Doing Life Well

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

DOING LIFE WELL

1 Peter 2:18-25

18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."   23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

NIV

Well, of course, we are not slaves, as slavery has been abolished, at least in our country, and so we have to look at this in the context of the time it was written. There had to be slaves who had accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and yet remained as a slave. Does that speak to an issue, an elephant in the room, which we usually shy away from discussing? Could we say that just because we are believers, life is not always a bed of roses, but that we might find ourselves in very unpleasant situations? Just because their souls were saved, their bodies were still in slavery. However, today we could make this truth apply to the relationship between employee and employer. The difference is it is a contract between two free people. The difference here is that if the boss is too harsh with us, we could just quit, and go find a job elsewhere. But there are situations where that is not always possible and we need the current job or position we have and so must endure whatever employer we have. In large corporate situations, our particular position may be either changed in its role or eliminated altogether forcing us to either adapt or find an alternate position within the corporation. The point being is that we are always supposed to work as onto the Lord, no matter what situation we find ourselves in. That means we do our very best, we give our all to whatever we are employed to do. If we are let go because we failed to live up to the contract of our employment, what value is that? However, if we are let go, even though we have done the most excellent of work, but it is due to our faith, then we have suffered for righteousness sake. Of course, that would mean we have expressed our faith openly, not that we spent time from our job requirements to evangelize our fellow workers, but that we express our faith through typical conversations that occur either during work or in breaks or lunchtimes. To use our time that we receive payment for as something other than our assigned tasks, would, in some sense, be stealing from our employer, and again, if fired for that cause would bring disrespect onto the Lord. So as Peter uses Christ as the ultimate example of how we are to live out our lives in both the workforce and in our daily relationships, we do what is needed of us and keep silent, if we are attacked or persecuted in some manner. It seems that goes against the norm today as most people always want to get the last word in. So we should make every effort to live in peace with all men, all people, and by our love, they will know we are believers in Christ, as Jesus said that we not only are to love our neighbor but also our enemy. Let us live out our faith, showing the love of Jesus in all we do. Let us do life well as a believer.

Civil Living

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

CIVIL LIVING

1 Peter 2:13-17

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

NIV

It would seem we cannot fully explore this portion of this letter without becoming political on some level. This is a directive, a command of God that we should respect those who are placed in authority to govern, including, which is very clear, the civil department of law enforcement, or the police. First, we should know that any of these people, from our President down to the newest and smallest police person can be both fairly good and entirely bad. That is not the point, but that as a believer we are admonished to give due respect to the law of our land, and to those who administer the law. It is our duty as believers, and thus it would seem totally out of character for any believer to slander or defame any authority over us. Again, without becoming judgmental, these current protests whether violent or not should not have a believer among them. However, having said that, our country, our religious freedom, is based on a protest, in fact, a revolution against an oppressive king. How do we deal with that? Many of those men who signed the declaration of Independent found themselves with troubled lives at the hand of war against the British. It was not a smooth transition from oppression to freedom. Were they Christians? If some were, had they disobeyed this portion of God’s word? History is never absolute as it comes from the hands of a human writer who may well be biased in some way. What we know is that today, we have the word of God, written by man, but inspired by God, and so we must, as believers give proper respect and obedience to the law of the land, and to submit to every authority instituted among men. When it comes down to the finest detail, we as believers should not be speeding or breaking the smallest fraction of the law. We are to live an absolute above-board life, doing all things properly according to the laws we live under and respecting those who render that law. By being the best at civil living, we should put our trust in God and our respect for everyone. Although we are free, we are also servants of God and should live as such, being obedient to his word. Do we fail at times? Sure, but our desire is not to fail but to live rightly as His people. When we use the word of God in such a way as to say that we should obey God over civil authority, could we be using our freedom as a cover-up for evil? Again, we should note that if the civil authority demands we disobey the law of God, such as in cases of morality, we must first obey God. Obeying God means to obey the civil authority instituted by men, which means it may not necessarily be instituted by God, although he is in control of all things. So let us live as God’s people. We reverence God, and we honor the President.

