Peter Speaks Against The Way Things Were

¹⁴Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance.

            Peter issued his challenge, to carry forward with the work that is inspired by what God has done for us in Jesus.  But this is a group that must be changed.  There was a way of doing things that still holds on to them.  It is this means of being that Peter addresses:

Like obedient children, it may not sound immediately flattering to us, but herein is the basic relationship we have to our God.

 do not be conformed-this is the metaphor by which Peter, and the New Testament, speaks when we are picking lives for or against our Lord Jesus.

 to the desires that you formerly had-what does the old life look like in comparison to the new?

 in ignorance. Hmmm, not a bad life chosen intentionally, but…

When He Is Revealed.

It has been a couple thousand years.  Peter thought it might be weeks, or months, maybe a couple of years. There is the pressure of immediacy in Peter's words because he expected a relatively immediate return of Jesus.  

Preparing their minds for action, disciplining themselves, setting their hope on the grace revealed in Jesus, these were not activities that the apostles assumed would have to be continued on through fifty generations or more.  The assumption was that all would be made complete when He is revealed.

How do we account for the immediate action demanded by Peter and the delayed action we are living to see in this generation?  How does this passage speak to us across that gap?  This faith has gone from a fad to a lifestyle. 

Our hope has not changed.  It is still dependent on the grace given to us in Jesus.  While He is not revealed to us in person, He is revealed to us in the New Testament.  Each generation has the benefit of Peter’s words to introduce us to the Christ, and the promise that surrounds Him.  Each generation can live the life that Jesus lived, sharing the grace and the love that He did with the world in need.  To each generation, he is revealed afresh.

Set all your hope on the Grace that Jesus Christ will bring you

It all hinges on one word, ‘grace’.  Our hope hinges on that word, that which the Lord Jesus Christ brings hinges on that word.  When we are talking ‘grace’ in this context, we are not talking about the prayer offered before a meal.  We are not talking about the lady who tied years ago that sweet Aunt Bethany was thinking of in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. 

We are talking about something on which we are to place all our hope.  So, no pressure. 

What is the grace?  It is the salvation that is to be given to the readers, as prophesied by the prophets (vs. 10).  And what is salvation?  It is the outcome of their faith (vs. 9).  The result of faith is praise and glory and honor (vs. 7), when its genuineness is revealed through various trials (vs. 6).  And our faith is in a living hope, given to us as a new birth, through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead (vs. 3).

And while this is the promise of the afterlife, something great and powerful to look forward to, never get caught in the trap of thinking this is all we have for this life.  God poured His grace into this world through Jesus.  It is our calling to continue to establish that grace in this world.  From that work shall we receive our eternal reward.

discipline yourselves;

That could be a tough sell.  “Discipline”, all too often associated with punishment.  Get ‘disciplined’ in school, the drill sergeant handing out discipline to his recruits-too often this is the meaning that people take away from the word.  And even when they know its other definitions, there is a negative connotation to the term.

Self-discipline, this is what Peter is aiming at.  Hard to achieve in a ‘feel good’ world.  It is very, very easy simply to skate through life, never have to achieve self-discipline for anything.  Until you really want it.

Athletes have discipline, to train, to prepare, to do what it takes to be ‘the best they can be’.  That phrase is borrowed from military advertising.  Elite and special forces in the military, there is another place where discipline is at the forefront.  Without discipline, people could be killed.  In whatever field that someone might be working in, discipline can take them farther than brighter, more educated people who just do not have the work ethic.

Peter first called for the readers of his letter to prepare their minds for action, now he is calling for them to discipline themselves.  The difference is preparing to do something, and now, actually doing it.  The Christian faith calls for discipline as surely as any other field in which we want to excel. 

Again, Peter laid out what the Lord’s plan of salvation in the first dozen verses.  They are inspiration to action.  And it requires commitment, it requires focus, it requires tenacity, it requires hard work to do the things of the Lord.  It requires discipline.  Are you willing?

