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1 Peter Book 60/66 TJL compilation

1 Peter 01

1 Peter 02

1 Peter 03

1 Peter 04

1 Peter 05

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Book Introduction - 1 PeterWriter: The Apostle Peter (1Pe_1:1).

Date: Probably A.D. 60. That "Babylon" refers to the former city on the Euphrates, or to Rome, cannot be inferred from 1Pe_5:13. The text is obscure.

Theme: While Peter undoubtedly has scattered Jewish believers in mind, his Epistles comprehend Gentile believers also (1Pe_2:10).

1 Peter, written from a church on Gentile ground (1Pe_5:13), presents all the foundational truths of the Christian faith, with special emphasis on the atonement.

The distinctive note of First Peter is preparation for victory over suffering.

The last-name word occurs about fifteen times, and is the key-word to the Epistle.

The Epistle is in three parts: 1. Christian suffering and conduct in the light of full salvation (1 Peter 1:1 - 2:8)

2. The believer's life in view of his sevenfold position, and of the vicarious suffering of Christ (1 Peter 2:9 - 4:19).

3. Christian service in the light of the coming of the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:1-14).

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PETERThe Fellowship of Christ’s Suffering and Glory

SALUTATION, 1Pe_1:1-2

I. THE CONFLICT OF HOPE AND SUFFERING, 1Pe_1:1-12

1. The Living Hope Born of Christ’s Resurrection, 1Pe_1:3-52. Trials and Sufferings, 1Pe_1:6-73. The Triumph of Hope, 1Pe_1:8-12

II. A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD AND A HOLY NATION, 1Pe_1:13-25; 1Pe_2:1-10

1. The Call to Holiness, 1Pe_1:13-172. Christ’s Work of Redemption, 1Pe_1:18-213. The Believer’s Regeneration, 1Pe_1:22-25; 1Pe_2:1-34. The Stone Rejected by the Builders, 1Pe_2:4-85. The People of God, 1Pe_2:9-10

III. CHRIST’S UNPARALLELED EXAMPLE, I Peter 2:11-4:19

1. The Obligations of the Christian Life, 1Pe_2:11-202. The Example of Christ, 1Pe_2:21-25

(His sinlessness)3. The Obligations of the Christian Life, 1Pe_3:1-17

(Mutual Forbearance of Wives and Husbands, Brotherly Love, Pity, Courtesy, Overcoming Evil with Good)

4. The Example of Christ, 1Pe_3:18-22(His suffering for sin)

5. The Obligations of the Christian Life, 1Pe_4:1-19(Living to God, Watching, Praying, Hospitality, Suffering as a Christian)

IV. THE DIRECTION OF THE CHURCH, 1Pe_5:1-9

1. Duties of Elders, 1Pe_5:1-42. Duties of Young Men, 1Pe_5:5-9

CONCLUSION, 1Pe_5:10-14

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The Catholic Or General EpistlesFirst Peter belongs to that group of New Testament letters which are known as the General Church (or the catholic) Epistles.

These letters were addressed to the broader Church at large, in contradistinction to the Pauline letters which were addressed to individual churches.

The General Epistles have a wider range than the letters of Paul; at the same time, they all have a definite community in mind.

James is addressed to a definite, though widely scattered, community. It is written to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad (Jas 1:1).

Second and Third John are addressed to definite communities;

Although First John has no specific address, it is clearly written with the needs and perils of a particular community in mind.

First Peter is written to the strangers scattered abroad through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1Pet 1:1).

These letters called Catholic or General were accepted as Scripture by the whole Church in contradistinction to that large number of letters which enjoyed a local and temporary authority but never universally ranked as Scripture.

At the time when these letters were being written there was an outbreak of letter-writing in the Church.

We still possess many of the letters which were then written--the letter of Clement of Rome to Corinth, the letter of Barnabas, the letters of Ignatius and the letters of Polycarp.

All were regarded as very precious in the Churches to which they were written but were never regarded as having authority throughout the Church;

The Catholic or General Epistles gradually won a place in Scripture and were accepted by the whole Church.

The Lovely LetterOf all the General Epistles, First Peter is the best known and loved, and the most read.

It is written out of the love of a pastor's heart to help people who were going through it and on whom worse things were still to come.

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It contains steady encouragement to endurance in conduct and innocence in character."

First Peter is one of the most moving pieces of persecution literature.

It is one of the easiest letters in the New Testament to read.

The Author and Date of the letterThis is that First Peter was written from Rome by Peter himself, about the year A.D. 67, in the days immediately following the first persecution of the Christians by Nero, to the Christians in those parts of Asia Minor named in the address.

The Second ComingWhen we go to the letter we find that expectation of the second coming of Christ is in the very forefront of its thought.

Christians are being kept for the salvation which is to be revealed at the last time (1Pet 1:5).

Those who keep the faith will be saved from the coming judgment (1Pet 1:7).

Christians are to hope for the grace which will come at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1Pet 1:13).

The day of visitation is expected (1Pet 2:12).

The end of all things is at hand (1Pet 4:7).

Those who suffer with Christ will also rejoice with Christ when his glory is revealed (1Pet 4:13).

Judgment is to begin at the house of God (1Pet 4:17).

The writer himself is sure that he will be a sharer in the glory to come (1Pet 5:1).

When the Chief Shepherd shall appear the faithful Christian will receive a crown of glory (1Pet 5:4).

From beginning to end of the letter the second coming is in the forefront of the writer's mind.

It is his hope what he believes about the future that causes him to act as he does. and as he exhorts others to act, today

It is the motive

for steadfastness in the faith,

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for the loyal living of the Christian life and for gallant endurance amidst the sufferings which have come

and will come upon them.

It would be untrue to say that the second coming ever dropped out of Christian belief/

Simplicity Of OrganizationFirst Peter comes from a time when the organization of the Church is very simple.

There is no mention of deacons;

nor of the episkopos (<G1985>), the bishop, who begins to emerge in the Pastoral Epistles and becomes prominent in Ignatius' letters in the first half of the second century.

The only Church officials mentioned are the elders.

"I exhort the elders among you as a fellow-elder" (1Pet 5:1). It is reasonable to suppose that First Peter comes from an early date.

The Theology Of The Early ChurchThe theology of First Peter is the theology of the very early church.

The theological ideas of First Peter are exactly the same as those we meet in the recorded sermons of Peter in the early chapters of Acts.

This is evidence of a distinction between the Christian Jews and Christian gentiles and their varied backgrounds.

The preaching of the early church was based on five main ideas.

The summary of these basic ideas has been given the name Kerugma (<G2782>), which means the announcement or the proclamation of a herald.

They form the framework of all the sermons of the early church, as recorded in Acts; and they are a foundation of the thought of all the New Testament writers.

These are the fundamental ideas which the Church in its first days heralded forth. The basic ideas of the sermons of the early church and the theology of First Peter are precisely the same.

(i) The age of fulfillment has dawned; the Messianic age has begun.

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This is God's last word.

A new order is being inaugurated and the elect are summoned to join the new community.

Ac 2:14-16; Ac 3:12-26; Ac 4:8-12; Ac 10:34-43; 1Pet 1:3; 1Pet 1:10-12; 1Pet 4:7.

(ii) This new age has come through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

All these events are in direct fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament and the result of the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

Ac 2:20-31; Ac 3:13-14; Ac 10:43; 1Pet 1:20-21. (iii) By virtue of the resurrection Jesus has been exalted to the right hand

of God and is the Messianic head of the new Israel.

Ac 2:22-26; Ac 3:13; Ac 4:11; Ac 5:30-31; Ac 10:39-42; 1Pet 1:21; 1Pet 2:7; 1Pet 2:24; 1Pet 3:22.

(iv) These Messianic events will shortly reach their consummation in the return of Christ in glory and the judgment of the living and the dead.

Ac 3:19-23; Ac 10:42; 1Pet 1:5, 7, 13; 1Pet 4:5, 13; 1Pet 17-18; 1Pet 5:1, 4.

(v) These facts are made the grounds for an appeal for repentance, and the offer of forgiveness and of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life.

Ac 2:38-39; Ac 3:19; Ac 5:31; Ac 10:43; 1Pet 1:13-25; 1Pet 2:1-3; 1Pet 4:1-5.

These declarations are the five main planks in the edifice of early Christian preaching, as recorded for us in the sermons of Peter in the early chapters of Acts.

They are also the dominant ideas in First Peter.

Quotations From The FathersThe first person to quote First Peter by name is Irenaeus, who lived from A.D. 130 until well into the next century.

He twice quotes 1Pet 1:8: "Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy."

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And he once quotes 1Pet 2:16, with its command not to use liberty as a cloak for maliciousness.

Even before this the fathers of the Church are quoting Peter without mentioning his name.

Clement of Rome, writing about A.D. 95, speaks of "the precious blood of Christ," an unusual phrase which may well come from Peter's statement that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (1Pet 1:19).

Polycarp, who was martyred in A.D. 155, continuously quotes Peter without using his name.

Wherefore, girding up your loins, serve God in fear ... believing on him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave him glory (Polycarp, To the Philippians 2: 1).

Therefore, gird up your minds...through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory (1Pet 1:13, 21).

Christ Jesus who bare our sins in his own body on the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth (Polycarp 8: 1).

He committed no sin; no guile was found on his life... He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (1Pet 2:22, 24).

Having your conversation blameless among the Gentiles (Polycarp 10: 2).

Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles (1Pet 2:12). There can be no doubt that Polycarp is quoting Peter, although he does not name him. It takes some time for a book to acquire such an authority and familiarity that it can be quoted almost unconsciously, its language woven into the language of the Church.

Eusebius, the great fourth century scholar and historian of the Church, classes First Peter among the books universally accepted in the early church as part of scripture" (Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History 3.25.2).

Once again we see that First Peter must be a very early book.

The Excellence Of The Greek

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It seems impossible that it should be the work of a Galilaean fisherman would or even could use the excellent Greek as is contained in Peter;s letters.

New Testament scholars all praise the Greek of this letter.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine Peter using the Greek language like that.

The letter itself supplies the solution to this problem.

In the concluding short section Peter himself says,

"By Silvanus...I have written briefly" (1Pet 5:12). By Silvanus - dia (<G1223>) Silouanou (<G4610>) -- is an unusual phrase.

The Greek means that Silvanus was Peter's agent in the writing of the letter; it means that he was more than merely Peter's stenographer he was his linguist.

Silvanus, in all probability he is the same person as the Silvanus of Paul's letters and the Silas of Acts,

Silas being a shortened and more familiar form of Silvanus.

When we examine these passages, we find that Silas or Silvanus was no ordinary person but a leading figure in the life and counsels of the early church.

He was a prophet (Ac 15:32);

He was one of the "chief among the brethren" at the council of Jerusalem and one of the two chosen to deliver the decisions of the council to the Church at Antioch (Ac 15:22, 27).

He was Paul's chosen companion in the second missionary journey, and was with Paul both in Philippi and in Corinth (Ac 15:37-40; Ac 16:19, 25, 29; Ac 18:5; 2Cor 1:19).

He was associated with Paul in the initial greetings of 1 and 2 Thessalonians (1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1).

He was a Roman citizen (Ac 16:37).

Silvanus was a notable man in the early church; not so much the assistant as the colleague of Paul; and, since he was a Roman citizen, there is at least a possibility that he was a man who had an education and culture such as Peter could never have enjoyed being a Jewish fisherman.

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In a missionary situation, when a missionary can speak a language well enough but cannot write it very well, it is quite common for him to do one of two things in order to send a message to his people.

He either writes it out in as good a style as he can, and then gets a native speaker of the language to correct his mistakes and to polish his style;

Or, if he has a native colleague whom he can fully trust, he tells him what he wishes said, leaves him to put the message into written form and then vets the result.

Silvanus either corrected and polished Peter's necessarily inadequate Greek; or he wrote in his own words what Peter wanted said, with Peter setting the final product and adding the last personal paragraph to it.

The thought is that of Peter; but the style is that of Silvanus.

The Recipients Of The Letter

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The recipients of the letter are the exiles (a Christian is always a sojourner on the earth) scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. These words had a double significance.

They stood for ancient kingdoms and they stood for Roman provinces to which the ancient names had been given;

The ancient kingdoms and the new provinces did not always cover the same territory.

Pontus was never a province. It had originally been the kingdom of Mithradates and part of it was incorporated in Bithynia and part of it in Galatia.

Galatia had originally been the kingdom of the Gauls in the area of the three cities Ancyra, Pessinus, and Tavium, but the Romans had expanded it into a much larger unit of administration, including sections of Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Isauria.

The kingdom of Cappadocia had become a Roman province in A.D. 17 in practically its original form.

Asia was not the continent of Asia as we use the term. It had been an independent kingdom, whose last king, Attalus the Third, had bequeathed it as a gift to Rome in 133 B.C. It embraced the centre of Asia minor and was bounded on the north by Bithynia, on the south

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by Lycia, and on the east by Phrygia and Galatia. In popular language it was that part of Asia Minor which lay along the shores of the Aegean Sea.

All these districts lie in the north-east corner of Asia Minor and they embraced a large area with a very large population;

Why they are named as a group and why they are named in this particular order, we do not know.

If the bearer of this letter--who may well have been Silvanus--sailed from Italy and landed at Sinope in north-east Asia Minor, a journey through these provinces would be a circular tour which would take him back to Sinope.

From Sinope in Bithynia he would go south to Galatia, further south to Cappadocia, west to Asia, north again to Bithynia, and then east to arrive back in Sinope.

It is clear from the letter itself that its recipients were mainly Gentiles.

There is no mention of any question of the law, a question which always arose when there was a Jewish background.

Their previous condition had been one of fleshly passion (1Pet 1:14; 1Pet 4:3-4).

Previously they had been no people--Gentiles outside the covenant--but now they are the people of God (1Pet 2:9-10).

The form of his name which Peter uses also shows that this letter was intended for Gentiles for Peter is a Greek name.

Paul calls him Cephas (1Cor 1:12; 1Cor 3:22; 1Cor 9:5; 1Cor 15:5; Gal 1:18; Gal 2:9, 11, 14);

Among his fellow Jews, he was known as Simeon (Simon) (Ac 15:14), which is the name by which he is called in Second Peter (2Pet 1:1).

Since he uses his Greek name here, it is likely that he was writing to Greek people.

The Circumstances Behind The LetterThis letter was written in a time when persecution threatened.

They are in the midst of various trials (1Pet 1:6).

They are likely to be falsely accused as evil-doers (1Pet 3:16).

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A fiery ordeal is going to try them (1Pet 4:12).

When they suffer, they are to commit themselves to God (1Pet 4:19).

They may well have to suffer for righteousness' sake (1Pet 3:14).

They are sharing in the afflictions which the Christian brotherhood throughout the world is called upon to endure (1Pet 5:9).

At the back of this letter there are fiery trial, a campaign of slander and suffering for the sake of Christ. Can we identify this situation?

There was a time when the Christians had little to fear from the Roman government.

In Acts it is repeatedly the Roman magistrates and the Roman soldiers and officials who save Paul from the fury of Jews and pagans alike.

The Roman tribunal magistrate often proved to be the most assured refuge against the fury of the synagogue in the early days of Christianity.

In the early days the Roman government was not able to distinguish between Jews and Christians.

Within the empire Judaism was what was called a religio licita, a permitted religion,

Jews had full liberty to worship in their own way.

It was not that the Jews did not try to enlighten the Romans to the true facts of the situation; they did so in Corinth, for example (Ac 18:12-17).

But for some time the Romans simply regarded the Christians as a Jewish sect and, therefore, did not molest them.

The change came in the days of Nero

On 19th July, A.D. 64, the great fire of Rome broke out. Rome, a city of narrow streets and high wooden tenements, was in real danger of being wiped out.

The fire burned for three days and three nights, was checked, and then broke out again with redoubled violence.

The Roman populace had no doubt who was responsible and put the blame on the Emperor. Nero had a passion for building;

They believed so that he had deliberately taken steps to obliterate Rome that he might build it again.

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Nero's responsibility must remain forever in doubt; but it is certain that he watched the raging inferno from the tower of Maecenas and expressed himself as charmed with the flower and loveliness of the flames.

It was freely said that those who tried to extinguish the fire were deliberately hindered and that men were seen to rekindle it again, when it was likely to subside.

The people were overwhelmed.

The ancient landmarks and the ancestral shrines had vanished; the Temple of Luna, the Ara Maxima, the great altar, the Temple of Jupiter Stator, the shrine of Vesta, their very household gods were gone.

They were homeless and, in Farrar's phrase, there was "a hopeless brotherhood of wretchedness."

The resentment of the people was bitter. Nero had to divert suspicion from himself; a scapegoat had to be found.

The Christians were made the scapegoat. Tacitus, the Roman historian, tells the story (Annals 15.44):

Neither human assistance in the shape of imperial gifts, nor attempts to appease the gods, could remove the sinister report that the fire was due to Nero's own orders. And, so, in the hope of dissipating the rumour, he falsely diverted the charge on to a set of people to whom the vulgar gave the name of Chrestians, and who were detested for the abominations they perpetrated. The founder of the sect, one Christus by name, had been executed by Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius; and the dangerous superstition, though put down for the moment, broke out again, not only in Judaea, the original home of the pest, but even in Rome, where everything shameful and horrible collects and is practised.

Tacitus had no doubt that the Christians were not to blame for the fire and that Nero was simply choosing them to be the scapegoats for his own crime.

The Christians were already the victims of certain slanders.

They were in the popular mind connected with the Jews.

Antisemitism is no new thing and it was easy for the Roman mob to attach any crime to the Jews and, therefore, to the Christians.

The Lord's Supper was secret, at least in a sense.

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It was open only to the members of the Church.

Certain phrases connected with it were fruitful sources of pagan slanders, phrases about eating someone's body and drinking someone's blood.

That was enough to produce a rumor that the Christians were cannibals. In time the rumor grew until it became a story that the Christians killed and ate a Gentile, or a newly born child.

At the Lord's Table the Christians gave each other the kiss of peace (1Pet 5:14).

Their meeting was called the Agape (<G26>), the Love Feast.

That was enough for stories to spread that the Christian meetings were orgies of vice.

It was always a charge against the Christians that they "tampered with family relationships."

There was this much truth in such a charge that Christianity did indeed become a sword to split families, when some members of a family became Christian and some did not.

A religion which split homes was bound to be unpopular.

It was the case that the Christians spoke of a coming day when the world would dissolve in flames.

Many a Christian preacher must have been heard preaching of the second coming and the fiery dissolution of all things (Ac 2:19-20).

It would not be difficult to put the blame for the fire on to people who spoke like that.

There was abundant material which could be perverted into false charges against the Christians by anyone maliciously disposed to victimise them.

The Christian faith had always appealed especially to women because of its moral standards in a world where chastity did not exist.

There were many well-born women who had embraced the Christian faith.

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The Jews did not hesitate to work upon these women to influence their husbands against the Christians.

We get a definite example of that in what happened to Paul and his company in Antioch of Pisidia.

There it was through such women that the Jews stirred up action against Paul (Ac 13:50).

Two of Nero's court favorites were Jewish proselytes.

There was Aliturus, his favorite actor; and

There was Poppaea, his mistress.

It is very likely that the Jews through them influenced Nero to take action against the Christians.

In any event, the blame for the fire was attached to the Christians and a savage outbreak of persecution occurred.

Nor was it simply persecution by legal means. What Tacitus called an ingens multitudo, a huge multitude, of Christians perished in the most sadistic ways.

Nero rolled the Christians in pitch, set light to them and used them as living torches to light his gardens.

He sewed them up in the skins of wild animals and set his hunting-dogs upon them, to tear them limb from limb while they still lived.

Tacitus writes:

Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burned, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserve extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for, it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty that they were being destroyed (Tacitus, Annals 15: 44).

The same terrible story is told by the later Christian historian, Sulipicius Severus, in his Chronicle:

In the meantime, the number of Christians being now very large, it happened that Rome was destroyed by fire, while Nero was stationed at Antium. But the opinion of all cast the odium of causing the fire upon the emperor, and he was believed in this way to have

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sought for the glory of building a new city. And, in fact, Nero could not, by any means he tried, escape from the charge that the fire had been caused by his orders. He, therefore, turned the accusation against the Christians and the most cruel tortures were accordingly inflicted upon the innocent. Nay, even new kinds of death were invented so that, being covered in the skins of wild beasts, they perished by being devoured by dogs, while many were crucified, or slain by fire, and not a few were set apart for this purpose, that, when the day came to a close, they should be consumed to serve for light during the night. In this way, cruelty first began to be manifested against the Christians. Afterwards, too, their religion was prohibited by laws which were enacted; and by edicts openly set forth it was proclaimed unlawful to be a Christian.

It is true that this persecution was confined originally to Rome; but the gateway to persecution had been opened and in every place they were ready victims for the mob.

Moffatt writes:

After the Neronic wave had passed over the capital, the wash of it was felt on the far shores of the provinces; the dramatic publicity of the punishment must have spread the name of Christian urbi et orbi, far and wide, over the entire empire; the provincials would soon hear of it, and when they desired a similar outburst at the expense of the loyal Christians, all that they needed was a proconsul to gratify their wishes and some outstanding disciple to serve as a victim.

For ever after the Christians were to live under threat.

The mobs of the Roman cities knew what had happened in Rome and there were always these slanderous stories against the Christians.

There were times when the mob loved blood and there were many governors ready to pander to their blood-lust.

It was not Roman law but lynch law which threatened the Christians.

From now on the Christian was in peril of his life.

For years nothing might happen; then some spark might set off the explosion; and the terror would break out.

That is the situation at the back of First Peter; and it is in face of it that Peter calls his people to hope and to courage and to that lovely Christian living which alone can give the lie to the slanders with which they are attacked and which are the grounds for taking measures against them.

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First Peter was written to meet no theological heresy; it was written to strengthen men and women in jeopardy of their lives.

First Peter And EphesiansThere is definitely some connection between First Peter and Ephesians. There are many close parallels of thought and expression between the two and we select the following specimens of this similarity.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1Pet 1:3).

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3).

Therefore, gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1Pet 1:13).

Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth (Eph 6:14). Jesus Christ, was destined before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake (1Pet 1:20).

Even as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4).

Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers subject to him (1Pet 3:22).

God made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power and dominion (Eph 1:20-21).

In addition, the injunctions to slaves, husbands and wives in First Peter and Ephesians are very similar.

Persecution For The NameFirst Peter speaks about being reproached for the name of Christ (1Pet 4:14);

It speaks of suffering as a Christian (1Pet 4:16).

Under the Roman system, religions were divided into two kinds.

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There were those which were religiones licitae, permitted religions; these were recognized by the state and it was open to any man to practise them.

There were religiones illicitae; these were forbidden by the state and it was illegal for any man to practise them on pain of automatic prosecution as a criminal.

It is to be noted that Roman toleration was very wide; and that any religion which did not affect public morality and civil order was certain to be permitted.

Judaism was a religio licita; and in the very early days the Romans, not unnaturally, did not know the difference between Judaism and Christianity.

Christianity, as far as they were concerned, was merely a sect of Judaism and any tension and hostility between the two was a private quarrel which was no concern of the Roman government.

Because of that in the very early days Christianity was under no danger of persecution. It enjoyed the same freedom of worship as Judaism enjoyed because it was assumed to be a religio licita.

The action of Nero changed the situation. However it came about, and most likely it was by the deliberate action of the Jews, the Roman government discovered that Judaism and Christianity were different.

Nero first persecuted the Christians, not for being Christians, but for burning Rome. But the fact remains that Christianity had been discovered by the government to be a separate religion.

Christianity was at once a prohibited religion and immediately every Christian became an outlaw.

Any time after Nero a Christian was liable to punishment and death simply for the name he bore,

This does not mean that persecution was constant and consistent; but it does mean that any Christian was liable to execution at any time, purely as a police matter.

In one area a Christian might live a whole lifetime at peace; in another there might be outbreaks of persecution every few months.

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It depended on the governor himself who might either leave the Christians unmolested or equally set the processes of the law in action against them.

It depended on informers. The governor might not wish to act against the Christians, but if information was laid against a Christian he had to; and there were times when the mob were out for blood, information was laid and Christians were butchered to make a Roman holiday.

None knew when information would be laid against him; None knew when a governor would take action; None knew when he might have to die.

Up to the time and actions of Nero, the Roman authorities had not realized that Christianity was a new religion; but from then on the Christian was automatically an outlaw.

Peter's people are undergoing various trials (1Pet 1:6).

Their faith is liable to be tried as metal is tested with fire (1Pet 1:7). They are undergoing a campaign of slander in which ignorant and baseless charges are being maliciously directed against them (1Pet 2:12; 1Pet 2:15; 1Pet 3:16; 1Pet 4:4).

They are in the midst of an outbreak of persecution because they are Christians (1Pet 4:12, 14, 16; 1Pet 5:9).

Such suffering is only to be expected and they must not be surprised at it (1Pet 4:12).

In any event it gives them the happiness of suffering for righteousness' sake (1Pet 3:14, 17), and

of being sharers in the sufferings of Christ (1Pet 4:13).

Honor The KingIt is argued that in the situation which obtained in the time of Nero, Peter could never have written:

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.... Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1Pet 2:13-17).

The fact is, however, that this is precisely the point of view expressed in Rom 13:1-7.

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The whole teaching of the New Testament, except in the Revelation in which Rome is damned, is that the Christian must be a loyal citizen and must demonstrate the falsity of the charges made against him by the excellence of his behavior as such. (1Pet 2:15).

Even in times of persecution the Christian fully acknowledged his obligation to be a good citizen;

His only defense against persecution was to show by the excellence of his citizenship that he did not deserve such treatment.

Asia Minor, Not RomeIf First Peter is a baptismal sermon and a pastoral letter in time of persecution, where is its place of origin? If the letter is not Peter's, there is no necessity to connect it with Rome; and, in any event, it appears that the Roman Church did not know or use First Peter. Let us put together certain facts.

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1Pet 1:1) are all in Asia Minor and all centered in Sinope.

The first extensive quoter of First Peter is Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, and Smyrna is in Asia Minor.

Certain phrases in First Peter immediately turn our thoughts to parallel phrases in other parts of the New Testament.

In 1Pet 5:13 the Church is called "she that is elect," In 2Jn 1:13 the Church is also described as an "elect sister."

1Pet 1:8 speaks of Jesus Christ, "without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy."

This turns our thoughts very naturally to Jesus' saying to Thomas in the Fourth Gospel: "Blessed are those who have not seen, and believe" (Jn 20:29).

First Peter urges the elders to tend, that is, to shepherd, the flock of God (1Pet 5:2).

That turns our thoughts to Jesus' injunction to Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (Jn 21:15-17), and

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to Paul's farewell injunction to the elders of Ephesus to take heed to the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made them guardians (Ac 20:28).

All this is to say that the memories First Peter awakens are of the Fourth Gospel, the Letters of John and of Paul at Ephesus.

The Fourth Gospel and the Letters of John were most probably written at Ephesus, and Ephesus is in Asia Minor.

It seems that in the case of First Peter all roads lead to Asia Minor.

An Apostle's LetterWe see no reason to doubt that the letter is the work of Peter himself, and that

it was written not long after the great fire of Rome and the first persecution of the Christians

with the object of encouraging the Christians of Asia Minor to stand fast when the onrushing tide of persecution sought to engulf them and take their faith away.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Who was Peter?Peter’s original name was in Hebrew Simeon (Acts 15:14; 2 Pet 1:1);

“Simon,” as it’s usually written in the New Testament, was a Greek name of similar sound.

His father’s name was Jonah (Mt 16:17).

He himself was married (Mk 1:30), andIn his missionary days after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter’s wife accompanied Peter (1 Cor 9:5).

His place of origin was Beth-saida, a largely Greek city (Jn 1:44),

He had also a home in Capernaum in Galilee (Mk 1:21ff ). Capernaum was also the location of his synagogue and a home.

Simon spoke Aramaic with a strong north country accent (Mk 14:70)

He maintained the piety and outlook of his people (Acts 10:14),

Though not trained in the law (Acts 4:13). [His literacy is not in question.]

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It is likely that he was affected by John the Baptist’s movement (Acts 1:22);

his brother Andrew was a disciple of John (Jn 1:39f).

Galilee FishermanToday one can see a boat like the one he used during those days, at Nof Ginossar, a kibbutz on the Galilee.

In 1985-6, a severe drought exposed a 26 ft. boat with 7 ft. beam discovered in the mud. C14 dating gave a date between 60 b.c. and 60 a.d.

In the GospelsThe Gospel of John describes a period of Christ’s activity before the commencement of the Galilean ministry, and this may be referenced as Peter’s first introduction to him, by Andrew’s agency (Jn 1:41).

The subsequent call by the lakeside (Mk 1:16) and

then the call to the intimate band of the Twelve followed (Mk 3:16ff).It was as a disciple that Simon received his new title, the Aramaic Kepha (“Cephas”), “rock” or “stone” (1 Cor 1:12; 15:5; Gal 2:9), usually appearing in NT in the Greek form, Petros.

Jesus conferred this title (not known as a personal name previously) at their first encounter (Jn 1:42):

Matthew 16:13-2818 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter,G4074, and upon this rockG4073 I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

G4073 πετρα petra1) a rock cliff or ledge

1a) a projecting rock, crag, rocky ground1b) a rock, a large stone1c) metaphorically a man like a rock, by reason of his firmness and strength of soul

G4074 Πετρος Petros1) a rock or a stone

1a) Peter = one of the twelve disciples of Jesus

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First Mention of the Church“Thou art a little stone, Peter, but upon this big rock I will build my church” (Mt 16:18).

Petros = a little stone; Petra = a large rock.

A definite article is used before petra; no article before petros.

“I” will build: Jesus will build; I “will” build: Future tense.

What Foundation?

1) the Confession? 2) Peter himself? 3) Christ Himself.

The rock is Christ (1 Cor 10:4; 1 Cor 3:9-11 Eph 2:19-22).

In the GospelsJohn’s usual designation is “Simon Peter.”

Mark calls him “Simon” up to Mk 3:16, and “Peter” almost invariably thereafter.

There is nothing in any case to suggest that the solemn words of Mt 16:18 represented the first bestowal of the name. (This incident has been widely misunderstood; Peter will help clear it up in these letters…)

Peter was one of the first disciples called;

he always stands first in the lists of disciples;

he was also one of the three who formed an inner circle round the Master (Mk 5:37; 9:2; 14:33; cf. 13:3).

His impulsive devotion is frequently portrayed (Mt 14:28; Mk 14:29; Lk 5:8; Jn 21:7) and

he acts as spokesman of the Twelve (Mt 15:15; 18:21; Mk 1:36f; 8:29; 9:5; 10:28; 11:21; 14:29f; Lk 5:5; 12:41).

At the crisis near Caesarea Philippi, Peter is the representative of the whole band: for the question is directed to them all and all are included in the look that accompanies the subsequent reprimand (Mk 8:27, 29, 33).

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The transfiguration is intimately related to the apostolic confession which precedes it (Mk 9:1).

The experience made a lasting impression on Peter (1 Pet 5:1; 2 Pet 1:16ff).

Peter’s Denials: Jn 18:17, 25; Mt 26:74Mark 16:5-7

And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.

“...disciples and Peter”: Lost discipleship?

Discipleship can be lost. (Salvation cannot.)

Discipleship depends upon the faithfulness of the believer...

John 21:15-19So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.

Reinstated: John 21:14-17“Simon, son of Jonas...” His natural name.

• Agape me? phileo• Agape me? phileo

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• Phileo me? phileo...wept third time.

Contrast the Gospel rhetoric of Peter with his skillfully crafted sermons in Acts 2 & 3.

Parallelisms In ActsThe parallels between this letter and Peter’s sermons recorded in Acts are significant—

cf. 1 Pet 1:20 with Acts 2:23 and 1 Pet 4:5 with Acts 10:42.

One of the more striking examples is the similarity between 1 Peter 2:7-8 and Acts 4:10-11:

in each passage Psalm 118:22 is quoted and applied to Christ.

It is interesting that Peter was present when Christ Himself used Psalm 118:22 to refer to His rejection by the Jewish leaders (Mt 21:42).

Peter is specially marked out at the message of the resurrection (Mk 16:7) and personally receives a visitation of the risen Lord (Lk 24:34; 1 Cor 15:5).

Peter’s ministry was to the circumcised

(Gal 2:6-9).But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

The Life of PeterEvery Biblical doctrine is exemplified in the life of Peter:

The Two Natures; Two births... Old Simon, New Peter; Old man, New man.Carnal life Christian life, mere salvation, discipleship, carnal life spiritual life, eternal life, life abundant...

There are inconsistencies; apparent contradictions.

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All his life he remained both Simon and Peter.

In the Book of ActsBefore Pentecost, it is Peter who takes the lead in the community (Acts 1:15ff). He is the principal preacher (Acts 2:14ff; 3:12ff) and

He is the spokesman before the Jewish authorities (Acts 4:8ff), He is presiding in administration of discipline (Acts 5:3ff ).Though the Church as a whole made a deep impression on the community, it was to Peter in particular that supernatural powers were attributed (Acts 5:15).

In Samaria, the Church’s first mission field, the same leadership is exercised (Acts 8:14ff).

Significantly also, he is the first apostle to be associated with the Gentile mission, and that by unmistakably providential means (Acts 10:1ff; cf. 15:7ff). [Acts shows the Great Commission in exercise.]

This immediately brings criticism upon him (Acts 11:2ff) and not for the last time:

at Antioch, the first church with a significant ex-pagan element, Peter shared table fellowship with the Gentile converts, but then withdrew under a fear of Jewish-Christian opposition (Gal 2:11ff).This defection was roundly denounced by Paul; but there is no hint of any theological difference between them,

Paul’s complaint is rather the incompatibility of Peter’s practice with his theory.

Despite this lapse, the Gentile mission had no truer friend than Peter.

Paul’s gospel and Peter’s had the same content, though a somewhat different expression due to its different audience:

Peter’s speeches in Acts, Mark’s Gospel and 1 Peter have the same theology of the Cross, rooted in the concept of Christ as the suffering Servant.

He was ready with the right hand of fellowship, recognizing his mission to Jews and Paul’s to Gentiles as part of the same ministry (Gal 2:7ff).

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At the Jerusalem Council Peter is recorded as the first to urge the full acceptance of the Gentiles on faith alone (Acts 15:7ff).Peter’s career after the death of Stephen is hard to trace.

The references to him in Joppa, Caesarea and elsewhere suggest that he undertook missionary work in Palestine (James no doubt now assuming leadership in Jerusalem).

He was imprisoned in Jerusalem, and on his miraculous escape he left for “another place” (Acts 12:17).

