2649. Girded For The Work

No. 2649-45:553. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, July 13, 1882, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. 2/4/2016*2/4/2016

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, November 19, 1899.

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind. {1Pe 1:13}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1909, “Seasonable Exhortation, A” 1910}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2649, “Girded for the Work” 2650}
   Exposition on 1Pe 1:1-16 Mt 10:37-40 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3395, “Saviour’s Precious Blood, The” 3397 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on 1Pe 1:13-20 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2649, “Girded for the Work” 2650 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on 1Pe 1; 5:1-9 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2707, “Antidote to Satan’s Devices, An” 2708 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on 1Pe 1 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3223, “Salvation as it is Now Received” 3224 @@ "Exposition"}

1. We noticed, in reading the chapter from which our text is taken, that the apostle Peter first mentioned the glorious doctrines of grace, and the marvellous benefits bestowed by God on believers, and he afterwards drew from them a practical inference. “Therefore,” he said, “gird up the loins of your mind.” Doctrine may become dangerous if it is not reduced to practice, and all the doctrines of God’s Word may readily be turned to good and practical account if we are willing to employ them to do so. Those who regard doctrine simply as a subject for debate, an opportunity for displaying one’s argumentative powers, miss the mark altogether, for we are taught the truth in order that it may lead us to holiness of life. This is the object of God in giving us more light, — that, by that light, we may ourselves become more full of light, and be the means of conveying light to others. Therefore, when your mind is instructed concerning some grand truth, after you have sucked the honey and joy out of it, always say to yourself, “But what are the bearings of this doctrine on my life? How should it influence me? What would God have me to do as the result of receiving such teaching as this?” From what Peter had already said, like a true logician, he draws a wise inference, and says, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

2. We shall only have time to consider the first few words of the apostle’s exhortation, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind”; and, concerning them, we will ask three questions, First, What are we to do? Secondly, Why are we to do it? And, thirdly, How are we to do it?

3. I. First, let us enquire, WHAT ARE WE TO DO? “Gird up the loins of your mind.”

4. The metaphor used by Peter is a very simple one. The garments of the Easterners, as you know, are not like ours, but are long flowing robes; and, unless the clothing is well wrapped around the wearer, there is little or nothing that he can do in the way of active exercise. In a spiritual sense, the injunction, “Gird up the loins of your mind,” is a very proper one to be addressed to those of us who have various loose and flowing things which are almost as natural to us as garments are to the body. They must be girt around us very tightly, or else they will become an encumbrance and a hindrance.

5. We may possibly understand what is meant by our text if we first, consider the opposite condition. Some people are notorious for their laxity; whatever they have about them is very loosely attached to them. I am grieved to say that there are some professing Christians who are very lax even in matters of morality. It is a great shame that it should be so with any of them; and we feel that there must be hypocrisy at the bottom of such a state of things as that. Others are very lax in their beliefs; they are ready to believe anything or nothing according to whatever is said by the last speaker to whom they have listened. Some are very lax in their observance of gospel ordinances; they act as though Christ had given them commands which they might obey or disregard, according to their own pleasure. Nothing connected with them seems to be really fastened to them so as to hold them; and, for their part, they hold nothing firmly, everything is loose, and slipping away from them. Now, I take it that the apostle exhorts all professing Christians of that character to get out of such a state of heart; and I would urge you, dear friends, to do the same. Gird up the loins of your mind as for your personal conduct; be strict about it, not lax. Never fear incurring the opprobrium of being too precise. If the name of Puritan is appended to you, accept it joyfully as a badge of honour, and wish that you were more of a Puritan than your assailants suspect. Whoever else is lax, do remember that you serve a jealous God; and, therefore, be very jealous of the honour of his Word, and jealous of the observance of his commands, and jealous concerning your whole life. In this sense, “gird up the loins of your mind.”

