I’m glad we’re looking at 1 Peter, because it’s an extremely rich book, and 1 Peter 1 is an extremely rich chapter! It gives us a whole succession of seminal ideas, as we saw last post. So as we go on reading it, looking for its thought-flow: doesn’t v13 seem the `hinge-verse’, linking what we’ve seen before with the wonderful things to follow?
`Therefore prepare your minds for action`, Peter says; `be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.` Here he re-emphasizes the fundamental longing for heaven that we fed on last time; but he also moves on to explain what that longing involves for us now. (Think heavenly; act locally!)
The giants of prophecy, he says, indeed the majestic angels themselves who inhabit the fiery glory of heaven (cf Dan 12:5-7??) have been utterly fascinated by the `grace that was to come to’ us (vv10,12). As his fellow-apostle Paul had said, we the Church are those `on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come’ (1 Cor 10:11). `Therefore‘, Peter now urges the exiles, `prepare your minds for action'(v13) .
(By the way: the idea here that the prophets themselves were trying to understand what God had inspired them to write, implies that sometimes at least what they received had meanings beyond what they could comprehend. That is important for how we interpret their words, and Revelation too: its meaning is not limited by `what a first-century reader could fully understand’.)
This `preparing our minds for action’ has two aspects (for us to turn into prayer!) First, there is a deliberate mental choice to `set your hope fully’ on the reality of that glory to come – his letter’s opening theme. Then, there is being `self-controlled’ in holiness now – the dominant concern of the rest of his chapter, down to 2:3. For Peter these are evidently linked. Fostering the longing for heaven, developing this conscious mental stance, supplies a vital `arming vision’ (to adapt an idea from 4:1); we will be `armed’ against the pressures we face by the way we `set our hope’. Again, it’s tragic that so much of contemporary Christendom is so terrified of sounding `pietistic’ (or patronizes it) that we miss out on this central, life-giving biblical idea. Hebrews insists repeatedly that `looking ahead to the reward’ is what will keep us going through the pressures we experience as `aliens and strangers’ (see 10:34, 11:13-16,25-26 and 35; it also calls us to `fix our eyes’ on `Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross’, 12:2-3). And Peter himself will restate the idea in 4:7: `The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear-minded and self-controlled.’
For there is an alternative motivation available to our hearts: the power of wrong desires. `Set your hope fully’ on heaven, says Peter in vv13-14, rather than `conforming to the evil desires’ we had as unbelievers. This `clash of desires’ is a very deep concern for Peter. `Abstain from sinful desires, which war against the soul’, he will tell us in 2:11; the same challenge to liberation from `evil human desires‘ reappears in 4:2-3. Indeed, in Peter’s second epistle this issue of the choice of desires becomes central to his whole argument. What’s wrong with false prophets is that they `follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature’ (2 Peter 2:10) and foster the same `lustful desires‘ in others (2:18). 2 Peter 2 presents a stark vision where only the grace-spark of revelation delivers us from the garbage heap of the universe, from a pit where we wallow like animals, driven by brute desire (`like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed… Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit””(2:12,22)). What snatches us out to another realm, enabling us (in a remarkable phrase) to `participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires‘, is a firm grasp of God’s `very great and precious promises‘ (1:3).
So, promises, longings: we are each shaped by one set of desires or the other. The people `following their evil desires’ are also those who deny the promised second coming (2 Peter 3:3-4); whereas holiness comes `as you look forward’ (again there’s the note of longing) `to the day of God… we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness’ (3:12-13). Peter had listened to Jesus himself emphasising the importance of setting our desires – our `eye’ – on treasure there in heaven rather than on earth (Matt 6:19-24). One set of desires will in time drive out the other: either longing for the promised heaven will eclipse wrong desire – or else the opposite will occur. (Look how Paul underlines the very same choice in Phil 3:18-20 and Col 3:2-5.)
Peter’s emphasis here on the fundamental role of desire sounds very much like C.S.Lewis (in Screwtape Letters for example) – or, indeed, very postmodern. We each need to grasp this! Desire is central to our nature: the question is, what are we longing for? It is our desires that shape our actions, and motivate where we invest our efforts. (Lord, what are the longings that drop into place in free moments in my own mind? Status? Achievement? Security? Money, sex and power?) So-called `prosperity Christianity’ can be tragically destructive at this point, because what it can do (`Think about it – God wants you to be rich’) is foster precisely the wrong desires. But even the concern to keep our ministry going, or our social action, can drown out our longing for heaven. We have vital tasks on earth, yet desire for heaven is indispensable. For Peter, that deliberate mental stance seems close to the heart of the `faith’.
So then, thank you, Lord, for heaven. Please rekindle in me – I deliberately ask – the flame of a passionate desire!
