Girding Your Waist

South Indian men wear an outfit called a lungi. It’s a long sheet-like piece of cloth that they wrap around their waist. It restricts one’s movement; as such, when they want to work or run, they fold it in half and wrap it around their waist, giving their legs freedom of movement.

Ancient Hebrew men wore a similar tunic that needed to be girded around one’s waist for quick movement. The phrase “gird your waist” thus meant “be alert, prepared, or ready.”

Peter wrote,

“Therefore, girding the waist of your minds, being perfectly sober, hope for the grace that is being brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet 1:13)

In this sentence, hope is the main and only verb. The rest – girding, being sober, and being brought – are complementing participles. Peter wanted his readers to hope for the grace that was coming with Christ. Perhaps they had lost hope and wanted to give up because of the persecution they were under. They needed to hope with their minds ready for action and remain sober.

Peter might have been reflecting on the night at Gethsemane when the Lord Jesus asked him,

“Simon, you are asleep. Aren’t you strong to stay awake for one hour? Stay awake and pray so that you will not enter temptation.” (Mark 14:37–38)

Peter didn’t want his audience to fall into the same trap of not being alert. Their hope for what Jesus was bringing should keep them alert and ready like children on Christmas Eve, anxiously waiting for Santa to bring them gifts.

But such hopeful wait wasn’t to be idle. Peter continued,

“As children of obedience, i.e., not agreeing with the schematics of the past ignorance of desires but according to the one who called you “holy” – you be holy in all manners of lifestyle.” (1 Pet 1:14–15)

The main sentence is, “You be holy,” meaning set apart people. Unlike their past life characterized by ignorance that stemmed from desires, they were to be holy in all manners of life. As Hebrew readers, they would have known what Peter was referring to. YHWH God, who led them out of Egypt, strictly warned them not to associate with idol worship and other evil practices of their surrounding nations. Instead, they were to be set apart people. Similarly, even now, they were to be different people; their actions would have to be different.

Peter illustrated it with the phrase, “not agreeing with the schematics of the past ignorance of desires.” In Greek, agreeing with the schematics is a single verb but descriptive: syn “agreeing” (like synchronistic swimming) schematizo “organize.” Before coming to Christ, they organized their life and lifestyle in agreement with the ignorance that stemmed from their desires.

Monkey catchers in India put peanuts in boxes with small holes just enough for a monkey’s hand to go in and tie the boxes to trees. Monkeys put their hands in, grab the peanuts, and wouldn’t let them go. If they let the peanuts go, they can escape. But their desire to keep the peanuts get them caught.

Similarly, the audiences were once living a life driven by the foolishness of desires. Now that they hope to attain what Jesus Christ was bringing, they should let go of their past lifestyle and live as set-apart people because God had already called them “holy.” They should be who their Father considers them to be.

This call awaits us. The hope of the Lord’s coming should drive us to live set apart and holy lives.