An Exposition of 1 and 2 Peter
Introduction
Peter tells us of his purpose in 2 Pt. 1.13-15: “But I think it right as long as I am in this tent to be stirring you up by way of reminder, 14knowing that my removal from this tent is eminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15But I will also always be diligent to have you after my exodus to make a remembrance of these things,” and in 3.1-2: “This now, beloved, is the second epistle I am writing to you, in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2to remember the things having been spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior by your apostles….” He knows that his exodus from this world is near and he wants to remind and stir up his readers to remember and carry out his instructions so that they will not be led astray or turn away from the Lord.
A major theme of 1 Peter is the matter of trial and suffering. T. Austin-Sparks, in The Letters of Peter, points out that Peter’s thoughts about suffering had changed entirely. In Mt. 16.22, when the Lord Jesus had told of his impending suffering, Peter says, “God be merciful to you, Lord! This will not be to you.” Peter, like the other disciples was looking for an earthly kingdom and its glory, as we see in Acts 1.6. The “new Peter” learned that there would be much suffering on the way to the kingdom. He gets right to the point in 1.6 and brings up this theme several times. At the same time he makes numerous use of the words grace and glory. His point is that much of our lives as Christians is the suffering of various trials, but God gives grace to endure and the outcome is glory. The word “grace” appears ten times in 1 Peter (1.2, 10, 13, 2.19, 20, 3.7, 4.10, 5.5, 10, and 12). We encounter “glory” ten times (1.7, 11, 21, 24, 4.11, 13, 14, 5.1, 4, and 10). These words occur again in 2 Peter in 1.2 and 3.18 (grace) and in 1.3, 17, 2.10, and 3.18 (glory). If we remember what Peter writes and are stirred up to carry it out, we will experience grace and we will see eternal glory.
Peter deals more with warning in 2 Peter. He warns of false teachers, judgment, and mockers, and he even makes the end of this age a warning in this sense, that the Lord Jesus will come as a thief in the night, and warning that we must be ready for his coming, not just by being saved, but by being ready for the judgment seat of Christ, not named as such here, but certainly implied. There are rewards for faithful and obedient Christians and these can be lost. It is of note that he concludes this second epistle with, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We begin with grace (1 Pt. 1.2) and end with grace (2 Pt. 3.18). It is the only way.
1 Peter
Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect sojourners of the diaspora of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
The name Peter means “rock.” Peter is the name given to Simon at his confession of the Lord Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16.16-18). Simon was an impulsive man who boasted of his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus: “But answering Peter said to him, ‘If all are caused to stumble because of you I will never be caused to stumble.’ 34Jesus said to him, ‘Amen I say to you that on this night before a cock crows you will deny me three times. 35Peter said to him, ‘Even if it be necessary for me to die with you, I will not deny you’” (Mt. 26.33-35). Then he promptly denied the Lord three times. He was no rock.
We are told in 1 Cor. 10.4 that Christ is the Rock. When that Rock got inside of Simon and transformed him he became a rock. He became so bold that when the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, he stood up and preached a sermon that brought three thousand souls into the kingdom that day. As we will see in 1 Pt. 2.5 he became a living rock in the house of God.
This living rock, Peter, was an apostle. The word means “sent.” It is the Greek equivalent of missionary, which is the Latin for of “sent.” He was a man sent by God. Jn. 1.6 tells us that John the Baptist was a man sent from God, and the word “sent” there is the verb form of this word apostle, one sent. A missionary is on a mission, and Peter was a man on a mission from Pentecost until his death. “Apostle” in the New Testament is also used to mean some sort of high leadership in the church. It is not defined completely clearly. The original twelve disciples, less Judas, were apostles. Paul was an apostle. A few others are mentioned. It is of interest that the word “apostle” is apo-stolos in Greek, sent from, and “epistle” is epi-stole, sent to. An apostle is sent from God. An epistle is a letter sent to someone.
This epistle is addressed to the “elect sojourners of the diaspora of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” Diaspora is a word meaning “dispersion” and refers to Jews who lived outside of the Holy Land, those who had been dispersed throughout the world, whether by choice or by force, as in Babylonian or Roman deportations. However, there are indications in 1 Peter that the recipients of this letter were Gentiles, e.g., 1 Pt. 1.18, 2.10, 4.3. We have no way of knowing the exact truth in this matter. It is possible and even probable that there were both Jewish and Gentile Christians among Peter’s readers. Ultimately it does not really matter, because Peter’s message applies to all Christians. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia are areas of Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. Of interest is the fact that in Gal. 2.7 Paul called Peter the one entrusted with the good news to the circumcision (Jews), as Paul was to the uncircumcision (Gentiles). I think it is safe to say that at the least Peter may have started as an apostle to the Jews, but became an apostle to the world.
2elect according to the foreknowledge of God, Father, by the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Peter calls God “God, Father.” God is not just faraway Supreme Being or a taskmaster who runs our lives. He is a father to us, a perfect, loving father. Many people have not had a father at all or had a cruel father or a weak father. None of us had a perfect father. But now we do.
These recipients of Peter’s epistle are elect or chosen. In the Old Testament the Jewish people were God’s elect or chosen ones. That election was of this world and pertained to the Holy Land. It is a spiritual matter in the New Covenant and pertains to heavenly things, but will have an effect on earth.
