Pondering the Passages: 1 Peter 1:13-16

This Week’s Passage and Memory Verse (in red): ¹³ Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  

Peter uses two word pictures here to convey his point:

1) “Prepare your minds for action” – Literally in the Greek language this says “gird up the loins of your mind”. The picture is of a man gathering up his long main garment and tucking it into his belt so as to leave his limbs free for action.

2) “be self -controlled” – literally this is “be sober”.  So Peter is saying here that he we need to be intentional about what we think about. And that we can’t afford to let our minds get muddied up with stuff that will disorient us and confuse reality. Evidently this was as much a problem back then as it is now. So how do we do this? Here are a few ideas that I’ve come up with. I’d love for you to add to these.

• Ponder passages – now that we are half way through the year it may be time to go back to the beginning and get a refresher course in how to do this. The tendency is toward doing what comes easy. I may be wrong, but I would guess that some of you reading this now have gotten in the habit of letting me do the work for you – you haven’t invested time in actually pondering the passages for yourselves.
• Memorize and meditate on Scripture – This takes time and this takes work – but the dividends are great. So have you been paying attention to the memory verses each week?
• Read a great book – Great books stimulate the mind to think. Been doing any reading lately of great books? Need a few ideas? Maybe try one of these that I mentioned in a post back in February. Here are a few more to add to that list:

Don’t Call It A Comeback – Kevin DeYoung

Radical Together – David Platt

The Gospel Driven Life – Michael Horton

It – Craig Groeschel

Desiring God – John Piper

Death by Love – Mark Driscoll

Counterfeit Gods – Tim Keller

• Have a serious conversation – Have you noticed that we are really good about sitting around and talking about nothing. Maybe it’s time to sit around and talk about something that matters.
• Write/Journal – I have found that one of the great benefits of doing this blog every week is that it forces me to think. Perhaps as a part of your pondering Scripture or reading great books you could take the time to write and reflect on the things that capture your attention.

So that’s enough for one week. Didn’t even get to the last part of the passage but I have confidence you can handle it on your own. I’m in Boston this week with our team from church working here with Jon Chasteen and Redemption Hill Church.  Now would be a good time to stop and pray for us.

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Revelation 21:1-8
Next Week’s Memory Verse: Revelation 21:4