"Hope To The End" -2

"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: as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I Am Holy." (1 Peter 1:13-16) The word 'end', as I mentioned briefly, means perfect, complete; and in the context of what Peter is saying, it means perfectly, entirely, steadfastly, unwaveringly. If we contrast that to the word 'ignorance', we find a word that means the want of knowledge, and it is the word 'agnoia'; which we have looked at in one form or another before. The word 'agnoia' is the characteristic of heathendom, according to Paul's explanation in Ephesians 4:17 & 18, and is a state which renders repentance necessary. Thus it eventually furnishes ground for blame, or otherwise for forbearance; which means that there is no movement forward, and one can become stagnant. The reason for the lack in motion is because of what blame causes the human heart to do, which is what Adam and Eve did in the Garden after they had eaten the fruit: they hid from God. It is this condition of hiding from God that renders a person stagnant, because there is no movement towards God, consequently there is no fellowship either; and when we are out of fellowship with God, then we are in need of repentance to be brought back into position where there is Hope to the end, because blame has been removed... "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:" (Ephesians 4:17 & 18)