There was a Scottish Professor named MacDonald who, along with a chaplain, had bailed out of an airplane behind German lines in World War II. They were put in a prison camp. A high wire fence separated the Americans from the British, and the Germans made it next to impossible for the two sides to communicate. MacDonald was put in the American barracks and the chaplain was housed with the British.
Unknown to the guards, the Americans had a little homemade radio and were able to get news from the outside, something more precious than food in a prison camp. Everyday MacDonald would take a headline or two to the fence and share with the chaplain in the ancient Gaelic, indecipherable to the Germans.
One day, news came over the little radio that the German High Command had surrendered and the war was over. MacDonald took the news to his friend, then stood and watched him disappear into the British barracks. A moment later, a roar of celebration came from the barracks.
Life in that camp was transformed. Men walked around singing and shouting, waving at the guards and even laughing at the dogs. What made the difference in the behavior of those men? They had received the good news of their deliverance. That good news radically changed their lives.
Peter starts off saying “therefore” linking the coming verses with verses 3-12. In these verses, we’ve looked at how Peter described the great salvation (the great deliverance) that has come to us. And because of this he declares that this should cause us to change the way we live. We are focusing simply on verse 13 because this verse is key to the whole letter. In this verse Peter moves from describing God’s great salvation to how it should affect us daily in the upcoming verses. This verse is the opening to the entire letter and so demands a little more attention from us.
What Peter wants to get across to us in this verse of Scripture is that this great salvation we possess ought to affect the way we live. Or if I can make it personal, you here this morning who possess God’s salvation should being living differently. And Peter mentions three ways how it should affect the way we live.
I. We Are to Prepare Our Minds for Action
The first way that the great salvation we have received should affect the way we live is that we are to prepare our minds for action. The phrase, “Prepare your minds for action” is literally translated, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” In the ancient Hebrew world, everyone wore long robes. In order to do any kind of strenuous work, a person had to pull their robe up and tie it around their waist by putting it into their belt. And Peter is encouraging these believers to prepare their minds for action as a Christian. Christianity isn’t for the non-thinker. For that person who would become a Christian let him first think through the reasons to become one. Christianity isn’t a leap of faith as Kierkegaard described. It is a firm assurance on that which is reasonable and sensible. It is a trust on the solid truths of Scripture. Yes, we have to put our trust in the veracity of Scripture but we don’t put our minds in neutral when we become Christians.
There is a whole generation of Christians who would rather feel good than think right. And when we elevate feelings over biblical reasoning in the Christian life we will find ourselves succumbing to every evil influence because our feelings will have become our idol. We will be worshipping how I feel instead of what is right. We will find ourselves saying, “I know its wrong, but it feels good.” To overcome this trend we need, as Peter says, to prepare our minds for action. There are three other passages of Scripture that describe how we are to prepare our minds for action.
A. Renew your mind (Romans 12:1-2)
The first way that you are to prepare your minds for action is to renew your mind. The passage of Scripture that describes the renewal of your mind is Romans 12:2. Many of you are familiar with this passage. It says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” In Paul’s mind, the term “world” is that system operating in this universe which is opposed to God. It is that arrangement of powers that want to overturn God and His ways. And it is this world system in which we must live and cope. The world is constantly attempting to squeeze us into its mold. And we can acquiesce to it or we, as Christians, can and should oppose it.
The way that Paul says we can oppose this world system (and not be conformed to it) is by the renewal of our minds. Our minds need renewal because they are continually bombarded by motivations from the world to follow it. When I come in from working outside my house I wash my hands because they are usually dirty. If I didn’t, soon everything in the house would soon become dingy. As we live in the world we need to be constantly cleansed (or renewed) from the influence of the world lest everything in our lives begins to become spiritually dingy from its grime.
The way that we renew our minds is through the Word of God. Psalm 119 says, “How can a young man cleanse his ways? By keeping it according to your Word.” The Word of God, through the power of the Spirit of God, cleanses our minds as we think upon it. And whenever attacks come against us we must flee back to the Scripture to renew the way we think.
Sometimes the advances of the world system against us are as blatant and unwelcome as a striped shirt with a checkered tie. We see these wicked and unwelcome works clearly through outward actions such as a phone call from a friend to go partying or the advances of an adulterer seeking to draw you away from your spouse. These are frontal attacks, undisguised and open. Sometimes the advances of the world system are as furtive and subtle as the serpent in the garden. These may come through school classes in which a different worldview has been taught for millions of years. Or they may come from the intimations of a society that says it is OK to stretch the truth or disobey authority or steal what belongs to someone else.
When these advances come against us, whether blatant or furtive, we must renew our minds in Scripture. We must continually test what we think through the grid of Scripture. Our worldview must be oriented by The BOOK. When we are feeling oriented, progress oriented, humanistically oriented, we must get our orientation renewed. We will not be looking in the direction that God wants us to go until we are God oriented and Scripture oriented.
