A Redeemed Lifestyle – 1 Peter 1:13-21

Communion service address looking at Peter’s exhortations to godly living which find their motivation in the grand facts of our redemption.

The Apostle Peter writes to believers scattered throughout the Roman empire (Vs. 1). He writes to encourage and exhort them to practical Christian living in the midst of trials and tests.

This section of chapter one contains the first practical exhortations of the Epistle. Peter exhorts the believers to pursue the walk of holiness. He then motivates them to obedience by appealing to their experience of redemption.

The phrase “forasmuch as ye know” in verse 18 links these truths concerning redemption with the previous exhortations. The Apostle Peter writes of the great truth of the believer’s redemption in order to add further weight and authority to the preceding exhortations to godly living. This is the highest motive for holy living. In this paragraph, Peter reminded his readers of their salvation experience. A sense of our duty to holy living springs out of this knowledge.

How then should we live as God’s children in the light of our redemption? How should we live in light of the cross and the empty tomb?

We are to live as:

Sober Children (Vs. 13)

The Figure of Sober Mindedness (Vs. 13a)

1. The background to the figure – “gird up the loins”. This figure of speech that would have been very familiar to Peter’s readers. It is a figure of speech taken from Peter’s Day when men would bind up their robes with a girdle or belt to allow unhindered movement (i.e., for work or running).
2. The application of the figure – “of your mind”. Peter is exhorting them to cultivate a disciplined mind. Right living flows out of right thinking. For there to be progress in the Christian life, the mind needs to be uncluttered and unhindered by the things of this life. Wuest provides a helpful definition of the word ‘sober’: “It speaks of the proper exercise of the mind, that state of mind in which the individual is self-controlled, and is able to see things without distortion caused by worry, fear and their related attitudes.”
3. Wiersbe writes, “Gird up the loins of your mind” simply means “pull your thoughts together! Have a disciplined mind!”

The Focus of Sober Mindedness (Vs. 13b)

1. “hope to the end…the revelation of Jesus Christ” = a forward expectancy of Christ’s return is a characteristic of the sober mind. A sober mind is one that has an eternal perspective; it is a mind focused on Christ and His return. “Their present actions and decisions were to be governed by this future hope. Just as an engaged couple makes all their plans in the light of that future wedding, so Christians today live with the expectation of seeing Jesus Christ.” (Wiersbe)
2. “the grace that is to be brought unto you” = what a touching and precious picture. Christ brought grace at His first coming and we have experienced his grace in salvation. Christ will also bring grace at His coming for His saints and we will experience grace in glorification!

Submissive Children (Vs. 14)

The Designation of God’s Children (Vs. 14a)

1. Obedience is a mark and a fruit of genuine salvation. The call of the Gospel to repentance and faith is to be submitted to/obeyed (2 Thess. 1:8). This marks the beginning of a whole life of obedience to the Lordship of Christ. The new nature gives us a desire to submit to the Saviour.
2. Before salvation we were “children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2, 5:6; Col. 3:6).

The Duty of God’s Children (Vs. 14b).

As God’s children, we are to not allow our lives to be shaped and conformed in the model of our former lives.

1. The description of our pre-salvation lives.
   1. Lust – Walking according to sinful lusts was a feature of our unsaved lives as children of disobedience. The word lust refers to “passionate desires” (in this context, evil desires). Eph. 2:2-3 “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
   2. Ignorance – our lusts found expression in the environment of spiritual darkness and ignorance that characterised our unsaved lives. 1 Cor. 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
2. The Exhortation for our post salvation lives.
   1. We are exhorted not to “fashion” ourselves according to the ignorant lusts of our former life. The word “refers to the act of assuming an outward appearance patterned after some certain thing, an appearance or expression which does not come from and is not representative of one’s inmost and true nature. It refers here to the act of a child of God assuming as an outward expression the habits, mannerisms, dress, speech, expressions, and behaviour of the world out from which God saved him, thus not giving a true expression of what he is, a cleansed, regenerated child of God, but instead, hiding the Lord Jesus who should be seen in the life of the Christian. It is the believer masquerading in the costume of the world.” (Wuest)
   2. The same word is translated ‘conform’ in Romans 12:2. The root word is ‘schema’ from which our English word ‘scheme’ is derived, referring to a blueprint, a design or a pattern.. The compound participle denotes the practice of adopting for oneself a pattern or mould. Considering these two exhortations together (Rom. 12:1-2 & 1 Pet. 1:14), we are reminded that as Christians we are not to allow our lives to be shaped by the world system from without or the wicked lusts from within.

Sanctified Children (Vs. 15-16)

The conjunction ‘but’ provides the contrast; the positive alternative to living in conformity to the world.

The Standard of the Believers Holiness (Vs. 15a).

1. “God is the Model of all holiness. Close association with Him who is holy can only awaken in us a sense of our need for holiness. As holy, God is separated from all that is morally impure and evil (1 John 1:5).” (Hiebert)
2. F.B. Meyer writes, “There is only one way of becoming holy, as God is: and it is the obvious one of opening the entire being to the all- pervading presence of the Holy One. None of us can acquire holiness apart from God. It dwells in God alone. Holiness is only possible as the soul’s possession of God; nay, better still, as God’s possession of the soul. It never can be inherent, or possessed apart from the divine fullness, any more than a river can flow on if it is cut off from its fountainhead. We are holy up to the measure in which we are God-possessed.”
3. “called you” = we are called to be holy (1 Pet. 1:15), we are called “out of darkness into his marvellous light” (2:9). We are called to suffer and follow Christ’s example of meekness (2:21). Best of all, we are called to “His eternal glory” (5:10).

The Scope of the Believers Holiness (Vs. 15b).

1. “be ye holy” = “The fundamental idea of holiness is separation, consecration, being set apart for God and for His purpose.” (Cloud). Illustration: The Bible is called “the Holy Scriptures” (Rom. 1:2) because it is God’s book; set apart from and different to all other books. The word also refers to moral purity. It is “sharing in God’s purity and abstaining from earth’s defilement” (Complete Word Study Bible).
2. There are two aspects to holiness for the believer – positional and practical. We are holy in Christ because of salvation and are to live out that position in daily life.
3. “All manner of conversation” reveals the scope of Peter’s demand for ethical conduct. “There should be no part of our life which is not to savour of this good odour of holiness.” (Hiebert) Everything in the believer’s life is to be measured by the standard of God’s holiness. We need to ask questions like, Is it holy? Is it pure? Is it righteous?
4. The Scripture calling for the Believers Holiness (Vs. 16) Peter appeals to the Old Testament to support his call to holiness in the lives of the believers. The words quoted occur three times in Leviticus (11:24, 19:2, 20:26).

Separated Children (Vs. 17)

The motivation to separated living (Vs. 17a & 17c)

1. Accountability to God (Vs. 17a)
   1. “if ye call on the father” = the word ‘if’ is used in the sense of “since, in view of the fact.” Calling on the Father is a natural outflow of becoming a child of God (See Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).
   2. “without respect of persons” = translation of one Greek word which literally means “does not receive face.” God does not receive anyone’s face; He is impartial. “Outward appearance, wealth, culture, social position, family background, education, beauty, intellect, all things that more or less sway the opinions of man, do not count with God when it comes to appraising a person’s character or worthiness.”
   3. Illustration: The statue of Lady Justice holding a set of scales and blindfolded.
2. Awe of God (Vs. 17c).
   1. This attitude of ‘fear’ “is not the craven, cringing dread of a slave before an offended master, but the reverential awe of a son toward a beloved and esteemed father, the awe that shrinks from whatever would displease and grieve him…It is the mark of a tender conscience and is the safeguard against carelessness toward danger.” (Hiebert)
   2. “This fear is self-distrust; it is tenderness of conscience; it is vigilance against temptation; it is the fear which inspiration opposes to high-mindedness in the admonition, “be not high- minded but fear.” It is taking heed lest we fall; it is a constant apprehension of the deceitfulness of the heart, and of the insidiousness and power of inward corruption. It is the caution and circumspection which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonour God and the Saviour” (Vincent, quoting Wardlaw on Proverbs).

The illustration of separated living (Vs. 17b)

1. Peter employs the figure of a sojourner to illustrate the kind of separated, pilgrim lifestyle we are called to as believers. The compound noun ‘paroikias’ basically means “alongside the house”, having the position of an outsider and not a member of the household. (Hiebert) ‘Sojourning’ comes “from a word meaning literally “to have a home alongside of”, and refers to a person living in a foreign land alongside people who are not of his kind.” (Wuest)
2. The same word is used in Acts 13:17 to describe the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. Believers are called upon to live as foreigners and pilgrims residing in a strange land.
3. Exodus 12:11 “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’S passover.”
4. 1 Peter 2:11 “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;”
5. Illustration: Lot stopped being a sojourner and became a resident in Sodom and lost his testimony.

Conclusion

Have you been redeemed? If so, are you living like that’s true in your life or are you walking in the ways of the old life?

Sermon Audio Id: 42222748124453