08/11/2026
Peter uses an odd—and rather humorous—image when he tells his readers, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).
What? That doesn’t sound odd or humorous to you? It does in the Greek.
What the ESV translates as “preparing your minds for action” is in Greek, “girding the loins of your mind.” The verb ἀναζώννῡμι (anazonnumi), “to gird or bind up” is used only here in the New Testament.
What does it mean to “gird your loins” and, more specifically, the “loins of your mind”?
The style of dress in Israel, and generally in the Middle East, were long robes. But what if you needed to work or run or fight? A long robe would hamper your movements. To fix this problem, a man would pull up his robe to shorten it, then bind it around his waist. Voilà, a long robe is thereby transformed into a pair of shorts!
Okay, you say, but what about loins and mind? Our minds don’t have loins, obviously.
This is simply a figure of speech. Just as a man literally “girded his loins” to get ready for action, Peter says metaphorically to “gird the loins of your mind,” that is, “get your minds ready for action.”
Peter is likely alluding to the original exodus, when the Israelites were told to eat the Passover meal “with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Exod. 12:11). That phrase, “your belt fastened” in Hebrew is “your loins girded.” In this same context, Peter makes reference to Christ as the “lamb without blemish or spot,” that is, the true Passover Lamb (1 Pet. 1:19).
Peter would thus be saying, “As those redeemed by the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, stay awake and alert, with the loins of your mind girded, ready at any moment for action, with your focus upon the grace of Christ in this dark and dangerous Egyptian world.”
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We read 1 Peter 1 today in Bible in One Year: https://www.1517.org/oneyear