6. Some professors are ready enough to believe, but they have no intensity in their beliefs. They are orthodox as far as they go, but they do not go far enough. They have no great concern about religion; they are merely tattooed with Christianity, it is only skin-deep with them, it never gets into their hearts or affects their souls. There are many preachers, nowadays, who hold various views of truth, but they hold nothing tenaciously. I have often wished to ask some Broad-Churchmen if they did not think that the martyrs were great fools in laying down their lives in defence of the truth; for I am sure that, according to the teaching of many whom I know, they must regard those who were faithful to death as little better than madmen. I hardly think that some of the teachers of the modern school believe that there is any truth that is worth a man’s dying for. They say that something is white, but they add that white is a very, very light shade of black, if you look at it from a certain standpoint; another thing is undoubtedly black, but that is merely a somewhat darker shade of white! Here is a certain truth which they say that they believe; but there are some circumstances or conditions in which they do not believe it, so practically it is not a matter of faith for them at all. If ever you press them too closely on any point, they always have a backdoor of escape open; in fact, they do not really believe anything at all with their heart and soul.

7. Now, when religion is held in that way, it is tantamount to irreligion. If I held doctrines which did not hold me, I should stammer in the declaration of them, and I could not suppose that anyone else would accept them from my half-hearted advocacy. He who does not have a fixed fulcrum for his lever, whatever machinery he may have, will never move the world; and nothing will be accomplished by you, my friend, or accomplished in you, unless there are certain truths which you no more question than you question your own existence, — certain munitions of rocks behind which you make your soul’s dwellingplace, and find yourself at ease. “The conies are only a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks,” and so they prove their wisdom; and when a man, whatever his feebleness may be, has certain rocky fundamental truths into which he tunnels so as to hide himself in it, then he is well protected. But all that looseness of which I have been speaking is a throwing away of strength. Laxity is the helper of unbelief, and tempts to all manner of evil the souls of those who are under its malignant influence. Therefore, dear friends, do not be lax in your belief, but believe what you do believe; hold what you do hold; and know what you do know. Do you ask, “How can that be?” Well, by being taught by God, for God teaches infallible truth. What a man teaches himself, or learns from his fellow men, may all have to be laid aside, for it is liable to be erroneous; but what God the Holy Spirit burns into his heart and conscience, as with a hot iron, shall never be taken from him. You may kill him, but you will not take the truth from him; you may cut him in pieces, but the man is so joined to the truth that he cannot be separated from it. “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind.” Get your mental straps tightened up; bind the blessed truth of the gospel more closely to your soul than ever.

8. Further, this condition of mind to which Peter refers is not only the opposite of laxity and looseness; but it is also opposed to that effluence, or lack of grip, lack of unity, lack of concentration, which runs away with the usefulness and force of so many professors. These men love God after a fashion, and hold his truth in a way; but, then, there are many other things which they love and hold quite as much. Their energies run — no, rather I should say, trickle into a hundred channels; but there is no force in them. If they could all be made to flow in one channel, they might rush onward like a torrent, and bear everything before them; yet it is not so with them, but quite the opposite. They are all in pieces, they never get to be one entire man; the prayer of David has never been fulfilled in their experience, “Unite my heart to fear your name.” They cannot cry, with the sweet psalmist of Israel, “My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” And not being fixed to one point, neither are they united as one person; their condition is exactly described by the prophet Hosea, “Their heart is divided; now they shall be found faulty.” It is a blessed thing for a Christian to be wrapped up in one bundle, and not to be divided into a number of separate parcels. “Set your affections on things above,” is a misquotation that I have heard many times, but there is not such a text as that in the Bible. Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Set your affection on things above”; that is, have all your affections bound up into one supreme, all-embracing affection, and then fix it all on Christ. When the many men within the man become all one man, and he is, as we say, “all there,” and you know that he is “all there,” then he has indeed girded up the loins of his mind. May we all obey this apostolic command, and earnestly avoid the opposite!

