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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapters 1 to 2:3 ch. 1:1-2 ch.1:3-13 ch. 1:13-2:3 My
Commentary on the First Letter Of Peter
IntroductionThis
commentary is based on the 1994 edition of the NIV Bible.
The section titles in this commentary correspond to those found in
the NIV Bible. The
2 letters of Peter were written by Simon Peter, one of the disciples of
Jesus. Jesus also called him
Cephus, Aramaic for “stone, or rock”.
Most of what we know about Peter is found in the 4 Gospels, the
first 13 chapters of Acts, and a little from what Paul says about him. We
know very little about Peter’s missionary trips. In Acts 12:17, after
his miraculous escape from prison Luke says that he went “to other
places”. We simply don’t
know where these other places were. Tradition
has it that he ended up in Peter
was an “unlearned and ignorant” fisherman (Acts 4:13).
This has presented problems with some concerning the authorship of
first and second Peter. Some
suggest that Peter was not intelligent enough to write such a letter in
Greek. But we don’t need to
worry about this because Peter himself says that Silas helped him write
this letter. This Silas was
the Silas who was friends with Paul and Timothy.
Silas knew Greek. It
appears from chapter 5 verse 13 that Peter wrote this letter from
someplace in Peter
says that he wrote this letter from No
one knows for certain just when Peter wrote his first letter.
Many suggest that it might be around 63 AD.
The reason given for this is because of the reference in chapter 1
verse 1 to those who have been “scattered”.
James, the writer of James, and one, if not the main leader in Peter’s
Introduction (ch. 1:1 - 2) Peter
begins his letter by introducing himself as an apostle, or “apostolos”
in Greek, meaning “one who is sent”.
In Acts 1:22 we note that Peter believed that the apostle to take
Judas’ place had to be one that had been with Jesus from the beginning.
Yet does this mean that only men who lived on earth and saw Jesus
in the flesh can be an apostle. Not
really. There are other
apostles mentioned in the New Testament, including Silas, Timothy, and
Paul, among others. Paul
himself speaks of his apostleship in as being one who was born late, that
is, compared to the other main apostles such as Peter.
Peter
believed that the one who took the place of Judas, one of the 12, had to
have been with them from the beginning.
The 12 were specifically appointed by Jesus and thus were somewhat
special, that is why Judas’ replacement had to have known Jesus in the
flesh, at least this was Peter’s thinking. Concerning
modern day apostles, I believe that we need to make a distinction between
them and the original 12 plus Paul. A
modern day apostle cannot proclaim special revelation that does not agree
with the Bible. In fact modern
day apostles only repeat what the Biblical apostles have taught.
Apostles of today teach what the first apostles taught. This
presents the question, “are apostles really for today”?
Some say yes to this question, while others say no.
But the fact of the matter is, if there were secondary apostles
after the 12, and if an apostle is simply one who is sent, then it is
logical to conclude that people can be apostles today. In
my personal experience with so-called modern day apostles, some who claim
such status are not always ones who have been sent out.
They are more of a pastor or an administrator.
A person who is always in one location, and never sent out, does
not fit the definition of an apostle. Peter
addresses his letter to the “elect”.
Over the centuries, and
especially since the Reformation this word has caused great
discussion. Without getting
into the controversy of predestination (see my notes for Rom. 8:28-30 to
explain predestination), “elect” simply means God’s chosen people.
Peter most likely uses this term in its Jewish sense.
Being a Jew he understood that Is
Peter thinking only of Jewish Christians here when he speaks of God’s
elect? I don’t know for
sure. Some may suggest since
he uses the word “scattered”, as in scattered throughout Asia, Peter
says that these Christians have been chosen because “of the
foreknowledge of God”. Thus
we see part of the doctrine of predestination, or at least my version of
this doctrine. Simply put,
God, in His ultimate foreknowledge of all things, that is, He knows what
will happen before it happens, He knows who will be saved.
He does not make salvation happen to people, He only knows ahead of
time who will receive salvation, and who will reject salvation.
