In 1 Peter 1:16, Peter stated that the believer is to be holy. But how do we “become holy”? In the previous post I alluded to the classic scene of a monk living in the cave. He is physically separate from the world, but his mind might remain there! He might be thinking about some women he met on the way to his cave, or wondering about how is life might have gone if he stayed at home, or he might be jealous of his brother who got rich and is living a good life, or ne might be smugly thinking how spiritual he is in comparison to all the other less-monkish Christians who do not live in caves, etc. Appearing to be holy should never be confused with actual holiness.
Peter’s main point in verses 13-15 is that a life of physical holiness and separation is of no value if one’s mind remains unrestrained. Holiness begins with control our thoughts.
First, we are to prepare our minds for action. This is the first word of the paragraph (and is an aorist participle) and it emphasizes the fact that Peter thinks that preparing your mind for action precedes holiness. The verb ἀναζώννυμι is literally “gird up,” and the phrase is in fact “gird up the loins of your mind (ὀσφυς).” To “gird up one’s loins” refers to the practice of wearing a belt and tucking your robe into the belt in order to move more freely, perhaps to walk or run. This is a similar metaphor to Paul’s “belt of truth” in Eph 6:14. In the parable in Luke 12:35-40 Jesus teaches that the disciple must be “dressed and ready” for the return of the Master at any time.
Second, we are to prepare our minds by being “sober-minded.” This verb (νήφω) can refer to “not being drunk,” but it is often used for reasonableness, clear thinking. Think of this as the sort of self-discipline required of an athlete, they have to be completely focused on the game in order to win (or, think of the lack of focus of the five-year-old soccer league). Perhaps we can think of this word as referring to absolute focus on the task of “being holy.”
This is a very difficult thing for the typical twenty-first century person to practice since we are bombarded with so many ideas and distractions at any given time. For a twenty-something, it is difficult to sit quietly and think (they go into cell-phone deprivation). People were just as easily distracted in the first century, so Peter gives his readers a specific thing to focus on as they live out this new life in Christ.
Third, we are to fully set our hope on the grace that will be revealed at the return of Jesus. Peter offers his readers something to help them focus their attention – the hope of the soon return of Jesus. Hope in the Bible is not like hope in modern English, which is often a kind of hope for something that is unlikely (“I hope I win the lottery.”) Instead, hope is in something that is certain to happen in the future and it gives a person some motivation to act in the present.
Our hope in the soon-return of Jesus ought to have an impact on how we live right now (mentally and spiritually prepared and sober-minded, leading to a kind of holiness that sets us apart from the world). This is not a prediction that Jesus will return in a particular date, nor does Peter look at contemporary events and claim that they are fulfilling prophecy; rather, he is making the simple observation that the return of Jesus is very close and could happen soon, therefore the believer ought to be motivated toward increasing holiness.
Last, if we allow our minds to be guided by holiness, we will not be conformed to childish passions. The more we yield to the Spirit of God and become more mature in Christ, the less we are “conformed” to the passions of this world. To conform is to be “guided by” something, to follow the instructions for example. (This is the same word Paul used in Romans 12:2, συσχηματίζω, with virtually the same point.)
It is significant that Peter does not give a list of spiritual, religions acts that will result in holiness. He does not give a special prayer, or a set of magic rituals that, if preformed correctly, will result in holiness. He simply says, “change the way you think!” The problem is that changing the was we think is far more difficult than a set of rituals, and that alone explains the practices of most religions.
Well said
You are absolutely right about the fact that it is far more difficult to change the way we think rather than a set of rituals. “Rituals” in this sense are like something we basically just do on a repetitive basis. It is kind of like the saying “going through the motions”. I like how you mentioned how Peter made it simple and clear in that he suggests we change the way we think. Now yes, this can be quite a difficult task, but nothing in this life should be that easy. It says in Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” In this sense looking at this verse, our own understanding would be considered rituals. The verse said it too that we need to be more trusting in our Lord with the mindset that once we do so we will be able to change the way we all think on a daily basis and trust in Christ a lot more!