9. In trying further to show what our text means, I would say that I think the short way of putting it is this, “Pull yourself together.” We often say, in some great crisis or emergency, “I must, somehow or other, pull myself together.” That is just the meaning of the apostle here. Do you not sometimes find yourself very listless, and languid, and limp! You hope the life of God is within you, but you almost question whether it is or not, for it is not vigorous or joyful. You do not seem to take an interest in the things of God as you once did; you say, with Cowper, —

    Thy saints are comforted, I know,
       And love thy house of prayer!
    I sometimes go where others go,
       But find no comfort there.

Somehow or other, you appear to have fallen to pieces, there is no cohesion about you, and you are sure that you are not in a right condition. Well, then, our text is the very message you need; and it means, first, concentrate all your powers and faculties to the service of God, and the worship of God. Let this be your song, —

       Oh bless the Lord, my soul!
       Let all within me join,
    And aid my tongue to bless his name,
       Whose favours are divine.

“Gird up the loins of your mind”; that is, let the truth of God go right around you, so that no part of you is left out of the hallowed circle; be completely contained within the belt of pure and precious truth. No one knows what he can really do when he is “all there.” The capacities of manhood are something terrible when they are turned into the wrong channel. Look at a man who goes insane. Insanity is, in some senses, a weakness; yet, sometimes, when a man has become insane, he has possessed the strength of five or six ordinary men. Now, if we could have just the opposite of that, — a sanity which nevertheless concentrated and increased all the powers of our entire being, what is there that we might not be able to do? This is what the apostle means when he urges us to gird up the loins of our mind.

10. This expression further means, not only concentration, but full awakening. We are not half awake, brothers and sisters, as a rule. Sometimes we are; when God the Holy Spirit gives us the new life in all its fulness, there is within us then ecstatic joy, firmness of resolution, strength of will, a bravery of holy faith that can risk everything on the faintest word of the unseen God. But, often, we need to cry as David did, “Quicken me, oh Lord, for your name’s sake.” In the 119th Psalm, how very frequently that prayer occurs, “Quicken me!” The psalmist was a living man, or he could not have prayed to be made alive; but, being alive, he wanted to be made more alive. I have told you before of a strange picture which I saw at Brussels, in which the artist has represented the resurrection in a very remarkable way, showing the people as partly alive. There is one man with his head restored to life, but his arms remain as skeletons. There is another alive down to his breast, but his legs and the rest of his body are still under the dominion of death. It is an extraordinary idea, yet I am afraid that there are many so-called Christians who are just like that. They have just enough life in them for the salvation of their souls, but scarcely enough to make them earnest and diligent in the cause of God. Now, brother, if it is the case with you, wake yourself up, pull yourself together, “gird up the loins of your mind.”

11. If you do so, in addition to this concentration and arousing, there will be a holy resoluteness about you, an intensifying of any resolve that you have made to serve the Lord. Sometimes, you feel, “This is the proper time for me to draw near to God, but really I do not feel in the spirit for it.” Now, pull yourself together, and determine that you will not allow any of this nonsense. We must pray; and when we feel that we cannot pray, then is the time when we must pray more earnestly than ever. We are never so much in need of prayer as when we have the least inclination to the holy exercise. I delight in preaching the gospel when I am conscious that the Lord is with me; but there are times when I have to say, “I do not feel fit for this great task.” Whenever that is true of any of us, we must hear Peter saying to us, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” Brother, it is the devil who wants to keep you from serving the Saviour; he expects that God is going to be with you, and to bless you, so he tries to unfit you for the service. Then say, “By the grace of God, I intend to do it; and if ever in my life I poured out my very soul, it shall be now. Instead of running away from the task, I will run to it. I will rush into the very centre of the enemy, like David when he said, ‘By you I have run through a troop; and by my God I have leaped over a wall.’ ” Oh, for that firm putting down of the foot, that steadfast determination that the duty of the hour shall be performed, and the privilege of the hour shall be enjoyed! We will not be drifted from it, or driven from it, or bribed from it. What have you and I to do with going to sleep? Those who are children of darkness may sleep in the night; but we are children of the day, the Sun of righteousness has risen on us; so, “let us not sleep as others do,” but let us gird up the loins of our mind; and, in the name of the Most High God, let us resolve not to be found half-hearted and lukewarm, but to be wide awake and all-alive in the service of our Lord.

