1 Peter 1:13

“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.”

In the original Greek version of this verse, there is only one word that stands out as a command – the first in this epistle. It is the word ‘rest’. But before giving this command, there are a few things Peter mentions.

He begins this verse with ‘therefore,’ referring to the things he spoke of in the preceding verses – the living hope believers have, our faith in God, the inheritance kept for us. He now states that because we are partakers of these things, we need to gird up the loins of our minds, be sober, and rest our hope in God.

Gird up the loins of your mind

In those days, people wore long robe-like garments and if they needed to get ready for work, they would “gird up the loins,” fastening them with a belt so that they wouldn’t trip. So this phrase is a figure of speech, which in our day could be translated as “roll up your sleeves.”

The Christian battle is first and foremost a battle of the mind. The tiny details of our thought life have a major impact on us. We need to have a grip over our minds because there is nothing a wandering mind will stop at, and our thoughts can become a seabed of sin. It is important to have our minds girded – under control – to live the Christian life. That’s our primary responsibility.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” The world is throwing all kinds of evil at us, and we have to be careful about what we let into our minds. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, speaking about false doctrines, Paul exhorts Christians to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Proverbs 25:28 says, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” The Christian mind should be well-guarded and controlled.

Our minds are God-given, and they have a purpose – to believe in God and worship Him. But the Christian life is not automatic. It requires work from our side. We need to be determined like Joshua who said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). We need to have the purposefulness of Ezra, who had “prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it” (Ezra 7:10).

In the Bible, the first mention of the phrase “gird up the loins” occurs in Exodus 12:11, where the Israelites were told to eat the Passover meal in a state of readiness. Peter probably had this in mind when he wrote these words, reminding believers that they should be ready in mind to fight the battles of the Christian life.

Be sober

We have to be mentally alert, with the faculties of our minds fully operational, and not allow the ways and practices of the world to intoxicate us. Peter uses this word once more in the same epistle (5:8), where he also tells us to be vigilant. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 says, “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”

Rest your hope

We have to first be determined to have a control over our minds and to be sober. Once our determination is clear, we can rest in the hope that we have in God. We cannot fight our battles on our own, and we need to constantly remind ourselves to keep our hope fixed on Jesus.

In Romans 4, Paul says that Abraham hoped contrary to hope (v18). When Abraham was aged and had still not seen God’s promise of a son fulfilled, there was nothing he placed his hope in, except God Himself.

Christian hope is about looking forward to the future for things that God has promised, which we cannot yet see. It is the hope of entering into the joy of the Lord and receiving from Him what He has prepared for us.

Let us keep a grip on our minds, be sober, and rest in the hope of receiving all that God has promised us.