Attempts to identify this “another place” are fruitless.

We know that he went to Antioch (Gal 2:11ff ); He may have gone to Corinth, though probably not for long (1 Cor 1:12).

He is closely associated with Christians in N Asia Minor (1 Pet 1:1) and

Possibly Paul’s prohibition to enter Bithynia (Acts 16:7) was due to the fact that Peter was at work there.

Post-Acts Events1 Peter was almost certainly written from Rome (1 Pet 5:13).

That book shows signs of being written just before or during Nero’s persecution, and 1 Clement 5 implies that, like Paul, he died in this outburst.

The story in the Acts of Peter of his martyrdom by crucifixion (cf. Jn 21:18ff) head downwards cannot be accepted as reliable, but this work may preserve some valid traditions.

The Gospel of MarkThe earliest statement about the origin of this Gospel is that given by Papias as “the interpreter of Peter” is by Eusebius (EH 3. 39) and Irenaeus (Adv. Haer 3.1.1).

Mark’s hand, Peter’s voice: evidenced by the nature of the incidents, choice of matter, and manner of treatment.

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1 Peter 1THE GREAT INHERITANCE (1Pet 1:1-2)

1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's Chosen People, who are scattered as exiles throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. I am an apostle, and you are chosen, according to the fore-knowledge of God, through the consecration of the Spirit, for obedience and to be sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, “.

..an apostle of Jesus Christ”: This bold statement of apostolic authority is supported both by internal evidence in the text and by its early and universal acceptance as a part of the canon of Scripture.

“...to the strangers scattered...”:

strangers G3927 παρεπιδημος parepidemos1) one who comes from a foreign country into a city or land to reside

there by the side of the natives2) a stranger3) sojourning in a strange place, a foreigner

4) in the NT metaphorically in reference to heaven as the native country, one who sojourns on earth

In accordance with the Lord’s instructions, Peter seeks to feed the scattered sheep of the house of Israel.

These areas were in Asia Minor, north of Palestine and Syria and south of the Black Sea.

The Greek word for such a sojourner in a strange land is paroikos (<G3941>).

A paroikos was a man who was in a strange land and whose thoughts ever turned home.

Such a sojourning was called a paroikia (<G3940>); and paroikia is the direct derivation of the English word parish.

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The Christians in any place are a group of people whose eyes are turned to God and whose loyalty is beyond.

"Here," said the writer to the Hebrews, "we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come" (Heb 13:14).

“Scattered” (diasporas), had special meaning to the Jewish Christians in these churches.

The address literally reads: "To the elect strangers of the Diaspora throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia."

Diaspora (<G1290>), literally the dispersion, was the technical name for the Jews scattered in exile in all the countries outside the bounds of Palestine.

Sometimes in their troubled history the Jews had been forcibly deported from their native land; sometimes they had gone of their own free will to work, and often to prosper, in other lands.

Those exiled Jews were called the Diaspora (<G1290>).

But now Diaspora is not only the Jewish nation; it is the Christian Church scattered abroad throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire and the nations of the world.

Once the people who had been different from others were the Jews; now the people who are different are the Christians.

They are the people whose King is God, whose home is eternity, and who are exiles in the world.

We are the exiles of eternity.

This is never to say that we must withdraw from the world, but that in the realest sense we must be at the same time both in the world and not of it.

Wherever the exiled Jew settled, his eyes were towards Jerusalem.

In foreign countries his synagogues were so built that, when the worshipper entered, he was facing towards Jerusalem.

However useful a citizen of his adopted country the Jew was, his greatest loyalty was to Jerusalem.

Christians are not marked out from the rest of mankind by their country or their speech or their customs....

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They dwell in cities both Greek and barbarian, each as his lot is cast, following the customs of the region in clothing and in food and in the outward things of life generally;

yet they manifest the wonderful and openly paradoxical character of their own state.

They inhabit the lands of their birth, but as temporary residents thereof;

They take their share of all responsibilities as citizens, and endure all disabilities as aliens.

Every foreign land is their native land, and every native land a foreign land....

They pass their days upon earth, but their citizenship is in heaven."

It would be wrong to think that this makes the Christian a bad citizen of the land in which he lives.

It is because he sees all things in the light of eternity that he is the best of all citizens, for it is only in the light of eternity that the true values of things can be seen.

We, as Christians, are the Chosen People of God; we are the exiles of eternity.

2] Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

Election“Elect”: In both OT & NT (Hebrew & Greek): “elect” ; “election”; “choose” and “chosen” all mean “to choose” of both divine and human choices.

G1588 εκλεκτος eklektos1) picked out, chosen

1a) chosen by God1a1) to obtain salvation through Christ

1a1a) Christians are called “chosen or elect” of God1a2) the Messiah in called “elect”, as appointed by God

to the most exalted office conceivable

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1a3) choice, select, i.e. the best of its kind or class, excellence preeminent: applied to certain individual Christians

It is clear that this letter was written to believing Jews who were living in Gentile lands.

They have been released from the futile way of life which they had learned from their fathers (1Pet 1:18).

Those who were once not a people had become nothing less than the people of God (1Pet 2:10 Hos_1:9-10 Hos_2:23).

In previous times they had walked after the will and the lusts of the Gentiles (1Pet 4:3).

Rather than seeking to be holy, different, separate from the Gentiles, they sought to become like them.

Peter calls the people to whom he writes the elect, God's Chosen People,

Once that had been a title which belonged to Israel alone: "You are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth" (Deut 7:6; compare Deut 14:2).

The prophet speaks of "Israel, my chosen" (Isa 45:4).

The Psalmist speaks of "the sons of Jacob, his chosen ones" (Ps 105:6; Ps 105:43).

But the nation of Israel failed in the purposes of God, for, when he sent his Son into the world, they rejected and crucified him.

When Jesus spoke the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, he said that the inheritance of Israel was to be taken from them and given to others (Matt 21:41; Mk 12:9; Lk 20:16).

The mercy of God has gone out to the ends of the earth, and all nations have seen the glory and experienced the grace of God.

We are the Chosen People of God.

There can be no greater compliment and privilege in all the world than to be chosen by God.

The word eklektos (<G1588>) can describe anything that is specially chosen; it can describe specially chosen fruit, articles specially chosen because they are so outstandingly well made, picked troops specially chosen for some great exploit.

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We have the honor of being specially chosen by God.

But there is also challenge and responsibility here.

God always chooses for service.

The honor which he gives a man is that of being used for his purposes.

It was precisely there that the Jews failed, and we have to see to it that the tragedy of a like failure does not mark our lives.

Divine Election

I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.William Tecumseh Sherman

• Corporate: Israel (Isa 45) and the Church (Eph 1:4).

• Individual: According to the foreknowledge of God (1 Pet 1:2);wholly of grace, not human merit (Rom 9:11; 11:5,6);

whereby certain are chosen for Himself (Jn 15:19) or for distinctive service (Lk 6:13; Acts 9:15; 1 Cor 1:27,28).

“...through sanctification of the spirit”:

The Paradigm of Salvation“I have been saved;I am being saved;and I will be saved.”

—Earl D. Rachmacher

Justification (Past tense) My Past has been redeemedThe gift from God of everlasting life received by faith alone in Christ alone.

Sanctification (Present tense) My Present in not permanentA progressive work that involves the faith and the works of the believer.

Glorification (Future tense) My Future is sureA result of the previous aspects.

All believers will be glorified (resurrected and given a body like Christ), but some will have more glory (i.e. reward) than others.

This is what Hebrews speaks of.

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Past Tense: Separation from the Penalty of Sin Justification Salvation

Present Tense: Separation from the Power of Sin Sanctification Salvation

Future Tense: Separation from the Presence of Sin Glorification Salvation

Justification is for us;Sanctification is in us.

Justification declares the sinner righteous;Sanctification makes the sinner righteous.

Justification removes the guilt and penalty of sin;Sanctification removes the growth and the power of sin.

…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father...

Foreknowledge: God’s established outcomeThe Christian is chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.

Our election is according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

Election: God’s chosen vessel(s) to use to accomplish His plan

Predestination: God’s determined plan The path God has laid out for his willing and obedient Elect to follow to accomplish His plan

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Destiny: The declared outcome and result for the obedient elect

The Church is not just a human organization.

Its origin lies, not in the will of the flesh, in the idealism of men, in human aspirations and plans, but in the eternal purpose of God."

When we are discouraged we may well remind ourselves that the Christian Church came into being according to the purpose and plan of God

If it is true to him, it can never ultimately fail.

…through sanctification of the Spirit,…The Christian is chosen to be consecrated by the Spirit.

For the Christian the Holy Spirit is essential to every part of the Christian life and every step in it.

It is the Holy Spirit who awakens within us the first faint longings for God and goodness.

It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sin and leads us to the Cross where that sin is forgiven.

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to be freed from the sins which have us in their grip and to gain the virtues which are the fruit of the Spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the assurance that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The beginning, the middle and the end of the Christian life are the work of the Holy Spirit.

... unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:…“...obedience”: hupakoe, “to hear under, to hearken” is man’s responsibility to be submissive to God’s Word (cf. Ex 24:7; Rom 1:5; 15:18; 16:26).

Hearing is to be exposed to the annunciation of truth

Listening is to apply what was heard to our life and character

“...sprinkling of the blood of Jesus”: One living in obedience is constantly being cleansed with Christ’s blood and is thus “set apart” from the world (1 Jn 1:7, 9).

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In the Old Testament there are three occasions when sprinkling with blood is mentioned.

When a leper had been healed, he was sprinkled with the blood of a bird (Lev 14:1-7).

Sprinkling with blood is, therefore, the symbol of cleansing.

By the sacrifice of Christ, the Christian is cleansed from sin.

Sprinkling with blood was part of the ritual of the setting apart of Aaron and the priests (Exo 29:20-21; Lev 8:30).

It was the sign of setting apart for the service of God.

The Christian is specially set apart for the service of God, not only within the Temple, but also within the world.

The great picture of the sprinkling comes from the covenant relationship between Israel and God. In the covenant,

God, of his own gracious will, approached Israel that they might be his people and that he might be their God.

But that relationship depended on the Israelites accepting the conditions of the covenant and obeying the law.

Obedience was a necessary condition of the covenant, and failure in obedience meant failure of the covenant relationship between God and Israel.

So the book of the covenant was read to Israel and the people pledged themselves: "All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do." As a token of this relationship of obedience between the people and God, Moses took half the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the altar, and half the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the people (Exo 24:1-8).

Sprinkling was for obedience.

Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Christian is called into a new relationship with God, in which the sins of the past are forgiven and he is pledged to obedience in the time to come.

It is in the purpose of God that the Christian is called.

It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that his life is hallowed towards God.

It is by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ that he is cleansed from past sin and dedicated to future obedience to God.

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…Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

1 Peter 1:3-9 [3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which

according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, [5] Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

[6] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: [7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: [8] Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: [9] Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. [KJV]

3 Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God's power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time.

6 [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, 7 So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.

8 Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.

9 [At the same time] you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of your souls. [AMP]

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3 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, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. [NIV]

THE REBIRTH OF THE CHRISTIAN (1Pet 1:3-5)1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has brought about in us that rebirth which leads to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, an inheritance imperishable, undefilable, and unfading, kept safe in heaven for us, who are protected by the power of God through faith, until there comes that deliverance which is ready to be revealed at the last time. There are few passages in the New Testament where more of the great fundamental Christian ideas come together.

It begins with a doxology to God--but a doxology with a difference.

3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." For a Jew the commonest of all beginnings to prayer was, " Blessed art thou, O God."

The Christian takes over that prayer -- but with a difference.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

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He is not praying to a distant, unknown God;

He is praying to the God who is like Jesus and to whom, through Jesus Christ, he may come with childlike confidence.

“...begotten us again”: He has given us new birth; people can do nothing to merit such a gift.

The words translate from the verb “beget again” or “cause to be born again.”

It is used 2X in the NT, both times in this chapter (1 Pet 1:3, 23).

This passage begins with the idea of rebirth; the Christian is a man who has been reborn; begotten again by God to a new kind of life.

2Co 5:17-2117 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

When a man becomes a Christian, there comes into his life a change so radical that the only thing that can be said is that life has begun all over again for him.

This idea of rebirth runs all through the New Testament.

The Christian rebirth happens by the will and by the act of God (Jn 1:13; Jas 1:18).

It is not something which a man achieves any more than he achieves his physical birth.

This rebirth is the work of the Spirit (Jn 3:1-15).

It happens to a man, not by his own effort, but when he yields himself to be possessed and re-created by the Spirit within him.

It happens by the word of truth (Jas 1:18; 1Pet 1:23).

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In the beginning it was the word of God which created heaven and earth and all that is in them.

God spoke and the chaos became a world, and the world was equipped for and filled with life.

It is the creative word of God in Jesus Christ which brings about this rebirth in a man's life that makes him fit for and filled with new life.

The result of this rebirth is that the man who is reborn becomes the first fruits of a new creation (Jas 1:18).

It lifts him out of this world of space and time, of change and decay, of sin and defeat, and brings him here and now into touch with eternity and eternal life.

“...lively hope”: This “lively hope” is based on the living resurrected Christ (1 Pet 1:21).

He used the word “living” 6X (1 Pet 1:3, 23; 2:4-5; 4:5-6).

Here “living” emphasizes the believer’s hope is sure, certain, and real, as opposed to the deceptive, empty, false hope the world offers.

When a man is reborn, it is to a living hope (1Pet 1:3).

Paul describes the heathen world as being without hope (Eph 2:12).

To the heathen the world was a place where all things faded and decayed; it might be pleasant enough in itself but it was leading out into nothing but an endless dark.

To the ancient world the Christian characteristic was hope.

The Christian felt that he had been born, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed (1Pet 1:23).

He had something of the very seed of God in him and, therefore, had in him a life which neither time nor eternity could destroy.

It came from the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1Pet 1:3).

The Christian had for ever beside him--even more, was one with--this Jesus Christ who had conquered even death and, therefore, there was nothing of which he need be afraid – in this life or the next…

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The rebirth of the Christian is a rebirth to righteousness (1Jn 2:29; 1Jn 3:9; 1Jn 5:18).

In this rebirth he is cleansed from himself, the sins which shackle him and the habits which bind him; and he is given a power which enables him to walk in righteousness.

That is not to say that the man who is reborn will never sin; but it is to say that every time he falls he will be given the power and the grace to rise again.

The rebirth of the Christian is a rebirth to love (1Jn 4:7).

Because the life of God is in him, he is cleansed from the essential unforgiving bitterness of the self-centred life and there is in him something of the forgiving and sacrificial love of God.

Finally, the rebirth of the Christian is rebirth to victory (1Jn 5:4).

Life ceases to be defeat and begins to be victory, over self and sin and circumstances. Because the life of God is in him, the Christian has learned the secret of victorious living.

THE GREAT INHERITANCE4] To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,“...inheritance”: The sure hope is of a future inheritance (kleronomia):

This same word is used in the LXX to refer to Israel’s promised possession of the land (cf. Num 26:54, 56; 34:2; Josh 11:23).

It was her possession, granted to her as a gift from God.

What is your most precious possession?

What have you done with it?

Further, the Christian has entered into a great inheritance (kleronomia, <G2817>).

Here is a word which is regularly used in the Greek Old Testament for the inheritance of Canaan, the Promised Land.

Again and again the Old Testament speaks of the land which God had given his people for an inheritance to possess (Deut 15:4; Deut 19:10).

To us inheritance tends to mean something which in the future we shall possess;

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as the Bible uses the word, it rather means a secure possession.

To the Jew the great settled possession was the Promised Land.

But the Christian inheritance is even greater.

“...incorruptible...undefiled...fadeth not away...” Peter uses three words with three great pictures behind them to describe it, each word beginning with the same letter and ending with the same syllable, to describe in a cumulative fashion this inheritance’s permanence:

– can never perish aphthartos– spoil amiantos– fade amarantosIt is imperishable (aphthartos, <G862>).

The word does mean imperishable but it can also mean unravaged by any invading army.

Many and many a time Palestine had been ravaged by the armies of the aliens; it had been fought over and blasted and destroyed.

But the Christian possesses a peace and a joy, which no invading army can ravage and destroy.

It is undefilable. The word is amiantos (<G283>), and the verb miainein (<G3392>), from which this adjective comes, means to pollute with impious impurity.

Many and many a time Palestine had been rendered impure by false worship of false gods (Jer 2:7; Jer 2:23; Jer 3:2; Eze 20:43). The defiling things had often left their touch even on the Promised Land;

but the Christian has a purity which the sin of the world cannot infect.

It is unfading (amarantos, <G263>).

In the Promised Land, as in any land, even the loveliest flower fades and the loveliest blossom dies.

But the Christian is lifted into a world where there is no change and decay and where his peace and joy are untouched by the chances and the changes of life.

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The inheritance of the Christian is God himself.

"The Lord is my chosen portion... I have a goodly heritage" (Ps 16:5). God is his portion for ever (Ps 73:23-26). "The Lord, is my portion; therefore I will hope in him" (Lam 3:24).

It is because the Christian possesses God and is possessed by God that he has the inheritance which is imperishable, undefilable and which can never fade away.

PROTECTED IN TIME AND SAFE IN ETERNITY

5] Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.“...kept”: The inheritance is not only guarded, but heirs who have been born into that inheritance are shielded by God’s power

phroureo is a military term (to guard, protect by a military guard (cf. Phil 4:7).

The final step, or ultimate completion of “the salvation of their souls” (1 Pet 1:9) will come “when Jesus Christ is revealed,” a clause Peter used twice (vv. 7, 13).

The inheritance of the Christian, the full joy of God, is waiting for him in heaven;

On our journey through this world to eternity we are protected by the power of God through faith.

The word which Peter uses for protect (phrourein, <G5432>) is a military word.

It means that our life is garrisoned by God and that he stands sentinel over us all our days.

The man who has faith never doubts that God is standing within the shadows keeping watch upon his own - even when he cannot see God for himself, he knows God is watching over him.

It is not that God saves us from the troubles and the sorrows and the problems of life; but he enables us to conquer them and march on.

The final salvation will be revealed at the last time.

The New Testament frequently speaks of the last day or days, or the last time.

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The Jews divided all time into two ages-

-the present age, which is wholly under the domination of evil and

- the age to come, which will be the golden age of God.

In between came the day of the Lord during which the world would be destroyed and remade and judgment would come.

It is this in between time which is the last days or the last time, that time when the world as we know it will come to an end.

It is not given to us to know when that time will come, know how God will arrange to bring it about, nor in all detail what will happen then.

The early Christians believed that they were already living in the last days.

"It is the last hour," says John to his people (1Jn 2:18).

The writer to the Hebrews speaks of the fullness of the revelation which has come to men in Christ in these last days (Heb 1:2).

As the first Christians saw it, God had already invaded time and the end was hastening on.

The last times were to be times of the pouring out of God's Spirit upon men (Ac 2:17).

The early Christians saw that being fulfilled in Pentecost and in the Spirit-filled Church.

It was the regular conviction of the early Christians that before the end the powers of evil would make a final assault and that all kinds of false teachers would arise (2Tim 3:1; 1Jn 2:18; Jd 18 ).

The dead would be resurrected.

It is Jesus' promise that at the last time he will raise up his own (Jn 6:39-40, 44; Jn 6:54; Jn 11:24).

Inevitably it would be a time of judgment when God's justice would be exercised and his enemies find their just condemnation and punishment (Jn 12:48; Jas 5:3).

Such are the ideas which are in the minds of the New Testament writers when they use this phrase the last times or the last days.

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Clearly for many a man such a time will be a time of terror; but for the Christian there is, not terror, but deliverance.

G4991 σωτηρια soteria so-tay-ree'-aha derivative of G4990; rescue or safety (physically or morally): - deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.

Total KJV occurrences: 45G4990 σωτηρ soter so-tare'

From G4982; a deliverer, that is, God or Christ: - saviour.

Total KJV occurrences: 24

G4982 σωζω sozo sode'-zoFrom a primary word σως sos (contraction for the obsolete σαος saos, safe); to save, that is, deliver or� � protect (literally or figuratively): - heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.

Total KJV occurrences: 110

The word sozein (<G4982>) means to save in far more than a theological sense.

It is the regular word for to rescue from danger and to heal in sickness.

The New Testament sozein (<G4982>), to save, and soteria (<G4991>), salvation, have four different, but closely related, spheres of meaning.

They describe deliverance from danger (Matt 8:25).

They describe deliverance from disease (Matt 9:21).

They describe deliverance from the condemnation of God (Matt 10:22; Matt 24:13).

They describe deliverance from the disease and power of sin (Matt 1:21).

Salvation is a many-sided thing.

In it there is deliverance from danger, deliverance from disease, deliverance from condemnation and deliverance from sin.

And it is that, and nothing less than that, to which the Christian can look forward at the end.

THE SECRET OF ENDURANCE (1Pet 1:6-7)1:6-7 Herein you rejoice, even if it is at present necessary that for a brief time you should be grieved by all kinds of trials, for the object

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of these trials is that your tried and tested faith, more precious than gold which perishes though it is tested by the fire, may win praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ shall appear.

6] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:“Wherein”: truths mentioned in vv. 3-5.

“...greatly rejoice”: Knowledge alone cannot produce the great joy of experiential security and freedom from fear in the face of persecution.

God’s omnipotent sovereignty needs to be coupled with human responsibility.

Faith makes theological security experiential.

7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:“...tried with fire”: The word dokimazomenou, means “to test for the purpose of approving”

(cf. dokimion, “trial,” in v. 7 and James 1:3, and dokimon, “test,” in James 1:12).

These trials yield two results:

They refine or purify one’s faith — much as gold is refined by fire when its dross is removed, and

Trials prove the reality of one’s faith. Stress deepens and strengthens a Christian’s faith and lets its reality be displayed.

Peter comes to the actual situation in life in which his readers found themselves.

Their Christianity had always made them unpopular, but now they were facing almost certain persecution.

Soon the storm was going to break and life was going to be an agonizing thing.

In face of that threatening situation Peter in effect reminds them of three reasons why they can stand anything that may come upon them.

They can stand anything because of what they are able to look forward to.

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At the end there is for them the magnificent inheritance, life with God.

When things have reached their limit, that the saving power of Christ will be displayed.

For the Christian persecution and trouble are not the end; beyond lies the glory; and in the hope of that glory he can endure anything that life brings to him.

It is one of the basic facts of life that a man can endure anything so long as he has something to look forward to--and the Christian can look forward to the ultimate joy.

They can stand anything that comes if they remember that every trial is, in fact, a test.

Before gold is pure it has to be tested in the fire.

The trials which come to a man test his faith and out of them that faith can emerge stronger than ever it was before.

In this world trials are not meant to take the strength out of us, but to put the strength into us (like training does for an athlete).

Peter says that the Christian for the moment may well have to undergo various trials.

The Greek is poikilos (<G4164>), which literally means many-colored.

Peter uses that word only one other time and it is to describe the grace of God (1Pet 4:10).

Our troubles may be many-colored, but so is the grace of God; there is no color in the human situation which that grace cannot match.

There is a grace to match every trial and there is no trial without its grace.

They can stand anything, because at the end of it, when Jesus Christ appears, they will receive from him praise and glory and honor.

The Christian knows that, if he endures, he will in the end hear the Master's "Well done!"

Here is the recipe for endurance when life is hard and faith is difficult.

We can stand up to things because of the greatness to which we can look forward, because every trial is another test to strengthen and to

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purify our faith, and because at the end of it Jesus Christ is waiting to say, "Well done!" to all his faithful servants.

UNSEEN BUT NOT UNKNOWN (1Pet 1:8-9)1:8-9 Although you never knew him, you love him; although you do not see him, you believe in him. And you rejoice with unspeakable and glorious joy because you are receiving that which faith must end in--the salvation of your souls. Peter is drawing an implicit contrast between himself and his readers.

It was his great privilege to have known Jesus in the days of his flesh.

His readers had not had that joy; but,

although they never knew Jesus in the flesh, they love him; and although they do not see him with the bodily eye, they believe.

And that belief brings to them a joy beyond speech and clad with glory, for even here and now it makes them certain of the ultimate welfare of their souls.

8] Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

“...joy unspeakable and full of glory”: The climax of the joy that results from faith: the focus of a believer’s faith is not on abstract knowledge but on the person of Christ.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John 20:29

9] Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.“Receiving the end”: Believers can rejoice because they are receiving (pres. tense) (komizo,menoi komizomenoi, “to receive as a reward”) what was promised, namely salvation, the goal or culmination (te,loj telos, “end”) of ...faith.

For those who love and believe in Jesus Christ, salvation is:

• Past: “He has given us new birth” (v. 3);• Present: “through faith are shielded by God’s power” (v. 5);• Future: it is their “inheritance” (v. 4), which will “be revealed in

the last time” (v. 5 ) and is “the goal of your faith” (v. 9).

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The first stage in man's apprehension of Christ is the stage of hope and desire,

the stage of those who throughout the ages dreamed of the coming of the King.

"Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it" (Lk 10:23-24).

There were the days of longings and expectations which were never fully realized.

The second stage came to those who knew Christ in the flesh.

That is what Peter was thinking about when he said to Cornelius,

"We are witnesses to all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem" (Ac 10:39).

There were those who walked with Jesus and on whose witness our knowledge of his life and the words depends.

There are those in every nation and time who see Jesus with the eye of faith.

Jesus said to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe" (Jn 20:29).

This way of seeing Jesus is possible only because he is not someone who lived and died and exists now only as a figure in a book but someone who lived and died and is alive for evermore.

It has been said that "no apostle ever remembered Jesus."

That is to say, Jesus is not only a memory; he is a person whom we can meet.

There is the beatific vision of the Christ, Jesus.

It was John's confidence that we shall see him as he is (1Jn 3:2).

"Now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1Cor 13:12).

If the eye of faith endures, the day will come when it will be the eye of sight, and we shall see face to face and know even as we are known.

THE FORETELLING OF THE GLORY (1Pet 1:10-12)Prophets, who prophesied about the grace which was to come to you, enquired and searched concerning that salvation, seeking to

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find out when and how the Spirit of Christ within them, testifying in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and to the glories which must follow them, was telling them that it would come. It was revealed to them that the ministry which they were exercising in these things was not for themselves but for you, things which have now been proclaimed to you through those who preached the gospel to you through the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, things of which the angels long to catch a glimpse. The wonder of the salvation which was to come to men in Christ was such that the prophets searched and enquired about it; and even the angels were eager to catch a glimpse of it.

Few passages have more to tell us about how the prophets wrote and about how they were inspired.

10] Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:God’s Word is the basis for our faith.

The prophets yearned for the Day that we can now see approaching...

11] Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

The prophets searched and enquired about the salvation which was to come.

The Spirit of Christ told them about Christ.

Inspiration depends on two things –

the searching mind of man and the revealing Spirit of God.

This passage tells us that God's truth comes only to the man who searches for it.

In inspiration there is an element which is human and an element which is divine;

it is the product at one and the same time of the search of man's mind and the revelation of God's Spirit.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Ptr 1:20-21

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The doctrine of inspiration does not necessarily include the notion that they necessarily understood what they were “moved” to write.

“...testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ”: Psalm 22; Isaiah 53 (50:6); Daniel 9:26, et al.

12] Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, was always operative in this world.

Never has there been any time in any nation when the Spirit of Christ was not moving men to seek God and guiding them to find him.

Sometimes they have been blind and deaf, sometimes they have misinterpreted that guidance, sometimes they have grasped but fragments of it, but always that revealing Spirit has been there to guide the searching mind.

This passage tells us that the prophets spoke of the sufferings and the glory of Christ.

Passages such as Ps 22 and Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12 found their consummation and fulfillment in the sufferings of Christ.

Passages such as Ps 2 , Ps 16:8-11, Ps 110 found their fulfillment in the glory and the triumph of Christ.

We need not think that the prophets foresaw the actual man Jesus.

What they did foresee was that one would come some day in whom their dreams and visions would all be fulfilled.

This passage tells us when the prophets spoke they spoke the message of the glorious deliverance of God.

That was a deliverance which they themselves never experienced.

Sometimes God gives a man a vision, but says to the man himself, "Not yet!"

The prophets knew, it is a great gift to receive the vision, even if the consummation of the vision is for others still to come.

This passage tells us not only of the visions of the prophets but also of the message of the preacher.

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It was the preachers who brought the message of salvation to the readers of Peter's letter.

It tells us that preaching is the announcement of salvation.

Preaching may at different times have many notes and many aspects, but fundamentally it is the proclamation of the gospel, the good news.

The preacher may at times have to warn, threaten and condemn; he may have to remind men of the judgment and the wrath of God;

but basically, beyond all else, his message is the announcement of salvation.

It tells us that preaching is through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.

The preacher's message is not his own; it is given to him.

He brings, not his own opinions and prejudices; He brings the truth as given him by the Holy Spirit.

Like the prophet, he will have to search and enquire; He will have to study and to learn;

but he must then wait for the guidance of the Spirit to come to him.

It tells us that the preacher's message is of things of which the angels long to catch a glimpse.

“...the angels desire to look into”: Angels learning? ...through us!

cf. Eph 3:10. Note: 1 Pet 1:10-12 should be compared with 2 Pet 1:20-21:There is no excuse for triviality in preaching.

There is no excuse for an earthbound and unlovely message without interest or thrill.

The salvation of God is a tremendous thing.

It is with the message of salvation and the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ that the preacher must ever appear before men.

THE NECESSARY VIRILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH (1Pet 1:13)

This verse 13 begins five specific exhortations.

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13] So, then, gird up the loins of your mind; be sober; come to a final decision to place your hope on the grace which is going to be brought to you at the revealing of Jesus Christ.

In the Greek, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th are participles, subordinate to two commands: “have hope” and “be holy.”

3) (Set your) hope to the end for the grace1) Gird up the loins of your mind: 2) Be sober, self-controlled

5) Be ye holy4) Not fashioning yourselves (not conform to) your former lusts

Five Specific Exhortations (1 Peter 1:13-15)13] Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;1) Gird up the loins of your mind:

This suggests Exodus 12, when they were instructed to eat the Passover with their loins girded and the shoes on their feet, ready to begin their journey when the signal was given...

Cf., being girded with truth (Eph 6:14).

“Prepare your minds for action” (v. 13).

It requires that we be ready in mind, trained, filled with God’s word – the sword of the Spirit

Obedience is a conscious act of the will – it is a choice, a decision to act in humility before God – to please Him

Joh_13:13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am..

Luk_6:46 "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

Christians in conflict need a tough-minded holiness that is ready for action.

THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH Ephesians 6:14The mind is the primary battlefield on which spiritual warfare is waged.

Our spiritual defenses comes down to what we believe and think.

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If our mind is filled with truth about God, ourselves, and our enemy, then we will be prepared to withstand the lies and deceit of Satan.

We have seen already that Satan is the father of lies — that he relies on lies and deception to accomplish his ends.

He deceives and divides in order to destroy.

It should come as no surprise that the first of the six elements of Christian armor listed by Paul is the belt of truth or the that the first of Peter’s is to “gird up the lions of your mind”

Only by knowing and standing in the truth can we detect the devil’s lies and stand against his attempts to divide and destroy.

To put on the armor of God is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

Everything the armor represents, Christ is:

truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the living Word of God.

The girdle, or belt, served three purposes in the dress of a Roman, and likewise as part of a soldier’s apparel.

• It Was Important for Advancing • It Was Important for Attacking • It Was Important for Awarding

It Was Important for Advancing If a man needed to move quickly, he gathered up the folds of his long robe and tucked them under the belt he wore around his waist.

The soldier would do the same, making sure that his robe or toga did not impede his progress.

The process would have been known as “girding up one’s loins” to free them from obstacles.

“Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind...“ (1 Peter 1:13).

Get rid of those things that clutter the mind and distract it from the task of knowing and applying the truth.

Get rid and put out of the way anything that would slow or hinder your forward progress

The belt of truth is what removes all impediments from Satan (lies, deceit) as he attacks the believer

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Hebrews 12:1 (NIV): “Therefore,... let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles... us.

It Was Important for Attacking Girding up one’s robe allowed for advancing — a prerequisite for attacking.

The belt not only held the soldier’s robe out of the way, it held his sword or quiver of arrows as well.

It is no accident that the believer’s one offensive weapon — the sword which is the Word of God — is connected to the belt of truth.

The Word is the believer’s only weapon when it comes to attacking the lies of Satan as we will see below.

It Was Important for Awarding When a Roman soldier was rewarded for valor in battle, he was given a medal, or pin,

that award would be affixed to and displayed on his belt — much as today’s military personnel wear ribbons on the left-breast area of their shirt or jacket.

Those awards were a sign of the soldier’s prowess in battle. That he was alive to display his medals was a testament to his skill over the enemy.

While we don’t wear medals for Bible memory on our sleeve as Christians, we do know that storing up the Word in our heart is a sure defense against sinful temptations (Psalm 119:11).

There are two aspects of the power of the belt of truth.

First, it is God’s truth; and Second, it is God’s truth in us.

The Truth of God A debate over truth is raging in our world today.

• The first view is the traditional view that says truth exists independently and is waiting to be discovered.

• The second view is relativism— truth is defined by each individual as he sees it.

• The third view is the postmodern position that truth doesn’t exist, it must be created by each individual.2

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Christianity relies on the first view.

The Truth of God Truth is objective, eternal, and independent of man’s interpretation.

Truth comes from God;

Jesus said, “I am the. . . truth” (John 14:6).

Man’s opinion about truth changes nothing about truth since truth originates in God and is eternally true.

We can discover truth, but not create or alter truth. Truth remains truth regardless of our opinion of it.

Some people think it is arrogant for Christians to speak of truth as absolute and revealed through the living and written Word of God —Jesus Christ and the Scriptures.

It is not arrogant -- we are simply taking God at His Word.

Christians welcome the exploration of God’s creation.We pursue knowledge believing it will confirm the truth of Scripture; We are not looking for new or alternate sources of truth.

Our world today is full of confusion, missteps, and false starts.Because people don’t know the truth they don’t know how to interpret discern, and understand what is happening to them and to our world.

People don’t need warm and fuzzy; they need truthful and accurate.

They need to know exactly who they are and who God is and how they can be brought back into a relationship with Him.

They need to know the truth about Satan and spiritual warfare so they can understand the things that happen in their lives.

Doctrine is systemized truth

The systematic study of biblical doctrine is the lifelong task of the Christian.

When we know truth we will be prepared to defend ourselves against the attacks of Satan just as Jesus did in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).

When tempted by the devil, Jesus resisted the temptations on the basis of truths from Deuteronomy that He quoted.