12. Still further to explain our text, let me say, that it must also mean, “Get rid of hindrances.” The Oriental girds up his loins so that he may not be tripped up by his long flowing garments; and this is the kind of thing that acts as a hindrance to a Christian’s progress; — not hindrances from Satan and the world alone, but from himself; — from things about himself that cling as much to him, and seem as necessary for him, as garments are for our bodies. Whose things will often get in the way, and trip us up when we are running, or hinder us when we are walking.

13. When does this happen? Sometimes, there creeps over the mind of the believer the thought of security, and consequently, of there being little need for watchfulness. There is true security in Christ, and that sets the mind on its watch-tower; but there is a false security, in which Satan says, “All is well with you. You are not like these young people who have recently joined the church; you are an old experienced Christian, so there is no fear of your falling into temptation. You are an old fox, you cannot be caught in the traps of which they will have to beware. You may go a great deal further than those young people may, and do a great many things which would be dangerous for them, for you are all right.” If you are deceived by the tempter, you sit down, and say to yourself, “My mountain stands firm; I shall never be moved.” You fold your hands, and smile with a delusive happiness — under the notion that all must go well with you. Oh dear friends, there is nothing that will lead to stumbling and falling sooner than this imagined security! This is indeed having loose garments. You have special need to watch and pray. Always be afraid of that experience which Satan tells you exempts you from the necessity of being on your guard, for you are in an enemy’s country, and there is a foe lurking behind every bush, and only he is safe who cries to God, “Hold me up, and I shall be safe.” But those who are carnally secure are in the very midst of danger. Let us not get into that lax and loose condition, but let us gird up the loins of our mind.

14. Some are all ungirded, and have their garments hanging loosely around them, so that they are unable to do anything effectively, because they are continually perplexed with a thousand wandering thoughts. They do not think rightly about anything, because they think in a loose way about everything. They never act as the bees do which I have often watched. These busy little creatures find the bell of a flower, and plunge right in until you cannot see them. What are they doing? They are getting all the nectar that is stored at the bottom of the flower. Meanwhile, what has the butterfly done? He has flitted lightly over half the flowers of the garden, and he laughs at the bee for wasting so much time in one flower bell; yet, at night, the butterfly has nothing to do but to die, while the bee has been storing her house with sweet nutriment. It is a blessed thing when we get right into the bell of the flower of the gospel, and are determined to penetrate its secret places, to extract the delightful essence of the Word, so that we may feed on it and grow by it. It is no use having a brain that is taken up with fifty different subjects, and yet does not master any one of them. There was a class of men called the Encyclopaedists, who endeavoured to gain universal knowledge; and, certainly, some of them were prodigious scholars; but with you and with me, beloved, it will be good to call in all these wandering thoughts, to make the Lord Jesus Christ our Encyclopedia, and to determine not to know anything among men except Jesus Christ and him crucified. When you act like this, you have secured the choicest honey in all the world, while those who attempt to learn a thousand other things may really gather nothing that is worth preserving. A man of one book is, after all, the man of power; and the man who has only one object in life, who lives only for Christ, and lives on him alone, is the gracious man whom God will use for blessed purposes.

15. Another loose garment that is likely to trip us up is too much care about the things of this world. I think that a man needs sometimes to hesitate concerning whether he should enlarge his business. He may have just enough to do to manage what he already has in hand, and he will be able to steal out to the week-night services, and to take his place in the Sunday School; and it may be that, if he undertakes more responsibilities, he will be unable to spare any time for his Lord’s service. His capital is small, though it has sufficed so far; but if he tries to make it serve in his larger undertakings, he will be always worrying about how he shall be able to meet his obligations, and he will be running from pillar to post with a thousand anxieties concerning how he is to get over his difficulties. Is it not amazing that people should be so anxious to get more anxieties? The path of wisdom is to try to escape them; and, especially as age increases, to feel that the last part of our life ought to be Sabbatic, it should be a period of rest. Surely, the last seventh of our lives at least should be a preparation for the everlasting Sabbath when we hope to dwell with our Lord for ever. It is good for a man when he can make it so; but too much to do, too much to think of, too much care, and too much trouble, are very apt to trip up a Christian. “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind.” Strap yourselves up a bit. You know, riches take to themselves wings, and fly away. One of the best things you can do is to clip their wings every now and then, and send the feathers around to the College, or the Orphanage, or the Colportage Society, or some other good work. In that way you are more likely to keep what you now possess, and to have a blessing with it.

