I Peter 5:8
“Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up.”
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
Moderns are reluctant to assign much activity to the enemy of our souls. It is a big mistake. It helps to know how uncreative he is, with a limited bag of tricks. Learning about them is an essential life skill. History reveals his recurring lies and manipulations. Ask God to open your eyes to his deception. Do not fear the evil one. In the end the victory is always the Lord’s.
Lord keep my eyes open to Satan’s attempts to hamstring my life with you. Give me faith to confront and banish him in this world. Give me opportunity to pass this wisdom on to others. Only you are Lord. Help me to live like it.
I Peter 4:19
“So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing, and he’ll keep on doing it.”
“So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.”
Life was hard for many believers in Peter’s time. Earlier verses encourage them to remember Christ’s experiences as he walked on earth. He closes this chapter with this exhortation. We will get caught up in the suffering that comes to all humans. He makes sure it is not wasted on us, using it to polish and perfect for his purpose. We are to take it in stride, rejoicing in the sure and ultimate end when all who choose to are wrapped up in his eternal embrace.
Lord, I am in an agony of longing at the thought of being in your arms with all other believers of all time. I can only just sense the glorious joy we will have. I can’t wait! Meanwhile keep me focused on what you are doing in the world so I can work with you to keep on doing it.
I Peter 4:11
“That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!”
“Then everything you do will being glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
Peter has just finished exhorting believers to a generous, loving life towards everyone, closing with this call to praise. He walked with Jesus for three years and knew him first as an ordinary human who had bodily functions, needs and emotions as we do. Lessons learned on the road with Jesus and later via the Holy Spirit changed how Peter and the other disciples looked at Jesus. He changed from fully human to fully divine and then both at once. How heads must have hurt from stretching! I am familiar with the divine Jesus. I need more of the man Jesus whom Peter knew first, the temporal one, who has taught believers through the centuries by his example how to love and serve in real time.
Lord, grant me this understanding. May I grow to be more like the man you were on earth, a faithful shepherd and willing servant. Give me better instinct for the temporal that I may bring you more glory in the eternal.
I Peter 4:8
“Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything.”
“Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
Here is a command and a promise. Love, when the motivation behind all we do, means everything works out right in the end. When we live this way, even our mistakes and failures turn out because the effects of sin are smothered by love. Glorious!
Lord, thank you for this comforting promise. I count on it, especially in family life. Please work in the lives of our children and grandchildren to heal unintentional hurt and promote healthy relationships. May all be eventually drawn to you, that all of us may enjoy you, and one another, forever.
I Peter 3:16-18
“Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones.”
“But do this in a gentle respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned but he died for sinners to being you safely home to God.”
I’d always thought these words equivalent to Christ’s in the Gospels, to turn the other cheek. Here I’m struck that suffering engendered from turning the other cheek is parallel to Christ’s suffering for sinners. When I am innocent yet suffer accusation, it is like Christ, the righteous one, suffering for the unrighteous. I do not turn the other cheek because Christ commanded it, though this is reason enough. It is also to picture and innocent Christ taking upon himself a suffering he did not deserve.
Lord, help me, in the moment, to turn the other cheek. My anger can flare, get-even feelings blosson. Forgive me and change me to respond not with anger but love.
I Peter 3:8-9
“Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.”
“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.”
For my husband and I, this is a better instruction for marriage. When we move toward each other with this purpose everything works. If we turn to our own selfishness, the problems we make for ourselves seem unsolvable. But thanks be to God who rescues us! There is always a way out and it is named Jesus Christ.
Lord, thank you for my husband who had stuck around these 51 years. Many times he could have walked out the door. I am grateful he stayed to fight with me towards wholeness. Now, having come so far, I am filled with thanksgiving beyond words. You are so good to us. I trust you for whatever the future brings.
I Peter 3:1-4, 7
“The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition. … The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God’s grace, you’re equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don’t run aground.”
“In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives. Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gently and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. … In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Threat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.”
I Peter, and the other epistles, were written by the apostles and are not the words of Christ, nor are they law, prophesy or wisdom literature. They are a curious mixture of all, so it is hard to know how to go about navigating them. Discussion of this text gets deep pretty quickly. What should a wife’s ‘godly life’ look like? What is a gentle and quiet spirit for different personality types? How should we adjust a 1st Century social context to the modern era? Are adornments allowed or should they be spurned? Does a man’s refusal to honor his wife set her free from submission? Should we read Peter’s words as law or should we consider them wisdom?
