“We are live as those who have been redeemed. The logic of Peter’s instruction is clear. Our future salvation is not contingent upon our behavior now. It is not even contingent upon our cooperation with grace. Our present life is, however, to be shaped by that future favor of which we are now in possession by grace alone, through faith alone.”
Peter wrote this epistle to be circulated among Christian congregations in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). He wrote to them about their faith, their hope, and their life living in this world—God’s world—as those who have been delivered out of Egypt, as it were, saved by grace alone, through faith alone about how to conduct their pilgrimage. Every Christian has a dual citizenship. The Apostle Paul says “your citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). Hebrews 11 says that believers who lived in the period of types and shadows were looking for a heavenly city, “a better country, i.e., a heavenly country” (vv. 11, 16). We are resident aliens. The Christian treatise written to a certain Diognetus (Ad diognetum) about the middle of the second century captures this reality quite well:
For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. 2For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life…4For while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. 5The live in their own countries but only as nonresidents, they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. 7They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food but not their wives. They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth but their citizenship is in heaven. 10They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws. 11They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted.
Unlike the Jews, Christians (both Jews and Gentiles) are not distinguished by our food, hand washing rituals, or language. Unlike the pagans we do not worship idols, do we leave our children on the front stoop to die, nor are we marked by sexual immorality. Because we do not always look and act the way pagans and other think “religious” people should and because we do not conform to the prevailing pagan (e.g., polytheistic) assumptions of the age we are misunderstood by both groups.
1 Peter 1:13–21
| Διὸ ἀναζωσάμενοι τὰς ὀσφύας τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν νήφοντες τελείως ἐλπίσατε ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν ἐν ἀποκαλύψει Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 14ὡς τέκνα ὑπακοῆς μὴ συσχηματιζόμενοι ταῖς πρότερον ἐν τῇ ἀγνοίᾳ ὑμῶν ἐπιθυμίαις 15ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν καλέσαντα ὑμᾶς ἅγιον καὶ αὐτοὶ ἅγιοι ἐν πάσῃ ἀναστροφῇ γενήθητε, 16διότι γέγραπται [ὅτι] “ἅγιοι ἔσεσθε, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἅγιός [εἰμι].” 17καὶ εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθε τὸν ἀπροσωπολήμπτως κρίνοντα κατὰ τὸ ἑκάστου ἔργον, ἐν φόβῳ τὸν τῆς παροικίας ὑμῶν χρόνον ἀναστράφητε, 18εἰδότες ὅτι οὐ φθαρτοῖς, ἀργυρίῳ ἢ χρυσίῳ, ἐλυτρώθητε, ἐκ τῆς ματαίας ὑμῶν ἀναστροφῆς πατροπαραδότου, 19ἀλλὰ τιμίῳ αἵματι ὡς ἀμνοῦ ἀμώμου καὶ ἀσπίλου Χριστοῦ, 20προεγνωσμένου μὲν πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, φανερωθέντος δὲ ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῶν χρόνων, δι᾿ ὑμᾶς, 21τοὺς δι᾿ αὐτοῦ πιστοὺς εἰς θεὸν, τὸν ἐγείραντα αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν καὶ δόξαν αὐτῷ δόντα, ὥστε τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν καὶ ἐλπίδα εἶναι εἰς θεόν. | Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (ESV). |
When Peter says “wherefore” (Διὸ) he is signaling that he is about to draw some inferences from what he has already said in the previous passages about the nature of our salvation and our sojourn as pilgrims. When says “girding up the waist of your understanding” (ἀναζωσάμενοι τὰς ὀσφύας τῆς διανοίας) he is thinking back to the Exodus when we were to eat the passover “in haste” with our sandals on our feet and with staff in hand (Ex 12:11). We are here (and that is real and God’s world is still good—we are not Gnostics) but we are not settled here as if this is our permanent home.
v. 13: The Big Picture
Thus “sober-minded” (νήφοντες) we hope completely (τελείως) on the return of Christ. We are not Millerites (19th century) or Jehovah’s Witnesses (the successors of the Millerites) nor even followers of Harold Camping. We are not selling all we have, living on our rooftops, or purchasing billboards to predict the return of the Lord. Rather, we are always to live in light of the return of Christ. We are looking forward to the great manifestation of God’s favor (χάριν) toward us at the revelation (ἐν ἀποκαλύψει), i.e., the visible manifestation of Christ.