Have you ever been given the advice to “live in the moment”? The idea is to be fully present where you are and not obsessed with the future or the past. It is not bad advice as far as it goes. However, today’s reading reminds us that we are not to ignore the future either. In fact, our beliefs about the future shape how we live in the present.

After spending 10 verses celebrating the salvation we have in Christ, Peter turns to describe how that salvation should impact our life today. The opening phrase is a vivid one: “Therefore, with minds that are alert” (v. 13). In the original language, this reads, “gird up the loins of your mind,” an image drawn from an ancient way of dress. A man’s tunic would go down to his ankles. If he wanted to work hard or move quickly, he had to tuck the bottom portion of his tunic into his belt. This was called “girding up your loins.” Peter applies this image to our minds. As one commentator suggests, to “roll up the shirtsleeves of your mind.”

The way we are to prepare our mind is to, “set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed” (v. 13). The way we live should be shaped by the reality that Jesus is coming back. We want to be ready. This means we won’t live as we used to before we knew Christ (v. 14); we will be different. That’s one way of thinking about what it means to be holy. As Peter challenges us, “just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (v. 15). Our example is always Jesus.

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