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PREPARING OURSELVES FOR ACTION!
What do the following people have in common? They
are Don Kelley, Ron Rupright, Barbara Hess, Gary Merrill, Les Hirst, Marcia
Rupright, and Rod Brewer. If you simply started guessing you could spend
way too many hours on trying to figure it out. But if you looked at the
biographical information they filled out at last night's Christmas party you'd
discover that their favorite car from the past was a Ford from the 1950s.
Let's try it again. This time I'm going
to give you a list of names taken from the Bible. See if you can figure
out what they have in common. The names are: Shammua, Shaphat, Igal,
Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, Geuel, Samson, David, Absalom,
Rehoboam, Mark, and Demas. As you look at these names and try to figure
out what they have in common it may help you to know that two names are excluded
from the first ten (10) names. The excluded names are Joshua and Caleb. Also,
it may help you to know that of all these names only one of them fully recovered
from what happened to him.
Give up? They were all casualties of
warfare. The first ten gave in to the enemy without putting up a fight. They
explored the land of Canaan and brought back to Moses the following report.
They said, "The land we explored devours
those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33
We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).
We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
Joshua and Caleb, of course, were ready to go
up and take the land God had promised Israel. As to the other names on
the list; Samson and David were a causality of lust, Absalom was consumed by
his hunger for power, Rehoboam (Solomon's son), longing for power, failed as
a king because he sought to please his friends rather than meet the needs of
the nation, Mark was sidelined in an dispute with Paul, and Demas fell because
he loved the world more than he loved God.1
The world is a tough place. In fact, it
is a battleground for the souls of men. If we have been rescued from
the kingdom of darkness, and we have, it doesn't mean no harm will come to
us. Satan, though he has been defeated and will ultimately receive what
he has sown, is still active. He still prowls around in this old world
looking for someone to devour.
Satan, however, is not our only enemy. The
world is which we live is a fallen world. It's a world system that seduces
people with the promise that peace and happiness can be purchased with plastic. Then
too, our own fallen nature bends in the same direction making it difficult
to resist the lies. It's a tough world, a world where casualties are
not all that uncommon.
It is in this context that Peter wrote his first
letter. He wrote to those who were undoubtedly acquainted with grief. He
wrote to those whose faith was being tested by various trials. But he
also wrote to those who had been rescued from the kingdom of this world. He
wrote to those whose faith would eventually result in exuberant songs of joy
and praise when Jesus is fully revealed to the world.
In the meantime, life is tough. In the
meantime, in the light of our salvation, Peter commands us to prepare for action. He
tells us to behave in a particular manner which he spells out for us in I Peter
1:13 - 21. We read:
Therefore (in light of your salvation), 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."
Since you call on a Father who judges each man's
work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18
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, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without
blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world,
but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 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.2
In light of our salvation, to keep ourselves
off the casualty list, or to put it another way, to remain effective within
the kingdom of God, Peter commands us to do a number of things. First,
we are to prepare our minds for action. Or as the King James Version
puts it, "Gird up the loins of your mind."
The picture is of a man gathering the
folds of his long garment and tucking it into his belt so that he can move
freely and quickly. Metaphorically, Peter is commanding us to remain
mentally alert, prepared for the battle that more often than not we win or
lose mentally long before we win or lose on the field of battle.
When the twelve spies explored the land of Canaan
only two of them, Joshua and Caleb, had girded up the loins of their mind. How
they did this is anyone's guess. Maybe they sat down with Moses the night
before they left and recalled all that God had done on their behalf in their
lifetime. Maybe they explored the land side by side and habitually
reminded each other of how God continually exercised his mighty power on behalf
of those he loved. Or maybe, they had developed the good habit
of mentally looking at things from God's perspective. In some way, they must
have reviewed the past and allowed it to shape how they saw the movie playing
itself out as they entered the land of Canaan.
I don't know how the two of them prepared themselves
mentally, but it is clear the other ten spies were unprepared mentally. For
when they saw the giants in the land of Canaan "they saw themselves as
mere grasshoppers." They lost the battle in their mind even
before they engaged the enemy and it cost them everything. It cost them
dearly because they never took the time and effort to gird up the loins of
their mind.
