First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi Morning Service

And as we consider Peter’s “therefore” and these implications of the grace of God in verses 13 through 17, I want you to notice with me that Peter is essentially inviting us to look in three directions. He wants us to look in three directions. First in verse 13, he invites us to look forward. He invites us to look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the age. The key word here is “hope.” He wants Christians to have hope, though now they are experiencing trials of many kinds he says, there is hope - Christ is coming; look forward. Then, he wants us to look backward in verse 14. He reminds them of their old lives before they were Christians. He speaks about the passions of their former ignorance and he is here reminding us of how we are to name our old life and our old ways. It’s ignorance, because he wants to awaken in us an appetite for holiness rather than a return to the passions of our former ignorance. The key word is holiness. And in order to facilitate that holiness, he invites us to look