God knows these things because I don't believe God is in our space
and time domain. He is outside
of space and time, or at least our type of space and time, and what is in
the future for us is in the eternal present for God. There
is a lot of theology in this second verse,
especially from and “unlearned man”.
Peter has just spoken about 2 great theological concepts; election,
and foreknowledge. Now in the
next phrase he says, “through the sanctifying work of the Holy
Spirit”. Here, yet another
theological concept is introduced, and that is “sanctification”.
This word simply means “to separate”.
In this context the work of the Holy Spirit is to “separate”
God’s people from the world, solely unto God.
That is to say, that the world no longer owns the Christian, but
God Himself is the owner of the Christian.
The Holy Spirit separates the true believer from the unbelievers in
the world, and places them into the people of God. Why
does the Holy Spirit do this sanctifying?
Peter says, “for the obedience to Jesus Christ”.
Believers are expected to obey Jesus after they give their lives to
Him. That sounds only natural,
although by experience we can see that this is not always the case with
people. Thus one might
conclude that if there is not evidence of such obedience to Jesus, then
one has not been separated from the world, one has not really been saved.
Sanctification
might be seen in 2 parts. It
is a one time event when one gives his life to Jesus, yet on the other
hand it is a progressive thing. One
is in the process of being separated from the world as he gives more of
his life to Jesus. What
sanctification isn’t, at least in my thinking, is a one time second
experience as the Methodists would teach, something like the second work
of grace called the baptism in the Spirit as Pentecostals would teach.
This doctrine of sanctification says that at some subsequent point
to one’s conversion, one gets “totally sanctified”, that is to say,
the world has absolutely no hold on the person.
I don’t really believe this can happen in one experience. When
one gets saved, one is transplanted from one kingdom to another, then
after this transplant takes place there is a process in which the earthly
kingdom little by little is taken out of the person.
You might put it this way. God
separates us out of the world at conversion and puts us in His kingdom.
Then once that has taken place He, by His Spirit takes the earthly
kingdom out of us. Peter
closes this verse with the phrase, “for the obedience of Jesus Christ
and the sprinkling of His blood”. The
words “sprinkling of blood” is a direct reference to Jewish custom as
detailed in the Law of Moses. In using the word “obedience” which the
Jewish Christians would have been raised to understand, this obedience
would be to the Law of Moses. Now
obedience is replaced to obedience to Jesus.
This is the New Covenant which is not based on the Law, not based
on blood sacrifices, but based on the blood sacrifice of Jesus.
So by using the words obedience to Jesus, and his blood, the reader
knows well what Peter is speaking about.
This is not a matter of the Law, but a matter of Jesus and His shed
blood. Getting
back to the beginning of this verse when Peter calls Christians “elect
strangers in the world”. The
Larry Norman song from the 1970’s is good commentary on this verse.
In one of his songs he says, “this world is not my home, I’m
just passing through”. Although
God created the world, the world in its present condition is not what God
created. We as Christians are
thus foreigners, or strangers in the world in its present state.
Our home is in heaven with Jesus.
So Larry Norman is right when he says that he is just “passing
through”. This thought may
not sit well with some “kingdom now” teachers who have little thought
about Heaven. But the truth of
the matter is that the first generation Christian, like Peter, did not put
much hope in this present world. Their hope was always in the resurrection
life to come. The
next phrase ends Peter’s greeting. It
says, “grace and peace be with you in abundance”.
This is a prayer. Peter
is praying that God’s grace and His peace will be with these people in
the midst of all their trials and tribulations, of which there are many.
The natural tendency for these people, and for us today, is to give
up in times of hardship. Peter
wanted God’s grace, meaning, His ability to get us through our troubles,
to be strong in these people’s lives. Then beyond that, he wanted the
peace that only comes from our Lord to be with these people in these hard
times. Simply
put, Peter says, “may God grant you His ability to stand firm in
trouble, and His peace that will help you cope”. Praise To God For Living Hope (ch. 1:3 - 12) Verse
3 begins with these words, “praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ”. We have seen
this phrase many times in Paul’s writings.
