Tag: 1 peter

The Example To Follow (1 Peter 2:19-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Crucifixion, by John Kohan

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

“He committed no sin,
    and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (New International Version)

The reality of this life, for every one of us, is that we will suffer in some way. It’s not a matter of if we will suffer, but when and why. What’s more, my suffering is really not about me; it’s about him.

Therefore, let’s ensure that when the suffering comes, we know why – that it isn’t because of our own stupidity and poor choices, but because we are in solidarity with the One who suffered on our behalf and are living for him.

And in the midst of such suffering, let’s make sure that we face it and deal with it according to the example of Christ. Let’s imitate him.

Let’s also be honest from the start: We don’t like pain and suffering, and we often spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to avoid pain. 

Yet, in reality, our own suffering weans us away from the temporal things we tend to find consolation in, and drives us to the permanent source of comfort, strength, help, and encouragement. Our consolation is ultimately found solely in him.

When the athlete goes into the weight-room, they purposely go there to suffer. There is grunting and straining and difficulty. There is a tearing-down of muscle fibers. There is pain. 

That’s because strength-training needs commitment which suffers, and the pain that comes with growth. One cannot simply go into a weight-room, sit and watch other people lift weights, and believe they will then get in shape by only observing. 

God will put us in unwanted circumstances we did not ask for, and would not choose for ourselves, in order to position us to know him, to know Jesus. 

Crucifixion, by John Kohan

There are things in our lives that need to experience the suffering of death, in order for new life and growth to occur. For example, fire is an important part of Yellowstone National Park, because it brings environmental growth. According to ecology experts:

“Fire promotes habitat diversity by removing the forest overstory, allowing different plant communities to become established, and preventing trees from becoming established in grassland. Fire increases the rate that nutrients become available to plants by rapidly releasing them from wood and forest litter and by hastening the weathering of soil minerals.”

Concerning Christianity: Suffering is a necessary part of the Christian life because it creates the conditions for new life and growth and releases fresh sources of God’s grace into the church and world. 

We are to put to death anger, rage, malice, slander, lying, and useless language. They are to be replaced with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, forgiveness, and love. (Colossians 3:7-14) 

More pointedly: Quit fighting against your suffering. Stop kicking and screaming long enough to look your suffering square in the face and learn from it.

Your suffering is trying to tell you something. But if you keep taking the stance of a pugilist trying to punch the pain away, suffering will just keep moving forward at you and never topple. 

You and I cannot beat suffering. We can only learn from it. In order to learn from it, we must embrace it.

So, here’s the counter-intuitive, counter-cultural practice that you might not like, and might think I’m off my rocker for suggesting: Submit to suffering. Yes, because in doing so you are submitting to him.

Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I am, in no way, trying to sanitize troubles, adverse circumstances, or even terrible trauma. Evil is evil, bad is bad, and no amount of saying otherwise will change the leopard’s spots. 

However, only through submitting to the process of what suffering teaches us will we ever have power over it.

Fighting against suffering is about as useful as taking on a bear. Bears, like suffering, can be dangerous. We don’t blame bears if they act like bears. Likewise, we ought not to be surprised when suffering hurts.

I suggest we treat suffering like facing a bear in the wilderness of trouble: 

  1. Calmly talk in low tones to your suffering. Speak to it. Remember who you are. You belong to God. Treat suffering as if it is curious about you. Stay calm. Doing the big freak-out only encourages suffering to do damage.
  2. Walk with others through suffering. Both yours and theirs. Christian community is one of the best practices of the Christian life. Suffering becomes connection within a community of persons who discern its purpose. 
  3. Keep your eye on suffering.  Don’t ignore it, or pretend it isn’t there. Don’t run. Face suffering. Keep it in front of you. It will pass, but you must be patient and calm. Once it is gone, then you can reflect on what happened and debrief with others about the experience.

For anything to change, we must stop something, and start something else. When it comes to suffering:

  • Stop fighting. Start accepting. 
  • Stop going it alone. Start living in vital and vulnerable community. 
  • Stop being a martyr. Start letting the martyrdom of Christ be your center of life. 
  • Stop talking. Start listening. 
  • Stop treating your suffering as an adversary. Start relating to suffering as a companion to learn from.

Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you hallowed earthly pain, and gave us the example of obedience to your Father’s will. Be near me in my time of weakness and pain. Sustain me by your grace, so that my strength and courage may not fail. Heal me according to you will. And help me always to believe that what happens to me here in this life is of little account, if you hold me in eternal life, my Lord and my God. Amen.

Living Stones (1 Peter 2:4-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (New International Version)

The Apostle Peter describes Christians as “living stones” that form the temple of the Lord. In our worship we are like priests, carrying the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving into the presence of God.

This is who we are; it is our identity. Christians belong to God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been formed – and continue to be formed – into the people of God as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

The word for stones in today’s text (Greek λίθος) specifically refers to large stones that have been hewn into shape. So Christians, as God’s holy people, have been set apart and shaped for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ. Instead of offering the blood of bulls and goats, like the select group of Old Testament priests did, we are all priests who now offer spiritual sacrifices because Jesus has taken care of the sin issue once for all. 

Christians continually offer to God the worship of Christ, and a holy life, in grateful response to Christ’s sacrificial death on our behalf. Jesus Christ is the Christian’s cornerstone and center, and is to be the Church’s passion and priority. In worship, God builds us into a community of faith who dedicate ourselves to knowing Jesus and making him known.

All of life (and not just a Sunday worship service) is to be a daily rhythm of God’s revelation to us, and our response to God in faith, thanksgiving, and an obedient life.

We were chosen to serve God, and to exist for worship. Worship is grounded in the triune God and centered in Christ. Worship is the heart and life response to the revelation of God in Christ. Genuine encounters of God’s revelation to us, and our response to those experiences, form us into disciples of Jesus.

For those who refuse God’s perspective, Jesus Christ is experienced as an obstacle. He becomes the rock which causes them to stumble and fall. Although the early Christians for whom the Apostle Peter addressed were often humiliated and ostracized, they are nevertheless God’s elect, honored, and precious people.

Peter, who was named “Rock” by the Lord himself, wanted his audience to know that they, too, are known by God as rocks, as precious living stones. So, he explained their identity by pointing out the parallels between them and Christ:

  • Christ is the living cornerstone—Christians are living stones
  • Christ was rejected by humans—Christians are strangers in the world
  • Christ is God’s chosen One—Christians are God’s elect
  • Christ is venerated by God—Christians are esteemed by God

Jesus has so closely identified with us, God’s people, that we are in a vital union with him. On account of Christ’s rising from death, Christians are like living stones who are acceptable to God through Christ.

As the late salesman on television from decades ago, Ron Popeil, used to say, “But wait, there’s more!” Christians have been born again, experiencing rebirth into a new life. Our identity has given us great privilege as building blocks into the following:

  • Incorporation into a new community, a temple that shares in God’s honor and symbolizes God’s presence and power
  • Membership in a holy and royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices of holiness and love (1 Peter 1:15, 22)
  • Inclusion into the chosen people—a disparate people who share together in common values, patterns of living, and redemption
  • Citizens of a holy nation who enjoy a covenant relationship with God and worship the Lord who brought them out of darkness and into light

God has created a community of people in Christ who did not previously exist. Together as Christians and people of God, we celebrate Jesus in worship and revel in his saving mercy, which has given us fresh hope and new life.

Therefore, I humbly and proudly adopt the identification of “Christian.” I am here because of Jesus Christ and all the faithful believers who came before me on the firm foundation of the apostles and prophets. I am part of the great stone structure called the Church. I know who I am. I know who my people are. And that sense of belonging no one can ever take from me.

Soli Deo Gloria

Lord of heaven and earth, we pray that you will bring justice, faith and salvation to all peoples. You chose us in Christ to be your people and to be the temple of your Holy Spirit; we pray that you will fill your Church with vision and hope. In the baptism and birth of Jesus, you have opened heaven to us and enabled us to share in your glory: the joy of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. May your whole Church, living and departed,

come to a joyful resurrection in your city of light. Amen.

In the Place of Life (1 Peter 4:1-6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (New International Version)

I haven’t been a confessing Christian my entire life. And so, I can relate to Peter’s exhortation. I still remember what it feels like to live my life without any thought to God or spiritual matters. I also have many memories of giving my life to Christ and, for years, having people puzzled as to why I didn’t want to join them in activities which would clearly diminish my spirit and suck the soul out of me.