There has long been a battle over the matter of election. I will not get into a long discussion of or argument about election. Some believe that election and predestination mean that God wills for some to be saved and some to be lost. I disagree. I think Peter makes the matter clear. Those who are elect, that is, chosen, are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. God has known everything from eternity. He knows who will accept him and who will not. He chooses those who will accept him. Paul makes it quite clear in Rom. 8.29 that “those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Predestination has nothing to do with salvation. It has everything to do with conformity to Christ. Those whom God knew by foreknowledge would accept him he chose, elected, predestined to be conformed to Christ. That is why Rom. 8.28 says that “all things work together for good for those loving God, for those called according to purpose.” The “all things” includes our trials and sufferings. God is using those not to save us, but to conform those already saved to Christ. When Peter says that these people are elect, he is saying that these saved people are to be conformed to the image of Christ.
There are three factors in this election. One is this foreknowledge which we have just considered. Do you know what a preposition is? It is a part of speech that combines with a noun or pronoun to modify another word. “According to” is a preposition. “By” is a preposition. “Unto” is a preposition. Our election is according to the foreknowledge of God. It is by the sanctification of the Spirit. It is unto obedience and sprinkling.
We have seen that God elects those whom he foreknew would accept him. Our election is by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. How do we get elected? The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts. When we hear the good news of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins and of our need of a Savior. He reveals Christ to us as that Savior. We put our faith in Christ and instantly we are forgiven of our sins and the Holy Spirit comes into our dead spirits (Eph. 2.1, Jn. 3.3-7) and makes them alive toward God. The word “holy” and the word “sanctify” are related. They mean the same thing, holy being Old English and sanctify being Latin. To sanctify is to make holy. Sanctification is holiness or the process of making holy. A saint, a sanctified one, is a holy one. When we receive Christ as Savior the Holy Spirit makes us a saint. A saint is not a perfect person, but a holy one, one set apart for God. We are no longer for the world or for ourselves, but for God. The Holy Spirit is in the process of making us holy in actual fact, but that will take a lifetime.
So – we are elect according to foreknowledge. We are elect by the sanctifying of the Holy Spirit. And we are elect “unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” There is a purpose for our election. It is our obedience. We are to devote our lives to the doing of the will of God. And it is the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the sprinkling of the blood that washes away our sins. “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” Hebrews says (9.22). Hebrews adds,
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those having been defiled sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (9.13-14)
The sprinkling of the blood purifies our consciences from dead works. Dead works can be works for a false god or just to make us feel better (I did my good deed for the day) or a work we do in the flesh for God that is not his will. We cannot serve God in the flesh. It is only with a purified conscience that we can serve God. We must have the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus. Our election is for that so that we may serve God with a clear conscience.
Elect “according to the foreknowledge of God, Father, by the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
grace to you and peace be multiplied.
It is easy to give these usual greetings little notice as they can be seen as just a greeting, but two of the greatest words in the Bible are grace and peace. Stop and think for a moment. Where would we be without grace? On the way to hell! Or where would we be as a Christian without ongoing grace? Confused, aimless, without peace, worried, afraid, and on we could go. Grace is not just the usual “undeserved love.” It is surely that, but it is so much more. In a sense grace is what God is. Everything about him is grace. I like to say that if God were a computer, grace would be his operating system. It is not just how we are saved, but how we live. We could not live without the ongoing grace of God.
And peace. The Bible teaches that we have peace with God (Rom. 5.1). He is not our enemy because we have been justified, declared not guilty. But we can also have the peace of God (Phil. 4.7). That peace is not our peace. It is something God himself places in us. He keeps us in peace as we trust him. But it goes further. The Lord Jesus is peace (Mic. 5.5, Eph. 2.14). He dwells within us by his Spirit. If he dwells in us, his peace dwells in us. Be aware of this divine person who is peace dwelling within.
Peter prays for grace and peace to be multiplied to his readers. Give thanks to God for grace and peace.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again
There are two words in Greek for “blessed.” One is makarios which means “happy.” The other is eulogetos, which means well spoken of. Eulogetos is the word used here. God is always to be well-spoken of, blessed, by us his people, for there is nothing in him that is not worthy of blessing. Even our difficulties are used by him for his glory and our good.
Again Peter calls him God and Father, as we saw at the beginning, and he mentions his mercy. Mercy is similar to grace in being undeserved, but mercy has to do more with pity. Grace refers more to God’s love in saving us, and mercy, to his pity of us because of our pitiful condition due to our sins. Even though we are sinners God loves us and saves us, and even though we have ruined our own lives, inwardly if not outwardly, he loves us and has pity on us. And his mercy is great.
Because of his great mercy he caused us to be born again. The Greek word for “born again” is different from the word used by the Lord Jesus in Jn. 3.3 and 7, but it basically means the same thing. The word in John means “born from above, from Heaven,” and John adds, being “born of the Spirit,” whereas here in Peter it is literally “born again.” In both cases the word means the making alive of our dead spirits, as we saw under v. 2. A bit later we will encounter the salvation of the soul, which is different, and we will deal with that then.
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
We are “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Death is the great scourge of mankind. Everyone except those alive at this moment and Enoch and Elijah has died, and everyone who is alive now will die unless the Lord raptures us or comes back first. Many live in fear and dread of the death of their loved ones and of themselves, and all of us have made that sad journey to the graveyard. No exceptions. But we as Christians have a genuine, living hope regarding death because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. His resurrection is the promise of our resurrection. We are told in 1 Cor. 15.20 that the Lord is the firstfruits from the dead. If there are firstfruits there are more fruits to follow. We are those fruits. If we die we will rise from the dead. That is our living hope, living because it is a promise of the Lord who cannot lie.