It was His knowledge of truth that allowed Him to recognize and resist what Satan was offering.

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“The Christian soldier must possess a strong, unshakeable conviction in the reliability of Scripture and in its living power to impact the battlefield.

You must not allow yourselves to drift in your thinking, especially in this post modem world that sees truth as individually centered, and fluid, and culturally constructed.

You must also demonstrate a facility with Scripture, becoming conversant with its pages and principles on a level that is wholly involved in the dailyness of life.

Every good spirit warrior constantly asks himself this question:

What does the Bible say about this? About that? About anything?”

“Spirit Warriors” by Stu Weber

Throughout the Gospels and Acts, Jesus and the apostles demonstrated a ready facility with the Word of God.

They apparently had committed much of it to memory so they were able to quote it in teaching or ministry moments.

We may never memorize the entire Bible, but we need to be intimately familiar with all of it so we either know or know how to find God’s perspective on the situations we encounter in life.

If we don’t know the truth of Scripture we are victims waiting to happen;

We are prime targets for Satan to tempt us through lies and deception.

In order to gain the kind of knowledge we need to be able to view and address all our life situations in its light, we have to become students of the Word:

• in church, • in small groups, • in personal Bible study, • through reading books based solidly on Scripture, • through memorization, and • any other means available to us…

Our mind must be filled with God’s truth so the Holy Spirit can quicken that truth to our hearts in a moment of need.

If our mind and heart are a vacuum, Satan is ready and waiting to fill it with the opposite of God’s truth.

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Paul wrote his letters to address particular questions and circumstances in the churches.

But even more, he wrote them so the new Christians in the churches could be firmly grounded in the truth!

Paul knew their best defense against opponents of the Gospel would be a thorough knowledge of God’s truth.

Churches that do not consistently teach their members the truths of God’s Word are doing them a great disservice.

Within the covers of the Bible is everything we need to know to be victorious in spiritual warfare.

Knowledge of Scripture is the foundational cornerstone of a victorious life in Christ.

There is another dimension to truth: the truth “in here” — the (more) subjective reality of truthfulness in our lives as the truth of God is lived out through us.

We might read Eph 6:14: “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth…“

“Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind...“ (1 Peter 1:13).

Has the truth about God we have acquired from Scripture caused us to become truthful people, people of integrity?

We give Satan a place in our life when we harbor and embrace something in our heart mind, or life that is contrary to God’s truth.

If we are not allowing the Word of God to displace all carnal or fleshly attitudes and beliefs, we are giving place to the devil and setting ourselves up for defeat.

If we give the devil any place in our life (Eph 4:27), we are giving him opportunity to gain influence.

It is no surprise that the apostle John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4).

Note: He didn’t say “know the truth”; he said “walk in truth.”

When we do battle with Satan, we cannot be a pretender.

We cannot act like we are righteous when we know there is unconfessed sin in our life.

It is that unconfessed sin that becomes a “place” (Eph 4:27) for the devil.

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Many who have been Christians a long time, or perhaps grew up in a Christian home and church environment, can walk the Christian walk and talk the Christian talk on cue.

They can put on a convincing Christian face when needed.

They can even quote the truth of God since they have heard it all their life.

But that doesn’t mean they are living truthful lives, lives transformed by the truth of God.

We cannot profess to be walking in the truth while living a lie (1Jn 1:6

Jesus asked the Jewish religious leaders in His day, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (John 8:46a).

And the answer was, “No one.”

There was no place in Jesus’ life where He could be accused of inconsistency or untruth.

When He said, “I am the…truth” (John 14:6), He also proved it by living truthfully — living with integrity and honesty and transparency.

Jesus was girdled with the truth;

Jesus lived with a clear conscience.

We cannot enter spiritual battle with a guilty conscience by which Satan can hold us hostage.

Paul addressed the importance of a clear conscience multiple times in his letters.

David took the “truthfulness” approach to his life, possibly after being called to account for covering up his dual sins of murder and adultery, when he wrote:

Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, 0 God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

He wanted God to uncover and reveal whatever hidden sins might be in his heart.

He came to know that he couldn’t fulfill the responsibilities of his life if he wasn’t living a truthful life.

God is looking for people throughout the earth whose hearts are loyal to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9),

people on whose behalf He can show Himself strong,

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people who are sincere

Sincere is a word made from 2 words originally meaning “without wax.”

When a piece of pottery had a crack, an unscrupulous merchant would fill the crack with wax.

Honest merchants would advertise their pottery as being “Sine Cereus” (sincere) — without wax.

That meant it had no deficiencies or flaws.

We should be the same way.

That doesn’t mean perfect — it means honest before God about our failures and flaws, seeking His forgiveness arid cleansing (1Jn 1:9).

When we put on the helmet of salvation we are equipping ourselves with “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16),

the wisdom of God that is personified in the person of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30; Colossians 2:2-3).

Wisdom is the skill of living.

It is a practical knowledge that helps one know how to act and how to speak in different situations.

Wisdom entails the ability to avoid problems, and the skill to handle them when they present themselves.

Wisdom includes the ability to interpret other people’s speech and other people’s writing so that we can react correctly to what they are saying to us.2

When Jesus was only 12 years old (Luke 2:41-52), amazing the Jewish scholars in the temple in Jerusalem.

He “grew in wisdom and stature” (verse 52, NIV) until He began His public ministry announcing that a wisdom “greater than Solomon” had appeared in Him in Israel (Matthew 12:42).

People were amazed that a carpenter from Nazareth had the kind of knowledge and wisdom that Christ had (John 7:15,46).

The Jewish leaders “marveled” at the words the apostles offered in their own defense (Acts 4:13).

When the early church needed to select men to serve the church in Jerusalem, the apostles advised them to choose seven men “who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3, NIV).

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Paul did not want the Corinthians’ faith to be in “the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:3-5).

“... from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 3:15). Cf 2 Tim 1:5This is a testimony to the living nature of the Word of God

— it is “living and powerful ... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

God said that His Word always accomplishes the purpose for which it is sent (Isaiah 55:11).

How does one get wisdom? Ask for it!

James 1:5 “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

And the context of James’ promise is the context of falling into “various trials” (James 1:2)

go boldly before the throne of grace to seek “mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

“But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thes 5:8).

“it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:18-20).

It refers to those unprecedented times when you find yourself in an unforeseen situation and you need wisdom on what to do or say.

This is not an excuse allowing ministers for Christ to exempt themselves from the hard work of study and sermon preparation.

Joh_14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

If you haven’t girded the loins of your mind with truth, it can’t protect your thoughts – the Holy Spirit cannot bring to remembrance what was never learned in the first place.

We are to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

We must study and know the truth.

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But we are to rely on the helmet of salvation to give us the specific way(s) necessary to defend the Gospel and our own testimony in unprecedented situations.

We are to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

We must study and know the truth. But we are to rely on the helmet of salvation to give us the specific way(s) necessary to defend the Gospel and our own testimony in unprecedented situations.

The Helmet of Salvation Is Useful for Demolishing Strongholds of the Mind and Heart (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Giving Satan a “place” (Ephesians 4:27) is to allow him access to our mind — something the helmet of salvation will prevent.

It is our responsibility never to allow that to happen; to take every thought captive, measure it by the Word of God, and reject all that is not consistent with the glory and wisdom of Christ.

We tear down strongholds by replacing carnal thoughts with the pure Word of God through meditation and memorization

— and by resisting the devil and his thoughts whenever they appear in our mind (James 4:7).

It is by depending on the rhema of God (the specific words of Scripture), by employing the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17b).

Of the six elements of spiritual armor, only one is offensive — the sword, which is the Word of God —

and that it would have hung from the soldier’s belt, or girdle.

It’s not enough to have a sword (the Bible).

We have to have a belt of truthfulness that allows us to take the sword with us wherever we go and implement truth in and through our life.

We need our minds girded (surrounded / filled) with the truth of God

The spiritual warfare battlefield is usually our mind (2Co 10:3-5).

Our primary weapon is the truth that girds us round about and by which our mind is renewed and strengthened against the attacks of the enemy (Romans 12:2).

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13] Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, Exo 12:11be sober, andhope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the

revelation of Jesus Christ;

14] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your

ignorance,

15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;16 because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM

HOLY." Lev 11:44

17 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work,

conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

24 For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, 25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." Isa 40:6And this is the word which was preached to you.

2:1] Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,

2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

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13] Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;2) Be sober, self-controlled (v. 13; cf. 4:7; 5:8; 1 Thess 5:6,8):

nephontes from the verb, “be sober,” is used only figuratively in the New Testament.

It means to be free from every form of mental and spiritual “drunkenness” or excess.

Rather than being controlled by outside circumstances, believers should be directed from within.

13] Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;3) (Set your) hope to the end for the grace (v. 13):

[It is interesting how an awareness of our “Blessed Hope” (prophecies of His Second Coming) purifies our lives and rearranges our priorities!]“Set your hope fully”; holy living demands determination.

A believer’s hope is to be set perfectly (teleious, completely or unchangeably), and without reserve on the grace (cf. v. 10) to be bestowed

when Jesus Christ is revealed (lit., “in the revelation apokalypsei] of Jesus Christ”;

cf. the same phrase in v. 7; cf. the verb “be revealed” in v. 5.

Four times Peter has already spoken of the Savior’s return and the accompanying ultimate stage of salvation (vv. 5,7,9,13).

Peter has been talking about the greatness and the glory to which the Christian may look forward; but the Christian can never be lost in dreams of the future; he must always be virile in the battle of the present.

Peter sends out three challenges to his people.

He tells them to gird up the loins of their mind

This is a deliberately vivid phrase.

In the east men wore long flowing robes which hindered fast progress or strenuous action.

Around the waist they wore a broad belt or girdle; and

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when strenuous action was necessary they shortened the long robe by pulling it up within the belt in order to give them freedom of movement.

The English equivalent of the phrase would be to roll up one's sleeves or to take off one's jacket.

Peter is telling his people that they must be ready for the most strenuous mental endeavor.

They must never be content with a flabby and unexamined faith;

They must set to and think things out and think them through.

It may be that they will have to discard some things.

It may be that they will make mistakes.

But what they are left with will be theirs in such a way that nothing and nobody can ever take it away from them.

He tells them to be sober.

The Greek word, like the English, can have two meanings.

It can mean that they must refrain from drunkenness in the literal sense of the term; and

It can also mean that they must be steady in their minds.

They must become intoxicated neither with intoxicating liquor nor with intoxicating thoughts;

They must preserve a balanced judgment.

Peter is appealing to them to maintain the essential steadiness of the man who knows what he believes.

He tells them to set their hope on the grace which is going to be given to them when Jesus Christ comes.

It is the great characteristic of the Christian that he lives in hope; and because he lives in hope he can endure the trials of the present.

Any man can endure struggle and effort and toil, if he is certain that it is all leading somewhere.

That is why the athlete accepts his training and the student his study.

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For the Christian the best is always still to come.

He can live with gratitude for all the mercies of the past, with resolution to meet the challenge of the present and with the certain hope that in Christ the best is yet to be.

THE CHRISTLESS LIFE AND THE CHRIST-FILLED LIFE (1Pet 1:14-25)Be obedient children. Do not continue to live a life which matches the desires of the days of your former ignorance, but show yourselves holy in all your conduct of life as he who called you is holy, because it stands written: "You must be holy, because I am holy." If you address as Father him who judges each man according to his work with complete impartiality, conduct yourselves with reverence throughout the time of your sojourn in this world; for you know that it was not by perishable things, by silver or gold, that you were rescued from the futile way of life which you learned from your fathers, but it was by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It was before the creation of the world that he was predestined to his work; it is at the end of the ages that he has appeared, for the sake of you who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God. Now that you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth--a purification that must issue in a brotherly love that is sincere--love each other heartily and steadfastly, for you have been reborn, not of mortal but of immortal seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for, "All flesh is grass, and its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." And that is the word, the good news of which was brought to you.

14] As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:4) Not fashioning yourselves (not conform to) your former lusts

Do not conform to the evil desires of their past sinful lives

(cf. Eph 2:3) when they were ignorant of God (cf. Eph 4:18): suscheumatizomenoi, as also used in Rom 12:2).

Rather as obedient children (lit., “children of obedience”) they were to mold their characters toward His:

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The Christless LifeThe Christless life is the life of ignorance (1Pet 1:14).

The pagan world was always haunted by the unknowability of God; at best men could but grope after his mystery.

The ancient world did not doubt that there was a God or gods but it believed that such gods as there were were quite unknowable and totally uninterested in men and the universe.

In a world without Christ God was mystery and power but never love;

there was no one to whom men could raise their hands for help or their eyes for hope.

The Christless life is the life dominated by desire (1Pet 1:14).

As we read the records of that world into which Christianity came we cannot but be appalled at the sheer fleshliness of life within it.

There was desperate poverty at the lower end of the social scale; but at the top we read of banquets which cost thousands of pounds, where peacocks' brains and nightingales' tongues were served and where the Emperor Vitellius set on the table at one banquet two thousand fish and seven thousand birds.

Chastity was forgotten.

Martial speaks of a woman who had reached her tenth husband;

Juvenal of a woman who had eight husbands in five years; and

Jerome tells us that in Rome there was one woman who was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself being his twenty-first wife.

Both in Greece and in Rome homosexual practices were so common that they had come to be looked on as natural.

It was a world mastered by desire, whose aim was to find newer and wilder ways of gratifying its lusts.

The Christless life was a life characterized by futility.

Its basic trouble was that it was not going anywhere.

If a man was to die like a dog, why should he not live like a dog?

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Life was a futile business with a few brief years in the light of the sun and then an eternal nothingness.

There was nothing for which to live and nothing for which to die.

Life must always be futile when there is nothing on the other side of death.

15] But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;5) Be ye holy:

“...conversation”: (Old English): Behavior.

Their lifestyle was to reflect not their former ignorance (agnoia),

but the holy (hagios) nature of their heavenly Father who gave them new birth and called them to be His own

(cf. “Called” in 2 Peter 1:3).

16] Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.Cf. Lev 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7.

1 Peter 1:15-16 does not speak of legal requirements but it is a reminder of a Christian’s responsibility in his inner life and outer walk.

Though absolute holiness may never be fullu achieved in this life, all areas of life should be in the process of becoming completely conformed to God’s perfect and holy will.

The Christ-filled LifeThe Christ-filled life is the life of obedience and of holiness (1Pet 1:14-16).

To be chosen by God is to enter, not only into great privilege, but also into great responsibility.

It was God's insistence to his people that they must be holy because he was holy (Lev 11:44; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Lev 20:26).

The word for holy is hagios (<G40>) whose root meaning is different.

The Temple is hagios (<G40>) because it is different from other buildings; The Sabbath is hagios (<G40>) because it is different from other days;

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The Christian is hagios (<G40>) because he is different from other men.

The Christian is God's man by God's choice. He is chosen for a task in the world and for a destiny in eternity. He is chosen to live for God in time and with him in eternity.

In the world he must obey his law and reproduce his life.

There is laid on the Christian the task of being different.

17] And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:“...fear”: Reverential fear is evidenced by a tender conscience, a watchfulness against temptation, and avoiding things that would displease God.

Reverence is the attitude of mind of the man who is always aware that he is in the presence of God.

The Christian is a sojourner in this world.

Life for him is lived in the shadow of eternity; he thinks all the time, not only of where he is but also of where he is going.

He is going to God; true, he can call God Father, but that very God whom he calls Father is also he who judges every man with strict impartiality.

The Christian is a man for whom there is a day of reckoning.

He is a man with a destiny to win or to lose.

Life in this world becomes of tremendous importance because it is leading to the life beyond.

The Christian must live life in reverence, because it cost so much, nothing less than the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Since, then, life is of such surpassing value, it cannot be wasted or thrown away.

No honorable man squanders what is of infinite human worth.

Are we “sojourning” or are we “earth dwellers?”

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We are to live according to His absolute standards, as strangers (cf. “aliens” in 2:11) to the world’s shifting, situational ethics.

18] Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;Not with a silver half-shekel (Ex 30:12-15).

Children of obedience should be strangers to their former empty way of life (cf. v. 14), handed down from their forebears, since they have been redeemed (from “to pay a ransom”) with the precious (cf. 1 Pet 2:4, 6-7) blood of Christ (cf. 1 Pet 1:2).

Redemption is a purchasing from the marketplace of sin, a ransom not paid by silver or gold, which perish, but with the priceless blood of a perfect Lamb (cf. v. 7).

19] But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:“...without blemish and without spot”: Passover requirements.

Similar to the sacrificial lambs which were to be without defect, Christ was sinless, uniquely qualified as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29; cf. Heb 9:14).

Jesus Christ is the emancipator, through whom men are delivered from the bondage of sin and death; he is the lamb without blemish and without spot (1Pet 1:19).

When Peter spoke like that of Jesus, his mind was going back to two Old Testament pictures--to Isa 53 , with its picture of the Suffering Servant, through whose suffering the people were saved and healed and above all to the picture of the Passover Lamb (Exo 12:5).

On that memorable night when they left the slavery of Egypt, the children of Israel were bidden to take a lamb and slay it and mark their doorposts with its blood; and, when the angel of death went through the land slaying the first-born sons of the Egyptians, he passed over every house so marked. In that picture of the Passover Lamb there are the twin thoughts of emancipation from slavery and deliverance from death.

No matter how we interpret it, it cost the life and death of Jesus Christ to liberate men from their bondage to sin and to death.

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20] Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,“...foreordained”: When was He ordained?

No afterthought here—all was foreseen and prepared beforehand.

It was before the creation of the world that he was predestined for the work which was given him to do (1Pet 1:20).

Sometimes we tend to think of God as first Creator and then Redeemer, as having created the world and then, when things went wrong, finding a way to rescue it through Jesus Christ.

But here we have the vision of a God who was Redeemer before he was Creator.

His redeeming purpose was not an emergency measure to which he was compelled when things went wrong.

It goes back before creation.

Paradigm of Divine Volition• Foreknowledge determines Election;• Predestination brings to pass the Election;• Election looks back to Foreknowledge;• Predestination looks forward to Destiny.

Divine Election• Corporate: Israel (Isa 45) and the Church (Eph 1:4).

• Individual: According to the foreknowledge of God (1 Pet 1:2);wholly of grace, not human merit (Rom 9:11; 11:5,6); whereby certain are chosen for Himself (Jn 15:19) or for distinctive service (Lk 6:13; Acts 9:15; 1 Cor 1:27,28).

21] Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.Jesus Christ is not only the lamb who was slain; he is the resurrected and triumphant one to whom God gave glory.

The New Testament thinkers seldom separate the Cross and the Resurrection;

They seldom think of the sacrifice of Christ without thinking of his triumph.

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There was something subtly and tragically wrong in any emphasis on the agony of the Cross which dimmed the brightness of the Resurrection,

any suggestion that it was endured pain rather than overcoming love which secured man's salvation."

The truth, which is obscured only at grave spiritual peril, is that the Crucifixion cannot be interpreted and understood save in the light of the Resurrection."

Through his death Jesus emancipated men from their bondage to slavery and death;

Through his Resurrection he gives them a life which is as glorious and indestructible as his own.

Through this triumphant Resurrection we have faith and hope in God (1Pet 1:21).

22] Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:“...unfeigned”: Sincere:,anypokriton could also be rendered

When a person feigns something they are play acting, faking, attempting to deceive. Something that is unfeigned is true, pure, legitimate.

“without hypocrisy.” All evil thoughts and feelings regarding one’s brothers and sisters in Christ must be removed, for His followers are to love deeply, from the heart.

This kind of loving (from agapao), can only from a changed heart, from one whose motives are pure, and who seeks to give more than he takes.

This love is to be expressed not shallowly but “deeply” (ektenous, “at full stretch” or “in an all-out manner, with an intense strain”; cf. ektenvh in 1 Peter 4:8.

“...a pure heart fervently”: A positive result of obeying the truth is a purified life (cf. v. 2b).

“How can a young man keep his way pure?“…By taking heed thereto according to thy Word” (Ps 119:9).

As trials refine faith, so obedience to God’s Word refines character.

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One who has purified himself by living according to God’s Word has discovered the joy of obedience.

A changed life should also be evidenced by a changed relationship with God’s other children.

A purified life allows one to love purely those who share the same faith.

The Christ-filled life is the life of brotherly love. It must issue in a love for the brethren which is sincere and hearty and steadfast.

The Christian is a man who is reborn, not of mortal, but of immortal seed.

The remaking of the Christian is due to no human agency but to the agency of God,

"who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:13).

It means that the Christian is remade by the entry into him of the seed of the word;

the picture is that of the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-9).

The quotation which Peter makes is from Isa 40:6-8

The Christian is remade. Because he is reborn, the life of God is in him. The great characteristic of the life of God is love, and so the Christian must show that divine love for men.

23] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.“Born again” Peter again reminded his readers that they had experienced the new birth (cf. v. 3).

This supernatural event made it possible for them to obey the truth, purify themselves, and love the brethren.

“...incorruptible”: Is “incorruptible seed” corruptible?

This change in their lives would not die, because it took place through God’s Word, which is imperishable living and enduring (aphthartos, the word in v. 4 that described a believer’s inheritance)

24] For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

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Peter supported his exhortation (v. 22) by quoting Isaiah 40:6-8.

All that is born of perishable seed withers and falls, but God’s Word stands forever.

25] But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.“...the Word of the Lord”:

Logos G3056: The whole revelation of God

Remah G4487: The sayings of God

This imperishable Word was the content of Peter’s preaching (cf. v. 12):

“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth” (James 1:18).

His hearers must be affected by its life-changing power, as indicated in 1 Peter 2:1-3.

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1 Peter 2

Review Peter was one of the first disciples called; he always stands first in the lists of disciples;

He was also one of the three who formed an inner circle round the Master (Mk 5:37; 9:2; 14:33; cf. 13:3).

His impulsive devotion is frequently portrayed (Mt 14:28; Mk 14:29; Lk 5:8; Jn 21:7)

He acts as spokesman of the Twelve (Mt 15:15; 18:21; Mk 1:36f; 8:29; 9:5; 10:28; 11:21; 14:29f; Lk 5:5; 12:41).

At the crisis near Caesarea Philippi, Peter is the representative of the whole band: for the question is directed to them all and all are included in the look that accompanies the subsequent reprimand (Mk 8:27, 29, 33).

The transfiguration is intimately related to the apostolic confession which precedes it (Mk 9:1).

The experience made a lasting impression on Peter (1 Pet 5:1; 2 Pet 1:16ff).

WHAT TO LOSE AND WHAT TO YEARN FOR (1Pet 2:1-3)2:1-3 Strip off, therefore, all the evil of the heathen world and all deceitfulness, acts of hypocrisy and feelings of envy, and all gossiping disparagements of other people, and, like newly-born babes, yearn for the unadulterated milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up until you reach salvation. You are bound to do this if you have tasted that the Lord is kind. No Christian can stay the way he is; and Peter urges his people to have done with evil things and to set their hearts on that which alone can nourish life.

1] Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,“Wherefore...”: Deriving from the previous chapter.

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Repentance is called for. Peter then listed five sins of attitude and speech, which drives wedges between believers.

“lay aside” The Greek verb expresses the idea of removing garments:

There are things of which the Christian must divest himself as he would strip off a soiled garment.

Apothesthai (compare <G595>) is the verb for stripping off one's clothes.

[Notice the “all” 3X! No exceptions.]

• Malice (kakian) is wicked ill-will; the desire to inflict pain, harm, or injury on our fellow man.

“Put off all malice.” Cf.. Paul also, “Put off your old self” (Eph 4:22; Col 3:9).

He must strip off all the evil of the heathen world. The word for evil is kakia (<G2549>); it is the most general word for wickedness and includes all the wicked ways of the Christless world.

The other words are illustrations and manifestations of this kakia (<G2549>); and it is to be noted that they are all faults of character which hurt the great Christian virtue of brotherly love.

There can be no brotherly love so long as these evil things exist.

• Guile, deceit (dolon) is deliberate dishonesty, falsehood, craft, seduction, slander, and treachery.

Operationally, it is the antithesis of being a fiduciary (see notes on Eph 6:4-9).

Deceit and hypocrisy are twins: by deceit a person is wronged; and by hypocrisy he is deceived.

There is deceitfulness (dolos, <G1388>).

Dolos is the trickery of the man who is out to deceive others to attain his own ends, the vice of the man whose motives are never pure.

• Hypocrisy (hypokriseis), pretended piety and love; pretending to be what one is not; a man with a double heart and a lying tongue.

As Jesus quoted Isaiah to the Pharisees (Mt 15:7-8, 9. Isa 29:13).

There is hypocrisy (hupokrisis, <G5272>). Hupokrites (<G5273>) (hypocrite) is a word with a curious history.

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It is the noun from the verb hupokrinesthai (<G5271>) which means to answer;

a hupokrites (<G5273>) begins by being an answerer.

Then it comes to mean an actor, the man who takes part in the question and answer of the stage.

Next it comes to mean a hypocrite, a man who all the time is acting a part and concealing his real motives.

The hypocrite is the man whose alleged Christian profession is for his own profit and prestige and not for the service and glory of Christ.

• Envy (phthonous), resentful discontent (both hypocrisy and envy appear in the plural in the Greek);

There is envy (phthonos, <G5355>).

It may well be said that envy is the last sin to die.

It reared its ugly head even in the apostolic band.

The other ten were envious of James and John, when they seemed to steal a march upon them in the matter of precedence in the coming Kingdom (Mk 10:41).

Even at the last supper the disciples were disputing about who should occupy the seats of greatest honor (Lk 22:24).

So long as self remains active within a man's heart there will be envy in his life.

• Evil speaking, slander (katalalias), backbiting lies.

None of these should have any place in those who are born again.

Rather, in obedience to the Word, believers are to make decisive breaks with the past.

There is gossiping disparagement (katalalia, <G2636>).

Katalalia is evil-speaking; it is almost always the fruit of envy in the heart; and it usually takes place when its victim is not there to defend himself.

Few things are so attractive as hearing or repeating spicy gossip.

Disparaging gossip is something which everyone admits to be wrong and which at the same time almost everyone enjoys; and yet there is nothing more productive of heartbreak and nothing is so destructive of brotherly love and Christian unity.

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The Most Painful SinWhat sin has probably caused more pain than any other?

Leviticus 19:16,17Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

In its formal form, it is a violation of a commandment written in stone by the finger of God!

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Proverbs 10:17-20 He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.

GossipGossip is a form of betrayal and is probably accountable for more personal pain and suffering than most of us have any appreciation of. Common, casual, yet hurtful beyond our imagining.

Quietly, behind the flurry of daily priorities, its venom does its silent work, undermining confidences, betraying relationships, spreading unseen injustices...

It is disturbing to note how many of us have been injured—deeply—by gossip and by those who accept, without checking, negative or derogatory innuendos whispered behind our backs.

What an opportunity to display loyalty, love, and, by assuming the most charitable construction, in advance, demonstrate the foundation of a relationship!

The tongue is a ready and willing instrument to talk about our neighbor behind his back (Cf. Rom 1:30; 2 Cor 12:20; James 4:11).

2 Cor 12:20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

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Proverbs 11:13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

Proverbs 18:8 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Proverbs 20:19 He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Proverbs 26:20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.

Proverbs 26:21 As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

Proverbs 26:22 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

The “Christian” Approach:

“I don’t want to gossip. However, in order that you might pray more specifically for _______, let me tell you the latest…”

John 8:6,7 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

What Is a True Friend?One who doesn’t require explanations. One who gives the benefit of the doubt. One who is loyal and shuns any form of betrayal…

A Poem: “I Hear It Said...”Last night my friend—he says he is my friend—Came in and questioned me.“I hear it said you have done this and that.I come to ask are these things true?”A glint was in his eye of small distrust.His words were crisp and hot.He measured me with anger,and flung down a little heap of facts had come to him.“I hear it said you have done this and that.”Suppose I have? And are you not my friend?And are you not my friend enough to say,“If it were true, there would be reason in it.

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And if I cannot know the how and why,Still I can trust you, waiting for a word,Or for no word, if no word ever come!”Is friendship just a thing of afternoons,Of pleasuring one’s friend and one’s dear self—Greed for sedate approval of his pace,Suspicion if he take one little turnUpon the road, one flight into the air,And has not sought you for your Yea or Nay!No. Friendship is not so. I am my own.And howsoever near my friend may drawUnto my soul, there is a legend hungAbove a certain straight and narrow waySays “Dear my friend, ye may not enter here!”I would the time has come—as it has not—When men shall rise and say, “He is my friend.He has done this? And what is that to me!Think you I have a check upon his head,Or cast a guiding rein across his neck?I am his friend. And for that cause I walkNot overclose beside him, leaving stillSpace for his silences, and space for mine.”

—Barbara Young

These, then, are the things which the reborn man must strip off for, if he continues to allow them to have a grip upon his life, the unity of the brethren must be injured.

THAT ON WHICH TO SET THE HEART 1Peter 2:2-3

2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

2] As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:Be as eager for the nourishment of the Word as babies are for milk.

As newborn babes, their life depends on the next feeding!

After believers cast out impure desires and motives (v. 1),

they then need to feed on wholesome spiritual food that produces growth.

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Sincere, unadulterated, pure [adolon] is deliberately contrasted with “deceit” [dolon] in v. 1.

God’s Word does not deceive; neither should God’s children.

Christians should approach the Word with clean hearts and minds (v. 1) in eager anticipation, with a desire to grow spiritually.

The Christian must set his heart on new things.

He cannot just ‘lay aside’ / ‘put off’, He must also ‘take up’ / ‘put on’He must yearn for the unadulterated milk of the word.

This is a phrase about whose meaning there is some difficulty.

The difficulty is with the word. logikos (<G3050>) which with the King James Version we have translated of the word.

The English Revised Version translates it spiritual, and in the margin gives the alternative translation reasonable.

Moffatt has spiritual, as has the Revised Standard Version.

Logikos (<G3050>) is the adjective from the noun logos (<G3056>) and the difficulty is that it has three perfectly possible translations.

Logos (<G3056>) is the great Stoic word for the reason which guides the universe;

logikos (<G3050>) is a favourite Stoic word which describes what has to do with this divine reason which is the governor of all things.

If this is the word's connection, clearly spiritual is the meaning.

Logos (<G3056>) is the normal Greek word for mind or reason; logic

logikos (<G3050>) often means reasonable or intelligent.

It is in that way that the King James Version translates it in Rom 12:1, where it speaks of our reasonable service.

Logos (<G3056>)is the Greek for word,

logikos (<G3050>) means belonging to the Lord.

This is the sense in which the King James Version takes it, and we think it is correct.

Peter has just been talking about the word of God which abides forever (1Pet 1:23-25).

It is the word of God which is in his mind; a

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The Christian must desire with his whole heart the nourishment which comes from the word of God, for by that nourishment he can grow.

In face of all the evil of the heathen world the Christian must strengthen his soul with the pure food of the word of God.

This food of the word is unadulterated (adolos, <G97>).

There is not the slightest mixture of anything evil in it.

Adolos (<G97>) is an almost technical word to describe corn (American: grain) that is entirely free from chaff or dust or useless or harmful matter.

In all human wisdom there is some admixture of what is either useless or harmful; the word of God is altogether good.

The Christian is to yearn for this milk of the word; yearn is epipothein (<G1971>) which is a strong word.

It is the word which is used for the heart longing for the waterbrooks (Ps 42:1), and

for the Psalmist longing for the salvation of the Lord (Ps 119:174).

For the sincere Christian, to study God's word is not a labor but a delight, for he knows that there his heart will find the nourishment for which it longs.

The metaphor of the Christian as a baby and the word of God as the milk whereby he is nourished is common in the New Testament.

Paul thinks of himself as the nurse who cares for the infant Christians of Thessalonica (1Th 2:7).

He thinks of himself as feeding the Corinthians with milk for they are not yet at the stage of meat (1Cor 3:2);

In the Letter to the Hebrews, he blames his people for being still at the stage of milk when they should have gone on to maturity (Heb 5:12; Heb 6:2).

To symbolize the rebirth of baptism in the early church, the newly baptized Christian was clothed in white robes, and sometimes he was fed with milk as if he was a little child.

It is this nourishment with the milk of the word which makes a Christian grow up and grow on until he reaches salvation.

3] If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

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Quoting Psalm 34:8, Peter continues the milk analogy used in v.2 and likened their present knowledge of Christ to tasting.

They had taken a sample, having experienced God’s grace in their new birth, and had found that indeed the Lord is gracious.

"You are bound to do this,"if you have tasted the kindness of God."

The fact that God is gracious is not an excuse for us to do as we like, depending on him to overlook it;

It lays on us an obligation to toil towards deserving his graciousness and love.

The kindness of God is not an excuse for laziness in the Christian life.

The grace and kindness of God is the greatest of all incentives to effort – not to earn it but because we have received it

Cf:Heb 6:4

THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH (1Pet 2:4-10)2:4-10 Come to him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious with God, and be yourselves, like living stones, built into a spiritual house until you become a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices, which are well-pleasing to God through Jesus Christ; for there is a passage in Scripture which says, "Behold, I place in Zion a stone, chosen, a cornerstone, precious, and he who believes in him shall not be put to shame." So, then, there is preciousness in that stone to you who believe; but, to those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected has become the headstone of the corner, and a stone over which they will stumble, and a rock over which they will trip. They stumble because they disobey the word--a fate for which they were appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people dedicated to God, a nation for him specially to possess that you might tell forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light, you, who were once not a people and are now the people of the Lord, you who were once without mercy and have now found mercy. Peter sets before us the nature and the function of the Church.

The Stone Which The Builders Rejected

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1Pe 2:4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,4] To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,“To whom coming...”: The participle’s tense and voice indicate that this coming is a personal, habitual approach.

It is an intimate association of communion and fellowship between believers and their Lord.

Peter develops and explains the metaphor of the stone in the following verses.

5] Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.Believers, identified with Christ, for He is the living Stone, are like living stones.

As they become more like Him, further conformed to His image, they are being built into a spiritual house. J

“On this rock I will build My church” (Mt 16:18);

Peter clearly identifies Christ as the Rock on which His Church is built (vv.4-5).

Paul called the Church a “temple” (1 Cor 3:16) and “a dwelling” (Eph 2:21,22).

“...sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”: Such priestly service requires holiness (cf. 1 Pet 1:16, 22). Praise to God and doing good to

others are spiritual sacrifices that please Him (Heb 13:15). However, “living stones” should also offer themselves as “living sacrifices” acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (Rom 12:1, 2).

“...living stone”: However theologians may wrangle about the meaning of the Lord’s words in Mt 16,

Peter himself understood them.

The Rock is Christ Himself, the Living Stone.