-Chris
A person’s mind is the most important aspect to their body. They cannot achieve anything without the use of their brain. Our thoughts can be holy or unholy and we need to do our best to control them our wicked thoughts in order to grow with God. I appreciated the example you gave in the third paragraph in regard to an athlete. As Christians we need to focus on making our minds right. In a game, most athletes focus is on the task as hand. How will they win this game? It’s a focus that takes over a person and leads them to forget everything else around them and going on. Like you said, both then and now people dealt with distractions. It can be difficult for a younger generation now with all the cell phones and constant distractions society deals with. I believe it is very important for Christians to realize that the center of our faith begins with our minds. We must train our minds to be ready for the return of Jesus. For instance, Matthew 5:28 states, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Meaning, sin is not only a physical action. It can be committed in our minds as well. In order to prepare for the return of Christ we have to prepare our minds in the hope that they are pleasing to Him. With a mind that is strengthened by God, the physical act of Christ like behavior will be exhibited as well.
Transforming one’s life into a life of holiness is a process and a journey, not a sprint. I agree with your three points of preparing the mind in actions, being ‘sober-minded’, and preparation for the return of Jesus. It is interesting to think about the reality of the mindset and desires of the world being changed through the transformation of living a Christian life being holy. I agree that conforming to the patterns of the world (Romans 12:2) and the struggles of desiring worldly possession would pass away and leave the desires of the mind and heart to be for Jesus and a stronger relationship with Him. The process of becoming holy may be long and difficult, but the destination sounds like a life of peace and restoration. Karen Jobes in the book “Letters to the Church” writes about how God does not desire for His children to have divine holiness, but human holiness. God is the only one who can possess divine holiness, whereas believers can step into holiness in a different way. Jobes points out that Jesus Christ, on earth, was the perfect example of what living a life of human holiness looks like (Jobes, 2011). Peter reference the perfection of Jesus and Him setting an example for believers in 1 Peter 2:21 and states that Christians are to follow in Jesus footsteps to truly follow Him.
“set your mind on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:2). Peter writes to tell is readers to prepare their minds for the coming of Jesus Christ. As we live out our life in Christ, we must control our thoughts. To grow with we need start trying to have holy thoughts. Peter simply states that we need to change the way we think. Our thoughts can lead us into sin, just as David’s thoughts about Bathsheba (2 Sam 2:11) caused him to sin in his mind and heart. It is very difficult to prepare our minds for action and to be “sober-minded”. This is the only way to fully “set our hope on the grace that will be revealed at the return of Jesus” (Phillip Long). Listening to the Holy Spirit and diving into the Bible will help us become more mature and ready to set our mind on “things above”. We don’t have to give excuses for our thoughts or be conformed to the passions of this world if we are guiding our minds by holiness.
Many times, there is the assumption that we should jump right into Paul’s apparent teaching of the same thing in Colossians 3. However, Peter and Paul address very different subjects when talking about the sin problems their corresponding audiences are having. Paul writes to a Gentile audience struggling with living for things of the flesh, where Peter’s audience is struggling with clarity and reasoning for living for God.
Peter’s argument is simple – you have the salvation and grace which comes through Christ, so now you should desire to live differently than the world (Jobes, 303). What Peter says is that our minds should be aware and clear on the things of Christ, rather than that of the world. Peter even makes the assumption that the minds of his reads will be “alert and fully sober” when he commands them to “set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming” (1 Peter 1:13).
In self-examination of our own lives as 21st century believers, the question that we need to be asking ourselves is where we have this hope or not. Peter is writing to a group of people facing persecution, but yet to us who live in comfortably and, compared to the rest of the world, wealthy America, what do we know of this? Our ability to be “alert and fully sober” is rather lacking and it shows in the lifestyles of many people who make the claim to be believers. There is a reason why Peter makes this assumption from his readers – many would have likely desired to themselves alert – and he provides where that alertness should lead them in their lives.