4to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, having been kept in the heavens for you
We are also born again “to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, having been kept in the heavens for you.” We may have an inheritance on earth from those who have gone before, but that inheritance is not sure. It can be lost. Our inheritance from the Lord is kept in Heaven where no one can get at it, not the tax collector, not a thief (those two may be synonymous in some cases!), not a greedy relative who can sue us, not anyone. In the Old Testament the inheritance of the Israelites was the land, and they lost that inheritance through disobedience to God. The New Testament equivalent of that land is the Lord Jesus. We cannot lose him. Let me say that that there are rewards in Heaven for Christians who are faithful and obedient to God and those rewards can be lost (see 1 Cor. 3.10-15 and Rev. 3.11 and many other passages), but we cannot lose the Lord Jesus. We have a sure inheritance.
5who are being guarded by God’s power
Not only is our inheritance being kept for us in the heavens, but we “are being guarded by God’s power.” We mentioned the fear of death just above. Many people, including Christians, have a fear of death. Peter tells us here that we are being guarded by God’s power. We need not fear death. Apparently many fear that Satan may be able to take their lives prematurely. Be assured that we are being guarded by the power of God. He determines the time of our death and Satan has no say in that. Remember Job. God allowed Satan to take Job’s children and goods, but Satan could not touch Job’s person. Then God allowed Satan to touch Job himself, but he could not take his life. Our lives are in God’s hands. And death is the doorway to Heaven.
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time
Faith is the antidote to fear. If we really have faith, not just intellectual belief, but trust, in God, we need not fear. He will see us through anything and everything in this life, and he will see us through death. Trust in him! Probably all of us have fear at times, but we can give in to those fears or we can turn to the Lord in faith. It may be a battle, but we can fight the battle of faith.
We are “being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We usually think of salvation as taking place when we first trust in Christ and are saved, but salvation is a lifelong process. We noted above that being born again actually has to do with our spirits. Eph. 2.1 tells us that we were dead in trespasses and sins. Our bodies were not dead. Our souls, our psychological aspect (“soul” in Greek is psuche, from which we get “psyche” and “psychology”) were not dead. It is our spirits that were dead, dead toward God. Our bodies are our means of communicating with the world. Our souls are us – our temperament, our personality, our psychological state. When God breathed into man the breath of life the man became a living soul (Gen. 2.7). A soul is a person. By the way, animals are also living souls: Gen. 2.19 says literally, “Whatever Adam called a living soul, that was its name.” The difference between animals and humans is that we have spirits. Our spirits are our means of communicating with God, but a dead spirit cannot communicate with God. When we are first “saved,” our spirits receive the Holy Spirit and are made alive toward God. We can communicate with him! That is being born from above, born of the Spirit, born again.
At the same time, God begins to save our souls, us, our psyche. All of us have soul damage because of our own sins, and some from mistreatment and abuse or traumatic experiences. Soldiers can be damaged in their souls, their psyches, by the horrors of war – PTSD. The Greek word for “save” also means “heal.” Our souls are also fallen. When Satan tempted Eve he appealed to her soul, Gen. 1.5-6:
for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
The souls of mankind fell at that moment, and the spirits died.
God does a saving and a healing and restoring work in our souls all through life. Here in Peter we read of “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Our salvation is past – we were saved – but it is also ongoing – we are being saved (1 Cor. 1.18, 2 Cor. 2.15). And Peter says here that we will be saved at the last time. That is, our lifelong salvation process will be complete. Our damaged souls will be fully healed and restored and we will be fully saved.
in which you rejoice.
And Peter ends this statement with “in which you rejoice.” If we really do believe that we are being guarded by God, who is almighty, and that death is the doorway to Heaven, we can rejoice. We have nothing to fear. This life is only the beginning, the foyer of life. We will be around for eternity, so we are really living not for this life, but for the millennial reign of Christ and for eternity. And who knows – maybe we will be raptured and escape death altogether. Either way, if we are faithful to God we can’t lose. And we rejoice in knowing that our salvation will be complete. All those things about ourselves that bother us will be fully dealt with. We will be totally healed and well. Rejoice! Praise him!
Now for a little, if being necessary, you suffer in various trials, 7that the proof of your faith, much more valuable than gold which perishes, but proven by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ
Peter continues with the matter of salvation in vs. 6b-12. A part of our process of being saved is trial. God is determined to perfect us (see Phil. 1.6) whatever it takes. Just as an athlete goes through hard training in which he suffers, so will God put us through trials to strengthen us in him, mature us in him (see Heb. 2.10, 5.8), crucify our flesh. We say that we have faith. Do we really? God will test that. Gold is considered one of the most precious things in the world. People have been willing to kill to get gold. It is a standard of value. But when gold is mined its ore is impure. It has to be put through fire to separate it from the dross. We are like that. Gold in the Bible is symbolic of God. We have God in us, but we are full of impurities. In order to burn off our dross he puts us through the fires of trial and suffering. Gold is perishable, but genuine faith is not. Our faith is much more valuable than gold. Gold may see us through this life financially, but faith will get us into Heaven! When our faith has been proven by fire it will result in “praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Do you want the Lord to say, “Well done,” to you, or do you want to hang your head in shame before him? Our faith is indeed far more valuable than gold. Gold is temporary. Faith is eternal.
