Month: May 2025

Studies in First Peter Part 26

“¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  ¹⁸And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?  ¹⁹Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (I Peter 4:17-19).

In the early days of the church, persecution was primarily at the hands of religious Jews.  But by the time of Peter’s letters here in the first century, the Romans had become involved in persecuting the “household of God.”  And the persecution had become severe.  Working backwards in this passage, here is the message I believe the apostle is trying to get across.

First, “suffering according to the will of God” is not suffering because God has willed this for our lives.  It is suffering for DOING the will of God, suffering for “doing what is right.”  And when we find ourselves in this situation, we can rest assured that God is in this with us.  We “entrust our souls to a faithful Creator,” knowing that our souls are safe no matter what the world throws at us.  His promised presence can never be taken away.  Our souls are eternally safe.

Again, whatever persecution, even to the point of martyrdom, that we face, our souls are safe.  The same cannot be said for the unbeliever.  The “godless man, the sinner, those who do not obey the gospel of God” will face a more terrifying end than any persecution we face.  They will be lost.  Unless they repent and believe the gospel message of Jesus Christ, they will not be saved.  Their outcome is destruction.

To summarize, the righteous – those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus – are eternally safe even as we face storms, and challenges, and ridicule, or worse in this life.  The lost, however, regardless of what this life has brought them for good or for bad, will face an eternal judgment.

Or said another way by the apostle Paul, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body … Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.  For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (II Corinthians 4:7-10,16-17).

Our current afflictions, as painful as they are, are momentary in the big scheme of things, and will fade away in the light of our glory to come.

Studies in First Peter Part 25

“¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; ¹³but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.  ¹⁴If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  ¹⁵Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; ¹⁶but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God” (I Peter 4:12-16).

Suffering for the sake of the gospel has been an underlying theme in Peter’s letter.  And it is something that we should not be surprised by.  Here, Peter is echoing the words of Jesus from the upper room.  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18-20).

When we are hated and persecuted in this way, we “share the sufferings of Christ.”  My parents were missionaries.  I was born on the mission field.  I have been around world missions my entire life.  When we lift our gaze to scan the world over, there are many many places where our sisters and brothers in Christ are undergoing tremendous suffering.  They are truly sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.

It is interesting to me that even with this specific topic in view, there is a reference to the Spirit and glory of God in us.  The fact of Christ in you and you in Christ, God in you and you in God, the Spirit in you and you in the Spirit is never far from the apostles’ minds.

Even when “you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed.”  How can one be blessed in the midst of the pain of suffering?  The persecutors can take away your job, they can take away your land, they can take away your health, and even take your life.  But they cannot take away God’s presence.  They cannot remove the fact that “the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests on you.”  You carry the glory of God and you carry the Spirit of God in you no matter what storm you are going through.  And this glory and this presence can never be taken from you.

Peter closes this section with an admonition that there is no glory in suffering for doing evil.  Punishment in this case is appropriate and to be expected.  But there is glory in suffering for Jesus, with no shame, no judgment, no punishment from God; only glory in being identified with Christ in His suffering.

Studies in First Peter Part 24

“⁷The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.  ⁸Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.  ⁹Be hospitable to one another without complaint.  ¹⁰As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.  ¹¹Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (I Peter 4:7-11).

As we wait for our final redemption, “the end of all things,” we are to be clear minded and prayerful.  And “above all, fervent in your love for one another.”  Fervent love is a theme we visited back in I Peter 1:22.  This kind of love is the over-arching umbrella of the fruits of the Spirit.  This love is the new commandment for a new covenant (John 13:34).

Here Peter adds this outcome of our love for each other, “love covers a multitude of sins.”  Does this covering suggest we just ignore the sins of others against us?  Even as participants in His divine nature, we don’t have the ability to FORGET sins like God does (Hebrews 10:17).  And that is OK.  God is not asking us to.  But by the power of God in us, we do have the ability to FORGIVE sins against us just as God forgives.

This is the admonition after the cross, to forgive as Christ has forgiven us.  “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).  And forgiving in this way is an outgrowth and demonstration of loving fervently.

Another way we love fervently is to exercise the gifts that we have received from the Lord to serve His body, our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith.  Hospitality and speaking the words of God are two gifts that Peter highlights here.  He also emphasizes two aspects of how we practice our gifts in the body.

First, we “serve one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”  We use our gifts for the purpose of serving our fellow believers.  When we do this, we are exhibiting the grace of God.  We are showing the grace of God.  Grace is a practice, not just a theology.  We manifold grace, we display grace, when we serve each other with our gifts.