First and foremost, this post makes a very substantial and noteworthy statement about living a holy Christian life; the statement reads: “Appearing to be holy should never be confused with actual holiness.” This is a remarkable statement, and it is one that I feel as if us Christians avoid or ignore at times in our faith walks. Today’s society has become very much about outward appearance. It was like that in Bible times as well. For instance, Jesus’ disciple, Matthew, writes in Matthew 6:5-6 teaches Christians to not be like the hypocrites of these Bible times, but rather, he encourages believers to pray in private. The fact that Matthew included this teaching point in his gospel highlights the fact that it was an issue of the time. One could argue that it is an issue of today’s society as well. The goal of living a life that honors God is not to appear to honor God, but it is to actually honor God. It is not about appearing to be holy, but it is to live a life of holiness. Far too often, Christians are worried about how we look to those around us. Rather, we should be more concerned with striving to live as holy of lives as possible.
One thing that I would like to note about this topic is that it is important how others view Christians. Many non-believers and people outside the church view the people inside the church as hypocrites. They believe that these people do not “walk the walk” but they “talk the talk.” This means that people view believers as people who do not practice what they preach. Because we are all sinners, no one would deny that Christians and believers fall short of living out the teachings of the Bible. However, it is a glaring problem of Christianity when Christians have earned this bad of a reputation. According to Jones (2008), 72% of people believe that the church is filled with hypocritical members and hypocrisy itself. This is a staggering number. It is nearly three in every four people who believe this! Though looking good to the public is not the end goal, it is important that Christians understand that it makes evangelism and bringing others to faith that much more difficult when people view Christians as people who do not practice what they preach.
Preparing our minds is an excellent source of living a holy lifestyle. Our mind is the source of our actions and beliefs, so it is incredibly important that our mind is prepared and placed in the right position/place. One way to prepare your mind is to be alert and clear-minded. We cannot let down our guard as Christians, or our mind may go in the wrong direction. Similarly, we must be clear-minded because a foggy mind will lead us in the wrong direction as well. Changing how we think can be a very difficult process. Reading appropriate literature can help with this, listening to appropriate music can help with this, and meditation can help with this. There are many practices that lead to a more holy mind, which then leads to a more holy lifestyle.
Jones, S. B. (2008). 72% Say Church is Full of Hypocrites. Retrieved from: https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/DA/20080119/News/606100924/TL
I really like your analogy of the monk living in the cave. Everyone has “What if?” questions that cause them to be distracted from pursuing something wholehearted. I also appreciate the fact that controlling our thoughts is the first step of becoming holy. Peter does tell believers to prepare their minds for action as they do not know what will happen in their future. As Professor Long points out, Peter seems to find preparation to be the step before holiness. Like the analogy of the monk, I agree with Peter that it helps to be prepared before becoming holy. By preparing our minds to focus on Jesus without being distracted by the world around us. The second part of preparation is by having “sober minds.” In this passage, it does not appear that Peter is saying that the believers are drinking. But instead, Peter tells to think clearly. This takes a lot of discipline because the world gives us a lot of distractions that leave believers’ minds confused and disoriented. Third, Peter tells the believers that they should focus on having hope that Jesus will return. There was no doubt that Jesus was coming back and as a result that gave the believers hope. Finally, Peter tells the believers to allow the Holy Spirit to guide them and help them grow more in Jesus. The more they grew the more likely they would not be distracted or influenced by the world. These three instructions helped the believers achieve holiness in Jesus.
I like the reference that you made in your post about being sober minded is to have self-discipline is a lot like comparing to an athlete completely focused on the game in order to win. It weird that I am reading this post while I am away on a trip for basketball to hopefully win a national championship. You have to have complete focus on being holy, otherwise your mind will be in other places and you won’t be able to focus on becoming completely holy, if you are not sober minded. I think in today’s society we have a ton of distractions that cause us to stop focusing on becoming holy. We have social media, and sin all around us. As a girl we have thought that come to our mind when we see girls that are prettier and skinnier, and we begin to think about become just like them instead of focusing on our selves and becoming and staying holy.