8whom not having seen you love, in whom trusting, not seeing now, but you rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified, 9receiving the outcome of the faith, salvation of your souls,
Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5.7 that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Peter writes here that we love the Lord Jesus not having seen him and adds, “in whom trusting, not seeing now.” We love him by faith, not by sight. We love him because we have faith that what the Bible says he has done for us is true. And of course, we believe that we have met him in our hearts. He is not just someone we have heard about. I believe that Leonardo da Vinci lived, but I have never seen him and don’t know him. For all I know personally he never lived, but I am very sure that the Lord Jesus lived and lives. “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
We rejoice in that sight that comes with faith. And think about it. We often know about something, but the concept is somewhat murky. Then it becomes clear and we say, “I see.” We don’t really see – we understand. But by “see” we mean that it is clear in our understanding. It becomes real to us, we might say. When we see Jesus with the eyes of our hearts (Eph. 1.18) through faith, we rejoice. And that joy is ”unspeakable and glorified.” The usual translation is “full of glory,” and that is probably a better translation, but I like to be literal in translation.
“Receiving the outcome of the faith, salvation of your souls” takes us back to v. 5, “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We said that our spirits were made alive toward God when we were first saved. That is a finished matter. But our souls, us, our psychological state, only begins to be saved at that point. Our souls are being saved, or healed, all through life. Remember that the Greek word for “save” also means “heal.” As we go through life trusting in God he works healing in our damaged souls. And the outcome of that faith is the salvation of our souls. That is, our healing will be complete. Our souls will be fully saved. Peter also says in 2 Pt. 3.15 to “consider the longsuffering of our Lord salvation.” The context of this verse is the destruction of the skies and the earth and their replacing with new skies and a new earth, and Peter’s question, “… what kinds of persons is it necessary for you to be in holy conduct and proper worship….” As we practice holy conduct and proper worship, and God suffers long with our failures as we assay so to live, we go through a saving, healing process. His longsuffering with us is salvation, not initial salvation, but ongoing salvation that leads to “the outcome of the faith, salvation of your souls.”
So we that the salvation of our souls begins with the new birth of our spirits and goes on all through life as God heals our souls, and ends with their full healing, good reason for “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
10concerning which salvation prophets diligently sought and diligently searched, they having prophesied about the grace for you, 11searching into what or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating, foretelling the sufferings to Christ and the glories after these things,
The Old Testament prophets prophesied about this salvation, but they did not understand what they were prophesying. The Spirit of Christ in them was telling them about the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow, for example, in Ps. 22 and Is. 53. The word “Christ” comes from Greek and is the same as the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Both mean “anointed one.” They looked for a Messiah, but how could the Messiah suffer? We do not know exactly how much the prophets understood, but the general belief of the Israelites was that the Messiah would be a glorious King. By the time of the New Testament, the Jews were looking for a conqueror who would drive out the hated Romans and make Israel free and powerful again. There was no room for suffering. We are not told whether the prophets had any of this thought, but perhaps they were asking how the Messiah could suffer. One of the beliefs that grew up among the Jews was that there would be two Messiahs, one who would suffer and one who would conquer. Apparently there was never a thought that the Messiah could do both. And the idea of resurrection was virtually unknown to the Old Testament.
One question is the matter of law and grace. The Jews lived under the law of God, but the word “grace” occurs many times in the Old Testament. Are we saved by law or by grace? The idea of being saved was not so much an Old Testament concept anyway. They had little idea of Heaven and thought all the dead went to sheol, the abode of the dead. There is no word for “hell” in the Old Testament, just sheol. This is all very confusing. No wonder the prophets were scratching their heads! But whatever it means, they did know about “the sufferings to Christ and the glories after these things.”
One interesting phrase in v. 11 is “what or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating.” This could be translated “what time or what kind of time.” I am taking it as “what or what kind of time.” What is going to take place? Himself! “What kind of time.” There are two Greek words for “time,” chronos, from which we get chronology. It is basically just the passage of time, from one o’clock to two o’clock to three o’clock, and so on. The other is kairos, which is more a meaningful time, an opportunity, a propitious time. The world here is kairos. The prophets did not know fully what the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating, but they knew something meaningful, something significant, was going to take place. As we look back at that as Christians who have the New Testament, we realize that what happened was that the age changed. The time until the Lord Jesus came was the age in which God’s people were under the law, a pedagogue meant to lead them to Christ (Gal. 3.24), but the law was never an end in itself. The Jews held to the law even when the one to whom it was supposed to bring them appeared on the scene. They rejected him and crucified him. Nonetheless the age changed when Jesus came. The people of God are no longer under the law, but in Christ. We are not governed by an outward law, but by an inward Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Something indeed significant took place when the Lord came.
12to whom it was revealed that they were ministering not to themselves, but to you,
And they knew that what they were hearing was prophecy – it was not for them, but for future people.
the things which were now proclaimed to you through those having preached good news to you by Holy Spirit sent from Heaven,
They were ministering to those to whom the Lord Jesus came in what we call the first century and right down to this moment. The ministry of the prophets became the ministry of those who preached the good news from Pentecost on, by Peter himself and all the disciples and Paul and all who have preached the good news. And the good news is preached by means of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on all those gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, on Peter in particular that day. He preached and three thousand were added to the church at once. It is the Holy Spirit, poured out by the Messiah, who provides the power for the preaching of the good news to reach the hearts of people. This wonderful Holy Spirit was poured out by the Lord Jesus from Heaven after the glories to follow that the prophets mentioned, his glorification to the throne of his Father. And there are many glories yet to come at his return and after.
into which things angels long to look
The angels do not fully understand. They have never known what it means to be lost, to be out of favor with God, to hide from God as Adam and Eve did and as we would like to do at times, to suffer the results of sin. They do not know what it means to be saved, to have no hope and then to have hope, a sure hope. The angels long to look into these things that the prophets prophesied. It is of interest that the Greek word for “look” here means literally “to stoop sideways.” It is as though they want to get down onto the floor and look into something close up and very carefully. The prophets did not know exactly what they were prophesying and neither did the angels.