Second, we “serve by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”  Serving in the power of God brings glory to God, our eternal supply and supplier.  God is the one who works in us.  “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Colossians 1:29).

Sound judgment, prayer, love, hospitality, serving; they are part and parcel of who you are.  They flow from Christ living His life through you.  May you walk in these graces, these promises of your new nature, today!

Studies in First Peter Part 23

“⁴In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they malign you; ⁵but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.  ⁶For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God” (I Peter 4:4-6).

Continuing the theme of leaving our sinful lifestyle in the past, Peter turns to the response of your former partners in sin to the change in your life.  They are scratching their collective heads.  What happened?  Why have you left this path of sensuality behind?  And they malign you for your lack of participation.

As a geophysicist, I love the term Peter uses to describe the lifestyle that we have left behind; a “flood of dissipation.”  In your freshman physics book, you will see the word “dissipation” defined as “the process of converting energy into heat or other forms of energy that are NOT USEFUL for performing work.”  Dissipation is wasted energy.  It performs no work.  It has no usefulness.  It is a total waste.

Think about that lifestyle you left behind.  “Dissipation” is a good one-word description.  The energy that went into it brought no return, only losses in so many ways.  And it washed over us like a flood, a flood that we see rising all around us.

Look around you today.  What do you see in the world at large?  I see a “flood of dissipation” with the flood waters at a record level.  I can’t think of a time in my adult life when the lack of a moral compass in our public life has been this pronounced.  From the greed, fraud, and outright lies at the highest levels of business and politics right down to the porch pirate stealing your package in the middle of the day, morality at a public level is in short supply.

What has changed in me over the years is that there is no anger in the previous paragraph, only compassion for a world without Jesus.  I grieve over the sin of the world, not in some judgmental sense that people are breaking God’s rules.  I grieve over the harm and pain that sin brings to those who indulge in it and to those closest to them.

Jesus is the answer to the world’s sin problem.  People need Jesus and His power within to turn from sin.  Jesus is the answer is not just a catchy phrase.  It is the truth.

This “flood of dissipation” will not go on forever without consequence.  Judgment is coming.  There was no judgment associated with Christ’s first coming (John 3:17).  He did not come to judge us FOR our sin, but to FREE us from our sin.  But a future judgment is coming for those who have never believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

“The gospel preached to those who are dead” may refer to those who died before the cross.  Maybe they understood the prophetic promise of a coming Messiah or the gospel was preached to them in the grave.  We really don’t have much here to make a sure-fire interpretation.  At any rate, God’s judgment will be righteous, we can be assured of that.

Just to tack on one more thought.  There is no fear of judgment now or at a judgment seat in the future for those who believe the gospel, those who are now part of the family of God.  All of our sins have been forgiven by Christ’s death in our place on the cross and by believing, we have received His gift of eternal life without judgment or fear.

Studies in First Peter Part 22

“¹Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, ²so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.  ³For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (I Peter 4:1-3).

We know how “Christ has suffered in the flesh.”  He died.  He was killed.  His flesh, His body, was put through a painful death.  But how have we, as in “he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin;” how have we “suffered in the flesh?”

The short answer is that we died with Christ.  “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:5-7).

Having died with Christ, we have now “ceased from sin” (I Peter 4:1), have been “freed from sin” (Romans 6:7), and “consider ourselves to be dead to sin” (Romans 6:11).

Does “ceased from sin” mean that believers never sin?  No, we still commit sins.  But it means that we have been set free from sin’s overwhelming power.  We have been set free from sin as our natural response.  We have been set free from sin as our default mode.

Following that understanding of our death to sin, we are encouraged in verse two to live for the “will of God,” not the “lusts of men.”  Peter is instructing us to follow the maturing path forward that God has for us rather than going back to the fleshly way we were living before Christ.

“The time already past is sufficient” (vs 3).  What is Peter saying?  “You lived under the power of sin long enough.  The time for sin as your normal way of life is over.  Sin is no longer the road you should travel.  You USED to ‘pursue a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.’  But that is NOT who you are today.  This sinful lifestyle is now firmly in your rear-view mirror.  The time is already past.”

Because you have died with Christ.  Because you have been resurrected with Christ.  Because Christ is living His life through you.  You have what it takes – His divine nature in you – to leave this lifestyle of sin in your past.

The way forward?  Walking according to the Spirit.  Displaying the fruit of the Spirit.  Learning to love as Jesus loves.  This beautiful lifestyle of righteousness is what your future looks like.  And it starts the moment you believe the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Forgetting what lies behind, we press on in the love, acceptance, forgiveness, and power of Jesus.