16. Frequently, too, men who do not gird up the loins of their minds are tripped up by mental troubles. They are troubled about this, and worried about that; things are not according to their mind; and, instead of doing their best, and then leaving the matter with God, they are constantly fretting and fuming. I know some good women who make their home utterly miserable by being always in a worry. Often, it is only about whether such and such a room has been dusted, or whether something has been washed. And there are plenty of husbands who go on in the same foolish way, for we are all of one race, and we are all far too anxious to borrow trouble when we have none of our own. Indeed, and some are very adept at manufacturing troubles. They have a little trouble factory at the top of the house, and they like to get up there, and try to make something to be worried about. A trouble that God sends, he will take away; but if you make it yourself, you may take it away yourself. Home-made troubles are just like home-made clothes; they do not often fit very well, but they last longer than any others. So I warn you against them, — the troubles, I mean; — please put them aside. Obey Peter’s injunction, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind,” and let these imagined troubles go to the winds.

17. There are others whose loins are not girt up because they are fearful, despondent, discouraged in their work for the Lord. Have you not heard them moaning in this way? “I do not think I shall ever take my class any more.” “I do not feel that I can stand up and preach at the corner of the streets again.” “I do not see how I can give another tract to that man; he swore so dreadfully.” Come, brother, “gird up the loins of your mind.” You need to pull that strap more tightly around you, and to get your garments well secured. I see that they are beginning to fly about in the wind; and, if you are not careful, one by one they will blow away from you. Do not be discouraged; do not fear; do not despair of success. The God, whom you serve, will not let his Word fall to the ground; but you shall see that, though you went out weeping, bearing precious seed, you shall come back rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you.

18. I need not go over all the many ways in which a Christian man’s garments may impede his labours; but our text applies to them all. One other meaning of Peter’s words, “Gird up the loins of your mind” is, Be ready, like a man who has his coat buttoned up is prepared to face the storm. Be ready for troubles; be ready for bad news; be ready for service; be ready for suffering; be ready to live; be ready to die. Take for your motto the sailors’ cry, “Ready, aye, ready”; and say, “Whatever my Lord’s will may be, I, his servant, with my loins girt, and my staff in my hand, am ready for it.” As old Master Trapp says, “Be handy, with your loins girt about.” Have your robes all well-fastened so that you will not be tripped up by them. Being handy, in this sense, is also to be handsome; no man looks better than when his garments are well girt around him. When they became loose, they spoil the appearance of his figure; but when he keeps himself well prepared for his service, then he is beautiful in the sight of his master, who loves to see his servant ready for fighting, ready for journeying, ready for whatever may happen to him, or be required of him. Therefore, then, pull yourselves together, and so “gird up the loins of your mind.”

19. II. Now, secondly, WHY ARE WE TO DO THIS?

20. First, the fourfold character of the Christian life requires it. A Christian ought to be at least four things, as well as many others which I do not have time now to mention. First, he is a pilgrim; he is on a journey: he is passing through this world to a better one. How can a man travel swiftly and safely unless his garments are properly prepared for the journey? And the pilgrims to Zion must gird up the loins of their mind if they are to reach their destination.

21. A Christian is, next, a racer; he is running in a race, and he wants to win the crown. He has started for the goal, and the prize of his high calling is glittering before his eyes; he is the man who must heed the command, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind.” How can you run with endurance the race set before you if you do not “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets you?” If entanglements are to be avoided, the garments of the racer must be tightly girded around him.

