Peter’s First Command: Hope in God’s Grace!

Posted on by Pam Larson

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13 (read verses 10-16 today)

Here are some helpful words from John Piper about this verse:

To bring together all the various translations that are out there, let me give you a literal rendering of this verse so you can see more clearly the relationship between the words. Peter says, “Therefore, having girded up the loins of your mind”—it’s an image of a person wearing flowing garments tucking the garments into his belt so that he can run and move about freely and quickly without tripping over his clothes. And the part of you that is to be freed by this girding up is your mind—”the loins of your mind.”

Then he goes on: “And being sober”—it’s image of not being drunk when it comes to spiritual things. It implies alertness, and evaluating things correctly, because you see clearly, and your mind isn’t numb with intoxicating influences.

Then comes the main verb, and for the first time in this letter it’s an imperative. It’s a command: “Hope fully.” Or: “Fix your hope completely.” So the first command in this letter is an action you do with your mind and your heart. It’s a command to hope. Hope is not an action of the body. It is an experience of the soul. Peter is commanding us to experience hope.

This is the main verb, the main clause, in this verse. The first two were subordinate participles: “Having girded the loins of your mind”—that’s the first one; and “being sober”—that’s the second one. Then comes the main predicate; “Hope fully!” Which simply means that girding up the loins of the mind and being sober are means to the end of the main thing, namely, hoping fully.

Finally, Peter tells us what the object of the hope is—what we are hoping in, namely, the grace of God. “Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” When Jesus comes back, he is bringing grace to the people of God. Grace is on the way. Hope in it. Hope in it fully! Hope fully in God’s grace.