Author: Kristen Kansiewicz, LMHC

“Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.”

In a recent post, we were reminded that the most valuable weapons we have in the spiritual war are faith, hope, and love. All three of these words make an appearance in today’s passage. Let’s take a moment to talk about what these words mean so that we can better understand how to use them in our lives.

Faith is the evidence of things we cannot see. Have you ever been sure of something that you had no physical evidence for? You just know something is true on a gut level? That’s a kind of faith. Hope is a sense of spiritual optimism that encourages us to keep going when we’d rather throw in the towel. Love is not a feeling, but a deeply sincere act of sacrifice and exalting another person flowing out of God’s care and sacrifice for us. The Bible often uses phrases like we see here: “with all your heart.” Every part of our beings are consumed when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and operating in his ways. When we have a spiritual optimism rooted in truth we know deep within our hearts, it manifests in love.

Here’s your freedom for today: the Spirit frees you up to sincerely love. Not love because you have to. Not “love” in quotation marks when your heart isn’t really in it. Deep, sincere love that flows directly from the Spirit of God Himself. When all that you long for is Christ, and all that you believe with every fiber of your being is Christ, then you will be completely free to love. Pride has no place there. Obligation has no place there. Just simple freedom to be in a family and community you were made for. That is the place of genuine belonging.

“And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as ‘temporary residents.’ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.”

Peter’s ministry focused on Jewish Christians, and one of his main messages to the church was, “Being Jewish won’t save you.” Jesus invited anyone from any nation and ethnic group to participate in his salvation. The Holy Spirit entered Jews and Gentiles alike. Peter himself encountered this first-hand in Acts 10, and it changed his perspective on the entire Gospel message. In today’s passage, Peter is reminding his readers that God doesn’t favor one people group over another. The fruit of our lives will either flow from the Holy Spirit or it won’t. You can’t cheat God or trick him into thinking you are living for him when you’re not.

Now before we head into works-based thinking that makes us try to be “good enough” to earn God’s favor, Peter reminds us that God is the one who set up our only system for success. Jesus’ death on the cross paid off the one who was holding humanity hostage: Satan. And here in these last days, the fullness of God’s plan through Jesus has been revealed. As we discussed a couple of days ago, the full revelation of the Messiah’s identity was something the world could only wonder about before Jesus came. We now understand the plan, we know the mission, and we are called as the church to bring the kingdom of God into its fullness.

Here’s your freedom for today: you don’t have to save yourself. In fact, you couldn’t even if you wanted to. God has paid your ransom, and he’s finishing the rescue mission as we speak. The only way out is to follow him. To step into the life-stream of his Spirit and let it carry you away from the clutches of the enemy. So let go. Don’t cling to anything. Stop trying to be good enough, it won’t get you anywhere. Dwell in God’s presence and his kingdom today, you just might find it’s exactly where you belong.

“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, ‘You must be holy because I am holy.'”

If you are entering a battle, you need to be prepared. You have to stay alert and know how you are going to fight off your enemy. You need to know how to work with your team and take orders from your commanding officer. You have a specific role to play, but your individuality does not matter. The mission matters. The objective matters.

That is the Christian life. If we want to win against the enemy’s schemes, we have to keep our heads in the game. We need self-control in order to prevent the enemy from taking us hostage using our biggest weaknesses against us. There is no room for playing around — it is a dangerous war we are in. Lives are at stake for all of eternity. (And faith, hope, and love are our most dangerous weapons.)

Here’s your freedom for today: the kingdom of God is worth fighting for. Staying on mission and rejecting your own desires is not easy, but it is worth it. Your eternity and the eternal redemption of the entire world is worth it. And it is no small task. Yet in the midst of struggle and fight there is freedom. We don’t have to wait until the fight is over before we get to live a free life. The act of fighting is an act of choosing the free path. When Satan cannot get to you, you can walk in total freedom. This is what holiness does in your life. It is not a “should,” but rather a glorious free space where you become stronger and more protected from attack. Keep your head in the game today and reject the lie that following Jesus is “too hard.” Living any other life is infinitely more costly.

“This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.”

The salvation we have through Jesus is historically new. When we think back to the prophets, we think of the greats — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah along with Elijah and Elisha. So many amazing messengers of God who endured so much struggle. Prophetic life was dangerous and lonely. What we have today through the gift of the Holy Spirit, sent after Jesus returned to Heaven, is something they could only wonder about. They saw it, felt it, knew it deep in their souls, but they did not experience it quite like we do.

Together as post-Pentecost, end-times believers we share a power like the world had not seen before. 2,000 years seems like a long time, but in the big picture of human history it is the tail end of a very long story of struggle, confusion, and wondering. God was with his people, but he lived in a tent (called the tabernacle). Today, your heart is the tent in which God dwells. He’s camping out in the depth of your soul.

Here’s your freedom for today: you are part of a story that has been unfolding for thousands of years. The prophets, the angels, all of human history was on the edge of their seats waiting for these times. Salvation offered to the whole world, not just to the Jewish people. God himself coming to dwell in, around, and through his people. God inhabits you when you open the door to Jesus. And more accurately, he inhabits us as the church, bringing about an ending so glorious we can only wonder about what is to come. In that way, we can relate to the prophets who could only imagine the coming of Christ. Here we sit in that same place, waiting for his second arrival. Get busy, it could be soon.

“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”

These verses make me want to weep with joy. Here is Peter, someone who was very much aware of his privilege in personally knowing Jesus face-to-face, writing to those who did not get to share in that experience. You can feel his deep appreciation and admiration for those who love Jesus even without having ever met him. Just think about that for a minute. I love Jesus and I have never seen him in person. I ask myself why that is. How is that possible?

If we keep reading, Peter reminds us of the reason: we trust him. Because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, we very much do know him even though we have never met face-to-face. In fact, Jesus told Peter and the other disciples that it was better for him to leave earth and a physical body so that he could be personally present to everyone at once through the Holy Spirit. We have Jesus imprinted on our souls and we carry him in our minds. He talks to us and leads us, and carries us all the way to our salvation.

Here’s your freedom for today: Jesus is trustworthy. There are a lot of people who are not trustworthy, and maybe you’ve been hurt by some of them. Imagine the incredible peace and joy and love you would experience in relationship with someone who you knew would never betray you. Never lead you astray. Never abandon you. That is Jesus. We don’t need to see him in person to love him, because his work in our lives is clear. He knows what he’s doing.