"See How They Love One Another!"--1 Peter 1:22-2:3 (1 Peter Series)

            As the second century of Christianity began to unfold, the faith had spread throughout the Roman Empire—particularly to some of its great cities, like Rome and Carthage in North Africa. At that time, Christians were the objects of great suspicion from their neighbors and government officials because they had given up the behaviors of their previously pagan lifestyle.

            Wild rumors had begun to circulate in some places about what Christians actually taught and did in their meetings together. To clear the air and defend the good name of Christianity, a church leader in Carthage named Tertullian wrote a brief explanation of Christian practices and a critique of the unjust accusations that had been made against them. In his work, he wrote at one point that these attacks against Christianity were made out of jealousy, because Christians displayed a character of life that their pagan neighbors did not possess. His statement highlighted a quality that will be the focus of our study of 1 Peter today.

            Here is what Tertullian wrote: “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See how they love one another, they say, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, they say, for they themselves will sooner put to death (The Apology, ch. 39).”

            There is much food for thought in that quote. If people outside our church today were to take a careful look at us, would their overall impression be, “Those people sure love each other!” If people slandered our Christian faith, could we say, “You know, they’re probably a bit jealous of us because we have such a good thing going on here with our love for each other.”

            Regardless of where we might think we are with respect to a goal like that, it’s always good for us to remember that that kind of mutual love is, in fact, one of our goals as a church. When we think about that kind of love, a couple of important questions come to mind: what does that kind of love look like, and how can we sustain it? Peter is going to touch on those questions in our text for today, so let’s take a look at how he answers them.

1. Build upon your baby steps (1:22)

            In verse 22, Peter affirms the steps that these believers had already taken toward loving one another, and he calls on them to round out their love with passion and purity [READ v. 22].

            I’d like you to notice one thing about Peter’s language in that first phrase. He wrote that they had purified their souls by obedience for a sincere brotherly love. That word “for” indicates the purpose or goal behind their obedience. In their obedience for the Lord, they had this goal in mind of obeying not only for their own benefit, but to build up a mutual love within their Christian community.

            I think persecution had taught these believers just how much they truly needed each other. They may have been having a difficult time just meeting their own daily needs, so their experience taught them that they badly needed to band together.

            This is a goal that we need to keep in mind as well as we as individuals seek to grow in the Lord. Obviously there is an individual element for each of us in our relationship with God, but we need to remember that our individual relationship with God does not exist merely for our own benefit. We must always deal with this inescapable fact that we have been placed into the body of Christ – a fellowship with many different parts that have different functions, yet they are all designed to work together as one.

            So as I seek to obey God in my life and you seek to obey God in your life, we must remember that one of the goals of that process is not simply that I might hold the hand of Jesus more tightly, but that I might also tighten my grip with you as well – that I might become better equipped to show love to you.

            In his command, then, Peter explains how to fill out or round out our love for each other. He says, “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” The word “earnestly” speaks of a deep-seated passion or drive. Your translation might say “fervently,” and that’s a good word. The word “fervent” comes from the Latin word for boiling. We could paraphrase this command, “love one another with a love that is boiling over,” or “a love that has reached the boiling point.” Water that is boiling has much more energy and potency to it than water that is simply at room temperature.

But how can we get that kind of life and drive flowing through our love, and how can we maintain it? That is what Peter explains in verses 23-25.

2. The Lord can use His word to sustain our love for each other (1:23-25)

            [READ vv. 23-25] Make sure you don’t miss Peter’s basic argument here. He states that we can love one another earnestly because the seed from which our new life in Christ sprang is imperishable. It is lasting. It is not like our physical strength, which is wasting away and perishing, rather it is constant, always pulsating with life, and thus our love can always be alive and fervent as well.

            Now the Holy Spirit is the source of our new life, but the channel or the conduit or the pipeline that he used it to send new life to us was the word of God – God’s message from himself about himself to mankind. This is the same channel that God still uses today to accomplish spiritual work in our lives, so God’s full message to us, found in the Bible, causes this book to have a unique quality about it that makes it unlike any other book in the world.

            That’s why we call it the “Holy Bible.” The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word that simply means book, but obviously, God’s word is a special and unique book, and thus we call it the Holy Bible, or the holy book. And because God continues to do work in our lives through the message of this book, he has protected it and preserved it so that it will remain forever.

            Let me give you just one example from history that reveals how carefully God has preserved the Bible. During my recent trip to Israel, one of the sites we were able to visit was Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls were copies of the books of the Old Testament, and these copies were written in the centuries just before the birth of Christ.

            Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest copy of the Old Testament in Hebrew that archaeologists had ever found was from 1000 A.D., or 1000 years after the birth of Christ. So the Dead Sea Scrolls gave us copies of the Old Testament in Hebrew that were 1000 years older than any copies we possessed before. And when the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls was compared to the text of the manuscript from 1000 A.D., it was seen that the text was virtually identical, which served as further confirmation for our conviction that the message we read in the Bible today truly is the same message that Moses wrote and that Isaiah and Daniel wrote and so forth.

            God has miraculously preserved the Bible for thousands of years now because it is the channel through which he accomplishes his spiritual work in our lives. That process of God’s work in our lives is what allows our love for each other to be sustained with such a deep fervency. It’s not so much that simply reading a book fuels our love for each other, but it’s the fact that the author of the book is still alive, and in fact he has sent his own spirit to live with in our hearts. So the author of the book takes the message of the book and makes it become a living reality in our lives.

            So our power to love one another is not fading away as our physical strength is. It remains within us and is fed as we read the word of God, because the author of the book makes it a reality within us as we yield to his will.

Now we may still have a question about what it looks like to love one another from a pure heart. This is what Peter goes on to describe in the first part of chapter 2.

3. A pure heart comes from putting away evil and feeding upon what is good (2:1-3)

            In verse one, Peter gives us a good list of attitudes and behaviors that defile our hearts and thus need to be put away in order for our hearts to be pure. Notice how these attitudes and behaviors could all undermine and compromise our relationships with each other [READ v. 1].

            It’s not hard to see how these attitudes and behaviors cannot coexist with love. Malice refers to having evil intentions toward someone. Deceit, of course, refers to lying or trickery. Hypocrisy is what results when we try to hide things like malice and deceit with a good face, pretending that all is well between us and the person for whom we have malice in our hearts. Envy makes it difficult for us to work for the good of someone else because we’re jealous of the good that they already have! Slander is a very active effort to harm someone else through the things that we say about them.

            Peter’s solution is for us to put such things away from us. The word picture behind that verb is the action of taking off a piece of clothing and setting it aside. When your clothes are really filthy, you don’t just put something else on over the top of them. No – you take them off and replace them; you change into something else.