Did Peter get this thought from Paul?
We don’t know for sure. But
it is a good guess that the truth behind these words was a main component
of these early Christians thinking. The
point to be made is this. The
God that Peter claims to give praise to is both God, and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Peter does
not believe in a generic God. The
New Testament does not teach a generic God.
The God that Peter gives praise to, and us too, is the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. This
God is different than any other proclaimed God in human history. When
Peter uses the term "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ",
as a Jew, this is very significant. Jews
believed in Yahweh, the God and father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now Peter is adding Jesus to this list and when doing so is
thinking of Jesus as actually being God in human flesh.
This would be very disturbing to non-Christian Jews.
We
also note that Peter calls Jesus “our Lord Jesus Christ”.
The word “our’ is possessive, meaning, Jesus belongs to us as
Christians. Even more so,
Jesus has been given to us. (for
unto us a child is born…” Isa.
9:6) We also note His name
Jesus that was given to Him at His human birth is followed by 2 titles.
He is both Lord, (King of all there is), and Saviour (the only one
who can bring salvation to us). As
you study the N. T. you will find certain truths that the early Christians
promoted. At times I feel that
we do not promote these truths to the extent that they did, but promote
secondary issues instead. One
of these truths are found here in verse 3.
Peter says that God has “given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus”.
Three points should be made here.
One is the idea of the new birth.
John 3 says this very clearly.
When giving our lives to Jesus, we are actually born again by the
Holy Spirit. When at initial
salvation we receive God’s Spirit into our lives, this in fact causes us
to be born twice. We have
already been born in a physical sense into this world, but at conversion,
we are born again into a spiritual world.
This world is not understood by those who have not been born again.
The
second point is that we are born into a hope.
A study of other New Testament passages will tell us that the hope
of the early Christian was for the return of Jesus that would usher in the
life beyond, or the resurrection life.
This hope was futuristic. For
those who suggest that thinking, and hoping for Heaven is futile and a
waist of time, they are wrong. The
early Christians thought much of their new life to come with Jesus in
Heaven. And why not.
Their existence on earth was full of hardship. The
third point is this. Our
resurrection is based on the resurrection of Jesus.
Peter, like Paul was very strong on this point. 1 Cor. 15 is the
definitive chapter on this subject. Paul
simply says that if Jesus rose from the dead, so will we.
Peter believed the same, and you can see this when reading his
messages in the first half of the book of Acts.
The resurrection, of both Jesus and the Christian was one of the
most talked about and preached subjects by the early Christians. Peter
goes on to elaborate on the resurrection life.
He says in verse 4 “and into an inheritance that can never
perish, spoil or fade – kept in Heaven for you…”
An inheritance is something that is given to someone after the
owner of the things to be inherited passes away.
Jesus died and therefore has willed something to us.
We get this inheritance after we die, because it is not an earthly
or material inheritance. God is keeping it safe for us.
Where? It is in Heaven,
where it cannot perish, spoil or fade.
Everything here on earth moves towards perishing, spoiling, and
fading, but what God has planned for us in Heaven lasts in the state of
perfection forever. It is this
hope that Peter expresses in this verse. Peter
is preaching the eternal kingdom to come.
Once again, in these last 40 years in different parts of the
church, the “kingdom now’ theology, which has its place, has been over
emphasized to the degree that it has excluded any reference to the future
kingdom in Heaven. In
verse 5 Peter continues with this long sentence of his.
He says, “through faith (you) are shielded by God’s power until
the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last
times”. By saying “through
faith we are shielded”. Peter is saying that because you trust in Jesus,
He will look after you. The
word “shield” is of course a military word.
The early Christians viewed themselves in a fight against the world
and the devil. They needed a
shield of protection. Our
trust in Jesus enables Him to protect us. Peter
says that we will be protected until the coming salvation.
Two points should be noted hear.
One point is that protection does not mean a happy and easy life.
Many of these early Christians were being killed when Peter was
writing these words, so we cannot interpret Peter as saying everything
will be nice and easy. What
then will be protected? Our
eternal souls will be protected along with our future inheritance.
