Have you ever felt your phone buzz in your pocket, pulled it out, and found nothing? No text. No notification. Just a blank screen. There’s actually a name for that. It’s called phantom vibration syndrome, and by some estimates somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of people with a smartphone have experienced it.
It sounds funny until you think about what it means. Our nervous systems have been conditioned to expect an alert at any moment. Red light? We reach for the phone. Grocery line? Phone. Commercial break? You already know. We’re always connected, and so our minds are almost never fully present.
Peter wrote to believers nearly two thousand years before anyone carried a phone, but he understood something about the human heart that feels startlingly current: it’s easy to be distracted, and distraction has a way of lulling us to sleep.
From Identity to Instruction
We’ve just begun a new series in 1 Peter called For the Sake of the World. Peter was writing to first-century Christians scattered across the known world and suffering under the emperor Nero, a ruler so cruel he would set Christians on fire to light his garden parties. The church was brand new, still figuring out how to follow a Savior who had been put to death.
Many Christians around the world still face that kind of persecution. Here, we find ourselves in a different but fascinating moment: for the first time in decades, Bible sales and church attendance are up, including among young men. So the question this series asks is timely: what does it mean to live as disciples of Jesus in a way that makes the world curious?
For the first twelve verses of his letter, Peter gives no commands at all. He simply tells believers who they are and what Jesus has accomplished for them through the finished work of the cross. Then, in verse 13, he gets practical:
“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
That word “therefore” matters. Because you know who you are, this is how you live.
Prepare Your Mind for Action
Some translations render the first phrase as “gird up the loins of your mind.” It sounds strange to us, but in a world of long robes, people would tie up their garments before running, working, or heading into battle. Peter is saying: get your mind ready. Prepare for action.
Peter isn’t handing out warm fuzzies here. He’s honest that following Jesus will involve opposition, both physically in this world and spiritually. Later in this same letter he writes, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus put it just as plainly: the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10).
The enemy isn’t playing games. We’re called to live differently.
Christianity Is Waking Up. Discipleship Is Staying Awake.
To be “fully sober” isn’t only about avoiding drunkenness. It’s about spiritual alertness and readiness, what some theologians describe as the wakefulness of the gospel. Paul captures it in Ephesians 5:14: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead.” He isn’t talking about physical death. He’s talking about spiritual sleep.
One thinker put it this way: Christianity is about waking up. Another built on that idea and said that if Christianity is about waking up, discipleship is about staying awake.
If you’re in Christ, you’re awake. But we’re always becoming something, and if we’re not careful, we’ll become whatever our distractions are.
Think about Jonah. God gave him a word, and he ran in the opposite direction, hiding out on a boat. A storm raged so violently that professional sailors thought they were going to die. And where was Jonah? Asleep.
Sin has a way of doing that to us. It lulls us to sleep until we’re numb to the call, numb to the invitation, numb to the very identity that woke us up in the first place. Week after week we hear the good news, and it’s possible to stop being amazed by it. May we never grow dull to what Jesus has done for us.
Set Your Hope on the Grace Still to Come
Here is Peter’s first command: set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus is revealed.
Our pastor was honest that hope is hard to come by for him in this season. He shared that his counselor, an older man with decades of following Jesus behind him, often reminds him that God’s timing is always perfect. Most days that’s the last thing anyone wants to hear. But from someone who has lived a story where hope was hard to find, it lands differently.
The kingdom of God has a past reality, a present reality, and a future reality. Right here on the Front Range of Colorado, we’re living inside that story, and each of us has a role in it. For the sake of our neighbors. For the sake of our coworkers, our spouses, our kids. For the sake of the world.
And it’s hard to hold onto hope when we’re constantly scrolling. That weekly screen time report that pops up on Sunday mornings is sobering. It’s easy to find our identity in trivial things, even letting a football game ruin our Monday.
For the first-century church, hope was hard because they didn’t know if they’d survive the day. Our pastor described visiting a village in India where, the week before, two men had been executed for their allegiance to Jesus. A normally bustling village sat silent, its people afraid to step outside.
It’s difficult to be hopeful when we’re afraid, and it’s difficult to be hopeful when we’re distracted. The bills are still due. The kids still need care. But we know how the story ends, and there is a promise still coming.
You Don’t Have to Live the Way You Used To
Peter continues: “Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” There’s who you once were, and there’s who you are now because of the cross. The blood of Jesus tells a new story and gives us a better word. You don’t have to go back and live the way you used to.
Be Holy, Together
“Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” Peter is quoting Leviticus 11:44. Holiness is the most foundational description of God. To be holy is to be set apart, completely otherworldly. There is nothing and no one like him. And this holy God has the audacity to look at you, knowing you better than anyone does, and say, “You’re mine. Now be like me.”
Any parent understands something of this. We want our kids to be like us. God is saying, “I’m your Father. You’re my children. I’ve done everything necessary for you to be like me.” He isn’t talking about perfection or behavior modification. He’s talking about identity. The standard of perfection has been fully satisfied by Jesus, so that we can now know the Father and reflect him.
And we were never meant to pursue holiness alone. Even God exists in the relationship and community of Father, Son, and Spirit. Mosaic, we don’t have to be holy alone. We’re a family.
Where there’s invitation, there’s access. We’ve been invited into the family of God as sons and daughters. Later in this letter, Peter calls us a royal priesthood and a holy nation, God’s special possession, so that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).
You No Longer Have to Wander
There’s a well-known line from J.R.R. Tolkien: “Not all those who wander are lost.” You’ll see it on mugs, bumper stickers, and the backs of Jeeps, celebrating the idea that wandering is adventurous and good.
But all through the Old Testament, God describes his people as sheep without a shepherd, and over and over he promises to be their shepherd so they no longer have to wander. That’s what Peter offers these scattered, struggling believers: look forward. Something more beautiful is coming. And God’s promise still stands: you get to be my son, you get to be my daughter, and I will be your God.
That’s our invitation too. To join our Father, to let his work happen in us, and to show the world who he is and how he loves.
Your Next Step
Staying awake isn’t about trying harder. It’s about staying alert to who God has made you and where your hope is set. Sit with these questions this week:
- When I have a spare moment at a red light, in a line, or during a commercial, what do I reach for first?
- Where has familiarity with the gospel made me numb to what Jesus has done for me?
- What am I setting my hope on right now, and is it strong enough to carry the weight?
- Where am I still living like the person I used to be instead of who God says I am?
- Who am I pursuing holiness with, and who could I invite into that with me?
Join the Journey This Sunday
Experience Mosaic in person this Sunday at 10:00 AM. Come as you are, grab a coffee at the café, and find a family where no one has to stay awake alone. We would love to meet you there.
