Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
Show proper respect to everyone…
As we turn to verse 17 in our letter from Peter, he begins with a deep well. On the surface, his words seem simple enough. As we gaze into them, we discover that we cannot see the bottom.
“Everyone” is a lot of people! Does he really mean every person?
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:17 (a) — Respect”
Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.
If I put on my “ignorant” and “foolish people” glasses1, it is easy to see this verse as a contradiction. After all, Peter says, “Live as free people…” and then in the same sentence he says, “live as God’s slaves.” Which is it, Peter? Free or slave?
How are we to understand this apparent dichotomy?
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:16 — Ultimate Freedom”
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
There are some words in the ancient texts that give translators trouble. If you look in the NIV it might say something different than the King James Version. Sometimes out of thirty or more English translations you might find as many as ten different English equivalents. “Ignorance” is not one of those troublesome words.
Except for one or two exceptions, every English translation uses the word “ignorant” to express the Greek, “agnōsia.” In English, the word “ignorant” is often confused with “stupid.” These are two very different words. The word “ignorant” means a lack of knowledge. The cure to ignorance is knowledge.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:15 — Doing Good”
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
We have spent two days talking about the first seven words of verse 13. In “The Meaning of Submit” and “For His Sake” we looked at what it means to submit, or “put under,” and why this is important to Christians. Now we look at the rest of this verse and the next.
We live in a time where everything is seemingly being turned upside down. The year of this writing is 2020. If you are reading this at some future date, you will know how 2020 turned out. For the rest of us, reading this in the middle of this unusual year, we are still wondering what will happen.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:13-14 — Human Authority”
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake…
Peter is asking us to do something none of us want to do. Now he tells us why we should want to: Because of Jesus.
How does that work?
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:13 (b) — For His Sake”
Submit…
The word “triggered” has taken on new meaning in the English lexicon. It has always been around, of course, and used in the practical sense of activating something with a trigger. During the war, if a booby trap was set off you would say it had been “triggered.” These days the word is often used to describe a strong adverse emotional reaction to something. For example, “The student in the front row was triggered when the instructor mentioned that they had voted for the president.”
Words that set off an emotional reaction are “trigger words.” One of the oldest trigger words in the English language is the word, “submit.”
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:13 (a) — The Meaning of Submit”
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.
This is another challenging text. Peter is starting a section of his letter that describes how to live among unbelievers. As I think about what he is teaching us, it feels like we are sitting in on a master’s class for Christian living.
In today’s passage, we are talking about neighbors or coworkers who accuse us of doing wrong. (Peter assumes we are innocent!) Has this ever happened to you? It has for me. It can be a terrifying experience. In an instant, everything you thought was solid ground can be swept away.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:12 — Smeared”
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.
I once attended a church whose pastor was a master storyteller. I have never in my life had the pleasure of being entertained by someone so gifted in making a story come to life. Often, the story illustrated a Bible passage. One Sunday, he told a story about the parable of the wedding banquet from Matthew 22: 1-14.
The story was told in his unusual, vivid style. I remember it to this day. The mental images he conjured in my mind are indelible. Sadly, his telling of the story seemed to muddle the point of the Biblical account.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:10 — Party Clothes”
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
One of the most amazing aspects of Christianity are the Christians themselves. We are not born of an ancient lineage as are the Jews. We do not have tribal connections or a common heritage. We do not even have a common language. Yet God has made us into one family. More than that, we have become a royal priesthood and a holy nation.
Wherever you find God’s people they declare God’s praises. They are different. You can tell. They no longer walk in darkness. Instead, they walk in the light.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:9 — Family”
…and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
What does it mean for a Christian to “obey” the message? The message is the offer of salvation through belief in Jesus Christ. But what does it mean to obey?
Each of us comes to the Lord from a different place. By that, I mean that you and I are very different. We have grown up in different ways, and have different opinions and experiences. Even in my own family my three brothers all experienced growing up from a different point of view.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:8 — Obedience”