The
second point to be made is that Peter speaks of salvation here in the
future tense. But you might
say that salvation should be spoken of in the past tense, that is to say,
that you are already saved. That
is true. Yet salvation as seen
in the New Testament has three aspects to it.
We were saved. We are
in the process of being save. We
will be saved. Peter is
speaking of this last aspect of salvation.
In the last times, when Jesus returns to earth, we will be
completely saved. Our
salvation that has been in the process of being given to us will be
completed on Resurrection Day. In
verse 6 Peter says, “in this you greatly rejoice”.
What is the word “this” that Peter is talking about.
“This” is referring to our future hope of salvation.
Peter is saying that we are greatly rejoicing over the fact that
some day all our trials will be over and we will be in a state of
perfection and in the presence of Jesus.
Peter is saying that both himself and his readers are rejoicing in
this fact. These
people are definitely not rejoicing in their present circumstances.
The notion that Christians need to always be happy, even in hard
times is not Biblical. I say
this because of the rest of Peter’s sentence.
It says, “though now for a little while you may have had to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials”.
The words “little while” refers to the present life these
people are living with all of its trials.
Our earthly life in
comparison to eternity is “a little while’. Peter
realizes that his readers are going through “all kinds of trials”, and
as already mention, many trials led to their death. These were not happy
days. Yet in the midst of
these hard times the early Christians did rejoice, not because of the hard
times, but because of their thoughts of eternity. Peter
states his reason for the trials these people are going through.
Now if the trials these people are experiencing are associated with
persecution due to their faith, obviously the number one reason for the
trials is their faith. Yet
Peter gives another reason, and maybe in his mind it is the real reason.
The reason Peter gives is that the trials are a test of faith, so
it “will be proven genuine”. Peter
in this instance sounds like James. James
speaks of false faith. Here
Peter speaks of “genuine faith”. Now
if Peter has to use the words “genuine faith”, he must think that some
people who claim faith don’t have genuine faith.
This is still true today. Just
because people claim to have faith in Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean
that faith is real and genuine.
By definition faith is actually trusting in Jesus.
Faith is not some abstract concept.
It is a real concrete act of trusting, which indicates some type of
relationship with Jesus. Peter
compares our trust in Jesus to gold. Even
though gold may have its importance, and it is refined by fire, it still
perishes. Yet real faith is
more important than gold, and leads to eternal life that does not perish.
What Peter is suggesting to these people is that even though you
have these trials, and even though you may be experiencing financial
hardship as a result, your trust in Jesus is more important, and these
trials will show if you really do trust Jesus.
If your faith is genuine, then these trials will only strengthen
and deepen your trust in Jesus. We
need to note at this point that faith is not a commodity that you can get
more of. I often hear
this phrase, “I need more faith”, as if faith is something that you
can get more of, or something that comes down from Heaven and drops into
our lives. If faith is
trusting in Jesus, then we can't get more of it.
We can only trust Jesus with more of our lives.
So our prayer should not be, “give me more faith”, but, “help
me trust more”. Then the way
Jesus answers this prayer is not dropping faith into our lives, but as
Peter says, He tests our faith for its genuineness, and if it is real,
then at that point we learn to trust Jesus with more of our lives.
This is how faith grows and matures. To
conclude verse 7 Peter says that if our faith is real, then this will
result in praise, glory and honour to
God when Jesus is revealed. Jesus
will be revealed once again when He returns to earth.
This is yet another mention of the future return of Jesus. In
verse 8 Peter acknowledges the fact that his readers “do not see”
Jesus at the present time. That
is they don’t see Him with their physical eyes. Yet even though they
don’t see Him, they love Him, and believe in Him.
We should know that when Peter, or any other New Testament writer
uses the word “believe”, they are not talking about merely assenting
to the fact of Jesus’ existence. Believing
as defined in New Testament terms is giving oneself to Jesus in a trusting
relationship. Peter
also says that even though these Christians don’t see Jesus in person as
yet, they are filled with “inexpressible joy”.