It struck me personally when you point our that we should be hoping that God returns soon instead of hoping to win the lottery, because it will have an impact on how we live right now. I say this because I find myself struggling mentally and financially in life and I have wished to win the lottery, which has caused me to lose focus on what is really important. One important thing I received out of this article is to change the way you’re thinking because is causes you from focusing on the most important thing, being Holy.
It can be daunting to read the command given in 1 Peter 1:16 of “Be holy, because I am holy”, because we know that we can never achieve the high moral purity and perfection like that of God himself. “ But God expects not divine holiness of his children, but human holiness, and he sent his Son into the human race to exemplify what holiness looks like” (Jobes 417). This is encouraging because it recognizes our human imperfections while giving us hope in the power of Christ to transform our hearts and minds in a way that honors and reflects God. Verse 13 (ESV) tells us to put our “…hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. I personally find it difficult to fully commit to anything in my spiritual life because I have so much doubt or anxiety and want to see logic and proof of future things before I go all in during the present. I was challenged when P.Long (2018) said, “Instead, hope is in something that is certain to happen in the future and it gives a person some motivation to act in the present”. How can we tell if we truly have hope in this manner?
Several points I like to refresh based on this blog, appearance of holiness is not transformed holiness, mind for action as to sober-minded, and focus towards holy grace. I thought these points were important to highlight as to preparing the mind and transforming towards holiness. It is true, in our society, we are easily distracted and it’s a challenge to focus on with is right and good. Jobes states that Jesus is a normative pattern can be creatively applied in different circumstances (344), Jesus has the answers to anything from simple to complexity in how we should live our lives with him. It should be our journey to want to walk the path towards his true being and eternal life. Jesus should be our center focus in motivating us towards increase holiness of changing our way of thinking. In Matthew 7:16 says, “by their fruit you will recognize them,” this implies how their actions perceive in the ways of their thinking. I say this, due to so much confusion within the body of Christ, how many have mixed with new age movements, and professing they are Christians because they only attend Sunday service. Preparing our minds is to daily read the Word of God, meditate on it, pray consistently, never to cease to give up or go astray. We may need to do a spiritual cleansing of our minds by fasting and praying with the instructions given by the Holy Spirit. Every person is different in how they process through change.
P. Long’s blog brings to attention several aspects of what we as Christians today ought to be living out according to what Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:13-15. P. Long gives a in depth reflection upon each of Peters commands including to prepare our minds for action, being sober minded, set our hope in in God’s grace, and allowing our minds to be lead by holiness.
I wonder how often we as western world Christians completely lack in these areas and how we might improve. Specifically, though all four may be a struggle, that preparing our minds for action is where we lack most. We sit in church and consume, we listen to sermons consuming, we consume so much and completely fail to act. Perhaps what we as the church in America can take from Peter most is the need for preparation and action.
I am an athlete, so I related a lot with the example in paragraph three. As a Christian I have strongly come to believe and realize that our minds are the beginning centers of our faith. In this I mean, once we know who the author of our faith is, our minds become the center as we have to be able to switch immediately and refocus on the Lord who is the author of our faith if we are losing focus. Today there is a lot of destructions but as you said that there were distractions that people dealt with back then. The destructions may differ but they are all destructions. As a Christian I have to be able to control my mind and what I think of because I can easily fall short by what I am thinking of and what I choose to focus my mind on. This can affect my spiritual life. So, as a Christian I should have a sober mind and be ready to control my mind because a mind is the most important aspect of one’s body and helps in living.
That is right with Peter not giving us a list of spiritual, finding out what our results in holiness. He wants us to change what we think. There are times we would like to follow and agree with everything being said but we do not have to agree with everything. It is going to be challenging for us to change what we think but we have to learn what is right for us. The first part is preparing our minds which is a start. It is like preparing for certain things that are similar like planning ahead just to be ready. It is good to know that we have to be prepared in life with anything that is happening especially to those who give their life to Christ. There are people that are afraid that the world is going to end and are not sure where they are going to go. Christians is excited for Jesus to come and take His people with him. Second, it talks about having a clear mind just to focus. It is a self-discipline for an athlete to focus on the game in order to win (P. Long, 2018). We need to focus on God on what he has in store for us and what he wants for us to. If you want to have a clear mind and hear what the Holy Spirit is telling you; the self-discipline is silence and solitude. We do look forward to having hope in the future, but it also helps to motivate and act right away because this is serious.