13Therefore having girded up the loins of your mind, being sober,
Therefore. “Therefore” is a very important word in the Bible and should be looked into. “Therefore” means that since what went before is true, what comes after should be done. What went before this verse? All that we have written so far. Therefore, what should we do? We should gird up the loins of or minds. The clothing of the people in Bible days was not like ours. The men wore robes, not pants, as we do. When it came time for manual labor, the men would tie up their robes around their waist and loin area. It is a bit difficult to dig a ditch with a robe flowing all around! So girding up the loins means to get ready for work.
Girding up the loins of the mind means to get ready to apply the mind to the word of God and to be ready to do his will. “Understand what the will of the Lord is,” Paul wrote in Eph. 5.17. Understanding has to do with the mind. We have dealt with spirit and soul. The spirit is our means of communicating with God. Our soul is our mind, emotions, will, temperament, personality. Our minds are our ability to know and to reason. We cannot know God by reason, but only by revelation, but once we know him by revelation we are to surrender our minds (and all of us) to him and use them in his service. Paul says in 1 Cor. 8.1 that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” If all we have is our minds we are cut off from God and we can be very proud of our intelligence and knowledge, but the Bible also says that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3.34, 1 Pt. 5.5). We get our spiritual knowledge from God by our spirits, but then we use our minds to understand so that we know how to proceed. “Gird up the loins of your mind.”
Be sober. I do not believe that Peter is referring to sobriety as opposed to drunkenness, though drunkenness is sin and is forbidden by Scripture. The word “sober” also means to be serious and I think that is what Peter has in mind here. Being serious does not mean that we can never laugh or have a good time, but is does mean that life is serious business. Heaven and hell are in the balance. There may be lost people who will never be saved if we are not serious about sharing the good news. There are baby Christians who need to be taught the deeper things of God. There are hurting people who need ministry. There are children to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6.4). And on we could go.
hope completely in the grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We have seen that there is a salvation awaiting us at the end of this age and the return of the Lord. Peter refers to that again here, calling it grace. We know the grace of being saved initially and throughout life, but there is grace we have not yet known or even conceived of, and cannot know until we see the Lord and enter a world with no flesh, no sin, no sorrow. Peter tells us to hope completely in this grace. That is what we are living for, not things in this world, but our place in the next.
We see in v. 3 that we have a living hope, a hope of resurrection if we die. That hope extends far beyond the resurrection. It lasts through eternity. We will always have a living hope.
Let me say about hope that the hope we have is not like the world’s hope. When we say that we hope to have something or do something, we usually mean that we don’t know if it will happen, but we hope so. Sometimes it is wishful thinking. It is not really based on anything. We just hope so. But our hope as the Lord’s people is based on something, on God’s word and faith. What God says is absolute truth. It will take place. And faith is a combination of believing what God says and acting on the belief. Belief can be just head knowledge, like knowing about Leonardo da Vinci, as I mentioned above. But faith that is not acted on is not faith, as James says, “Faith without works is dead.” I am not correcting James, but I would say that faith without works is not faith. Faith begins with believing what God says, but true faith acts on that belief. What is the act? Putting trust in God. You can believe without trusting. I like the old story about the high wire walker who asked his audience if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow safely across a canyon on a wire. They all said yes. The he promised a nice reward to anyone who would get into the wheelbarrow. The yes was belief. The getting in was faith. Did anyone get in? Faith is not works, but if there is no action there is no faith.
God has promised us new birth and salvation and resurrection from the grave and Heaven. Because God said it these are sure things. A Christian’s hope is not a wish. It is a sure thing. It is based on faith in what God says.
14As children of obedience, not being conformed to the former lusts in your ignorance, 15but as the One having called you is holy, you yourselves also be made holy in all conduct, 16for it has been written, “You will be holy, for I am holy” [Lev. 11.44, 45].
Peter now comes to the great and very important matter of holiness. He addresses his readers as children of obedience. They have turned from their desires or lusts from their days of spiritual ignorance. Now he says not just to take that step, but to be made holy. There are two sides to holiness. One is being set apart for God. The other is actually being holy. If we are saved, we are set apart for God, but we can fall short of being holy in conduct. Peter says to be made holy in actual conduct. It is very instructive that when Peter says to be made holy, the verb “be made” is imperative. That is, it is a command. And it is passive, meaning that it is something done to you, not by you. We are commanded to be holy in our conduct. But when he quotes Lev. 11.44-45, the word “be” is a future indicative, meaning that it is something that will be reality in the future. That is, he is not commanding his readers to be or be made holy, but he is saying that in the future you will actually be holy. In the millennial kingdom and in eternity we will be holy people, set apart for God and holy in actual conduct. Start working on it now! There are rewards in the kingdom that can be gained or lost. Be made holy. Yield to the work of the Holy Spirit to make you holy in actual fact. We are commanded to be made holy now. In eternity we will be holy.
Now let us look at the matter of holiness itself. What is holiness? The word “holy” in Hebrew basically means “apartness.” We say that God’s holy ones (saints = holy ones) are set apart for him, but God himself is set apart in a unique way. He is set apart by himself. There is no one like him. There is nothing like him. He is different from everything else. He is unique. In her prayer in 1 Sam. 2.2 Hannah says, “There is none holy as I AM.” He alone is holy. He sets apart Israel for himself (Ex. 19.6). Het sets apart Christians for himself, as here in 1 Peter. And as in the word “saints” all through the New Testament.
