13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Having encouraged the believer with a vision of the salvation to come, Peter turns to exhorting the believer into action based upon such a vision. How interesting it is for the Apostle to focus on the believer's mind, knowing full well the tendency of the mind to wander from the Truth.
Here then is no modern divorcing of the mind from the emotions, for we are called to love Him with our minds as with our heart and emotions. Oh to set our minds fully upon the grace from Jesus Christ, how often do we then turn our minds and eyes away from our blessed hope unto things of this Earth. Where/What is my hope set upon? Can anything on this Earth satisfy fully?
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."
"As obedient children". Looking back at all that the Lord has brought me through and all His blessings and chastenings, despite all the maturation in Christ over the years, I am still but a child of God and will remain so for eternity. And if as children we are called to obey our earthly parents, how much more then should we obey our Heavenly Father. For our Father is a Holy Father, and He calls us to be so likewise, as without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14)
But our sinful nature that remains within us constantly seeks to enslave us to our previous bondage. I hear its seductive voice every time I turn on the television, computer or even while simply walking down the street. My eyes wander and rest upon things that I should not dwell upon. A constant battle is fought in the battlefield of the mind every day. The World seeks, in the words of Ravenhill, to press us into its mold, to make us very much a child of the Devil as well as a citizen of this world. Yet the Lord is faithful to keep His saints, to grant them power through the Holy Spirit to overcome the temptations of this age.
17 And 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,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
This is truly inspired writing, for how else can two seemingly contrary truths be brought together in such unity. For though we have been bought by the Blood of Christ, in whom we are no longer under any condemnation (Rom. 8:1), yet we are exhorted to walk carefully and fearfully while we yet remain in this earthly realm, keeping ourselves in the Love of God (Jude 21). How rarely are both truths presented side-by-side in the church nowadays, for so many either rest in lawless antinomianism or cower in fearful legalism.
Oh the wonders of Grace, that we may walk through life and know that we will never be able to escape from the Love of God. What then can one do, for he is controlled by the Love of God (2 Cor. 5:14) to walk in His ways, to love the things He loves and to hate the things He hates. Oh that the reality of this Love be revealed to me anew every morning.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
21 who 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.
Who can claim that our Saviour is a mere creature, for even before the world was made, He is. Yet in the mystery of mysteries, He entered into time into earthly existence for our sakes. And He went to that Cross and was raised again and glorified above all things. Who can understand such things? One could spend an eternity seeking to understand the glory of Christ in his death and resurrection and yet still discover there is so much more that he does not know. On such a mystery can our hope and faith rest securely.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24for
"All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever."
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Here then is clear demonstration of the believer's responsibility in his sanctification. Indeed while salvation is only of the Lord, this does not absolve one of one's own responsibility in purifying himself, for our Lord works through human as well as divine means.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). Such are the words of our Lord, that we are given as a divine command to love. To love others unconditionally as He has so loved us unconditionally. Many have taken such great words and twisted it for their own evil purposes, but we must never let them steal these words away from us.
Oh to love with a pure heart, how difficult it is. In my recent deliberations and meditations on relationships, this is the great struggle in me. To look beyond her imperfections and weaknesses, to look beyond even her strengths, successes and accolades, things which those of the world may admire and desire, and to see and love the beauty within her that is of Christ, from Christ and is Christ. To desire a relationship not for what I can get from it, but for me to better display Christ and His Love as inadequate as I am and to serve her even as Christ emptied Himself and served His Bride.
So what is to be our motivation to this great love? Nothing less than the Gospel which remains forever. Men come and go, and all things that can be seen will soon pass away, but our great hope rests upon the Word of the One who lives forever and who was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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