I really like how you related being “sober-minded” to clear thinking. I liked how you applied to the visual image of being an athlete because I can relate to this example, in order to keep your head clear during the game and focused you have to set all of the other distractions in life aside and have your focus 100% in the game not only to win but to play your best.
Cellphones are a major distraction in our world today, not only cell phones but technology in general. As Peter encourages us to refocus ourselves and to live a new life in Jesus. Focusing on the return of Jesus personally can be scary for me as it does impact how I live my life today. You never know when it is going to be your final day on earth, and you must be prepared for that. Just as it says in 1 Peter 1:13-15 it says that as Christians we need to be holy because God is and God has called his believers to be like him. Obviously, we can’t be 100% perfect because we are human, but we can show to the best of our ability that we can by holy to represent Christ.
One final thought about this blog post is that I agree with you that when we are guided by holiness it won’t let us be conformed to the patterns of our world as it says in Romans 12:2. Peter offers a significant challenge for us as believers, he doesn’t have any specific prayers to pray that will help us become holy. He only says that changing the way that we think” can be very hard and harder than following rituals to follow because the way we think is something that happens every day and every second of the day, we are always thinking. Overall, after going through this article and reading through 1 Peter, it reminds me to make sure I personally am preparing myself for Christs return and living my life to be holy. It isn’t right for me to encourage others to live a holy life if I am not putting in the effort myself.
Peter states that it is important to prepare our minds. When we do this then holiness is to follow along with it. We must prepare our minds for what the Lord has for us and to be ready for when He comes for us. Clearing our minds so that we are ready for actions from God. The next part of 1 Peter 1:13-15 focuses on how we must clear our minds to be ready to hear what God has for us or to be prepared for what is next. As Professor Long states: “Think of this as the sort of self-discipline required of an athlete, they have to be completely focused on the game in order to win.” (Long, 2018) We must be focused! It can be very hard to perform this task as a member of our society today. It becomes so easy for people to drift away from God or to be thinking of so many different things that are not relevant to what He needs from us. Keeping an open mind and a prepared mind comes with discipline and knowledge. We must be persistent and honest with ourselves so that we can better prepare our minds. We never have a lot of time to just sit in silence and prepare ourselves for what God has. We are always so busy. Not to mention, technology is a huge distraction for many people. A lot of time that we could spend with the Lord is wasted away on meaningless technology. Like in the verse, Peter gives his people hope for the return of Jesus that they can focus on. We need to remember this as well. The more we look for and towards Christ the more disciplined and mature we become. This allows for less of a chance to drift from God. It is important to focus on the main practices of Christianity. This is what will guide us to being holy and having a mind that is prepared for God. Peter does not give specific rituals but God has given us some rituals that will lead us to Him. We must pray, repent and read our Bible. God is the only way to have eternal life. We must be ready for Him to return. It is also important to practice what you preach. You must be an example to give an example.
Simply acting holy or “appearing holy” (Long, 2018) does not equate to holiness that Peter, Paul, or Jesus points us toward. Today someone might relate holiness with how pure someone lives their life, or where they spend most of their time (i.e church). But according to 1 Peter 1:13-15, P. Long makes the important observation that to prepare ourselves for Christ’s return is not from actions, but from where we set our minds, or put our focus on. Paul tells us something very similar in Col. 3, to “set our minds on things above”. Instead of living life toward religious acts, we are commanded to “change the way we think”, which prepares us from Christ’s return, and leads us in the right direction of holiness.