Even though these people are going through major trials, and even
though they can’t see Jesus, they still believe, they still love Jesus,
and they are filled with joy. They
may not be bubbly and happy, but deep inside them there is a joy that
comes from knowing Jesus. This joy is inexpressible, meaning that words,
and maybe not even outward expression of any kind can properly convey this
joy. So real joy is not
necessarily noticed by the casual observer.
The
word "inexpressible" is interesting to me.
So many times I've heard pastors encourage people to get happy in a
Sunday morning meeting. "Put
a smile on your face", they'd say.
Or, "express the joy that is within you."
Well, here Peter says that this joy, this deep joy cannot be
expressed. Verse
9 gives the reason why these people have this joy.
It is because they are “receiving the goal of their faith, the
salvation of their souls”. As
I noted earlier. There are 3
aspects to salvation; you were saved, you are being saved, and you will be
saved. Peter is now speaking
about the second aspect of salvation here. These people are in the process
of being saved, and they have great joy because of it.
I wonder how many Christians today have great joy because they are
in the process of being saved. The
point to be made about being saved is that it is not always an easy
process. That's why we may not talk much about it.
We'd rather think in terms of having gotten saved and finally will
be saved at the end of this age.
What
are we saved from? The number
one thing that we are saved from is the wrath of God.
Then besides that we are saved from many things.
We are saved from the result of our sin, which includes hell.
We are saved from the bad effects of a fallen world.
The list can go on. But
we need to realize that the number one thing that we are saved from is God
Himself. Peter
speaks in long sentences or at least Silas writes in long sentences.
The next sentence is quite long.
He speaks of the Old Testament prophets.
He says that these holy men spoke of this grace that would come to
his readers. He says that
these men “searched intently to find out the time and circumstances
which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when they predicted the
suffering of Christ” (ch. 1:11) The
Old Testament prophets prophesied about the Christ that would come and
that He would suffer. Jewish
people had a hard time understanding the concept of a suffering Messiah,
but Peter says that it was all foretold ahead of time.
The
prophets spoke of the sufferings of Christ but Peter also adds another
phrase. They also spoke of the
“glories that would follow”. These
glories are God’s redeemed people in Heaven at the end of this age, once
the plan of salvation is fully accomplished. (“after the suffering of
his soul … my righteous servant will justify many” – Isa. 53:11)
So here Peter, along with the prophets of old, show both the
suffering Jesus and the ruling Jesus.
In
verse 12 Peter also understood that these prophets realized that they
weren’t really speaking to themselves, or their generation, but their
words were really directed to the people of the first century to whom the
gospel was being preached to. Now
the prophets themselves did not know it was these first century people
their words were directed to, but they did know it was for a future
generation. Peter
adds that those who have preached this gospel have done so “by the Holy
Spirit who has come from Heaven”. The
same Holy Spirit that motivated the prophets of the Old Testament to
prophesy also inspired the New Testament apostles to preach the good news.
Peter
concludes this section by saying that “even angels long to look into
these things”. This gives the picture that even angels in Heaven desire
to search out the things pertaining to
the gospel, yet the fact of the matter is that salvation is for
mankind.
That
being said, throughout the Bible you see angels helping God with things on
earth. You might remember the
outcry that God heard because of the sin of Peter
begins this section with the word “therefore”, and as it has often
been said, “when you see the word ‘therefore’, see why its there
for”. So in the context of
what Peter is about to say as a result of what he just said.
He just spoke about our great salvation we have that was prophesied
about centuries earlier. So
because of the prophecies that have now come true in the time of the
reader, Peter encourages them
to have “their minds prepared for action”.
I suppose he could have used the word heart, but he doesn’t.
He uses the word “mind”.
Our minds are very important
as Christians, despite the notion of some today that our minds are
secondary. Getting ready for
actions needs preparation of the mind.
I think many of us Christians don’t think in terms of
“action”. We think in
terms of “being”, as in being a Christian, not doing the things of a
Christian. Being is passive. Doing
is active. The New Testament
is all about doing, not just about being.
Peter
also says, to be “self-controlled”.