            Likewise, when you discover one of these attitudes or behaviors in your own life you need to lay it aside and go on without it. You must not tolerate it and carry it around with you any longer. Let these things disgust you the way your clothing might disgust you if you got filthy while working cattle or if you had a good workout with no deodorant on. Put these things away from you! Confess them to God and ask for his forgiveness, and if you have done harm to someone else, like through slander for example, then confess your sin to that person, ask for his forgiveness, then try to undo any damage that your words may have done.

            Having put those things away, we are then ready to grow in a different direction. Let’s see what Peter writes in verse two [READ v. 2].

            Your translation might say something like “long for the pure milk of the word.” The only difference here is a question about the translation of one word in the Greek text. The ESV translation here makes a bit more of a general statement about spiritual growth, but the point really ends up being the same. God accomplishes his work in us through his word, so we must long for his word if we desire to see his work in our lives.

            Peter tells us to make our longing like the longing that newborn infants have for milk. How intense is that longing? Do infants send a message like this: “Hey mom, I think I might be feeling a little bit of an empty stomach coming on here, so if you think about it, maybe you could pencil me in for a feeding here in a little while. I don’t really want to butt in on everything else that you have going on, so whenever you can squeeze it in, that’s fine. Meanwhile, I’ll just remain calm and totally peaceful as I wait patiently.”

            Is that how infants long for milk? Of course not! They demand it, they cry out for it, they act like they’re instantly going to die if they don’t have milk now, now, NOW! If they don’t have their milk, nothing will satisfy them until they do.

            My friends, if we are going to have a pure love for each other that is at a fever pitch, that is boiling over, we need to realize just how desperately we need to feed our souls with the word of God. The Bible is the channel through which God accomplishes his work in our lives. It is the way that he offers his promises to a whole new generation. It is the way that he corrects our thinking so that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is the way that he points out our faults and our flaws so we can put them away and grow in a different direction – grow until this salvation that God has given to us actually starts to have a good fit on us, so that the status of being a child of God actually comes to fit us rather well.

            Peter closes this little section in verse three with another motivation for all of this that is a stroke of rhetorical genius. He says that we should put away sinful things and long for the pure spiritual milk “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

            Peter isn’t really questioning his audience’s experience with the Lord so much as he is drawing them in to have them reaffirm it. When we read these words, the idea is that we will say, “Wait a minute! What do you mean ‘if indeed?’ I’ve tasted that the Lord is good!”

            When I make that affirmation, what have I just done? I’ve just taken Peter’s bait! I’ve just affirmed that what he said is true, and that I really should live the way he is describing. If I have tasted that the Lord is good, how can I do anything but long for his pure spiritual milk? Any other response would be improper, so with this little rhetorical flourish, Peter leaves us with no choice but to agree that we should love one another earnestly from a pure heart and long for the pure milk of God’s word. Any other response toward our good Lord would be improper. May God help us to have such loving and such longing!

The Peril Behind the Privilege of Calling God Your Father--1 Peter 1:17-21 (1 Peter Series)

            I imagine that, at some point in time, we’ve all thought about what it would be like to be the child of someone rich or famous. What would it be like to be the child of someone like Bill Gates, someone with more money than I can even imagine? How about the child of a movie star like Tom Cruise, or someone with great power and influence like President Obama?

            As Christians, we get to reflect an awful lot on the fact that we are children of God – and that reflection is a great privilege and encouragement! We very much enjoy reflecting on the protection that God provides for us and his promises to provide for our needs.

            But as Peter is going to remind us in our passage for today, there is a perilous aspect to this relationship that we may not reflect on quite as often, but we should, because it provides a significant motivation for us to behave in the proper way. I’d like to jump right in to a closer look at our text today without reading the whole text first, so we can allow Peter’s logic to unfold just the way that it would have for his original audience the very first time that they read this letter.

In the first part of verse 17, Peter calls upon us to consider just who it is that we appeal to as our father.

1. Who are you calling Father? (v. 17a)

            [READ v. 17a] Here Peter is reminding us about a father’s right and responsibility to evaluate how his children are acting and, by implication, to discipline them if necessary. After all, a good father doesn’t just hand out goodies all the time, right? He teaches and trains and guides and disciplines when it is necessary. You can count on the fact that God is going to act like a good father, so he too evaluates our actions and disciplines us when necessary.

            Peter’s main point of emphasis here is that God evaluates or judges us impartially. He doesn’t play favorites with us as he evaluates us. So, for example, I can’t harbor a sinful habit and say to myself, “Yes, but I’m a pastor! Surely that earns me the right to have God cut me a little slack!” It doesn’t work that way. Life is not Monopoly – no one gets a “get out of jail free” card or something like that. Nor can you follow a sinful path and say to yourself, “Surely God won’t hold me to a very high standard! After all, it’s not like I’m a pastor or something!” Peter is very clear with this statement – God does not play favorites; he is an impartial judge.

            So if there’s no wiggle room here – if there’s no chance for us to turn on the charm and get out of God’s fatherly discipline – how should this reality affect our behavior? We know from passages like Hebrews 12 that God takes his fatherly role as a disciplinarian seriously – what kind of perspective should that give us on our lives?

2. Live with a healthy fear of your Father (v. 17b)

            [READ v. 17] By “exile,” Peter is talking about our lifetimes in this world, when we are living away from our true, heavenly homeland.

            Now, the fear of God is a concept that can easily be misunderstood – and it often is! Many people have embraced one of two misunderstandings of this concept. The first misunderstanding is that we should fear God because he’s actually out to get us – that he watches over us just waiting for a chance to zap us into a pile of dust.

            I remember an old Far Side cartoon that pictured God sitting at a computer. On the computer screen was an image of a man walking underneath a piano that was being lifted up the side of the building. As God watched the scene unfold, he prepared to press a button on his keyboard that was labeled “smite,” apparently to send that man off into eternity.

            I understand the attempt at humor with that cartoon, but that picture kind of represents the way that some people actually think about God. They think of him as a cranky old man who doesn’t want anyone to have fun, and if we make one simple misstep in our lives, he’ll turn us into a pillar of salt.

            The second misunderstanding is that fear of God and love for God cannot possibly coexist in our hearts. This misunderstanding says that with fear and love, we have an either/or situation – we can either fear God or love God, but supposedly we cannot do both.

            Both of those misunderstandings are inaccurate, and let me explain why. As children of God, we don’t need to think that God actually has any harmful intentions toward us. He is not out to hurt us or out to get us, so we don’t need to fear that he has bad intentions in mind. The reality we must affirm, however, is that he is willing to discipline us out of love, and that discipline can be quite severe if God decides it is necessary. It could involve illness, it could involve financial ruin, it could involve broken relationships, and it could even involve death!