My marriage of 51 years has given me many an opportunity to parse Peter’s words. Legalistically following these and other New Testament passages on marriage has led my husband and I into much grief. The spread of personality gifts between us doesn’t match this formula. We’ve found a focus on mutuality works better given who we are. When we both give everything according to who God made us to be, the issue of authority and submission vanishes. Over time our complemetary strengths have blended into a fully functioning whole.
Lord, thank you for showing us how to follow you in our marriage beginning with who you made us to be. Use us to encourage others with the same spread of personalities. Help me to write about it more clearly. Thank you for bring us here, to 51 years of life together. Lead us further on and further in to union with you.
I Peter 2:21-22
“This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step. He never did one thing wrong, Not once said anything amiss.”
“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.”
Regardless the state of my life, I can trust my Lord experienced it. And he did it perfectly. Therefore, he can show me how to live through anything. He breaks his lessons down to bits I can absorb. He is an exacting but gentle teacher. How can it be that he gives attention to such as I?
Lord, I am amazed that you know me out of all earth’s peoples, past and present. I thank and praise you for it. Continue to show me how to live the life you have given me. Strengthen me to meet its challenges. May all I do honor you and glorify your name.
I Peter 2:9-11
“Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.”
“Dear friends, I warn you as ‘temporary resident and foreigners’ to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very soul”
In what ways does the modern Christian indulge their ego at the expense of their souls? How does ‘ego thinking’ permeate our thoughts? What activities supplant time with God? How hard do we work at finding time alone with him in our busy lives? All these questions deserve honest thinking and prayer that God’s Spirit would illuminate our thoughts. Even then, our capacity for self-delusion contaminates our efforts. Peter’s statement may seem simple, but it is not easy. It all comes down to focus. Is the Lord the center of our desire? If so then he will lead us in his direction, gradually reclaiming our thoughts, releasing us from our ego. When we keep our heart leaning in his direction he will faithfully and gently free us from this world and prepare us for that to come.
Lord, thank you a million times for continually easing me away from my life of sin. Please keep me facing in your direction, thinking from your perspective. Give me your heart and actions to match. May they never become a source of pride. Keep me humble before you, ever needy of your grace and power that the same may infuse my life and assure my presence in the center of your will.
I Peter 2:9-10
“But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”
“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. ‘Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.’”
I’ve never fully grasped this idea of priestliness before. In the Old Testament priests served the people by interceding for and teaching them. They helped shape Israel’s ‘people of God’ identity. It was their job, occupying a major part of their day. That means I ought to always intercede for needs around me. My words and behavior should always point to Jesus. This is my job and should fill my day. But it is beyond my strength and natural abilities. After all, I am a ‘me first’ being. My loving Lord knows this and at his son’s resurrection he unleashed that same power to me, for transformation, so I can be his priest.
Lord, you think of everything. Your plans are perfect. Your power conquers all. You gently bring me into your eternal circle of fellowship where all your priests are gathered to enjoy you for all eternity. I am overwhelmed with awe and gratitude. I love you.
I Peter 2:4
“Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor.”
“You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.”
The rejected stone had no special qualities. It had no beauty or youthfulness. It was ordinary and worn with suffering and grief. Yet it was the one. My eye is always drawn to the opposite. Something like a cornerstone ought to be as beautiful as we can make it, glorifying our Lord by our work and creativity. Yet in the process I will have looked right past the one stone that would provide the strength and character to support the building for eternity. I need more God sight in my life.
Lord, give me your way of seeing that I may choose what is fit for eternity. I always expect to see your beauty in this world you have made. But you have also created other beauty, the kind I don’t easily see. Open my eyes to see as you see. May my sight lead to your service.
I Peter 2:1-3
“So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.”
“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full expression of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”
We are to desire God as a newborn craves milk. Have you ever seen a ravenously hungry infant the first moments it takes the breast? It is more than desire that drives him. It is a super frantic, all-consuming need beyond his own ability to satisfy. He seems terrified of hunger and so the breast is a unimaginable relief. Once he connects with the nipple he gulps, swallows and almost drowns himself by his suckling. This is how we should desire and reach for the Lord. Acknowledge we are lost and terrified. Once we hear and respond to his call we should drown ourselves in him and his Word.
Lord, I usually don’t have this kind of drive to seek you. Forgive me. Help me twofold. May my hunger for you grow ravenous. And may I be driven by the need to gulp and swallow your Word, to drown myself in you.