Having Heard About Jesus, How Shall We Respond?

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;^* discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.

What ended back in May was a tight reading and interpretation of the first twelve verses of 1 Peter 1.  Sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase, what does Peter mean in his writing?  It was a personal discipline, and devotional, looking to Scripture for its deeper and more wonderful truths.  It was meant to be devotional, educational, a form of Bible study for myself and those who might read along.

It continues now, distributed more widely, to the Session and certain members of the church.  The previous entries on the blog lay out what was said in the first twelve verses.  This is a gift for you to follow along in a close reading. 

I believe God has a call for us and to know Him better, we must look to the Word that has been given to us.

This first post in the series considers the verse, broken down into phrases.  The next set of posts will take each of the phrases in turn.  It will end with a treatment of the entire verse, seeking to draw threads together. 

13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;^*  In the first 12 verses, Peter has been talking about the power and mission of Jesus, something that will demand a reaction from the readers. 

discipline yourselves; This is the language of how we come to Jesus, and how Jesus comes through us.  The Christian life demands disciplines of faith and obedience that we do not wander astray.  It is not ‘automatic’.

set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you  Peter looks back to the first 12 verses, where he outlines what this grace is, how it is the anchor of faith in Jesus.   

when he is revealed.  This may be a trickier bit.  Jesus was revealed, but has since ascended into heaven.  He will be revealed again, at the end of time.  Will he somehow be revealed in this ‘middle time’ as well? 

If this becomes overly complex, please tell me.  If I am incomprehensible, please let me know.  The aim is to use the study of Scripture as a unifying movement in our Lord Jesus as we seek to live out our mission of peace.