John Calvin Commentary 1 Peter 1:13

"Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" — 1 Peter 1:13 (ASV)

From the greatness and excellence of grace, he draws an exhortation that it surely was fitting for them to receive the grace of God all the more readily, since He bestowed it upon them so bountifully. We must notice the connection: he had said that the kingdom of Christ, to which the gospel calls us, was so elevated that even angels in heaven desire to see it. What then should be done by us who are in the world?

Doubtless, as long as we live on earth, the distance between us and Christ is so great that He invites us to Himself in vain. Therefore, it is necessary for us to put off the image of Adam, cast aside the whole world and all hindrances, so that, being thus set free, we may rise upward to Christ. And he exhorted those to whom he wrote to be prepared and sober, to hope for the graces offered to them, and also to renounce the world and their former life, and to be conformed to the will of God.

Then the first part of the exhortation is to gird up the loins of their mind and to direct their thoughts to the hope of the grace presented to them. In the second part, he prescribes the manner: that having their minds changed, they were to be formed after the image of God.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. This is a similitude taken from an ancient custom; for when people wore long garments, they could not make a journey or conveniently do any work without being girded up. Thus, we have expressions like "to gird oneself" for a work or an undertaking. He then instructs them to remove all impediments so that, being set free, they might go on to God. Those who philosophize more subtly about the "loins," as if he commanded sinful desires to be restrained and checked, deviate from the true meaning of the apostle, for these words mean the same as those of Christ:

“Let your loins be girded about, and burning lamps in your hands”
(Luke 12:35).

Peter, however, doubles the metaphor by ascribing loins to the mind. He intimates that our minds are held entangled by the passing cares of the world and by vain desires, so that they do not rise upward to God. Whoever, then, really wishes to have this hope, let him learn in the first place to disentangle himself from the world, and gird up his mind so that it may not turn aside to vain affections.

For the same purpose, he enjoins sobriety, which immediately follows. For he does not commend only temperance in eating and drinking, but rather spiritual sobriety, where all our thoughts and affections are so kept as not to be inebriated with the allurements of this world. For since even the least taste of them stealthily draws us away from God, when one plunges into these, he must necessarily become sleepy and dull, and forget God and the things of God.

Hope to the end, or, Perfectly hope. He intimates that those who let their minds loose on vanity did not really and sincerely hope for the grace of God. For though they had some hope, yet as they vacillated and were tossed to and fro in the world, there was no solidity in their hope. Then he says, for the grace which will be brought to you, so that they might be more ready to receive it. God should be sought, even if He is far off; but He comes of His own accord to meet us. How great, then, must be our ingratitude if we neglect the grace that is thus set before us! This amplification, then, is especially intended to stimulate our hope.

What he adds, At the revelation of Jesus Christ, may be explained in two ways: first, that the doctrine of the Gospel reveals Christ to us; and second, that since we still see Him only through a mirror and enigmatically, a full revelation is deferred until the last day. The first meaning is approved by Erasmus, and I do not reject it.

The second interpretation, however, seems more suitable to the passage. For Peter’s aim was to call us to look beyond the world; for this purpose, the most fitting thing was the remembrance of Christ’s coming. For when we direct our eyes to this event, this world becomes crucified to us, and we to the world.

Besides, according to this meaning, Peter used the expression shortly before. And it is not a new thing for the apostles to employ the preposition ἐν in the sense of εἰς. Thus, then, I explain the passage: “You have no need to make a long journey to attain the grace of God, for God anticipates you, since He brings it to you.”

But as the fruition of it will not occur until Christ appears from heaven, in whom the salvation of the godly is hidden, hope is needed in the meantime. For the grace of Christ is now offered to us in vain, unless we patiently wait for the coming of Christ.