submit as free people

Posted on August 3, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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submit as free people

1 Peter 2:13-17 (JDV)

1 Peter 2:13 Submit to every human creature because of the Lord, whether to the king as the superior
1 Peter 2:14 or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do right.
1 Peter 2:15 For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
1 Peter 2:16 Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.
1 Peter 2:17 Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the king.

submit as free people

Some translations add the word “authority” to todays text but it is not found there. It is not because people have a God-given authority that Peter encourages submission to them. We are to submit to everyone because of the Lord. The instruction is about the gospel, not governance. Our purpose is not to endorse human heirarchy, but to behave properly, as God’s slaves. We are children of God, but we submit to others in order to win them to God’s family as well. We submit voluntarily as free people, not out of necessity. The scriptures have only one purpose — to bring everyone to Christ. There is no secondary purpose of human authority.

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good behavior

Posted on August 2, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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good behavior

1 Peter 2:11-12 (JDV)

1 Peter 2:11 Cherished ones, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from longings of the flesh that wage war against the throat.
1 Peter 2:12 Behave yourselves well among the Gentiles so that even though they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day of reckoning.

good behavior

Peter encourages his readers to behave themselves well for two reasons here. First, the impulses and desires — longings of the flesh — that often result in bad behavior are actually waging war against their own throats. That is, they are putting them in danger of dying. The Gentiles are looking for reasons to kill them, and any transgression or apparent act of defiance would give them a reason. Christians should avoid giving unbelievers justification for persecuting and destroying them.

The second reason for good behavior is that on the day of reckoning, the Great Overseer of all things will call on these same Gentile witnesses to declare what they saw in us. When these unbelievers testify that we behaved well in spite of their slander, our God will be glorified.

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a chosen family

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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a chosen family

1 Peter 2:9-10 (JDV)

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a devoted nation, a people that he has obtained, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

a chosen family

Those who have rejected Christ (including the Jews) have stumbled over the cornerstone and are not God’s people anymore. But those who have chosen to follow Christ are part of his family, priests of his temple, citizens of his nation, a people that God has obtained. As a believer, you now have a new identity. You have not just chosen God. He has chosen you.

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honor will come to you

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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honor will come to you

1 Peter 2:4-8 (JDV)

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, a living stone – rejected by people but chosen and honored by God –
1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a sacred priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:6 For it stands in Scripture: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be shamed.
1 Peter 2:7 So honor will come to you who believe; but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected – this one has become the cornerstone,
1 Peter 2:8 and A stone to stumble over, and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word; they were placed here for this.

honor will come to you

Peter is speaking to people who have chosen to align themselves with Jesus. As such, many of them are being rejected by the people all around them, and suffer the shame associated with that rejection. But Peter encourages them to think about what is really happening on an eternal scale. They have chosen to believe in Christ and obey God’s word. They are being placed into God’s spiritual temple. Jesus himself is the chosen cornerstone of that temple. Their destiny is permanent honor. Those who reject Christ are being placed as well. Their destiny is a permanent shame because they are stumbling over the cornerstone.

Accept the temporary shame if your faith in Christ brings it. Your day of honor will come.

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imperishable seed

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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imperishable seed

1 Peter 1:23-25

1 Peter 1:23 because you have been born again — not of perishable seed but of imperishable — through the living and enduring word of God.
1 Peter 1:24 Because everything mortal is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
1 Peter 1:25 but the word of the Lord endures permanently. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

imperishable seed

Our first birth was from perishable seed; we were born mortal. Our new birth when we started believing God’s word was from imperishable seed. When our Lord retrurns to raise us, it will be with bodies that are just as eternal as God’s truth.

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demonstrating faith and hope

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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demonstrating faith and hope

1 Peter 1:21-22

1 Peter 1:21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly care for each other, from a pure heart care about one another constantly,

demonstrating faith and hope

You say you have faith in God and hope for an eternal future because of him? OK, how do you prove that faith and hope? Here are two ways to demonstrate your faith and hope: obeying his truth and caring about other believers.

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secret now revealed

Posted on July 28, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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secret now revealed

1 Peter 1:20

1 Peter 1:20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.

secret now revealed

Christ existed before Jesus was born. He was God the Father’s secret plan to rescue his people. He was revealed at just the right time to accomplish the work he had to do to rescue us. It is finished.

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empty way of life

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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empty way of life

1 Peter 1:17-19

1 Peter 1:17 If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers.
1 Peter 1:18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold,
1 Peter 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.

empty way of life

We used to be slaves to an empty way of life — which only produced emptiness. Now we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. With that debt paid, we can now live as free people, and pursuit a fruitful life instead.

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revelation grace

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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revelation grace

1 Peter 1:13-16 (JDV)

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.
1 Peter 1:15 But as the one who called you is sacred, you also are to be sacred in all your conduct;
1 Peter 1:16 for it is written, Be sacred, because I am sacred.

revelation grace

The key to living a sacred life today is setting our hope completely of the return of Christ — when he will be revealed. The justification grace we have received so far is wonderful, but it is only beginning. We seek revelation grace — the fulfillment of all Christ’s promises to us when he comes again.

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glory in the future

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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glory in the future

1 Peter 1:10-12

1 Peter 1:10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated.
1 Peter 1:11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Breath of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
1 Peter 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Sacred Breath sent from heaven — angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.

glory in the future

The prophets who predicted Christ’s suffering and glory attest to the inheritance of his followers as well. Just as Jesus suffered, and is now glorified, so all believers who suffer now will see glory in the future.

LORD, help us to persevere through the times of testing so that the glory that is our living hope shines through.

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