Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
Summary: There are two ways to try and live for God. One works and the other doesn’t. The one that works is to fill our lives with Jesus, who points us to God.
Continue reading “1 Peter 4: 2 — More Jesus”
… because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.
Summary: Peter tells us that it is possible to be ”done with sin.” The price is to stay focused on Christ and adopt Christ’s attitude toward suffering. Today we explore what this means.
Continue reading “1 Peter 4:1 (b) — Done with Sin”
… keeping a clear conscience …
Summary: Our conscience is like the red light on a car’s dashboard. It tells us something is wrong. It says, “Pay attention!” If we ignore the warning, we might survive, but our conscience suffers. Each little stain of being ignored clouds our conscience and leaves a mark that haunts us until we die.
Continue reading “1 Peter 3:16 (a) — Saying “No””
… and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life …
Peter has packed a lot of instruction into this one passage we have been studying. He began by telling husbands to be considerate of their wives. Then he adds, “treat them with respect.” Before we, his readers, can even begin to form the question, “Why?” in our minds, Peter offers the answer. Because your wife is your partner, and because she is physically weaker, you must take extra care to show that you respect her. Oh yes, Peter adds, there is one other reason. Because she is an heir with you of the gift of life.
Continue reading “1 Peter 3:7 (d) — The Gift”
Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands …
One of the things that is difficult to get our heads around in this life is that we are not alone. There is a saying that goes, “What you see is what you get,” but that is not true for the world we live in. There is so much more to life than what we can see.
In our recent post, “The Back Side of the Page,” we took a look at what is behind the facade of what we call reality. Behind the stage props we call “life,” there is a larger and more real existence. It is where we find God, the angels, Satan, and his demons. It is also where we find our spiritual existence. What is hard to see are the connections between the physical and the spiritual, but they are very real.
Continue reading “1 Peter 3:1 — The Same Old Deception”
…offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
This may be one of the most important verses in the Bible. Oh, I know…it looks benign. You can read it and think, “Nice verse…” and go on with your reading. But when I look at this verse I see all the threads in the Bible coming together into one place.
I can guess what you are thinking. You are probably thinking, “Okay, Jeff. Go ahead. Show me how this ties together all the threads in the Bible. But remember, this is ThreeMinuteBible.com, not TwentyYearBible.com, okay?” Okay. Fair enough. Since we are constrained on time, I will use large brush strokes again and see if I can paint a picture of what I see.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:5 (c) — At the Foot of the Cross”
… rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—
There are several ways of looking at Jesus. Each one highlights a different aspect of who and what he is. I don’t claim to understand them all myself. However, as I have matured in my faith, I find that my understanding of who Jesus is has changed.
Yesterday, we explored the meaning of Peter’s reference to Jesus when he calls him a “living Stone.” (See “Cornerstone”) We learned from the comments yesterday that Jesus is also referred to as the “Capstone.” (See Zechariah 4: 7 – Thank you, Rich!) Ron gave us a collection of verses pointing to God’s nature as Alpha and Omega. He is both the beginning and the end of all things.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:4 (b) — Door to Door”
Even angels long to look into these things.
Every once in awhile a verse seems to jump out of the Bible at me. This is one of those verses.
Peter is telling us about salvation. Broadly speaking “salvation” in this case refers to several things. It begins with God’s plan for redeeming His creation. Remember the story in Genesis where God says, “… you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die”? (Genesis 2: 16-17)
Interestingly, the current version of the NIV is in the minority here. Thirty-eight of fifty-two translations available at Biblegateway.com use some version of “day,” as in “… in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (ESV) As I understand the text, when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3, God’s word holds true. They “die” from God’s point of view.
Continue reading “1 Peter 1:12 (b) — Beyond Measure”
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
It was night. We presume it was dark. The year was somewhere around 33 or 34 AD. What passed for streetlights were torches or fire-pots, and now and then stray lamp light escaping from a window.
A man of advancing age wearing the robes of a professional educator makes his way down one alley after another. Finally, he reaches his goal, a door of rough wood in a seedy part of town. He knocks and after it opens exchanges a few words. He enters. His name is Nicodemus. The person he has come to see is a man named Jesus.
Continue reading “1 Peter 1: 3-4 (a) — Born Again”
… and sprinkled with his blood…
Let’s continue with our deep dive into Peter’s opening words. We’ve talked about who and what Peter is and then moved into his description of the people he is writing to. Looking at the key concepts he has included it reads almost like a creed. We who believe are chosen by God, exiled from the world, known intimately by our Father, sanctified and continuing in sanctification to be obedient to Jesus Christ. And then we come to being sprinkled with his blood.
The thought of writing about this is daunting for me. I don’t even like the sight of blood. Yet being “sprinkled in blood” is an important part of Jewish history. It is one of the key prophetic pointers in the Old Testament that foretell the work of the Messiah.
Continue reading “1 Peter 1:2 (d) — Sprinkled”