“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and
rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the
outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Vss. 8-9
Well, there is a wonderful mystery
of the faith. What Peter says is right,
for me at least. I haven’t seen Jesus,
but I love him. Peter is assuming the
same thing of his audience. I would
think that is a reasonable assumption.
If they didn’t, why would they read his letter?
Yes, “he” and “him” throughout this
sentence refer to Jesus. Pronouns can be
funny things in Bible verses sometimes.
Peter assumes his audience loves
Jesus because their faith has been tested, because they have come through the
fire. Praise, glory, and honor in Jesus
are the result of their faithfulness, as we have seen in the last sentence.
And the testing of their faith
results in the genuineness being revealed, because their faith is built upon
the promise and plan that God has put into effect. Thus they can love this Jesus who they’ve
never seen.
Such is a grand testing of
faith. This guy-Peter-comes in and starts
preaching about someone who showed up, died, and rose again back in the
motherland. There is only the whole
‘grand plan of God’ to explain it. He
doesn’t have the YouTube feed of Jesus walking on water, photobombs of Jesus
and the feasting 5000, even network news to back him up with reports of a
strange, new Judean phenom.
For two thousand years, all we’ve
had is someone who told someone else about Jesus, and wrote it down for us to
have now. I am having a ‘mind blown’
moment about the power of faith. I have
never seen the guy and I love Jesus.
Wow.
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