Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
Be Holy as He Is Holy
1 Peter 1:13-16
13 Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— · WEB
The first command of the letter arrives only after twelve verses of announcement, and it is grounded in God's character rather than in a rule.
Therefore is the hinge of the chapter. Everything before it has been statement — birth, inheritance, guarding, salvation, the prophets' searching — and nothing has been asked. The instruction begins only once the ground has been laid, which is the order the whole letter keeps.
The first image is a working one. Gird up the loins of your mind translates a gesture: a long garment gathered and tucked so a man can move. It asks for a mind cleared for action rather than for greater effort. Beside it sits sobriety, and then the single command the sentence actually carries — set your hope completely on the grace coming at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The imperative in verse 13 is hope, and the two participles serve it.
Verse 14 names what is being left, and it is described with unusual mercy: those desires belonged to a time of ignorance. The letter does not excuse the old life, but it declines to make it worse than it was.
Then verse 16 quotes the ground, from the holiness laws given at Sinai Leviticus 11:44–45. The reason for the command is not that holiness works, or that it will improve their treatment. It is that the one who called them is holy, and the standard is a person rather than a code.
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