Peter says that we need to prepare our minds for action. And the first way to do this is to renew our minds through Scripture. The Word, not the world, is what should mold us.
B. Guard your mind (Philippians 4:6-8)
The second way that you are to prepare your mind for action is to guard your mind. Philippians 4:6-7 describes this guarding. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Because our minds need to be prepared for action, when we become anxious over situations around us we find ourselves ill prepared to live spiritually minded. When our minds are clouded with doubt or fear we fail to trust the Lord as we should.
But the apostle Paul gives us a way to find relief from our anxious minds if we only follow his direction. We are to give every care and concern over to the Lord. We are to ask the Lord to intervene in these situations that trouble us. And if we desire God’s peace that passes understanding we are to go one step further. When we are concerned or anxious many of us do call out for help. We plead with the Lord to take away the pain or the trouble or the angst. But Paul says God’s peace doesn’t come from merely calling out for help. It comes by giving thanks to Him. The key word in this verse is, “thanksgiving.” With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” and then you shall experience His peace.
You may call out to God but do you give thanks to Him? Do you believe that He is really in control of our lives that He knows what He is doing? If you cannot give thanks for the difficulties and hurts and troubles that you experience then you will not experience this peace that God provides. How many times have we seen God work in our lives through difficult circumstances and when another trial comes we fail to thank Him and receive the peace we desperately need?
When we do thank Him in the midst of our difficulties, it is this peace that guards our minds and hearts through Christ Jesus. So if you want to prepare your mind for action you need to guard your mind. And the way you do this is by giving thanks when you are experiencing these difficulties that come into all our lives.
C. Lift up your mind
The third way that you are to prepare your mind for action is to lift up your mind. Colossians 3:1-2 speaks of this. Paul says here, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth.”
In this passage of Scripture Paul describes for us how we are to conduct our thought life and that by setting our minds on God and His work in us will change the way we live. If we are to prepare our minds for the spiritual battle in which we are engaged we need to be setting our thoughts on the one who has already given us the victory through Jesus Christ.
II. Be Alert
Next in verse 13, the second way that the great salvation we have received should affect the way we live is that we need to be alert. The word sober in this passage has the idea of being alert. As opposed to how being in a drunken stupor keeps a person in a terrible fog. There is a necessity for watchfulness in the Christian life. There are two other places in his letter that Peter uses the word sober. And from these places we see two reasons why we need to be alert.
A. Prayer is needed
The first reason that Peter says we need to be alert is that Prayer is needed. In chapter 4:7 Peter uses this word “sober” once again. Here he calls the believer to be alert because we need to pray.
Peter says that the believer should be alert in prayer because the time is short. No one knows when Christ will return and we must not let our guard down and become lazy in our prayer life. We need to be alert so that we do not drift from recognizing the necessity of prayer. When life is calm we are sometimes lulled into a false sense of security that we can let our guard down and cease to pray. But the battle in which we are engaged is won or lost before we get involved in the action. If we neglect to pray or minimize the necessity to pray we will lose. E.M. Bounds, the Civil War era prayer warrior said, “Little praying or no praying – of these two evils, perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and delusion.”
We must take Jesus seriously when He said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” If that is true, if we can do absolutely nothing without Him then we can do absolutely nothing without prayer. And it must be prayer to God that has humble recognition of such a fact. And if we fail to remain alert then the fatal sleep of complacency will overcome us and before we know it we will be drifting dangerously close to shipwreck on the rocks.
Let me ask you; have you ceased being alert in your prayer life? Have you been neglecting to pray, as you should? Are you really praying, as if what Jesus said is true that apart from Him you can do nothing? We need to be alert in prayer. Don’t neglect our greatest privilege and God’s greatest provision.
B. Satan is scheming
The second reason that Peter says we must be alert is that Satan is scheming. In chapter 5 of this letter Peter says, “Be sober, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We must be alert because we are in a spiritual battle with a foe who seeks only to destroy us. Jesus said in John 10, “Satan, the thief, comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.”
Now Satan is not present everywhere but can only be in one place at one time. Yet he has a network of demonic beings at his disposal who likewise attempt to disrupt God’s plan. If we are not alert we may very well fall into one of Satan’s schemes to deceive and harm us. He knows that he can never cause, we who believe in Christ, to perish eternally. But he continues to look for opportunities to exploit our own weaknesses and propensities to sin so that we might be ineffective in Christ’s service.
