In order to understand what it means to purify our souls by obedience to the truth, we must be clear concerning the meaning of truth in this verse. Truth here is the sanctifying truth, which is God’s word of reality (John 17:17). Truth in this verse does not mean doctrine. Truth is the reality contained in God’s word and conveyed by it. For example, John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world.” This is the divine word. This word, however, should not merely be a doctrine to us, as it is with so many readers of John 3:16. To read this verse only in a doctrinal way is to have a natural understanding. This natural understanding is devilish, for the Devil is behind our natural understanding. If our natural understanding occupies us in full, it becomes devilish. If we are to have more than a natural understanding of John 3:16, we need to touch the reality contained in this short word and conveyed by it. When we read, “God so loved the world,” we need to ask ourselves if we have experienced this love. We should say, “God so loved the world. Does this ‘world’ include me? Does this word mean that God so loved me?” Anyone who reads John 3:16 in this way will get saved. Such a one would say, “O God, how I thank You that the world includes me. For You to love the world means that You love me.” This is to take John 3:16 as truth, as reality, and not merely as a doctrine.
First Timothy 3:15 says that the church is the house of the living God. This verse contains doctrine, but to us it should not be merely a doctrine. Rather, Paul’s word about the church being the house of the living God should be a truth, a reality. We need to ask, “Is the church in my locality the house of the living God?” If we read the verse in this way, we shall contact reality, truth. The truth is the solid content, the reality, contained in the word of God and conveyed by it to us.
First Peter is addressed to scattered Jewish believers who had been in Judaism before they were saved. They had much knowledge of the types in the Old Testament. When they heard the gospel and the teaching of the apostles, they contacted reality. Through the preaching of the gospel and the apostles’ teaching, the truth, the reality, in the word of God was conveyed to those Jews. As a result, they heard the reality contained in the word of God. This is the truth.
We should not only receive doctrine from God’s word—we should touch reality. The gospel and the teaching of the apostles contain realities, and these realities had been conveyed to the Jewish believers. The Jewish believers to whom Peter was writing in his first Epistle had received the truth, the reality, from the gospel and from the teaching of the apostles.
However, after the believers had received this truth, this reality, the Judaizers came to them and reminded them of their background in the Jewish religion. The talk of the Judaizers was distracting and disturbing and caused the mind of the Jewish believers to wander away from the truth. Perhaps one of the Jewish believers said to his wife, “Peter’s preaching is real, isn’t it? Why, then, does it contradict so many things we have heard from our parents? It even seems that some of Peter’s teachings are contrary to those of Moses. We really have a problem. Can you believe that our fathers taught us something wrong? Why does Peter teach us things that are different from what we heard in the past?” This illustrates what was the background when Peter wrote this Epistle.
In verse 13 Peter says, “Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, being sober, set your hope completely on the grace being brought to you at the unveiling of Jesus Christ.” The word “wherefore” at the beginning of this verse is based upon all the divine truths contained in verses 1 through 12. The matter of our being chosen according to the foreknowledge of God is not merely a doctrine; it is a truth, a reality. It is also a reality that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has regenerated us unto a living hope. Furthermore, it is a truth that this living hope is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, kept for us in the heavens. In these twelve verses we have a great deal of truth, of reality.
With all this truth as the basis, Peter charges us to gird up the loins of our mind and to be sober. We should not allow our mind to wander, and we should not be drunken or drugged. To be sober is to be de-drugged, to wake up from a stupor. Therefore, in verse 13 Peter is telling the Jewish believers to forget their religious background, to be sober, and to no longer wander in their mind.
As the Judaizers tried to influence the Jewish believers, so today certain ones may try to influence those in the Lord’s recovery. For instance, a young brother may love the Lord’s recovery and praise the Lord that he is in the recovery. But then a relative who is a pastor with a theological degree may visit this brother and say, “What do you mean ‘recovery’? I have a master’s degree from a seminary, but I have never heard about a recovery. Who told you that the Lord has a recovery?” The young brother may not know what to say. Later, he may be unhappy and begin to have doubts in his mind concerning the recovery. He may say to himself, “I certainly have been helped by the ministry in the Lord’s recovery. But what about this pastor with a master’s degree in theology? Can he be completely wrong about the recovery?” What this brother needs is the girding up of the loins of his mind.
To gird up our mind is actually to purify our soul. Whenever our mind is wandering, our soul is impure. Dissenting thoughts cause our mind to wander. These dissenting thoughts may enter our mind like fiery darts. When our mind begins to wander, our soul becomes unclean. If this is our situation, we need to purify our soul. But how can we purify our soul? We purify our soul by girding up our mind and by setting it on one thing, not allowing it to wander.
The fiery darts of dissenting thoughts not only disturb our mind, but they pollute our emotion and our will. As a result, we are not pure in the Lord and before the Lord. This will make it difficult for us to praise the Lord in a genuine way.
Let us consider again the example of the young brother influenced by a relative who is a pastor. The talk of that pastor brings impurities into this brother’s emotion. Not only do the dissenting thoughts cause his mind to wander from the goal of the Lord’s recovery; they also cause his emotion to be impure, that is, to have more than one love. This impure emotion can be compared to that of a woman who loves more than one man. She loves her husband, but she also loves someone else. This is fornication. Our emotion should be set only on the Lord. The brother who listened to the dissenting thoughts and words had his emotion polluted. As a result, he has more than one goal, one aim. On the one hand, he is in the Lord’s recovery; on the other hand, he has doubts regarding the recovery. This is a kind of pollution.
This pollution can also damage our will. It becomes difficult for us to make decisions, for we have two goals. Therefore, our entire soul becomes impure. Our mind is wandering, our emotion is divided, and our will is damaged. In such a case, we need the purification of our soul.
God will not purify our soul for us. We need to do this ourselves by our obedience to the truth we have heard and received. Suppose a certain brother struggles for a period of time concerning the Lord’s recovery. Eventually, by God’s mercy and the moving of the sanctifying Spirit within him, he declares, “Praise the Lord! My mind is girded up with one goal. My emotion is fully set on one Person, the Lord Himself. I have no other object of my love. Therefore, my will follows to make a strong decision: I am for the Lord, and I am for the Lord’s recovery. I don’t care for anything else.” This is obedience to the truth. Such an obedience to the truth becomes the means by which we purify our souls. Therefore, in verse 22 Peter tells the Jewish believers that they have purified their souls by obedience to the truth. This truth is conveyed in God’s sanctifying word.