22. Moreover, the Christian is a warrior. How can he overcome his foe if he has not put on his armour, and is not well-clad for the struggle? How shall he fight while his movements are impeded by loose garments? You know what the old soldier said to the Duke of Wellington when he was asked whether he had been at Waterloo. He said that he had, and then the Duke enquired of him, “Suppose that battle had to be fought again, how would you like to be dressed?” The man answered, “If I had to take part in that fight again, I should like to be in my shirtsleeves.” There was great common sense in that reply, and it may teach us a useful lesson. A Christian man does not fight well for his Master unless he gets, as it were, into his shirtsleeves, and sets aside all his dignity, and everything which hinders him from rendering effective service, and doing the most he can do for Christ.

23. Besides being a pilgrim, a runner, and a warrior, a Christian is a labourer, he is called to work in his Master’s vineyard. Now, if a man does not gird up the loins of his mind, he will be a very poor labourer, and will show a very bad day’s work when the sun goes down; so again I say to you, dear friends, pull yourselves together. With such holy work to do, endeavour to do it at your very best.

24. Remember, also, the greatness of your task; that should make you “gird up the loins of your mind.” The Christian life is no child’s play. To bear testimony for Christ is no trifle; and if you wish to win souls, as I hope you do, brothers and sisters, you cannot do it unless your spirit is braced up to the very highest point by the grace of God. Your work is such as might have filled an angel’s heart, and it did fill your Saviour’s hands, so see to it that it is done in the best possible way.

25. The next reason why you should “gird up the loins of your mind” is because of the slenderness of your strength. You have so little power that you cannot afford to waste an ounce of it. If you are ever to thresh the mountains, there must be no wasting or throwing away, even inadvertently, of any of the little force which you have. If you would be mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, you must look well to your spiritual strength, and never waste an atom of it.

26. Besides that, remember the readiness of your foes. If they can trip you up, by laying hold on a garment which is trailing behind you, they will do so. If it is possible for you to be vanquished, you will be vanquished; for you have enemies who watch you with eyes full of venom and malice because you belong to Christ. Therefore, “gird up the loins of your mind,” and see that you do not give them any advantage, or they will be quick to avail themselves of it.

27. Remember, also, the misery you endure when you are not in a right condition. If your minds are not girded up, and you feel as I do, you must be very wretched. Whenever I feel that I cannot pray as I wish, I am very unhappy. When I come here, and cannot join heartily in the song, — well, I have to groan in the chorus somehow or other, but I am not satisfied with doing that. When I feel at all wandering from God, and my heart is getting astray from him, I am not happy, I cannot be. Oh, no! Blessed be God, when he made us the second time, he made us so that we could not rest anywhere but in himself. Even our first creation necessitated our coming to God if we would be blessed, but our second creation makes it even more so. If the Lord is with us, we are merry all the day long, and can praise and bless his holy name. There is no fasting for us while the Bridegroom is with us; but if he is once withdrawn, then the children even of the bride-chamber shall fast. You know that it is so; therefore, brothers and sisters, do not be content to be in this sad, loose, lax condition; but “gird up the loins of your mind.” May the Lord, in his mercy, enable you to do so!

28. III. So I finish with just a few words on the last question, which is, HOW ARE WE TO DO THIS?

29. One way is, when you are out of sorts, and out of order, go and confess it; go and tell the Lord all about it. Search and see how you got into such a condition; confess the sins that brought you into such a plight, then hate them with a perfect hatred. Feel that you cannot continue to live in such a state; cry to God, “Oh Lord, do not let me find any kind of happiness until I have it from your own right hand; and, until I am right with you, give me misery, brokenness of spirit, and true godly sorrow for sin!” That confession will naturally melt into prayer for quickening. While you are mourning your misery, God will help you to pray yourself out of it. Never listen to the voice of the tempter who says, “Do not pray because you cannot pray”; but, say within yourself, “Now I must pray more than ever; now I will pray; and, however poor and broken my prayer may be, such as it is, it shall be presented to God.”

