1 Peter 1:1-5 Grace and Peace!

1 Peter 1:1-5  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 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. 

In this letter Peter addresses the Christians who have come to Jesus Christ in Asia Minor.  Of course, many are strangers to him, but they are in the body of Christ, facing persecution and trouble for their faith.  They are those who have been chosen to be obedient to Jesus Christ, for they have been sprinkled with his blood, the cleansing blood that ransomed their souls from eternal death.  Peter tells them that even though they face danger from this world, they are shielded eternally by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  Peter knew the Christians throughout Asia Minor experienced difficulty in living their daily lives.  They faced even the possibility of dying for Christ.  He writes this letter to strengthen their faith, to remind them of what Christ did for them at the cross, and that they need to keep in mind at all times the eternal plan of God, the plan to have them exist with him forever as his children in his household.  Peter comforts the people with God’s provision for them: In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  However, the hope of eternal life in God’s presence must have been difficult for them when their everyday lives experienced isolation and rejection from their relatives, friends, and community.  The label of Christian brought trouble to their lives, for it was considered anathema by the communities and cultures where they lived.  Surely, some of these believers often were tempted to recant their experience with Christ, to say that their excursion into Christianity was only a temporary journey of instability.  With this constant threat on their eternal lives, Peter wrote to bolster their faith, making sure they understood the efficacy of the cross and God’s faithfulness.  Peter reenforces the idea that Christ’s death and his resurrection has shielded all who place their faith in Jesus’ eternal being.  By holding fast to their faith in Jesus Christ and his work, they can endure successfully the trials of this world.  Persecution and even the threat of death cannot take this new life IN CHRIST from their existence.  A little later in this letter, Peter writes, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  (1 Peter 4:12)   Peter desired them to know that nothing this world can do to them, could destroy God’s magnificent plan for them, accomplished in heaven already, of making them children in the eternal family of God.  The cross and the resurrection have made them eternal beings, and because of this reality they can and will endure any persecution that is thrown against them.  In this world, nothing can take away the new life in them. 

The Good News has never changed throughout the centuries since Christ’s death.  Peter’s encouragement to the believers in Asia Minor remains a need in every church: hold fast to the work of the cross, continue your lives in faith, believing every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Unless we believe the word of God over what we see, hear, and experience, we will be weakened in our faith, confused by the world around us.  The believers in Peter’s time were under pressure to give up on Christianity.  In some parts of our world today, many are under the same pressure.  Even their livelihood is threatened by others who demand they give up their belief in Christ.  In the developed parts of the world, persecution is not usually a threat to Christians’ viability; instead, it is the materialism of the world, the desire to win this world for personal benefit, that most threatens the work of Christ.  This python of lukewarmness is a danger to the redeeming message of Jesus Christ.  It squeezes out the fact that everyone who desires a successful life must give his or her life to Christ, that we must die to the things of this world to live in the next world with God.  The Bible is very explicit in this area.  Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  (1 John 2:15-17)  We are forever tempted by our senses to live for this world, for our senses tell us that they govern what is life and what isn’t life; nothing else matters but what we perceive with our senses.  If that is the case, why should we forsake our indulgences for something we cannot see or know by our daily experiences and perceptions.  But Peter is reminding them in this letter that life is more than what you are experiencing even if you are under the threat of death.  Eternal life is the precious gift God has given to all those who believe in the work of the cross.  Nothing should supersede or overwhelm this fact: not difficulties, persecution, death or even lukewarmness.  All should succumb to the Good News that eternal life with God has been brought to mankind.  Jesus said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  (Matthew 16:24)

For the persecuted people of Peter’s time and for the believers of this age, we should keep in mind that before we came to Christ we were dead in our trespasses and sins.  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 2:1-7)  Before Christ redeemed us through our faith in him, we were all away from God, separated from his presence.  Our hearts were cold to God, so cold that we were without life, for God is life.  We walked according to the world, following the prince of the power of the air.  This spirit of darkness is evident in all people who are disobedient to God.  As people who are dead to God, we fellowshipped gladly with other sinful people who also lived without God.  As people of our own will, we completely satisfied the sinful pleasures of our minds and flesh.  Because of that godless lifestyle, we were targets of God’s righteous wrath.  Nonetheless, God in his wonderful nature of grace and mercy, rescued us through Christ’s work on the cross.  His death was for all of us, so that we might not die under God’s wrath, his hatred of sin.  Consequently, God quickened us in Christ—He brought us out of the grave with Christ into a new life.  Even as Jesus came out of the grave, we came out because of our faith in his resurrecting work.  God’s mercy, his grace, saved us from eternal damnation.  Peter wanted believers of his time to remember and to hold fast to that wonderful reality.  We, in our day, also need to remember the glorious redemptive plan of God.  If we do so, no trouble, adversity, persecution, or threat of death can keep us from knowing God and his love.  This knowledge should energize our souls to work for him, to live for him, even causing us to put down our tendency for lukewarmness and pick up the passion for Christ and his work.  We will say with our brother, Paul, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:38-39)  God bless you as you walk in your inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.