The 'Empty Headed" Life

Read 1 Peter 1:17-21

Context: This is a continuation from the text we read last Wednesday about holiness.

Text:
17You call out to God for help and he helps—he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living.
18-21Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. (The Message)

taken from www.biblegateway.com

I really like The Message version of the Bible when I read Peter's letters. He was a crusty old fisherman, and I imagine this translation is much closer to the way he really spoke than the more formal ones.

I wanted to better understand what was really meant by the passage in verse 18, "that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in." I know how my life was full of foolishness and thoughtlessness before I accepted Christ, but Peter was talking to people who had been devout Jews before their conversion. Here's how that passage is translated in other versions:

King James: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

NIV: 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,

New Century Version: 18 You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way, a way passed down from the people who lived before you. But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver,

Peter is really talking about mindless religion -- rotely following the 'rules' that are supposed to bring you closer to God but really leave you standing firmly where you are. Instead of working hard to be sure we do all the right 'religious' things, Peter tells us that we must live with a deep consciousness of God -- a relationship! God always knew that he would send his son to die so that we could have this relationship that gives us a future.

I hope that concept never ceases to amaze me.