Preparing for His Coming

Our text this morning was 1 Peter 1:13-17 which says, Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.  (14)  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  (15)  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;  (16)  for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." (17) Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

In preparing for this glorious salvation that will come to every believer, Peter exhorts us to do six things.

First, prepare your minds for action

I'm sorry, but that does not sound as good as "gird up the loins of our minds."

Willmington says, "This girding calls to mind a patriarch of the Old Testament who wore a long flowing robe.  Around that robe he had a big belt called a girdle.  When the time came that he had to move swiftly, he pulled it up and lapped it over the belt.  He girded up his loins and was ready for action."

Second, be self-controlled.

To be self-controlled means to be "calm; not under the influence of passion."

Third, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

In other words, keep your eyes on Jesus no matter how it looks around you.

Fourth, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

(v.14).

In other words, we believers who are looking for salvation, we are to be governed by a different rule because the old rules that we lived by then, not longer apply to us.

Fifth, be holy in all you do (16) for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy. (vv.15-16).

This meaning is simple: since God is holy, and we profess to be His followers, we should be holy as well.

Sixth, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear (v.17).

Peter is also saying that we are to not lose sight of the fact that we are only going to be here for a short while.

We are pilgrims who are merely passing through (1:1; 2:11)

The Judgment Seat

Finally, notice in these verses that Peter reminds us that one day there will be a judgment when he says, Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially.

The judgment that Peter speaks of here is the Judgment Seat of Christ.

It is at this judgment that we will all give an account of how we passed our time here in this life.

Wiersbe points out that the Greek word for "judge" in this verse means "to judge in order to find something good."

In other words, in that day, God will be looking for our motives so that He may glorify Himself in our lives and ministries.