Temple of God, January 18

…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;
as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;
but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16, www.solascriptura.com

Father, what did Peter imply when he said, “be sober”? Does that mean do not be drunk? We know you would never have us out of control intoxicated. You leave the “to eat or not to eat (meat, for instance) or to drink or to not drink (wine for instance)” up to us. You make it clear that if we do anything that seems wrong to us, it is wrong. You teach us that we must have a clear conscience before You.

Being “sober-minded” is another admonition and we know that is different than intoxication from drink. You teach us that we should be orderly in our conduct, to not speak coarsely and to therefore have Your Spirit in us. You also tell us to be full of joy, so to be sober minded must not mean to be long faced and stern in our demeanor.

Father, what a wonderful verse it is when you tell us “rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”; Your grace is brought to us, it is made active, by the revelation of Jesus. In effect, grace lies dormant within us until Jesus sanctifies us through His cleansing of our souls.

How else, O’God, could we be holy? In our natural, unregenerate state we are not holy and absent the redemptive power of Jesus, our sins, which separate us from You, are still with us. We yearn to be released from the power of sin forever but when we stumble, thank You Jesus for lifting us up. We pray, on every occasion, in Your Holy name, amen.

Bruce Caldwell

The Sola Scriptura Project, P.O. Box 302, Franklin TN 37064