Therefore
30 Days in 1 Peter - day 6
If you’ve been around church very long, you’ve probably heard a teacher or pastor say, “When you see the word ‘therefore,’ find out what it is there for.” It is a clever saying that sticks in your mind. With all of its simplicity, it also conveys an important principle.
A few days ago we talked about the indicative/imperative pattern in the New Testament. The “therefore’s” are markers – places where we should sit up and take notice that there is an important connection being made between what God has done (indicative) and what we should do (imperative).
1 Peter 1:13 is the first of these in this letter. That first word asks us to look back at what Peter has already said and consider how it should affect our lives going forward.
Peter has already told us that we are elect according to God’s foreknowledge, born again by His abundant mercy, promised an eternal inheritance, and kept by the power of God. The “therefore” points back to all of that and then points forward to how we should respond to that in our present circumstance.
In this case, we should gird up our mind, be serious and clear headed about life, and rest hopefully in future grace. There is more. Peter continues. But that is a start.
The point is, the grace of the gospel should always provoke a response from us.
While it is something we enjoy and delight in, we also act because of it. Getting the order right is crucial.
We don’t do these things in order to receive grace, we do them because we have. We don’t curry God’s favor by our actions, we act because God’s favor already rests on us.
And that changes everything. When we obey from a position of acceptance, we are living as sons and daughters of God. We are not employees trying to keep a job, but children who desire to please their Father.
Our place in the family is secure. Nothing changes that. And God wants us to live out of that understanding.
That’s why the indicatives come before the imperatives.
