July 23
“Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
(Continued from yesterday…)
Next on Peter’s list is “fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I find this command intriguing, and I am not sure I understand it fully. But I think it might be a twin cousin to Hebrews 12:1-2, which mentions the cloud of witnesses surrounding us, exhorts us to lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us and run the race with endurance, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Fixing our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus is parallel to the way Jesus endured the cross: He focused on the goal, the joy, the victory that was sure to be His after He completed His suffering with endurance. Likewise, we are able to endure the difficulties, sufferings, and temptations of this life when we focus on Jesus and the joy (and terror perhaps?) that we will experience when we stand before Him and He enters into His kingdom. If we truly could get our minds around what scripture tells us about this event and allow our imaginations to “see” the grandeur and glory and awesomeness of that scene, it would be transforming to our lives today. That is why Peter tells us to fix our hope completely on this revelation. Christ and His victory are truly our only hope, so if we have any other hope than Him, it is misplaced hope and possibly could be a stumbling block for us.
I am reminded of a statement I heard was attributed to D. L. Moody, “I have two days in view: today and that day.” Moody was a man focused on the coming day of being face to face with Jesus so that he would be motivated and empowered for doing God’s work today. So also we ought to be sober and action oriented today, with our hope fixed completely on the grace (including the rewards, I believe, that Jesus will give us for our faithfulness) to be given us fully on that day.
Next Peter brings up the issue of obedience. Obedience. This one word would transform our lives entirely if we could get our arms around it and apply it diligently. What does it mean to obey? I mean, really obey? I have for many years thought I was obeying the Lord and doing His work, but was I really obeying Him? What I am getting at is that we can generally be trying to serve the Lord and do what we think He wants us to be doing, but in reality we are doing our own will in our own fleshly strength in our own way and taking our own sweet time about it! We want to be in control, making sure that we don’t have to follow the Lord too far or get out of our comfort zone too much. Most of our lives I think are spent with a fleshy, even sinful state of mind or just not trying to really listen to and really obey the voice of God and the Holy Spirit within us. Do you really want to obey the Word fully? Do you really want to obey the Holy Spirit’s every instruction to you? Do you really want to be completely conformed to the image of Christ, surrendering all your will and desires to Him? It is easy to get occasionally excited, like at a conference or rally or something, and make such affirmations and statements of surrender to Christ, but how many of us really follow through and do the hard, hard daily work of surrendering ourselves, crucifying the old nature with its passions and desires, and listening for and obeying the Spirit of God’s leading? I personally know of no one who is doing this. My efforts to do so are all too sporadic and feeble and woefully lacking. I am still trying to learn how to walk by the Spirit and obey His voice on a minute by minute basis. But for me personally, this is very difficult and requires much focus and discipline. I praise God for His patience, though, and look forward to greater fellowship and usefulness to Him as I seek to daily replace my fleshly thoughts with spiritual ones.