For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
Summary: Peter gives us a short list of things pagans do. He does not rub our noses in it, but simply says we have done enough in the past. Now is the time to live for God.
Have you ever noticed that the list of sins is never-ending? Look at the list that Peter offers us in today’s passage. The items he offers are major offenses. It is easy to imagine your average churchgoer as someone who avoids most of the items on this list most of the time. But does that mean that their consciences are clear?
Satan and his minions are very good at rubbing our noses in the little things. The list is endless. Did you forget to do something you should have? Satan will point it out. Did you eat too much or have a bit too much to drink? Satan will mark it on the calendar and never let you forget. Satan likes it when our eyes are on our faults. If we are focused on what we are doing wrong, we are not focused on what Jesus wants.
Peter is careful not to fall into this trap. He doesn’t say that we need to examine our lives and dredge up every wrong thing we have ever done. Instead, he gently says that we have done enough of what non-believers “choose to do.” It is time to be done with sin. Time to move on. Time to love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves.
In yesterday’s passage, Peter points us to doing the will of God. He is not accusing or blaming. Instead, he leads us to serve God. I love the compassion I hear in Peter’s “voice.” Peter is a man who failed Jesus miserably. Now he writes to teach us about serving God. What an amazing transformation!
Whatever sins you have committed in the past, you have spent enough time doing that. Now it is time to pay attention to God. Now is the time to love God. Now is the time to serve Him.
Application: Once again Peter’s words bring us back to our deepest need: Loving God.
Food for Thought: Who are pagans serving when pagans do what pagans choose to do?
Something I really needed to hear this morning – Satan likes it when our eyes our focused on our faults. If we focus on what we are doing wrong, we can’t focus on what Jesus wants. Over the years, I have become amazingly great at focusing on my faults. It’s only in the last three or four years that I’ve learned to change the record in my head and focus my identity on Jesus. Every once in a while, Satan slips in and tries to change the record back to one of familiarity, but I’m quick to discard it.
Even as a believer, I fell at times to being a pagan because I thought I had to reach perfection in order for Jesus to love and accept me. (Spoiler alert! That’s a lie that Satan wants you to believe.) I was choosing to serve the lies of society – what magazines tell us we need to look like. What commercials tell us we need to have in order to be happy, etc. Pagans serve empty idols with standards that will never be met. As a result, they fall short (just as we do as Christians) but there is a difference – the price has been paid for us. We don’t have to achieve perfection and the target remains the same – acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, rose from the grave, and He lives. With the empty idols of our society that pagans chose to serve, there will always be something newer, bigger, and better (at least to them). As a result, the price will never be paid for the empty idols they are serving. (Exodus 20:3, You shall have no other gods before me.)
Well said, Darla.
Who are pagans serving when pagans do what pagans choose to do?
Pagans are anyone choosing to serve this world system, this worlds standards for success, failure, right, wrong, and definition of righteous living. Meeting or exceeding these standards, brings praises from human beings who establish and support them.
These transgressions of Divine law are introduced by the god of this world, Satan, in direct opposition to Jesus Christ and are condemned by God.
Christians should run from the.
Matthew 6:24, James 4:4, 1 John 3:8, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 6:12.
Thank you, Ron!
Excellent verses!! I added a link if anyone wants to check them out.
I would say themselves, but it is clearly Satan they are serving,..
I like how Darla put it,..pagans serve empty idols with standards that will never be met,..empty idols,..imagine and we serve an abundant and full God,..I am sure the list can go on from here with the God we serve,..full of life, love, hope, comfort and forgiveness,.. our God is certainly not empty,..
Thank you, John!
I agree. I would say themselves, too. But it is clear that the deeper answers points to our adversary, Satan.