Th 5:6, 1Th 5:7
hope: 1Pe 1:3-5, 1Pe 3:15, Rom 15:4-13, 1Co 13:13, 1Th 5:8, Heb 3:6, Heb 6:19, 1Jo 3:3
to the end: Gr. perfectly
the grace: 1Pe 1:4-9, Luk 17:30, 1Co 1:7, 2Th 1:7, 2Ti 4:8, Tit 2:11-13, Heb 9:28, Heb 10:35
Reciprocal: Exo 28:8 – curious Exo 39:27 – coats 2Ki 9:1 – Gird up thy loins Job 4:6 – thy hope Job 7:6 – without hope Psa 71:14 – But Psa 119:49 – upon which Psa 119:112 – the end Psa 147:11 – fear Pro 31:17 – girdeth Ecc 7:8 – Better Lam 3:26 – hope Zec 8:16 – are Mal 3:17 – son Mat 20:4 – Go Mat 25:10 – they Luk 22:32 – strengthen Joh 13:1 – unto Rom 8:18 – the glory Rom 12:3 – soberly Eph 4:23 – spirit Phi 3:14 – the high 2Ti 2:19 – depart Tit 2:2 – sober Jam 5:11 – and have 1Pe 1:5 – ready 1Pe 4:13 – when
COMING GRACE
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end [perfectly marg.] for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1Pe 1:13
There is to be a revelation of Jesus Christ. He is to appear, to be unveiled, to manifest Himself. He appeared once at His Incarnation to seek and to save that which was lost, God manifest in the flesh; but He appeared only for a time. Finishing the work of redemption, He went back to where He was before, became unseen, and abides there and thus now, and till the time of the restitution of all things. When He shall be revealed we know not; nor would it do us good to know. Enough for us to know and believe that He is coming.
The revelation of Jesus Christ brings grace. This does not imply that there is little or no grace now. Salvation is not postponed to the second Advent. We have sonship, living hope, security, faith, joy, love, here on earth. The Lord keeps His best wine unto the last. But with all the grace given now to believers, they need more, and get more, at His revelation. There is brought to them
I. The grace of perfect vision of Him Who is now unseen.They shall see Him as He is. To what extent and in what way He is seen between their death and His coming we know not. Their souls depart to be with Him where He is. Yet such a vision cannot be perfect in comparison with that which takes place when He appears in glory and they appear with Him. St. John places the beatific vision in connection with the manifestations of the sons of God at the redemption of the body, i.e. at Christs reappearing. Now we see only the reflection, as in a mirror, of Him and His glory; then we shall see Him face to face, and know even as now we are known.
II. There is brought to them the grace of perfect likeness to Christ.They shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is. While they gazed only at the image on the mirror, the assimilation was imperfect, slow, and gradual. When Christ is seen at death the likeness is complete as regards the soul. The revelation of Jesus Christ brings perfection of resemblance to the whole man, when He raises the body incorruptible, and spiritual, and glorious, changing it and fashioning it like unto the body of His own glory.
III. There is brought the grace of perfect acquittal.Now they have the grace of justification freely and fully; are pardoned and accepted in the Beloved; are assured, more or less, of their righteous standing before God through Christs righteousness. But all this is done very much as a secret between God and them, out of sight of the world, and sometimes without an undoubted assurance of it on their part. Grace, however, in the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ, will openly and fully declare and manifest their past justification, putting their salvation beyond all doubt, and ratifying all former gracious judicial action with them.
IV. There is brought the grace of perfect avowal and recognition.Christ then owns them as the blessed of His Father, for whom the kingdom was prepared: confesses them, without any shame, as worthy of Himself and their sonship and inheritance before the Father and the holy angels. Now He does acknowledge them, but not always openly, mostly in secret, by the witness of His spirit, by the works and sacrifices He enables them to do and make; not so, however, as that the world shall recognise this His testimony to them without fail, or account for it on other than natural and worldly principles. His name is not now visible on their foreheads, though written there; they carry no marks of their spiritual dignity on their persons here; the world knoweth them not, as it knew Him not. But then they shall appear with Him in His glory and sit with Him on His throne, claimed and manifested and treated as His own, whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren and to identify with His own eternal future.
V. There is brought the grace of perfect joy and glory for ever.Then they actually enter upon the inheritance, which is now reserved for them as they are kept for it; beyond all heaviness or need of it, no longer in pupilage or minority, no longer receiving earnests and first-fruits; having all happiness unalloyed; having God Himself as their God and portion for ever, with all enemies subdued.
Illustration
While apostolic men looked for the coming of Christ, they looked for it with no idea of dread, but, on the contrary, with the utmost joy. In this chapter St. Peter sets forth the glorious advent of our Lord as an event to be hoped for with eagerness. It was to him not a day of terror and of thunders and of overwhelming confusion, but a day of the consummation of the work of gracea period in which glory should crown the grace received through the first manifestation of the Lord. It was all joy to the early believers to think of the Lords appearing. The falling stars, the darkened sun, the blood-red moon, the quivering earth, the skies rolled up like an outworn vestureall these things had no horror for them since Jesus was thus coming. Though all creation should be in a blaze, and the elements should melt with fervent heat, yet Jesus was coming, and that was enough for them; the Bridegroom of their souls was on His way, and this was rapture unspeakable.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE HOPE OF THE ADVENT
A Christian mans thoughts and energies should be concerned with the Lords reappearing, and not the day of death. The day of death is never held up to us as the object of preparation. It is not in itself attractive. Whatever grace it brings is little in comparison with that brought by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation demands
I. Spiritual readiness, in the loins of the mind girded, the thoughts collected, braced, prepared, and on the alert, with nothing left till the last (cf. Luk 12:35-36).
