Category: 1 Peter

“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.

“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.

“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.

^” For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, ‘People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”

The depth of this passage may not immediately jump out, but this is a good lesson in digging into Scripture to understand all that is there. Peter has been talking to us in this letter about this amazing salvation that the prophets could only dream of. He has told us about this idea of being born via the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God. And here he brings those concepts all together with a quote from Isaiah 40. Take a moment to read that passage before you move on so that you can enter into the full breadth of Peter’s message here.

The prophet Isaiah had written these words about 700 years before Jesus arrived on earth. The message of God foretold a coming of the Lord, a time in which there would be good news delivered to his people. Peter is helping his Jewish audience understand the fulfillment of these words through Jesus. “That Good News Isaiah told us about??! This is it!!” Everything else in the world will die. Even grass (as my lawn will testify…). But Jesus’ message will remain. This is the never-ending life God has been talking about since the beginning. It’s the return to Eden.

Here’s your freedom for today: you were made to live forever. Illness and disorder of every kind are not how your body is supposed to work. Life was not supposed to be hard. Eden is the status quo to which God is returning us. And notice that Peter does not say, “You will be born again.” He says, “You have been born again.” Your eternal life has already started. Yet another reminder for us to live with eternity in mind. Clinging to Jesus’ eternal reality is the only way to escape the death and destruction we see everyday in our flowers and grass. This world is going down. Grab the Life Preserver and don’t let go.

 

“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”

That word “So” at the beginning of today’s passage reminds us to glance back and re-read 1 Peter 1. Peter is building upon his opening statements in this letter, in which he emphasized the incredible worth of this salvation through Jesus. For the whole prior history of humanity, people could only dream of what it would be like for a Savior to come. They had glimpses, promises from God, but they did not have the full understanding of Jesus.

“So”… Because of the fact that you have an incredible gift of the knowledge of salvation, get rid of evil behavior. Just be done. Lying, hypocrisy, jealousy, unkind words. Just do whatever it takes to get that out of your life. And then cry like a baby. Yes, Peter tells us we should act like infants who want their milk. One taste of Jesus’ goodness will have you screaming for more.

Here’s your freedom for today: God is a Father who feeds his children. Here’s Peter, a man who spent an incredible amount of time with Jesus on earth, telling us that one tiny taste of the kindness of Jesus and you’ll never want anything else again. That tells you how kind Jesus was more than any other Gospel story. Peter devoted his entire life to telling everyone about it. The sense of desperation in these words gives us a glimpse into Peter’s heart. Is that where you are at today? Are you, like Peter, deeply connected with the kindness of God and desperate to tell others about it? Or are you just finding out about this amazing news? Wherever you are at in your spiritual journey, press in just a little bit deeper today and take a big drink of the kindness and goodness of God.