Preparing your mind is key to preparing everything else in your life. Your actions and attitude will follow what is truly in your mind. The blog post above mentions how just appearing to be holy is not the same as actual holiness. Just because someone shows physical holiness and separation does not mean that the person’s mind is focused on holiness. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control, which I believe is extremely mental. If you cannot have self-control with your thoughts, then you cannot expect to have self-control with your physical body. We must prepare our minds for action, prepare our minds by being sober-minded, fully set our hope on the grace that will be revealed at the return of Jesus, and finally, allow our minds to be guided by holiness. I like Peter’s straight forward approach to telling his readers that we must simply change our way of thinking in order to obtain that holiness. Unfortunately, changing the way that we think is a lot more difficult than many people anticipated. “Easier said than done” is a common phrase that people use when they are being told to change something about themselves or do something that is easy to be told to do but harder in reality. An example that I think of is people who stay in an abusive relationship. Many people repeatedly tell them to simply get out of the relationship, but unfortunately, this is not easy for the abused due to all of the fear that is built up in them.
When Peter explains that all you have to do is think more differently than you can become “Holy” I think people might have a hard time grasping this. For the initial response you stated, how can one become “Holy” there can be a variety of different reasons as to why someone can become Holy. From Peter’s perspective all you have to do is certify that God is your one true savior and one who is a higher power than above, in this decision, you are relatively submitting yourself to God so that you may become Holy in the present life and the afterlife as well. Another way one can become Holy is by ways of baptism, which is viewed as submitting yourself to God all over the world. We are cleansed of any grief, secrets, sin, etc. when we get baptized, and we are accepting Christ into our lives. In The Letters to the Church there is a quote that says, “the blood of Jesus ratified the new covenant, and according to Peter it was through the Resurrection of Jeus that God has given us a new birth into living hope,” (Jobes 526) This defines what I was saying that goes into what Peter was saying to just change your mindset, to focus on God and all his wonders that he brings because he gave us a new life full of hope from sin.
Living out a holy and biblical lifestyle is a practice that takes years to obtain. Preparing our minds and abstaining from the sinful desires that are held within us is something that Christians are called to do (Long). I think modern Christianity and churches tend to focus a lot of attention on the salvation aspect of Christianity. However, while this is an extremely important topic to focus on, there tends to be a lack of practical holy living being taught. The hard, suffering grit that people don’t like to think about when it comes to being a Christian is not a popular subject and unfortunately results in a lot of people finding themselves learning about Christ and his example, but not applying it to their lives. If we are to be Christ-followers then our minds need to be set on God (Long). Distractions are everywhere and it is hard to find a quiet, solitary time with God, therefore 1 Peter clearly indicates that we need to be taking action in setting aside time to prepare our minds and set our sights on God (Long). I think if Christians were to start setting their minds to a holy mindset than the actions that are produced by this holy wisdom can then be expressed out into the world and people will begin to see why Christians follow God.
Preparing your mind, a topic I am not confident that I have understood up until this point. We see all over the world that mental strength is a more needed but more scarce quality. Mental illness strikes all around us. Before this passage I would here the word preparation and apply it to almost anything besides our mind. But in light of the decline in mental strength in our world and also the command of 1 Peter it has become quite obvious that our minds require a great deal of attention and preparation.
If we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind, soul, and strength our mind should certainly become an important part of our life and walk with Christ. Thus, it is undeniable that a great deal of effort be given to the renewing and building up of our mind. Our mind directly effects the way we suffer, the choices we make, our physical health (I recommend studying the effects of stress on the body), our relationships, and more. An abundance of evidence will show that the mind and how well we care for it will impact our experience here on earth. 1 Peter 1:13-15 would advise us to set our minds on Christ. This is a foundational reset for our mind, and one that should be reflected upon often. Thus conveyed, that what we set our mind on is more important than the actions that we do to prepare for Christ’s return. And in turn. the way we prepare our mind will create a faith that is alive and burning, thus bringing to fruition actions that glorify God.
