Monday, December 14, 2015

1Peter 1:13-23 comments: born again


13 ¶  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 17  And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Gird up the loins is an idiom that means to get a grip, be a man or a woman, toughen up, put your ‘big boy’ or ‘big girl’ pants on, and other similar phrases but as a literal phrase it refers to binding up the loose flowing robes both men and women wore to make a journey, to get going, to get to work with a leather belt of some sort and using this to preparing your mind.

Here is the literal application;

2Kings 4:29  Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

Here is the idiomatic application as God demands of Job;

Job 38:3  Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

So, buck up, keep a stiff upper lip, and be sober minded, trusting in Christ to the very end. Don’t let your faith waiver. This is the meaning of overcoming in Revelation as defined by 1John.

Revelation 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Defined by;

1John 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

When Jesus Christ is to be revealed at His second coming you have stayed faithful as obedient children not like previously when you were dominated by lusts in your ignorance.

As the Holy Spirit noted through Paul;

1Corinthians 6:9 ¶  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

And again;

Ephesians 2:1 ¶  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Christians are called to be Holy, as Christ is Holy, and conversation refers to behavior, as well as speech, which you can see by a simple word search.

Philippians 1:27  Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

As Jesus said to His Jewish disciples in the popularly called Sermon on the Mount, and you should read that part of the sermon that preceded this next verse to see what behavior and attitudes Christ was referring to, which most fundamentalist Christians and Christian preachers reject to their hurt and spiritual weakness.

Matthew 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Perfect means complete, lacking nothing.

2Chronicles 8:16  Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD, and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected.

Col 4:12  Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

James 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

We can also see that to be Holy is to be just and good.

Romans 7:12  Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

It is unblameable and unreproveable  in God’s sight.

Colossians 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

[Always remember that synonyms are joined by and as well as in certain cases so are antonyms, such as Ezekiel 44:23’s holy and profane or abased and abound in Philippians 4:12.]

Peter refers to Leviticus.

Leviticus 11:44  For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Leviticus 19:2  Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.

Leviticus 20:7  Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

To be Holy is to be sanctified, set apart for God’s purpose. When you call on God the Father for mercy or blessing, who judges none of us with favoritism but judges all the same, be fearful because you didn’t purchase your salvation by adherence to vain traditions you received from those who went on before you, but with Christ’s blood, perfect and without spot and ordained by God from before the world began but only revealed in those times for us. It was not your following of ritual or rules and regulations made by men and women so they could control you, but by Christ’s shed blood.

Acts 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

I know some of you are trying to make a deal with God. You think if you follow certain instructions you are given by men and women and do certain things, making yourself as uncomfortable and as difficult to get along with to other people as you can outside of the camp, so to speak, that you are bargaining for eternal life and an easier or more justified existence. But, the Bible teaches us that we didn’t purchase our salvation, we can’t pay for it on a monthly basis, and it was not ours to take, only God’s to give. We either accept that or spend our lives miserably running in circles.

We believe in God by Jesus Christ, that God raised Him from the dead and glorified Him so that we can believe and have hope in God. That is the beginning and the end of it.

Peter says that our souls are purified by obeying through the Spirit inside of us in loving our brothers and sisters in Christ which is a command throughout the New Testament. As Jesus said;

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

This is evidence of our being born again which Jesus said a person must be in order to see the kingdom of God in John, chapter 3, with word here, lowercase s, for the written word, being translated from Logos just like in the opening of the Gospel of John for Christ Himself.

John 3:1 ¶  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

John 1:1 ¶  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2  The same was in the beginning with God. 3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

See the usage of Logos again, that was used for Christ, for the Bible by Paul in Hebrews;

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is a living Book and the written version of Christ, which we can handle and hold and see.

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