But holiness is not just difference or “set-apart-ness.” Something or someone can be set apart for an evil purpose. No, there is an indication of doing what is right, or righteousness. As Peter says here, “not being conformed to the former lusts in your ignorance” on the negative side, but doing good, not evil. But not just any good things. There are people who are not the Lord’s who believe they can be saved by good works. The Bible calls those dead works (Heb. 6.1, 9.14). It is not just doing good, but doing the will of God. It is being a righteous person. So Peter tells us to be made holy because we will be holy. Be what you are, set apart for God.
But there is more still to holiness. We said that God alone is holy. Holiness has to do with the nature of God. We could almost call it Godness. If there is any holiness it comes from God. It partakes of God. God’s nature and position are very difficult for us to put into words because he is beyond us in every way. In a sense we do not know what God is. All we know is humanity and animals and material things. God is spirit (Jn. 4.24). What is spirit? We have a spirit, but what is that? It is the faculty of communicating with God, but what is its substance? Do you see what I mean? We search for a way to understand these things, but they are beyond us. It is like the old story of the person who has been blind from birth and we try to explain color to him. He has never known color. He cannot comprehend it. We are blind to Godness. Holiness is of the essence of God. We may come to know God, but we cannot understand him.
That being the case, holiness is of the highest order of worthiness of respect and reverence. The writer of Hebrews says in 10.29, “How much worse punishment do you think he will deserve, having trampled underfoot the Son of God and having considered common the blood of the covenant, by which he was sanctified, and having insulted the Spirit of grace?” “By which he was sanctified,” made holy, set apart for God (we noted earlier that “sanctified” is Latin and “holy” is old English and they mean the same thing). There is awe about God, and awe includes a measure of fear, the fear of God, the beginning of wisdom. How could we not tremble before so awesome a presence as God? In Dt. 9.19 Moses says that he was terrified at the anger of God. Moses was not the one who sinned, but when he saw the anger of God at the sinners he was nonetheless terrified. He knew that he himself was a sinful person, as we all are. In Lk. 5.8 Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” We do not need to live our lives afraid of God because he loves us, but we had better have some of the fear of God in us.
Do you see that I am grasping for some way to get at the meaning of holiness? It cannot be done fully. It is Godness! Can you explain God? I cannot. We do not become divine by becoming Christians, as some believe, but we had surely better be made holy, “partakers of divine nature” (2 Pt. 1.4). Fear and tremble!
17And if you call Father the one judging impartially according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear the time of your stay,
We saw Peter’s use of the word “father” in v. 2. We have a God who is a perfect father. He is impartial. Some may have come from homes where the father, or mother or both, had favorites. That can be so damaging to a child. Just as God will not favor one of us over another, but values all of us equally, so he judges our works impartially. We are thinking here of rewards in the kingdom, not salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. This is the judgment seat of Christ: “For it is necessary for all of us to appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive back the things done through the body, according to the things he did, whether good or bad.” Perhaps the best passage of Scripture on this matter is 1 Cor. 3.10-15. Paul says that he has laid a foundation for the church and that foundation is Jesus Christ. Then he says that whatever each Christian builds on that foundation will one day be tried by fire. If our works amount to wood, hay, and straw, they will be burned up, but if they amount to gold silver, and precious stones, they will be proved by the fire. Those whose works are proved will receive a reward. Then v. 15 says: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, but so as through fire.” We cannot lose our salvation, but we can lose our rewards in the kingdom. And God will judge us impartially. He will not play favorites.
So – “conduct yourselves in fear the time of your stay.” The time of your stay is your lifetime on earth. We come back to the fear of God. Again, we do not live afraid of God, but we need to have the fear of God. In a sense my fear of God is really my fear of myself, that I might hurt God or make myself worthy of his judgment. He will judge. Impartially, but he will judge. Live so that the judgment will be, “Well done,” not something else.
18knowing that you were redeemed not with perishable things, silver or gold, from your futile conduct handed down from your ancestors, 19but with precious blood as of a spotless, unblemished lamb, of Christ,
We were redeemed. Redemption is a metaphor of the slave market. It is buying a slave and setting him free. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, a type of the world. They were redeemed from slavery by God through the blood of the lambs and set free, taken wholly out of Egypt. We were slaves to sin in the world, but we were redeemed by God through the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus, and set free from the world. Another picture is much the same. It is ransom. When someone is kidnapped a ransom can be paid get him back. We were redeemed from our futile conduct. The world in which Peter and his readers lived was mostly pagan and was very rough and sinful. Life had little value to many. Morality was not necessary. There were human sacrifice and temple prostitution. Slavery abounded. Historians believe that twenty to thirty per cent of the population in the Roman Empire were slaves. And there was great cruelty, such as crucifixion and gladiators fighting with each other or with animals, death for entertainment. Paul writes in 2 Tim. 4.17, “I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” Was that an example? That is how children learned to live in those days. Come to think of it, there is still plenty of that in the world today! I recall saying to a woman who thought she was worthless, “Something is worth what someone will pay for it. What did the Lord Jesus pay for you? His precious blood.” That is what we are worth to him.