Second, we are to exercise self-control. That
is, we are to remain sober minded. At the very least, this means we must
abstain from drunkenness in the literal sense, but more so it means we are
not to become intoxicated with our own thoughts. Rehoboam, Solomon's
son, the one who inherited the kingdom from his father became intoxicated with
the idea of power.
The common man in the street wanted some relief
from the burdens placed upon him by Solomon. He wanted the yoke of harsh
labor lightened. King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his
father and they advised him to lighten the yoke. But Rehoboam rejected
their advice and listened to his buddies. They advised him to make it
even heavier. Which is exactly what he did, he became intoxicated with
the idea of power and tore the Kingdom of Israel apart. ( See I Kings
12:1 - 17)
You see, the trouble with intoxication, as most
of us know from personal experience, is that it befuddles the mind. It
takes away our ability to make clear-headed decisions. It induces
a sense of fraudulent well-being that can be totally out of touch with reality. For
example, at a fraternity party where everyone revolved around a keg of beer
I once . . . Well, let's just say I made a bad decision and had others
failed to protect me I probably would've received the beating I deserved that
night.
You see, when we're sober minded we see things
rightly. We see temptation as temptation, we access situations from a
Christian point of view, and we respond in a correct manner to others. Someone
has made the observation that when Paul visited Athens he didn't see a collection
of beautiful pieces of sculpture. He saw the images of pagan gods being
worshiped. His response was not to whip out his camera and start taking
pictures but to preach the gospel.
Third, Peter commands us to set our hope fully
on the grace to be given us when Christ returns. At first blush, this
may not sound like practical advice for dealing with present difficulties. But
anyone can endure just about anything if they know there is light at the end
of the tunnel. An athlete accepts the demands of seemingly endless
days of preparation believing it will have its rewards. A young couple
might endure living on the edge of poverty while putting themselves through
medical school because they believe in the end it will be time well-invested. And
those who have been thrown into prison, justly or unjustly, survive best by
clinging to hope.
Our hope as Christians, of course, is in the
second coming of our Lord and in that we are encouraged to continue living
in a manner pleasing to Him. For He will come again and each man's work
will be judged impartially.
Fourth, we are to live as children of obedience. In
the past we lived as children of ignorance. We didn't know God. We
didn't want to know God and, as we now look back on things, we can freely confess
that we were not actively pursuing God. We lived in ignorance and our
lives were dominated by our selfish desires. If it looks ugly in retrospect
it is because it was an ugly way to live.
But as children of the light we are called to
live holy lives. It is a high calling for anyone who claims to know Christ. In
our effort to live holy lives we sometimes make the mistake of presenting a
polished life to the watching world. We find perfection elusive so we
try to deny or hide our imperfections. The watching world knows better
and it is perhaps for this reason that others sometimes point the finger at
us and label us as being phony.
But let me make it easy for you. The command
to live holy lives is a command to be different. Not weird, just different. In
the past we were ruled by evil desires. Perhaps by the desire to hurt
those who have hurt us. Or perhaps by the desire to impress people by
hiding our flaws. But as Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 - 2, being
holy means not letting the world squeeze us into its mold. Or as Leviticus
tells us, being holy means simply paying attention to all the small decisions
we make in life and make those small decisions in accordance with God's standard
for living.
You may be thinking that living a holy life
doesn't exactly prepare us for action. Wrong! A holy life sets
us free to deal with all the things going on in our life without being nagged
by a guilty conscience. It takes the static out of any conversation we
might have with God and others. It means we don't have to put anything
on hold while we deal with some issue that should have been dealt with a long
time ago.
Furthermore, when we're honest and transparent
with others they tend to be honest and transparent with us. This means
we don't spend our days playing games with others. And when we don't
play the games others play, we tend to get more done.
1 If you habitually watch The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,
you have seen, from time to time, a partial list of those who have fallen in
our war with terrorist. It is a good, but sad, commentary that
freedom never comes without a high price being paid for it. What
is true in this world of ours, is equally true in the spiritual world. For
it is only by the shed of blood of Christ that we are set free from our own
sinful nature, the world system in which we live, and the firm grip of Satan.
2 VV. 17 - 21 motivate us to pay attention to the previous
four verses!
PETER: THE MAN AND HIS LETTERS 12/16/07 1
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