'Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to
the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.'--1 Peter i. 13.
Christianity has transformed hope, and given it a new importance, by
opening to it a new world to move in, and supplying to it new guarantees
to rest on. There is something very remarkable in the prominence given
to hope in the New Testament, and in the power ascribed to it to order a
noble life. Paul goes so far as to say that we are saved by it. To a
Christian it is no longer a pleasant dream, which may be all an
illusion, indulgence in which is pretty sure to sap a man's force, but
it is a certain anticipation of certainties, the effect of which will be
increased energy and purity. So our Apostle, having in the preceding
context in effect summed up the whole Gospel, bases upon that summary a
series of exhortations, the transition to which is marked by the
'wherefore' at the beginning of my text. The application of that word is
to be extended, so as to include all that has preceded in the letter,
and there follows a series of practical advices, the first of which, the
grace or virtue which he puts in the forefront of everything, is not
what you might have expected, but it is 'hope perfectly.'
I may just remark, before going further, in reference to the language of
my text, that, accurately translated, the two exhortations which precede
that to hope are subsidiary to it, for we ought to read, 'Wherefore,
girding up the loins of your mind, and being sober, hope.' That is to
say, these two are preliminaries, or conditions, or means by which the
desired perfecting of the Christian hope is to be sought and attained.
Another preliminary remark which I must make is that what is enjoined
here has not reference to the duration but to the quality of the
Christian hope. It is not 'to the end,' but, as the Margin of the
Authorised and the Revised Version concurs in saying, it is 'hope
perfectly.'
So, then, there are three things here--the object, the duty, and the
cultivation of Christian hope. Let us take these three things in order.