1)Listen to Podcast here
2)GG Questions 06/03/2018
Living Hope: Set Apart 1 Peter 1:13-25
1. Close Reading: After praying for God to enlighten your mind, read through 1 Peter 1:13-25 a couple times, slowly. Look for these three things: LIGHTBULB – something that shines from the passage, draws your attention; QUESTION MARK – something difficult to understand; ARROW – a personal application. Share the results of your study with your group.
2. Take Every Thought Captive: 1 Peter 1:13 calls Christians to be vigilant with their thought life (2 Cor. 10:5). Not drunk-minded, but sober-minded. Not caught off-guard, but prepared for action. In the Greek, ‘be prepared for action’ is more literally ‘gird up your loins’. In the first century, a person might wear a long tunic that hung down past their knees. A person would wear this tunic down until it was time for work or war. At that point, they would “gird up” their tunic and tuck it into their belt so they could work or fight without being tripped up or encumbered by their robes. Are there thoughts that consistently trip you up and prevent you from having hope and/or being obedient to Christ in this life?
3. Family Resemblance: Peter continues his reflection on our being born again into a new FAMILY in this second half of chapter 1. We’re called to be “obedient CHILDREN” (v. 14) who “call on him as FATHER” (v. 17) and practice “sincere BROTHERLY love” (v. 22). How has being born again into this new family (1:3, 23) influenced not just your ‘sense of identity’, but your actual
identity (1 John 3:1)? And how has (and should) that identity generated purpose, hope, and holiness (1 Pet. 1:14-15, 17, 22-23) in your life?
4. Be Who You Are: Peter calls us to “be holy” (v. 15) and to “love earnestly” (v. 22) because we have been given a new nature (born again) which is both holy and loving (Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18). Without divine intervention and a new birth in Christ, people are primarily selfish, but we have been called to be and transformed so as to be different
. In what ways are we as Christians to be different from the world (John 17:15), and yet a blessing to the world (John 17:18)?
