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 1:13)

Having a hope is very important to Christian, because virtually there is no hope in this world. If a life in this world is everything, we will give up hope. The word ‘hope’ means that we aren’t satisfied with our present time. Yes, we can’t have a life of contentment in the world. For that reason, the word ‘to the end’ is used to express a hope. So, how do people who have a hope behave?

The Bible says, ‘gird up the loins of your mind’. Girding up the loins means tension and concentration of power. We can see that a weight lifter gird up the loins to lift up a heavy weights. Like this, doing that is not only for the prevention of an injury, but for the getting of bigger power. It is telling that a person who has a hope needs to strengthen his mind. The world will disturb our mind tenaciously, but we must not waver. A person who has a hope ought to get over difficulties in the world with a strong mind.

The words ‘be sober’ can be explained to same meaning. Losing mind is losing the hearth of mind. It is due to a Christian, has a hope, to always maintain a state of tension, and make preparation against an attack of Satan, because our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walk about, seeking whom he may devour(1 Peter 5:8). We are feed of him, so we must be sober, and live a life as Christian having a hope.

Finally, an important thing we must remember is that the way our hope can be kept up is a grace of God. In other words, God will give a reward to us for our suffering and adversities in this world. It will make us overcome those pains. The reason that we do our best for today is that we expect a reward in heaven to come. I wish you to don’t take off a string of hope.

Translation by Lee ji-hye