Charismatic Christians often speak of being “spirit
controlled”, that is allowing the Holy Spirit to be in charge of your
life. There is nothing wrong
with this. But there is also
nothing wrong with being self-controlled.
Being self-controlled means to get your life under control.
You do it, not the Lord or anyone else. Don’t let other things,
or circumstances be in charge of your life. We have the ability to look at
our lives and take charge of it in the proper fashion, and this is what
Peter is telling his readers. The
next piece of advise is once again futuristic.
As I have said before, the Bible is full of future references and
those who ignore these references are choosing to ignore large parts of
Scripture. Peter says “to
set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus is
revealed”. Peter speaks of
the return of Christ when he uses the words “being revealed”. He used
these words earlier. He is
telling his readers to set their hope on this future event.
If we are to set our hope on the return of Jesus, when
more grace will be given, this surely suggests that we are to think
about the future and the return of Jesus. In
verse 14 Peter tells his readers, and us, not to give into the evil
desires we had when we were in ignorance.
Before we gave our lives to Jesus we were indeed ignorant of the
things of God. We gave into
sinful desire. We now should
not give into these desires, whatever they may be.
Once again, Peter says, “you don’t give into these desires”.
As Christians we can’t say that this is the job of the Holy
Spirit. It is our job to turn
from evil desires with the help of the Holy Spirit. Peter
uses the word “conform” when speaking of these evil desires.
“Conform” suggests a life style.
At times we may give into evil desires, but Peter says don’t
conform to them, don’t pattern your life after them.
Don’t make a lifestyle out of them. In
verse 15 Peter simply says, “just as He who has called you is holy, so
be holy in all you do”. Notice
that Peter says “be holy in all you do”, not simply “be holy”.
We are holy, as Paul would say, because of the blood of Jesus.
God sees us as holy, even though we are far from holy.
Peter puts the emphases on holiness in things we do, not who we
are. In reality we can never
be holy, at least until Jesus returns for us. God only views us as holy.
But we can be holy in deeds, or things we do.
Things we do and who we are 2 very different concepts. Why
does Peter tell us to be holy in the things we do? He says, “because it
is written in the Old Testament to be holy because I am holy”. (Lev.
11:44 - 45) Once again, we
need to understand the good news, and that is that God views us as holy,
even though we are far from holy. So
in this sense of the word, we are fulfilling Scripture by having this
understanding. Yet beyond
this, we need to do holy things, as much as lies within us.
We
see a number of things in verse 17. We
note that God will judge us according to what we do and He will do it
impartially. It is my thinking
that the first matter of judgment on God’s part is what we have done
with Jesus. It is our trust in
Him that will get us into
Heaven. Our entrance into
Heaven is not based on what we do. Yet
beyond that, we will be rewarded once in Heaven and this reward is based
on things we do. As Paul says,
some of the things we do will be burned up with fire because they were
done with false motives. (1 Cor. 3:10-16) Yet things done with proper
motives will give us a reward. This
is what I believe Peter is speaking about here. Peter
then goes on to say to “live your lives as strangers in reverent
fear”. Peter viewed himself
as a stranger in this world. He
was a stranger because his whole way of living was so different than the
rest of the world’s that he felt out of place.
Christians are to be strangers in this world, but we are often not.
Peter
also says to live “out of reverent fear”.
There should be a sense
of fear when it comes to God. In
one sense we are so thankful to Him, yet in another sense we are afraid of
Him. This idea of being afraid
of God should motivate us in doing good. Most of us really don’t live in
reverent fear of God. We take
Him for granted, and don’t really worry about what He might think and
feel concerning the things we do. I
don't think that Peter is thinking of just reverence here when he uses the
term "reverent fear". I
think he is thinking of real fear, that is, being afraid.
This is the dichotomy of
our faith. WE ARE AFRAID OF
God, yet as we run from Him out of fear, we return to Him our of love. In
verse 18 Peter mentions once again the uncertainty of silver and gold, or
money. Peter obviously did not
have a lot of money, and figures that it only runs out after a while
anyway. The reference to money
though is not the focus of the sentence.