The thing about partying and immorality is that it’s a life filled with constant movement. Slowing down only makes one come face-to-face with what is truly inside the soul. And if someone has an empty vacuous soul, or a damaged spirit, or a broken heart, then attempting to drink or work away the inner pain makes sense when there’s no regard for God. 

The last thing I ever wanted to do was suffer, yet before my own spiritual awakening, it seemed I could never outrun the hurt no matter how hard I tried, even with all the constant locomotion.

But I found in a committed Christianity the slow and quiet place I so desperately needed. I discovered in ancient Christian practices of solitude, silence, and stillness the opportunity of finding my true self.

There are times in our lives when we need to explore the place between our hurting hearts and the hunting for joy. It’s actually a quiet place sandwiched between the ignominy of the cross and the celebration of resurrection. 

Within the geography of the soul, this is something of a lost country for many folks. Some people have never had the thought that such a place even exists. Yet, this is the very place which gives meaning and focus to a disjointed and frenetic lifestyle.

To be even more specific and focused, there cannot be a better life, a new life without a death to the old life and dying to self. There must be suffering before there can be glory.

I’m a heady sort of guy. Most things, for me, have to go through my brain. Although I have come to appreciate and value my heart and my gut, I still find myself sometimes gravitating toward my intellect as the answer for my stress. Yet, there are many times (maybe even most times) when I really need to get out of my head, connect to my gut, and wrap my heart around whatever problem or challenge is before me. 

I have been a devoted follower of Jesus for many decades now. Yet, I still encounter a sizable chunk of Christians who devalue the place between the real suffering on Good Friday, along with the very real death of Holy Saturday. In the tomb, there is no movement. All is silent and still. 

Jesus was in the solitude of a dark tomb. So, there’s no getting around it. If we want a Resurrection Day with all its celebration and glory, then we cannot circumvent the place of darkness and stillness.

To be a Christian means a readiness to follow Jesus and suffer as he did. It involves a willingness to stop our striving, manifested through constant movement, and embrace the disciplines of solitude, silence, and stillness with its contemplation and radical acceptance of what is – and not just what we want something to be. 

This requires the sense enough to pray and please a higher power than fair weather friends. It demands a Christian counter-cultural shift to face the ridicule of friends so that we might take some much-needed time to be with Jesus in his life, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Put plainly and bluntly: If you and I want to live with Jesus, we must die with Jesus.

I could give you ten steps to having a better life, but this would ultimately mean nothing apart from the willingness to spend some time and sit in the place of suffering and death.

And, ironically, in doing so, we find the life that is truly life, and discover a way of existence which is far greater and better than we could have ever dreamed.

Merciful and almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we submit ourselves to you, knowing that our lives are in the hands of a gracious and sovereign Being who cares deeply for all creation and every creature. May our longings for transcendence result in the deep and good desires of our hearts to be met fully in Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.

1 Peter 1:17-2:1 – Real Love Is…

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. (New International Version)

Love makes the world go round. The cycle of life brings an end to all things. Yet, the permanence of love has always existed, and will never cease to exist. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)

Biblical godly love comes not because we first loved God, but because God first loved us and gave his Son, Jesus Christ, as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:7-12)

So, the Christian’s faith and hope are completely grounded in the person and finished work of Jesus. People are so valuable to God that we were purchased from the slavery auction block with the costliest price ever: the precious blood of Jesus. 

To know this love of God in Christ, to be thoroughly captured and enraptured by it, results in a profound and deep love for others. And I’m not just referring to a nice touchy-feely love, but also a steadfast love which is committed to love regardless of what another person says or does.

Love is wonderful. But that doesn’t mean its easy. Being on the receiving end of love is a beautiful thing. Giving love, however, can sometimes get dicey.

You see, although we Christians really do believe that everything in life and ministry centers around the grace and love of God in Christ, our boots-on-the-ground loving sometimes seems compromised and conditional. That’s because it’s easy to love those who love us back. Yet, what if our love is not reciprocated or requited?

This situation brings us face-to-face with our own selves. The painful reality is that we all discover that our love is sometimes, maybe oftentimes, dependent on an assurance that we will be loved in return.

There is perhaps no more transcendent and glorious thing than mutual love. However, what happens when only one of the persons is able to give love? What do we do when grace is our only option, when we must choose to love, knowing that love won’t have a response?