II. Spiritual self-restraint, in sobriety; neither too elated nor too depressed; using the world as not abusing it; not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, taking heed to ourselves lest at any time our hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so that day come upon us unawares (St. Luk 21:34).
III. Perfect hope; desiring, picturing, expecting the revelation and what it brings; hoping perfectly, never letting go hope, though the day seems far off and the prospect grows dim; never saying, My Lord delayeth His coming, but rather, He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Hope, perfect hope, sustains and stimulates, gladdens and purifies, and so prepares us for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Illustration
How full of the Lord were the minds of the holy writers! St. Peter can scarcely write a verse without an allusion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, again, how ardently these men expected the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! St. Peter was continually speaking of it, and so was his beloved brother St. Paul. They evidently looked upon His advent as very near. They were not mistaken in this belief. It is very near. A long time has passed, say you? I answer, By no manner of means; two thousand years is not a long time in the count of God, or in reference to so grand a business. We are dealing with eternal things, and what are ages? Let us patiently wait. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness; let us persevere in the same belief which filled the minds of the early believers, that Jesus will come, and that He will surely come quickly. Be ye as men that look for His coming at any moment.
1Pe 1:13. Gird up the loins of your mind. The first two words are from the one Greek word ANAZONNUMI. Thayer gives the historical explanation of the term as follows: “A metaphor [illustration] derived from the practice of the Orientals, who in order to be unimpeded in their movements were accustomed, when about to start on a journey, or engage in any kind of work, to bind their long and flowing garments closely around their bodies and fasten them with a leathern girdle.” Robinson gives the same definition and explanation. It explains “loins girded” in Exo 12:11, and “cast thy garment about thee” in Act 12:8. Peter uses the circumstance as an illustration on the use of the mind. The Christian is exhorted to “get himself together” and be unhampered for the service of the Lord. To be sober means to be calm and collected, and not driven to extremes by the difficulties that beset them. Such a frame of mind will enable one to maintain his hope to the end. This hope is looking for the grace or favor of God that will be given through Jesus Christ, to be realized at His revelation which means his appearance at the last day.
1Pe 1:13. Wherefore: the exhortation is thus made immediately dependent on the previous statement of grace. The duty is born of the privilege. The wherefore, however, points back to the idea which called forth the ascription of praise with which the introduction opened, and not merely to the thought of the necessity of trial (de Wette), the grandeur of the grace (Calvin), the destination of the salvation from of old for these very readers (CEc.), or anything else which comes in only in the train of the leading idea. The connection, therefore, is not of the indeterminate form, Seeing this salvation was designed for you, and is so studied even by angels, be not ye unregardful of it (so substantially Alford, etc.). It is far more pointed than that, and amounts to this,God, then, by so marvellous a provision of His mercy, having begotten you unto a living hope, see that you make that hope your own, and live wholly up to it.
having girt up the loins of your mind. The first exhortation is not to watchfulness and endurance in hope (Alford), but to hope specifically. The three verbs do not enjoin each a distinct duty, but the first two (gird up and be sober) express conditions which are necessary to the discharge of one great duty of hope which is denoted by the third. The act of tucking up the loose Eastern tunic in preparation for travelling or running, for work or conflict, or for any kind of exertion (cf. Israels preparation for the flight from Egypt, Exo 12:11; Elijahs for running before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel, 1Ki 18:46; and Davids for the battle, Psa 18:32; Psa 18:39), is the natural figure of a certain mental preparedness. There is an evident fitness in applying the figure to men in the pilgrim state described in 1Pe 1:1 and 1Pe 2:11, and it is possible that Christs own injunction (Luk 12:35) may have given form to Peters phrase. The tense indicates that the attitude of mind here in view must first be taken up definitely and once for all before the kind of hopefulness which is charged on these sojourners can be made good. The term used here for mind is admirably in point. It is the term which denotes the understanding in its practical issues, and in its intercourse with the outer world, the higher intellectual nature specially in its dealings with things without, the power of thought as a process of close and thorough scrutiny of outer objects, and as a special outward attitude of the soul (Beck, Biblical Psychology, p. 71). The clause, therefore, expresses the necessity of a certain mental concentration, the putting a check upon the dissipation of thought on the interests or trials of the present. The man who will live up to the hope into which God begat him must begin by reining in the tendency of his thoughts to wander everywhere, and by turning his mind, in its habitual outward attitude, to the great vision of the future.
