I Peter 1: 13-21
Therefore,
When we see a "therefore," we need to see what it's there for. This means we are to keep in mind what we just covered in the previous verses: the Salvation we have, that even the Angels long to investigate.
This is to be our response:
prepare your minds for action,
Everything starts with our minds, how we think. We are to be transformed by the renewing our minds (Romans 12:2), because how we think determines our attitudes and our hearts, our feelings about things. This is where our actions come from.
keep sober in spirit,
Our thinking needs to be characterized by seriousness, realizing the gravity of the situation, keeping our emotions in control; not frivolous or upset.
fix your hope completely
Focus and concentrate on:
on the grace
On the free gift that God grants to us in His gracious generosity.
to be brought to you
Not only what we have enjoyed so far in this life, but what is still waiting for us to experience.
at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus returns to this Earth and everyone will see Him. Then we will receive our spiritual bodies, participating in His Resurrection, and follow Him down on our own "white horses," to set up His Kingdom here.
As obedient children,
We are born into His family, we are sons and daughters of the King; we need to learn His royal ways and act like the princes and princesses we are.
do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
Don't go back to wanting what you want when you want it, right now (lust); like you used to do, before you learned better.
but be like the Holy One who called you,
Take after your Father, as demonstrated by the Son, and separate yourself from all the things, places, and people that draw you back into Worldly ways.
be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
All our behavior, everything we do, all the time. We are different, we're not like how we used to be, we're changed into a whole new realm, the Kingdom of God. So we need to act like it.
because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44).
God wants His children to be like He is, and He is completely separate from everything He made (holy); so we need to separate ourselves (be holy) from all the worldly thinking and attitudes and opinions that surround us. Then our lives will look different from how they used to be, and from others around us who don't yet know the Lord. We should stick out.
If you address as Father
If you consider that God is your Father, and pray to Him as such.
The One who impartially judges
His judgment is totally impartial, not considering persons, but just comparing to His Law that He set for the Universe to run by.
according to each one's work,
All the stuff we end up doing with our lives: what we think, what we say, what we do, how we treat one another, our priorities, and our accomplishments.
conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on Earth;
This doesn't mean for us to be afraid, but to have a healthy respect for the authority God has over us, and the importance of aligning with His ways.
knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
Even the most valuable things in this World are only temporary.
from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
The way we were raised, the traditions we learned from our parents, that were handed down from our ancestors, were most likely Worldly; either no religion, or legalistic religion, or even non-Christian religion. Any way of living that is not according to God's ways is futile, ineffective, and incapable of producing any lasting result.
but with precious Blood, as of a Lamb unblemished and spotless, the Blood of Christ.
The Son of God was born as a Man, named Jesus, who came to be our Lamb of God, the Lamb God told Abraham that He would provide (Genesis 22:8). He sacrificed Himself on His altar, the Cross, and the precious Blood of God that He sprinkled on the sides of His altar was the full payment (propitiation) of our whole, eternal debt we each owe. He was the unblemished and spotless Lamb that the Law required (Leviticus 1:3, and others).
He alone could die without having to pay his own debt, as the Old Testament High Priest needed to have an animal die in his place for his own sins first, before he offered for the people. Jesus, tempted in His flesh, but never sinned, was the only One who could die for us.
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the World,
I can imagine that before anything was created, how the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were enjoying fellowship and conversation, deciding that they would create, and what they would create, and how it would work, and all the contingency plans. And the Son agreed to take responsibility for this Mankind that they would make. All before They (He) did anything to create.
but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
The "Last Times" began when Jesus rose and went back through the clouds into Heaven. He came for your sake, and for mine. That's how much He values us, and Loves us, each one of us.
who through Him are believers in God,
We who are believers, are given the faith to believe God through the Sacrifice Jesus offered for each of us.
who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory,
God the Father raised Jesus the Son from the dead, right out of His grave, to prove that He accepted the Payment He paid for us.
And because Jesus was willing to suffer, and went through all the agony and pain and grief; now He has been given this whole Universe, and our Earth, and everyone as His own possession. That makes Him our Sovereign King and Judge.
so that your faith and hope are in God.
Our loyalty and allegiance is to the ultimate highest Authority, God the Father. We believe Him, we trust His Word, we know He has already finished everything He told us He is doing, and has included us in His great Plan of the Ages.
So our hope for the future is confidence that what is ahead is already there, we just haven't seen it yet. What we do in the power of the Spirit who lives in us, God will reward us for; and we will be His kings and queens, ruling His New Heaven and New Earth in King Jesus' authority forever.
And every created being in Heaven and in Earth and under the Earth will worship and adore the Lord God of the Universe, Jesus of Nazareth, the Sovereign King over all; to the glory of Almighty God the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
