Sharper Iron — The Imperishable Inheritance: Gird Your Minds with Holiness

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Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor at St. John Lutheran Church in Luverne, MN, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 Peter 1:13-25.

Christians live in a world that would conform us to its ignorant passions. That makes the Christian life no idle stroll. Instead, St. Peter urges us to gird the loins of our minds to be ready. That happens not of our own will, but through the hope of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The holy life is a high and difficult calling, yet it is founded upon the holiness that belongs to God that He gives to us in His Son. Because He is our Father and we are His children, we seek after lives of obedience to Him. We know that He has paid the price of the blood of His own Son to set us free from the futility of our sins. Through this same Jesus, foreknown from eternity and revealed now to us, we have been given faith in God. That compels us all the more to live our lives under the authority of God’s Word as we show love to each other. The foundation is the new birth that God has given us by the Word that has been preached to us.

“The Imperishable Inheritance” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that goes through the epistles of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude. The life of the Christian Church right now is life in exile. We endure attacks from various trials and from false teachers. Such suffering makes us long for the eternal home that will be ours at the resurrection of the dead. In Jesus, we have this promise of eternal life that can never be snatched away. These three epistles strengthen us to hold fast to Christ in the midst of suffering and to give witness to the hope that is ours in Him.

Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen.

Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.

1 Peter 1:13-25

Called to Be Holy

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,[a] and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for

“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

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Footnotes

1 Peter 1:13 Greek girding up the loins of your mind

English Standard Version (ESV)