being sober, a second condition necessary to the hopefulness which should characterize the Christian pilgrim. The sobriety in view here, as often elsewhere, involves much more than moderation in regard to appetite. It means the settled self-control, the elevated equanimity which should make the Christian superior to the distractions of the present, and save him equally from undue elation in the pleasures of time, and from excess of sorrow in its pains. This, as a disposition to be continuously maintained, is expressed in the present tense, practising sobriety, where the former condition was in the past.
hope perfectly: the former things have defined the kind of hopefulness which is urged. This is usually taken to be still more distinctly described by the addition of the term which is rendered to the end by the A. V. It is doubtful, however, to which of the two clauses this adverb (which is found nowhere else in the New Testament, and which has the larger sense of completely, so as to leave nothing lacking, rather than the temporal force to the end ) is to be attached. It may qualify the sobriety (practising a perfect sobriety)a connection entirely in point, and saving one of these related phrases from being left in an unqualified independence unlike the other two. If it is attached to the hope (as most interpreters attach it), it defines it as one that will rise to the full idea of a regenerate hope, and leave nothing to desire. Once let a guard be established against the natural waywardness of thought, and let the self-collectedness be sustained which looks with a calm eye upon earths joys and sorrows, and they will be able to lead a life of hopeful expectation worthy of that act of Gods grace by which they were begotten into hope.
for the grace. It is questioned whether we should translate for the grace or on the grace. The construction is peculiar, and found exactly, indeed, nowhere else, in the New Testament, except in 1Ti 5:5 (in 1Pe 3:5 also, according to the received text, but not according to the best editors). It is not uncommon, however, in the Greek Version of the Old Testament. Some take the sense to bemake the grace the strength or foundation of your hope. So Huther considers grace to be presented here simply as that from which the fulfilment of hope is expected, and others (e.g. Mason) hold it introduced as that in the strength of which we are confidently to look for glory. The truth which is struck, however, is deeper. Grace is exhibited here as the object of our hope, and the shade of meaning suggested by the uncommon construction is simply that our hope is to be turned fully and confidently toward it. What is otherwise called glory or salvation is here called grace, the believers present being seminally the believers future, and glory being the blossom of which grace is the bud.
which is being brought unto you: not which is to be brought, as if the object of hope were remote, and wholly of the future; but which is a-bringing, already on the wing, and bearing ever nearer.
in the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, at His final advent. Both the currency of the phrase itself and the close connection instituted by the opening wherefore between the ideas of this section and those of the Preface forbid us to understand it of the present revelation of Christ in the Gospel.
Our apostle having laid before them their high and glorious privileges in the foregoing verses, comes now to excite them to the practice of several needful and important duties in this and the following verses.
The first of which is vigilance and watchfulness, preparation and readiness of mind: Gird up the loins of your mind: an allusion both to runners and waiters; to such as run in a race, and to such as wait upon their master; who both gird up their clothes (which in those eastern countries they wear down to their heels) that they might not hinder or trouble them, either in running or waiting.
Next, to be sober, and keep up their hope steadfastly and perseveringly to the end, for that grace and salvation, for that perfection in holiness and glory, which God will certainly give us at the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.
Here note, 1. The grace and duty which they are exhorted to be found in the exercise of, and that is, hope; to persevere in hope unto the end. That is a divine grace, and necessary duty, whereby a believer for Christ’s sake expects and waits for all the great and good things which God has promised, but the Christian at present not received.
Note, 2. The direction given in order to the exercise of this grace and duty of hope, Gird up the loins of your mind. Habits of grace are altogether unprofitable to us, without they be excited by us, and stirred up in us. When we pray, when we hear, we must gird up our loins in praying and hearing; or in the prophet’s phrase, Stir up yourselves to take hold on God. A man upon his sick bed must gird up the loins of his mind to bear his affliction, else he will not profit by it nor answer the end of God in it. No grace can be exercised, no duty can be performed, by a soul ungirded: Gird up the loins of your mind, that ye may hope, &c.
Because Salvation Has Arrived
Peter’s next description of Christians would literally be rendered as children of obedience and suggests they ought to act as if they belong to obedience. This should be done instead of putting on the ways of the world and acting like worldly people act ( Rom 12:1-2 ; Eph 2:2 ; Eph 5:6-7 ; Col 3:4-10 ). That was the past lifestyle of those to whom Peter wrote. It was the way they lived when they were in ignorance, which would suggest they were Gentiles ( 1Pe 1:14 ; Act 17:30 ; Eph 4:17-18 ).