Every believer is also a living stone—made such by grace.

Here he said this Stone is living. It has life in itself and gives life to others.

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People may enter into personal, vital relationships with this “Living Stone.”

Here Peter used a unique figure of speech:

In 1 Pet 1:3 he referred to a “living hope”; 1 Pet 1:23 to the “living . . . Word”; and, in 1 Pet 2:4 he refers to Christ as “the living Stone.”

“...disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious...”:

Whereas Christ was disallowed rejected by men , God had chosen Him (cf. 1 Pet 1:20 and held Him precious (cf. 1 Pet 1:19; 2:4, 7),

Christians rejected by the world may take heart in the knowledge that they are the elect (1:1), and valued by God (cf. 1 Pet 1:18).

Much is made of the idea of the stone. Three Old Testament passages are symbolically used; let us look at them one by one.

The beginning of the whole matter goes back to the words of Jesus himself.

One of the most illuminating parables he ever told was the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen.

He told how the wicked husbandmen killed servant after servant and in the end even murdered the son.

He was showing how the nation of Israel had again and again refused to listen to the prophets and had persecuted them, and how this refusal was to reach its climax with his own death.

But beyond the death he saw the triumph and he told of that triumph in words taken from the Psalms 118:22:

"The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Matt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17).

In the original it was thought to be a reference to the nation of Israel.

The words express Israel's consciousness of its mission and destiny in the purpose of God."

The powers of the world flung it aside as useless, but God destined it for the most honorable and important place in the building of his kingdom in the world.

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Jesus took these words and applied them to himself.

It looked as if he was utterly rejected by men; but in the purpose of God he was the corner-stone of the edifice of the Kingdom, honored above all.

In the Old Testament there are other references to this symbolic stone, and the early Christian writers used them for their purposes.

Isa 28:16: "Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation; he who believes will not be in haste."

Again the reference is to Israel.

The sure and precious stone is God's unfailing relationship to his people, a relationship which was to culminate in the coming of the Messiah.

Once again the early Christian writers took this passage and applied it to Jesus Christ as the precious and immovable foundation stone of God.

"But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offence, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (Isa 8:13-14).

Its meaning is that God is offering his lordship to the people of Israel;

that to those who accept him he will become a sanctuary and a salvation,

but to those who reject him he will become a terror and a destruction.

Again the early Christian writers took this passage and applied it to Jesus.

To those who accept him Jesus is Savior and Friend; to those who reject him he is judgment and condemnation.

For the understanding of this passage, we have to take in a New Testament reference to these Old Testament ones.

It is hardly possible that Peter could speak of Jesus as the corner-stone and of Christians as being built into a spiritual

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house, united in him, without thinking of Jesus' own words to himself.

When he made his great confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus said to him,

"You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church" (Matt 16:18).

It is on the faith of the loyal believer that the Church is built.

These are the origins of the pictures in this passage.

The Nature Of The Church1Pe 2:5-8

5 … you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.6 For this is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,"8 and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

The Christian is likened to a living stone and the Church to a living edifice into which he is built .

Clearly that means that Christianity is community;

the individual Christian finds his true place only when he is built into that edifice.

"Solitary religion" is ruled out as an impossibility.

So long as a brick lies by itself it is useless; it becomes of use only when it is incorporated into a building.

So it is with the individual Christian.

To realize his destiny he must not remain alone, but must be built into the fabric of the Church.

It is so with the Church. Individualistic Christianity is an absurdity; Christianity is community within the fellowship of the Church.

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for a holy priesthood

Christians are a holy priesthood (1Pet 2:5).

A holy priest is the man who himself has access to God and whose task it is to bring others to him.

In the ancient world this access to God was the privilege of the professional priests, and in particular of the High Priest who alone could enter into the Holy of Holies.

Through Jesus Christ, the new and living way, access to God becomes the privilege of every Christian, however simple he may be.

The Latin word for priest is pontifex, which means bridge-builder;

the priest is the man who builds a bridge for others to come to God;

the Christian has the duty and the privilege of bringing others to that Savior whom he himself has found and loves.

The priest is the man who brings an offering to God.

The Christian also must continuously bring his offerings to God.

Under the old dispensation the offerings brought were animal sacrifices; but the sacrifices of the Christian are spiritual sacrifices.

He makes his work an offering to God.

Everything is done for God; and so even the meanest task is clad with glory.

The Christian makes his worship an offering to God; and so the worship of God's house becomes, not a burden but a joy.

The Christian makes himself an offering to God.

"Present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God" (Rom 12:1).

What God desires most of all is the love of our hearts and the service of our lives.

6] Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

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“...chief corner stone”: In verses 6-8 Peter quotes 3 OT verses: Isa 28:6; Ps 118:22; and, Isa 8:14. In Isa 28:16,

Christ is the “chosen and precious” (cf. “precious” in 1 Pet 1:19; 2:4, 7) cornerstone.

A cornerstone points to the visible support on which the rest of the building relies for strength and stability.

Moreover, they will never be put to shame.

The Greek double negative used here in the subjunctive mood indicates an emphatic negative assertion referring to the future: never indeed will they be shamed.

So Peter encourages his readers with a sure scriptural promise of ultimate victory for those who trust Christ.

7] Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,These verses present a sharp contrast between those who believe and those who do not.

Christ is “precious,” of ultimate value, to those who believe.

But those who have rejected Christ stumble because of their disobedience.

Peter’s second quotation is from Ps 118:22. Jesus also quoted Ps 118:22 in reference to His rejection by the chief priests and Pharisees in Matthew 21:42-46:

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. Matthew 21:42-46

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8] And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.“...disobedient”: Peter’s third quotation is from Isaiah 8:14.

Rejection of Jesus Christ is fatal and is connected with disobeying the message of God’s Word.

To disobey the message is to reject it;

Tto obey it is to believe (cf. 1 Pet 4:17;

cf. obedience in 1 Peter 1:14, 22 and “obedient to the faith” in Acts 6:7).

All who do not receive Christ as their Savior will one day face Him as their Judge.

Because of sin, all disobedient unbelievers are destined for a “stumbling,” which will lead to eternal condemnation.

[Cf. “Stone” and “Rock” as idioms of the Holy Spirit throughout the Scripture; cf. 1 Cor 10:4, et al.]

Christ, the RockSmitten that the Spirit of life may flow from Him to all who will drink (Ex 17:6; 1 Cor 10:4; Jn 4:13,14; 7:37-39):

• To the Church, the foundation and chief corner Stone (Eph 2:20);

• To the Jews, at His 1st Coming, a “stumbling stone” (Rom 9:32,33; 1 Cor 1:23);• To Israel, at His 2nd Coming, “the headstone of the corner” (Zech 4:7);

• To the Gentile world power, the smiting “Stone cut without hands” (Dan 2:34);

• In the Divine Purpose, the Stone which, after the destruction of Gentile world powers, is to grow and fill the earth (Dan 2:34);

• To unbelievers, the crushing Stone of judgment that will grind those to powder (Mt 21:44).

Organization of 1st Peter• Christian Suffering and conduct in the light of full salvation (1:1 – 2:8);• The Believer’s Life in light of Sevenfold position (2:9 – 4:19);• Christian Service in light the Coming Chief Shepherd (5:1-14)

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1Pe 2:9-109 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

The Function Of The ChurchPeter uses a whole series of phrases which are a summary of the functions of the Church.

He calls the Christians "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people dedicated to God, a nation for him specially to possess."

Peter is steeped in the Old Testament and these phrases are all great description of the people of Israel.

Isa 43:21 "The people whom I formed for myself."

Exo 19:5-6 "Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all people; for all the earth is mine: and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation."

9] But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:The great promises which God made to his people Israel are being fulfilled to the Church, as well.

“But ye are a chosen generation”: Peter closes this portion of his letter of encouragement with a moving exhortation for his readers to practice holiness.

He reminded them that, in contrast with the disobedient who are destined for destruction, they were a chosen (ejklektovn, eklekton;) people.

Peter again echoed the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah 43:20. “Chosen people,” which used to apply only to Israel, was now used of both Jewish and Gentile believers.

Christians are a chosen people.

Exo 19:5-6 is from the passage which describes how God entered into his covenant with Israel.

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In the covenant he offered a special relationship with himself to Israel; but it depended on the people of Israel accepting the conditions of the covenant and keeping the law.

That relationship would hold only "if you will obey my voice, and keep my covenant" (Exo 19:5).

The Christian is chosen for three things.

He is chosen for privilege.

In Jesus Christ there is offered to him a new and intimate fellowship with God.

God has become his friend and he has become God's friend.

He is chosen for obedience.

Privilege brings with it responsibility.

The Christian is chosen in order that he may become the obedient child of God.

He is chosen not to do as he likes but to do as God likes.

He is chosen for service.

His honor is that he is the servant of God.

His privilege is that he will be used for the purposes of God.

But he can be so used only when he brings to God the obedience he desires.

Chosen for privilege, chosen for obedience, chosen for service--these three great facts go hand in hand.

Royal PriesthoodChristians are a royal priesthood.

We have already seen that this means that every Christian has the right of access to God;

and that he must offer his work, his worship and himself to God.

The responsibility once solely trusted to the nation of Israel: at Sinai, God told Moses to tell the people,

“You will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6).

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Now, during this Church Age, this relationship has been given to the church:

Believers in the Church Age are called:

– “A holy priesthood,” (1 Pet 2:5);

– “A royal priesthood,” (1 Pet 2:9; cf. Rev 1:6);

Rev 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

– “A people belonging to God” (Mal 3:17; Act 20:28; Tit 2:14).

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Act 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The Messiah was prophesied to be both priest and king (Zech 6:13; Heb 7:14-17; Rev 1:5-6).

While these descriptions of the church are similar to those used of Israel in the Old Testament, this in no way indicates that the church supplants Israel nor assumes that the national blessings promised to Israel (and to be fulfilled in the Millennium) devolve upon the church.

Similarity does not mean identity.

[Note the identity of the “kings and priests” of the 24 elders in Revelation with the church...]

Believers not only make up the church but serve in it, ministering as a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices.

All believers are priests (cf. 1 Pet 2:9; Heb 4:16; Rev 1:6) and need no mediator other than Jesus Christ to approach God directly (1 Tim 2:5).

The function of the Church is to tell forth the excellencies of God.

It is to witness to men concerning the mighty acts of God.

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By his very life, even more than by his words, the Christian is to be a witness of what God in Christ has done for him.

Believer-priests should live so that their heavenly Father’s qualities are evident in their lives.

They are to serve as witnesses of the glory and grace of God, who called them out of darkness into His wonderful light.

Christians are what the Revised Standard Version calls a holy nation.

We have already seen that the basic meaning of hagios (<G40>) (holy) is different.

The Christian has been chosen that he may be different from other men.

That difference lies in the fact that he is dedicated to God's will and to God's service.

Other people may follow the standards of the world but for him the only standards are God's.

A man need not even start on the Christian way unless he realizes that it will compel him to be different from other people.

Christians are a people for God specially to possess.

It frequently happens that the value of a thing lies in the fact that some one has possessed it.

A very ordinary thing acquires a new value, if it has been possessed by some famous person.

In any museum we find quite ordinary things--clothes, a walking-stick, a pen, books, pieces of furniture--which are of value only because they were once possessed by some great person.

The Christian may be a very ordinary person but he acquires a new value because he belongs to God.

out of darkness into his glorious light. “...called you out of darkness...” refers to the time when his readers were pagans, ignorant of God’s provision of salvation (cf. Col. 1:13), when they were not a people, when they had not received mercy.

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His “marvelous light” now illumines the people of God because they have received. Peter explains this figure in the next verse with a quotation from Hosea 2:23:

When a man comes to know Jesus Christ, he comes to know God.

"He who has seen me, has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). When a man comes to know Jesus,

he comes to know goodness. In Christ he has a standard by which all actions and motives may be tested.

he comes to know the way. Life is no longer a trackless road without a star to guide. In Christ the way becomes clear.

he comes to know power. It would be little use

to know God without the power to serve him. to know goodness and yet be helpless to attain to it. to see the right way and be quite unable to take it.

In Jesus Christ there is both the vision and the power.

“...that ye shall shew forth the praises of him”: God’s purpose in choosing believers for Himself is so that they may declare the praises of Him before others.

“Praises” could also be translated “eminent qualities,” “excellencies,” or “virtues”:

aretos, is used only four times in the NT (Phil 4:8; 1 Pet 2:9; 2 Pet 1:3, 5).

10] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

The practice of holiness, in which God’s people serve as a holy and royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices and extolling His excellencies, is the proper response to the mercy they have received (cf. 1 Pet 1:3).

10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.God has made those who were not a people into the people of God.

Peter is quoting from Hos 1:6, 9-10; Hos 2:1; Hos 2:23.

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Hos 1:6 And [Gomer] conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah or Not-pitied, for I will no more have love, pity, and mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.

Hos 1:9-109 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my

people, and I will not be your God.10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the

sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

Hos 2:1 [HOSEA], SAY to your brethren, Ammi [or You-are-my-people], and to your sisters, Ruhamah [or You-have-been-pitied-and-have-obtained-mercy].

Hos 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

The Christian is called out of insignificance into significance.

A man's greatness lies not in himself but in the greatness of the task that he has been entrusted to do.

The Christian's greatness lies in the fact that God has chosen him to be his man and to do his work in the world.

No Christian can be ordinary, for he is a man of God.

The Christian is called out of no mercy, into mercy.

The great characteristic of non-Christian religion is the fear of God.

The Christian has discovered the love of God and knows that he need no longer fear him, because it is well with his soul.

REASONS FOR RIGHT LIVING (1Pet 2:11-12)2:11-12 Beloved, I urge you, as strangers and sojourners, to abstain from the fleshly desires which carry on their campaign against the soul. Make your conduct amongst the Gentiles fine, so that in every matter in which they slander you as evil-doers, they may see from your fine deeds what you are really like and glorify God on the day when he will visit the earth.

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Christian’s BehaviorThere are specific ways Christians should behave and behave differently before the world, as citizens, as slaves, and as wives and husbands. Even in familiar situations, their conduct should be discernibly different.

11] Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;“...strangers”: Those who are loved by God are exhorted to live as strangers, aliens (paroikous, “those who live in a place that is not their home,”

used figuratively of Christians, whose real home is in heaven) and pilgrims, strangers in the world (cf. Gen 23:4; Ps 39:12; Heb 11:9, 13; 1 Pet 1:17).

No one is really a pilgrim in this Biblical sense who has not first become a stranger to this world (see notes on 1 Peter 1:1).

Gen 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you; give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Psa 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

Heb 11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

1Pe 1:17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

“...abstain”: apechesthai is literally “hold oneself constantly back from.”

Christians are to resist the sinward pull of those worldly desires which war against their spiritual lives (cf. James 4:1).

Jas 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

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In this real spiritual battle a demonic strategy is to attack believers at their weakest points (Cf. The Armor of God, Eph 6:10-18).

12] Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.The negative exhortation of verse 11 is now followed by positive instruction.

Christians are to abstain from sinful desires not only for their own spiritual well-being but also in order to maintain an effective testimony before unbelievers.

A positive Christian lifestyle is a powerful means of convicting the world of its sin (cf. Mt 5:16).

Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

“...honest...good”: Peter used the word good (kalos) 2X in this verse to define both Christians’ lives (“conversations”) and their works.

Before the critical eyes of slanderous people and their false accusations, the “good deeds” of believers can glorify God and win others to belief (cf. Mt 5:16; Rom 15:6; 1 Cor 6:20).

“...in the day of [His] visitation”: (en heìmera episkopeìs; visitation (of God’s presence among men); office, place of service; office of bishop”; cf. “Time of your visitation” (Lk 19:44).

Luk 19:41-4441 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept

over it,42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy

day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

The basic commandment in this passage is that the Christian should abstain from fleshly desires.

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The phrases sins of the flesh and, fleshly, desires have become much narrowed in meaning in modern usage.

For us they usually mean sexual sin; but in the New Testament they are much wider than that.

Paul's list of the sins of the flesh in Gal 5:19-21, includes

"immorality, wicked character or conduct; evilness.impurity, containing foreign, contaminating materiallicentiousness, unrestrained by law or general morality;

lawless; immoral idolatry, giving adoration, reverence, devotion, to

something.someone that only God deserves.sorcery, practices supposedly exercising supernatural powers

through the aid of drugs, evil spirits; magic; witcheryenmity, hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism.strife, vigorous or bitter conflict, discord, or antagonism:jealousy, resentment against a person enjoying success or

advantage or against their success or advantage.anger, a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerenceselfishness, devoted to self; concerned with one's own

interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.dissension, strong disagreement; contention, quarrel;

discord.party spirit, lack of seriousness or responsibilityenvy, a ill will, discontent or covetousness with regard to

another's advantages, success, possessionsdrunkenness, intoxicated; under the influence of something

leading to lack of or impaired self controlcarousing, to deeply engage or binge in a revelry for revelry’s

sake: and the like."

There are far more than bodily sins here.

In the New Testament, flesh stands for far more than the physical nature of man.

It stands for human nature apart from God; it means unredeemed human nature; it means life lived without the standards, the help, the grace and the influence of Christ.

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Fleshly desires and sins of the flesh, therefore, include not only the grosser sins but all that is characteristic of fallen human nature.

The Christian must abstain from these sins because he is a stranger and a pilgrim.

The words are paroikos (<G3941>) and parepidemos (<G3927>).

They are quite common Greek words and they describe someone who is only temporarily resident in a place and whose home is somewhere else.

They are used to describe the patriarchs in their wanderings,

and especially Abraham who went out not knowing where he was to go and whose search was for the city whose maker and builder is God.

Heb_11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

They are used to describe the children of Israel when they were slaves and strangers in the land of Egypt before they entered into the Promised Land.

Act 7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

These words give us two great truths about the Christian.

As a stranger in the world; and because of that, the Christian cannot accept the world's laws and ways and standards.

Others may accept them; but the Christian is a citizen of the Kingdom of God and it is by the laws of that Kingdom that he must direct his life.

He must take his full share of responsibility for living upon earth, but his citizenship is in heaven and the laws of heaven are paramount for him.

The Christian is not a permanent resident upon earth; he is on the way to the country which is beyond.

He must therefore, do nothing which would keep him from reaching his ultimate goal.

He must never become so entangled in the world that he cannot escape from its grip;

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He must never so soil himself as to be unfit to enter the presence of the holy God to whom he is going.

THE GREATEST ANSWER AND DEFENCEThe early church was under fire.

Slanderous charges were continually being made against the Christians; and the only effective way to refute them was to live lives so lovely that they would be seen to be obviously untrue.

In the beginning Christianity was closely connected with the Jews.

Jesus was a Jew; Paul was a Jew; Christianity was cradled in Judaism; and inevitably many of its early converts were Jews.

For a time Christianity was regarded merely as a sect of Judaism.

Antisemitism is no new thing.

Apart from these slanders attached to the Jews, there were slanders directed particularly against the Christians themselves.

They were accused of cannibalism.

This accusation took its rise from a perversion of the words of the Last Supper, "This is my body. This cup is the new covenant in my blood."

The Christians were accused of killing and eating a child at their feasts.

They were also accused of immorality and even of incest.

This accusation took its rise from the fact that they called their meeting the Agape (<G26>), the Love Feast.

The heathen perverted that name to mean that the Christian feasts were sensual orgies at which shameless deeds were done.

The Christians were accused of damaging trade.

Such was the charge of the silversmiths of Ephesus (Ac 19:21-41).

They were accused of "tampering with family relationships"

Often homes were, in fact, broken up when some members of the family became Christians and others did not.

They were accused of turning slaves against their masters

Christianity indeed did give to every man a new sense of worth and dignity.

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They were accused of "hatred of mankind"

The Christian did speak as if the world and the Church were entirely opposed to each other.

Above all they were accused of disloyalty to Caesar,

No Christian would worship the Emperor's godhead and burn his pinch of incense and declare that Caesar was Lord, for to him Jesus Christ and no other was Lord.

Such were the charges which were directed against the Christians.

To Peter there was only one way to refute them and that was so to live that their Christian life demonstrated that they were unfounded.

To modern ears the King James Version can be a little misleading. It speaks about "having your conversation honest among the Gentiles."

That sounds to us as if it meant that the Christian must always speak the truth, but the word translated conversation is anastrophe (<G391>), which means a man's whole conduct, not simply his talk.

That is what conversation did mean in the seventeenth century.

The word translated honest is kalos (<G2570>).

In Greek there are two words for good

There is agathos (<G18>), which simply means good in quality;

There is kalos (<G2570>), which means not only good but also lovely, fine, attractive, winsome.

That is what honestus means in Latin.

Peter is saying is that the Christian must make his whole way of life so lovely and so good to look upon that the slanders of his heathen enemies may be demonstrated to be false.

Every Christian is an advertisement for Christianity; by his life he either commends it to others or makes them think less of it.

The strongest missionary force in the world is a Christian life.

Jesus himself had said--and doubtless the saying was in Peter's mind:

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matt 5:16).

The striking fact of history is that by their lives the Christians actually did defeat the slanders of the heathen.

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Our challenge and our inspiration is that by the loveliness of our daily life and conduct that we must commend Christianity to those who do not believe.

THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN-AS A CITIZEN (1Pet 2:13-15)2:13-15 Submit to every human institution for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, who has the first place, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of those whose deeds are evil and the praise of those whose deeds are good, for it is the will of God that by so doing you should muzzle the ignorance of foolish men. Peter looks at the duty of the Christian within the different spheres of his life; and he begins with his duty as a citizen of the country in which he happens to live.

13] Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;“...ordinance of man”: Christians are responsible to obey the law (Rom 13:1-7; Titus 3:1-2).

Peter exhorted his readers to abide by governmental laws, to submit...to every ordinance of man,

lit., “creation” or here “institution” or “law”, “made by man, human.”

Rom 13:1-71 LET EVERY person be loyally subject to the governing (civil)

authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God's appointment. [Prov. 8:15.]

2 Therefore he who resists and sets himself up against the authorities resists what God has appointed and arranged [in divine order]. And those who resist will bring down judgment upon themselves [receiving the penalty due them].

3 For civil authorities are not a terror to [people of] good conduct, but to [those of] bad behavior. Would you have no dread of him who is in authority? Then do what is right and you will receive his approval and commendation.

4 For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, [you should dread him and] be afraid, for he does not bear and wear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant to execute His wrath (punishment, vengeance) on the wrongdoer.

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5 Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath and escape punishment, but also as a matter of principle and for the sake of conscience.

6 For this same reason you pay taxes, for [the civil authorities] are official servants under God, devoting themselves to attending to this very service.

7 Render to all men their dues. [Pay] taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, and honor to whom honor is due.

Tit 3:1-21 REMIND PEOPLE to be submissive to [their] magistrates and

authorities, to be obedient, to be prepared and willing to do any upright and honorable work,

2 To slander or abuse or speak evil of no one, to avoid being contentious, to be forbearing (yielding, gentle, and conciliatory), and to show unqualified courtesy toward everybody.

The motivation for obedience is not avoiding punishment but is for the Lord’s sake.

To honor God who ordained human government, Christians are to observe man-made laws carefully as long as those laws do not conflict with the clear teaching of Scripture (cf. Acts 4:19).

Act 4:19 But Peter and John replied to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you and obey you rather than God, you must decide (judge).

14] Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.This section of Peter’s argument leads many to believe that the organized persecution through oppressive Roman laws either had not begun or had not yet reached the provinces of Asia Minor.

Christians were then facing lies and verbal abuse, not torture and death.

Christians were still enjoying the protection of a legal system which commended those who obeyed the law.

So a believer’s best defense against slanderous criticism was good behavior.

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15] For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:“...will of God”: Evidently Christians were being slandered and falsely accused of evil, for Peter stressed that it is God’s will

(thelema, a term expressing the result of one’s purpose or desire; cf. “God’s will” in 1 Pet 3:17; 4:2, 19.

“...put to silence”: That through excellent behavior they silence (phimoun, lit., “muzzle”) the ignorant talk of foolish men.

“...ignorance of foolish men”: Each of the three Greek words rendered

“ignorant talk of foolish men” begins with the letter alpha: (as do the three Greek words in 1 Peter 1:4 rendered “never perish, spoil, or fade.”

Jesus said, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's" (Matt 22:21).

Paul was certain that those who governed the nation were sent by God and held their responsibility from him, and were, therefore, no terror to the man who lived an honorable life (Rom 13:17).

In the Pastoral Epistles the Christian is instructed to pray for kings and all in authority (1Tim 2:2).

The instruction of the New Testament is that the Christian must be a good and useful citizen of the country in which his life is set.

According to the New Testament life is meant by God to be an ordered business and the state is divinely appointed to provide and to maintain that order.

It holds that a man cannot accept the privileges which the state provides without also accepting the responsibilities and the duties which it demands.

He cannot in honor and decency take everything and give nothing.

In New Testament times the state was authoritarian.

The ruler was an absolute ruler; and the sole duty of the citizen was to render absolute obedience and to pay taxes

Rom 13:6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is

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due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

Mat_22:21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

Mar_12:17 Luk_20:25

We live in a democracy; and in a democracy something far more than unquestioning subjection becomes necessary.

Government is not only government of the people; it is also for the people and by the people.

The demand of the New Testament is that the Christian should fulfill his responsibility to the state.

In the authoritarian state that consisted solely in submission, but the obligation is the very different in a democracy.

There must be "a voluntary subordination of oneself to others, putting the interest and welfare of others above one's own, preferring to give rather than to get, to serve rather than to be served."

In a democratic state the keynote must be not subjection but cooperation.

The duty of the citizen is not only to submit, to be ruled, but to take a necessary share in ruling.

If the Christian is to fulfill his duty to the state, he must take his part in its government.

He must also take his part in local government and in the life of the trade union or association connected with his trade, craft, or profession.

It is tragic that so few Christians really fulfill their obligation to the state and the society in which they live.

That said the Christian has a higher obligation than even his obligation to the state.

He must render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, He must also render to God the things which are God's.

He must on occasion make it quite clear that he must listen to God rather than to men.

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Act 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.

Act 5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

There may be times when the Christian will fulfill his highest duty to the state by refusing to obey it and by insisting on obeying God.

By so doing, at least he will witness to the truth, and at best he may lead the state to take the Christian way.

THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN-IN SOCIETY (1Pet 2:16)2:16 You must live as free men, yet not using your freedom as a cloak for evil, but as the slaves of God. Any great Christian doctrine can be perverted into an excuse for evil.

The doctrine of grace can be perverted into an excuse for sinning to one's heart's content.

The doctrine of the love of God can be sentimentalized into an excuse for breaking his law.

The doctrine of the life to come can be perverted into an excuse for neglecting life in this world.

And there is no doctrine so easy to pervert as that of Christian freedom.

Paul tells the Galatians that they have been called to liberty but they must not use that liberty as an occasion for the flesh to do as it wills (Gal 5:13).

Gal 5:13 For you, brethren, were [indeed] called to freedom; only [do not let your] freedom be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse [for selfishness], but through love you should serve one another.

In 2Peter we read of those who promise others liberty and are themselves the slaves of corruption (2Pet 2:19).

2Pe 2:19 They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement--for by whatever anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that [person or thing] he is enslaved.

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16] As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.“...for a cloak”: Submission to lawful authority does not negate

Christian liberty (cf. Gal 5:1, 18). Civil laws should be freely obeyed, not out of fear but because doing so is God’s will.

Gal 5:1 IN [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].

Gal 5:18 But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.

Christian freedom is always conditioned by Christian responsibility (cf. Gal 5:13)

It must never be used as a cloke, or cover-up (epikalymma, lit., “veil”) for evil.

“...servants of God”: Christians enjoy true freedom when they obey God and live as servants (douloi, lit., “slaves”; cf. Rom 6:22) of God.

Though living as free men, they should also live as God’s slaves.

Rom 6:22 But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.

Christian freedom is always conditioned by Christian responsibility. Christian responsibility is always conditioned by Christian love. Christian love is the reflection of God's love.

The Christian is free because he is the slave of God.

Christian freedom does not mean being free to do as we like; it means being free to do as we ought.

Christianity is community.

The Christian is not an isolated unit; he is a member of a community and within that community his freedom operates.

Christian freedom therefore is the freedom to serve.

Only in Christ is a man so freed from self and sin that he can become as good as he ought to be.

Freedom comes when a man receives Christ as king of his heart and Lord of his life.

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Psa_2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

Psa_76:12 He will cut off the spirit of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.

Psa_89:27 "I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.

Psa_102:15 So the nations will fear the name of the LORD And all the kings of the earth Your glory.

Psa_138:4 All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O LORD, When they have heard the words of Your mouth.

Psa_148:11 Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth;

Isa_24:21 So it will happen in that day, That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on earth.

Isa_40:23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

Act_4:26 'THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.'

Col_1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Rev_1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—

Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.

Rev 17:14 "These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful."

Rev 19:11-1611 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He

who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.

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12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.

13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

Dan 7:13-1413 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of

heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.

14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

Eph 1:18-2318 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you

will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might

20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,

23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

1Ti 6:12-1612 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which

you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

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13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,

14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15 which He will bring about at the proper time--He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Luk 21:28 "But when these things [signs of Christ immanent return] begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN DUTY (1Pet 2:17)2:17 Honour all men; love the brotherhood; fear God; honour the king. Here is what we might call a four-point summary of Christian duty.

17] Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

1) “Honor all...”:, timeìsate, “honor, value, esteem”;

cf. timeìn, “respect, honor,” in 3:7 everyone (cf. Rom 12:10; 13:7).

Believers should be conscious of the fact that each human has been uniquely created in God’s image.

There were 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire, everyone of whom was considered in law to be, not a person, but a thing, with no rights whatever.

Peter is saying, "Remember the rights of human personality and the dignity of every man."

It is still possible to treat people as things.

An employer may treat his employees as so many human machines for producing so much work.

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Even in a welfare state, where the aim is to do so much for their physical welfare, there is a very real danger that people may be regarded as numbers on a form or as cards in a filing system.

When we regard anyone as existing solely to minister to our comfort or to further our plans, we are in effect regarding them, not as persons, but as things.

The most tragic danger is that we may come to regard those who are nearest and dearest to us as existing for our convenience--and that is to treat them as things.

2) “Love the brotherhood”:

Love the brotherhood of believers, their brothers and sisters in Christ. God’s family members should love each other.

Within the Christian community this respect for every man turns to something warmer and closer; it turns to love.

The dominant atmosphere of the Church must always be love.

The Church is the larger family of God and its bond must be love. As the Psalmist had it (Ps 133:1):

Behold, how good a thing it is, And how becoming well, Together such as brethren are In unity to dwell!

3) “Fear God”: The verb “fear” (phobeisthe) here does not mean to be in terror, but in awe and reverence that leads to obedience (cf. phobo in 1 Peter 1:17, phobou in 3:16, and phobon in 2 Cor 7:11).

One will never truly respect people until he reverences God.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov 1:7).

It may well be that the translation should be, not that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but that the fear of the Lord is the principal part, the very foundation of knowledge.

Fear here does not mean terror; it means awe and reverence.

It is the simple fact of life that we will never reverence men until we reverence God.

It is only when God is given his proper place in the centre that all other things take their proper place.

4) Honor the king.

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“Honor” is from timaoì, the verb used at the beginning of this verse.

The respect or “honor” due to all is especially to be given to those God has placed in authority (cf. “the king” in 1 Pet 2:13 and “governors” in v. 14; cf. Rom 13:1).

Rom 13:1 LET EVERY person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God's appointment.

Pro 8:15 By me kings reign and rulers decree justice

Dan 2:20-2220 Daniel answered, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever!

For wisdom and might are His!21 He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and

sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding! [Dan. 4:35.]

22 He reveals the deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him! [Job 15:8; Ps. 25:14; Matt. 6:6.] Dan 4:34-3734 "But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my

eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

35 "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'

36 "At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me.

37 "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride."

Job 15:8 "Do you hear the secret counsel of God, And limit wisdom to yourself? [Eliphaz the Temanite]

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Psa 25:14 The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.

Mat 6:5-155 "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they

love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

8 "So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

10 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

11 'Give us this day our daily bread.12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our

debtors.13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]'

14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

It is the teaching of the New Testament that the ruler is sent by God to preserve order among men and that he must be respected, even when he is a Nero.

THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN AS A SERVANT (1Pet 2:18-25)2:18-25 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and equitable, but also to those who are perverse, for it is a real sign of grace when a man bears pains in unjust suffering because of his consciousness of God. It is to live like this that you were called, because Christ too suffered for us, leaving behind him an example that we should follow in his steps. He did no sin nor was any guile found in his mouth. When he was

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insulted, he did not return insult for insult. When he suffered, he uttered no threats, but he committed himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might depart from sins and live to righteousness. With his stripes you have been healed, for you were straying away like sheep but now you have turned to the Shepherd and Watchman of your souls. 18] Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.“Servants”: The Greek word for slaves here is not douloi, (<G1401>), the common term for slaves (cf. v. 16), but oiketai, (<G3610>), which refers to household or domestic servants (cf. Lk 16:13; Rom 14:4).

Luk 16:13 No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or anything in which you trust and on which you rely).

Rom 14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on and censure another's household servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he shall stand and be upheld, for the Master (the Lord) is mighty to support him and make him stand.

Slaves originally were mainly prisoners taken in war,

In very early times Rome had few slaves but by New Testament times slaves were counted by the million.

It was by no means only menial tasks which were performed by slaves.

Doctors, teachers, musicians, actors, secretaries, stewards were slaves.

All the work of Rome was done by slaves.

Roman attitude was that there was no point in being master of the world and doing one's own work. Let the slaves do that and let the citizens live in pampered idleness.

The supply of slaves would never run out.

Slaves were not allowed to marry; but they cohabited; and the children born of such a partnership were the property of the master, not of the parents, just as the lambs born to the sheep belonged to the owner of the flock, and not to the sheep.

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Many slaves were loved and trusted members of the family; but in Roman law a slave was still not a person but a thing; and he had absolutely no legal rights whatsoever.

There could be no such thing as justice where a slave was concerned.

The dominant fact in the life of a slave was that, even if he was well treated, he remained a thing.

He did not possess even the elementary rights of a person and for him justice did not even exist.

“...be subject to”: The word translated be subject to, submit, (hypotassomenoi) is a nominative participle that continues the idea of submission expressed in 1 Peter 2:13 through the aorist imperative.

Into this situation came Christianity with its message that every man was precious in the sight of God.

Within the Church the social barriers were broken down.

The great majority of the early Christians were humble folk and many of them were slaves.

It was quite possible in the early days that the slave should be the president of the congregation and the master a member of it.