Christians everywhere must come to the point of giving the same kind of love that God shows to us in Christ. We need to decide that grace is going to be our lifestyle. It comes down to this: It simply doesn’t matter what condition the other person is in. It doesn’t matter what another is going to say, or not say. Nothing on the other party’s side doesn’t matter. It…just… doesn’t… matter.

What really matters is our own loving another person deeply from the heart, regardless and in spite of everything else. That, my friends, is real Christian love.

“Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.”

Jesus (Matthew 5:43-47, MSG)

Since we are redeemed people; since we have acknowledged the truth of Christ’s redemptive events of crucifixion and resurrection; since we are recipients of God’s great love to us in Jesus; we all must make the decision to live our lives full of grace and love, no matter what.  As God’s redeemed people, purchased by the precious blood of Christ, we will love one another unconditionally.

Unfortunately, over time, many Christians slowly become disconnected from this fountain of grace and love. It is likely that, at some past point, they were deeply touched by a gracious encounter with Jesus Christ. They found peace, love, and joy. Minds were swept up in the awe and wonder of God. Hearts were deeply moved for a few hours, days, or weeks. 

But then, there was a return to the routine grind of daily existence. Gradually, the demands of work and family took over. Jesus began to be treated like some old friend from another town whom we dearly loved in years past but have just lost track of. 

Of course, it was unintentional.  We simply allowed circumstances to drift us apart. We became preoccupied with something else. Now, we find ourselves with a low level irritation, frustrated with others and unable to love as we ought. We become what the late author Brennan Manning called “Christian agnostics” – people who do not deny Jesus, but just ignore him.

If your days are trivial and hectic…

If the clock determines what you do…

If you are numb to the news and headlines around you…

If you are all jangled and jittered by life’s circumstances…

If phones and computers and gadgets rule your day…

If there is little room for responding to humanity humanely…

If you have settled into a comfortable piety and a well-fed virtue…

If you have grown complacent and lead a practical life…

Then you need to be touched again by the grace and love of God in Christ by treating Jesus as if he were your very best friend as well as the awesome Son of God.

We are all still here walking on this earth because none of our failures and lack of faith have proved terminal.  We are here today because of God’s radical grace. 

The forgiveness of God is a gratuitous liberation from guilt and regret. It is an extreme amnesty. Through looking in the mirror, and seeing personal sinfulness, we amazingly end up encountering the merciful love of the redeeming God. 

The grace of God says to us, “Hush, child, I don’t need to know where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to; just let me love you.” 

When we have experienced that kind of love, we are then finally able to love one another deeply from the heart.  It is a new life of love, the kind of love that comes from God – an unconditional love that is permanent and will never go away – it is imperishable.

Therefore, as Christians loved by Christ and belonging to God:

  • We will not just show love when we are assured that we will be loved in return.
  • We will not just wait for others to show love to us first.
  • We will not expect to reach some higher level of knowledge or spirituality in order to be gracious and loving.
  • We will simply love with the love given to us by Jesus.
  • We will love with a gracious, sacrificial, vulnerable, and desperate kind of love. 

It is the kind of love that is like the waiting room in a hospital burn unit. Many years ago, I spent some time with a person in such a waiting room after her brother had been severely burned in a farm accident. In the waiting room we were all strangers. Yet, there was a loving vulnerability to our being together. I sat watching and waiting with anguished people, listening to their urgent questions: Will my husband make it? Will my child walk again even she survives? How do you live without your companion of thirty years? 

The burn unit waiting room is different from any other place in the world. And the people who wait are different. They can’t do enough for each other. No one is rude. The distinctions of race and class melt away. Each person pulls for everyone else. Vanity and pretense vanish. No one is embarrassed about crying or asking tough questions. In that moment their whole world is focused on the doctor’s next report. If only it will show improvement.

Everyone intuitively knows that loving someone else is what life is all about. 

By God’s amazing grace we will all learn to live like that without having to learn it the hard way in a place of intense anxiety and suffering.

Christ’s resurrection is not some flash-in-a-pan – it has staying power – it is real and permanent. Christ is the Christian’s hope of living a new life of gracious unconditional love. 

Jesus actually expects more failure from you than you expect from yourself. And he gives grace. So, all of our failures to love as we ought can be laid before Jesus because there is grace that covers it all – a deep love that forgives, redeems, and makes new.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.