1Pe 1:13-16. Wherefore Since your lot is fallen into these glorious times, wherein you enjoy such high privileges above what the people of God formerly enjoyed; since the blessings which are set before you are so invaluable, and are so freely offered you, and you have such great encouragement to believe you may attain them; gird up the loins of your mind Prepare to pursue them with vigour, constancy, and perseverance, and to perform the various duties which they lay you under an indispensable obligation steadily to practise. The apostle alludes to the manners of the eastern countries, in which the mens garments being long and flowing, they prepared themselves for travelling, and other active employments, by girding them up with a girdle put round their loins, to prevent their being encumbered by them. The loins of the mind, therefore, is a figurative expression for the faculties of the soul, the understanding, memory, will, and affections, which the apostle signifies must be gathered in and girded, as it were, about the soul by the girdle of truth, so as to be in a state fit for continual and unwearied exertion in running the Christian race, fighting the good fight of faith, and working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Our mind must not be overcharged at any time with surfeiting and drunkenness, or the cares of this life: our affections must be placed on proper objects, and in a just degree; and especially must be set on the things that are above, which are to be our portion and felicity for ever: our various passions must be under the government of reason and religion, of the truth and grace of God. Be sober Or rather, watchful, as properly signifies, as servants that wait for their Lord; and hope to the end , hope perfectly, namely, with the full assurance of hope; for the grace The blessings flowing from the free favour of God; to be brought unto you at the final and glorious revelation of Jesus Christ At the end of the world. As obedient children As children of God, obedient to him in all things; not fashioning Or conforming; yourselves In spirit and conduct; according to Or, as if you were influenced by; your former desires in your ignorance When you were unacquainted with those better things which now claim the utmost vigour of your affections. But as he which hath called you To be his children and his heirs; is holy A being perfectly pure and spiritual; be ye holy In imitation of him, your heavenly Father; in all manner of conversation , in your whole behaviour, in all your tempers, words, and works, from day to day.
ARGUMENT 4
MORTALITY AND SPIRITUALITY
13. Therefore having girded up the loins of your mind, being perfectly sober, hope unto the grace which is to be conferred upon you in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Man is a trinity similitudinous to God. He has body, mind and spirit. The great bulk of theologians, since the Constantinian apostasy, have been dichotomists, i.e., dualists treating man as consisting of two natures instead of three, confounding mind and spirit. As the result of this heresy, mentalities are everywhere preached as a substitute for spiritualities. John Wesley was a staunch trichotomist, in harmony with Paul, Peter and other inspired writers. He fought the dichotomists all his life, little anticipating that within one hundred years the great majority of his Gospel sons would preach dichotomy. In ordinary parlance, soul, heart and spirit are synonymous, meaning the man himself in contradistinction to the mind and body, his servitors. When God said to Adam, In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, He meant just what He said. He did not tell him his mind should die (in which case he would become idiotic), nor that his body should die (in which case he would become a corpse). Adam the immortal spirit did die, i.e., forfeit the life of God, and so remains till that life is restored in regeneration. Hence you see that total depravity (which means entirely deprived of spiritual life) only appertains to the spirit of Adam and not to his mind nor his body. Consequently great systems of religion prevail in the earth, consisting of materiality and mentality, utterly destitute of spirituality and equally devoid of salvation, for when you leave out the human spirit you eliminate the man, retrogressing toward brutality. The human spirit is constituted of the conscience, the will and the affections. The conscience was the only survivor of the fall, the voice of God still lingering in the soul of the vilest reprobate, true and faithful, taking Gods side against the sinner. The will, the king of the man, is on the devils side till turned over to God in conversion, after which it ever remains true to God, unless unfortunately turned back to the devil in apostasy. After conversion, hereditary evil still survives in the deep regions of the affections, until utterly extirpated in the glorious subsequent work of entire sanctification. The mind consists of the intellect, the judgment, the memory and the sensibilities. The popular gospel is mainly mentality, which is simply no gospel at all. Popular religion consists of morality, philanthropy, mentality and churchianity, all of which are utterly destitute of salvation, leaving the poor devotee to drop into hell. The true religion, while including all these things, is pure spirituality, begun, perpetuated and perfected in the heart by the Holy Ghost, bringing in the new life in regeneration, eliminating carnality in sanctification, then filling and flooding the soul. Perfectly sober. In this valuable passage, unfortunately the adverb perfectly is omitted in the English. Sin is the only thing that ever made the human soul drunk. When your soul receives entire sanctification, expurgating all original sin, then it is made perfectly sober. Hope unto the grace which is to be conferred on you in the revelation of Jesus Christ. In this verse we are commanded first to gird up the loins of our minds i.e., to use all the sense that God has given us to the best possible advantage. Then we are to reach perfect spiritual sobriety, which is none other than complete sanctification. Now, we have reached the attitude of preparation and expectancy of our Lords coming in His glorious kingdom. Then follows the positive commandment, Hope unto the grace which is contained in the revelation of Jesus Christ. What is that grace which is to be conferred on the true saints when our Lord is revealed in His glory? It is none other than our glorified transfiguration. The New Testament repeatedly certifies that the Gentile age in which we live is the last predecessor of the glorious millennial kingdom, while the prophecies certainly settle the conclusion that we are living in the time of the end when our Lords coming is very nigh. Pursuant to the prophecies we are on the constant outlook for the rapture in which the glorified Jesus will transfigure the members of His bridehood, taking them up while the great tribulation sweeps over all nations. As none but the wholly sanctified will constitute the bridehood, the greatest conceivable incentives constantly inspire the true Christian to keep under the blood, robed and ready for the transcendent grace of this glorious transfiguration when the Lord shall ride down on the cloud.
1Pe 1:13-21. Here the practical aim of the epistle becomes at the earliest possible moment clearly manifest. The writer finds in the central reality of the Christian faiththe example, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus Christthe truest source of good conduct. He reminds them that all this has taken place that they may be sharers in the character of God. Hope in God can have no other logical issue than conformity to His will.
