1 Peter 1:13

Be watchful - As servants that wait for their Lord. And hope to the end - Maintain a full expectation of all the grace - The blessings flowing from the free favour of God. Which shall be brought to you at the final Revelation of Jesus Christ - And which are now brought to you by the Revelation of Christ in you.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,....

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind - The allusion here is to the manner in which the Orientals were accustomed to dress. They wear loose, flowing robes, so that, when they wish to run, or to fight, or to apply themselves to any business, they are obliged to bind their garments close around them. See the notes at Mat 5:38-

WE noticed, in reading the chapter from which our text is taken, that the Apostle Peter first mentioned the glorious Doctrines of Grace and the marvelous benefits bestowed by God upon Believers and he, afterwards, drew from them a practical inference. "Therefore," he said, "gird up the loins of your mind." A Doctrine of God may become dangerous if it is not reduced to practice—and all the Doctrines of God's Word may readily be turned to good and practical account if we are willing to so employ them.

Still, there may be an allusion to the "end" mentioned in 1Pe 1:9. Hope so perfectly (Greek, "teleios") as to reach unto the end (telos) of your faith and hope, namely, "the grace that is being brought unto you in (so the Greek) the revelation of Christ." As grace shall then be perfected, so you ought to hope perfectly. "Hope" is repeated from 1Pe 1:3.

To read the whole chapter is most helpful to the understanding of our text. If we have studied it carefully, we must have said to ourselves, "How full of their Lord were the minds of these holy writers!" Peter can scarcely write a verse without an allusion to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not only, "Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ," but you can see that his heart was steeped and saturated in memories of his Master—he could hardly get through a sentence without some allusion to the death, the Resurrection, or the Second Coming of his beloved Lord.

To read the whole chapter is most helpful to the understanding of our text. If we have studied it carefully, we must have said to ourselves, "How full of their Lord were the minds of these holy writers!" Peter can scarcely write a verse without an allusion to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not only, "Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ," but you can see that his heart was steeped and saturated in memories of his Master—he could hardly get through a sentence without some allusion to the death, the Resurrection, or the Second Coming of his beloved Lord. Oh that my ministry might always be of the same sort, dripping with the holy unction of the Savior's name! Brethren, may your conversations and your lives be full of the Lord Jesus Christ, that men may take knowledge of you—that you have been with Jesus and have learned of Him. A second thought will have occurred to you—How ardently these men expected the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! Peter was continually speaking of it and so was his beloved Brother, Paul. They hoped that Christ might come while they were yet alive—they evidently looked upon His Advent as very near. They were not mistaken in this last belief. It is very near. A long time has passed, you say? I answer, By no manner of means! Two thousand years is not a long time in the count of God, nor in reference to so grand a business! If a thousand years is with God as one day, if the Lord does not come for the next 20,000 years, we shall not be truthfully able to say that He delays His coming, for with a history of which the chief fact is the death of Christ, there may well be due pause and ample time for working out its infinite problems. We are dealing with eternal things and what are ages? Let us patiently wait.

WE noticed, in reading the chapter from which our text is taken, that the Apostle Peter first mentioned the glorious Doctrines of Grace and the marvelous benefits bestowed by God upon Believers and he, afterwards, drew from them a practical inference. "Therefore," he said, "gird up the loins of your mind." A Doctrine of God may become dangerous if it is not reduced to practice—and all the Doctrines of God's Word may readily be turned to good and practical account if we are willing to so employ them. Those who regard a Doctrine of God simply as a subject for debate or an opportunity for displaying one's argumentative powers, miss the mark altogether, for we are taught the Truths of God in order that they may lead us to holiness of life. This is the object of God in giving us more of His Light—that, by that Light, we may become more full of the Light of God and be the means of conveying His Light to others. Therefore, when your mind is instructed concerning some grand Truth of God, after you have sucked the honey and joy out of it, always say to yourself, "But what are the bearings of this Doctrine upon my life? How should it influence me? What would God have me do as the result of receiving such teaching as this?" From what Peter had already said, like a true logician, he draws a wise inference and says, "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." We shall only have time to consider the first few words of the Apostle's exhortation, "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind." And, concerning them, we will ask three questions, First, What are we to do? Secondly, Why are we to do it? And, thirdly, How are we to do it? I. First, let us enquire, WHAT ARE WE TO DO? "Gird up the loins of your mind." The metaphor used by Peter is a very simple one.

Gird up the loins of your mind - Take courage from this display of God’s love now made known to you; and though you must expect trials, yet fortify your minds with the consideration that he who has given you his Son Jesus will withhold from you no manner of thing that is good. The allusion here is to the long robes of the Asiatics, which, when they were about to perform any active service, they tucked in their girdles: this they did also when they waited on their superiors at meals. Hope to the end for the grace - Continue to expect all that God has promised, and particularly that utmost salvation, that glorification of body and soul, which ye shall obtain at the revelation of Christ, when he shall come to judge the world. But if the apostle alludes here to the approaching revelation of Christ to inflict judgment on the Jews for their final rebellion and obstinacy, then the grace, χαριν, benefit, may intend their preservation from the evils that were coming upon that people, and their wonderful escape from Jerusalem at the time that the Roman armies came against it.