            Though God’s discipline is always colored by his love and mercy, he will not spare the rod, so to speak, when he knows that it is necessary. Many of us can understand this balance between fear and love by thinking about our relationships with our earthly fathers. This is not a perfect comparison, of course, because our earthly fathers are not perfect. And for a minority of us, we may actually need to overlook a lot about our earthly fathers in order to get a better understanding of God as our father.

            But for many of us, we know from our own experience what it was like to love our fathers and yet have an appropriate fear of them at the same time. We knew they loved us and had good intentions in mind for us, so we loved them for that. And yet, we knew that the claws could come out when necessary, and we feared that discipline.

            We should live with a similar, healthy fear of the Lord. Yes – we have the privilege of calling him our father, but he is not someone to be toyed with. We should not think that we can get away with things because we are children of God. In fact, we should rest assured that we will not escape discipline for our misdeeds – and we know that precisely because we are children of God, and he is faithful to discipline his children whom he loves.

Another factor in this healthy fear of the Lord is the remembrance of the priceless payment that God gave to save us.

3. You know full well the high price your Father paid to ransom you from bondage (vv. 18-19)

            [READ vv. 18-19] When Peter refers to “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,” he’s referring to all that Judaism had become just prior to and during the lifetime of Christ. It had become little more than a collection of traditions and rituals that had become something of a substitute Savior for the Jewish people. That’s why they were largely only looking for God to send them a political leader and a military conqueror, and it’s why the leaders of the Jewish people in particular completely misidentified Jesus when he came into the world.

            But these Jewish Christians had been delivered from that futility which blinded their countrymen from seeing the Savior. They had been ransomed from it, just like a hostage is a ransomed after a kidnapping with some form of payment. And the payment that God gave did not consist of something as cheap and relatively worthless as silver and gold, but it consisted of something far more valuable – the precious blood of Christ, the only one in all of history who never sinned, the only one to ever give perfect obedience to God the father, the one about whom the Father said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

            Peter’s point is this – if God paid such a high ransom to make us his children, don’t you think he’ll take offense when we don’t act like his children should? Should we not expect to be corrected by our father?

            I cannot say it any better than the author of Hebrews, so I’ll ask you to turn with me to Hebrews 10:26-31 and follow along with me as I read [READ].

4. Living in these fortunate times makes your connection with God possible (vv. 20-21)

            You’ll remember that back in verses 10-12, Peter revealed how the Old Testament prophets dearly desired to know what we know about God’s plan, and to live through all that we are living through. Since Christ has already come once to this world, we are living in fortunate times. Let’s read what Peter said [READ vv. 20-21].

            The Father’s plans for the Son were already in place before He even created the world. Time went by for millennia, many generations came and went, and who should have the privilege to be around after Christ had come? Why, these believers in the 1^st century, and all of us today!

            Simply because of when we live, we can not only believe in God, but believe in Him through Christ, knowing of the Lord’s resurrection and his glorious ascension into Heaven. We have a hope that is more informed and more triumphant than anything that Old Testament saints had.

            And don’t you think, my friends, that since we know more, since we have greater spiritual resources through the Holy Spirit, don’t you think God expects more out of us? If we live in such a privileged time, shouldn’t our lives reflect that? Shouldn’t our lives reveal that we are taking full advantage of the privileges that we enjoy now between Christ’s first coming and His second?

            This is yet another reason for us to live with the fear of the Lord in our hearts. It is a biblical principle, my friends, that to whom much is given, much shall be required. Truly, we have been given much! We can call upon God as our Father, we have been ransomed at a high price from lives of futility, and we have been chosen to live now, during these privileged times in which God’s eternal plan has already moved forward in such powerful ways.

            All of this should strike within our hearts a healthy fear—a fear of failing the one who gave His Son’s own sinless blood for our salvation; a fear of incurring the discipline of one who judges impartially; a fear of squandering the days we have been given in these privileged times.

            Let us remember today that we cannot receive the privilege of being children of God without also accepting that peril that comes with that relationship. God disciplines every child whom He receives, but only as needed, of course. May we allow a healthy fear of His discipline to cause us to live in such a way that we do not need to face it.

Clear Thinking and Clean Living in Light of God's Plan--1 Peter 1:13-16 (1 Peter Series)

            Last week, I was putting together a puzzle with Adrianna. It was a puzzle we had never done before, and we just had all of the pieces in a baggie – we didn’t have the box for the puzzle at all. As we were putting it together, I found myself wishing that we had the box so we could look at the picture on the front of it and see how this whole thing was supposed to look. As you all know, it’s very helpful to have that picture on the front of the box to show you what the puzzle is supposed to look like when you finish it.

            When it comes to God’s plan for us as his children, he has already given us the picture on the front of the box, so to speak. We don’t know about every twist and turn along the way, but we know what things are going to look like for us when God’s plan is all said and done. The culmination of God’s plan for us is going to be joyous and beautiful and glorious.

            So far in the book of 1 Peter, we’ve read about the apostle’s description of the plan of God for our salvation. He’s emphasized that the fulfillment of this plan is certain – that there is an inheritance being kept for us, and we are being guarded for it. He wrapped up this first section by telling us that this plan that God has for us makes us the envy of the very angels in heaven!

            Beginning with verse 13 of chapter 1, Peter is now going to instruct us about how we should live in light of this great plan of salvation that God has for us. It is not only a truth to sit and savor – it is also a truth to send us into action in some very particular ways. In our passage for today, will begin to see that:

Central Idea: Our knowledge of God’s plan for us should lead to clear thinking and clean living.

Follow with me as I read 1 Peter 1:13-16 [READ].

1. Pull your thoughts together and focus them on the grace that is coming to you (v. 13)

            You might be able to tell from the wording of verse 13 that Peter’s main point is this command for us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Remember that in the Bible, hope is not mere wishful thinking; it is a confident expectation and anticipation of something that you are looking forward to. In this case, Peter reminds us that we’re looking forward to the grace we will receive when Christ returns.

            This undoubtedly is a reference to the whole package of blessings that we will receive at that time. There will be the awesome experience of seeing Jesus with our own eyes – this one whom we have loved even though we’ve never seen him. We will enjoy being with him, and, as Peter mentioned in verse seven, we stand to receive praise and honor from him based upon our obedience to him today.

            Peter tells us that the anticipation and longing in our lives is to be set fully upon the return of Christ. That must be the moment that we are looking forward to more than any other – more than any plans that we’ve made for the future, even more than good things like having more kids or having grandkids or retiring. There must be nothing that we are looking forward to more than the return of Christ.

            Why is that? Because of this simple principle – what you desire to have the most tomorrow will determine what you prepare for today. Your desires for the future will impact the way you behave today.