1Pe 1:13. girding up: a metaphor derived from a necessity of Eastern costume, and perhaps with special reference to the Passover. It is found also on the lips of Jesus (Luk 12:35).
1Pe 1:14. in the time of your ignorance: one of the proofs that the communities were originally Gentile.
1Pe 1:15. Read mg., Like the Holy One which called you, a reminiscence of Isaiahs distinctive name for God.
1Pe 1:17. May not this refer to the Lords Prayer and be an evidence of its early use in worship? Speaking of this verse and those which follow, Bigg writes: This full passage affords an admirable illustration of what we may call Petrinism, the mingled severity and tenderness of the Christian disciplinarian. It is noteworthy, as Gunkel points out, that no attempt is made to reconcile or explain Fatherhood and Judgeshipthey are simply postulated as equally real. The necessity of holiness is here grounded on three considerations: (1) the character of God, (2) the reality of judgment, and (3) the costliness of redemption.
1Pe 1:19. precious blood: this goes back not only to the sacrifices of the OT and such passages as Isaiah 53, but much more strikingly to the scene at Calvary; loves constraint is, as with Paul, the supreme argument.
1Pe 1:20. foreknown: this implies Christs pre-existence, in which this writer agrees with other NT thinkers, a doctrine derived from later Jewish speculation, e.g. the Book of Enoch (passim).
1Pe 1:21. faith and hope: as by all the NT writers this is grounded on the fact of Christs resurrection, and it is Gods action in that event which is here, as by Paul, emphasized, since the gist of the whole argument rests on Gods consistency of character, and our reliance thereupon.
Verse 13
Gird up, &c. The loose dress worn in those days had to be drawn around the body by a girdle, whenever any exertion or labor was required. Luke 12:35. John 13:4.) Hence the act of girding came to represent earnest preparation for duty. In this case, the direction means, Enter resolutely upon the work before you.–For the grace; the favor,–referring here evidently to the future happiness of the Christian.
1:13 {4} Wherefore {g} gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and {5} hope {h} to the end for the grace {6} that is to be brought unto you {7} at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
(4) He goes from faith to hope, which is indeed a companion that cannot be separated from faith. He uses an argument taken by comparison: We should not be wearied in looking for so excellent a thing, which the very angels wait for with great desire.
(g) This is a borrowed speech, taken from common use among them: for since they wore long garments, they could not travel unless they girded up themselves: and hence it is that Christ said, Let your loins be girded up.
(5) He sets forth very briefly, what manner of hope ours ought to be, that is, continual, until we enjoy the thing we hope for: then, what we have to hope for, that is, grace (that is, free salvation) revealed to us in the gospel, and not that, that men do rather and fondly promise to themselves.
(h) Soundly and sincerely.
(6) An argument to stir up our minds, seeing that God does not wait until we seek him, but causes so great a benefit to be brought even unto us.
(7) He sets out the end of faith, lest any man should promise himself, either sooner or latter, that full salvation, that is, the latter coming of Christ. In addition warns that that which we are now, is not yet revealed.
B. Our New Way of Life 1:13-25
Peter wanted his readers to live joyfully in the midst of sufferings. Consequently he outlined his readers’ major responsibilities to enable them to see their duty clearly so they could carry it out. These responsibilities were their duties to God, to other believers, and to the world.
The first sub-section of this epistle (1Pe 1:3-12) stressed walking in hope. The second sub-section (1Pe 1:13-25) emphasizes walking in holiness, reverence, and love. Peter held out several incentives to encourage his suffering readers to walk appropriately: God’s glory (1Pe 1:13), God’s holiness (1Pe 1:14-15), God’s Word (1Pe 1:16), God’s judgment (1Pe 1:17), and God’s love (1Pe 1:18-21). [Note: Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, 2:395.] Peter presented the believer’s duty to God as consisting of three things: a correct perspective, correct behavior, and a correct attitude.
1. A life of holiness 1:13-16
"Therefore" ties in with everything Peter had explained thus far (1Pe 1:3-12). He said in effect, Now that you have focused your thinking positively you need to roll up your sleeves mentally, pull yourselves together, and adopt some attitudes that will affect your activities.
". . . the thought is: ’Make up your mind decisively!’" [Note: Lenski, p. 51.]
"The English phrase ’pull yourselves together’ would express the meaning." [Note: Selwyn, p. 139.]
"In Israel an ordinary person wore as the basic garment a long, sleeveless shirt of linen or wool that reached to the knees or ankles. Over this mantle something like a poncho might be worn, although the mantle was laid aside for work. The shirt was worn long for ceremonial occasions or when at relative rest, such as talking in the market, but for active service, such as work or war, it was tucked up into a belt at the waist to leave the legs free (1Ki 18:46; Jer 1:17; Luk 17:8; Joh 21:18; Act 12:8). Thus Peter’s allusion pictures a mind prepared for active work." [Note: Davids, p. 66. Cf. Exodus 12:11 LXX.]
Sober of spirit describes a Christian who is in full control of his speech and conduct in contrast to one who allows his flesh (i.e., his sinful human nature) to govern him.
