Mind your Ps and Qs

As the summer progresses ever forward, I feel somewhat diverted from the "Personal Syllabus" series that I still hope to finish. As I wrote in the last installment, I have found it difficult to write this. Not to rehash all of that, but I do get stuck sometimes in analysis. But hey, it's just a blog and I can take my time, right?

Thus, today I want to unpack a challenging biblical text -- really, just to wrestle with a few of its conceptual conundrums. 

Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:13 (NET)

First, it's important to recognize this is written as part of extensive opening salvo in which Peter paints a picture of the grace of God that produces salvation in the believer. The classic statement Bible teachers like to make: "notice the 'therefore' and ask what it's there for", indicates that context and establishes that the actions Peter is commanding is for those for whom the grace of God is already at work as demonstrated by faith amidst trials (cf. 1 Peter 1:3-9).

The phrase "get your minds ready for action" is the NET Bible's gloss for "gird up the loins of your mind" (KJV). It is an appropriate gloss, as modern readers seldom think about girding up anything. Yet notice the "fully sober" connection. While intoxication is clearly in view, Peter would arguably include anything that diverts our attention from what is vital. How important such a warning is in our day! There are so many things seeking to grab our focus that it takes no time at all for our Christian discipleship to slow to a trickle. 

The LEB translates it as being "self-controlled". Greek word studies support that gloss as well, though it's best to think of being free from "every form of mental and spiritual ‘drunkenness’, from excess, passion, rashness, confusion, etc."^[1]

Yet Peter continues, exhorting believers to "set your hope completely on the grace..." Now, have you ever done something so completely as to know there was nothing left? How does one know one's hope is completely set on the grace of Christ? What are the implications of partial or incomplete hope? Is it any wonder that I can sometimes get caught in "analysis paralysis"?

We do have the rest of Scripture to help here. Yet I think it's important that we do not so flippantly fly by Peter's point: Christ's grace will be revealed at his coming. If we allow the sober reminder to sink in, I think our time spent on careless diversions would be re-evaluated. Not that recreation, fun, fine dining and even a glass of Merlot cannot fit within a disciple's freedom. Oh, but take care brethren: everything in the world is potentially able to intoxicate your thinking and dull your hope for the return of Christ. Be mindful. Be watchful. The enemy is prowling. Mind your Ps and Qs!

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^[1] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 672.