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action…" 1 Peter 1:13

Peter begins his letter with a capsule summary of the work and significance of Jesus Christ (vss. 1-12).  It follows up in writing what he has taught as he has traveled among them.  But it was not intended to be a reminder of the right doctrine about Jesus.  It is a call to action. 

“Therefore”, the word of transition, what came before is to motivate what is to come.  Our faith is not stagnant, it is not something that stands still, it is not simply something we learn so that we can answer the ‘test of life’ to see if we know what we need to know.

“…prepare your minds…” There is a shift in the subject of Peter’s writing.  Before, it was about Jesus, now it turns to those who have received the letter.  Here is Jesus, here is what you need to do with it.  It is an education, it is preparation, you have the information, prepare your minds to move on it.

Jesus’ life and ministry were all about action, teaching when there needed to be teaching, but doing to accomplish the work of His Father in Heaven.  It is the same call to the people to whom Peter writes, and the same call to each of us.

Having Heard About Jesus, How Shall We Respond?

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;^* discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.

What ended back in May was a tight reading and interpretation of the first twelve verses of 1 Peter 1.  Sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase, what does Peter mean in his writing?  It was a personal discipline, and devotional, looking to Scripture for its deeper and more wonderful truths.  It was meant to be devotional, educational, a form of Bible study for myself and those who might read along.

It continues now, distributed more widely, to the Session and certain members of the church.  The previous entries on the blog lay out what was said in the first twelve verses.  This is a gift for you to follow along in a close reading. 

I believe God has a call for us and to know Him better, we must look to the Word that has been given to us.

This first post in the series considers the verse, broken down into phrases.  The next set of posts will take each of the phrases in turn.  It will end with a treatment of the entire verse, seeking to draw threads together. 

13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;^*  In the first 12 verses, Peter has been talking about the power and mission of Jesus, something that will demand a reaction from the readers. 

discipline yourselves; This is the language of how we come to Jesus, and how Jesus comes through us.  The Christian life demands disciplines of faith and obedience that we do not wander astray.  It is not ‘automatic’.

set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you  Peter looks back to the first 12 verses, where he outlines what this grace is, how it is the anchor of faith in Jesus.   

when he is revealed.  This may be a trickier bit.  Jesus was revealed, but has since ascended into heaven.  He will be revealed again, at the end of time.  Will he somehow be revealed in this ‘middle time’ as well? 

If this becomes overly complex, please tell me.  If I am incomprehensible, please let me know.  The aim is to use the study of Scripture as a unifying movement in our Lord Jesus as we seek to live out our mission of peace.

“Might Angels Be Eager For Our Destruction?”

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-things into which angels long to look!      (1 Peter 1:12)

God’s angels, heavenly messengers, the members of the heavenly court of the King of Kings, as great as they are, there are things that are not for them, but for us.  They wish to see the things that have been brought to the Jews of the Diaspora, to us.

There are movies, like “Dogma”, and television shows, like “Supernatural”, where angelic beings are portrayed basically hating us poor humans.  We are weak, we are fallen, we are pathetic, and God loves us more than the angels.  It makes them jealous of us, even eager for our destruction.  That is not a biblical view of angels mind you, just a Hollywood one.

But like anything, it finds some root in reality.  Lucifer is a fallen angel, one who turned against God, so it can happen.  And here we are, getting really cool divine knowledge that the angels have been left out of.  From our human point of view, we could understand how that might tick them off, just a little bit.

Quite frankly, there just isn’t enough in the Bible to truly be able to create a psychological profile of an angel.  They serve God in a way we were meant to, till we broke with God, like Lucifer.  Except this time, God set in motion a way back.

Maybe that is what the angels long to look into.  If there is a way for humans to be made right with God, is there a way for Lucifer to be made right?  Again, I am applying human motives to angelic beings, interesting to contemplate, but hard to prove.

Peter here is punctuating the delight and the wonder of what we have received from God.  It is something unique, something that even the angels haven’t seen before.  And they want to see what we have received as surely as we do.