Aliens and Strangers

DEVOTION

THE 1ST LETTER OF PETER

ALIENS AND STRANGERS

1 Peter 2:11-12

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

NIV

First, we have to consider what it means to live as aliens and strangers, although this real issue Peter is driving at is the desire of our hearts. It is interesting that the two words, alien and stranger are together. In the Greek, at least in the classic Greek, alien means one who has a home near, neighboring, which again can imply the place we are currently living is not our home, for our home is near-by, as in the kingdom of God is near. Both John the Baptist and Jesus used those exact words, “The kingdom of God is near”. In the scripture, the word, alien carries the same meaning as one who is a resident of a different country or place and thus in the place, they are living they do not have the rights of citizenship. We have been told before that our citizenship is in heaven so we are non-citizens of the world. The Greek word translated as strangers is very similar to an alien, still, it has this co-meaning as a pilgrim, or rather a sojourner traveling in a foreign country, or residing temporarily in a foreign land. In both words we see that we are not of the world, this place is not our home, we have no citizenship rights here, we do not have a vote in how the world operates. However, we have been told to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every living creature. In conjunction with these words and how Peter is urging us to live as aliens and strangers, it behooves us to consider ourselves as ambassadors from the kingdom of God to the world. We speak for our sovereign, we represent his interests in this foreign land. Being His representatives, His ambassadors we have diplomatic immunity from the ideologies and philosophies, along with the penalties of such thinking and behaving. We are actually urged to abstain from that kind of living, even the desire of such lifestyle, or as Peter puts it, abstaining from sinful desires. In the Greek, it is written as to hold oneself off from fleshly lusts that war against our soul. Although that can apply to the sensual natures of man, those natures are given to us for the purpose, within the bond of marriage, to multiply and fill the earth. On the other hand, as we live among the pagans, we would not expose our sensual nature in public anyway, so this abstaining from sinful desires can also apply to live according to the pattern of this world. That would be engaging in, or partnering with, the way the world conducts business, government, religion, or any other traditional world concepts. We should, therefore, live free of those deceptions, and live as citizens of the kingdom of God. Now, that can cause some backlash from those whose citizenship is of the world. They might well see us as odd, crazy, off our rockers, even stupid in believing God and trusting in Jesus. They may well think our faith is simply because we are weak-minded and are not as intelligent as they are. However, it does not matter what they accuse us of, the fact is we are to live in such a manner, which means different than them, that they would see our true nature or good labor, that is being the best employee ever, as the Greek word, deeds or work means. It is not about being a holy roller, or holier than thou person, it is about being the best at what we do as sojourners, as aliens working in this foreign land. Then when Jesus comes, they will glorify God. So let us be that alien, that stranger who labors here for the glory of God.

People of God

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

PEOPLE OF GOD

1 Peter 2:7-10

7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,"   8 and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message — which is also what they were destined for.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

NIV

Once again we have this disturbing phrase that some would make the case, such as John Calvin, that certain individuals were appointed to stumble and thus be appointed to hell, to punishment. Under this presumption, it would then also mean that some, like us, were predetermined to be saved, and so God then shows favoritism to us, while he does not to others. That doctrine goes against every fiber of His being, for we know without question that, first, He does not show favoritism. Second, it is His desire that whosoever believes will be saved, so that “whosoever” depends on the individual to make their own free will choice to believe or not believe. The fact is there are going to be people, in this case, which Peter is referring to, some Jews, that rejected Jesus as the Messiah and there are some who accepted him as the Messiah. When it comes to us Gentiles that same principle applies. Some of us believe and some have rejected Him. So then, as God has already determined that those who stumble over the capstone, those who simply cannot come to faith in Jesus, or refuse to base their lives on the cornerstone are destined for destruction. He predetermined the fate of whosoever believes, and he predetermined the fate of those who refuse to believe. However, to us who believe, God has made us into a chosen race, generation, a people, or geno in the Greek. Again, this does not mean a hand-picked person, over another unpicked person. We as a geno, a race of people, his creation, whom he created in his image, were created for the specific purpose to be in fellowship with him and in his foreknowledge knew the fall and the need for our salvation through the blood of Jesus. Before the foundation of the earth and all the race of mankind, God predetermined how he would reconcile himself to his creation by sending his Son. Peter goes on to show us that once we were not a people, not the chosen geno, generation, people, as we were living in the darkness of sin. But now, because we believed, we are his people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, a peculiar people, belonging to God, and because we do belong to him we may declare his praises because he called us out of that darkness into his wonderful light. How could we not praise him for bringing us out of that darkness? That darkness is a place people chose to dwell so as to not have their sin exposed by his light. They think the darkness hides their sin, but it only hides it from themselves and others who live in the darkness. We know our sin, for the light shows it to us because we have come to the light, and although we see our sin, we also see the mercy of the Lord. We belong to God, we are His people, His holy nation because he has declared us holy and blameless, without accusation, in his sight. How great is that? How can we not give Him praise, all our praise? We live being so thankful that we saw His light and came out of that darkness. Thank you, Jesus!  We are your people. We are the people of God.

