Read with Me
1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV)
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 all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Listen with Me
Peter begins his letter with a great outpouring of praise to the only true God, the Father of the Lord Jesus. Although Peter does not reject the idea that God is the Father of all who trust in Jesus, he does not use the phrase “children of God” to describe those who are part of the Church. He uses a large and diverse vocabulary to describe us and our relationship, especially in chapter two.
But Peter clearly portrays Jesus as God’s one and only begotten Son who was sent into the world to provide the new birth through His own resurrection from the dead. The risen Jesus appeared to Peter before any of the other eleven remaining disciples (Luke 24:33-34), cementing in Peter’s heart the solid reality of his resurrection.
Peter understood from Jesus’ own lips that there is an inheritance for each of those who receive Jesus by faith, an inheritance of glory and grace, joy and peace that was being kept inviolable and indelible in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21; John 14:1-3). He also understood that God’s power is at work in the world through the Holy Spirit working in the hearts and lives of His people. This power not only works wonders and miracles in the lives of God’s people. It also provides protection from the evil one and his schemes to derail the faith of the people of the kingdom. This means that no one has to fall if they will simply fix their eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2-3) and rely on God’s power in them, not in their own strength.
Peter had to pass through sufferings and trials, beatings and imprisonments as he did the work of God’s kingdom, and in God’s strength he was able to come through them all victoriously. But he knew, again from Jesus own lips (John 16:33), that all who follow Jesus, because they are working in opposition to the forces of darkness that are often entrenched in the world, will suffer trials and persecutions along with him.
But Peter also knows that those trials and persecutions have a deeper purpose. For those who are fully surrendered to God, the trials act as a refining fire, driving out impurities, leaving a faith that is solid, strong and true, a faith that will shine brilliantly in the darkness, and that will continue to testify to the reality of new life that is only found in Jesus (Acts 5:20).
Pray with Me
Father, thank You for this reassurance. These days so many of Your people are cowed into silence by the threat of suffering, or even the worry over being “cancelled”. We pull back from the purifying flames instead of embracing them and the work that they are designed to accomplish. But that just leaves the world a darker place where evil can flourish, since those of us who have the light keep it hidden out of fear. Lord, help me to let Your light shine in me, shine brilliantly everywhere I am (Matthew 5:14-16), so that no matter what happens, Your message of salvation, hope, and transformation moves forward strongly in and through me. Amen.