            I remember speaking with a young lady once about the return of Christ. As our conversation went on, she said to me, “I can’t wait for Christ to return, but I hope I can get married first.” Think for just a moment about what that young lady was really communicating. I don’t believe she was trying to downplay the significance of Christ’s return, but what her statement really communicated was that she wanted to get married more than she wanted Christ to return. She could have said, “I can wait for Christ to return if it means I’ll get married in the meantime.”

            Now, I certainly understand the desire to get married. That desire hit me hard after I met Carmen, and I think the desire is even stronger for ladies! But what’s the danger in desiring marriage more than you desire the return of Christ? Well, you might be very tempted to resort to sinful ways of getting the attention of the opposite sex, or you might settle for the first person who shows interest even if that person doesn’t have the makings of a great spouse according to biblical standards.

            Anything that we might desire more than the return of Christ will bring along with it strong temptations to disobey Christ’s commands. And so, if we can set our hope fully on the return of Christ, we will find ourselves preparing for that moment more than any other, which in turn will lead us to live in the proper way.

            But how exactly do we see to it that our hope is set fully on the return of Christ? That’s what Peter tells us how to do in the first part of verse 13. He uses an interesting word picture in the first phrase of the verse. In Greek, it literally says “gird up (or pull together) the loins of your mind.” He’s referring to the way that the Jewish people would adjust their clothing when they needed to get down to work rather than leisure.

            The typical outer garment for a Jewish person was a long robe that stretched all the way down to the feet. When a person was getting ready to do something active, something that might require more freedom of movement, they would pull up the bottom of that robe and tuck it into their belt so it wouldn’t get in the way of their feet and trip them up. That action was similar to what we might do when we roll up our sleeves if we are about to do something dirty, or when a track athlete removes his or her warm-ups to get ready for an event. So we might say that the idea is that we need to pull our thoughts together so that none of them trip us up.

            This statement is a call for us to carefully assess the way that we think about every part of our lives. We don’t want to leave any loose ends in our thinking that might trip us up. So for example, perhaps a person might be thinking in a biblical way about how to start a family, but he’s not thinking biblically about how to grow his business, so consequently he gets tripped up – he starts to pursue some unethical and sinful ways to do business.

            Or perhaps a person thinks in a biblical way about how to work for his boss, but he’s not thinking biblically about something like retirement, so he becomes greedy and falls in love with money. So as we look toward the future, we don’t want to set our hope on Christ’s return in only three fourths of our lives or any other fraction. We want to pull together all the loose ends of our thinking so that none of them trip us up.

            Peter also tells us that part of setting our hope fully on Christ’s return is to be sober-minded. That statement emphasizes clear thinking – careful reflection on life that is not clouded by ignorance or any of the other hindrances that might characterize those who don’t know God’s message to mankind.

            We are not in that predicament, are we? We know God’s word, his message or revelation to mankind. We know his commands, and so we have a clear guide to know what is right and wrong. We know about his plan for the future, and so we have a clear view of where human history is headed and how we can be prepared for what’s to come.

We are not lost in some fog of uncertainty or ignorance. God has given us a clear model for how we should live, and that’s what Peter goes on to emphasize in verses 14 to 16.

2. Live by the pattern laid out by God, not your own passions (vv. 14-16)

            In verses 14 through 16, Peter points out that just as it is normal and appropriate for children to imitate their parents, we too, as children of God, should imitate our heavenly father [READ vv. 14-16].

            The word “conformed” in verse 14 gives us an interesting word picture, in my opinion. The Greek term is the root word for our English word “schematic.” A schematic is like a diagram or a blueprint; diagrams of electrical circuits in particular are often called “schematics.”

            I think that connection can offer us a helpful paraphrase of this statement: “Don’t follow the diagram or the blueprint drawn up by the passions of your former ignorance.” As we are building our lives we need to follow a different blueprint, a different pattern – and that pattern is God’s own holiness.

            The fundamental idea of holiness is the idea of uniqueness; something that is separated out by itself because it has a unique and special quality to it. God has a unique and special quality to him no matter how you think about him. He is unique in his power, his knowledge, his eternality, and his wisdom. He is certainly also unique in the way that he interacts with others, because he always treats others in ways that are right and proper.

            We can’t really imitate God in terms of his power, for example, because we simply don’t have the capacity to be Almighty. But we certainly can imitate him in the way that we treat others, and that idea is really what the Bible is getting at when it calls us to be holy. Compared to the way that unbelievers treat other people, we should treat other people in a way that is unique and different, with a higher and more noble and beautiful quality to it.

            We should treat other people the right way, but perhaps what truly makes us unique and different is that we can treat other people the right way for the right reasons and with the right kind of goals in mind. As Christians, we certainly don’t have a corner on the market when it comes to treating people the right way. Followers of other religions and even people who are irreligious can and do treat other people with kindness and fairness.

            But what sets us apart as Christians is that we can treat people the right way for the right kind of reasons and with the right kind of goals in mind. We can treat people the right way not just out of habit or to conform to tradition as Midwesterners or something like that, but as a true expression of the character that the Holy Spirit is carving out within us. We can treat other people the right way not from a motivation of what we might get from them, but simply because they’re people made in the image of God and because it’s honoring to God to act that way.

            We can treat other people the right way without trying to satisfy any misguided notion that doing so will earn us favor in the eyes of God. Above all, I would say that our worldview and spiritual resources as Christians empower us to be able to treat all kinds of people the right way in all kinds of circumstances. Do we always do that? Of course not, but we are empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

            Finally, please notice how Peter supports his call for us to imitate the holiness of God. First, he appeals to us as obedient children, which reminds us that it is simply normal and appropriate for us to imitate our father. But the real bottom line is seen in verse 16 – we have an express, written commandment from God to be holy because he is holy.

            Let us never forget that as Christians, the word of God is to be our final word for all matters of faith and practice – what we believe and how we conduct ourselves. The Bible is true and it is in fact a message from God to mankind, and though we can call God our father and Christ our brother without stretching the truth even a little bit, we must never forget that God is also our master. When we learn of his commands, we have one obligation – obey! We are not free to disobey his commands without the risk of facing his displeasure and discipline.

            And since his commands are recorded for us right here in the Bible, we also have no excuse for not knowing about them. As in our own courtrooms here in the United States, being ignorant of the law is no excuse for breaking the law. In the next section of 1 Peter, we will learn that it is in fact a fearful thing to live with the knowledge that even though we have God as our father, that fact does not exempt us from an evaluation of our lives when we meet him someday.

            It is so important for us, then, to learn God’s commands for us in the Bible so that we can obey. It is imperative for us to exalt the Bible in our own opinions so that we don’t treat its teachings as just one option among many for how we could live, but as the final word for how we should conduct ourselves in this world.

