“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).
We are called to be sober. That’s the opposite of being drunk. Someone who is not sober doesn’t see things rightly. Being sober is therefore seeing things clearly in their proper perspective, clearly distinguishing matters, judging correctly. It means to be sensible, to show good judgment, to be perceptive. And that is what Peter calls the Christians living in the dispersion and experiencing all sorts of hardships to be. They’ve got to be sober because they are Christians. What can he mean?
Why must they be sober? Were they partying? Were they living it up and drinking themselves into a stupor? No, they were experiencing great hardships. Christian slaves were treated badly by their masters. Christian wives were maltreated by their unbelieving husbands. Christian people were abused by their neighbours.
The word sober here is not to be understood as being the opposite of intoxication but of looking at things realistically. Think of Asaph in Psalm 73. He considers his own plight in comparison to those who are well off and who have no difficulties. He believes it’s so unfair. But then he goes to the house of God and there he is confronted with the real situation. For God has placed the evildoers in slippery places. Their end is destruction, but Asaph’s future is secure. It’s the same for the Christians doing it tough in Peter’s days or at any time. One needs to see beyond the present time.
Ironically Christians are often accused of not being sober, sensible, down-to-earth, of not seeing things rightly because they live by faith and not ‘reality’. Karl Marx, the father of communism, called religion “the opium of the masses”. Opium brings you into another world so that you are living without reality. Hence being sober is, according to these ideas, living with the reality that you see and touch. Use your brains, they say! Be realistic.
Yes, that is what Paul also says: be sober; use your brains; be realistic. But he means the opposite of what the world says. “Therefore!” he says, “therefore gird up your loins and be sober, hoping completely on the grace that has been brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The word ‘therefore’ links the readers to what Peter said earlier. He had pointed to the “abundant mercy” God gave the believers in Jesus Christ, of receiving a “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”, “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away”, to being “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation” (vs 3,4).
Peter says that therefore you need to look beyond the difficulties you experience in this life. Don’t be misled by outward appearances, by physical experiences, by the evil others are doing to you, but be sober, realistic about the true reality and be led by the Word of the Lord.
For there is another reality than the one we see and touch and experience; there is the reality in which we believe, the reality of our faith. Unbelievers are blind to it. But we believe the reality that our Lord Jesus Christ has come and paid for our sins and made us heirs of the kingdom of heaven. In this life we feel that we are strangers, because unbelievers live for the things of this life; but our citizenship is in heaven. and that makes us feel like strangers here since we live so differently than others. As strangers we feel the harshness of being held in contempt, of being abused and mistreated. But God tells us to be sober, realistic, aware of the truth: that we have an eternal inheritance laid up for us, and the present hardships pale into insignificance when we remember that one day we will enter the glory of that inheritance. That is the reality!
If we just rely on sensory appearances we might, like the world, conclude that history is directed by people and that we should therefore adjust our lives accordingly. But the reality is that our Lord Jesus Christ has all things in His hands so that nothing can move without His will. In reality the Father governs all things for the wellbeing of His children through Christ as head of His Christian church and even His greatest opponents are still His servants.
It appears as though people who get ahead in this world are those who live only to make great profits, manipulate events, exercise power; who act shrewdly in order to see their income grow and who materially are sitting very pretty. The reality is that one can only speak of real profit, real benefit, when one walks humbly with the Lord in life and work; when one lives not by the maxim “business is business” but by the maxim “Lord, what do You want me to do in this situation, in my present circumstances?”. The reality is also that for believers who are doing it tough, who are experiencing oppression and difficulties, their hardships can be a blessing for them. For sooner or later Christ turns everything to their benefit.
It appears the requirements for a good marriage are that the couple love one another, have a good career and know how to get along. The reality is that you can only have a successful marriage when it’s a marriage in the Lord, when the couple walk in selfless love to Him and to each other and rely on the Lord for His blessing. The reality is that a marriage is only good if it reflects the relationship between Christ and His church, a relationship wherein husband and wife seek to serve the Lord in faithfulness to His Word.
It appears as though parents help their children get a good, perhaps specialist, education even though it is at the cost of their spiritual development; where the children’s future career prospects are placed above their knowledge of the Lord and His great deeds in the history of salvation, and where they are not nurtured to love their Saviour. The reality is that parents who only focus on the values of this life are driving them to spiritual darkness and death! The reality is that children are only helped when Dad and Mum lead them by the hand to the Lord Jesus and when they learn to love and trust and serve Him!
This whole world around us, all that happens as we see it, all that’s beautiful and desirable to so many, is merely appearance, a sham world of make-believe. Whoever focusses only on that is deceived. All flesh is grass and all the glory as the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fade.
That doesn’t need to make us despair. That would only be so if there was nothing else. But the reality is that there is more. There is the Word of God that speaks to us of imperishable, eternal life! And when the LORD speaks, He doesn’t speak empty words, but He speaks reality. And when this world passes away, and the grass withers and the flower fades, then there will still be the Word of the LORD that remains forever!
Therefore, for all those people who think they’re sober but only consider the things of this life as they see it, they will one day have a terribly sobering experience. There are unbelievers who wonder: Why am I living? What have I achieved? Even those who have had what many would call ‘great success’ and perhaps the adoration of millions, feel the poverty and disappointment and disillusionment in their heart. Life becomes so meaningless and is so short. And even if they don’t see it in this life, the sobering will come. Every life of illusion comes to an end with death.
And that sobering moment is like one who dreamt that he was fresh and healthy, full of life’s vitality, only to awaken to the reality of an incurable illness. It’s like one who dreamt of being a billionaire living in splendour and luxury only to awaken to being poverty-stricken. Like one who dreamt that he was a well-known statesman revered and honoured by all only to awaken to the reality of being an outcast, a social pariah! It’s like one who had visions of heaven but finds himself in hell!
Being sober is to see every fact, every event, in God’s light, in the light of His revelation! Seeing behind all this life God’s plan, God’s purpose in it. Holding firmly to the ordinances of the Lord and losing rather the favour of people than doing the least thing against His will. Being sober is in everything keeping eyes focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, His lordship and His coming!
Do good to me so that my life may be
devoted to your words in all their splendour.
Open my eyes, that I may clearly see
your perfect law and gaze upon its wonders.
Do not, O Lord, hide your commands from me,
who here on earth but as a pilgrim wander.
(Psalm 119:7 Book of Praise)
For the above I’ve used part of a Dutch sermon by the late Rev. C. G. Bos on 1 Peter 1:13 (Prekenserie 10:1).