But we were not redeemed or ransomed with silver or gold, but with something infinitely more valuable. Silver and gold are perishable, as we saw in v. 7, or we may lose them. But nothing can touch the blood of Jesus, and it is eternal. It is precious blood. We usually think of something precious as something very dear to us, something or someone we love. But precious also means expensive. I remember hearing someone in England many years ago saying that something was very dear, meaning expensive. I had never heard that before and asked about it. Yes, it meant expensive. We don’t usually hear that in the USA. But think about it. Jesus’ blood is not only precious in our usual sense, but it is infinitely expensive. It cost the Lord Jesus everything to shed that blood. I do not believe Jesus went to hell, as some do, but I believe he experienced hell when God turned his back on this spotless, unblemished Lamb who became sin for us (2 Cor. 5.21) and he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There is nothing is this universe more precious than the blood of the Lord Jesus. That was the cost of our salvation and freedom. How can we not love him and praise him and give ourselves wholly to him?
20having been foreknown before the foundation of the world, but having been manifested at the last of the times
We dealt with God’s foreknowledge in v. 2. There it applies to his foreknowledge of us, those who would accept him. Here it applies to the Lord Jesus. Of course God foreknew his Son and all about him. That is obvious. The point here is that this one whom God has forever known was not revealed from eternity past, but only in these last days. In Col. 2.2 Paul writes about “the mystery of God, Christ.” Why is Christ God’s mystery? A mystery in the Bible is not like our murder mysteries in which the culprit is unknown, but can be discovered by reasoning and clues and so forth. A mystery in the Bible cannot be figured out by man. Man does not even know that there is such a mystery. It is something that only God knows or even knows about. It can be known only by the revelation of God. If God had not revealed Christ as his Son we would never have known about him. In the Old Testament there is just God the Father, by whatever name he might be called. There is prophecy of the Messiah, but no one knew he was God’s Son. No one knew God had a Son. But in these last days God has revealed him and we know about him, but even better, we can know him by repenting of our sins and putting our trust in him as our Savior. (There is an interesting Old Testament, verse, Prov. 30.4.) There are other mysteries in the New Testament (see my paper “Mystery” in the New Testament), but the greatest mystery of God is Christ.
because of you
Christ has now been manifested or revealed. The word can mean either, but there is a bit of a difference. Something manifested is something physical. We can see it and touch it and perhaps hear it. A revelation could simply be an idea in our minds. I am sure all of us have been reading Scripture and have suddenly had an idea come to us from what we were reading. It was a new understanding to us. That is revelation. Indeed, the entire Bible is revelation. We could not know any of the things of God by reason except for his existence, as Rom. 1.20 show us. People inherently know there is a God whether they will admit it or not. But we could never know what is in the Bible except by revelation. Christ has been revealed by God. But he has also been manifested: “The word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (Jn. 1.14). The Son of God became a human being and appeared on earth. He could be seen and heard and touched. He could bleed.
And bleed he did with that precious blood that is our salvation. And this verse in 1 Peter tells us that we are why he was manifested, “at the last of the times.” It was you he was manifested for. It was me. We sinners who nailed him to a cross – that is why he was manifested. Oh praise him! Oh praise him! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
21who through him are those who trust in God, the one having raised him from the dead and given him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
And who are we? Those who through him are “those who trust in God.” The Old Testament Jews trusted in God, but not in the way we can. They could stand around the tabernacle or the temple and worship a God who was inside, but they could never go inside and kneel before him on his throne. A white curtain surrounded the tabernacle. White in the Bible is symbolic of righteousness, of purity. The Israelites were separated from God by a curtain of righteousness because they were not righteous. They were sinners, and the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins (Heb. 10.4). We are also sinners, but we can go right into the Holy of Holies and worship God and talk to him and listen for his voice, not because we are righteous in ourselves, but because we have been made righteous by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 4.22-25) and our faith in him. Indeed, I believe that we live in the Holy of Holies. We are always in the presence of God. Because of him. We have faith. We have hope, sure hope.
22Having purified your souls in the obedience to the truth for an unhypocritical brotherly love, love one another earnestly from the heart,
We said that righteousness includes purity. Having trusted in Christ and obeyed the truth we have purified our souls. Let me hasten to say that this purification is an ongoing process. In Christ we are pure once and for all, but in our daily lives we need continual cleansing, for we do still sin. See Jn. 13.10 in this regard. One purpose for this purifying is that we may have unhypoctitical brotherly love. Now “unhypocritical” is not a word in the English language, but I have coined it because that is exactly what the Greek says: aupokriton – not hypocritical. By the way, “hypocrite” is defined by Webster as “a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion.” That is absolutely true, but the Greek word means literally “under judgment.” A false person like this is under the judgment of God. That judgment could be eternal condemnation for a lost person or loss of reward, not salvation, before the judgment seat of Christ for a Christian, but such a person is under judgment one way or the other. Take note.
While I am dealing with Greek words let me point out that the Greek word for “brotherly love” is philadelphia. Yes, Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, founded by William Penn, a Quaker who wanted a godly colony. Peter says that since we have purified our souls “for an unhypocritical brotherly love,” then love! “Love one another earnestly from the heart.” Since you have had God’s unhypocitical love implanted in your purified souls, then do it. Practice love. From the heart, not just half-heartledly, as we say. And one more Greek word. The word for “love” here is the verb agapao. The noun is agape, God’s love, the love he puts into us when we receive him into our hearts.
23having been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, by the living and abiding word of God
We can and should do this because we have been born again. Our spirits have been made alive toward God and his Spirit dwells within us. We are able to love earnestly so let’s do it!
