This passage begins the longest section of First Peter. Remember: the believers were suffering terrible persecution. They had lost their homes, property, money, possessions, and friends.

They were being persecuted because of Christ. They were living for Christ and proclaiming the salvation and hope of eternal life in Him. People were willing to hear about salvation, hope, and eternal life in Christ; but they did not want to hear about repentance, that they had to repent in order to be saved and to receive eternal life.

They were just like people of all ages: they did not want to hear about a Lord to whom they had to give all they were and had.

There was only one message that could encourage and strengthen them: the glorious message of the gospel of salvation. They needed to keep their eyes upon the grace and salvation of God.

1. Get Your Mind Ready, 1:13–16

1:13 Therefore prepare your minds for action.  The word therefore ties Peter’s following challenge with the previous passage. Because the prophets had foretold the great privileges of the gospel and, with even the angels, long to understand them better, believers should show the same kind of earnest and alert concern regarding the way they live.

Peter challenged these scattered believers to prepare your minds for action or “roll up your sleeves.” Obedience does not always come naturally or easily. In Greek, the phrase is “gird up the loins of your minds,” picturing a person “girding up his loins” by tucking his long robes into the belt around his waist in order to run (see, for example, 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1).

The word “minds” refers to spiritual and mental attitudes. To lead holy lives in an evil world, the believers would need a new mind-set. Like “robes” that are already “girded up,” their minds should be set and prepared, ready for “action” at God’s prompting.

 Be self-controlled. The believers needed to monitor and restrain their sexual and material desires, anger, and words. “Be self-controlled” is also translated “discipline yourselves.” Even “good” things in life can take control if they are allowed to—such as one’s career, education, or creative pursuits.

 Set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.  This sentence forms a bridge from the first section to the remainder of the letter.

The effective Christians of history have been men and women of great personal discipline—mental discipline, discipline of the body, discipline of the tongue, and discipline of the emotions.

1:14    As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  All believers are part of God’s family; we are his children. Children all have different character traits; parents often marvel at how different each of their own children are. Yet despite the many differences among God’s children, we ought to all have one characteristic in common: We are obedient.

Peter first explained what obedient children do not do (he then explains what they should do in this verse). Believers ought not to live in the same manner that they lived before they were saved. They must break with the past and depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to help them overcome evil desires and conform themselves to God’s will.

1:15    But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.  After people commit their lives to Christ, they usually still feel a pull to return to their old ways.

God’s holiness means that he is completely separated from sin and evil. Holiness pervades his character—he is holiness. He is the opposite of anything profane.

1:16    Because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”  Peter quoted the Old Testament Scriptures, which would be familiar to the Jewish Christians in his audience, to confirm his words in 1:15.

2. Live on Earth in the Fear & Reverence of God, 1:17–21

How can we stand against the trials and temptations of life? When we are severely attacked to such a point that we cannot understand, how can we bear it? Is there anything anyplace that can help us to bear it? Yes! There is the fear of God. If a person fears God and fears Him enough, he will stand against temptation and he will endure the trials of life.

Scripture proclaims that man must fear God or else he will be doomed forever. Therefore, whatever is causing man’s psychological and emotional problems, it is not the fear of God, not the true fear of God.

What does Scripture mean by the fear of God? It means two things.

• To fear God means to hold Him in fear, dread, and terror.
• To fear God means to hold Him in awe, to reverence the holiness, power, knowledge, wisdom, judgment and wrath of God.

1:17 If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds.

God judges and disciplines all people impartially according to their deeds. God hears all prayers and sees all sin. Reverent fear is not the fear of a slave for a ruthless master, but the healthy and fervent respect of a believer for the all-powerful God.

It is fear of offending him, of taking him for granted and becoming sloppy in our Christian lives. We should not assume that our privileged status as God’s children gives us freedom to do whatever we want.

There is no fear like that which love begets. We fear God with the fear of the love that cannot endure the thought of giving pain to the one loving and loved.