A Living Stone

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

A LIVING STONE

1 Peter 2:4-6

4 As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."  

NIV

The living stone, Jesus, is indeed the chief cornerstone. However, Peter says here that men have rejected him, but not us, for we are counted as the ones who come to him. It is true many have rejected Jesus as the cornerstone of their lives. They prefer to build their lives on worthless things, worthless philosophies, worthless ideologies, worthless principles, and worthless materialism. Everything in this world will perish so why are men so consumed with the way of the world? We, however, have not been deceived by all the false security of the world, for we have come to Jesus, the living stone, precious to God. He is the cornerstone of our life for we too are living stones being built into a spiritual house, a holy temple, as a holy priesthood. We know the other scriptures that speak of Jesus being the chief cornerstone. We know the meaning of the cornerstone in the construction of a building. It is not used so much today as we have lasers and tools to determine to keep things square, but in the day of Peter, a perfectly square cornerstone was laid first and then all other stones in the foundation of the building were based from the cornerstone so the whole of the building would turn out square. Of course, they still had the math which confirmed the square once the foundation was finished, however, it was all based on that cornerstone. This is how our lives, being living stones should be based. Everything in our lives should be based on Jesus. That means everything, not just the spiritual portion of our lives, but every aspect of our lives needs to be based on the cornerstone. If it is not then we will certainly not have a life that is all squared away, to use a military term. If we are not squared away, then there is always some crisis or chaos that is causing consternation in our lives. We can be sure there will always be events occurring that could be a source for chaos or a crisis, however, if we are those living stones set in place based on the chief cornerstone, then we would remain firmly set, which is completely opposite of becoming unsettled by a crisis or some chaotic event. We are living stones, and we are being built into a spiritual temple for God. It is interesting the Greek word translated as being built, means to build up a house. This word is used in both the active and the completed sense of build. Such as a builder is building a house, in the process of completing it, or a builder has built a fine house, as in he completed it. What appears to be the application here is that as living stones we are being in the process of being made into a temple of God. On the other hand, because God is always in the present, we have been built, as far as God sees us, we are a finished temple of living stones in which he dwells. We are his royal, holy priesthood, who offer ourselves as living sacrifices who are acceptable to Him through Jesus. Because we base our entire life, every aspect of what we are as living stones, then we will never be put to shame, dishonored, as the Greek word means. This meaning carries the idea of a builder, who is using the cornerstone and fits one of the foundation stones down, but it does not appear to be as squared away as it should and it is dishonored or not used. It does not square up to the cornerstone. In our case, that is our choice, to be squared up with the cornerstone, be the temple of our God, be his holy priesthood, and offer ourselves as a living sacrifice acceptable to Him. We choose to be that type of living stone.

Tasting Goodness

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

TASTING GOODNESS

1 Peter 2:1-6

2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."  