He tells his readers that our redemption was not paid for with gold
and silver that perishes. It
was in fact purchased with the very blood of Jesus, God’s Son.
The
word “redemption” has a
Biblical meaning. In secular
life one redeems a coupon at a store.
It is the equivalent of money at a particular store.
Yet in Biblical terms redemption is the process by which Jesus paid
for the penalty of our sin. Simply
put, Jesus paid the necessary price to release us from the punishment due
us because of our sin. The
price that He paid was His life. One
point to be made here is that he did not pay this price to the devil as
often is thought. He paid the
price to God His Father. The devil has no part nor parcel in the
redemption process. Peter
says that Jesus “was a lamb without defect”.
This is in reference to the Old Testament sacrifices.
Throughout Old Testament history all of Peter
also says in this verse that “we were redeemed from our empty way of
life handed down to us from our fathers”.
Two points are made here. One
is that Peter, like Paul, views life as being pretty empty without Jesus.
Peter uses the word empty. I
and others would use the word depraved.
As Paul clearly sets forth in Romans 1 and 2, our lives are all
depraved, all empty, and all full of sin, falling way short of God’s
glory. The
second point is that this
empty life has been handed down from our fathers.
This empty life is genetic. We
are born in this emptiness. We
don’t become empty after our first sin.
We are simply born this way. This
might have some significance for Jews.
They placed much stock in their fathers.
The God they served was the God of their fathers.
The traditions they kept were the traditions of their fathers, and
now Peter is saying that their fathers have handed down an empty way of
life for them. In
verse 20 Peter says that Jesus was “chosen before the creation of the
world”. God in all his
foreknowledge and wisdom knew that He would have to provide some means of
salvation to His creation, and that salvation would be through
Jesus, His Son. This tells us
something. It tells us that
even as God was creating the earth and all therein, He knew what would
soon happen. He knew that man
would not obey Him. Adam and
Eve's fall from grace was no surprise for God.
It might have actually been in His plan. Even
though God’s plan of salvation was thought of well before creation, it
was instituted as Peter says, “in these last days”.
Here we see one of two
meanings of this term “last days” that is found in the New Testament.
Peter understood the last days to have begun at the birth of Jesus,
when as he puts it, “He was revealed”, meaning at birth.
The other use of this term applies to the time that is right at the
end of this age, right before the time when Jesus returns, or as Peter
puts it, is “revealed” again. Peter
likes the word “revealed”. In
verse 21 Peter says that it is “through Him (Jesus) that you believe in
God”. This is especially
important in our day when everyone believes in God and also believes that
there are different paths leading to God.
This is not the thinking of the Bible.
Peter specifically says that we believe in God through Jesus.
God is the Father of Jesus, and it is this God that Christians
believe in, give their lives to, and worship. Peter
goes on to say that God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him”.
What does it mean when Peter says that Jesus was glorified?
I believe the answer can be found in a careful reading of John 17.
This chapter is a prayer that Jesus prayed to His Father. It is the
longest recorded prayer we have from Jesus’ lips.
In it He asks to be glorified with the glory He had with His Father
before the world began. What
Jesus was asking for here was to be re-united with His Father in the
oneness that they had before the incarnation, before He came to earth, and
before the world was made. We
thus ask, when did Jesus get glorified?
Jesus was re-united with God the Father at His ascension.
Thus we see the resurrection and the ascension
spoken of by Peter. One
side note here. It is my
thinking that Jesus was not re-united in the exact same way that He was
before He came to earth. I
believe that God the Father and Jesus the Son were completely one in
essence, in nature, in being, however you might want to describe their
being. But when Jesus went
back to Heaven He appears in Scripture as being distinct and separate from
His Father. To me this shows
the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. His
eternal being, who He is has been eternally altered to bring salvation to
us. Peter
ends this paragraph by saying that our faith, or trust in God is based on
this very thing, that is the resurrection and the ascension In
verse 22 Peter says, “now that you have purified yourself by obeying the
truth…” Just what does he
mean in light of the fact that salvation by faith in God’s grace and not
by any works of purification that we can do?