Restoring the "Forgotten Middle" to Christ's Resurrection Power--Ephesians 1:19-20 (Easter message)

            There’s a song that’s been going around Christian radio lately that reminds us of an important truth regarding Christ’s resurrection. It’s the song, “Same Power,” by Jeremy Camp, and the basic message of the song is captured in the line at the beginning of the chorus: the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us. We have that same power at work within our lives through the Holy Spirit.

            That’s an important truth for us to remember, lest we start to think about Christ’s resurrection only in terms of the past and the future and lose sight of its implications for the present. We can sometimes find ourselves thinking about Christ’s resurrection the same way that we think about a retirement account – it’s good that I started one in the past, and I’ll sure enjoy it in the future when I can begin to draw from it, but it doesn’t really help me right here, right now, on a daily basis.

            We might have that same kind of thought about Christ’s resurrection. Sure – we know it’s great that he rose from the grave all those many years ago, and we know that we too will be resurrected one day because of it. But in the meantime – well, what difference does it make?

            That song reminds us that God’s resurrection power is still active in the world today – and in fact, it’s active within you and me. That truth is expressed in a handful of different passages in the New Testament, but today I’d like to point you specifically to Ephesians 1:19-20. I’m going to start reading in verse 15 to give you the context, and let me ever so briefly give you a summary of verses 1-14.

            In those first 14 verses, Paul gives us a rundown of God’s plan of salvation and how he has worked it out in our lives. If you could master the message of just of those 14 verses, you would have a great handle on the vast majority of New Testament theology. You might want to make those 14 verses the subject of some careful, personal study in your daily Bible reading before long.

            Beginning in verse 15 then, Paul describes why and how he prays for the Ephesian believers. Let’s read his description down through verse 20 [READ].

            The phrase “according to” in v. 19 might seem a bit unclear to you, so let me read for you how verses 19 and 20 are translated in the NIV: “his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.”

            So God’s incomparably great power for us who believe is indeed the same power that rose Jesus from the grave. From this point forward in the book of Ephesians, we could view it as a description of what God can accomplish in us and through us through the immeasurable greatness of his power. So I want to take you today on a quick tour through the book of Ephesians. You’ll get a glimpse of how God’s resurrection power can transform your daily life right now and make a difference for you in the present day, not just in the past and the future.

1. His power gave us spiritual life to walk in His path of good works--2:1-10

            In this section, Paul describes how we were spiritually dead without Christ, unwittingly following Satan, and living for little more than satisfying our own lusts. But through Jesus Christ, God saved us from that situation and gave us new spiritual life, through which we can accomplish good things for him in this world. All of this is summed up in the familiar words of 2:8-10 [READ].

            God has saved us from our sins and molded us to do good works – actions that will bear his fruit in this world and do good for mankind. As we look around our world today, we see problems that leave us staggering because of their size and complexity. But the history of Christianity can be seen from one angle as a story of dismantling difficult problems. Christians in the Roman Empire successfully ended practices like infanticide and the systematic neglect of the sick and handicapped. Christians in the New World effectively put an end to the legal slave trade among English-speaking countries. Christian missionaries have taught jungle tribes how to escape the cycle of revenge killings, and they’ve challenged pagan cultures to put an end to practices like human sacrifice.

            God can work through us to effect lasting change in this world. The immeasurable greatness of his power can accomplish incredible things through his people – and not just on a societal level, but in your homes and in our schools and in our communities.

2. His power allows us to overcome prejudice in order to walk in unity with other believers--2:11-3:13

            In the next section of Ephesians, Paul describes how Christ brought together Jews and Gentiles as one body and one family within the church. That was no small feat when you consider the prejudice that existed between those groups. It would be like Blacks and Whites in the Jim Crow South joining together in true peace and harmony.

            God’s great power can overcome the prejudices that we might harbor against each other, which is highly significant given how deeply held our prejudices often are. These attitudes are often lodged in our hearts rather than our minds, which makes them all the more difficult to change. If you discover that you’ve simply been thinking about something incorrectly, it might not take too much for you to change your mind. But when your feelings and values are tied up in it, watch out! Attitudes like that require an adjustment that can be life altering.

            But God can do it in his power! He can make friends out of lifelong enemies and fellow worshipers out of former antagonists.

3. His power allows us to comprehend the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God--3:14-21

            This section is so beautiful that I just want to read it to you rather than comment on it [READ]. Isn’t a passage like that a feast for your soul? I especially love the notion that it takes strength to comprehend the love of Christ. It’s a love that blows us away, so we have to have God-given strength just to be able to comprehend it!

4. His power equips us to help each other mature in Christ--4:1-16

            In the next two sections, Paul really builds upon the image of walking to describe the way we move through life with our decisions and actions. In 4:1 he writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” When you think about how high our calling is as believers, it’s almost stunning sometimes to think that we actually can live up to it – that through God’s power we can live in such a way that the name “Christian” or “little Christ” actually suits us well!

            God’s power can accomplish that in us, and he can also use us to help each other mature in Christ. Notice what Paul writes in 4:15-16 [READ].

5. His power leads us to walk in love and wisdom rather than selfishness and ignorance--4:17-5:21

            In this section, we have a number of commands that all build upon this metaphor of walking. In 4:17, Paul writes, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” Then in 5:1-2 he writes, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

            Next, in 5:8-9 he writes, “Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” Finally in 5:15-16, Paul writes, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

            Earlier, Paul had described how those who do not believe are simply led around by their own passions and desires, but through Christ we have the immeasurable greatness of God’s power that can strengthen us to live a different way. Our sinful desires are like gravity – they are always pulling us down whether we realize it or not. But God’s great power strengthens us to rise above our sinful desires and escape their pull so that we can walk a different path.

6. His power allows us to act properly in all our relationships, and for the right reasons--5:22-6:9

            In this section, Paul gives practical instructions to various groups of people to teach us how to live together. As we all know, one of the most difficult challenges we face is simply to live together with other people in ways that are healthy and beneficial and encouraging rather than dysfunctional. So Paul writes to husbands and wives, to children and parents, and to slaves and masters to tell them all how to act properly in those relationships.

            And with each piece of advice, he reminds us that our goal in these relationships is not simply to please ourselves or even other people, but to please Christ. In each of these relationships, we should live in love toward Christ, which will keep us on the right track.

7. His power strengthens us to stand against the schemes of the Devil--6:10-20 (vs. 10-12)

            We have a powerful foe in the devil who is always seeking to do us harm. The Bible describes him as powerful, intelligent, cunning, and even attractive. But his power is no match for the immeasurable greatness of the power that rose Jesus from the dead! God’s power strengthens us to stand against the schemes of the devil.