30. Then, next, while you are on your knees, resolve with energy that the evil shall not continue. To make your resolution effective, cry to him who first took you out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set your feet on a rock, and established your goings, and ask him to do that over again in another sense. He will as readily lift you up again as he did at the first. If you are willing to be half-dead, you may be entirely dead before long. If you are willing to be idle and sleepy, the spirit of slumber will steal over you just as if all the drugs that poison men had been poured into your soul. If it has been so with you to any degree, resolve, with hearty shamefacedness, that it shall not be so any longer.

31. And then, to help you carry out this resolution, sit down and meditate much on the love of God for you, — the eternal love, the boundless love, the love that chose you, the love that bought you, the love that sought you, the love that fought for you, the love that has wrought in you all the good things there are in you. And, as you meditate on that wonderful love of God, his Holy Spirit will work on you. You will feel your heart beginning to thaw, and the streams beginning to flow as the brooks do in the spring-time when the icy grasp of winter has been relaxed. Therefore, give your heart up to such meditations as are likely to stir your spirit, and to change its sad condition.

32. Then, try also to let your understanding be convinced concerning your position and condition. Think much about what the Lord’s requirements really are. I like to see some passion in religion, but I am much more fond of principle. A man may be moved to great zeal and earnestness at certain revival meetings, and it is good if he has made the great decision; but I am glad if another man has sat down by himself, and has calmly considered the whole question, and, acting on principle, has yielded himself to the Saviour. He knows what is true; he knows what he is, and where he is, what God has done for him, and what God expects from him; and, without any passion or excitement, he steadily plods on, and continues firmly confident in the Lord. One translation of our text is, “Gird up the loins of your understanding.” Get your understanding tightly strapped up, for, in proportion as you know the truth, the truth shall make you free. When you can give to everyone who asks you for it, a reason for the hope that is in you, it is better than when you simply say, “I believe that I am saved because I am so happy”; for, perhaps tomorrow, you may not be happy, and then you may imagine that you are not saved. That is simply going by your feelings, and is a most unsatisfactory method. Rather say, “I understand, from the Scriptures, that the sinner is told to believe in Jesus, and when he does so, God himself assures him that he is saved.” Let your religious convictions be founded on good sound arguments; get some “wherefores” and “therefores,” so that you may have something solid to stand on. This is the meaning of the words, “gird up the loins of your understanding.” I wish all who profess to be converted knew what they were converted from, and what they were converted to, and what being converted really means. I am afraid that a great many jump into what they call religion, and then jump out of it again; and if they only act according to the energy of the flesh, they will jump out of it, before long. He who is converted only by eloquence will be unconverted when that eloquence is over. He who is converted merely by excitement is likely to be unconverted when that excitement has died away; but he who is taught by God, and knows the solid doctrines on which we are grounded and settled, will steadfastly remain in the truth.

33. I know that I have spoken all of this for nothing as far as some of you are concerned, because you have nothing for which to gird up your mind, and nothing with which to gird it. For you, as you now are, there is no inheritance; for you there is no place of joy, no hope of peace. Oh poor soul, first remember that you must be born again, for it is no use to gird up the natural man who is unsaved; it is the new man who is to be girded about. Your first business is with God, and with his Christ, and with the eternal Spirit. The first necessity for you is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to accept that gospel which says, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” That being done, then you have something to gird up; May God grant it to every one of you, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Dedication To God — ‘My Beloved Is Mine And I Am His’ ” 660}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Conflict and Encouragement — Confidence In The Promises” 632}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Dedication To God — ‘We Have Left All And Have Followed Thee’ ” 659}

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {1Pe 1:13-20}

13. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

This is Peter’s practical application of the great truths of which he had been writing. “Look ahead, and expect great things. Live in the future. Project your thoughts beyond the centuries that are passing away into the ages which will never die.”

14, 15. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he who has called you is holy, so be holy in all kinds of conduct;

Remember that you can never be really whole until you are holy, for holiness is spiritual sanity; it is the curing of the mind and heart from the disease which sin brought on them.

