Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20110522.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Peter: Effective Christian Living In A Spiritually Hostile World
Part III: Disciplined Passions Based On An Edifying Orientation To God
(1 Peter 1:13, 14-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. The spiritually hostile world we believers face tempts us at times to express ungodly passions, whether it involves the lusts of the body, the eyes (aesthetic appeal) or fury caused by hurt pride, 1 John 2:15-16.
    2. 1 Peter 1:13, 14-16 in its context offers a directive to combat this failure, and we view it for our insight:
  2. <+@>Disciplined Passions Based On An Edifying Orientation To God, 1 Peter 1:13, 14-16.
    1. Peter's 1 Peter 1:13 charge of "Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind . . ." also introduces the 1 Peter 1:14-16 commands on being disciplined in our passions that follow the verse 13 directive.
    2. Since we learned in our last lesson that the inferential conjunction, "Wherefore" (dio, U. B. S. Greek New Testament, 1966, p. 792; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T. , 1967, p. 197) reveals this directive is built on the 1 Peter 1:1-12 truths, the 1 Peter 1:14-16 commands are built on those truths, too.
    3. Thus, we review those 1 Peter 1:1-12 truths to discern the application of the 1 Peter 1:14-16 commands:
      1. Though 1 Peter 1:1-12 could humanly have been a depressed part of Scripture with the author, Simon Peter, living with the memory of Jesus' prophecy that he would die by crucifixion (1 Peter 1:1a; John 21:15-19), and as he wrote to believers facing a hostile world (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1757, "Introduction to the First Letter of Peter"), Peter nevertheless wrote of greatly rejoicing, 1 Peter 1:6a.
      2. Such rejoicing amid humanly disheartening persecution from a hostile world that tempted believers to undisciplined passions was to arise from the believer's focus on his orientation to God, 1 Peter 1:1-12:
        1. God had eternally chosen believers foreknown of God to face temptations for ungodly lusts in a hostile world, so they were to hope that such upright living was attainable, 1 Peter 1:1-2, 13-16.
        2. God was reserving an eternally incorruptible heavenly inheritance for believers, so they were to rejoice amid seeing their possessions confiscated in handling the lust to retaliate, 1 Pet.1:3-4, 13-16.
        3. God was providing unconditional salvation security for believers to be able one day to possess that heavenly inheritance, so they were to rejoice, not yielding to the lust to retaliate, 1 Pet. 1:4, 5, 13-16.
        4. God was using their persecutions to build a priceless, mature faith in them (1 Peter 1:6-9), so Peter's persecuted believing readers were to rejoice versus yielding to passionate lusts, 1 Peter 1:13-16.
        5. God led esteemed Old Testament prophets to write of the things we now have in Christ, and though these men only partly knew about such things, and failed to gain full knowledge though they inquired and searched diligently for it, they were to write what they knew for our benefit today. Thus, we believers must rejoice in God's grace versus yielding to errant passions, 1 Peter 1:10-16.
      3. Therefore, when Peter called his readers to "gird up the loins of your mind" (1 Peter 1:13) as obedient children (1 Peter 1:14a) who were not to conform themselves to the lusts of their ignorance in their former unsaved way of thinking (1 Peter 1:14b; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 1 Peter 1:14), they were to utilize the orientation to God delivered in 1 Peter 1:1-12 to be motivated to live separate from ungodly passions regardless of facing a world that tempted them to express such lusts, 1:15-16:
        1. The repeat call for believers to be "holy" in 1 Peter 1:15-16 uses the Greek word, hagios, that means "pure, sacred, dedicated to God," the key idea being separation , Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 9-10.
        2. Peter cites Leviticus 19:2 et al. at 1 Peter 1:16, a Leviticus context relating to a comprehensive life that avoids all sorts of wrongful living caused in part by yielding to one's own ungodly passions!
        3. Thus, Peter urged believers facing a hostile, persecuting world not to yield to the temptation of that world to react to its persecution by indulging in passionate lusts of angry retaliation or in indulging in the lusts of the body or of the mind to dull the persecution pain, but to focus on the orientation they had to God by their position in Christ to live apart from such ungodly passions in "holiness."
Lesson: Though tempted by a hostile world to indulge in passionate lusts either to vent one's anger or to dull the pain of persecution, the believer is to focus on his riches in Christ apart from such lusts.

Application: May we live in our hostile world today in "holiness", in separation from godless passions by focusing on our position in Christ that orients us to God in His wonderful, eternal plan for our lives!