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Do what it says

1 Peter 1:13:
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Just got back from a lunchtime Bible study. We read 1 Pet 1:13-25 (we're going thru 1 Peter), but only wound up discussing verse 13. That's because we did what it said.
The verse has three commands:
(1) Prepare your minds for action. We Christians need to actively think about how to live in a world opposed to Christ. Godliness doesn't come automatically; we need to think about our lives, our decisions, the kinds of challenges we face, how respond to those challenges...
(2) Be self-controlled. We didn't discuss this - ran out of time. But given verse 14 says "do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance", I take it one of the things we need to think about. examine, are our desires. What do we want to do? Why? Are my desires set on Godly objects? Are my desires themselves Godly?
(3) Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. So we talked about what it means to wait patiently to be vindicated when Christ returns, and not seek honour in this life.
... and then lunch hour was finished and everyone had to go back to class.
We didn't get far in the text. But we got deep in our lives. We did what the text told us to do: we responded to it, we obeyed it. And I think that's much better.

James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
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