1 Peter 1:17 - An impartial Father

1:17

Part of the problem the Jews had was that they thought their being the nation of Israel, being God’s nation, meant they were treated favourably. In one sense they were, but not in the sense that they could do what they liked and not suffer the consequences. The Old Testament record should be a stark demonstration of this fact. As Christians we need to ensure that we do not make the same mistake. The cross does not mean we can live our lives with impunity. Instead we are to live our lives in reverent fear, and as foreigners. So we do not follow the world’s ways. Just because the world does something is most definitely not a reason for us going the same way. At present sexual morality is the most pertinent example of this. We should not and must not follow the world. We are strangers in this world. Instead we are to have reverent fear for the Lord. Our attitude should always be “what does the Lord think?”, not “what does the world think?”.

1 Peter 1:14-16 - Obedient children

1:14

We are to live as obedient children, and part of this involves not doing certain things. We are not to give in to evil desires. “When you lived in ignorance”. Some see this as indicative of the audience being largely Gentile. However, the Jews also lived in ignorance and were subject to evil desires, so it applies to all peoples. Following Christ involves a change of lifestyle and in the New Testament it is clear that a key part of the church life was teaching people how to live.

1:15,16

Lev 11:44 says “be holy, because I am holy”, it then goes on to remind them that He is the God who brought them up out of slavery in Egypt (Lev 11:45). Jesus has set us free from an even greater slavery, slavery to sin. So the injunction to be holy is greater as well. We have been forgiven and saved so that we can become like Jesus, not so that we can get away with sinning. We were created in the image of God, we were saved to become Christlike. Any notion of forgiveness being about being “let off” for our sins, or getting away with it are completely alien to the Bible.

1 Peter 1:12,13 - With minds that are fully alert

1:12

The prophets had a sense that they were serving something greater than themselves. Again, we can apply this to ourselves. It is not all about us, we are part of something greater. The apostles preached the gospel that the prophets had looked forward to. There is absolute continuity between the Old and New Testaments. The prophets were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the apostles were likewise inspired. Even the  angels did not fully understand. We need to appreciate the wonder of the gospel.

1:13

I prefer the older NIV translation here, or the current ESV, which speaks of preparing our minds for action, or as the Greek (and KJV) say, “gird up the loins of your minds”. Our minds need to be ready, alert. Sometimes Christians have tended to denigrate the mind, the Bible never does that, Instead it advocates the right use of the mind, and sees it as an essential tool in our walk with the Spirit. We are to be sober-minded. That does not just mean not being drunk (though that is sound advice), but thinking clearly. The world and circumstances will seek to befuddle our thinking, giving us a distorted view. We need the word of God to give us a clear view. We are to set our hope on the grace to be given to us when Christ returns. Peter lays a great emphasis on the future blessing, we should do likewise.

1 Peter 1:10,11 - Concerning this salvation

1:10, 11

We have here an explanation of Old Testament prophecy. Most of it had both an immediate fulfilment and was pointing forward towards Christ. The prophets spoke of the grace of God that was coming. Much of what the prophets said was a condemnation of Israel for her repeated failure to keep the Law and her failure to trust in God. Yet they all also contain promises of salvation. How can this be? How can a disobedient nation receive the blessings of God? The answer is that it is by grace, not by works. The prophets searched with great intent and care. We too should search the Scriptures with care and intent. The Word of God contains the words of eternal life, so we should be eager to understand what it says.

They knew the prophecies were pointing forwards, but did not know exactly when the fulfilment would come. In a sense we are all in the same boat, for there is a “now, but not yet” aspect to the gospel. All of us are looking for more. The prophets predicted the sufferings and the glory, not one or the other, but both. Rev 19:10 says that the Spirit of prophecy bears witness to Jesus. On the road to Emmaus Jesus explained how Moses and the Prophets were talking about Him (Luke 24:27).

1 Peter 1:7-9 - You love Him

1:7

So why does life involve so many trials? It is our faith may be proved genuine. What does proved mean here? It is not that God is seeing if we really believe, He already knows all things. Rather He is refining our faith, and demonstrating to us and the world that it is real. And our faith is precious, it is precious to us and precious also to God Himself. It is worth far more than gold, and gold is refined in the fire. Even so, gold will perish, it is ultimately worthless. Faith is eternal. The trials remove the dross from our lives, and leave what is truly valuable. And we need to appreciate just how important faith is, how valuable it is. Moreover, it will result in praise, honour and glory when Christ is revealed. We need to appreciate that we will share in Christ’s glory.