The main duty, however, is to become conscious of the culmination of our hope when Christ returns (cf. 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 4:3; Tit 2:10-13). When we do this, present trials will not deflect us from obeying God faithfully now. In other words, Peter urged his readers to face their daily trials with a specific attitude clearly and constantly in mind. We should remember that what God will give us soon as a reward for our faithful commitment to Him is worth any sacrifice now (cf. Rom 8:18).
Chapter 4
THE CHRISTIANS IDEAL, AND THE STEPS THEREUNTO
1Pe 1:13-21
THE Apostle, who has set forth the character of the Christians election, who has given to the converts large assurance for the hope which he exhorts them to hold, who has proclaimed the exceeding glory of their inheritance in the future and how its nature had been foreshadowed in type and prophecy, now turns to those practical lessons which he would enforce from the doctrines of election and of future glory in heaven. Such glorious privileges cannot be looked forward to without awakening a sense of corresponding duties, and for these he would not have them unprepared. “Wherefore,” he says, because you have the assurance of what the best men of old only dimly foresaw, “girding up the loins of your mind, be sober.” The Apostle has in mind the words of his Master, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord”. {Luk 12:35-36} The advent of the bridegroom may be sudden; those who would be of his train must be prepared for their summons. To be girt in body is a token of readiness for coming duty. And St. Peters figure would speak more forcibly to Eastern ears than it does to ours. Without such girding the Oriental is helpless for active work, the encumbrance of his flowing robes being fatal to exertion. The heart of the Christian must be untrammeled with the cares, the affections, the pleasures of the world. He must be free to run the race which lies before him, as was the well-girt prophet who ran before the royal chariot to the entrance of Jezreel.
And the Christian life is no light care, as St. Peter pictures it. First, he says, “Be sober.” To train the mind to exercise self-restraint is no easy duty at any time, but specially in a season of religious excitement. We know how converts in the very earliest days of Christianity were carried into excesses both in action and in word; and in every age of quickened activity some have been found with whom freedom degenerated into license, and emotion took the place of true religious feeling. The Jewish converts in the provinces of Asia might be tempted to despise those who still clung to the ancient faith, while some of those who had been won from heathenism might by their conduct alienate rather than win their brethren in Christ. We gather what was the nature of the peril when we find the Apostle {1Pe 4:7} urging this sobriety as a frame of mind to be cultivated even in their prayers, and St. Paul in his advice to Timothy combining the exhortation to sobriety with “suffer hardship; do the work of an evangelist.” {2Ti 4:5} It is the frame of mind meet for the maintenance of sound doctrine, utterly opposed to those itching ears which are only satisfied with teaching according to their own lusts. Fitly therefore does our Apostle add to his first exhortation a second which will make the believers steadfast: “Set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you.” In those early days this counsel was not always easy to follow. There were many enticements to wavering, many trials which made the firm hold on strong faith difficult to maintain. And with the “perfectly” must be combined that other sense of the word “to the end.” The hope must be perfect in its nature, unshaken in its firmness, persuaded of the certainty of the future grace, and strengthened in that persuasion by the experience of the present working of the Spirit. But the language of the Apostle almost anticipates the future. He says not so much that the grace is “to be brought,” but rather that it is even now “being brought” near and coming ever nearer; for the revelation of Jesus Christ is progressive. Though we learn something, it is only so much as teaches us that there is more still to learn of the boundless stores of grace. But as in a former verse he spake of believers as having already by faith their salvation in possession, even such is his language here. And mark his lesson on the free gift of Gods grace. It is not a blessing to which the believer can attain of his own power. He can hope for it; he can feel assured that God in His own time will bestow it. But whenever it comes, either as present grace to help in trial, or future grace which shall be revealed, it is given, brought, bestowed; and its full fruition will only be reached “at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” But assuredly these words may be applied to this life as well as to the next. He who said, “The Holy Spirit shall take of Mine and declare it unto you,” designs to be ever more and more revealed in the hearts of His followers. His grace is being brought to them day by day, and trains continually unto obedience those who have been sprinkled with His blood.
And this obedience is the next precept for which they are to be made ready by the girding up of the loins of their minds, “as children of obedience,” the obedience not of slaves, but of sons. Children they are become by virtue of the new birth, and obedience it is which gives them a claim upon Gods Fatherhood. They must seek for the docility and trustfulness of the childlike character; they must accept a law other than their own wills, having taken upon them the yoke of Christ and aiming, in the light of His example, to become worthy of being reckoned among His true followers.
When they contemplate their own lives, they must feel that a mighty change is needed from what they were aforetime. St. Peters words mark the completeness of the needed change: “not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts.” In time past they had sought no further for a guide and pattern than their own perverted desires; now they must school themselves to say, “Do with me as Thou wilt, for I am Thine.” And He whose grace has begotten them again will help them to frame their lives by His rule, will have them learn of Him. But while the Apostle dwells on the difference which must come over the lives of these converts, mark the wondrous charity with which he alludes to their former life in error. “In the time of your ignorance,” he says. Even here he follows the example of the Lord, who prayed in His agony, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Sin blinds the moral and the mental vision too, and men so blinded sink deeper and deeper into the slough, while he who has learnt Christ has gained another source of light. But, to raise the ignorant, they must be taught; and tenderness makes teaching most effective, and charity dictates the apostolic words. So St. Paul at Athens to those who worshipped an unknown God offered instruction to win them from their ignorance, and pointed them to a God whose offspring they were, and to whose likeness they might be conformed.
