AS OBEDIENT CHILDREN 1 Peter 1:14 Troy Self Associate Pastor

Introduction: Peter speaks a word of encouragement to his readers. He realizes that as they experience growing persecution and hardship, their hope is waning. He encourages the believers to look expectantly toward the fulfilling of their salvation.

Review Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind… There must be no slackness or looseness in the Christian’s thought life. Kistemaker: All of his mental powers must be tightened in view of Christ and His coming again. Strong: to abstain from wine (keep sober), that is, (figuratively) be discreet: - be sober, watch.

Review This admonishment is in the present tense which indicates continuous action…be sober, keep sober. Mac: It meant that he was to abstain from wine. A [sober] person was an abstainer from wine. It came metaphorically to mean "circumspect, alert, or clear-headed."

Review Dr. D.A. Waite: Our mind has to be girded up. How can the loins of our minds be girded up and ready for battle, ready for action, preaching, thinking if ware intoxicated??? It is impossible to do so.

Review Mac: …the idea is the same: anybody in spiritual leadership is to be clear- headed; so never is he to be given over to anything that dulls the clarity of his mind. Pastors, elders are to be in control of their senses at all times.

Review Hope to the end for the grace that is to be given…have a confident expectation to the end of this life and age for the enabling power of unmerited favor of God. At the revelation of Jesus Christ… We have a great hope for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is going to be revealed. Jesus said to Peter and the disciples, “I will come again” John 14:3.

AN OUTLINE I. A WARNING, V. 14 II. AN EXHORTATION, V. 15 III. A CONFIRMATION, V. 16

An Outline I. WARNING A. Against indulgence B. About ignorance This confident hope of v. 13 results in purity of life and a quality of Christian experience we call holiness.

1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children…those who receive an inheritance usually are children of the person who had died and has left a last will and testament. We are called children, not by birth but by adoption. Among the Greeks and the Romans of the 1st Century, the practice of adopting was rather common. An adopted son enjoyed the same privileges as the natural son, even to the point of sharing the inheritance.

1 Peter 1:14 Obedience and holiness are two sides of the same coin. This concept of holiness seems to be controversial today. Many Independent Baptists consider this quality synonymous with the doctrine of separation.

1 Peter 1:14 While I believe in separation for worldliness and compromise, I also believe I must pursue in my personal life and my family life, holiness. Obedient: Strong: attentive hearkening, that is, (by implication) compliance or submission Obedience brings blessings…disobedience causes conflicts.

1 Peter 1:14 1. Obedience characterizes every true child of God 2. Obedience distinguishes Christians from non-Christians, called the “children of disobedience” 3. As long as I’m in this body of flesh, I will struggle to maintain a pattern of obedience in my life. 4. Obedience is an inevitable result of salvation

1 Peter 1:14 The apostle urges believers to live consistent with the longings of the new heart by pursuing holiness [v. 15]. Holiness is taught in the New Testament. A. INDULGENCE not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts True holiness has a negative aspect. It is experienced when believers are not being conformed to the former lusts.

1 Peter 1:14 Fashioning yourselves means “to be shaped by” or “conformed”. The former lusts that characterized that former life include sinful desires and thoughts, evil longings, uncontrolled appetites, sensual impulses, and all other unrighteous motivations and urges that compel the unregenerate.

1 Peter 1:14 B. IGNORANCE the former lusts in your ignorance For believers, such former lusts … were theirs in ignorance, before they were saved and when they did not know any better. Salvation creates a new life (2 Cor. 5:17) that has both the desire and the power to live righteously. 2 Cor. 5:172 Cor. 5:17

1 Peter 1:14 Kistemaker: Peter refers to the background of some of the recipients of this epistle. They were pagans who lived in ignorance and who were separated from God. Ephesians 4:18. They were ignorant fo the moral law of God and therefore their conduct was governed by evil desires.

1 Peter 1:14 Kistemaker: By contrast, the Jew had received the oracles of God [Romans 3:2] and knew that his first duty as to obey God’s law. Peter, then, addresses not only Jewish believers, but also readers who were former pagans. [1 Peter 2:10].

Conclusion Peter knows that the temptation for readers to return to their former conduct is real and that some of them may have given in. Therefore, he commands them to stop heeding sinful desires and to yield their lives instead in obedience and holiness to God.

So what? Are you living as an obedient child of God? Are you fashioning yourself according to the former lusts? Are you living as ignorant to the will of God?