1 Peter 1:13-16 13 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; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

We see the importance of protecting our minds and allowing Christ to change our being. We see the beginning process of the change that takes place within us. Change isn’t change until it is change. We have our words, thoughts, and actions transformed by Him.

Peter tells us first to protect our minds. He instructs us to gird up the loins of our words, this is the birthing place for ideas and thoughts. It should be a holy place, one where life and peace are birthed, not death and sin. We are to be mindful of the need to take captive our thought life and not let it run wild. Paul told us the same thing in 2 Corinthians 10:5. This also means that we are mentally to prepare for battle and action as a Christian. He instructs us to be sober. This means to be balanced (calm and collected in spirit), temperate, dispassionate, and circumspect. He tells us that we are to rest our hope fully upon the grace that was brought to us upon the revelation of Jesus Christ. This means that we are to trust in the abilities of your LORD, not ourselves, to bring about the completion of this wonderful work of sobriety that He has begun.

Verse 14 describes what hope can do for us if you are willing to allow the LORD to fulfill His will within us. We are told that hope stirs a desire within us to obey as children do. This describes innocence. Children believe without pretense or reservation. With our minds alert and sober, we are then able to rest in the grace that God has lavished upon us so that we can believe in a childlike fashion. If we have the faith of a child, we are then able to appropriate this trust in a strength that causes us to put off the old man and its former behaviors and ignorance.

In verses 15 and 16, we are taught that God is holy. Because of our new birth, we have a new character and nature within us that now can be in control. The old man is crucified with Christ and the new man is alive to God (Galatians 2:19-20). We are enabled to begin to practice living a life that is pleasing to God. Because of the work of God within us, we are now able to live a life above the standard of the world. We are now holy, just as the Lord God is holy.