            And so, let us always remember that the same power that brought a dead man back to life is at work in our lives today to accomplish things that might also seem impossible. When we feel the powerful pull of our sinful desires, it may feel impossible to say no, but through God’s power we can walk a different path. It may feel impossible for us to live in peace with someone from “that other group” of people, but through Christ we can find unity in worshiping him.

            Wives, it may seem impossible for you to honor your husbands, or husbands, it may seem impossible for you to love your wife as you love your own body, but through Christ that can be your love story! It may seem impossible to live up to the high calling to which we have been called or to think that you could actually enhance the reputation of Jesus among the people who witness your life, but through Christ it is possible. The immeasurably great power that brought him back to life is at work within us right now, and it can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think so that God might receive the glory for ever and ever. Amen!

Gaining Encouragement From a Great Cloud of Witnesses--1 Peter 1:10-12 (1 Peter Series)

            A few years ago, Nike ran a rather ridiculous and over-the-top ad campaign featuring Lebron James that had the tagline, “We Are All Witnesses.” The idea was that we should all celebrate the fact that we are alive at such a glorious time – the reign of King James! – when we get to witness Lebron’s greatness on the basketball court. (And of course, what better way to celebrate our good fortunes than to buy Nike shoes and T-shirts!)

            Well, I don’t know if we need to feel all that special about the fact that we are alive to see Lebron James play a game, but according to Peter in our passage for today, we should feel very privileged to be living during this stage of the history of God’s plan of salvation. There were God-fearing men in the past who longed to understand and know about the things that we are now experiencing as children of God, and as we’ll see, there are also supernatural beings who testify in their own ways to the greatness of our salvation. So today, we can draw encouragement from the fact that:

A great cloud of witnesses testifies to the greatness of our salvation.

Let’s read 1 Peter 1:10-12, and then we’ll take a closer look at these various witnesses [READ].

The First Witness: The Holy Spirit

            The first and greatest witness concerning our salvation is the Holy Spirit. He is the witness who has revealed the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about our salvation. He revealed this truth first of all to the Old Testament prophets, and he continues to reveal it today through the preaching of the Gospel.

            Let us make no mistake about his revelation – although it most definitely was written down and proclaimed in this world by human beings, the source of the message is none other than the Holy Spirit himself. Notice how Peter emphasizes this fact in verse 11, where he writes about how the Old Testament prophets were, “inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” Peter did not say that “they” (meaning the prophets) predicted these things, he said that “he” (meaning the Holy Spirit) predicted them.

            Let us never forget that this book we hold in our hands, the Holy Bible, is a message from none other than God himself. People have promoted many other ideas about the Bible over the years. Some people have said that the human authors of the Bible were religious geniuses in the same way that Mozart was a musical genius and Shakespeare was a literary genius; and so, they have given us a religious work of art that is exquisite, but nevertheless utterly human.

            Other people have said that the Bible is a record of human beings recording their experiences with God; and so, the really significant thing about the Bible, it is said, is not what the words of the Bible might say or mean, but how they could potentially lead us to have our own unique experiences with God.

            But Peter reminds us that the true significance of the Bible is that it is in fact a message from God himself. The only reason that the prophets could make predictions about the Messiah was because the Holy Spirit was speaking through them.

            According to Peter, the Holy Spirit bore witness about two broad categories of truth concerning the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ – his sufferings and the glories that would follow them. These two seemingly opposite realities would both be experienced by the Lord Jesus.

            The tension between these two ideas created no end of confusion for students of the Old Testament in ancient times. According to Christian scholar Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, some Jewish rabbis in ancient times concocted a “Two Messiah” theory, which taught that one Messiah would come to fulfill the predictions of suffering, and then another Messiah would come after him to fulfill the predictions of glory and exaltation.

            This tension between suffering and glory also caused great confusion for the 12 disciples during the ministry of Christ. What was Peter’s own reaction when Jesus first began to announce to them that he would have to suffer many things, be killed, and rise from the dead? Matthew 16 says that Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him! And how did Jesus respond? “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

            In God’s plan, the Messiah’s glories would come because of his sufferings; he would be exalted because he was willing to endure the sufferings for what they would accomplish. It is the same today for us! God asks us to patiently endure suffering today in the form of persecution and other difficulties, and if we will, he promises us that our future with Christ will be all the more glorious because of those sufferings.

            The Holy Spirit announced the plan of salvation through the Old Testament prophets as predictions, and now, since New Testament times all the way until the present day, he announces the great truths of salvation as accomplished realities through the preaching of the Gospel. The Old Testament prophets understood that they were being used to proclaim truths that were very significant and profound, and their keen desire to understand these things makes them the second witness to the greatness of our salvation.

The Second Witness: The Old Testament Prophets

            There’s a trend going around social media these days that makes fun of “first-world problems” – like when the barista at Starbucks accidentally puts soymilk in your skinny, half-caff latte. This trend reminds us that even though we do have our problems and inconveniences in this country, there are millions of people around the world who would be happy to trade places with us.

            If we could speak to the Old Testament prophets today, I imagine they might tell us that they would have loved to trade places with us. We might tell them about the trials and persecutions that we face as followers of Christ, but they might say, “Yeah, but those are just “New Testament problems.” You still get to live through some of the amazing realities that we only got to hear about!”

            It’s humbling to read Peter’s description of the prophets’ keen interest in the things that they were announcing and then to realize, as he says in verse 12, that they were not serving themselves but us. Today, we can look back on some of the things that they announced and see them as accomplished facts, and we are living through this great and glorious day in which our ultimate salvation has already begun. They were dying to know the facts that we learn as children in Sunday School and then spend the rest of our lives reminding ourselves not to take them for granted! They were carefully searching the Scriptures they had at that time to try to discover the very truths that are sometimes just like old hat to us today.

            Their zeal and passion to understand all they could about God’s plan is a testimony to us of just how great the salvation realities are that we live with and experience every day. All that Peter has just described to us with our new birth, our inheritance in heaven, our protection in God, the joy that can be ours as God molds us and shapes us through testing so that he might praise us and honor us at the revelation of Jesus Christ – all of these realities were so greatly longed for by the Old Testament prophets, and now they are ours to enjoy.

            Have you ever imagined that if you could speak to one of the Old Testament prophets right now, he might want you to do all the talking? If you could speak to Daniel right now, he might say, “Wow! Have you got it good!” Or if you could speak to Ezekiel, you might want to ask him about his amazing visions, but he might say, “Enough about me! Tell me what it’s like to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Tell me what it’s like to have the Holy Spirit testifying to your own spirit that you are a child of God. Tell me what it’s like to hear the words of Jesus echo down through the years – it is finished!”