This was a new and revolutionary situation.

Suppose both master and servant became Christians;

there arose the danger that the slave might presume upon the new relationship and make an excuse for shirking his work, assuming that since he and his master were both Christians, he could get away with anything.

There are still people who trade on the goodwill of a Christian master and think that the fact that both they and their employers are Christians gives them a right to dispense with discipline and punishment.

The relationship between Christian and Christian does not abolish the relationship between man and man.

The Christian must be a better workman than anyone else.

His Christianity is not a reason for claiming exemption from discipline; it should bring him under self-discipline and make him more conscientious than anyone else.

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Some are puzzled that no New Testament writer ever pleads for the abolition of slavery or even says in so many words that it is wrong.

There was the danger that the new dignity which Christianity brought him would make the slave rebel and seek to abolish slavery altogether.

To have encouraged the slaves to rise against their masters would have been the way to speedy disaster.

There had been such revolts before and they had always been quickly and savagely crushed.

Such teaching would merely have gained for Christianity the reputation of being a subversionary religion.

The leaven of Christianity had to work in the world for many generations before the abolition of slavery became a practical possibility.

Peter was concerned that Christian slaves should demonstrate to the world that their Christianity did not make them disgruntled rebels but rather workmen who had found a new inspiration towards doing an honest day's work.

When some situation cannot at the time be changed, the Christian duty is to be Christian within that situation and to accept what cannot be changed until the leaven has worked.

“...froward”: Servants and slaves made up a high percentage of the early church, and undeserved punishment and suffering was common for the underlings.

Peter challenged Christian slaves to submit to and respect even those who are froward (harsh / demanding / pushy);

from the Greek skolios (lit., “curved,” “bent,” or “not straight”).

The medical term “scoliosis,” referring to curvature of the spine, comes from this word.

Christianity introduced a new relationship between master and man.

When Paul sent the runaway slave Onesimus back to Philemon, he did not for a moment suggest that Philemon should set Onesimus free.

He did not suggest that Philemon should cease to be the master and that Onesimus should cease to be the slave.

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What he did say was that Philemon must receive Onesimus not now as a servant, but as a brother beloved (Phm 1:16 ).

Phm 1:16 Not as a slave any longer but as [something] more than a slave, as a brother [Christian], especially dear to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh [as a servant] and in the Lord [as a fellow believer].

Christianity did not abolish social differences; but it introduced a new relationship of brotherhood in which these other differences were overpassed and transformed.

Where there is real brotherhood, it does not matter if you call one man master and the other servant.

There is between them a bond which transforms the necessary differences which the circumstances of life make necessary.

The solution of the world's problems lies in the new relationship between man and man.

Christianity introduced a new attitude to work.

All work must be done for Jesus Christ.

"Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col 3:17).

"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1Cor 10:31).

In the Christian ideal work is not done for an earthly master or for personal prestige or to make so much money; it is done for God.

A man must work in order to earn a wage and he must work to satisfy a master; but beyond that there is for the Christian the conviction that his work must be done well enough to be able to show it to God without shame.

Suppose a man has the Christian attitude to men and to work and is treated with injustice, insult and injury--what then?

This is exactly what happened to Jesus.

He was none other than the Suffering Servant. 1Pet 2:21-25 are full of reminiscences and quotations of Isa 53 , the supreme picture of the Suffering Servant of God, which came to life in Jesus.

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He was without sin and yet he was insulted and he suffered; but he accepted the insults and the suffering with serene love and bore them for the sins of mankind.

19] For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.Peter set forth a principle here that may be applied to any situation where unjust suffering occurs.

20] For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.No credit accrues for enduring punishment for doing wrong.

It is respectful submission to undeserved suffering that finds favor with God because such behavior demonstrates His grace.

21] For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:“...were ye called”: Peter powerfully supported his exhortation to slaves by citing Christ’s example of endurance in unjust suffering.

Christians are called (eklethete; cf. 1 Pet 1:15; 2:9) to follow Christ, to emulate His character and conduct, because He suffered for them.

“...an example”: The word rendered “an example” (hypogrammon, lit., “underwriting”), appearing only here in the New Testament, refers to a writing or drawing that a student reproduces.

He left us an example that we should follow in his steps (1Pet 2:21). The word Peter uses for example is very vivid. It is hupogrammos (<G5261>), a word which comes from the way in which children were taught to write in the ancient world.

Hupogrammos (<G5261>) can mean two things

-- an outline sketch which the learner had to fill in or

- the copyhead of copperplate handwriting in a writing exercise book which the child had to copy out on the lines below.

Jesus gave us the pattern which we have to follow.

If we have to suffer insult and injustice and injury, we have only to go through what he has already gone through.

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It may be in Peter's mind that the suffering of Jesus was for the sake of man's sin;

he suffered in order to bring men back to God.

When the Christian suffers insult and injury with uncomplaining steadfastness and unfailing love, he shows such a life to others as will lead them to God.

22] Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:Peter is quoting from Isaiah 53:9.

Jesus committed no sin, either before or during His suffering (cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Jn 3:5).

He was completely innocent in both deed and word: no deceit (dolos) was found in His mouth (cf. 1 Pet 2:1).

2Co 5:21 For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].

Heb 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.

1Jn 3:5 You know that He appeared in visible form and became Man to take away [upon Himself] sins, and in Him there is no sin [essentially and forever].

23] Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:Christ was the perfect example of patient submission to unjust suffering (cf. Rom 12:19-20).

Rom 12:19-2119 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God's] wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (requite), says the Lord. [Deut. 32:35.]

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20 But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. [Prov. 25:21, 22.]21 Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.

Humanly speaking, the provocation to retaliate during Christ’s arrest, trial, and crucifixion was extreme.

Yet He suffered in silence, committing Himself to God.

He left it to the Father to vindicate Him, in His own good time. We must also.

24] Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.Peter explains why the One who could have destroyed His enemies with a word patiently endured the pain and humiliation of the Cross.

He had to, He was in our shoes. God was justly judging our sins which His Son bore; “was made sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21).

2Co 5:21 For our sake He made Christ to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].

“...our sins”: In the Greek the words “our sins” are near the beginning of the verse and thus stand out emphatically, while He Himself stresses Christ’s personal involvement.

“...we, being dead to sins”: His death makes it possible for believers to be free from both the penalty and the power of sin and to live for Him: so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness (cf. Rom 6:2, 13).

Christ suffered so it would be possible for Christians to follow His example, both in suffering and in righteous living.

Rom 6:2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

Rom 6:13 Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

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1Jn 3:3-63 And everyone who has this hope [resting] on Him cleanses (purifies) himself just as He is pure (chaste, undefiled, guiltless).4 Everyone who commits (practices) sin is guilty of lawlessness; for [that is what] sin is, lawlessness (the breaking, violating of God's law by transgression or neglect--being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will).5 You know that He appeared in visible form and became Man to take away [upon Himself] sins, and in Him there is no sin [essentially and forever].6 No one who abides in Him [who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him--deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] commits (practices) sin. No one who [habitually] sins has either seen or known Him [recognized, perceived, or understood Him, or has had an experiential acquaintance with Him].

“...healed”: Peter made a general reference to salvation: by His wounds you have been healed (Isa 53:5).

This does not refer to physical healing for the verb’s past tense indicates completed action, the “healing” is an accomplished fact.

Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

“...stripes”: The reference is to salvation.

Christ’s stripes (moìloìpi; lit., “wound”; “stripe left by a lash,” referred to Jesus’ scourging and death accomplished “healing,” the salvation of every individual who trusts Him as his Savior.

25] For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.“...Shepherd and Bishop”: Christ not only set the example and provides salvation, but He also gives guidance and protection to those who were headed away (like sheep going astray) from Him, but who then “turned about” (rather than returned) to the Shepherd and Overseer (episkopon) of their souls.

“Shepherd” and “Overseer” stress Christ’s matchless guidance and management of those who commit themselves to His care (Ezek 34:11-16).

Eze 34:11-16

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11 For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I Myself, will search for My sheep and will seek them out.12 As a shepherd seeks out his sheep in the day that he is among his flock that are scattered, so will I seek out My sheep; and I will rescue them out of all places where they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick darkness.13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.14 I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie down in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.15 I will feed My sheep and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God.16 I will seek that which was lost and bring back that which has strayed, and I will bandage the hurt and the crippled and will strengthen the weak and the sick, but I will destroy the fat and the strong [who have become hardhearted and perverse]; I will feed them with judgment and punishment. [Luke 19:10.]

The Shepherd Of The Souls Of MenGod is the Shepherd of the souls of men. The Greek is poimen (<G4166>)

A shepherd is one of the oldest descriptions of God.

"The Lord is my shepherd" (Ps 23:1).

"He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young" (Isa 40:11).

The great king whom God was going to send to Israel would be the shepherd of his people.

"And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them; he shall feed them, and be their shepherd" (Eze 34:23; Eze 37:24).

This was the title which Jesus took to himself when he called himself the Good Shepherd and when he said that the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (Jn 10:1-18).

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To Jesus the men and women who did not know God and who were waiting for what he could give them were like sheep without a shepherd (Mk 6:34).

Mar 6:34 As Jesus landed, He saw a great crowd waiting, and He was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

The great privilege given to the servant and the minister of Christ is to shepherd the flock of God (Jn 21:16; 1Pet 5:2).

Joh 21:16 Again He said to him the second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion, as one loves the Father]? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You [that I have a deep, instinctive, personal affection for You, as for a close friend]. He said to him, Shepherd (tend) My sheep.

1Pe 5:2 Tend (nurture, guard, guide, and fold) the flock of God that is [your responsibility], not by coercion or constraint, but willingly; not dishonorably motivated by the advantages and profits [belonging to the office], but eagerly and cheerfully;

In the East, unlike here in the west where sheep and pastures are safe fenced in areas, and particularly in Judaea, where there was a narrow central plateau which held danger on either side, the shepherd’s task was one that demanded constant care and vigilance.

In Judea it was on this narrow tableland that the sheep grazed.

Grass was sparse; there were no protecting walls; and the sheep wandered.

The shepherd had to be ceaselessly and sleeplessly on the watch lest harm should come to his flock.

This word shepherd tells us most vividly of the ceaseless vigilance and the self-sacrificing love of God for us who are his flock.

"We are his people and the sheep of his pasture" (Ps 100:3).

The Guardian Of Our SoulsThe King James Version speaks of God as the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; but nowadays Bishop is an inadequate and misleading translation of the Greek (episkopos, <G1985>).

Episkopos (<G1985>) is a word with a great history.

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In Homer's Iliad, Hector, the great champion of the Trojans, is called the episkopos (<G1985>) who, during his lifetime, guarded the city of Troy and kept safe its noble wives and infants.

Episkopos (<G1985>) is used of the gods who are the guardians of the treaties which men make and of the agreements to which men come, and who are the protectors of house and home.

Justice, for instance, is the episkopos (<G1985>), who sees to it that a man shall pay the price for the wrong that he has done.

In Plato's Laws the Guardians of the state are those whose duty it is to oversee the games, the feeding and the education of the children that "they may be sound of hand and foot, and may in no wise, if possible, get their natures warped by their habits."

The people whom Plato calls market-stewards are the episkopoi (<G1985>) who "supervise personal conduct, keeping an eye on temperate and outrageous behaviour, so as to punish him who needs punishment."

In Athenian law and administration the episkopoi (<G1985>) were governors and administrators and inspectors sent out to subject states to see that law and order and loyalty were observed.

In Rhodes the main magistrates were five episkopoi (<G1985>) who presided over the good government and the law and order of the state.

Episkopos (<G1985>) means the protector of public safety; the guardian of honor and honesty; the overseer of right education and of public morals; the administrator of public law and order.

To call God the episkopos (<G1985>) of our souls is to call him our Guardian, our Protector, our Guide, and our Director.

God is the Shepherd and the Guardian of our souls. In his love he cares for us; in his power he protects us; and in his wisdom he guides us in the right way.

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Chapter 31 Peter 3How does the believer live in a hostile, pagan world?

Chapter 3 highlights some prophetic (and dispensational) aspects of “the days of Noah”... It starts with the primary spiritual fortification:

THE SILENT PREACHING OF A LOVELY LIFE (1Pet 3:1-2)3:1-2 Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that, if there are any who refuse to believe the word, they may be won for Christ without a word because they have seen your pure and reverent behaviour. Peter turns to the domestic problems which Christianity inevitably produced.

It was inevitable that one marriage partner might be won for Christ, while the other remained untouched by the appeal of the gospel; and such a situation inevitably had difficulties.

The Marriage.1] Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;“...be in subjection”: The participle translated be carries the force of a command (1 Pet 2:18; Eph 5:22; Col 3:18).

1Pe 2:18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

Eph 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Col 3:18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

The command does not require women to be subordinate to men in general but to their husbands as a function of order within the home.

Marital ChallengesA wife is to accept her place in the family under the leadership of her husband, whom God has placed as head in the home.

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Wives are to be submissive even if their husbands are unbelievers, so those men might be saved by the behavior of their wives.

There are few experiences more difficult than to be united in marriage to an unbeliever (2 Cor 6:14,15).

2Co 6:14-1514 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what

partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

If one takes a superior attitude toward their mate, it will only stir up opposition to the truth and render conditions increasingly difficult.

An imperious mate will drive their spouse further from God rather than draw them to Christ.

Actions speak louder than words.

2] While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.Chaste: Reverence, that is.

Conversation: Character, reputation, actions

The powerful purity of a godly woman’s life can soften even the stoniest male heart without a word (Titus 2:5).

Tit 2:3-53 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

It may seem strange that Peter's advice to wives is six times as long as that to husbands.

This is because the wife's position was far more difficult than that of the husband.

If a husband became a Christian, he would automatically bring his wife with him into the Church and there would be no problem.

But if a wife became a Christian while her husband did not, she was taking a step which was unprecedented and which produced the acutest problems.

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In every sphere of ancient civilization, women had no rights at all.

Under Jewish law a woman was a thing; she was owned by her husband in exactly the same way as he owned his sheep and his goats: on no account could she leave him, although he could dismiss her at any moment.

For a wife to change her religion while her husband did not was unthinkable.

In Greek civilization the duty of the woman was "to remain indoors and to be obedient to her husband."

It was the sign of a good woman that she must see as little, hear as little and ask as little as possible.

She had no kind of independent existence and no kind of mind of her own, and her husband could divorce her almost at caprice, so long as he returned her dowry.

Under Roman law a woman had no rights.

In law she remained for ever a child.

When she was under her father she was under the patria potestas, the father's power, which gave the father the right even of life and death over her; and

When she married she passed equally into the power of her husband.

She was entirely subject to her husband and completely at his mercy.

The whole attitude of ancient civilization was that no woman could dare take any decision for herself.

Peter does not advise the wife to leave her husband. In this he takes exactly the same attitude as Paul takes (1Cor 7:13-16).

Both Paul and Peter are quite sure that the Christian wife must remain with the heathen husband so long as he does not send her away.

1Co 7:10-1710 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the

wife should not leave her husband11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be

reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

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12 But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away.

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

17 Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches.

Peter does not tell the wife to preach or to argue.

He does not tell her to insist that there is no difference between slave and freeman, Gentile and Jew, male and female, but that all are the same in the presence of the Christ whom she has come to know.

He tells her something very simple--nothing else than to be a good wife.

It is by the silent preaching of the loveliness of her life that she must break down the barriers of prejudice and hostility, and win her husband for her new Master.

She must be submissive.

It is not a spineless submission that is meant but a "voluntary selflessness."

It is the submission which is based on the death of pride and the desire to serve.

It is the submission not of fear but of perfect love.

She must be pure.

There must be in her life a lovely chastity and fidelity founded on love.

She must be reverent.

She must live in the conviction that the whole world is the Temple of God and that all life is lived in the presence of Christ.

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THE TRUE ADORNMENT (1Pet 3:3-6)3:3-6 Let not your adornment be an outward thing of braided hair and ornaments of gold and wearing of robes, but let it be an adornment of the inward personality of the heart, wrought by the unfading loveliness of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For it was thus in days of old the holy women, who placed their hopes in God, adorned themselves in submission to their husbands. It was thus that Sara obeyed Abraham calling him, "Lord." And you have become her children, if you do good, and if you do not become a prey to fluttering fears. In the ancient world women had no part in public life whatsoever; they had nothing to pass their time;

for that reason it was sometimes argued that they must be allowed an interest in dress and adornment.

Undue interest in self-adornment was then, as it still is, a sign that the person who indulged in it had no greater things to occupy her mind.

3] Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;“...adorning”: Greek Cosmos: arrangement, decoration; appearance

world, world order, universe; world inhabitants, mankind; realm of existence, way of life (especially as opposed to the purpose of God);

adornment. “To bring order out of chaos.” [Same root from which we get “cosmetics.”]

The ancient moralists condemned undue luxury as much as the Christian teachers did.

Isa 3:18-24 speaks of the

"finery of the anklets, the headbands and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes and the amulets; the signet rings and nose rings; the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks and the handbags; the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans and the veils."

and threatens the day of judgment in which they will be destroyed.

In the world of the Greeks and the Romans there were many ways of dressing the hair..

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Hair was waved and dyed, sometimes black, more often auburn.

Wigs were worn, especially blonde wigs, which are found even in the Christian catacombs; and

hair to manufacture them was imported from Germany, and even from as far away as India.

Hair bands, pins and combs were made of ivory, and boxwood, and tortoiseshell; and sometimes of gold, studded with gems.

Purple was the favorite color for clothes.

One pound weight of the best Tyrian purple wool, strained twice through, cost 1,000 denarii, iver $100.

A tyrian cloak of the best purple cost well over $150.

In one year silks, pearls, scents and jewellery were imported from India to the value of $1,500,000.

Similar imports of luxury came from Arabia.

Diamonds, emeralds, topazes, opals and the sardonyx were favorite stones.

Earrings were made of pearls

Slippers were encrusted with them;

Christianity came into a world of luxury and decadence combined.

4] But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.Scriptures do not forbid a measure of adornment of the person, but rather discourages dependence upon this to make one pleasing and attractive.

A slatternly or slovenly person only repels.

One may be tastefully attired and immaculately groomed, and yet spoil everything by a haughty spirit or bad temper.

Peter did not state that women should not wear jewelry and nice clothes, but that Christian wives should not think of outer attire as the source of genuine beauty; a thing that defines them

A woman who wins this kind of victory has a winsome loveliness that comes not from outward adornment but from her inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Tim 2:9-11).

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1Ti 2:9-129 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing,

modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments,

10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.

11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.

12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

“...hidden man of the heart”: the inner self and this kind of beauty.

In face of all this Peter pleads for the graces which adorn the heart, which are precious in the sight of God.

These were the jewels which adorned the holy women of old.

A Christian wife of those times lived in a society where she would be tempted to senseless extravagance and where she might well go in fear of the caprices of her heathen husband;

but she must live in selfless service, in goodness and in serene trust.

That would be the best sermon she could preach to win her husband for Christ. There are few passages where the value of a lovely Christian life is so vividly stressed.

5] For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:This is a comment on the role of husbands and wives, not men and women in general. [Cf. Notes on on Eph 5:22-24.]

Eph 5:22-2422 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the

head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives

ought to be to their husbands in everything.

6] Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.She even accommodated Abrahams’s half-truths about her being his sister, etc. Gen 20

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“...amazement”: ptoesis, to be afraid of with terror (only here in the NT; cf. Gen 18:12).

Gen 18:11-1511 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing. 12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" 13 And the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?' 14 "Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son." 15 Sarah denied it however, saying, "I did not laugh"; for she was afraid. And He said, "No, but you did laugh."

THE HUSBAND'S OBLIGATION (1Pet 3:7)3:7 Likewise, you husbands, live understandingly with your wives, remembering that women are the weaker sex and assigning honour to them as fellow-heirs of the grace of life, so that there may be no barrier to your prayers. In the Roman moral code all the obligation was on the wife and all the privilege with the husband.

The Christian ethic never grants a privilege without a corresponding obligation.

The Christian ethic may be called a reciprocal ethic.

It never places all the responsibility on one side.

If it speaks of the duties of slaves, it speaks also of the obligations of masters.

If it speaks of the duty of children, it speaks also of the obligations of parents (compare Eph 6:1-9; Col 3:20-25; Col 4:1).

Eph 6:1-91 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.2 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first

commandment with a promise),3 SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY

LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up

in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

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5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men,8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will

receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up

threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

Col 3:17-25; 4:117 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against

them.20 Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-

pleasing to the Lord.21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not

lose heart.22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth,

not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,

24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

Col 4:1 Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.

Peter has just laid down the duty of wives; now he lays down the duty of husbands.

A marriage must be based on reciprocal obligation.

A marriage in which all the privileges are on one side and all the obligations on the other is bound to be imperfect with every chance of failure.

This was a new conception in the ancient world.

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7] Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.Weaker physically and emotionally, but not intellectually. Yet also joint heirs to God’s gift of life.

The Christian husband must be understanding.

He must be considerate and sensitive to the feelings of his wife.

The cruelty which is hardest to bear is often not deliberate but the product of sheer thoughtlessness.

The Christian husband must be chivalrous.

He must remember that women are the weaker sex and treat them with courtesy.

In the ancient world chivalry to women was well-nigh unknown.

It was, and still is, no uncommon sight in the East to see the man riding on a donkey while the woman trudged by his side.

It was Christianity which introduced chivalry into the relationship between men and women.

The Christian husband must remember that the woman has equal spiritual rights.

She is a fellow-heir of the grace of life.

Women did not share in the worship of the Greeks and the Romans.

In the Jewish synagogue they had no share in the service, in the orthodox synagogue still have none.

When they were admitted to the synagogue at all, they were segregated from the men and hidden behind a screen.

In Christianity emerged the revolutionary principle that women had equal spiritual rights and with that the relationship between the sexes was changed.

Unless a man fulfils these obligations, there is a barrier between his prayers and God.

“...be not hindered”: Quarrels and bickerings in the home stifle all fellowship in prayer.

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Our relationships with God can never be right, if our relationships with our fellow-men are wrong.

It is when we are at one with each other that we are at one with him.

THE MARKS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE (1Pet 3:8-12)3:8-12 Finally, you must all be of one mind; you must have sympathy with each other and you must live in brotherly love; you must be compassionate and humble; you must not return evil for evil, nor insult for insult; on the contrary, you must return blessing; for it was to give and to inherit blessing that you were called. He that would love life, And see good days, Let him keep his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking guile: Let him turn away from evil and do right; Let him seek peace, and pursue it, For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears are open to their prayer; But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.

How to Live in a Hostile, Pagan CultureA plea for Christian unity is more than a plea;

it is an announcement

that no man can live the Christian life unless in his personal relationships he is at unity with his fellow-men;

that the Church cannot be truly Christian if there are divisions within it.

Agreeing in Christ – unity- is not optional,

It is an unnecessary though highly desirable spiritual luxury, but as something essential to the true being of the Church.

Divisions, whether disagreements between individual members or the existence of factions and parties and--how much more!--our present-day denominations, constitute a calling in question of the Gospel itself and a sign that those who are involved are carnal.

This does not mean that the like-mindedness we are to strive for is to be a drab uniformity of the sort beloved of bureaucrats.

It is to be a unity in which powerful tensions are held together by an over-mastering loyalty, and strong antipathies of race and color,

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temperament and taste, social position and economic interest, are overcome in common worship and common obedience.

Christians must be humble and bold enough to

lay hold on the unity already given in Christ

to take it more seriously than their own self-importance and sin,

to make of these deep differences of doctrine,

our imperfect understanding of the Gospel is not an excuse for letting go of one another or staying apart,

it should be an incentive for a more earnest seeking in fellowship together to hear and obey the voice of Christ."

Peter anticipates, and then quotes from the Old Testament.

8] Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:“Finally” = following from; and yet introducing a new section (Phil 3:1; 1 Thess 4:1).

Php 3:1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

1Th 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.

Peter gathers together 5 great qualities of the Christian life.

1), homophrones: like-minded; harmony;2), sympatheis: sympathetic;3), philadelphoi: to love as brothers;4), eusplanchnoi: to be compassionate, tender hearted;5), tapeinophrones: humble.

This unique vocabulary stresses the importance of these Christian virtues which keep one from being deceitful (dolon; cf. 1 Pet 2:1, 22).

1Pe 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,

1Pe 2:22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;

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8] Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Right in the forefront he sets Christian unity.

Unity is not unanimity or uniformity

Concentrate on who we know, not what we are or know or how we do what we do.

The basis of the whole matter is in the words of Jesus who prayed for his people that they might all be one, as he and his Father were one (Jn 17:21-23).

Joh 17:21-23 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

We are all fitted by God into the body of Christ, different roles, skills, gifts but all of one purpose – to serve and honor Christ regardless of our differences and support each other as we each pursue that goal.

His prayer was fulfilled in the early church where their identifying mark was that they were all of one heart and of soul (Ac 2:46; 4:32).

Act 2:46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,

Act 4:32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.

Paul reminds the Christians of Rome that, though they are many, they are one body, and he pleads with them to be of one mind (Rom 12:4; Rom 12:16).

Rom 12:4-5 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

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Rom 12:16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

Writing to the Christians of Corinth, Paul uses the picture of the Christians as members of one body in spite of all their differing qualities and gifts (1Cor 12:12-31).

1Co 12:12-31 12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many.

15 If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

27 Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles,

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second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? 31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.

He pleads with the quarrelling Corinthians that there should be no divisions among them and that they should be perfectly joined together in the same mind (1Cor 1:10).

1Co 1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

He tells them that strife and divisions are fleshly things, marks that they are living on purely human standards, without the mind of Christ (1Cor 3:3).

1Co 3:3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

Because they have partaken of the one bread, they must be one body (1Cor 10:17).

1Co 10:15-17 15 I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. 16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

He tells them that they must be of one mind and must live in peace (2Cor 13:11).

2Co 13:11 Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

In Christ Jesus the dividing walls are down, and Jew and Greek are united into one (Eph 2:13-14).

Eph 2:13-16 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

Christians must maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, remembering that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Eph 4:3-6).

Eph 4:1-6 1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

The Philippians must stand fast in one spirit, striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel; they will make Paul's happiness complete, if they have the same love and have one accord and one mind;

the quarrelling Euodias and Syntyche are urged to be of one mind in the Lord (Php 1:27; Php 2:2; Php 4:2).

Php 1:27-28 27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28 in no way alarmed by your opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God.

Php 2:1-4 1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

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Php 4:1-3 1 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. 2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. 3 Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

8] Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Second, Peter sets sympathy as one of the Christians character

qualities to be sought

We cannot sympathize with someone we do not know…

We are to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15).

Rom 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

When one member of the body suffers all the other members suffer with it; and when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1Cor 12:26),

1Co 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Sympathy and selfishness cannot coexist.

So long as the self is the most important thing in the world, there can be no such thing as sympathy;

Sympathy depends on the willingness to forget self and to identify oneself with the pains and sorrows of others.

Sympathy comes to the heart when Christ reigns there.

8] Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Third, Peter sets brotherly love.

“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer" (1Jn 3:14-15).

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"If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar" (1Jn 4:20). Again the matter goes back to the words of Jesus.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.... By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34-35).

The simple fact is that love of God and love of man go hand in hand; the one cannot exist without the other.

The simplest test of the reality of the Christianity of a man or a Church is whether or not it makes them love their fellow-men.

8] Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Peter sets out compassion.

Being broken hearted due to the pain of another.

There is a sense in which pity is in danger of becoming a lost virtue.

The conditions of our own age tend to blunt the edge of the mind to sensitiveness in pity.

We can read of the thousands of casualties on the roads or millions forced into refugee status with no reaction within our hearts, forgetting that each means a broken body or a broken heart for someone.

It is easy to lose the sense of pity and still easier to be satisfied with a sentimentalism which feels a moment's comfortable sorrow and does nothing.

Cf Luke 10:27 The Good Samaritain

Pity is of the very essence of God and compassion of the very being of Jesus Christ;

a pity so great that God sent his only Son to die for men, a compassion so intense that it took Christ to the Cross.

There can be no Christianity without compassion.

8] Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Peter sets humility. 1 Peter 5:5-6

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1Pe 5:5-6 5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

Christian humility comes from two things.

It comes from the sense of creatureliness.

The Christian is humble because he is constantly aware of his utter dependence on God and that of himself he can do nothing.

It comes from the fact that the Christian has a new standard of comparison.

When the Christian's recognizes that his standard of comparison is Christ and his fellow man, and that compared with Jesus’ sinless perfection, he is ever in lacking and in default.

When the Christian remembers his dependence on God and keeps before him the standard of Christ, he must remain humble.

Rom 15:1-3 1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME."

1Co 10:24 Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.

Php 2:3-4 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

9] Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.Peter sets forgiveness.

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It is to receive forgiveness from God and to give forgiveness to men that the Christian is called.

The one cannot exist without the other;

it is only when we forgive others their sins against us that we are forgiven our sins against God (Matt 6:12, 14, 15).

Mat 6:12-15 12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors …. 14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

The mark of the Christian is that he forgives others as God has forgiven him (Eph 4:32).

Eph 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

No room for revenge here.

“Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” (Rom 12:19; Lev 19:18; Prov 24:17-18, 29).

Jesus also taught to refrain from retaliation (Mt 5:39).

Mat 5:39-48 39 "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

We are to seek peace by returning a blessing when receiving an insult.

Jesus said, “Pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44),

Paul wrote, “When we are cursed, we bless” (1 Cor 4:12).

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Peter now quotes a segment of Psalm 34:12-16 (but stops deliberately mid-sentence…!?):

Peter sums the matter up by quoting Ps 34 , with its picture of the man whom God receives and the man whom God rejects.

10] For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:11] Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.12] For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.Why was part of this quote redacted?

What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Psalm 34:12-16

Peter omitted from Psalm 34:16, “To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”

This last element will not be in this age.

This appears to parallel the Lord’s reading Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4:16-21.

Here, too, Jesus stopped short of the phrase, “And the day of vengeance of our God.”

Dispensational Gaps1. Ps 34:10-12 (q. 1 Pet 3:10-12)2. Ps 118; middle v. 223. Isa 9:6; after 1st clause4. Isa 53; middle v. 105. Isa 61; middle v. 26. Lam 4:21, 227. Dan 9:26, 278. Dan 11:20, 219. Hos 2 13, 1410 Hos 3:4, 5

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11. Amos 9:10 ,1112. Micah 5:2, 313. Hab 2:13 ,1414. Zeph 3:7, 815. Zech 9:9, 1016. Mt 10; middle v. 2317. Mt 12; middle v. 2018. Lk 1:31 ,3219. Lk 4:18-20 (q. Isa 61:1, 2)20. Lk 21; middle v. 2421. Jn 1:5,622. 1 Pet 1; middle v. 1123. 1 Pet 3:10-12 (q. Ps 34:12-16)24. Rev 12:5, 6

It is interesting that there are a total of 24 similar “dispensational gaps” which would include the “Church Age” in Scripture:

This is associated, by some, with the 24 Elders of Revelation, both suggesting 24 as the “number” symbolizing the Church.

[Also, some see a “gap” between Genesis 1:1-2]

THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY IN A THREATENING WORLD (1Pet 3:13-15a)3:13-15a Who will hurt you, if you are ardent lovers of goodness? Even if you do have to suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Have no fear of them; do not be troubled; but in your hearts give Christ a unique place. Peter was soaked in the Old Testament;

The very first sentence is a reminiscence of Isa 50:9: "Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?"

Again, when Peter is talking about the banishing of fear, he is thinking of

Isa 8:13, "But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread."

13] And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

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No matter how evil men seek to injure believers, there can no evil befall the righteous that is not “Father-filtered” (Rom 8:28, 31-39).

This includes persecution, sickness, financial distress—all of which God uses to sanctify for good.

Peter begins by insisting on a passionate love of goodness.

A man may have more than one attitude to goodness.

Goodness may be a burden or a bore

something which a man vaguely desires but the price of which he is not willing to pay in terms of effort.

Goodness may be a passionate desire that a man is willing to sacrifice all else to achieve

The word we have translated an ardent lover is zelotes (<G2207>); which is often translated Zealot.

The Zealots were the fanatical patriots, who were pledged to liberate their native land by every possible means.

They were prepared to take their lives in their hands, to sacrifice ease and comfort, home and loved ones, in their passionate love for their country.

What Peter is saying is: "Love goodness with that passionate intensity with which the most fanatical patriot loves his country."

It is only when a man falls in love with goodness that the wrong things lose their fascination and their power.

14] But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;It has been well pointed out that we are involved in two kinds of suffering.

There is the suffering in which we are involved because of our humanity.

Because we are men, there come physical suffering, death, sorrow, distress of mind and weariness and pain of body.

There is also the suffering in which we may be involved because of our Christianity.

There may be unpopularity, persecution, sacrifice for principle and the deliberate choosing of the difficult way, the necessary discipline and toil of the Christian life.

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Yet the Christian life has a certain blessedness – a freedom from fear – an attitude which by faith in God sees suffering as an opportunity to demonstrate who and what God is in our lives and that He runs through it all.

Mat 5:3 The Blessed Attitudes (Luke 6:20-23)¶ “How blessed are those who are destitute in spirit,

because the kingdom from [Lit. of] heaven belongs to them!

4 “How blessed are those who mourn,because it is they who will be comforted!

5 ¶ “How blessed are those who are humble, [Or gentle] because it is they who will inherit the earth!

6 ¶ “How blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, [Or justice]

because it is they who will be satisfied!

7 ¶ “How blessed are those who are merciful,because it is they who will receive mercy!

8 ¶ “How blessed are those who are pure in heart,because it is they who will see God!

9 ¶ “How blessed are those who make peace,because it is they who will be called God’s children!

10 ¶ “How blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

because the kingdom from [Lit. of] heaven belongs to them!

11 ¶ “How blessed are you whenever people [Lit. they] insult you, persecute you, and say all sorts of evil things against you falsely [Other mss. lack falsely] because of me! 12 Rejoice and be extremely glad, because your reward in heaven

is great! That’s how they persecuted the prophets who came before you.”

Mat 5:13 Salt and Light in the World (Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34-35)¶ “You are the salt of the world. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty again? It’s good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

14 ¶ “You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden.

15 People [Lit. They] don’t light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

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16 In the same way, let your light shine before people in such a way that they will see your good actions and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Even in suffering the Christian is still blessed.

When the suffering is for Christ, he is demonstrating his loyalty to Christ and is sharing his sufferings.

When the suffering is part of the human situation, it still cannot despoil him of the most precious things in life.

No man escapes suffering, but for the Christian suffering cannot touch the things which matter most of all.

