A Look At 1 Peter For Our Lives

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. Don't be surprised that you are suffering currently for your faith. Do not be surprised that every time you try to bring Christ into the conversation, you are insulted. Don't be surprised that your sufferings are from judgement as though you were some common criminal, some hateful murderer, or some kind of rabble rouser. Do not be surprised at anything negative that comes to you from your love and trust of Jesus. I wish that was me writing to you but it's not. Those words come from Peter and he wasn't speaking to us either. He was talking to a bunch of churches located in ancient Turkey before those churches had the Bible we have today. Peter writes in his first Epistle, starting at chapter 4, verse 12,

"₁₂Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. ₁₃But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. ₁₄If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ₁₅If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. ₁₆However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. ₁₇For it is time for judgement to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ₁₈And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" ₁₉So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good."

But when I heard the verses through a reading the other day, I stopped dead in my track because I was sure Peter had started talking to me. They were some words I needed to hear and I think that you might need to hear them right now also. I don't Peter had me in mind when he wrote this letter. Infact he probably wasn't thinking of my church in Lake Orion, Michigan either. But the Holy Spirit did, and so by inspiring Peter, I imagine as Peter wrote this he knew that these churches could share this Word of God and use it to encourage others and that's why we can still read it today! But you know the real shame of it for ourselves is that we still read it today. And we relate to it. Not much has changed has it. Within a few years of that literally world shaking event that was Christ's death and resurrection our fellow Christians had to face suffering due to the fact what happened, happened a few towns over and it was some number of years before and since Christ was no longer on the Earth they couldn't be trusted. Even with eye witness testimony. But it's like that today, isn't it? No we don't have eye-witnesses, but we have scholars who pour over the Bible and historical documents and artifacts all that proves a myriod of truthes from the Bible. We have linguists and pastors who know the Greek and Hebrew inside out. Study translation to translation to make sure that what was originally written is reflected by current texts. We have people who have had prayers answered, experienced personal miracles and have a voice and their head and their hearts that Jesus Christ is true God and there is a Father and Holy Spirit who in unity are one God. But they, the citizens of this world, don't listen do they?

And sometimes we butt heads. It's one thing when we wake up early Sunday and head out the door for church while others sleep. It's one thing when we put a manger under our Christmas tree, head out to church and make sure our card mailing lists get a prayer. It's one thing when we don't partake an activity the Bible tells us is unwise so friends and family go on ahead of us and we turn in for the night. But it's another thing to these people when we have to take a stand in something will harm us spiritually. It's another thing when we have to tell them that what they are doing with their lives are spiritually harmful. It's another thing when the sin of this world starts creeping in and eventually invading all facets of our lives until we either go along with it or stand up and say this is not Christ's plan for us. So we butt heads and we butt heads hard.

So why then in a world that's run rampant with sin should we be surprised when our faith gets tossed back at us? In love we tell a family member that their life has taken them off the path to glory and we are told that our love is actually hateful. At work we are told to do something that goes against our better judgement and if we say that we can't we face fines and penalties, perhaps job loss. Nothing the Christian does with a righteous heart of Christ is sinful and always puts love first. But this is the complete opposite of this world. This life is not perfect and being so, don't be surprised that good, true God-like good is punished.

I went back and read all of Peter's letter to those churches and found that there was so much to take away from it. Too much to actually print here. Earlier in the book of 1 Peter, he writes in chapter 3, starting at verse 8,

"₈Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. ₉Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. ₁₀For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. ₁₁He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. ₁₂For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." ₁₃Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ₁₄But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." ₁₅But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ₁₆keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. ₁₇It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. ₁₈For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, ₁₉ through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison ₂₀who disobey long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were save through water, ₂₁ and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the bod but the pledge of good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ₂₂ who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him."

So when in Rome do we do as the Romans do? Peter has a very interesting idea on how to go about living in this type of sinful world. First, we don't stoop to their level, meaning, we do not get mean, vicious or tough. We do good. So if someone's sinful lifestyle forces its way into your life you treat that person in love. You feed them, eat with them, give them charity as needed, help them out in non-sinful tasks. Plainly speaking you love them. Peter's thought is, how can they speak badly of you or your God who you admittedly to them live by example when all you do is loving things. So therefore when you say, this sin concerns me, then they either have to listen to you finally or they're now just sticking their fingers in their ears.

How can they argue against it. In this world of Godless science and acceptance of all sorts of things how then when they say, well you are so nice, but you seem to mock me for what I do, how can you believe this. Most importantly always point them to scripture. Second make sure they know what you do, you do in love for them. To the unbelievers, I see a lot of sentiment that suggest we judge them for ourselves, when really we speak up out of love and concern for them, unfortunately some of the most vocal can also be the most self serving so they often don't hear what your congregation and pastors have to say about it when they don't put them selves in the way of those words, so it is up to us to speak up for Christ's will when all they see is a worldly, senseless anger. Last we need to know our stuff. While we all know that we can't say Christ is Lord without the Holy Spirit, we also don't have divine inspiration coming out of our mouths at all times so we need to be well versed. If it's a sin, it's as easy as knowing where to find examples in scripture and knowing our Ten Commandments. If it's about a criticism of the Church or some fact that seems to go against what we preach, its up to us to know how to find sources to argue those disagreements. Even if it is just saying, I'm glad you are interested, but I can't comfortably argue my point right now, would you mind if I found you some teachings on this. We need to be ready to defend Christ.

But ultimately this is a sinful world and for every person we save, their seems to be ten even more stubborn people at every turn. And so we suffer. And who knows how much. We know that our faith can lead to mockery, it can bankrupt Christian businesses, it can send us to prison, it can torture and kill us. That's how Christians are judged by the non-believing world. But Peter doesn't leave us hopeless in a hopeless situation. All hope may be lost for this world and our life on this world, but our hope is never lost. He uses Noah as an example, an entire planet of nonbeliever in which only eight were saved. I imagine life would have been easier in foresight for Noah to stop listening to God, but instead, countless lives were lost and eight were saved, eternally. There's no hope for those who turn their back on God. In the first reading Peter all but says, you think you got it bad, just wait and see what happens to them. Our trials are nothing compared to the glory of Heaven. Peter lets us know there is nothing to worry about because it's God Will for our Earthly life and it's all so you can be glorified in eternal life.