16. Because it is written, “Be holy; for I am holy.”

Children of God, be like your Father; prove that you are his true children by revealing his character. Let his lineaments be seen in your countenance: “Be holy; for I am holy.” The 1881 English Revised Version is, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”

17. And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

Do not be presumptuous. Always remember that, since there is a God who is to judge every man, you are to be judged; and oh, that you might, through his grace, be in such a condition of heart that you shall stand the last test, and be found to be full weight when you are put into the balances of the sanctuary which God shall hold with a steadfast hand!

18, 19. Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct received by tradition from your forefathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

You have seen the character of your Father who is in heaven; this should urge and help you to be like him, holy. Now you see the character of your Redeemer, “a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Let this influence you to be holy, too.

20, 21. Who truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for you, who by him believe in God, who raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

It is no use to place them anywhere else. All other vessels are too frail to bear such a heavy burden; but, if your faith and hope are in God, then you have a security which no one can destroy.

22-25. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit to sincere love for the brethren, see that you love each other with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which, lives and endures for ever. For all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away: but the word of the Lord endures for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached to you.

Blessed be God for an everlasting gospel, founded on the everlasting covenant, which brings with it everlasting life to all those who believe in Christ Jesus the Lord.

The Christian, Dedication To God
660 — “My Beloved Is Mine And I Am His”
1 When I had wander’d from his fold,
      His love the wanderer sought;
   When slave like into bondage sold,
      His blood my freedom bought.
2 Therefore that life, by him redeem’d,
      Is his through all its days;
   And as with blessings it hath teem’d,
      So let it teem with praise.
3 For I am his, and he is mine,
      The God whom I adore!
   My Father, Saviour, Comforter,
      Now and for evermore.
4 When sunk in sorrow, I despair’d,
      And changed my hopes for fears,
   He bore my griefs, my burden shared,
      And wiped away my tears.
5 Therefore the joy by him restored,
      To him by right belongs:
   And to my gracious loving Lord,
      I’ll sing through life my songs:
6 For I am his, and his is mine,
      The God whom I adore!
   My Father, Saviour, Comforter,
      Now and for evermore!
                     John S. B. Monsell, 1863.

The Christian, Conflict and Encouragement
632 — Confidence In The Promises
1 Why should I sorrow more?
      I trust a Saviour slain,
   And safe beneath his sheltering cross,
      Unmoved I shall remain.
2 Let Satan and the world,
      Now rage or now allure;
   The promises in Christ are made
      Immutable and sure.
3 The oath infallible
      Is now my spirit’s trust;
   I know that he who spake the word,
      Is faithful, true, and just.
4 He’ll bring me on my way
      Unto my journey’s end;
   He’ll be my Father and my God,
      My Saviour and my Friend.
5 So all my doubts and fears
      Shall wholly flee away,
   And every mournful night of tears
      Be turn’d to joyous day.
6 All that remains for me
      Is but to love and sing,
   And wait until the angels come
      To bear me to the King.
                  William Williams, 1772;
                  Charles H. Spurgeon, 1866

The Christian, Dedication To God
659 — “We Have Left All And Have Followed Thee” <8.7.>
1 Jesus, I my cross have taken,
      All to leave and follow thee;
   Destitute, despised, forsaken;
      Thou, from hence, my all shalt be:
   Let the world despise and leave me;
      They have left my saviour too:
   Human hearts and looks deceive me;
      Thou art not, like them, untrue.
2 Man may trouble and distress me,
      ‘Twill but drive me to thy breast;
   Life with trials hard may press me,
      Heaven will bring me a sweeter rest.
   Oh! ‘tis not in grief to harm me,
      While thy love is left to me!
   Oh! ‘twere not in joy to charm me,
      Were that joy unmix’d with thee!
3 Take, my soul, thy full salvation;
      Rise o’er sin, and fear, and care;
   Joy to find in every station,
      Something still to do or bear.
   Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
      Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days;
   Hope shall change to glad fruition,
      Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.
                  Henry Francis Lyte, 1825.