Only he who can say, “The Lord is the strength of my life” can go on to say, “Of whom shall I be afraid?”

Psa_27:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

He who walked with them in the fiery furnace, Dan 3:25and stopped the mouths of lions, Dan 6:20kept them protected during the enemies assault 2Ki_6:17 2Ki 19:35also keeps His watchful eye upon His saints.

“He loves us so much He can’t take His eyes off of us!”

Psa_17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

Pro_7:2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Zec_2:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

15] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:The Christian is one to whom God and Jesus Christ are the supremacies in life;

his relationship to God in Christ is life's greatest value.

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If a man's heart is set on earthly things, possessions, happiness, pleasure, ease and comfort, he is of all men most vulnerable.

For, in the nature of things, he may lose these things at any moment. Such a man is desperately easily hurt.

On the other hand, if he gives to Jesus Christ the unique place in his life, the most precious thing for him is his relationship to God and nothing can take that from him.

Therefore, he is completely secure.

Our hearts must be separated unto Him.

THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT FOR CHRIST (1Pet 3:15b-16)3:15b-16 Always be prepared to make your defense to anyone who calls you to account [logos G3056] concerning the hope that is in you; but do so with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame. In a hostile and suspicious world it was inevitable that the Christian would be called upon to defend the faith he held and the hope by which he lived.

The explanation for our hope must be reasonable. It is a logos (<G3056>) that the Christian must give,

The Greek word for "word" is LOGOS.

Logos: The nature, the character of GodRhema: The sayings of God

a logos (<G3056>) is a reasonable and intelligent statement / a reasonable and intelligent accounting of his position and character

A cultivated Greek believed that it was the mark of an intelligent man that he was able to give and to receive a logos (<G3056>) concerning his actions and belief. His defense was logical…

LOGOS has two meanings:

"word" and "reason" (the thought processes and patterns, the ability and act of thinking).

When the Greek read the term LOGOS he applied both meanings to the passage.

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The word (LOGOS) of God to the Greek meant "The word and reason of God".

To the Greek reason carried with it the idea of wisdom, order and enlightenment.

John using LOGOS or “word” is in one word explaining the irresistible creative power, the reason, action, wisdom, order and enlightenment of God.

By using the term “word: John is revealing the nature of God to his readers.

John attributes these characteristics to Jesus.

He says, "LOOK AT JESUS AND YOU WILL SEE WHAT GOD IS LIKE".

For us to do so we must know what we believe;

we must have thought it out;

we must be able to state it intelligently and intelligibly.

Our faith must be a first-hand discovery and not a second-hand story.

It is one of the tragedies of the modern situation that there are so many Church members who,

if they were asked what they believe, could not tell, if they were asked why they believe it, would be equally helpless.

The Christian must go through the mental and spiritual toil of thinking out his faith, so that he can tell what he believes and why.

The Christian defense of his faith must be given with gentleness.

There are many people who state their beliefs with a kind of arrogant belligerence.

Their attitude is that anyone who does not agree with them is either a fool or a knave and they seek to ram their beliefs down other people's throats.

The case for Christianity must be presented with winsomeness and with love, and with that wise tolerance that recognizes the Christian life is a work in progress.

Men may be wooed into the Christian faith when they cannot be bullied into it.

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His defense must be given with reverence.

That is to say, any argument in which the Christian is involved must be carried on in a tone which God can hear with joy.

No debates have been so acrimonious as theological debates;

No differences have caused such bitterness as religious differences.

In any presentation of the Christian case and in any argument for the Christian faith, the accent should be the accent of love.

The only compelling argument is the argument of the Christian life.

Let a man so act that his conscience is clear.

Let him meet criticism with a life which is beyond reproach.

Such conduct will silence slander and disarm criticism.

"A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God."

16] Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.This is our most important, preemptive, stewardship! “Be ready to give every man an answer:” the mandate to be equipped in apologetics (the defense of the faith).

What is the role of epistemology in contrast?

The best defense (and witness) against slander is to be innocent.

(Peter may have been alluding to the occasion when he denied Christ out of fear, in words that were neither gentle nor respectful.)

Cf. v.21. Also, 1 Pet 2:19; Acts 24:16; Rom 9:1; 2 Cor 1:12; 4:2; 1 Tim 1:5, 19; 2 Tim 1:3; Heb 9:14; 13:18.

17] For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.It is also of paramount importance to realize that it is our justified hurts that are the most dangerous in developing into that “root of bitterness” that can so easily defile us (Heb 12:15).

Also, remember the Cross: In vv. 18-22 Peter illustrates the principles from vv.13-17 using our perfect example, Jesus Christ.

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Verse 18, which follows, is one of the shortest and simplest, and yet one of the richest summaries given in the NT of the meaning of the Cross:

18] For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:After His body and Spirit had been separated in death, He was raised again by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:11).

The Spirits in Prison: Which S

pirits? When Preached?

19] By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;“...spirits in prisons”: Which Spirits? When were they “preached to”?

“...preached”: Greek from the lemma:, kerusso: proclaim, make known, preach, proclaim.

This doesn’t necessarily imply repentance as its object: it can include simply declaring His victory.

“...spirits”: pneumasin, is a term usually applied to supernatural beings but it also used at least once to refer to human “spirits” (Heb 12:23) and are described in 1 Peter 3:20 as those who were disobedient when God waited patiently for Noah to finish building the ark.

The Spirits in PrisonThey had rebelled against the message of God during the years the ark was being built. God declared He would not tolerate people’s wickedness forever, but in longsuffering, extended the life of Methuselah, delaying the judgment by 120 years (Gen 6:3). (Gen 5:21-32)

Since the entire human race, except Noah, was evil, God determined to “wipe mankind from the face of the earth” (Gen 6:5-9).

The “spirits” referred to in 1 Peter 3:20 may be the souls of the evil human race that existed in the days of Noah.

Those “spirits” are now “in prison” awaiting the final judgment of God at the end of the Age.

The problem then remains as to when Christ preached to these “spirits.”

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Peter’s explanation of the resurrection of Christ (3:18) “by the Spirit” brings to mind the suggestion that the pre-incarnate Christ was ministering through Noah, by means of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Christ preached through Noah to the ungodly humans who, at the time of Peter’s writing, were “spirits in prison” awaiting final judgment.

This interpretation seems to fit the theme of this section (1 Peter 3:13-22)—keeping a good conscience in unjust persecution.

Noah is presented as an example of one who committed himself to a course of action for the sake of a clear conscience before God, though it meant enduring harsh ridicule.

[Can you imagine having this strange structure in your driveway for all that time?!]

20] Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.“...longsuffering of God waited”: The flood was postponed for 120 years.

“The Lord...is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish...” (2 Pet 3:9).

“...when”: In Christ’s day, the spirits of those men to whom Noah had preached were in prison, for they had rejected the message of Noah.

They had gone into Sheol. They were waiting for judgment; they were lost.

But Christ did not go down and preach to them after He died on

the cross. He had preached through Noah “when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah.”

For 120 years Noah had preached the Word of God. He saved his family, but no one else.

It was the Spirit of Christ who spoke through Noah in Noah’s day.

In Christ’s day, those who rejected Noah’s message were in prison.

The thought is that Christ’s death meant nothing to them just as it means nothing to a great many people today who, as a result, will also come into judgment.

Incarcerated Fallen Angels?

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Friedrich Spitta, however, in the last decade of the 19th century, applied Christ’s proclamation to the fallen angels of Gen 6:2 (Cf. 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6).

[Fredrich Spitta, Christi Predigt und die Geister (1 Peter. 3,19ff.): Win Beitrag zur neuetestamentischen Theologie, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Gottingen, 1890, pp. 22-24.]

Christ did pass through the realm where the fallen angels are kept and proclaimed His triumph over them (Col 2:15; Eph 6:12).

So another possible explanation is that the “spirits in prison” are the fallen angels of Gen. 6 who consorted with the daughters of men, “going after strange flesh” as Jude 6-7 explains it.

The word “prison” in 1 Pet 3:19 refers to the place of judgment mentioned in 2 Peter 2:4, “chains of darkness.”

It was this violation of God’s order that helped bring on the Flood, which explains why Peter mentions Noah.

Note too that Peter’s theme is the subjection of angels to Christ (Cf. v. 22).

These fallen angels were not subject to Him, and therefore they were judged.

Between His death and resurrection, Christ visited these angels in prison and announced His victory over Satan.

The word “preached” in 1 Pet 3:19 means “to announce” and not “to preach the Gospel.”

Jesus announced their doom and His victory over all angels and authorities.

It is likely that at this time Christ “led captivity captive” (Eph 4:8),

rescued the godly souls dwelling in Hades, and took them to heaven (Lk 16:19–31).

There is not one hint here of anybody having a second chance to be saved after death.

21] The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:“The like figure whereunto even baptism...”: Baptism represents a complete break with one’s past life.

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As the Flood wiped away the old sinful world, so baptism pictures one’s break from his old sinful life and his entrance into new life in Christ.

“...by the resurrection of Jesus...”: It is not the going into the water that saves us, but that of which the baptism speaks:

the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

He who sent down into death, and could say “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.”

Baptism is the symbol of what has already occurred in the heart and life of one who has trusted Christ as Savior (Rom 6:3-5; Gal 3:27; Col 2:12).

22] Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.He is enthroned at God’s right hand (Ps 110:1; Heb 1:13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2),

the seat of supreme honor, to rule and reign over all creation (Col 1:15-16; 2:14-15).

Amen. So, Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Maranatha!

Some Lessons from the Flood“As the days of Noah were, so shall the days of the Son of Man be” (Mt 24:37).

Three classes of people were facing the Flood of Noah:

1) Those that perished in the flood;2) Those preserved through the flood: Noah, his three sons, and their four wives; and,3) Those removed prior to the flood (Enoch).

Enoch was but one person.

The Church, too, is one person: “the Body of Christ!”

Like Enoch, this Body, His Church, will be translated to be with the Lord before that great and terrible Day of Lord shall come (Rev 3:10; 1 Thess 4:16-18; et al.).

This may also be in view in Rev 12:5.

Something happened to Enoch when his son, Methuselah, was born.

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“After he begat Methuselah he walked with God 300 years” (Gen 5:22).

It was not easy in those days: widespread wickedness was reaching its peak.

He was not at all “politically correct.”

His was not a casual stroll.

“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).Enoch named his son, “His death shall bring.”

Muth, (125X) = “his death”;

shelach = “shall bring.”

The year that Methuselah died, the judgment of the flood came.

Enoch’s son was a prophecy.

Walking means progress as well as communion (koinonia).

It is interesting that Enoch was preaching the Second Coming of our Lord (Jude 14,15).

He also knew his “translation” was coming, and walked in its daily expectation.

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death...” (Heb 11:5).

When his message was finished, he became the first astronaut: he was “translated” (raptured).

Note: He did not withdraw from his temporal life, but he “occupied” (Lk 19:13);

after Methuselah he begat sons and daughters (Gen 5:22).

He was not found: his body did not remain behind...Gen 5:24.]

In Peter’s Second Epistle, he will further apply prophetic implications to both Noah and Lot.

THE SAVING WORK OF CHRIST (1Pet 3:17-22;4:1-6)3:17-22;4:1-6 For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be the will of God, than to suffer for doing wrong. For Christ also died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but he was raised

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to life in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits who are in prison, the spirits who were once upon a time disobedient, in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which some few--that is, eight souls--were brought in safety through the water. And water now saves you, who were symbolically represented in Noah and his company, I mean the water of baptism; and baptism is not merely the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge to God of a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, because he went to heaven, after angels and authorities and power had been made subject to him. Since, then, Christ suffered in the flesh, you too must arm yourselves with the same conviction that he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, and as a result of this the aim of such a man now is to spend the time that remains to him of life in the flesh no longer in obedience to human passions, but in obedience to the will of God. For the time that is past is sufficient to have done what the Gentiles will to do, to have lived a life of licentiousness, lust, drunkenness, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatry. They think it strange when you do not rush to join them in the same flood of profligacy and they abuse you for not doing so. They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, so that, although they have already been judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the Spirit like God.

The Example Of The Work Of Christ (1Pet 3:17-18a)3:17-18a For, it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be the will of God, than to suffer for doing wrong. For Christ also died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Even if the Christian is compelled to suffer unjustly for his faith, he is only walking the way that his Lord and Savior has already walked.

The suffering Christian must always remember that he has a suffering Lord.

3:18 For Christ also suffered. Peter wished to encourage his readers in their suffering by again reminding them that even Christ suffered unjustly because it was God’s will. (v17)

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Ultimately, however, Christ was marvelously triumphant to the point of being exalted to the right hand of God while all of those demon beings who were behind His suffering were made forever subject to Him (v. 22).

Under the Old Covenant, the Jewish people offered sacrifice after sacrifice, and then repeated it all the next year, especially at the Passover.

But Christ’s one sacrifice for sins was of such perpetual validity that it was sufficient for all and would never need to be repeated

the just for the unjust. This is another statement of the sinlessness of Jesus (cf. Heb. 7:26) and of His substitutionary and vicarious atonement.

He, who personally never sinned and had no sin nature, took the place of sinners (cf. 2:24; 2 Cor. 5:21).

In so doing, Christ satisfied God’s just penalty for sin required by the law and opened the way to God for all who repentantly believe (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:12). bring us to God.

In this life spiritually, and in the next life, wholly (cf. Mark 15:38).

Peter lays it down that the work of Christ was unique and never need be repeated.

Christ died once and for all for sins.

When Christ died, he died once and for all (Rom 6:10).

The priestly sacrifices in the Temple have to be repeated daily but Christ made the perfect sacrifice once and for all when he offered himself up (Heb 7:27).

Christ was once and for all offered to bear the sin of many (Heb 9:28).

We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once and for all (Heb 10:10).

On the Cross God dealt with man's sin in a way which is adequate for all sin, for all men, for all time.

The Cross never needs to happen again.

Sin is finally defeated, once and for all

It is finished – Paid in full.

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That sacrifice was for sin. Christ died once and for all for sins.

Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures (1Cor 15:3).

Christ gave himself for our sins (Gal 1:4).

The function of the High Priest, and Jesus Christ is the perfect High Priest, is to offer sacrifice for sins (Heb 5:1, 3).

He is the expiation for our sins (1Jn 2:2). [the act of making amends or reparation for guilt or wrongdoing; atonement.]

The Greek for sins is either huper (<G5228>) or peri (<G4012>) hamartion (<G266>).

It so happens that in the Greek version of the Old Testament the regular phrase for a sin-offering is peri (<G4012>) hamartias (<G266>)

(Hamartias, <G266>, is the singular of hamartion, <G266>), as, for instance, in Lev 5:7 and Lev 6:30.

Peter is laying it down that the death of Christ is the sacrifice which atones for the sin of men.

Sin is that which interrupts the relationship which should exist between God and men.

Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Rom 6:22-2322 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The object of sacrifice is to restore that lost relationship – restore what the separation from God, sin had brought…

The death of Christ upon the Cross avails to restore the lost relationship between God and man -- through what happened there we may enter into a new relationship with God.

The sacrifice was vicarious. Christ died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust.

The suffering of Christ was for us; and the mystery is that he who deserved no suffering bore that suffering for us who deserved to suffer.

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He sacrificed himself to restore our lost relationship with God.

He lays it down that the work of Christ was to bring us to God.

Christ died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

The word for "to bring" is prosagein (<G4317>)

It is used in the Old Testament of bringing to God those who are to be priests.

"You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting" (Exo 29:4).

As the Jews saw it, only the priests had the right of close access to God.

In the Temple the layman might come so far; he could pass through the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, the Court of the Israelites--but there he must stop.

Into the Court of the Priests, into the nearer presence of God, he could not go; and of the priests, only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies.

Jesus Christ brings us to God; he opens the way for all men to his nearer presence.

It has a Greek background. In the New Testament the corresponding noun prosagoge (<G4318>) is three times used.

Prosagein (<G4317>) means to bring in;

prosagoge (<G4318>) means the right of access, the result of the bringing in.

Through Christ we have access to grace (Rom 5:2). Through him we have access to God the Father (Eph 2:18). Through him we have boldness and access and confidence to come to God (Eph 3:12).

In Greek this had a specialized meaning.

At the court of kings there was an official called the prosagogeus, the introducer, the giver of access, and it was his function to decide who should be admitted to the king's presence and who should be kept out.

He held the keys of access.

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It is Jesus Christ, through what he did, who gives men access to God.

Like Hosea and Gomer, Jesus purchased us – bought us out of slavery to sin and brought us to God through Himself – He not only loves us, He owns us, we are His property.

In 1Pet 3:19 Peter says that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison; and

In 1Pet 4:6 he says that the gospel was preached to them that are dead.

This may mean that in the time between his death and his resurrection Jesus actually preached the gospel in the abode of the dead; that is to say, to those who in their lifetime had never had the opportunity to hear it.

Here is a tremendous thought.

It means that the work of Christ is infinite in its range.

It means that no man who ever lived is outside the grace of God.

Peter sees the work of Christ in terms of complete triumph.

He says that after his resurrection Jesus went into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him (1Pet 3:22).

There is nothing in earth and heaven outside the empire of Christ.

To all men he brought the new relationship between man and God;

he even brought the good news to the dead; in his resurrection he conquered death; angelic and the demonic powers are subject to him; and he shares the very power and throne of God.

Christ the sufferer has become Christ the victor; Christ the crucified has become Christ the crowned.

The Descent Into Hell (1Pet 3:18b-20;4:6)3:18b-20 He was put to death in the flesh, but he was raised to life in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits who are in prison, the spirits who were once upon a time disobedient in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built.... For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, so that, although they have already been judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God.

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put to death in the flesh.

A violent physical execution that terminated His earthly life (cf. Heb. 5:7).

alive by the Spirit. This is not a reference to the Holy Spirit, but to Jesus’ true inner life, His own spirit.

Contrasted with His flesh (humanness) which was dead for 3 days, His spirit (deity) was alive, lit. “in spirit” (cf. Luke 23:46).

After Death, Then What ???

Hell: 3 Greek words, each referring to a different place, all of which are translated by the one word hell, causing considerable confusion.

Geenna è Gehenna Hell – Physical+Spiritual / Eternal Lake of Fire…

Gehenna refers to the final abode of the wicked dead, called The Lake of Fire in The Revelation (20:14,15). This is what most of us think about when the word Hell is used.

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It is found in Mt 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33; Mk 9:43,45,47; Lk 12:5; Jas 3:6.

Haides è Hades Sheol in the OT Physical / Temporary

Hades refers to the abode of all the dead before the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus.

It is now still the temporary abode of the wicked dead until the Great White Throne judgment occurs,

It is comprised of 2 ‘chambers’:

One part was and is reserved for the wicked dead and is usually just called haides (Lk 16:23),

The other was for the righteous dead and was called Abraham's bosom (Lk 16:22), paradise (Lk 23:43), and in some references, haides (Ac 2:27,31)

Jesus emptied this location at His Resurrection and now the righteous dead go at once to be with the Lord (Php 1:23; 2 Co 5:8).

Tartaroo è Tartarus Abyss G12 = bottomless pit

Pit in the OT The Temporary Demonic prison; The Depths…

Tartarus is the word in 2 Pe 2:4 translated by the phrase "cast down to hell."

The fallen angels were sent to their temporary prison house, Tartarus, until the Great White Throne judgment.

Make a study of these places where the word "hell" occurs, in the light of the distinctive Greek word found in each place, and see how much better you understand these passages.

from Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Copyright 1940-55 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Copyrights © renewed 1968-73 by Jeannette I. Wuest. All rights reserved

The idea of the New Testament is not that Jesus descended into hell but that he descended into Hades.

Ac 2:27, as all the newer translations correctly show, should not be translated: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,"

but, "Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades."

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Hell is the place of eternal punishment of the wicked;

Hades was the place where all the dead went.

G86: HADES In Classic Greek:

1) Hades or Pluto, the god of the lower regions2) Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead

In Biblical Greek:3) The infernal regions, the underworld, a dark dismal place in the very depths of the earth

OT: Sheol - The common ‘holding location’ of disembodied human spirits

Part of Speech: noun proper locative

Idiomatically: a geocentric concept

Later this word Hades came to be synonymous with the grave, death, and/or hell

But it is not…See Luke 16:19-31The Jewish conception of the world after death was of this grey world of shadows and forgetfulness, in which men were separated from life and light and God.

Such was Hades, into which the spirits of all men went after death.

"For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for thy faithfulness" (Isa 38:18).

The Psalmist wrote: "In death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who can give thee praise?" (Ps 6:5).

"What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell of thy faithfulness?" (Ps 30:9).

"Dost thou work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise thee? Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Are thy wonders known in the darkness, or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?" (Ps 88:10-12).

"The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence" (Ps 115:17).

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"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going" (Ecc 9:10).

As time went on, there emerged the idea of stages and divisions in this shadowland.

For some it was to last for ever;

For others it was a kind of prison-house in which they were held until the final judgment of God's wrath should blast them (Isa 24:21-22; 2Pet 2:4; Rev 20:1-7).

This whole matter is to be thought of, not in terms of hell, as we understand the word, but in terms of Christ's going to the dead in their shadowy world.

Sheol H7585Not the “grave”. Grave is H6913: KEVER, QEBER Isa 14:19

G3418/G3419: MNEEMAThe grave is the destination of our bodies.

In the LXX (Septuagint: the first Greek translation of the OT in use in Jesus day), Sheol is never translated MNEEMA (Grave) but always HADES.

Sheol is the location of departed souls; The conscious abode of the dead. In Old Testament times it referenced the abode of both the righteous and unrighteous dead.

Sheol is “under the earth”, “underworld”, “lower parts of the earth” Graves were in Sepulchres – above the earth or in caves

Ps 63:9; Isa 14:9; Ezek 26:20; Ezek 31:14, 16, 18: Ezek 32:28,24

Sheol is never connected to burial as is Kever Ge 23:4, 6, 9, 19, 20 Ge 49:30-31 etc

You can purchase, own or sell a grave site; not Sheol Ge 23:4-20Bodies are unconscious and decay in Kever – the grave;

Those souls/spirits in Sheol are conscious Isa 14:4-7; Is 44:23; Ezek 31:16; Ezek 32:21; Luk 16:19>>

Kever can be plural – there are many graves; Sheol – the abode of the dead - is never used in the plural

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You must carefully study the translated passage in context to determine the proper idea when you come across the words Sheol and/or Hades

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Hell = The Lake of Fire = Gehenna G1067Originally the valley of Hinnom, a deep, narrow ravine south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction.

At the HIGH PLACES of Baal in the valley of Hinnom, parents sacrificed their children as a burnt offering to the pagan god Molech 2 Kings 23:10Ahaz and Manasseh, Kings of Judah, were guilty of this wickedness 2 Chr 28:3; 33:6King Josiah put an end to this Baal worship destroying the pagan altars and defiling the valley in order to make it unfit even for pagan worship 2 Kings 23:10Jeremiah foretold that God would judge this awful abomination of human sacrifice and would cause such a destruction that "the valley of the son of Hinnom" would become known as "the valley of slaughter" Jer 7:31-32; 19:2,6; 32:35

The place was also called “Tophet." The Valley of Hinnon (Hinnom), south of Jerusalem, where The filth and dead animals of the city were dumped and burned.

The valley of Hinnom became the garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem.

All the filth and garbage of the city, including the dead bodies of animals and executed criminals were thrown into it.

Maggots filled and worked the filth.

To consume all this, fires smoldered and burned constantly.

As in any large compost pile, it burned spontaneously and never went out as more and more refuse was added to the pile.

It is this comparison; a place of un-extinguished burning and fire that became synonymous with Hell.

Smoke from the burning debris rose day and night.

When the wind blew over the city from the direction of Hinnom, there was no doubt how awful a place it was.

At night wild dogs howled and gnashed their teeth as they fought over the garbage.

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Jesus used this awful scene as a symbol of hell.

In effect he said, "do you want to know what hell is like? Look at the valley of gehenna."

Hinnom became a visible symbol of horror, woe and of the place of eternal punishment we call HELL.

The ‘Lake of Fire’ or ‘Gehenna’ is the ultimate destiny of the unsaved now temporarily held in Hades / Sheol

Topologically, Gehenna is at the opposite end of creation than Hades.

Hades is mentioned as being under the earth

The Lake of Fire – or Hell as we associate it – is in the ‘Outer Darkness’ Matt 8:12; Matt 22:13, Matt 25:30

Note: Phrases like “Fire and Brimstone”, “Lake of fire”, etc are metaphors – descriptors of something we cannot comprehend used to help associate them with something familiar.

Hell – eternal darkness, punishment, suffering, burning, etc will be far greater than any weak example we come up with or use to describe it.

It it the ultimate, eternal, permanent alienation and separation from God existing outside the boundaries of time and space that we struggle to understand even though we currently live within those boundaries.

Hell is God's "cosmic garbage dump." All that is unfit for heaven will be thrown into hell. The place of future eternal punishment...

Hell as a place of punishment is translated gehenna,

Translated into Greek, the Hebrew "valley of hinnom" becomes gehenna,

12 times in the New Testament (11 times by Jesus and once by James), each time it is translated in as "hell"

Matt 5:22; Mark 9:43,45,47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6In Mark 9:46, 48, hell is described as a place where

"their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."

Repeatedly Jesus spoke of ‘outer darkness’ and a ‘furnace of fire’, where there will be wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth

Matt 8:12; 13:42,50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28

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The book of Revelation describes hell as "a lake of fire burning with brimstone"

Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8Into hell will be thrown the beast and the false prophet. Rev. 19:20

At the end of the age the devil himself will be thrown into it, along with death and hades (sheol) and all whose names are not in the book of life.

"And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" Rev. 20:10b

Some people doubt whether hell consists of actual fire or if it is just symbolic.

Don’t get too comfortable with that thought.

Symbols are used because words are inadequate.

Whether you are talking about Heaven or Hell, the reality is greater than the symbols used to describe them.

Tartarus = ?? = The ABYSSWhen men multiplied on the earth - now in their sinful state - Satan did everything possible to corrupt men to the point God would have no use for them.

Genesis 6:1-4 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, [2] That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ... [4] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

As these fallen heavenly 'sons of God' possessed now fallen human ‘sons of God’ they bore offspring bringing about a race of giant demon controlled beings.

A ’son of God’ is an exclusive term used in scripture for those beings who were the result of God’s direct creation or incarnation.

There are only four: The angels Adam The Lord Jesus The Church

The fallen angels who participated in this action of possessing men and their offspring were condemned to a prison called – Tartarus GK: 5020

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2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, [tartaroo] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Abyss: [Ah BISS] – GK:12 the bottomless pit or the chaotic deep. Found 9x in the New Testament; 30x+ in the Septuagint.

Often referred to as the ‘deep’ or ‘darkness’

Luke 8:31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

Romans 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

The temporary place of terrible punishment of disobedient spirits, fallen angels, demons, and ultimately the beast and the false prophet.

Rev 9:11; Rev 11:7; Rev 20:1, 3The final, eternal place of punishment is the ‘lake of fire’; often called ‘Gehenna’

Rev 20:10; Rev 20:14-15“The outer darkness” Mat_8:12; Mat_22:13; Mat_25:30;

The Abyss or ‘bottomless pit’ became known as the place of confinement of God's greatest enemies harboring some of the most terrible of the fallen creatures which followed Lucifer in his rebellion.

"The Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high [that is, Satan's hosts], and the kings of the earth upon the earth. [For this earth is to be terribly judged, but God never forgets that behind the wicked of this earth there are the wicked of the angelic hosts.] And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited" (Isa. 24:21-22)

The Abyss is a great chasm within the earth where the disobedient of heaven and disobedient of earths' rulers and the fallen spirits who cohabited with man were kept prisoner.

Amos 9:3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

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Isa 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

Psalm 74:13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

Lu 8:31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

What’s all this about dragons and serpents hid in the deep, the bottom of (beneath) the sea ???

Rev 9:1-3 The ABYSS G12…Smoke and Locusts ???[1] And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. [2] And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. [3] And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

John is describing the opening of a place beyond the natural environment of man's normal existence.

It is the loosing of evil spirit beings upon natural man.

Satan's still controls a great army – some confined, some free and still roaming …

Ephes. 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

2 Cor. 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

Also see Mark 9:17-27

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Sorry, we don’t have a ‘No Smoking’ section …The Lord did not lead Israel in the wilderness with a pillar of smoke

He used a pillar of cloud – a thunder cloud by day He used a pillar of fire by night

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Holy smoke ???Smoke is always used to denote judgment, consumption by fire

As in consuming a sacrifice

The first time smoke is mentioned in scripture is at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah; smoke of judgment…

Genesis 19:28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

Smoke was seen at the giving of the law on Sinai… the law which condemned and judged man’s behavior and attitudes…

Exodus 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

Out of the smoke of the abyss - billowing like smoke out of a furnace emerge wave after wave of hideous flying creatures like locusts swarming across the land.

The Descent Into Hell (1Pet 3:18b-20;4:6)This doctrine of the descent into Hades (Paradise: Abraham’s Bosom) is based on two phrases in our present passage.

It says that Jesus went and preached to the spirits who are in prison (1Pet 3:19); and

It speaks of the gospel being preached to the dead (1Pet 4:6). Some wish to eliminate this passage and truth altogether

3:19 preached. Between Christ’s death and resurrection, His living spirit went to the demon spirits bound in the abyss and proclaimed that, in spite of His death,

He had triumphed over them (Col 2:14, 15).

spirits in prison. This refers to fallen angels (demons), who were permanently bound because of heinous wickedness.

The demons who are not so bound resist such a sentence (cf. Luke 8:31).

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In the end, they will all be sent to the eternal lake of fire (Matt. 25:4 1; Rev. 20:10).

Some New Testament interpreters believe that Peter is saying that Jesus went to Hades and preached, but that he did not preach to all the inhabitants of Hades.

Different interpreters limit that preaching in different ways.

It is argued that Jesus preached in Hades only to the spirits of the men who were disobedient in the days of Noah.

Those who hold this view often go on to argue that, since these sinners were desperately disobedient, so much so that God sent the flood and destroyed them (Gen 6:12-13), we may believe that no man is outside the mercy of God.

They were the worst of all sinners and yet they were given another chance of repentance; therefore, the worst of men still have a chance in Christ.

It is argued that Jesus preached to the fallen angels, and preached, not salvation, but final and awful doom.

These angel’s story is told in Gen 6:1-8.

Tempted by the beauty of mortal women; they came to earth, seduced them and begat children; and because of their action, it is inferred, the wickedness of man was great and his thoughts were always evil.

2Pet 2:4 speaks of these sinning angels as being imprisoned in hell, awaiting judgment.

It was to them that Enoch did, in fact, preach; and there are those who think that what this passage means is not that Christ preached mercy and another chance; but that, in token of his complete triumph, he preached terrible doom to those angels who had sinned.

It is argued that Christ preached only to those who had been righteous and that he led them out of Hades into the paradise of God.

The Jews believed that all the dead went to Hades, the shadowy land of forgetfulness.

The argument is that before Christ, that was indeed so but he opened the gates of heaven to mankind; and, when he did so, he

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went to Hades and told the glad news to all the righteous men of all past generations and led them out to God.

Those who hold this view often go on to say that, because of Christ, there is now no time spent in the shadows of Hades and the way to Christ’s presence at God’s right hand is open to us as soon as physical death closes on us.

There is the attitude that what Peter is saying is that Jesus Christ, between his death and resurrection, went to the world of the dead and preached the gospel there.

Peter says that Jesus Christ was put to death in the flesh but raised to life in the Spirit, and that it was in the Spirit that he so preached.

The meaning is that Jesus lived in a human body and was under all the limitations of time and space in the days of his flesh; and died with that body broken and bleeding upon the Cross.

When he rose again, he rose with a spiritual body, in which he was rid of the necessary weaknesses of humanity and liberated from the necessary limitations of time and space.

It was in this spiritual condition of perfect freedom that the preaching to the dead took place.

This doctrine speaks of the descent into Hades and the very word descent suggests a three-storey universe in which heaven is localized above the sky and Hades beneath the earth.

Laying aside the physical categories of this doctrine, we can find in it truths which are eternally valid and precious, three in particular.

If Christ descended into Hades, then his death was no sham.

It is not to be explained in terms of a swoon on the Cross, or anything like that.

He really experienced death, and rose again.

At its simplest, the doctrine of the descent into Hades lays down the complete identity of Christ with our human condition, even to the experience of death.

If Christ descended into Hades, it means that his triumph is universal.

… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth (Php 2:10).

In the Revelation the song of praise comes from every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth (Rev 5:13).

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He who ascended into Heaven is he who first descended into the lower parts of the earth (Eph 4:9-10).

The total submission of the universe to Christ is woven into the thought of the New Testament.

If Christ descended into Hades and preached there, there is no corner of the universe into which the message of grace has not come.

What is to happen to those who lived before Jesus Christ and to those to whom the gospel never came?

There can be no salvation without repentance but how can repentance come to those who have never been confronted with the love and holiness of God?

If there is no other name by which men may be saved, what is to happen to those who never heard it?

The doctrine of the descent into Hades conserves the precious truth that no man who ever lived is left without a sight of Christ and without the offer of the salvation of God.

Many in repeating the Apostle’s creed have found the phrase "He descended into hell" either meaningless or bewildering, and have tacitly agreed to set it on one side and forget it.

Jesus Christ not only tasted death but drained the cup of death, that the triumph of Christ is universal and that there is no corner of the universe into which the grace of God has not reached.

The Baptism Of The Christian (1Pet 3:18-22)3:18-22 For Christ also died once and for all for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but he was raised to life in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits who are in prison, the spirits who were once upon a time disobedient in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which some few--that is, eight souls--were brought in safety through the water. And water (symbolically) now saves you, who were symbolically represented in Noah and his company, I mean the water of baptism; and baptism is not merely the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge to God of a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God,

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because he went to heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been made subject to him.

3:20 disobedient... in the days of Noah. Peter further explains that the abyss is inhabited by bound demons who have been there since the time of Noah, and who were sent there because they severely overstepped the bounds of God’s tolerance with their wickedness.

The demons of Noah’s day were running riot through the earth, filling the world with their wicked, vile, anti-God activity, including sexual sin, -so that even 120 years of Noah’s preaching, while the ark was being built, could not convince any of the human race beyond the 8 people in Noah’s family to believe in God (see notes on 2 Pet. 2:4,5 Jude 6, 2 cf. Gen. 6:1-8).

God bound these demons permanently in the abyss until their final sentencing.

saved through water. They had been rescued in spite of the water not because of the water.

Here, water was the agent of God’s judgment not the means of salvation (Acts2:38).

