First Peter

Verses one and two: One thing God guarantees for the true saint is recorded 1 Timothy 3:12: “All who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Notice the three main words: ALL, GODLY AND PERSECUTION. Note that He says nothing about the religious, not even the super-religious. To the contrary, He tells us in numerous passages that they will be the saint’s persecutors. Jesus, His prophets, His apostles and the heroes of Hebrews 11 serve as the saint’s examples. As verses 1 and 2 reveal, suffering the spiritual and sometimes physical venom of the super religious makes sinning much less appealing. Like the child who has been burned avoids a flame, the wrath of the church causes the saint to reject Satan’s temptations. Should Judas have lived, would he not have conducted himself in an entirely different manner for the rest of his life? I believe so. The crowing of the cock jarred Peter into a life change. The change was total, immediate and permanent. As reality raised its ugly head, proud, self-absorbed Peter (the old man) died and humble, God-focused Peter (the new man) came into being. Peter was hurting with the worst kind of pain–the spiritual kind. Pain, I have always contended, is the universal language. Whether physical, mental, social or spiritual, pain garners and keeps one’s attention like nothing else.

Verses three through six: All of mankind–Israelites and Gentiles alike–once lived the Gentile (heathen) life-style. The Lord describes Gentiles (all non-Israelites) in Ephesians 2:11,12 as being  “without Christ … and without God in the world.” In verses 3 through 6 Peter points out that there were spiritual Gentiles in the church who were determined to draw people away from God’s way and to their way. Today these people are known as Catholics and Protestants. As was true then, today’s spiritual Gentiles do not understand why God’s people do not “run with them.” In verses 5 & 6 Peter points out that this was not a new phenomenon, that the same had been true in the days of the prophets. The religious hierarchy of their day persecuted them relentlessly, some unto death. The Old Testament persecutors had no excuse for their hatred of God’s men “for the gospel was preached also unto them that are dead, that they might be judged” according to gospel. All men, Peter says in verse 5, will be judged, the gospel being the standard by which God will judge us. This judgment will involve everyone who ever lived beginning with the Garden of Eden. Note that THE (one and only) gospel was preached to people in Old Testament times. Undoubtedly, Noah–“a preacher of righteousness,” was one of its most vocal proponents. That the gospel was preached to the ancients is also brought out in Hebrews 3:14-4:2. Here Paul reminds the Israelites that many of those who came out of Egypt with Moses provoked the Lord, grieving Him for 40 years as they wandered throughout the desert of Sin as their punishment for their unbelief. Note Hebrews 4:2: “For to us (the New Testament Church) was the gospel preached, AS WELL AS TO THEM”–those who fell in the wilderness during the 40 years of wandering. Note that both Old and New Testament people were taught “the” (same) gospel. Lack of faith in the Word of God was the cause of their failure to enter the Promised Land. Nothing has changed. As most of God’s people wandered in the physical wilderness of that day, most of God’s people are today wandering in the spiritual wilderness of so-called “Christianity” and for the same reason–lack of faith in the Word of God. As God says in 2 Timothy 3:7: They are “ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the Truth”–God’s Word (Jn. 17:17). And as did their ancestors, todays rebels will fail to enter the Promised Land–the Kingdom of God–unless they reverse course and embrace the Lord, His Way and His will until the end (Mat. 10:22). L.J.