Just so does St. Peter: “Like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living.” This has been Gods call from the first day until now, but what a hopeless height is this for the sinner to aim after, holy as God is holy! Yet it is the standard which Christ sets before us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” And why does He propose to us that which is impossible? Because with the command He is ready to supply the power. He knows our frailty; knows what is in man both of strength and weakness. At the same time He proclaims to us by this command what God intends to make of us. He will restore us again to His own likeness. That which was Gods at first shall be made Gods once more. The marred image, on which not even the superscription can be traced, shall again be revealed in full clearness, and the believer purged from all the defilements of sin by the grace and help of Him who says, “Be ye perfect,” because He loves to make us so. “Because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” This command comes down to us from the earliest days of the Law. But in those old times it could not be said, “in all manner of living.” These words betoken the loftier standard of the New Testament. The patriarchs and prophets and the people among whom they lived were trained, and could only be trained, little by little. Even in the best among them we cannot hope for holiness in all manner of living. It was only by the types and figures of external purification that their thoughts were directed to the inner cleansing of the heart, and long generations passed before the lessons were learnt, The full sense of the Fatherhood of God was not attained under the Law, nor did men under it learn fully to live as children of obedience, children of a Father who loves and will succor every effort which they make to walk according to His law. The Incarnation has brought God nearer to man, and on this relationship of love the Apostle grounds his further exhortation:
“And if ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each mans work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.”
But the fear which St. Peter means is a fear which grows out of love, a fear to grieve One who is so abundant in mercy. Who can call on God as Father but the children of obedience? About the Fathers will and His power to make you holy there need be no fear. He has called men and bidden them strive after holiness. The way is steep, but they will not be unattended. What fear then of failing to attain the goal? For the Father will also be the Judge. And here is the ground for eternal hope and thankfulness, which the Apostle expresses in words akin to those which he used in the house of Cornelius: “Now I see that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.” Yes, this is the fear which God looks for, not a paralyzing dread which checks all effort and kills out all hope. Our Judge knows that our work will be full of faults, but fear of Him must nerve us to make the endeavor. It is not what men do, the feeble sum of their performance that He regards. The way, the spirit, the motive, from which it is wrought- these will be the ground of our Fathers judgment. Hence the Gospel is a message for all the world alike. The poor and lowly, to whom no great deeds are possible, may through it live a life of hope. It is not great gifts poured into the treasury from an abundant store that have value in His eyes, but the gifts which come with a hearts sacrifice-these are precious indications, and receive the blessing, “They have done what they could.” And Gods children are to look on their life as no more than a brief pilgrimage. It is a time of sojourning, in which the small occurrences are of little account. Earth is to the Christian, what Egypt wag of old to the Hebrews, no home, but a place of trial and oppression of the enemy. God will bring His children forth, even as He did of old. But the dread to be most entertained is lest the many attractions should, like the fleshpots of the history, win the affection of the pilgrims, and make them not unwilling to linger in the house of bondage and to think lightly of peril which surrounds them there. The great preservative from this danger is to revive constantly the thought of the great things which have been done for us. Be in fear of the world and its beguilements, says St. Peter, “knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers.” The redemption price is paid, has been paid for all men. Shall any then be willing to tarry in their slavery? Ye were redeemed. The work is complete. “It is finished,” was the last sigh of the dying Lord, who before had testified that His true disciples might be of good cheer, because He had overcome the world.
But in the hearts of men the world and its allurements die very hard. The men for whom St. Peter wrote would surely find this so. They had many of them lived long either under Judaism or in heathendom, and would be surrounded still by friends and kinsmen who clung to the ancient teaching and customs. Prejudices were sure to abound, and the ties of blood in such cases are very strong, as we know ourselves from mission experience in India. The Apostle speaks of their manner of life as handed down from their fathers. He may have had in his thought the corruption of the human race from the sin of our first parents. Generation after generation has been involved in the consequences of that primal transgression. But he probably thought rather of the converts from idolatry and the life which they had led in their days of ignorance. Of Gods covenant with the chosen people, though now it was abolished, St. Peter would hardly speak as a vain manner of life. But to the worship of the heathen the word might fitly be applied. Paul and Barnabas entreat the crowd at Lystra, who would have done sacrifice to them. as to their gods, to turn from these vanities to serve the living God; {Act 14:15} and to the Ephesians St. Paul writes that they should no longer walk, as the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. {Eph 4:17} The parents of such men, having themselves no knowledge, could impart none to their children, could not lift them higher, could not make them purer; and yet the ties of natural affection would plead strongly for what had been held right by their fathers for generations.
But the price which has been paid for their ransom may convince them how precious they are in the eyes of a Father in heaven. They are redeemed “with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” even the blood of Christ. For ages the offering of sacrifices had kept before the minds of Israel the need of a redemption, but they could do no more. The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer suffice only to the purifying of the flesh, and can never take away sin. But now the true fountain is opened, and St. Peter has learnt, and bears witness, what was the meaning of the words of Jesus, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me”. {Joh 13:8} The door of mercy is opened, that by the knowledge of such wondrous love the hearts of men may be opened also.