Peter has been speaking about the wicked men who were disobedient and corrupt in the days of Noah; they were ultimately destroyed.

But in the destruction by the flood eight people--Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives--were brought to safety in the ark.

The idea of being brought to safety through the water turns Peter's thoughts to Christian baptism, which is also a bringing to safety through the water.

What Peter literally says is that baptism is an antitype of Noah and his people in the ark.

This word introduces us to a special way of looking at the Old Testament.

tupos (<G5179>), type, which means a seal,

antitupos (<G499>), antitype, which means the impression of the seal.

3:21 an antitype which now saves us.

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In the NT, an antitype is an earthly expression of a spiritual reality.

It indicates a symbol, picture, or pattern of some spiritual truth.

Peter is teaching that the fact that 8 people were in an ark and went through the whole judgment, and yet were unharmed, is analogous to the Christian’s experience in salvation by being in Christ, the ark of one’s salvation.

baptism... through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter is not at all referring to water baptism here, but rather a figurative immersion into union with Christ as an ark of safety from the judgment of God.

The resurrection of Christ demonstrates God’s acceptance of Christ’s substitutionary death for the sins of those who believe (Acts 2:30, 31; Rom. 1:4).

Judgment fell on Christ just as the judgment of the flood waters fell on the ark.

The believer who is in Christ is thus in the ark of safety that will sail over the waters of judgment into eternal glory (cf. Rom. 6:1—4).

not the removal of the filth of the flesh. To be sure he is not misunderstood, Peter clearly says he is not speaking of water baptism.

In Noah’s flood, they were kept out of the water while those who went into the water were destroyed.

Being in the ark and thus saved from God’s judgment on the world prefigures being in Christ and thus saved from eternal damnation.

the answer of a good conscience toward God.

The word for “answer” has the idea of a pledge, agreeing to certain conditions of a covenant (the New Covenant) with God.

What saves a person plagued by sin and a guilty conscience is not some external rite, but the agreement with God to get in the ark of safety, the Lord Jesus, by faith in His death and resurrection (cf. Rom. 10:9, 10; Heb. 9:14; 10:22).

There are people and events and customs in the Old Testament which are types, and which find their antitypes in the New Testament.

The Old Testament event or person is like the seal;

The New Testament event or person is like the impression;

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The Old Testament event symbolically represents and foreshadows the New Testament event.

The science of finding types and antitypes in the Old and the New Testaments is very highly developed.

EG: The Passover Lamb and the scapegoat, who bore the sins of the people, are types of Jesus;

The work of the High Priest in making sacrifice for the sins of the people is a type of his saving work.

Here Peter sees the bringing safely through the waters of Noah and his family as a type of baptism.

Peter has three great things to say about baptism.

At this stage of the Church's history we are still dealing with adult baptism, the baptism of people who had come straight from heathenism into Christianity and who were taking upon themselves a new way of life.

Baptism is not merely a physical cleansing; it is a spiritual cleansing of the whole heart and soul and life.

Its effect must be on a man's very soul and on his whole life.

Peter calls baptism the pledge of a good conscience to God (1Pet 3:21).

The word Peter uses for pledge is eperotema (<G1906>).

In every business contract there was a definite question and answer which made the contract binding.

"Do you accept the terms of this contract, and bind yourself to observe them?"

And the answer, before witnesses was: "Yes."

Without that question and answer the contract was not valid.

The technical word for that question and answer clause is eperotema (<G1906>) in Greek, stipulatio in Latin.

Peter is, in effect, saying that in baptism God said to the man coming direct from heathenism:

"Do you accept the terms of my service?

Do you accept its privileges and promises, and do you undertake its responsibilities and its demands?"

And in the act of being baptized the man answered: "Yes."

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Some use the word sacrament. Sacrament is derived from the Latin sacramentum, which means a soldier's oath of loyalty on entering the army.

We cannot very well apply this question and answer in infant baptism, unless it be to the parents; but baptism in the very early church was of adult men and women coming spontaneously from heathenism into the Church.

The modern parallel is entering upon full membership of the Church.

When we enter upon Church membership, we are asked: "Do you accept the conditions of my service, with all privileges and all its responsibilities, with all its promises and all its demands?" and we answer; "Yes."

It would be well if all were clearly to understand what they are doing when they take upon themselves membership of the Church.

3:22 right hand of God. After Jesus accomplished His cross work and was raised from the dead, He was exalted to the place of prominence, honor, majesty, authority, and power (cf. Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20,21; Phil. 2:9—11; Heb. 1:3—9; 6:20; 8:1; 12:2).

The point of application to Peter’s readers is that suffering can be the context for one’s greatest triumph, as seen in the example of the Lord Jesus.

The whole idea and effectiveness of baptism is dependent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is the grace of the Risen Lord which cleanses us;

It is to the Risen, Living Lord that we pledge ourselves;

It is to the Risen, Living Lord that we look for strength to keep the pledge that we have given.

Once again, in infant baptism the infant cannot do this.

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Chapter 4Introduction

• Are we human flesh undergoing a spiritual experience?• Or are we spiritual beings undergoing a human experience?• Or is that the result of the transition that we call “the new birth”?

THE OBLIGATION OF THE CHRISTIAN (1Pet 4:1-5)4:1-5 Since then, Christ suffered in the flesh, you too must arm yourselves with the same conviction, that he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, and as a result of this the aim of such a man now is to spend the time that remains to him of life in obedience to the will of God. For the time that is past is sufficient to have done what the Gentiles will to do, to have lived a life of licentiousness, lust, drunkenness, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatry. They think it strange when you do not rush to join them in the same flood of profligacy, and they abuse you for not doing so. They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

1Pe 4:1-6 Good Managers of God’s Grace ISV1 Therefore, since the Messiah [Or Christ] suffered in a mortal

body, [Other mss. read suffered for us; still other mss. read suffered for you] you, too, must arm yourselves with the same determination, because the person who has suffered in a mortal body has stopped sinning,

2 so that he can live the rest of his mortal life [Lit. time] guided, not by human desires, but by the will of God.

3 For you spent enough time in the past doing what the gentiles like to do, living in sensuality, sinful desires, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and detestable idolatry.

4 They insult you now because they are surprised that you are no longer joining them in the same excesses of wild living.

5 They will give an account to the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

6 Indeed, this is why the gospel was proclaimed even to those who have died, so that they could be judged in their mortal flesh like all humans and live in the spiritual realm like God.

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1] Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;Therefore.

In light of the triumphant suffering and death of Christ, Peter’s readers should also be willing to suffer in the flesh, knowing that it potentially produces the greatest triumph,

suffered for us in the flesh. A reference to Christ’s death on the cross (3:18).

“...arm yourselves”: Cf. Armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-18.

“...same mind”: “The mind of Christ” = “Mind” is not the brain; it is an entire process from thinking through resolution in action...

the same mind. The Christian should be armed (terminology that realizes a battle) with the same thought that was manifest in the suffering of Christ, namely that one can be triumphant in suffering, even the suffering of death.

In other words, the Christian should voluntarily accept the potential of death as a part of the Christian life (cf. Matt. 10:3 8, 32; 2 Cor. 4:8—11).

Peter would have his opportunity to live this principle himself, when he faced martyrdom (see John 21:18, 22).

“...ceased”: pauo past perfect tense, passive verb (middle voice in Greek):

“has been released from.”

God is the implied agent.

The ruling power of sin has been broken.

While unable to live a perfect life, the believer is free from the dominance of sin (Cf. Rom 6).

In Romans 7 Paul shows how the Christian is defeated when he lives in the flesh,

In Romans 8 he tells how God has provided the Holy Spirit that we might live by the power of the Spirit.

has ceased from sin.

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The perfect tense of the verb emphasizes a permanent eternal condition free from sin.

The worst that can happen to a believer suffering unjustly is death, and that is the best that can happen because death means the complete and final end of all sins.

If the Christian is armed with the goal of being delivered from sin, and that goal is achieved through his death, the threat and experience of death is precious (cf. Rom. 7:5, 18; 1 Cor. 1:2 1; 15:42-49).

Moreover, the greatest weapon that the enemy has against the Christian, the threat of death, is not effective.

The Christian must be committed to abandoning his/her old ways and to live as God would have them to live.

2] That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:5,6

With Christ as our example of patience in suffering, how can we—who owe everything to Him—do any less than arm ourselves with the same “mind” and so demonstrate that we are His by faith?

Often God uses suffering to keep us from going into that which would dishonor Him.

no longer should live...for the lusts of men. If the goal of the Christian’s life is the freedom from sin which comes at death, then he should live the remainder of his life on earth pursuing the holy will of God rather than the ungodly lusts of the flesh.

"He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." There is a strong line in Jewish thought that suffering is in itself a great purifier.

If this is the idea, it means that he who has been disciplined by suffering has been cured of sin.

That is a great thought.

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"Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O Lord," said the Psalmist (Ps 94:12).

"Happy is the man whom God reproves," said Eliphaz (Job 5:17).

"For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Heb 12:6).

It enables us to thank God for the experiences which hurt but save the soul.

The one who has suffered in meekness and in fear, who has endured all that persecution can do to him rather than join in wicked ways can be trusted to do right; temptation has manifestly no power over him.

The idea is that if a man has come through persecution and not denied the name of Christ, he comes out on the other side with a character so tested and a faith so strengthened, that temptation cannot touch him any more.

Every trial and every temptation are meant to make us stronger and better.

Every temptation resisted makes the next easier to resist;

Every temptation conquered makes us better able to overcome the next attack.

Peter has just been talking about baptism.

The great New Testament picture of baptism is in Rom 6 .

Paul says that the experience of baptism is like being buried with Christ in death and raised with him to newness of life.

He who in baptism has shared the sufferings and the death of Christ, is risen to such newness of life with him that sin has no more dominion over him (Rom 6:14).

This is the baptism of the man who is voluntarily coming over from paganism into Christianity.

In that act of baptism he is identified with Christ; he shares his sufferings and even his death; and he shares his risen life and power, and

is, therefore, victor over sin.

When that has happened, a man has said good-bye to his former way of life.

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The rule of pleasure, pride and passion is gone, and the rule of God has begun.

This was by no means easy.

A man's former associates would laugh at the new motive for living which had entered his life.

But the Christian knows that the judgment of God will come,

When the judgments of earth will be reversed, the pleasures that are eternal will compensate a thousandfold for the transitory pleasures which had to be abandoned in this life.

3] For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: “Lewdness” describes unbridled, unrestrained sin, an excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure.

“Revelries” has the idea of an orgy.

The Gr. word was used in extrabiblical literature to refer to a band of drunken, wildly acting people, swaggering and staggering through public streets, wreaking havoc.

Thus the pleasures of the ungodly are described here from the perspective of God as despicable acts of wickedness.

Though Peter’s readers had indulged in such sins before salvation, they must never do so again.

Sin in the believer is a burden which afflicts him rather than a pleasure which delights him.

A definite break with the past required.

Gal 5:19-21 = works of the flesh.Gal 5:22-23 = the fruits of the Spirit.

“Time past of our life may suffice”: we have already wasted enough of our most inelastic resource - Time.

Shrewd executives always weigh the (alternative) opportunity costs in a decision.

4] Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

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Being a Biblical Christian is more than just “politically incorrect.”

The world hates believers.

they think it strange. The former friends are surprised, offended, and resentful because of the Christian’s lack of interest in ungodly pleasures.

the same flood of dissipation. “Dissipation” refers to the state of evil in which a person thinks about nothing else.

The picture here is of a large crowd running together in a mad, wild race—a melee pursuing sin.

“...speaking evil”: heaping abuse upon; blaspheme.

5] Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.We all have an appointment to give account (Mt 12:36; Lk 16:2; Acts 19:40; Heb 13:17).

give an account. This verb means “to pay back.”

People who have “walked in lewdness” (v. 3) and who malign believers (v. 4) are amassing a debt to God which they will spend all eternity paying back (cf. Matt. 12:36; Rom 14:11, 12; Heb. 4:13).

to judge the living and the dead. All the unsaved, currently alive or dead, will be brought before the Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11—15 cf. Rom. 3:19; 2 Thes 1:6—10).

Are you prepared for your “final exam”? (1 Cor 3:12-15; 2 Cor 5:10).

THE ULTIMATE CHANCE (1Pet 4:6)4:6 For this is the reason why the gospel was preached to the dead, so that, although they have been judged in the flesh like men, they may live in the Spirit like God.

6] For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

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We are to live so as to give account, not to men, but to Him who is to judge the living and the dead when He returns in power (2 Cor 5:10; 1Co 3:10-15)).

What was preached?When was it preached?To whom was it preached?Peter has just been talking about the descent of Christ to the place of the dead, and here he comes back to the idea of Christ preaching to the dead.

… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth (Php 2:10).

In the Revelation the song of praise comes from every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth (Rev 5:13).

He who ascended into Heaven is he who first descended into the lower parts of the earth (Eph 4:9-10).

At least three different meanings have been attached to dead.

(i) those who are dead in sin, not those who are physically dead.

(ii) those who died before the Second Coming of Christ; but who heard the gospel before they died and so will not miss the glory.

(iii) or quite simply all the dead

to those who are dead. Dead in sin or Dead to sin

Spiritual death Physical death

For mortal man, death is the penalty of sin.

"Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" (Rom 5:12).

Had there been no sin, there would have been no death; and, therefore, death in itself is a judgment.

All men have already been judged when they die;

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Christ descended to the world of the dead and preached the gospel there, giving the righteous dead a chance to accept the gospel and live in the Spirit of God.

to those who are dead. Dead in sin or Dead to sin

Spiritual death Physical death

The preaching of the gospel not only offers a rich life (3:10),

a ceasing from sin and a good conscience (3:21), but also an escape from final judgment.

Peter had in mind believers who had heard and accepted the gospel of Christ when they were still alive, but who had died by the time Peter wrote this letter.

Some of them, perhaps, had been martyred for their faith.

Though these were dead physically, they were triumphantly alive in their spirits (cf. Heb. 12:23).

All their judgment had been fully accomplished while they were alive in this world (“in the flesh”), so they will live forever in God’s presence

THE APPROACHING END (1Pet 4:7a)4:7a The end of all things is near. 7] But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.“But the end of all things is at hand”: That has been true since the day

the Lord Jesus went back to heaven.

We are to keep our “end” in view, and not to live for the passing moment, but as one who anticipates the end of all things—which is, indeed, at hand.

Here is a unique case where “the end justifies the means”!

the end of all things. The Gr. word telos G5056 for “end” is never used in the NT as a chronological end, as if something simply stops.

1) end

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1a) termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state, but not of the end of a period of time)

1b) the end1b1) the last in any succession or series1b2) eternal

1c) that by which a thing is finished, its close, issue1d) the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose

2) toll, custom (i.e. indirect tax on goods)

Instead, the word means a consummation, a goal achieved, a result attained, or a realization.

Having emphasized triumphant suffering through death, Peter here begins to emphasize triumphant suffering through the second coming of Christ (cf. 1:3; 2:12), which is the goal of all things.

1Pe 1:3-5 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1Pe 2:11-12 11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

He is calling believers to live obediently and expectantly in the light of Christ’s return, is at hand.

The idea is that of a process consummated with a resulting nearness; that is, “imminent.”

Peter is reminding the readers of this letter that the return of Jesus Christ could be at any moment (cf. Rom. 13:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; James 5:7, Rev. 22:20).

Rom 13:11-14 11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us

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walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

1Th 1:9-10 9 For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Jas 5:7-10 7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

Rev 22:6-7 6 Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. 7 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."

Rev 22:20-21 20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

While we wait --- be serious and watchful. To be “serious” implies here not to be swept away by emotions or passions, thus maintaining a proper eternal perspective on life.

The doctrine of the imminent return of Christ should not turn the Christian into a zealous fanatic who does nothing but wait for it to occur.

Instead, it should lead the believer into a watchful pursuit of holiness.

Moreover, a watchful attitude creates a pilgrim mentality (2:11).

1Pe 2:11-12 11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by

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your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

It reminds the Christian that he is a citizen of heaven only sojourning on earth.

It should also remind him that he will face the record of his service to God and be rewarded for what stands the test at the judgment seat of Christ, which follows the return of Christ to rapture His church (see 1 Cor. 3:10—15; 4:1—5; 2 Cor. 5:9, 10).

1Co 3:10-21 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "HE CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR OWN CRAFTINESS"; 20 and again, "THE LORD KNOWS THE THOUGHTS OF THE WISE, THAT THEY ARE FUTILE."21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours:

1Co 4:1-5 1 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

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3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.4 For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord.5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.

2Co 5:9-10 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

1Jn 2:25-29 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

watchful...prayers. A mind victimized by emotion and passion, out of control, or knocked out of balance by worldly lusts and pursuits, is a mind that cannot know the fullness of holy communion in prayer with God (cf. 3:7).

A mind fixed on His return is purified (1 John 3:3) and enjoys the fullness of fellowship with the Lord.

1Jn 3:3-6 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in

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Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

It is the summons of Paul that it is time to wake out of sleep, for the night is far spent and the day is at hand (Rom 13:12).

"The Lord is at hand," he writes to the Philippians (Php 4:5).

"The coming of the Lord is at hand," (Jas 5:8). (1Jn 2:18). "The time is near," "Surely I am coming soon" (Rev 1:3; Rev 22:20).

We may hold that the New Testament writers were in fact mistaken.

They looked for the return of Christ and the end of the world in their own day and generation; and these events did not take place.

The curious thing is that the Christian Church allowed these words to stand although it would not have been difficult quietly to excise them from the New Testament documents.

It was not until late in the second century that the New Testament began to be fixed in the form in which we have it today; and yet statements such as these became unquestioned parts of it.

The clear conclusion is that the people of the early church – centuries after they had been written - still believed these words to be true.

There is a strong line of New Testament thought which holds that the end has already come.

The consummation of history was the coming of Jesus Christ.

In him time was invaded by eternity. In him God entered into the human situation. In him the prophecies were all fulfilled. In him the end has come.

Paul speaks of himself and his people as those on whom the ends of the ages have come (1Cor 10:11).

1Co 10:11-14 11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be

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tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Peter in his first sermon speaks of Joel's prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit and of all that should happen in the last days, and then says that at that very time men were actually living in those last days (Ac 2:16-21).

Act 2:16-2116 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:17 'AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS

GOD, THAT I WILL POUR OUT OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS. 18 AND ON MY MENSERVANTS AND ON MY MAIDSERVANTS I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT IN THOSE DAYS; AND THEY SHALL PROPHESY. 19 I WILL SHOW WONDERS IN HEAVEN ABOVE AND SIGNS IN THE EARTH BENEATH: BLOOD AND FIRE AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. 20 THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE COMING OF THE GREAT AND AWESOME DAY OF THE LORD. 21 AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.' [Joel 2:28-32]

If we accept that, it means that in Jesus Christ the end of history has come.

The battle has been won; there remain only skirmishes with the last remnants of opposition.

It means that at this very moment we are living in the "end time," in what someone has called "the epilogue to history."

While this is still a very common point of view; but the trouble is that it flies in the face of facts.

Evil is as rampant as ever;

The world is still far from having accepted Christ as King.

It may be the "end time," but the dawn seems as far distant as ever it was.

It may be that we have to interpret near in the light of history's being a process of almost unimaginable length.

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The Psalmist was literally right when he said that in God's sight a thousand years were just like a watch in the night (Ps 90:4).

Psa 90:4 ¶ One thousand years in your sight are but a single day

that passes by, just like a night watch.In that case “near” can cover centuries and still be correctly used.

For everyone of us the time is near.

The one thing which can be said of every man is that he will die.

For every one of us the Lord is at hand.

We cannot tell the day and the hour when we shall go to meet him; and, therefore, all life is lived in the shadow of eternity.

The early thinkers may have been wrong if they thought that the end of the world was round the corner, but they have left us with the warning that for every one of us personally the end is near; and that warning is as valid today as ever it was.

THE LIFE LIVED IN THE SHADOW OF ETERNITY (1Pet 4:7b-8)4:7b-8 Be, therefore, steady and sober in mind so that you will really be able to pray as you ought. Above all cherish for each other a love that is constant and intense, because love hides a multitude of sins. When a man realizes the nearness of Jesus Christ, he is bound to commit himself to a certain kind of life.

Peter makes four demands.

He says that we must be steady in mind. We might render it: "Preserve your sanity."

The verb Peter uses is sophronein (<G4994>); connected with that verb is the noun sophrosune (<G4997>),

which the Greeks derived fromthe verb sozein (<G4982>), to keep safe, and the noun phronesis (<G5428>), the mind.

Sophrosune (<G4997>) is the wisdom which characterizes a man who is preeminently sane; and sophronein (<G4993>) means to preserve one's sanity.

The great characteristic of sanity is that it sees things in their proper proportions;

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It sees what things are important and what are not; It is not swept away by sudden and transitory enthusiasms; It is prone neither to unbalanced fanaticism nor to unrealizing indifference.

It is only when we see the affairs of earth in the light of eternity that we see them in their proper proportions;

it is when God is given his proper place that everything else takes its proper place.

“...sober”: sophroneo to be of sound mind; should be translated “sober-minded.”

Peter uses this expression a great deal meaning

“Be ye therefore intelligent.”

Peter says that we must be sober in mind.

We might render it: "Preserve your sobriety."

The verb Peter uses is nephein (<G3525>) which originally meant to be sober in contradistinction to being drunk and then came to mean to act soberly and sensibly.

This does not mean that the Christian is to be lost in a gloomy joylessness;

it does mean that his approach to life must not be frivolous and irresponsible.

To take things seriously is to be aware of their real importance and to be ever mindful of their consequences in time and in eternity.

It is to approach life, not as a jest, but as a serious matter for which we are answerable.

Peter says that we must do this in order to pray as we ought.

We might render it: "Preserve your prayer life."

When a man's mind is unbalanced and his approach to life is frivolous and irresponsible, he cannot pray as he ought.

We learn to pray when we take life so wisely and so seriously that we begin to say in all things: "Thy will be done."

The first necessity of prayer is the earnest desire to discover the will of God for ourselves.

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8] And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.fervent love. “Fervent” means “to be stretched,” “to be strained.”

It is used of a runner who is moving at maximum output with taut muscles straining and stretching to the limit (cf. 1:22).

This kind of love requires the Christian to put another’s spiritual good ahead of his own desires in spite of being treated unkindly, ungraciously, or even with hostility (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4-7; Phil. 2:1-4).

“love will cover a multitude of sins”. ” Quoted from Prov. 10:12. It is the nature of true spiritual love, whether from God to man or Christian to Christian, to cover sins (cf. Rom. 5:8).

This teaching does not preclude the discipline of a sinning, unrepentant church member (cf. Matt. 18:15—18; 1 Cor. 5).

It means specifically that a Christian should overlook sins against him if possible, and always be ready to forgive insults and unkindnesses.

This is amplified in 1 Corinthians 13 (q.v. Prov 10:12).

While we are not to be indifferent to sin, we are to help those who are overtaken rather than just being committed to exposure and censure of others.

Peter says that we must cherish for each other a love that is constant and intense.

We might render it: "Preserve your love."

The word Peter uses to describe this love is ektenes (<G1618>) which has two meanings,

It means outstretching in the sense of being consistent;

our love must be the love that never fails.

It also means stretching out as a runner stretches out.

it describes a horse at full gallop and denotes "the taut muscle of strenuous and sustained effort, as of an athlete."

Our love must be energetic.

Christian love is not an easy, sentimental reaction.

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It demands everything a man has of mental and spiritual energy.It means loving the unlovely and the unlovable; It means loving in spite of insult and injury; It means loving when love is not returned.

Bengel translates ektenes (<G1618>) has been translated using the Latin vehemens, vehement.

Christian love is the love which never fails and into which every atom of man's strength is directed.

The Christian, in the light of eternity, must

preserve his sanity, preserve his sobriety, preserve his prayers and preserve his love.

"Love," says Peter, "hides a multitude of sins."

It may mean that our love can overlook many sins.

"Love covers all offences," (Prov 10:12).

If we love a person, it is easy to forgive. It is not that love is blind, but that it loves a person just as he is.

Love makes patience easy. It is much easier to be patient with our own children than with the children of strangers.

If we really love our fellow-men, we can accept their faults, and bear with their foolishness, and even endure their unkindness.

Love will indeed cover a multitude of sins.

It may mean that, if we love others, God will overlook a multitude of sins in us.

In life we meet two kinds of people.

We meet those who have no faults at which the finger may be pointed;

they are moral, orthodox, and supremely respectable; but they are hard and austere and unable to understand why others make mistakes and fall into sin.

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We also meet those who have all kinds of faults;

but they are kind and sympathetic and they seldom or never condemn.

It is the second kind of person to whom the heart more readily warms;

God will forgive much to the man who loves his fellow-men.

It may mean that God's love covers the multitude of our sins.

That is blessedly and profoundly true.

It is the wonder of grace that, sinners as we are, God loves us; that is why he sent his Son.

CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY (1Pet 4:9-10)4:9-10 Be hospitable to one another and never grudge it. As each has received a gift from God, so let all use such gifts in the service of one another, like good stewards of the grace of God. Note that although Peter's mind is dominated by the conviction that the end of all things is near, he does not use that conviction to urge men to withdraw from the world and to enter on a kind of private campaign to save their own souls;

Peter uses it to urge them to go into the world and serve their fellow-men.

A man will be happy if the end finds him, not living as a hermit, but out in the world serving his fellow-men.

9] Use hospitality one to another without grudging.Peter urges upon his people the duty of hospitality.

Without hospitality the early church could not have existed.

The travelling missionaries who spread the good news of the gospel had to find somewhere to stay and there was no place for them to stay except in the homes of Christians.

Such inns as there were were impossibly dear, impossibly filthy and notoriously immoral.

We find Peter lodging with one Simon a tanner (Ac 10:6),

Paul and his company were to lodge with one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple (Ac 21:16).

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Not only did the missionaries need hospitality; the local churches also needed it.

For two hundred years there was no such thing as a church building. The church was compelled to meet in the houses of those who had bigger rooms and were prepared to lend them for the services of the congregation.

There was a church which met in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (Rom 16:5; 1Cor 16:19),

There was the church which was in the house of Philemon (Phm 1:2).

Without those who were prepared to open their homes, the early church could not have met for worship at all.

The Christian is to be given to hospitality (Rom 12:13).

A bishop is to be given to hospitality (1Tim 3:2);

The widows of the Church must have lodged strangers (1Tim 5:10).

The Christian must not forget to entertain strangers and must remember that some who have done so have entertained angels unawares. (Heb 13:2).

The bishop must be a lover of hospitality (Tit 1:8).

It was said to those on the right hand: "I was a stranger, and you welcomed me" while the condemnation of those on the left hand was: "I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me" (Matt 25:35, 43).

In the early days the Church depended on the hospitality of its members; and to this day no greater gift can be offered than the welcome of a Christian home to the stranger in a strange place.

10] As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.Such gifts as a man has he must place ungrudgingly at the service of the community.

This again is a favorite New Testament idea which is expanded by Paul in Rom 12:3-8 and 1Cor 12 .

The Church needs every gift that a man has.

It may be a gift of speaking, of music, of the ability to visit people.

It may be a craft or skill which can be used in the practical service of the Church.

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It may be a house which a man possesses or money which he has inherited.

There is no gift which cannot be placed at the service of Christ.

The Christian has to regard himself as a steward of God.

In the ancient world the steward was very important.

He might be a slave but his master's goods were in his hands.

There were two main kinds of stewards,

the dispensator, the dispenser, who was responsible for all the domestic arrangements of the household and laid in and divided out the household supplies; and

the vilicus, the bailiff, who was in charge of his master's estates and acted as landlord to his master's tenants.

The steward knew well that none of the things over which he had control belonged to him; they all belonged to his master.

In everything he did he was answerable to his master and always it was his interests he must serve.

The Christian must always be under the conviction that nothing he possesses of material goods or personal qualities is his own;

it all belongs to God and he must ever use what he has in the interests of God to whom he is always answerable.

“...stewards of the manifold grace of God”: Our “stewardship of the manifold grace of God!”

THE SOURCE AND OBJECT OF ALL CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR (1Pet 4:11)11] If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Failure to exercise your spiritual gift defrauds us all in the Body.

We exercise gifts; we inspect fruit.

4:11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as one uttering sayings sent from God. If anyone renders any service, let him do so as one whose service comes from the strength which God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ to whom belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

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Peter is thinking of the two great activities of the Christian Church, preaching and practical service.

The word he uses for sayings is logia (<G3048>).

The heathen used it for the oracles which came to them from their gods;

Christians used it for the words of scripture and the words of Christ.

Peter is saying, "If a man has the duty of preaching, let him preach not as one offering his own opinions or propagating his own prejudices, but as one with a message from God."

Peter goes on to say that if a Christian is engaged in practical service, he must render that service in the strength which God supplies.

"When you are engaged in Christian service, you must not do it as if you were conferring a personal favor or distributing bounty from your own store, but in the consciousness that what you give you first received from God."

Such an attitude preserves the giver from pride and the gift from humiliation.

The aim of everything is that God should be glorified.

Preaching is not done to display the preacher but to bring men face to face with God.

Service is rendered not to bring prestige to the giver but to turn men's thoughts to God.

THE INEVITABILITY OF PERSECUTION (1Pet 4:12-13)4:12-13 Beloved, do not regard the fiery ordeal through which you are passing and which has happened to you to test you, as something strange, as if some alien experience were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share the sufferings of Christ so that you may also rejoice with rapture when his glory shall be revealed. Peter was writing to Christians who were Gentiles and he had to try to help them by showing them persecution in its true terms.

It is never easy to be a Christian.

12] Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

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The primary reference for this verse may have been to the pending fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem (Lk 19:43-44; 21:20-24).

Also, the horrors of Roman persecution, which was to last two centuries.

And over 1,500 years of the Papal persecutions...

“...strange thing...”: Don’t think you are that unique.

In the nature of things persecution must have been a much more daunting experience for Gentiles than it was for Jews.

The average Gentile had little experience of it; but the Jews have always been the most persecuted people upon earth.

The Christian life brings its own loneliness, its own unpopularity, its own problems, its own sacrifices and its own persecutions.

Persecution is inevitable.

It is human nature to dislike and to regard with suspicion anyone who is different;

the Christian is necessarily different from the man of the world.

The particular impact of the Christian difference makes the matter more acute.

To the world the Christian brings the standards of Jesus Christ.

That is another way of saying that he inevitably is a kind of conscience to any society in which he moves; and many a man would gladly eliminate the troublesome twinges of conscience.

The very goodness of Christianity can be an offence to a world in which goodness is regarded as a handicap.

Persecution is a test.

A man's devotion to a principle can be measured by his willingness to suffer for it;

therefore, any kind of persecution is a test of a man's faith.

Only the real Christian who will be persecuted.

The Christian who compromises with the world will not be persecuted.

13] But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

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Persecution is a sharing in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

When a man has to suffer for his Christianity he is walking the way his Master walked and sharing the Cross his Master carried.

If we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him (Rom 8:17).

It is Paul's desire to enter into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ (Php 3:10). If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him (2Tim 2:12).

If we remember that, anything we must suffer for the sake of Christ becomes a privilege and not a penalty.

Persecution is the way to glory.

The Cross is the way to the crown.

Jesus Christ is no man's debtor and his joy and crown await the man who, through thick and thin, remains true to him.

Your trial may be to train you to serve others in a similar circumstance…

The believer suffers in fellowship with his Lord.

We are to expect this (Jn 15:18-21).

We cannot be partakers of His atoning sufferings: they stand alone;

none but He could endure the penalty of our sins and so make propitiation that we could be forgiven.

We share His sufferings for righteousness sake.

There are no shortcuts to living the Christian life… Suffering is what develops you…

THE BLESSEDNESS OF SUFFERING FOR CHRIST (1Pet 4:14-16)4:14-16 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the presence of the glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer or a busybody. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him by this name bring glory to God.

14] If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

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None can be true to Christ and loved by the world and its systems.

We cannot expect the approval of those who reject and misunderstand our Savior.

If a man suffers for Christ, the presence of the glory rests upon him.

The Jews had the conception of the Shekinah, the luminous glow of the very presence of God. This conception constantly recurs in the Old Testament.

"In the morning," said Moses, "you shall see the glory of the Lord" (Exo 16:7).

"The glory of the Lord settled upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud coverer it six days," when the law was being delivered to Moses (Exo 24:16).

In the tabernacle God was to meet with Israel and it was to be sanctified with his glory (Exo 29:43).

When the tabernacle was completed, "then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" (Exo 40:34).

When the ark of the covenant was brought into Solomon's temple, "a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord" (1Ki 8:10-11).

Repeatedly this idea of the Shekinah, the luminous glory of God, occurs in the Old Testament.

It is Peter's conviction that something of that glow of glory rests on the man who suffers for Christ.

When Stephen was on trial for his life and it was certain that he would be condemned to death, to those who looked on him his face was as the face of an angel (Ac 6:15).

15] But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.Peter goes on to point out that it is as a Christian must suffer but not as an evil-doer.

The evils which he singles out are all clear enough until we come to the last.

“...or as a busybody”: Peter puts a gossip in the same category as a murderer…

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A Christian is not to suffer as an allotriepiskopos (<G244>).

There is no other instance of this word in Greek and Peter may well have invented it.

It comes from two words, allotrios (<G245>), belonging to another and episkopos (<G1985>), looking upon or looking into.

It literally means looking upon, or into, that which belongs to another.

To look on that which is someone else's might well be to cast covetous eyes upon it.

That is how both the Latin Bible and Calvin take this word--to mean that the Christian must not be covetous.

To look upon that which belongs to another might well mean to be too interested in other people's affairs and to be a meddling busybody.

There are Christians who do an infinite deal of harm with misguided interference and criticism.

This would mean that the Christian must never be an interfering busybody.

Allotrios (<G245>) means to look upon that which belongs to someone else; that is to say, that which is foreign to oneself.

Along that line allotriepiskopos (<G244>) will mean looking upon that which is foreign to oneself.

That would mean, of a Christian, entering upon undertakings which do not befit the Christian life.

This would mean that a Christian must never interest himself in things which are alien to the life that a Christian should lead.

It is Peter's injunction that, if a Christian has to suffer for Christ, he must do so in such a way that his suffering brings glory to God and to the name he bears.

His life and conduct must be the best argument that he does not deserve the suffering which has come upon him and his attitude to it must commend the name he bears.

No follower of Christ should deserve the ill-will of the wicked. Rather, he is to adorn the gospel of Christ.

There is no room for retaliation or infractions in the Christian witness.

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16] Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.“Christian” is not found very often in the NT, but is the distinctive title of those who belong to Christ.

First called thus at Antioch (Acts 11:26; and also Acts 26:28.

“...ashamed”:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16).

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he isable to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. 1 Timothy 1:12

ENTRUSTING ALL LIFE TO GOD (1Pet 4:17-19)4:17-19 For the time has come for judgment to begin from the household of God. And, if it begins from us, what will be the end of those who disobey the good news which comes from God? And, if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious man and the sinner appear? So, then, let those who suffer in accordance with the will of God, entrust their souls to him who is a Creator on whom you can rely, and continue to do right. As Peter saw it, it was all the more necessary for the Christian to do right because judgment was about to begin.

It was to begin with the household of God.

Ezekiel hears the voice of God proclaiming judgment upon his people, "Begin at my sanctuary" (Eze 9:6).

Where the privilege has been greatest, there the judgment will be sternest.

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons” (Heb 12:7).

17] For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10

Our Father does not pass over the failures of His people, but disciplines them toward obedience. How solemn, then, the judgment of them who persist in rejecting His savior!

18] And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?If judgment is to fall upon the Church of God, what will be the fate of those who have been utterly disobedient to the invitation and command of God?

Prov 11:31: "If the righteous is requited on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!"

19] Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.We are but pilgrims, passing through.

We are not called to a monastic life, but to go forth in the very world from which we have been delivered, being in it but not of it, declaring everywhere God’s offer of salvation through the finished work of His beloved Son.

Peter exhorts his people to continue to do good and, whatever happens to them to entrust their lives to God, the Creator on whom they can rely.

The word he uses for to entrust is paratithesthai (<G3908>), which is the technical word for depositing money with a trusted friend.

In the ancient days there were no banks and few really safe places in which to deposit money.

So, before a man went on a journey, he often left his money in the safe-keeping of a friend.

Such a trust was regarded as one of the most sacred things in life.

The friend was absolutely bound by all honour and all religion to return the money intact.

If a man entrusts himself to God, God will not fail him.

If such a trust is sacred to men, how much more is it sacred to God?

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Jesus unhesitatingly entrusted his life to God, certain that he would not fail him--and so may we.

This is the very word used by Jesus, when he says "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" (Lk 23:46).

The old advice is still good advice - trust in God and do the right.

“...will of God commit the keeping of their souls”: “…

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Tim 1:12).

Persecution can never destroy the Church of God.

Its dangers lie within.

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, Philippians 3:4-7

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Chapter 5• Verses 1–4 teach that suffering produces service and hope;

• Verses 5–14 teach that suffering produces humility and patience.

THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH (1Pet 5:1-4)5:1-4 So, then, as your fellow-elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as a sharer in the glory which is going to be revealed, I urge the elders who are among you, shepherd the flock of God which is in your charge, not because you are coerced into doing so, but of your own free-will as God would have you to do, not to make a shameful profit out of it, but with enthusiasm, not as if you aimed to be petty tyrants over those allotted to your care, but as being under the obligation to be examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Few passages show more clearly the importance of the eldership in the early church.

It is to the elders that Peter specially writes and he, who was the chief of the apostles, does not hesitate to call himself a fellow-elder.

1] The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:“...also an elder”: (Fellow) “Elders among you...” sumpresbuteros; cf. Acts 11:30; 20:17.

There is no suggestion of a clergical order ruling over the laity here.

Peter declares himself a co-presbyter with them and he was not a direct leader over the laity being referred to

Critical Vocabulary LessonThe Greek word used here, presbuteros, is a word which is sometimes used in speaking of a person being an elder or older person.

The Greek word which is translated “bishop” is episkopos,

It speaks of the office of the man, not the person of the man.

It is the spiritual office of shepherding; the same word is used for “shepherd.”

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This is all that Simon Peter ever claimed to be — he calls himself a fellow elder, sumpresbuteros.

He never claimed a superior place above his brethren, but as a fellow elder he exhorts them.

Note: elders are never spoken of in the singular, there was never to be only one.

“...also a partaker of the glory”: Peter was in a unique position because he was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ.

In the past Peter also saw that glory.

In his second epistle, Peter identifies this as taking place on the Mount of Transfiguration.

It will be worth our while to look at something of the background and history of the eldership, the most ancient and the most important office in the Church.

It has a Jewish background. The Jews traced the beginning of the eldership to the days when the children of Israel were journeying through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

There came a time when Moses felt the burdens of leadership too heavy for him to bear alone, and to help him seventy elders were set apart and granted a share of the spirit of God (Num 11:16-30).

Thereafter elders became a permanent feature of Jewish life.

as the friends of the prophets (2Ki 6:32); as the advisers of kings (1Ki 20:8; 1Ki 21:11); as the colleagues of the princes in the administration of the

affairs of the nation (Ezr 10:8).

Every village and city had its elders; they met at the gate and dispensed justice to the people (Deut 25:7).

The elders were the administrators of the synagogue; they did not preach, but they saw to the good government and order of the synagogue, and they exercised discipline over its members.

The elders formed a large section of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews, and they are regularly mentioned along with the Chief Priests and the rulers and the Scribes and the

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Pharisees (Matt 16:21; Matt 21:23; Matt 26:3; Matt 26:57; Matt 27:1, 3; Lk 7:3; Ac 4:5; Ac 6:12; Ac 24:1).

In the vision of the Revelation in the heavenly places there are twenty-four elders around the throne.

The elders were woven into the very structure of Judaism, both in its civil and its religious affairs.

The eldership has a Greek background. Especially in Egyptian communities we find that elders are the leaders of the community and responsible for the conduct of public affairs, much as town councilors are today.

We find a woman who had suffered an assault appealing to the elders for justice.

When corn is being collected as tribute on the visit of a governor, we find that "the elders of the cultivators" are the officials concerned.

We find them connected with the issuing of public edicts, the leasing of land for pasture, the ingathering of taxation.

In Asia Minor, also, the members of councils were called elders.

Even in the religious communities of the pagan world we find "elder priests" who were responsible for discipline.

In the Socnopaeus temple we find the elder priests dealing with the case of a priest who is charged with allowing his hair to grow too long and with wearing woolen garments - -an effeminacy and a luxury of which no priest should have been guilty.

We can see that long before Christianity took it over "elder" was a title of honor both in the Jewish and in the Greco-Roman world.

THE CHRISTIAN ELDERSHIP In the Christian Church, eldership became its basic office.

It was Paul's custom to ordain elders in every community to which he preached and in every church which he founded.

On the first missionary journey elders were ordained in every church (Ac 14:23).

Titus is left in Crete to ordain elders in every city (Tit 1:5).

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The elders had charge of the financial administration of the Church; it is to them that Paul and Barnabas delivered the money sent to relieve the poor of Jerusalem in the time of the famine (Ac 11:30).

The elders were the councilors and the administrators of the Church.

We find them taking a leading part in the Council of Jerusalem at which it was decided to fling open the doors of the Church to the Gentiles.

At that Council the elders and the apostles are spoken of together as the chief authorities of the Church (Ac 15:2; Ac 16:4).

When Paul came on his last visit to Jerusalem, it was to the elders that he reported and they suggested the course of action he should follow (Ac 21:18-25).

One of the most moving passages in the New Testament is Paul's farewell to the elders of Ephesus.

We find there that the elders, as he sees them, are the overseers of the flock of God and the defenders of the faith (Ac 20:28-29).

We learn from James that the elders had a healing function in the Church through prayers and anointing with oil (Jas 5:14).

From the Pastoral Epistles we learn that they were rulers and teachers, and by that time paid officials (1Tim 5:17; the phrase double honor is better translated double pay).

When a man enters the eldership, no small honor is conferred upon him,

he is entering on the oldest religious office in the world, whose history can be traced through Christianity and Judaism for four thousand years; and

no small responsibility falls upon him, for he has been ordained a shepherd of the flock of God and a defender of the faith.

2] Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;“Feed,” not fleece, the flock of God. This command was also given by Jesus when Peter was reinstated (Jn 21:16).

“...oversight”: Related to the participle “serving as overseers”

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episkopountes, watching over those for whom they must give an account (Heb 13:17) is the noun “overseer” (episkopeo, used five other times (Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:1-2; Titus 1:7; 1 Pet 2:25).

The exhortations reflect Ezekiel 34:1-16, where false shepherds were contrasted with the True Shepherd.

THE PERILS AND PRIVILEGES OF THE ELDERSHIP Peter sets down in a series of contrasts the perils and the privileges of the eldership;

everything he says is applicable, not only to the eldership, but also to all Christian service inside and outside the Church.

The elder is to accept office, not under coercion, but willingly.

This does not mean that a man is to grasp at office or to enter upon it without self-examining thought.

Any Christian will have a certain reluctance to accept high office, because he knows only too well his unworthiness and inadequacy.

There is a sense in which it is by compulsion that a man accepts office and enters upon Christian service.

"Necessity," said Paul, "is laid upon me; Woe to me, if I do not preach the gospel" (1Cor 9:16). "The love of Christ controls us," he said (2Cor 5:14).

But, on the other hand, there is a way of accepting office and of rendering service as if it was a grim and unpleasant duty.

It is possible for a man to agree to a request in such an ungracious way that his whole action is spoiled.

Peter does not say that a man should be conceitedly or irresponsibly eager for office;

Every Christian should be anxious to render such service as he can, although fully aware how unworthy he is to render it.

The elder is to accept office, not to make a shameful profit out of it, but eagerly.

The word for making a shameful profit is aischrokerdes (<G146>).

The noun from this is aischrokerdeia, and it was a characteristic which the Greek loathed.

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Meanness / Miserlines --as it might be translated -- is the desire for base gain.

The mean man is he who never sets enough food before his guests and who gives himself a double portion when he is carving the joint.

He waters the wine; he goes to the theatre only when he can get a free ticket.

He never has enough money to pay the fare and always borrows from his fellow-passengers.

When he is selling corn (American: grain), he uses a measure in which the bottom is pushed up, and even then he carefully levels the top.

He counts the half radishes left over from dinner in case the servants eat any.

Rather than give a wedding present, he will go away from home when a wedding is in the offing.

It is clear that there were people in the early church who accused the preachers and missionaries of being in the job for what they could get out of it.

Paul repeatedly declares that he coveted no man's goods and worked with his hands to meet his own needs so that he was burdensome to no man (Ac 20:33; 1Th 2:9; 1Cor 9:12; 2Cor 12:14).

It is certain that the payment any early office-bearer received was pitifully small and the repeated warnings that the office-bearers must not be greedy for gain shows that there were those who coveted more (1Tim 3:3, 8; Tit 1:7, 11).

The point that Peter is making is that no man dare accept office or render service for what he can get out of it. His desire must ever be to give and not to get.

Mat 20:25-28 [NASB] 25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. 26 "It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

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Titus 1 [CEV]1 Timothy 3 [KJV]1 Timothy 5 [CEV]

The elder is to accept office, not to be a petty tyrant, but to be the shepherd and the example of the flock.

Human nature is such that for many people prestige and power are even more attractive than money.

There are those who love authority, even if it be exercised in a narrow sphere.

The great characteristic of the shepherd is his selfless care and his sacrificial love for the sheep.

Any man who enters on office with the desire for preeminence, has got his whole point of view upside down.

"You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all" (Mk 10:42-44).

THE IDEAL OF THE ELDERSHIP3] Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.John 13: the example of the washing of the feet...

If Peter was ever a Pope, he never knew it!

One thing in this passage which defies translation and is yet one of the most precious and significant things in it is what we have translated "petty tyrants over those allotted to your care."

The phrase which we have translated those allotted is curious in Greek; it is ton (<G3588>) kleron (<G2819>), the genitive plural of kleros (<G2819>)

It begins by meaning a dice or a lot.

It is so used in Matt 27:35 which tells how the soldiers beneath the Cross were throwing dice (kleroi, <G2819>) to see who should possess the seamless robe of Jesus.

Second, it means an office gained or assigned by lot.

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It is the word used in Ac 1:26 which tells how the disciples cast lots to see who should inherit the office of Judas the traitor.

It then comes to mean an inheritance allotted to someone, as used in Col 1:12 for the inheritance of the saints.

In classical Greek it very often means a public allotment or estate of land.

These allotments were distributed by the civic authorities to the citizens; and very often the distribution was made by drawing lots for the various pieces of land available for distribution.

Even if we were to go no further than this, it would mean that the office of the eldership and, indeed, any piece of service offered to us is never earned by any merit of our own but always allotted to us by God.

It is never something that we have deserved but always something given to us by the grace of God.

Kleros (<G2819>) means something which is allotted to a man.

In Deut 9:29 we read that Israel is the heritage (kleros, <G2819>) of God.

That is to say, Israel is the people specially assigned to God by his own choice.

In 1Pet 5:2 there is a phrase in the best Greek manuscripts which is not in the King James or the Revised Standard Versions.

"Shepherd the flock of God, which is in your charge, not because you are coerced into doing so, but of your own free-will as God would have you to do."

As God would have you to do is in Greek kata (<G2596>) theon (<G2316>), and that could well mean quite simply like God.

Peter says to the elders, "Shepherd your people like God."

Just as Israel is God's special allotment, the people we have to serve in the Church or anywhere else are our special allotment; and our attitude to them must be the attitude of God.

It is our task to show to people God's forbearance, his forgiveness, his seeking love, his illimitable service. God has allotted to us a task and we must do it as he himself would do it. That is the supreme ideal of service in the Christian Church.

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MEMORIES OF JESUS 4] And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.“...the chief Shepherd”: Peter calls Him “the chief Shepherd” here.

• The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep—that is seen in Psalm 22.• The Great Shepherd watches over the sheep—that is seen in Psalm 23.• He is the Chief Shepherd who is coming again in Psalm 24.

“...a crown of glory”: At least five are specifically mentioned, which will be cast upon the glassy sea… (Rev 4:10).

Crowns (stephanos) reward for works (not salvation) Jas 1:12.

cf. 1 Cor 9:25; 1Thess 2:19; 2 Tim 4:8; James 1:12; 1Pet 5:4; Never promised to angels;

reward is with Him: at the “Bema” seat.

Crowns Promised• Crown of Life (Jas 1:12; Rev 2:10) for those who have suffered

for His sake;• Crown of Righteousness (2 Tim 4:8) for those who loved His

appearing;• Crown Incorruptible (1 Cor 9:25) for those who press on

steadfastly;• Crown of Rejoicing (1 Thess 2:19) for those who win souls• Crown of Glory (1 Pet 5:4) for those who fed the flock

Peter begins by this whole passage by taking his place beside those to whom he speaks.

"Your fellow-elder" he calls himself.

He does not separate himself from them but comes to share the Christian problems and the Christian experience with them.

But in one thing he is different; he has memories of Jesus and these memories color this whole passage.

Even as he speaks, they are crowding into his mind.

Peter describes himself as a witness of the sufferings of Christ.

After the arrest in the garden, "All the disciples forsook him and fled" (Matt 26:56).

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But, it was given to Peter to see the suffering of Jesus in a more poignant way than was given to any other human being.

Peter followed Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest's house and there in a time of weakness he three times denied his Master.

The trial came to an end and Jesus was taken away; and there comes what may well be the most tragic sentence in the New Testament: "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter...and Peter went out and wept bitterly" (Lk 22:61-62).

In that look Peter saw the suffering of the heart of a leader whose follower had failed him in the hour of his bitterest need.

Peter was a witness of the suffering that comes to Christ when men deny him; and that is why he was so eager that his people might be staunch in loyalty and faithful in service.

Peter describes himself as a sharer in the glory which is going to be revealed.

Peter had already had a glimpse of that glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.

There the sleeping three had been awakened, and, as Luke puts it, "they kept awake and they saw his glory" (Lk 9:32).

Peter had seen the glory.

But Peter also knew that there was glory to come,

Jesus had promised to his disciples a share in the glory when the Son of Man should come to sit on his glorious throne (Matt 19:28).

Peter remembered both the experience and the promise of glory.

There can surely be no doubt that, when Peter speaks of shepherding the flock of God, he is remembering the task that Jesus had given to him when he had bidden him feed his sheep (Jn 21:15-17).

Mark 14:27-31 Luke 22:33 Matt 26:33 John 13:37Peter vows he loves Jesus enough to down his life – though everyone of the other disciples flees

After Jesus’ resurrection, on the shores of Galilee, Jesus asks Peter if Peter really loved Him more than the others (Jn 21:15-17)

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Peter insists that he does and Jesus tells him to feed His sheep and lambs – be a good shepherd of the flock

The reward of love was the appointment as a shepherd; and Peter is remembering it.

When Peter speaks of Jesus as the Chief Shepherd, many a memory must be in his mind.

Jesus had likened himself to the shepherd who sought at the peril of his life for the sheep which was lost (Matt 18:12-14; Lk 15:4-7).

He had sent out his disciples to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt 10:6).

He was moved with pity for the crowds, for they were as sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36; Mk 6:34).

Above all, Jesus had likened himself to the Good Shepherd who was ready to lay down his life for the sheep (Jn 10:1-18).

The picture of Jesus as the Shepherd was a precious one, and the privilege of being a shepherd of the flock of Christ was for Peter the greatest privilege that a servant of Christ could enjoy.

THE GARMENT OF HUMILITY (1Pet 5:5)5] Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

Pride is a barrier to all spiritual progress.

We are to be each other’s fiduciary.

5:5 In the same way, you younger people must be submissive to those who are older. In your relationships with one another you must clothe yourselves with the garment of humility, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Peter returns to the thought that the denial of self must be the mark of the Christian.

He clinches his argument with a quotation from the Old Testament:

"Toward the scorners God is scornful, but to the humble he shows favour" (Prov 3:34).

Peter tells his people that they must clothe themselves with the garment of humility.

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The word he uses for to clothe oneself is very unusual; it is egkombousthai (<G1463>) which is derived from kombos which describes anything tied on with a knot.

Connected with it is egkomboma, a garment tied on with a knot.

It was commonly used for protective clothing;

It was used for a pair of sleeves drawn over the sleeves of a robe and tied behind the neck.

It was used for a slave's apron.

There was a time when Jesus had put upon himself just such an apron.

At the Last Supper John says of him that he took a towel and girded himself, and took water and began to wash his disciples' feet (Jn 13:4-5).

Jesus girded himself with the apron of humility; and so must his followers.

egkombousthai (<G1463>) is also used of putting on a long, stole-like garment which was the sign of honor and preeminence.

We must put both images together.

Jesus once put on the slave's apron and undertook the humblest of all duties, washing his disciples' feet;

so we must in all things put on the apron of humility in the service of Christ and of our fellow-men;

but that very apron of humility will become the garment of honor for us,

for it is he who is the servant of all who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

THE LAWS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE (1) (1Pet 5:6-11)5:6-11 So, then, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that in his good time he may exalt you. Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. Be sober; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Stand up to him, staunch in the faith, knowing how to pay the same tax of suffering as your brethren in the world.

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And after you have experienced suffering for a little while, the God of every grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish. strengthen, settle you. To him be dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Peter speaks in imperatives, laying down certain laws for the Christian life.

6] Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:7] Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.Unquestioning submission to His will (Cf. Sermon on the Mount, Mt 6:25-32; Ps 55:22).

His heart is ever toward you. He is more concerned (and informed) than you are yourself...

(How many hairs are on your head? He knows.)

There is the law of humility before God. The Christian must humble himself under his mighty hand.

The phrase the mighty hand of God is common in the Old Testament; and it is most often used in connection with the deliverance which God wrought for his people when he brought them out of Egypt.

"With a strong hand," said Moses, "the Lord has brought you out of Egypt" (Exo 13:9). "Thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand" (Deut 3:24).

God brought his people forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand (Deut 9:26).

The idea is that God's mighty hand is on the destiny of his people, if they will humbly and faithfully accept his guidance.

After all the varied experiences of life, Joseph could say to the brothers who had once sought to eliminate him:

"As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (Gen 50:20).

The Christian never resents the experiences of life and never rebels against them, because he knows that the mighty hand of God is on the tiller of his life and that he has a destiny for him.

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8] Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:There is the law of Christian serenity in God.

The Christian must cast all his anxiety upon God.

"Cast your burden on the Lord," said the Psalmist (Ps 55:22).

"Do not be anxious about tomorrow," said Jesus (Matt 6:25-34).

We can do this with confidence because we can be certain that God cares for us.

We can be certain that he who gave us his only Son will with him give us all things (Rom 8:32).

We can be certain that, since God cares for us, life is out not to break us but to make us; and,

With that assurance, we can accept any experience which comes to us, knowing that in everything God works for good with those who love him (Rom 8:28).

There is the law of Christian effort and of Christian vigilance. We must be sober and watchful.

“Be sober”: nepho a different Greek word than that used in 1 Pet 4:7.

Here the word means “to be watchful; circumspect.”

Satan is real. Bitter. Malignant. Resourceful.

Refuse him his place and he flees (James 4:7). This could be a veiled reference to the lions of Nero in the physical arena…

The fact that we cast everything upon God does not give us the right to sit back and to do nothing.

Peter knew how hard this vigilance was, for he remembered how in Gethsemane he and his fellow-disciples slept when they should have been watching with Christ (Matt 26:38-46).

The Christian is the man who trusts but at the same time puts all his effort and all his vigilance into the business of living for Christ.

There is the law of Christian resistance. The devil is ever out to see whom he can ruin.

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Peter must have been remembering how the devil had overcome him and he had denied his Lord.

Luk 22:31-3231 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you (all) like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

A man's faith must be like a solid wall against which the attacks of the devil exhaust themselves in vain.

Eph_6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Eph_6:13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Eph_6:14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,

The devil is like any bully and retreats when he is bravely resisted in the strength of Jesus Christ.

9] Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

You are not alone.

10] But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

“...after that ye have suffered a while”: we grow by suffering.

“Perfect” = completed. Your present afflictions may be preparation for ministering to others...

11] To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.Eph 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His

might.

Peter speaks of the law of Christian suffering.

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He says that, after the Christian has gone through suffering, God will restore, establish, strengthen and settle him.

Every one of the words which Peter uses has behind it a vivid picture.

Each tells us something about what suffering is designed by God to do for a man.

Through suffering God will restore a man. The word for restore is difficult in this case to translate.

It is kartarizein (<G2675>), the word commonly used for setting a fracture, the word used in Mk 1:19 for mending nets.

It means to supply that which is missing, to mend that which is broken.

Suffering, if accepted in humility and trust and love, can repair the weaknesses of a man's character and add the greatness which so far is not there.

Suffering is meant by God to add the grace notes to life.

Through suffering God will establish a man. The word is sterixein (<G4741>), which means to make as solid as granite.

Suffering of body and sorrow of heart do one of two things to a man.

They either make him collapse or they leave him with a solidity of character which he could never have gained anywhere else.

If he meets them with continuing trust in Christ, he emerges like toughened steel that has been tempered in the fire.

Through suffering God will strengthen a man. The Greek is sthenoun (<G4599>), which means to fill with strength.

A life with no effort and no discipline almost inevitably becomes a flabby life.

No one really knows what his faith means to him until it has been tried in the furnace of affliction.

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There is something doubly precious about a faith which has come victoriously through pain and sorrow and disappointment.

The wind will extinguish a weak flame; but it will fan a strong flame into a still greater blaze.

So it is with faith.

Through suffering God will settle a man. The Greek is themelioun (<G2311>), which means to lay the foundations.

When we have to meet sorrow and suffering we are driven down to the very bedrock of faith.

It is then that we discover what are the things which cannot be shaken.

It is in time of trial that we discover the great truths on which real life is founded.

Suffering is very far from doing these precious things for every man.

It may well drive a man to bitterness and despair; and may well take away such faith as he has.

But if it is accepted in the trusting certainty that a father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear,

then out of suffering come things which the easy way may never bring.

A FAITHFUL HENCHMAN OF THE APOSTLES (1Pet 5:12)5:12 I have written this brief letter to you through Silvanus, the faithful brother, as I reckon him to be, to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. Peter bears witness that what he has written is indeed the grace of God, and he bids his people, amidst their difficulties, to stand fast in it.

He says that he has written through Silvanus.

The Greek phrase (dia, <G1223>, Silouanou, <G4610>) means that Silvanus was his agent in writing.

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Silvanus is the full form of the name Silas and he is almost certainly to be identified with the Silvanus of Paul's letters and the Silas of Acts.

When we gather up the references to Silas or Silvanus, we find that he was one of the pillars of the early church.

Along with Judas Barsabas, Silvanus was sent to Antioch with the epoch-making decision of the Council of Jerusalem that the doors of the Church were to be opened to the Gentiles;

in the account of that mission Silvanus and Judas are called leading men among the brethren (Ac 15:22, 27).

Not only did he simply bear the message, he commended it in powerful words, for Silvanus was also a prophet (Ac 15:32).

During the first missionary journey Mark left Paul and Barnabas and returned home from Pamphylia (Ac 13:13);

in preparing for the second missionary journey Paul refused to have Mark with him again;

the result was that Barnabas took Mark as his companion and Paul took Silvanus (Ac 15:37-40).

From that time forward Silvanus was Paul's right-hand man.

He was with Paul in Philippi, where he was arrested and imprisoned with him (Ac 16:19, 25, 29).

He rejoined Paul in Corinth and with him preached the gospel there (Ac 18:5; 2Cor 1:19).

So closely was he associated with Paul that in both the letters to the Thessalonians he is joined with Paul and Timothy as the senders of the letters (1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1).

It is clear that Silvanus was a most notable man in the early church.

It is most probable that Silvanus was far more than merely the scribe who wrote this letter for Peter and the bearer who delivered it.

One of the difficulties of First Peter is the excellence of the Greek.

It is Greek with such a classical tinge that it seems impossible that Peter the Galilaean fisherman should have written it for himself.

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Now Silvanus was not only a man of weight in the Church; he was also a Roman citizen (Ac 16:37) and he would be much better educated than Peter was.

Most probably he had a large share in the composition ad grammar of this letter.

Silvanus was one of those men the Church can never do without.

He was content to take the second place and to serve almost in the background so long as God's work was done.

It was enough for him that he was Paul's assistant, even if Paul forever overshadowed him.

It was enough for him to be Peter's penman, even if it meant only a bare mention of his name at the end of the letter.

For all that, it is no little thing to go down in history as the faithful henchman on whom both Peter and Paul depended.

The Church always has need of people like Silvanus and many who cannot be Peters or Pauls can still assist the Peters and Pauls to do their work.

12] By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand.“True grace” is the theme of this epistle wherein we can stand in the hour of trial (Cf. Rom 5:2).

These remarks are possibly personal annotations by Peter himself, as Paul often did.

Silvanus, Peter’s amanuensis, may have been the same as Paul’s Silas on his second missionary journey. (But it was a common name.)

Silvanus may have personally delivered the letter to the churches along the predetermined route suggested in 1 Peter 1:1:

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

GREETINGS (1Pet 5:13)5:13 She who is at Babylon, and who has been chosen as you have been chosen, greets you, and so does Mark my son. From whom are these greetings sent?

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The King James Version has "the Church that is at Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you."

But "the Church that is" is in italics, which means that there is no equivalent in the Greek which simply says "the one elected together with you at Babylon" and the phrase is feminine.

There are two possibilities.

It is possible that the King James Version is correct.

That is the way Moffatt takes it when he translates "your sister Church in Babylon."

On the whole, the commonest view is that it is a Church which is meant.

There is actually no word for Church in the Greek, and this feminine phrase might equally well refer to some well-known Christian lady.

If it does, by far the best suggestion is that the reference is to Peter's wife.

We know that she did actually accompany him on his preaching journeys (1Cor 9:5).

She was clearly a well-known figure in the early church.

From where was this letter written?

The greetings are sent from Babylon.

There was a Babylon in Egypt, near Cairo.

It had been founded by Babylonian refugees from Assyria and was called by the name of their ancestral city.

But by this time it was almost exclusively a great military camp; and in any event the name of Peter is never connected with Egypt.

This Babylon may be disregarded.

There was the Babylon in the east to which the Jews had been taken in captivity.

Many had never come back and it was a centre of Jewish scholarship.

The great commentary on the Jewish Law is called the Babylonian Talmud.

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So important were the Jews of Babylon that Josephus had issued a special edition of his histories for them.

There is no doubt that there was a large and important colony of Jews there; and it would have been quite natural for Peter, the apostle of the Jews, to preach and to work there.

But we do not find the name of Peter ever connected with Babylon and there is no trace of him having ever been there.

Scholars so great as Calvin and Erasmus have taken Babylon to be this great eastern city but, on the whole, we think the probabilities are against it.

Regularly Rome was called Babylon, both by the Jews and by the Christians.

That is undoubtedly the case in the Revelation where Babylon is the great harlot, drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs (Rev 17-18).

The Godlessness, Just and luxury of ancient Babylon were, so to speak, reincarnated in Rome.

Peter is definitely connected in tradition with Rome; and the likelihood is that it was from there that the letter was written.

Who is the Mark, whom Peter calls his son, and from whom he sends greetings?

If we take the elect lady to be Peter's wife.

Mark might quite well be literally Peter's son.

More likely he is the Mark who wrote the gospel.

Tradition has always closely connected Peter with Mark, and has handed down the story that he was intimately involved with Mark's gospel.

Papias, who lived towards the end of the second century and was a great collector of early traditions, describes Mark's gospel in this way:

"Mark, who was Peter's interpreter, wrote down accurately though not in order, all that he recollected of what Christ had said or done. For he was not a hearer of the Lord or a follower of his; he followed Peter, as I have said, at a later date, and Peter adapted his instructions to practical needs, without any attempt to give the Lord's words systematically. So that Mark was not

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wrong in writing down some things in this way from memory, for his one concern was neither to omit nor to falsify anything he had heard."

According to Papias, Mark's gospel is nothing other than the preaching material of Peter.

Irenaeus says that after the death of Peter and Paul at Rome,

"Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also handed down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter."

It is the consistent tradition that Mark, the evangelist, was indeed a spiritual son to Peter, and all the likelihood is that these greetings are from him.

"She who is at Babylon, and who has been chosen, as you have been chosen," may either be

the Church or the wife of Peter, herself a martyr.

Babylon may be the Babylon of the east but is more likely to be the great and wicked city of Rome.

Mark might possibly be the actual son of Peter, about whom we know nothing else, but is more likely to be Mark, the writer of the gospel, who was to Peter as a son.

“...Marcus my son”: Marcus = John Mark, who apparently accompanied Peter in the later years and wrote his gospel in collaboration with Peter.

Earlier he had accompanied Paul and Barnabas but appeared unfaithful at first (Acts 15:37-39).

He was later reaccredited to Paul’s satisfaction (2 Tim 4:11).

13] The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.Election is the sovereign act of God in grace whereby certain persons are chosen from among mankind for Himself (Jn 15:16)

certain elect persons are chosen for distinctive service for Him (Lk 6:13; Act 9:15; 1 Cor 1:27,28).

Election• Both OT & NT (Hebrew & Greek) all mean “to choose”: “elect” ; “election”; “choose”; and, “chosen.”

Paradigm of Divine Volition

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• Foreknowledge determines Election;• Predestination brings to pass the Election;• Election looks back to Foreknowledge;• Predestination looks forward to Destiny.

Divine Election• Corporate: Israel (Isa 45:4); the Church (Eph 1:4).

• Individual:

– According to the foreknowledge of God (1 Pet 1:2);– Wholly of grace, not human merit (Rom 9:11; 11:5,6);– Whereby certain are chosen for Himself (Jn 15:19);– Or for distinctive service (Lk 6:13; Acts 9:15; 1 Cor 1:27,28).

AT PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER (1Pet 5:14)5:14 Greet each other with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all that are in Christ. 14] Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. “Greet each other with a kiss of love” To us the kiss of peace may seem very far away.

It came from the day when the Church was a real family and fellowship, when Christians really did know and love one another.

It is a tragedy that the modern Church, often with vast congregations who do not know each other and do not even wish to know each other, could not use the kiss of peace except as a formality.

It was a lovely custom which was bound to cease when the reality of fellowship was lost within the Church.

The kiss of love was for centuries an integral and precious part of Christian fellowship and worship; and its history and gradual elimination, is of the greatest interest.

With the Jews it was the custom for a disciple to kiss his Rabbi on the cheek and to lay his hands upon his shoulder.

That is what Judas did to Jesus (Mk 14:44).

The kiss was the greeting of welcome and respect, and we can see how much Jesus valued it, for he was grieved when it was not given to him (Lk 7:45).

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Paul's letters frequently end with the injunction to salute each other with a holy kiss (Rom 16:16; 1Cor 16:20; 2Cor 13:12; 1Th 5:26).

This kiss was called the peace.

It was specially a part of the communion service.

The kiss was the sign that all injuries were forgotten, all wrongs forgiven, and that those who sat at the Lord's Table were indeed one in the Lord.

This was a lovely custom and yet it is clear that it was open to abuse and abuses did creep in

In the Church of the west these inevitable problems gradually brought the end of this lovely custom.

By the time of the Apostolic Constitutions in the fourth century, the kiss is confined to those of the same sex

- the clergy were to salute the bishop, the men the men and the women the women.

In this form the kiss of peace lasted in the Church of the west until the thirteenth century.

Sometimes substitutes were introduced.

In some places a little wooden or metal tablet, with a picture of the crucifixion on it, was used.

It was kissed first by the priest, and then passed to the congregation, who each kissed it and handed it on, each man to his neighbor, in token of their mutual love for Christ and in Christ.

In the oriental Churches the custom still obtains;

It is not extinct in the Greek Church;

The Armenian Church substituted a courteous bow.

We may note certain other uses of the kiss in the early church.

At baptism the person baptized was kissed, first by the baptizer and then by the whole congregation, as a sign of his welcome into the household and family of Christ.

A newly ordained bishop was given "the kiss in the Lord."

The marriage ceremony was ratified by a kiss, a natural action taken over from paganism.

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Those who were dying first kissed the Cross and were then kissed by all present.

The dead were kissed before burial.

"Peace to all of you that are in Christ," says Peter; and so he leaves his people to the peace of God which is greater than all the troubles and distresses the world can bring.

“...in Christ Jesus”: Are you still in the flesh of Adam, or “in Christ?”

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FURTHER READING1 Peter F. W. Beare, The First Epistle of Peter (G) E. Best, 1 Peter (NCB; E) C. Bigg, St. Peter and St. Jude (ICC; G) C. E. B. Cranfield, 1 and 2 Peter and Jude (Tch; E) E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter (MmC; G)

Abbreviations ICC: International Critical Commentary MC: Moffatt Commentary MmC: Macmillan Commentary NCB: New Century Bible Tch: Torch Commentary E: English Text G: Greek Text

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