1 Peter 1:13-16 – Revised Standard Version

¹³ Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Study Questions

1: Read the verses. What is your first impression? Be Holy. I have things I need to do. What is Holy? And Can I be holy? This was a really engaging set of opportunities.

2: Any questions about what the terms mean to you? 

1. Gird – Get ready for battle, get ready for work, take the first necessary steps. This set the foundation for what comes next.
2. Mind – Our conscious will; not our soul. This is the part of you that you control, or not.
3. Sober – Be disciplined, be in control. The taking control of what your mind is doing. In another step, note that this is “not about me” but about …
4. Obedient – I have a leader. This was not my answer, but it fit perfectly with the direction of the verses. It is not about me; it is about me “playing” follow the leader. My leader has paid for me, and I have devoted myself to following Him, so life is just playing follow the leader.
5. Conformed – Interestingly, I started this with outward conformation to trends and styles in clothes, and hair, and all that. I did not intend to, but a show I watched on Netflix reminded me of how many people that try not to be conforming to the latest trend end up conforming to an alternative trend even most stringently than most do to normal trends. Just my opinion based on years of trying to not be trendy nor untrendy. Overall, the idea here is to conform to the expectations of my leader and not to the expectations of the world.
6. Ignorance – This term has a huge negative connotation, but it just means you do not know. Before someone knows Christ, they are ignorant. Its not a judgement so much as a condition. One of the ideas in criminal justice is that ignorance is not a defense. That same idea flows here as that part of our duty is to learn more about Christ so that we may conform.
7. Conduct – I was really shooting to dig down that conduct is not just actions, not just words, but it is our thoughts. Remember the topic is be holy. If we are to be holy, it cannot just be in action. It has to be in words. And since our thoughts lead to our actions and words, it has to be in our thoughts. Paul says we are to take all our thoughts captive. It is the only path to holiness.

3: What is the main theme of these verses? Be Holy.

4. What does “gird up your minds, be sober” mean to you in your life today? The idea is that we are to train ourselves to think the right thoughts. We are to prepare our minds to be more Christ like. We are to remove the ideas, people, and places (an idea I stole from one of the guys) that lead us astray and replace them with better ideas (Biblical ideas), better people (Christians for support), and better places (not where you know you will be tempted). (We do need to have opportunities to witness to others in our lives, but we are not to lean on non-Christians for help being a better Christian.)

5. Be Holy in all your conduct? Is that even possible or too high a hope? Yes, we need to be holy in all our conduct (thoughts, words, actions). We had a long discussion about our ability to be holy. In the end, our ability to be holy in and of ourselves is not possible and we should not look at being holy as an end to be reached, but as an ideal to strive for. Failing is sin and we are not to revel in sin, but we know we are forgiven our sins of the past, and we strive to hit the mark as we go forward. Christ lives in us and it is through this indwelling Holy Spirit that we can conduct our lives in a holy manner.

6. Shall be holy? How? – We are holy because we belong to God. It is not something to achieve, it is something to live out. The sinful nature of my flesh does not want to be nice to people. It wants to take and keep. Christ living in me wants to love and to give. We are just a vessel through which His love can be poured out. That is how we shall be holy.