And this counsel of God has been from all eternity. Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” as the Lamb to be offered for human redemption. The world and its history form but a tiny fragment of Gods mighty works, and yet for mankind a plan so overflowing with love was included in the vision of Jehovah before man or his home had existence except in the Divine mind. Now by the Incarnation the secret counsel is brought to light, and the foretokenings of type and prophecy receive their interpretation. “He was manifested at the end of the times for your sake.” He was made flesh, and tabernacled among men; He showed by the signs which He wrought that He was the Savior drawing near to them that they might draw near unto Him. His lifting up on the cross spake of the true healing of the souls of all who would look unto Him. And when death had done its work upon the human body, He was manifested more thoroughly as the beloved Son of God by His resurrection from the grave. The first Christians felt that Gods work was now complete, salvation secured. It is not unnatural therefore that they should expect the drama of the worlds history soon to be closed. For the Master had not seldom spoken of the coming of a speedy judgment. Hence the age in which they lived seemed to merit the name of “the end of the times.” We now can see that the judgment of which Christ spake was wrought in great part by the overthrow of Jerusalem, though His words are still prospective, and will not find their entire fulfillment till the close of human history; and the whole Christian era may be intended and included in “the end of the times.” This was the goal towards which Gods counsel had been moving since the world was made. No new revelation is to be looked for, and we who live in the light of Christs religion are those upon whom the ends of the world are come. In this sense the words may be applied in every age and to every generation of Christians. To them, as to St. Peters converts, the preacher may testify, “For your sakes” all this was planned and wrought, and may offer the ransom of the Savior to His people, assured that in this speck of time Christ is being manifested for their sake also. For “they through Him are believers in God,” as the Lord Himself hath testified. “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me”; “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” The words are as true today as when Christ was upon earth. Since the Fall the glory and majesty of Jehovah have been unapproachable. Sin rendered man both unfit and unable to have the pure communion of the days of innocence. It was the vision of Jesus by faith which brought Abraham near to God and filled him with joy. And so with all the saints and prophets of the first covenant. They beheld Him, but it was afar off. They greeted the maturing promises, but only as strangers and pilgrims upon earth. To the Asian converts and to us also the testimony of St. Peter and his fellows is from those who beheld the glory of God as it was manifested in Christ, who saw Him when raised from the dead, and watched His ascent into the glory of heaven. And by such witness faith in what God has wrought is confirmed. We are sure that He raised Christ from the dead; we are sure that He has received Him into glory: and thus through all generations the faith and hope of Christians are sustained and rest unshaken upon God.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
1. Of the holy nature of Him whom we invoke as Father, whose children we are, whom therefore we are bound to imitate and to obey.
6. Of our new birth by the living Word of God.M.]
[Cod. Sin. *.M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DIRECTIONS HOW TO SEEK HEAVEN WITH SUCCESS
The day of judgment is here called the revelation of Jesus Christ
[Jesus Christ was revealed in the first promise that was made to man [Note: Gen 3:15.]. He was also exhibited in the sacrifices which Abel offered [Note: Heb 11:4; Heb 12:24.]. In successive ages he was made known in clearer prophecies [Note: Gen 22:18 and Isa 53:4-5; Isa 53:11.], and typified by various ordinances of the Jewish ritual [Note: Compare Exo 12:5. with 1Pe 1:19.]. In process of time he was personally manifested in human flesh, and shewed himself to be the Son of God by most irrefragable proofs [Note: Act 2:22. Rom 1:4.]. In the preaching of his Gospel he was yet more fully revealed. The glory of God as shining in his face is most transcendently displayed [Note: 2Co 4:6.]; still however we see him as yet only through a glass darkly [Note: 1Co 13:12.]. But in the last day he will appear in all his majesty and glory [Note: Mat 25:31.]: he will be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire [Note: 2Th 1:7-8.]. His enemies, no less than his friends, will then see him to be King of kings, and Lord of lords.]
[Grace and glory are sometimes used as synonymous terms in Scripture [Note: 2Co 3:18. compared with the text.]; indeed, grace is glory begun, and glory is grace consummated. The spiritual blessings which God bestows, appear now to be the gifts of grace [Note: Eph 2:7-8.]; but how much more shall we acknowledge the glories of heaven to be so! How shall we marvel at the goodness of God in all his dealings towards us! How shall we adore his wisdom, even in the darkest of his dispensations. How shall we stand amazed that we were saved, while so many others were lost! Surely, when the top-stone is brought forth, we shall cry, Grace, grace, unto it [Note: Zec 4:7.]. All this felicity shall be brought unto us openly, and in rich abundance. Now, the grace imparted to us is small, though sufficient for us; and the consolations vouchsafed unto us, are known only to ourselves. But in that day the kingdom will be given us in the presence of the whole universe [Note: Mat 25:32; Mat 25:34.]; and our happiness shall be commensurate with our capacities and desires. What we partake of now, we obtain by diligent pursuit. What we receive then, shall be brought unto us freely by the hand of Jesus himself.]
He recommends to us three things:
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary