5 The Believer’s Response to Salvation (1 Peter 1:13–17)
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; (1:13–17)
In His parable of the faithful steward, Jesus told His hearers, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). That principle surely also relates to Christians’ response to their salvation. Since no gift is greater than God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ, nothing can demand a greater response.
In verses 1–12, the apostle Peter described salvation’s supreme place in God’s foreordained plan, explained its marvelous promise of eternal inheritance, and proclaimed its intrinsic greatness. Then in verse 13 Peter shifts to the imperative mode. He moves from describing and explaining the nature of salvation to commanding those who have received it concerning the obligations and responsibilities divine salvation places on all who have received it. These obligations can be summarized in three words: hope, holiness, and honor.
BELIEVERS MUST RESPOND WITH HOPE
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1:13)
The transitional conjunction therefore moves the reader from statement to application, from fact to inference. It directs believers to the main emphasis of this verse, which is to fix their hope. Elpisate is an aorist active imperative by which Peter exhorts believers in military fashion to a decisive kind of action, to a hope that is an obligatory act of the will, not merely an emotional feeling. They are commanded to live expectantly, anticipating with “a living hope” their “inheritance … reserved in heaven … to be revealed in the last time” (1:3, 4, 5).
Genuine hope is a vital spiritual reality, one of the three supreme virtues of the Christian life (1 Cor. 13:13). Basically defined, hope is the Christian’s attitude toward the future (Acts 24:15; Titus 1:2; 2:13; 3:7). In its essence, hope is equivalent to faith (Rom. 5:1–2; Gal. 5:5; Heb. 11:1); it is trusting God (1 Peter 1:21). The major difference between the two attitudes is that faith involves trusting God in the present (Rom. 1:17; 3:28; 2 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 2:20; 1 Tim. 6:12; James 1:6), whereas hope is future faith, trusting God for what is to come (Heb. 3:6). Faith appropriates what God has already said and done in His revealed Word, and hope anticipates what He will yet do, as promised in Scripture. Completely means unreservedly, and could also be rendered “fully” or “perfectly.” Christians are not to hope half-heartedly or indecisively, but with finality, without any equivocation or doubt concerning the promises of God (cf. Rom. 8:25; 15:13; Col. 1:23; Heb. 6:19–20).
Believers owe their hope exclusively to God’s graciousness and faithfulness (Pss. 33:18; 39:7; Titus 1:2; 1 Peter 1:21). He provided the perfect salvation in Christ (Isa. 45:21–22; John 3:14–16; Acts 4:12; Rom. 1:16–17; 2 Tim. 1:10; cf. 1 Tim. 1:1), which resulted in the forgiveness of all their sins—past, present, and future (Matt. 1:21; John 1:29; Eph. 1:7; Col. 2:13–14; 1 John 1:7; 3:5) and their transformation from the kingdom of darkness to the eternal kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). God has been faithful in the past, is being faithful in the present, and will be faithful to all His promises for the future (Pss. 89:33; 119:90; 146:6; Isa. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 5:24; cf. 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 John 1:9). Therefore saints live in a settled hope. The Thessalonians illustrated this: “[they] turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:9b–10a).
But even though hope is beneficial to settle and strengthen saints (cf. Ps. 39:7; Acts 24:15; Rom. 4:18; 1 Thess. 1:3), it is also a form of worship that rests in the faithfulness of God (cf. Job 13:15; Pss. 13:5; 31:14; 65:5; Prov. 14:26) and thus glorifies His name (cf. Pss. 5:11; 33:21). Biblical hope affirms the integrity of God’s promise and declares that He is a covenant keeping God (Deut. 7:9; Ps. 111:5). Paul used Abraham to illustrate this hope:
For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. (Rom. 4:16–20)
The patriarch hoped in God’s promise that He would give him a son, and even though it was “hope against hope” (humanly impossible), his faith grew stronger to the glory of God. God is honored when He is trusted.
The ultimate feature of the believer’s hope is the grace to be brought. Peter used the present participle pheromenēn, but the translators express it as future, recognizing the Greek grammatical construction that indicates the absolute assurance of a future event by referring to it as if it were already happening. The context clearly calls for such a use of the present, because the event to be brought is the future revelation (apokalupsei, “unveiling”) of Jesus Christ—His Second Coming. Peter urged his readers to hope for it as though it were a present reality (see also 1:7; 4:13; cf. 1 Cor. 1:7). This phrase, the revelation of Jesus Christ, is the exact phrase that opens the book of Revelation, which unfolds the future culmination of redemptive history, as summarized in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” The apocalypse then describes the astonishing, wonderful, and breathtaking visions of Christ associated with His return.
Believers have an obligation to live in view of the Second Coming. In hope they look forward to that day when Christ will return for His people and then to reward and glorify them (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:20–21; Col. 3:4; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 22:12). Paul refers to this privilege in his letter to Titus:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:11–14)
Peter does not command Christians to fix their attention on the amazing phenomena of the Second Coming, as outlined for their understanding in Revelation, the Old Testament prophecies, and the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24–25). Nor does he here reiterate the rewards they will receive, as previously stated in 1:3–4 (cf. Rev. 22:12). Rather he exhorts them and all believers to view all these things from the standpoint of their utter unworthiness and to see the realization of all these promises in eternal glory as the grace to be brought to them. The apostle’s point is that just as initial salvation was all of God’s grace (Eph. 2:5, 8; 2 Tim. 1:9; cf. Acts 15:11), so also will be its culmination in their glorification and eternal life in heaven. Just as they did not deserve their souls’ redemption (Eph. 2:9; Titus 3:5), the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 1:13–14), or the forgiveness of sin (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14), they will not deserve the redemption of their sinful bodies (Rom. 8:23; cf. Gal. 1:4), the enjoyment of “an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17), or the privileges of eternal perfection and heavenly bliss and communion with the Father (cf. Rev. 7:16–17). Whatever the elect receives from God always derives from His gracious purpose, not their worth or merit.
At the beginning of verse 13, two modifying participial phrases describe how believers are to fix their hope. First, Peter tells his readers to prepare their minds for action. Prepare literally means “gird up” and can refer to tightening a belt, cinching up a cord or rope, or tying something down in preparation for a certain action. In ancient times, this concept referred to the gathering up of one’s robe (Ex. 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1; Jer. 1:17). If a person wanted to move quickly and easily, often he would pull the corners of his robe up through his belt or sash to tie those corners in place. Peter metaphorically applies this process to the mind. He urges believers to pull in all the loose ends of their lives, meaning to discipline their thoughts (cf. Rom. 12:2), live according to biblical priorities (cf. Matt. 6:33), disentangle themselves from the world’s sinful hindrances (cf. 2 Tim. 2:3–5; Heb. 12:1), and conduct life righteously and godly, in view of the future grace that accompanies Christ’s return (cf. Luke 12:35; Col. 3:2–4).
Paul used the same word and metaphor in his passage on the armor of God: “Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14). Implied in the phrase “having girded your loins with truth” is again the concept of using a belt. In fact, a more literal translation of “truth” would be “belt of truthfulness.” The first thing a Roman soldier did prior to heading into battle was put on his belt and tie up his robe so that its loose ends would not hinder his combat effectiveness. When he girded up his robe, it indicated the soldier was serious about preparing for the life and death of hand-to-hand combat. Peter is saying that believers must take the same approach to living the Christian life (cf. James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8–9).
Peter’s second participial phrase commands his audience also to keep sober in spirit, literally meaning not to become intoxicated, which is to lose control of thought and action. Metaphorically it means not to lose spiritual control by imbibing the world’s sinful system. It connotes the entire realm of spiritual steadfastness or self-control: having clarity of mind and discipline of heart, being in charge of one’s priorities and balancing one’s life so as not to be subject to the controlling and corrupting influence of the flesh’s allurements (cf. Matt. 16:26; 18:7; John 15:18–19; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:20–21; 2:12; 3:19; Gal. 4:3; 6:14; Eph. 2:2; Phil. 2:15; Col. 2:8, 20; 1 Tim. 6:20; Titus 2:12; James 1:27; 2 Peter 1:4). Obedience to this charge comes through the work of the Word and the Spirit (Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16).
If a Christian finds anything more attractive than fellowship with Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 4:10; James 4:4), if he yearns more to enjoy this world than to receive the joys of heaven, then he does not love His appearing. All believers must instead adopt the perspective of the apostle John: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus’” (Rev. 22:20). This kind of hope is the right response for those who have received God’s great gift of salvation.
BELIEVERS MUST RESPOND IN HOLINESS
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1:14–16)
Believers living in anticipation of the return of Christ and considering its full significance will be motivated to live in holiness. The apostle John says, “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Genuine hope results in purity of life, or holiness—the believer’s second obligatory response to receiving the gift of salvation.
Peter opens this passage with the significant expression as obedient children. The word (hupakoēs), translated as the adjective obedient by the New American Standard Bible, is actually a genitive noun. It means that obedience characterizes every true child of God (John 8:31–32; 14:15, 21; 15:10; Rom. 6:17; Eph. 2:10; 1 John 5:2–3; cf. Luke 6:46) and distinguishes Christians from non-Christians, called the “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). They are opposites; the basic character of a believer is obedience to God, whereas the basic character of an unbeliever is disobedience (John 3:20; Rom. 1:28–32; 8:7–8; Eph. 2:2; 4:17–18; 2 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:16; 3:3).
Disobedience, however, sometimes breaks believers’ patterns of obedience (cf. Matt. 18:15; Gal. 6:1; Heb. 12:1; 1 John 1:8–10) because their redeemed spirits are incarcerated in fleshly bodies, where sin still dwells (Rom. 7:18, 25; 8:12–13; cf. Mark 14:38). In view of that reality, Peter calls them to be holy. Obedience is an inevitable result of salvation (Eph. 2:10; 4:24; 1 Thess. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1:9), yet the apostle urges believers to live consistent with the longings of the new heart by pursuing holiness (cf. Rom. 6:12–14; 12:1; 2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 5:1–3, 8; Col. 3:12–13; Heb. 12:14; 2 Peter 3:11).
True holiness has a negative aspect. It is experienced when believers are not being conformed to the former lusts. Conformed means “to be shaped by” or “fashioned after” (cf. Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:20–24). The lusts that characterized that former life include sinful desires and thoughts, evil longings, uncontrolled appetites, sensual impulses, and all other unrighteous motivations and urges that compel the unregenerate (cf. 1 Cor. 6:9–11; Gal. 5:19–24; Eph. 5:3–5; 1 Thess. 4:4–5). For believers, such former lusts … were theirs in ignorance, before they were saved and when they did not know any better (cf. Acts 26:18; Eph. 2:1), which could be true of both Gentiles (cf. Eph. 4:17–19) and Jews (cf. Rom. 10:2–3). Regeneration creates a new life (2 Cor. 5:17) that has both the desire and the power to live righteously. Paul’s inspired words in Colossians 3:1–10 echo Peter’s call to holiness:
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 the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.
Peter then presents the positive standard of holiness as the very perfection of the Holy One who called believers, namely God Himself. Negatively, they are to stop living sinfully as they did prior to regeneration; positively, they are to be holy … in all their behavior. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus set forth this same standard, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48; cf. Eph. 5:1). In this life believers cannot be sinless (cf. Rom. 7:14–25; 1 John 1:8) as God is, but no less than His holiness is the goal at which they are, equipped by the Word and the Spirit, to aim (Eph. 2:10).
Peter’s call to holiness was not new but echoed that of the Old Testament, as he indicates by introducing an Old Testament quote with the common phrase because it is written (cf. Mark 1:2; Luke 2:23; John 6:31; Rom. 1:17), followed by the quote, “You shall be holy, for I am holy, ” derived from Leviticus 11:44; 19:2; and 20:7. God reiterated this command elsewhere in the Mosaic law (cf. Ex. 19:5–6; Deut. 7:6–8). In Leviticus 11:43–45 He also declared,
“Do not render yourselves detestable through any of the swarming things that swarm; and you shall not make yourselves unclean with them so that you become unclean. For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.”
The dominant, compelling reason for God’s people to live in holiness was their relationship with God: “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” ’” (Lev. 19:1–2; cf. vv. 3, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 25, 28, 30–32, 34, 36–37; 18:2, 4–6, 21, 30; 20:7–8, 24, 26; 21:6–8, 12, 15, 23; 22:2, 16, 32–33; 23:22). As the children of Israel were called to love and serve God and to separate themselves from immorality and uncleanness, believers today must heed the sovereign call to bear His image (Col. 3:10; cf. Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18) and obey His commands to be holy since the Holy One has identified Himself with them in an eternally glorious work of saving grace.
BELIEVERS MUST RESPOND IN HONOR
If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; (1:17)
Inseparably linked to believers’ obligation to respond to salvation in hope and holiness is their responsibility to honor God. The phrase conduct yourselves in fear, meaning “reverence, ” “awe, ” and “respect” toward God is the command in this sentence. Hope and holiness produce a life of worship, the most foundational of spiritual virtues: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10; cf. 14:26–27; 15:33; 19:23; Ex. 18:21; Lev. 25:17; Deut. 5:29; 6:13, 24; 10:12; Josh. 4:24; 1 Sam. 12:14, 24; Pss. 19:9; 25:14; 33:8; 34:9; 103:11; 111:10; 115:11, 13; 118:4; 2 Cor. 5:11; Heb. 12:28–29; 1 Peter 2:17; Rev. 14:7; 19:5).
Peter begins this verse by stating the reason for such conduct—God is the judge. If you address [God] as Father implies that believers all the time address (the present middle voice of epikaleisthe, “to call upon” or “appeal to”) God that way—and they should. Jesus instructed the disciples to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). Paul affirmed the legitimacy of such an intimate form of address when he told the Galatians, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 4:6; cf. Rom. 8:15). That is the appropriate manner for saints to call on God.
But Peter did not want believers to forget that though they have an intimate relationship with their heavenly Father, they must conduct themselves in holiness during the time of their stay on earth because God is also the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work (1 Cor. 3:10–15; 2 Cor. 5:9–10; Heb. 12:5–6; cf. Eph. 6:9).
As long as people live on this earth as believers, God is keeping the record of their works. At the revelation of Jesus Christ, there will be a judgment of all believers. Paul described it to the Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:10–15)
But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God. (1 Cor. 4:3–5)
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Cor. 5:9–10)
But this warning about God as judge of believers is not limited to their future reward. First Peter 4:17 says, “It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” Sometimes this work of God as judge of His church brings His direct discipline, as indicated in Hebrews 12:5–11,
You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
At other times this discipline from God is indirect, carried out by the church, as Jesus instructed the disciples:
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. (Matt. 18:15–20)
True love and worship to God are marked by understanding that He is the Christian’s loving, gracious, and generous Father, but also his holy, disciplining Judge. How believers conduct themselves before His omniscient presence matters in both time and eternity. Paul’s testimony to the Thessalonian believers is a pattern for all believers:
You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. (1 Thess. 2:10–12)