Girding Up the Loins of Your Mind

Subtitle: Resting Hope on the Revelation of Jesus

By Roderick Breem

In 1 Peter 1:1-12 the Apostle Peter talks in length about the spiritual inheritance of his audience. This is for us as well. Familiarize yourself with those passages before reading this short article. To summarize, he talks about their inheritance that is incorruptible, the testing of their faith through trials, and the revealing of Jesus to us in the last days. All incredibly powerful and awesome things.

As a response to those things Pater says: “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.” (v.13)

The term “gird up the loins of your mind” may seem foreign to most of us. But the Strong’s Concordance offers some help to us.

It is “a metaphor derived from the practice of the Orientals, who in order to be unimpeded in their movements were accustomed, when starting a journey or engaging in any work, to bind their long flowing garments closely around their bodies and fastened them with a leather belt.”

The Passion Translation simply translates the first portion as “So then, prepare your hearts and minds for action!”

Again, we see the crucial role our mind plays. Peter is saying “Listen, you have an incredible inheritance. Jesus will be increasingly revealed to you. But you must take control of your mind. You must discipline your thoughts, focusing them on the firm hope (expectation) at the revealing of Jesus.”

Listen friends, we live in troubling times. And things may get worse for many of us. But we cannot allow our minds to be highjacked by the trials and unknowing. They seek to be like a runaway train that cannot be stopped until it crashes and burns. No, we have the mind of Christ. We will set our hope completely on Jesus.

I like how the King James translates this verse: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ” Notice the translation: “…and hope to the end.” The Greek word for “to the end” is teleiōs, meanng “perfectly, completely.” We place our hope in nothing else other than the revelation of Jesus Christ to us personally and corporately.

There are MANY things we do not know. But we do not set our focus on those things. We gird up the loins our mind, looking for and asking for the revelation of Jesus Christ.