Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13-14
The scriptures prior to this are assuring the saints of God’s grace and salvation. Because of this assurance, consequently or therefore, we should do the following things. AW Tozer said this “A teaching and awareness of the foundational truths of the Bible without any practice of moral application is futile”. Here in this scripture God is saying put these following things into practice.
Gird up your loins! I would say most of us do NOT know this phrase and the meaning of it but in biblical times it was the idea of getting oneself ready for battle. During those days, men would take the clothing they are wearing and wrap it up around the waist in order that nothing would hinder their ability to go into battle and fight. It was tied up in such a fashion that hard work could be done.
In today’s world, most of us are not going into physical battles, but we do have work God is calling us to and battles in our minds. I believe this is the true battle today for many of us. It is the daily battle of preparing our minds for the world and the work God is calling us to. God tells us to arm ourselves, to lay aside every weight, to lay down the old self, to not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God has called us to specific works.
For a newly saved Christian, you may not know what this is so ask God to reveal this to you. But for some of us who are what they called a seasoned saint (one who has been saved for a long time and walking with God), we know what work He has called us to. Are we wondering around aimlessly expecting different results but only putting in the same amount of work? But I wonder, just as Tozer said above, are we doing these things or are we just preaching the truths of the Word without any application? As the last days draw closer, we must gird up the loins of our mind.
The second part of this scripture is to be sober. Sober is defined as being free from the influence of intoxicants. We often think about alcohol when hearing the word sober. Alcohol causes a person’s reason and judgement to not be in control. I think most of us can relate to this either in own personal lives or seeing the life of others. Those under the influence of an intoxicant like this are subject to be on what I call a rollercoaster of emotions. These emotions are a repetition of highs and lows and are unstable in many ways.
Maybe alcohol is not a problem for you, maybe it is social media or the news that is influencing your emotions. God is calling the Christian to live a life levelheaded and stable especially with our emotions. We should not be easily influenced by the things around us in the world. (things like Covid-19, protesting, elections, wildfires, homeschooling, and the like). Are we doing these things or are we just preaching the truths of the Word without any application? As the last days draw closer, we must sober minded.
Lastly, this scripture say’s to rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. To rest is to stop working and to be refreshed and renewed so we can continue the work God has given to each of us and continue it until the end. Hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised its strength is in His faithfulness. At a time when it seems so many have lost hope in so many things, those who have faith in Jesus Christ can rest on the hope that what God has promised, He will be faithful to fulfill. This is an eternal hope and expectation.
Romans 8:24-25 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
I believe we are living during the last days. As we get closer to the return of Jesus, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace God has given.
