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Well, we move to a section in 1 Peter that has a bit of a different feel. And maybe I should introduce it this way. You would expect, since Peter is writing to people who are suffering, that this would just be a letter of huge hope and comfort, encouragement, dressing the spiritual wounds of these people. And that material surely is here. But what impresses me is that 1 Peter is a call to action, it’s marching orders.

And there's a sort of redemptive psychology to that. If you have a suffering person, if you want a suffering person to be depressed, get them to focus on their suffering. The more you focus on it, the bigger it gets. If you want to help a person suffering, get them thinking outside of themselves. Get them moving, get them active, get them realizing that their suffering isn’t ultimate, God is. And that's the mentality of Peter, don't just see who God is, don't just see what He's done, don't just see who you are as His children, don't just see what He's gifted you with. Now get up and move. And so that's where the next part of Peter goes.

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Now, I want to talk about the problem of Christian passivity. There is no such thing as a passive, healthy, Christian life. Yes, we are welcome to rest in our Savior, but we are also welcomed out of our spiritual sleep.

Here's Peter’s view of the Christian life in five words: prepare your minds for action; prepare your minds for action. For Peter, passivity is hugely spiritually dangerous. Why is that? Because I live in a fallen world; it's not operating the way God intended. And that fallenness will enter my door. The Bible says, “the world is groaning, waiting for redemption.” Because the world is fallen, there's evil around me. And so, I will regularly face temptation.

Let me go further. It's not just that there’s evil outside of me; there's evil still inside me. Sin still lives inside of me. I could add to that, and I'm not done yet; I'm not a baked cookie. I'm dough, still being worked on, still in God's oven of grace, the process is still going on. And so, think of the action words that are all over the Word of God.

Follow, trust, obey, confess, repent, sacrifice, wrestle, fight, persevere, resist, worship. There's action word, after action word, after action word. And so, Peter says, “You need to get your mind in gear for the life you've been called to.” You're not called to just between your conversion and your home going, wait for whatever God's going to do next. That will never ever work. You're called to pursue the one who is pursuing you and to look for every way to grab ahold of what God has given you. Wait–waiting in the Bible is an action. May that characterize our lives, preparing our minds for action!