What Peter wants us to understand is that we must be alert to Satan’s schemes so that they do not take us by surprise. Satan wants us to see less of the consequences and evil of sin and more of its appeal. He disguises the true nature of sin (which is death!). But as Christians we should see sin for its deadliness and destructiveness. We must not flirt with it nor forget the fact that it was our sin that placed Jesus Christ on the cross. We must maintain vigilance against sin that would cause us to pursue righteousness and flee from ungodliness.
III. Trust in God’s Grace
Finally, in verse 13, Peter says the third way that the great salvation we have received should affect the way we live is that that we must trust in God’s grace. “Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
God’s grace is one of the greatest gifts that we ever receive. Grace is receiving that which we do not deserve. We may deserve death but instead God gives us life. God’s standard of judgment, the Ten Commandments, shows that we all deserve punishment. When we break but one of them James says that we are guilty of all. We only have to look at them to realize that we deserve death. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain. That means don’t use it as a curse word. You shall not lie (not even a small one) for whatever reason. Do not commit adultery (no sex outside of marriage). Jesus said even desiring to have sex with someone is adultery. You shall not murder. Or again as Jesus said that if you hate someone in your heart you have committed murder already. Who of us has not broken any of these? Because we all have we deserve death. This serious judgment from God is awaiting you unless you have received God’s grace.
Those who have received God’s grace will not receive God’s condemnation. There is only one way to receive God’s grace, God’s free gift of eternal life and that is through trusting in Jesus Christ the Savior as the complete payment for your sins. In this verse, Peter describes the manner in which we are to trust in God’s grace.
A. Completely
The first manner in which Peter says we are to trust in God’s grace is completely. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you. Trusting completely in God’s grace means that we believe that God is out for our good. Trusting completely in God’s grace means that whenever we suffer we know that God is still doing right. Peter says in 4:19, “Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”
Peter says that we can entrust our souls to a faithful Creator. He is faithful. Do you really believe, as the Scripture says, that God is good and that He always does good? Can you say along with Job, “Though He slay me, still will I trust Him”? That means though He takes everything from you and everyone close to you, will you still cling to Him? Or will you only follow as long as He gives you good things here?
Peter knows that we will have trouble here on earth. Peter even knew that one day he would be crucified for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus told him that in John 21. Even so, Peter calls each of us to put our trust completely in God’s grace. Knowing that whatever we suffer in doing right is ultimately for God’s glory.
B. With the End in View
The second manner in which Peter says we are to trust in God’s grace is with the end in view. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As I have said in a previous message, Peter is going to continue to push our focus to the time of Christ’s return because we need to truly see all our actions and all their consequences in light of eternity. So when we trust in God’s grace to cause us to live in a manner pleasing to Him it must be because we see what we think, say and do in light of the piercing gaze of God at the judgment seat of Christ. We need to trust God’s grace with the end in view.
Often we live too shortsighted. Without viewing the end of the picture we think, “I’ll lie because it will get me out of my current jam” or “I’ll steal because I need this now.” But living like this shows that we have no thought of tomorrow or of our meeting Jesus Christ, He who died for our sin.”
We will have found our time here wasted ultimately (in light of eternity) unless we set our minds completely on serving the coming King! Unless we are living in God’s grace with the end in view we are deceiving ourselves because this life is not about us. It is about Him.
In Psalm 90, Moses the man of God, says, “Lord . . . before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God . . . A thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by.”
What I understand from this passage is that to God everyday is an eternal present. He sees every yesterday as clearly as He sees today. So we need to ask the Lord to guide our todays and tomorrows so that all our yesterdays will be pleasing in His sight. This is trusting in God’s grace with the end in view. When you come to the end of your life and look back you will have one of two visions. You will say one of two things. And listen to me carefully young person because this is true for you especially. You will say one of two things. You will say, “I am glad that I lived with the end in view because now I can look back and bless God.” Or you will say, “O why did I live for myself and now have nothing for God? I’ve wrecked my life and missed my opportunity to serve God.” When my son doesn’t want to participate in something that we know he will enjoy we say, “You’re going to miss your opportunity.” Don’t miss your opportunity. Live with the end in view.
Have you been living with the end in view? Have you re-cognized that you will have to give account to God for how you have lived? Don’t go on any longer like that. Live with the end in view.
Because of this great news of salvation that we have heard, we should be preparing our minds for action, becoming alert and trusting in God’s grace to live our daily lives. This salvation we possess is not something we merely speak about. It is not a treasured trinket that we place on our coffee table for all to see but do nothing with. God has given us this great salvation so that we might become different people. He has called us to live holy lives.
This starts by embracing salvation. If you have not received God’s salvation then you must start there. You must stop putting your trust in your own efforts for righteousness and accept God’s way of salvation that comes through Christ’s death on the cross.
If you have received Christ’s salvation, then begin to renew your mind. Become alert in prayer, see and disarm Satan’s schemes. Finally, grow in your trust of God’s grace to change you.