διὸ sums up all the preceding verses = on the strength of such a position of privilege and dignity.

ἀναζωσάμενοι. Girding up the loins is a symbol of prompt readiness for active service as opposed to slackness and indolent heedlessness. So our Lord told His disciples that they must have their loins girded as servants waiting for their lord (Luke 12:35), but ἀναζ. only occurs here and in Proverbs 31:17.

As St Peter in 1 Peter 1:18 describes his readers as “ransomed” by the Blood of the true passover lamb, it is possible that he may also have in mind the direction to Israel to “have their loins girded” at the first Passover (Exodus 12:11) in readiness to avail themselves of the deliverance and start on their journey to inherit the Promised Land. So Christians need to brace up their minds, otherwise their hope will not be set towards the favour which is being brought to them, and they may forfeit the deliverance and the inheritance.

νήφοντες τελείως. τελείως generally joined with the following word ἐλπίσατε; so A.V. hope to the end, R.V. set your hope perfectly on. But St Peter’s usual custom is to join adverbs with the preceding word, and so it is better here to translate being perfectly sober.

The Christian must not only have his mind braced for action (ἀναζωσάμενοι), but all his faculties must be under perfect control, with no confusion, no unhealthy excitement.

ἐπὶ. Set your hope in the direction of. You must turn to God’s free favour to you as the ground upon which your hope of glory must rest.

φερομένην. The word is used in Acts 2:2 of the “rushing mighty wind.” Here the idea seems to be that God’s loving favour is continually being conveyed to mankind in the ever-widening, ever-deepening revelation of Jesus Christ in the expansion of the Church and the daily life and experience of the Christian. But in this life we only see Him “in a glass darkly,” but one day the veil will be entirely removed and we shall see Him “face to face.”

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Old Testament