1:18–19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. Another reason that we should fear displeasing God is that he paid the enormous price to buy us back from sin. The word redeemed was used when someone paid money to buy back a slave’s freedom. In Old Testament times, a person’s debts could result in that person’s being sold as a slave. The next of kin could redeem the slave (buy his or her freedom), a transaction involving money or valuables of some kind. Yet all valuables are perishable—even silver and gold are susceptible to corruption. The transaction God made to buy us back from sin is not refundable; it is a permanent transaction.

From the very beginning God said, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

But the blood mentioned here is the precious blood of Christ. Only the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross was effective atonement for our sins. Christ stands in our place, having paid the penalty of death for our sin, having completely satisfied God’s demands.

1:20    He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Christ’s sacrifice for the world’s sins was not an afterthought, not something God decided to do when the world spun out of control.

This plan was set in motion by the all-knowing, eternal God before the creation of the world. In eternity past, God chose his people (1:2) and planned that Christ would redeem them. Christ has always existed with God (John 1:1), but was revealed in these last times to the world in his incarnation.

1:21    Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Only through the death of Christ on the cross could sinful humanity approach the holy God.

3. Love One Another Fervently (1:22-25)

There is no greater force than love. If two people truly love each other, they will do anything for the other. There is no greater bond on earth than true love. This is especially true of the love between believers.

Believers are to have a different kind of love than neighbors have for one another. The love that believers are to have for one another is what the Greek calls philadelphia love, a very special kind of love. Philadelphia love means brotherly love, the very special love that exists between the brothers and sisters within a loving family, brothers and sisters who truly cherish each other.

⇒ We are to have unfeigned love for our Christian brothers. Unfeigned means genuine, sincere, without pretension, hypocrisy, or play-acting. We are not to pretend, play, and act like we love one another; we are to love one another genuinely and sincerely.

“See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” The word fervently (ektenos) “does not mean ‘with warmth’ but rather ‘with full intensity’.” It literally means to stretch love fully out or to love one another in an all out manner.

This is the love believers are to have for one another, a philadelphia kind of love. Now note: there are three reasons why we are to love one another fervently.

Reason 1: you have purified your souls (vs. 22)

Reason 2: you are born again through the Word of God (vs. 23)

Reason 3: your flesh withers and falls away (vs. 24-25)

1:22    Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.  Believers ought to be holy because of who God is and what he has done on our behalf. Peter was pointing out that their conversion had changed their lives. The transformation that Christ had made in their lives was toward purity and holiness.

This change was not meant to be internal only; it must be acted out in their daily behavior, attitudes, and conduct. This is one of the strongest statements of brotherly love in the New Testament, for it virtually makes brotherly love the goal of our conversion. Peter expected that growth in purity and holiness would result in deeper love among Christians. Not merely outward appearance or profession, genuine mutual love for our Christian brothers and sisters comes from the heart.

In order to do this, we must willingly let go of evil thoughts and feelings toward fellow believers. Peter used the word philadelphia (love of the brothers) in the phrase “genuine mutual love,” and then changed to the more intense form of the word love, agapao, to describe strong and deep love in the next phrase, love one another deeply.

1:23    For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  Peter gave the second reason to love others: Believers have a common ground in Christ. We have all been born again; we are sinners saved by grace. Because we have all received new life in Christ, we should be motivated to live to please God, obey the truth, keep ourselves pure, and love our Christian brothers and sisters.

The change that took place in our lives is eternal. Our new birth was not of perishable seed, meaning of human origin, so that we will one day wither and die; rather our new birth originated from imperishable seed, described as the living and enduring word of God.

1:24–25        For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Quoting Isaiah 40:6–8, Peter reminded believers that everything in this life—possessions, accomplishments, people—will eventually fade away and disappear.

Only God’s will, word, and work are permanent. We are mortal, but God’s word is eternal and unfailing.

 That word is the good news that was announced to you. What gives reason for life? What gives peace and patience in the middle of suffering and persecution? Why have hope? Because they believed the good news that had been announced (or proclaimed) to them through the apostles or other believers.