I finally, as an athlete, I enjoy professor Long’s comparison of mental discipline to the discipline of an athlete. This comparison puts things into deep perspective for me personally. In my sport if you do not display either mental strength or discipline, you will not get see the court. This is because opponents will target you at your weakest point without mercy. I think that this is the way our spiritual enemy approaches things as well.
Based on this topic, I suppose most of humanity today has fallen into the idea of “controlling minds” especially in our contemporary world. The reason is Technology has gotten better and better over time and most of us have our digital phones so we can just look up anything in a second that really can become distracting and once you get addicted and comfortable with these technologies then it’s really hard to focus our minds. For instance, there’s a variety of news that we can look up at any second or spend time on games or YouTube can be very distracting for our minds, especially if we can’t control them well. So again, I think it’s really helpful that Peter instructs a specific thing that can help us focus our minds, and as the blog mentioned, “The hope of the soon return of Jesus, hope is in something that is certain to happen in the future and it gives a person some motivation to act in the present.”. (P. Long,2018, pg.30). I think hoping for the coming of Jesus can be a very helpful way to focus our minds, especially because it’s very certain that Jesus is coming back. And also when we have hope in our lives that can set our expectations of getting ready for the coming of Jesus and keep us away from earthy things. I believe the idea that Peter is addressing readers specifically here is to have hope for the coming of Jesus with priorities in God’s words and less comfort with earthly things. I like how Jobes mentioned in the textbook that “Peter’s argument is simple – you have the salvation and grace which comes through Christ, so now you should desire to live differently than the world (Jobes,2011, pg.303). Again, as a believer, I take away that God already gives us good senses therefore, we should be able to make the right choice, and the right choice should be for God’s kingdom.
Being a psychology major a few things really stood out to me in this article. This idea of changing the way you think rather than just focusing on behaviors is interesting. It is known that when you think a certain way it will change your behavior. However, it is also really easy to behave someway even though you don’t believe in the ideals. For example, it is really easy for me to have to do something for school because I am being told it is what I need to do to pass. I can behave in a way that will make it seem like I want to do the homework or assignments. Except, I don’t have to believe that it is helping me, in order to do it. On that same note, if I believe that the classwork inside and outside of class is going to help me with the future that I want to have then I will do those things to reflect my thinking. This connects directly to a real relationship with Christ. I can do all the things in order to seem “holy” however, in my mind I am not doing them because of a relationship with Christ. I am doing them because it is required. When my mind is focused on becoming more like Christ I don’t have to be told to do things, I just naturally gravitate towards them. The other piece that always is interesting to me is the idea of “ childish passions”. Children are known to have the deepest passions because they don’t have a lot of critical thinking. There are two pieces to this that are a part of my thinking. First, being around children they are very momentary. I must have something right in this moment or I will have a meltdown. Second, children who are a little older are craving independence from everything else. This is the opposite of what we should be doing. We need to show our dependence on Christ. We also need to not get stuck in this ideal of at this moment I must get what I want. You should be looking at what Christ wants. Christ shows His desire of serving God and serving others. This was something that was a way of thinking, so He did it. It wasn’t because there was a list for him to complete. When you focus too much on behaviors that make you “holy” you are giving yourself way too much credit. You can’t become “holy” on your own. You must set out to be more like Christ. Christ is the one who is making things “holy”, not a human doing the “holy” things.
Peter is emphasizing that true holiness goes beyond just physical separation but it involves restraining one’s thoughts. He urges believers to prepare their minds for action, and uses the metaphor “grinding up the loins of the mind”. What this involves is having self-discipline and being “sober minded” which requires clear thinking and pure focus on the pursuit of holiness. Peter has the believers set their hope on the grace that is revealed at Jesus’ return. The imminent return of Jesus, serves as a point for believers which is influencing their mindset and leading to increased holiness. Peter is trying to emphasize that transforming our thinking, which is guided by holiness, is an important key to avoid conformity to worldly passions. This is distinguishing true holiness from mere religious rituals. Long’s emphasis on changing the way we think as the core of true holiness adds depth to understanding Peter’s message, which distinguishes it from mere ritualistic practices in religion.