The context of this verse is “believing” in Jesus, as seen in
the last verse. So what I
believe Peter is saying is that these people have purified themselves by
putting their trust in Jesus, and not in anything else.
When he adds the words “by obeying the truth”, the truth that
he is speaking of is the truth of salvation through Jesus.
It is not obeying any rules, any laws, and especially not the Law
of Moses. So
with this in mind Peter says that these people have love for their
Christian brothers. Peter must
believe that if one has genuine faith in Jesus, a “sincere love” for
the brothers should be evident. Yet
even though they have this love Peter encourages them to love the brothers
even more. Why
should we have love for our brothers?
Verse 23 says, “because you have been born again”.
We have been born into a new kingdom, a new dimension of life,
where Jesus lives. Jesus has
great love for his brothers, so we should as well.
A matter of fact Peter goes on to say that our new life is based on
an “imperishable seed”. The
context of the word “seed” here applies to birth.
The seed of a woman that gives birth to a baby comes from a man.
The seed that gives us new birth comes from Jesus, and He is not
perishable. He lives for ever
and so will we. It is our
connection with this “imperishable seed” that gives us the ability to
love our brothers as we should. Peter
calls Jesus the “enduring word of God”, as does John in John 1:1.
The Word that spoke things into existence at creation is Jesus
Himself. Then as John puts it,
“the Word became flesh and lived among us”. (John 1:14)
At this point who Jesus was changed forever.
It is my thinking that when Jesus returned back to Heaven, He did
not return as the Word, but with a resurrected body, like we will have.
This is why I say that Jesus altered His existence for all of
eternity, just for us. Peter
backs up what he is saying by
quoting Isa. 40:6 – 8. He
uses these verses as a comparison between man and Jesus.
He has just said that Jesus was imperishable, and now he tells us
that man is like the grass of the field with its flower.
The grass withers and dies, and the flower falls off.
Man is perishable. The Word of God stands forever Peter says. Peter
then says, “this is the Word that was preached to you”.
Who preached this Word? We
know that Paul was in these parts preaching the Word, but this word could
have also been preached by Peter Himself.
It is most probably that Peter spent time in the areas in which he
is addressing this letter. Because
of this truth Peter has once again proclaimed to them, the truth of
God’s eternal Word versus man’s mortality, Peter gives some specific
commands. He says, “rid
yourself of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of
every kind”. (ch. 2:1)
If these Christians had to be warned of such things, then it is
quite clear that they were being tempted to do these things, in not in
fact doing them already. It
does not matter what generation of Christians you find yourself associated
with, the tendency to fall back into sin is always present.
So Peter is reminding his readers about this. Instead
of involving yourself with such sin Peter tells his readers to “crave
pure spiritual milk”. What
is spiritual milk? It is
pretty well accepted that when the New Testament writers
speak of spiritual milk, they are speaking of the Word of God”.
In Peter’s case that would be the Old Testament, and even parts
of our New Testament that he would have access to. Peter
uses the adjectives, “spiritual and pure” when speaking of the Word of
God. God’s Word is both
spiritual and pure. Yet some
adulterize the Word which makes it less pure.
We need the pure Word. In
verse 3 Peter says that it is through this milk “that you grow up in
this salvation”. This
tells me that a person can be saved, can have salvation, but not grow up
in the salvation they have. Growing
up means to become mature, which indicates living right with all
understanding and wisdom. So
for many Christians today who have not put much emphases on the Bible, it
is impossible for them to grow up into being mature Christians – and we
wonder why we don’t see more of the power of the Spirit. Peter
ends this section by saying, “now that you have tasted that the Lord is
good”. To me the word
“tasted” here suggests the beginning of things.
You first taste new food to see if you like it.
Once you like it, you do more than taste it.
You eat it. Peter says
that these people have tasted the Lord, that is in a spiritual sense, and
He is very good. Now that the
taste test is over, delve into the things of the Lord and start to grow
from the “sincere mile of the word”. (KJV)
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