1:8,9

In John 20:29 Jesus, after Thomas had finally believed on seeing the evidence, said that blessed are those who believe in Him yet have not seen Him. We have not seen Jesus, yet we love Him and believe in Him. Now given the misrepresentation often given by sceptics, this does not mean that we believe without evidence, or even against the evidence. The evidence for the resurrection is very strong, the New Testament has a wealth of documentary evidence supporting it, far more than any other historical document of similar antiquity. So what role does evidence play? If we believed but then there was either no evidence at all, or the evidence all pointed in the opposite direction then people would be right to question, even mock, our faith. Suppose it was discovered that the gospels had been written by a Russian monk in the eleventh century, then our faith would be proved to be nonsense. But precisely the opposite is the case.

But faith is not just an academic thing. It involves love for Jesus and belief in Him, it involves a relationship. Moreover, it brings joy to our hearts and minds. And we are receiving the fruits of faith now. Completeness will not occur until He returns, but we start receiving the fruit now. We are receiving the salvation of our souls, and that is the goal of our faith. Note that it is not healing or financial blessing. Now these things may and do occur, but the goal is the salvation of our souls. It is the transformation of our lives, making us people totally devoted to God, totally Christlike. In the process there will be times of trials.

1 Peter 1:5,6 - Shielded by faith

1:5

See how what is said here fits together with what was said in the previous verse. We can wonder/fear what will happen in the future, we can wonder/fear how we will manage to get through today. In the previous verse we are told that our inheritance is assured, it is kept in heaven, free from all danger. So what about us here? What about coping in this life? We too are kept safe, we are shielded by God’s power, and this is achieved through faith. Now one might ask, does that mean that if I don’t have enough faith then God’s power won’t protect me? Or someone else might ask, if God’s power is protecting me then why do I need faith? This is coming at things from completely the wrong angle. We have been born again, into a new life. Peter is talking about living the new life, and the new life is lived by faith. The new life overcomes all things and endures all things, because we are shielded by God’s power. We need to focus on living the new life.

Our salvation will be revealed in the last days. The Bible is quite happy talking about faith as past, present and future. We were saved on the cross (even before time began in one sense), we are saved now because we believe in Christ, and we will be saved when He returns. A change took place when we believed, we were born again. Another even more dramatic change will take place when Christ returns.

1:6

There are two grievous mistakes we can make about Christianity. One is that everything will be wonderful, if only we have enough faith then every disease will be healed, every problem solved. The other is that God is impotent and will do nothing. The former is sometimes preached in one guise or another, the latter is all too often implicit in the attitude of a church. Both are wrong, and, as always, the Bible has the perfect balance. We may have to suffer grief in this life, in fact we almost certainly will. Peter’s hearers were liable to suffer persecution. All kinds of trials may come our way, but in the midst of it we can rejoice, in fact we can greatly rejoice. We should ask God to teach us to greatly rejoice in the midst of trials. Why can we rejoice? Because of the absolute certainty of our inheritance, and of God’s protection here and now.

1 Peter 1:3,4 - New birth

1:3

“Praise be ..” Remember that these Christians were facing persecution, but the starting point is praise to God. Why? Because in His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope. God could have chosen to leave us to the path we have chosen, He could have chosen to leave us dominated by sin and heading to death. But instead He has given us new birth into a living hope. Birth can be traumatic, sometimes when God works in our lives it is traumatic, but we now have hope. We can see a positive future. We now have a living hope. It is not just something that might happen in the future if things work out well, it is something that is already happening to us. Its culmination will only be when Christ returns, but it is happening now. How has this happened? It is through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the cross He conquered sin, death and the devil.

1:4

The lives of the Christians would seem to be in peril, surrounded with much uncertainty. Even in the comfortable West there is a large, and increasing, amount of uncertainty. In contrast, the inheritance we have can “never perish, spoil or fade”. It is totally secure. It is kept in heaven for us. Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God is keeping the inheritance for us, and it is kept in heaven. Men may do all sorts of things here on earth, but they have absolutely no influence in heaven. There is nothing that happens on earth that can affect or imperil our inheritance.