NIV

It is difficult to stop at any one place in this discourse of the living stone and our role as living stones. Nevertheless, we first must deal with the “Therefore”. Because we have been born again and the moment we were, we began a new life, just as a newborn baby, knowing nothing about its life to come. However, we did have a former life, a life not centered on Christ, but one centered on self, much like a newborn baby. All any infant knows is what it needs. A newborn has no thoughts about anything other than itself. That is how our former way of life was, but then it, or rather we died, in a manner of speaking, as we were already dead in our sins. Now, here we are, born again, a new creature in Christ and we are still being told about some areas of our former life, we are to rid ourselves of.  Were those believers Peter was writing to, engaged in those attitudes? Were they still hanging on to areas of their old life? If they were, it might also be possible that we could still be allowing those old life attitudes to sneak into our new life. Let’s examine these words and see if in the Greek we might gain further understanding. The word malice means the exact same thing as the Greek word. To have ill-will, to desire to injure. This does not mean by striking someone or causing physical harm, but this is more hideous, it is striking at the character of someone. How could we be deceitful, or exhibit deceit? This means being a decoy or a trick. This goes with the idea of building a façade or looking good on the outside, while not being so good on the inside. Being a decoy, just looking like a Christian, but not actually being one. A duck decoy looks exactly like a real duck, but it is missing the breath of life within. Is it possible some believers are like that, that we could be like that? We must rid ourselves of any such attitude. Then we have to look at hypocrisy. It is much the same as being a decoy, yet more like a stage player, actually voicing the right words, but only as an act to appear as someone we are really not. Jesus told the Pharisees they were much like both the decoy, the clean cup on the outside, yet dirty on the inside, saying all the right words, acting out righteousness, all while not actually being righteous. Envy, in many cases, goes hand in glove with slander. When we are envious of someone, it is also easy to defame their character, to make up something about them so to defray our envy. All these attitudes have no place in us if we are born again and so if any still linger, we are to rid ourselves of them. This is an action we are responsible for. We cannot say, “Well, if God does what me to think like this, he will change me”. No, this is a requirement He has put on us. We are to rid ourselves and not some of these attitudes, but all of them. The Greek word translated as rid means to lay aside, put off, as we would put off dirty clothing, to put on clean fresh clothing. When we do that then we, like a newborn baby, crave that pure spiritual milk. Who would choose old stinky spoiled milk sitting in the refrigerator, when that is a brand new fresh pure milk waiting to be opened and drank? That is the analogy Peter is making here. Let’s throw out that stinky spoiled milk, and drink only from that new pure milk which helps builds, not the strong bones actual milk does, but spiritual bones, our life within. Then we will grow up in our salvation, becoming strong in our faith, really tasting the goodness of the Lord.

Loving Deeply

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

LOVING DEEPLY

1 Peter 1:22-25

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.   23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

NIV

First of all, we have to know that it is not possible for us to obey every last bit of all of scripture which would make us a perfect human being. How can we ever think of ourselves as perfectly obedient, which is completely free of all sin? Even if we thought we were sinless, that in itself would be a sin for that would be spiritual pride. What Peter is speaking about is that we have purified ourselves by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. He is the one who makes us holy. We are holy and blameless, without accusation in the sight of God because we are in Christ. However, saying that there is a result of being in Christ. Not only are we purified, but we are told to have sincere love for each other, a deep love from our hearts. This is not acting like we love each other. This is not a false love, a one that is forced because we are Christians. This is supposed to be a sincere love from deep within us. That would require a full-fledged investigation of the love God inspired Paul to define in his letter to the Corinthians. Although most young couples choose to have that read at their wedding, it may not resonate throughout their lives or the lives of believers who read it. We have to remind ourselves concerning that love on a regular basis, for we find ourselves failing ever so often. When we consider that all of us have been born again, we all are in the same relationship with the Lord. He is not a respecter of persons. He does not love one of us more than any other, he loves us all the same, with all his love. He loves for us is enduring, non-perishable. He is reminding us that is the kind of love we are to have for each other. As we observe ourselves, we can see believers getting their feeling hurt, leaving the church, going off, even in anger, holding grudges, refusing to forgive. We see believers acting out in self-interest all too often. We have to be careful not to be judgmental or critical, but to love others. When we consider how frail and temporary our time here is, like grass or flowers. No matter how much we flourish, or how much glory we try to attain for ourselves, we all wither and fall. We are weak without Christ. The word of God is the only thing that sustains us and we should understand that we should see all men as our equal, no favoritism, rudeness, or selfishness, but always being kind, gentle, patience with each other, not being envious of each other, not being boastful about our lives, our achievements, or position, not easily angered when someone does something we think is not right or we think is against us. This type of love never keeps any record of wrongs that are done against us by someone. That means forgiving and never bringing it up again. Oh, this list could go on and on, but it is a love that endures, just as Peter is showing us how the word of God endures. He gives us that example to show us how the deep love from our heart is supposed to endure, which means it is not fickle or it does not depend on what others do. It is what we are to do, love deeply from the heart.