1 Peter: God’s Pilgrim People in a Hostile World – A Heavenly Inheritance, a Holy Life

Peter Barnes | 1 Peter 1:13-16

SERMON  NOTES
A HEAVENLY INHERITANCE, A HOLY LIFE
1 Peter 1:13-16

– on the basis of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Christians have in heaven an imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance. How then do we live?

1. Prepare your mind for the coming Christ.

– 1:13. The NKJV is quite literal here: ‘gird up the loins of your mind’. It means what the ESV says it means: ‘preparing your minds for action’. The robe had to be removed for vigorous activity (Acts 7:58) or tucked up into one’s belt (Exodus 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46).

– set our sober minds not on the judgment associated with the Second Coming as in 2 Peter 3:10-11 but on the grace (1 Pet.1:13).

– see Mark 5:1-5, 15; Rom.12:1-2.

2. Obey as children of the Father.

– 1:14. Peter is saying: ‘Do not be like what you were before you were a Christian.’ This is the negative side. See 2:1; 4:2-4.

3. Be holy as God is holy.

– 1:15-16; from Lev.11:44; 19:2; 20:7-8, 26, like Matt.5:48. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.

– this is more than outward obedience, as Jonah learnt in Jonah 3-4.