            What a great time we live in, that even the prophets might be envious of us if they could see us now! And they’re not the only ones—there is a third witness to the greatness of our salvation.

The Third Witness: God’s Holy Angels

            Peter states at the end of verse 12 that the realities of our salvation are “things into which angels long to look.” When I read those words earlier this week, I thought to myself, “Aww-- come on, Peter!” That’s a fascinating claim! It deserves more than just a passing comment, but alas – a passing comment is all we get here in this verse.

            Why might the angels be so fascinated by the salvation realities that we get to experience? Well, we don’t often think of ourselves this way, but we actually occupy a greater and more significant role in God’s plan than the angels do. I believe we tend to think of angels as being greater than ourselves because they are apparently mightier and more powerful than we are, just in terms of brute strength.

            But in terms of our role in God’s plan for the ages, we are actually more significant than the angels. Remember – it was not to angels that God gave the right and authority to rule over this world, but to humans. And as Hebrews 2:5-8 tells us, it is not to angels that God will give authority over the new heaven and new earth, but to mankind. The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:3 that in the age to come we will actually judge angels!

            So, since angels actually occupy a lower position in God’s plan than we do, the Bible tells us that God has not put in place a plan of salvation for the angels. Please remember that the beings we call demons are angels who sinned against God by joining in Satan’s rebellion. God has not chosen to provide a plan of salvation for those angels who sinned. And even for the holy angels who remained faithful to God, the Lord has not given them the blessings that he is given to us – like adoption into his family or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

            We receive some clarity on all of this in Hebrews 2:14-18. Why don’t you please turn there with me and follow along with me as I read it [READ]. Notice the great lengths to which the Lord was willing to go for our benefit. He took on flesh and blood – a physical body – like we have, and he was willing to die so that we might be freed from the power of death and the fear of it. He was willing to endure temptation so he could experience what that is like in order to help us when we are tempted and serve as a merciful and faithful high priest before God the father.

            The angels look on at all of these things and they marvel at them! They must be in awe of the love that the Creator has for us that would lead him to do such things! And as Peter seems to suggest – in my opinion – they wonder what it must be like to be the recipient of such love and such great blessings.

            Can you see it, Christian? Can you see it, child of God? Can you see the greatness of your salvation? The Holy Spirit testifies to it by telling us about the sufferings that Jesus endured so that we might hear good news from God. The Old Testament prophets testified to it by carefully and passionately seeking to understand the things that we now know in detail and get to experience as realities. The holy angels testify to it by marveling at all that the Creator has done for us – sufferings that were accomplished not for them, but for us.

            So in any trial or persecution that we might face because of our faith, we can acknowledge that it’s not pleasant, but we had better acknowledge that it’s worth it! To receive the blessings that we have, to be on the path to the glorious destiny that awaits us – boy, is it worth it! When the heat is on, and the hatred directed at you because of your faith is white-hot, don’t forget that the prophets would still be glad to trade places with you. The holy angels still look at you with awe and wonder. Let us stand up with courage under our “New Testament problems” and rejoice that we have received so great a salvation!

Every Grief God Sends Can Give You a Golden Faith--1 Peter 1:6-9 (1 Peter Series)

            During my senior year of college, I had a fairly light load of classes, so I decided to join the soccer team. I had played on a soccer team all throughout elementary school and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d take it up again. I quickly discovered that elementary school soccer is a much different game than college-level soccer.

            In elementary school, you basically play what some people have called “herd ball” – all of the players gather around the ball like a big herd, and the herd kind of moves back and forth from one place to another. But college-level soccer is much more like what you see on TV, with grown men or women colliding into each other with elbows and knees, and cleats digging into your calf muscles.

            So, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, and since it had been many years since I had played on a team, I didn’t really have the skill to dribble the ball with my feet and look up and around the field at the same time. Consequently, my eyes were always directed downward toward the ball, and all I could see in my peripheral vision were defenders coming at me to take the ball away. And so, I was often kind of panicked when I got the ball, because it was hard for me to look up and see the big picture of the field.

            When we face trying and difficult times in life, our natural inclination is to do what I did on the soccer field – to look down and thus lose the helpful perspective that comes when you can lift your eyes and look at the big picture. Our tendency is to become fixated on our present circumstances, and in the same way that I couldn’t see anything but threats coming at me as I looked down at the ball, we can’t see anything but our threatening circumstances and the pain and fear that they bring.

            The solution for us, then, is to look up, beyond the circumstances of the moment. We must look at God’s promises and purposes for us, and that is precisely what Peter encourages his readers to do in 1 Peter 1:6-9.

Central Idea: In trying times, lift your eyes to see God’s promises and His purposes.

1. God's salvation promises offer joy in the midst of grief (v. 6)

            Let’s remember what Peter reminded his readers about in verses three through five. He reminded them that they had been born again into a new setting in life. This setting involved a living hope that pointed them forward toward a glorious destiny with the risen Lord. It also involved an inheritance in the family of God and protection from God himself so that his plans for them would never be thwarted.

            Peter seems to have all of this in mind when he says in verse six, “In this you rejoice.” But whereas he had previously been talking mostly about their future, which was glorious, he now talks about their present circumstances, which were quite difficult and painful. Let me read all of verse six, and notice the contrast with their joy [READ].

            Notice a couple of important thoughts in this verse. First, notice how joy and grief are not mutually exclusive. They are certainly contrasting emotions and experiences, but they can both be present in your life in the same general period of time.

            I fear that many Christians have a misunderstanding about grief or sorrow. Many of us seem to think that these are emotions that we should never have, and if we do have them, they reveal some kind of flaw in our lives. We have an old hymn in the church by the title of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” There’s a line in that hymn that says, “we should never be discouraged.”

            In my opinion, it’s more accurate to say we never need to remain discouraged. That would mess up the rhythm of that song, but I think it’s more accurate! Grief is a natural – and, I think, acceptable – reaction to difficult news or circumstances. Feeling sad when you receive bad news is nothing to be ashamed of; feeling a sense of fear when you face an unknown future is no weakness. Yet even in those times, there is joy to be found in God’s salvation promises – and many of you can probably testify to that fact in your own lives right now.

            I think the Psalms give us an excellent perspective on processing our emotions and finding joy even in the midst of grief. In many of the Psalms, the author expresses feelings of despair in very clear terms. And remember – those words are just as inspired by God as John 3:16! Yet by the end of those Psalms, the author always finds reason to celebrate by reflecting on God’s mighty works in the past and his promises of a glorious future for his people. I wonder if Peter, as a Jewish man, had that embedded pattern in his mind influencing him as he wrote this section of his letter.

