A divided mind.
This is what most of us operate with. I don’t mean the two hemispheres of the brain. I mean the division between what we want and what we have; between what we are and what we want to be; between what we want to be and what God wants us to be.
Peter calls us to focus, to be single-minded and clear-minded.
His readers are having a difficult time. It’s not just the difficulty in living like Jesus, it is also the opposition we face from the world because we choose to live like Jesus.
Peter warns that the end of all things is close. Whether he thought Jesus would return soon (in which case he was mistaken) or simply that time was running out for those Christians (as it surely is for us all) doesn’t matter, his point is that every day brings us closer to God’s judgment day. There is no time to lose. We should pray, love one another, serve God, do good and make sure every word we speak and deed we do is not wasted. This is the real heart of the purpose driven life – a single-minded devotion to adopting and living the mind of Christ.