Get Your Mind Right
30 Days in 1st Peter - day 7
When Peter gets to the very first command in this letter, it isn’t what we might have expected. It is not a moral or ethical instruction. He does that too. As a matter of fact, just a few short lines later he will issue a call to holiness. But he leads with an exhortation for us to get our minds right (at least that would be an accurate modern way of saying what he said).
Peter uses a phrase that can be translated into English as, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” That is the way the NKJV puts it. That sounds odd to our ears, but would have made perfect sense to the original readers. The effort to update the language is commendable, but it is more of an interpretation than a translation. It also loses something valuable.
What Peter wrote was a metaphorical way of saying “get your mind right.” Men often wore long robe-like clothing. It wasn’t designed for action. To do manual labor, walk a long distance, or run, the center of the robe would be pulled up and fastened by a belt. The robe would be shortened and secured so the man could move freely. This was described as girding up one’s loins.
So the original wording would immediately paint a picture in the minds of Peter’s readers. They would understand that he was saying that they needed to mentally prepare themselves for their journey. They needed to get ready for action.
He may have also been quietly drawing from the well of Old Testament history. We have already seen how he talked about the Christians as exiles. The language he uses here is an echo of the Passover. In Exodus 12:11 the Hebrews are told to eat the Passover with their belts fastened, ready for the journey out of Egypt. It is the same terminology Peter uses here. Just as Israel prepared to leave Egypt, Christians live prepared for the journey God has set before them.
The point is that having and keeping the right mental attitude is crucial for Christian living—especially in times of trouble. Peter follows up on this general idea of having a prepared mind with more specific instructions of what that would look like. We are to be sober minded. Our hope is to be set on future grace. We are to have a sense of the fear of the Lord.
The Christian who thrives during days of adversity is the Christian who gets their mind right. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once gave some great advice in this regard. He said we need to talk to ourselves and not let ourselves talk to us. What he meant was that we must take control of the thoughts that fill our minds. Others have said in a similar vein that we should preach the gospel to ourselves every day.
So look at all that Christ has done for us and all that He is doing and will yet do. Preach that truth to yourself daily. A prepared mind is the beginning of a faithful Christian life.