            Notice a second thought now in verse six – Peter states that these various trials faced by his readers may be necessary. Now that seems like a strange thing to say, but remember who it is who decides whether such things are necessary. It is none other than God himself, the one who chose us for himself according to verses 1-2, the one who has great mercy according to verse 3, the one who has a heavenly inheritance under safekeeping for us according to verse 4, and the one who guards us by his own power according to verse 5.

            Though it still isn’t easy to understand why God might feel that certain trials are necessary for us, at least we know that the one who is in charge is someone we can trust. Like the child who has to get a shot at the doctor’s office, we may ask, “What was that for?” While it could be that God has not revealed all of his purposes to us, he has certainly revealed some of the purposes that he has for trials, and we see one such purpose clearly explained in verse seven.

2. God's purposes for trials offer joy even as we wait to see their full benefit (v. 7-9)

            Here’s a little Bible study tip for you to tuck away in your minds. Words like “so that” announce the purpose that lies behind any action that you may have just read about. So verse seven tells us the purpose for which God may deem it necessary for us to face trials. Notice what it says [READ].

            You likely know that when gold is mined out of the earth it doesn’t come out looking like a beautiful piece of jewelry. It comes out as what we call ore, and it has to be melted down so you can filter out anything that’s attached to it in order to get pure gold – which is then quite valuable.

            But Peter’s bold assertion in this verse is that a tested, refined faith is even more valuable than pure gold. And why is that? Because even gold can become tarnished over time, and in particular, when the Lord returns, he’s not going to be interested in your jewelry box or even how much wealth you have. He is going to assess your life – the quality of your obedience and faithfulness to him. A tested, refined faith that has been purified through trials will lead us to receive praise and glory and honor from Christ, and the lasting value of praise from Christ is worth far more than even the lasting value of gold.

            It is vital that we take the Bible at its word with a claim like this, otherwise we will not be in a good position to endure trials of our faith. Certain trials may cause us to lose our gold or our wealth, so if we don’t believe that a refined faith is more valuable than such things, we will be easy targets for Satan because we will be prime candidates for bitterness, anger, and even apostasy.

            Now, it can be a little bit difficult for us to believe that the reward of praise from Christ is more precious than gold because we haven’t seen that reward yet, have we? I think we can feel God’s approval through the Holy Spirit within us when we obey, but Peter noted that this praise and glory and honor in particular will come at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We haven’t seen that event yet, but Peter reminds his readers and us in verse eight that a lack of sight shouldn’t bother us because our faith right now is placed in someone whom we have never seen with our own eyes.

            [READ v. 8] I think Peter’s point in this verse is that if we can love someone right now whom we’ve never even seen, and if we can trust him and celebrate over him, then it’s not much more to ask for Peter to ask us to believe that Christ’s rewards will be even more valuable than gold. So then, if God deems it necessary to put us through trials so that he can one day give us something that’s even more valuable than one of the most valuable things on earth, we can trust him through that process. Even when it hurts, even when we are grieved by our trials, we can trust that God has good purposes and intentions in mind for us. Indeed – he is at work to give us something that is more valuable than we will probably ever realize in this life.

            We can rejoice in this, according to verse nine, “because we are obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.” I think including the word “because” here gives us a slightly more complete translation of verse nine. We rejoice because, even though we have not yet received the full blessings of our salvation, we have foretastes of them, and those foretastes become that much sweeter during times of trial and testing.

            Perhaps you were struck as I was by Peter’s description of Christian joy in verse eight. He says that his readers were able to rejoice “with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” He’s talking about that radiant kind of joy that makes your face glow, and that you struggle even to put into words.

            When I read those words earlier this week, I found myself thinking, “Wow! I wish I could experience that kind of joy all the time.” I certainly do experience it at times, but I’d like to experience it more often. That observation led me to ask the obvious question – why don’t I seem to experience that kind of joy over my salvation more often? Bear with me for a moment as I take you through my thinking from the last week.

            I want to make a point here by drawing a comparison between the KU basketball program in the KU football program. Don’t worry – you’ll see where I’m going in just a moment! At KU basketball games, it has basically become the expectation that the fans will never ever storm the court. No matter who we’re playing, no matter how big the game is, no matter how close the game is in the final possession, the fans will never ever storm the court. And the reason is very simple – KU basketball fans are spoiled brats! We win so often, especially at home, that we now just take it for granted, and so KU fans don’t celebrate with that same kind of exuberance that other teams do when they win a big game.

            Now contrast that with KU football. I’ve been at a few KU football games when we won very unexpectedly, and I will neither confirm nor deny that I was down on the field as the goalposts were being torn down. When the KU football team wins, it’s a big cause for celebration because it’s so rare! No one takes those wins for granted because there might only be a handful of them over the course of five years!

            The point I want to make is this – I think my joy over my salvation is not what it should be at times because I am taking it for granted. In those moments when I lack joy over my salvation, I think in my mind I am allowing my salvation to become simply one more good thing in a long list of good things that surround me in life.

            In our country, and particularly in our community, we enjoy so many good things. We enjoy such peace! We barely have to worry about crime, and there’s certainly no army sitting just over the horizon that’s waiting to come in and conquer us. We enjoy all sorts of comforts in life, like clean drinking water that’s piped right into our homes. We enjoy an overall prosperity that is the envy of the world and totally unique in history.

            And when we have so many good things, how often do we really celebrate any one of them – celebrate them with the joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory? When’s the last time you turned on your faucet and said, “Yes! Here comes that clean drinking water again!”

            My question is this – have we mentally reduced our salvation to the same level as all of the good things that we simply come to expect in our country? For the believers who received this letter from Peter, their joy was passionate and radiant because the foretaste of their salvation was made all the more sweet by the sting of the trials that they were facing at that time. For the moment in our community, we don’t have very many of the external factors that make life unpleasant and difficult. We may not get too excited about the thought of being saved from this world because our world is a pretty pleasant place to live.

            Our blessings are not bad things in and of themselves. But if they lull us into a spiritual condition in which we take even our salvation for granted, then we’ve not responded to them the way that we should. And if our environment doesn’t often lead us to crave the return of Christ and long for the total fulfillment of our salvation, then we have a lot of work to do in our hearts to keep ourselves sensitive to those things, so that when we reflect on the glories of our salvation and all that we have to look forward to, our hearts will leap with joy and burst with celebration, rather than respond with the spiritual lethargy that comes when we take our salvation for granted.

            May we allow the Lord to refine us as he sees fit by taking us through trials. And if he should choose that our trials would increase in their frequency or their intensity, may we remember that as we keep our eyes on his promises and purposes, our joy will multiply all the same in its frequency and intensity. The depths of any trial that we face will be overwhelmed by the new heights to which our joy will soar as we become more like Christ and anticipate his return like never before!