Then Peter tells us more about our new birth. We are born of a seed, and that seed is the word of God (Lk. 8.11). The Lord Jesus says in Jn. 12.24, one of the most important statements in the Bible, I believe, “Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat, having fallen into the ground, die, it remains alone, but if it die, it bears much fruit.” A seed has life in it, but the life in encased in a husk. The only way it can get out is to be planted and have the husk die. When the husk dies the life can get out and produce a plant and the plant can produce much fruit. He is not talking about plants, but about Christians. If we are saved people we have the life of God in us, but unless we fall into the ground and die as that seed does, that life cannot get out. It remains a single seed. We must die. We are not thinking about physical death, but the crucifixion of the flesh. Our flesh is the husk that holds the life. If we hold onto our flesh, our sinful self-life, me, me, me, the life will never get out. But if we will allow the Holy Spirit to crucify our flesh through our trials in life and his dealings with us, allow the cross to work in us – we die to the self-life, that is – the life can get out a bear much fruit. And what does a fruit have in it? Seeds. Keep in mind that the Lord Jesus is the Word (Jn. 1.1). He is the seed in us. He wants to get out.
Let us say that we fall into the ground and die. The life gets out and produces a hundred seeds. We have a hundred seeds. Then those seeds die and produce a hundred seeds each. Now we have ten thousand seeds. Then those seeds die and produce a hundred seeds each. We have a million seeds. Do you get the point? Much fruit. Because we died to our flesh. This all started with the Lord Jesus, the Word. He did not have a fallen, sinful self, but Satan tried to tempt him to take on a sinful self-life by sinning. Instead he laid down his life. He was the first seed. How many seeds are there now? We do not know, but it must be in the billions. All because one man fell into the ground and died. You are a seed, a person who contains the Word. I am a seed. The Word wants to get out. We must die to our self-life for that to occur.
We all know about the parable of the Sower. The Sower sows the word (Mk. 4.14). The seed, the word, falls into four kinds of ground. The last is good soil that produces a crop of thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold. In this case we are the soil. Let us be good soil that yields a bountiful crop.
We spent some time on the salvation of the soul. Ja. 1.21 says, “Receive the implanted word which is able to save your souls.” That implanted word is the seed, the life of the Lord Jesus. It is able not only to bring us initial salvation, but to produce healing for our souls all through our lives, and to release salvation from us for others through all those seeds.
The seed is the “living and abiding word of God.”
24for “All flesh is as grass and all its glory is as a flower of grass. The grass was withered and the flower fell off, 25but the speaking of the Lord remains into the age” [Is. 40.6-8]. Now this is the speaking having been proclaimed to you.
Peter contrasts the fact that we have been born again to a new life, a spiritual life that will never end, with the fact that the flesh will die. “All flesh is as grass.” Grass and flowers may be beautiful, but they will wither and die, as will our bodies. But we have that new life, resurrection life, never to die again. The guarantee of that is the speaking of God. In v. 23 Peter says that we have been born again of the living and abiding word of God. The word for “word” there is logos, but here in v. 25 the word is ‘rema. ‘Rema is the spoken word. The logos was spoken by God to those who wrote the Bible. It is the living and abiding word of whether anyone reads and believes it or not. Many times when we read the Bible it seems to be just words on paper. We know it and believe it, but it is not speaking to our hearts in a living way. Then sometimes suddenly the Lord just brings a passage to life. It is as though the word jumps off the page and into our hearts and minds. It speaks to us. That is the speaking of God. The logos is the speaking of God, but when he speaks it to us personally it becomes ‘rema. This speaking remains into the age. It is eternal. It is the guarantee of our own new birth and never-ending life. And that is the speaking that was spoken to you livingly, not just as print on paper, when first you encountered the Lord. Someone may have been preaching the good news to you or you may have been reading the Bible or a tract or a book and suddenly the Lord spoke to you and you repented of your sins and trusted Christ as your Savior and came alive with a new birth. That is the ‘rema of the Lord.
2. Having put off all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all slanders, 2as newborn babies, long for the logical, unadulterated milk, that by it you may grow in salvation, 3if you have tasted that the Lord is kind,
We have been born again to a new life. That being the case, we have, or should have, put off all malice and deceit and hypocrisies (“under judgments”) and envies and slanders. Slanders is literally “evil speakings.” When we have just been born again we are babies. Babies need milk. Peter says that the milk baby Christians need is logical. That seems an odd word to use for milk. Some translate this word as “spiritual,” but there is a word for “spiritual.” The Greek word here is logikon, and it has to do with reason. Looks like “logical” to me. I think that the point is that as it is only logical to give a human baby milk because it is not yet ready for solid food, so it is logical to start with the basics of the faith with baby Christians. Heb. 6.1-2 says,
Therefore having left the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, 2of teachings of baptisms and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
There is a foundation to be laid, repentance, faith, teaching on the meaning of baptism and laying on of hands, resurrection, and eternal life. Baby Christians need to learn these things because they are the foundation, and there must be a solid foundation for there to be a viable building. The logical approach to teaching baby Christians is to explain these things. Paul says in 1 Tim. 3.6 that an overseer or elder in the church should not be a novice, a baby Christian, that he not be puffed up and fall into the judgment of the devil. We have probably all known a new Christian who thinks he knows everything and tries to take over. That is not logical. He needs the milk first.
And he needs unadulterated milk. It does not need to be mixed with things of the world or man’s ideas. Sometimes dishonest people adulterate something for the sake of making money, such as adding water to wine to make it go further. After all, water is cheaper than wine. The word of God is pure, unadulterated. That is what the baby Christian needs.
We have dealt a good bit with salvation in 1 Peter. Here Peter says that salvation is something to grow in or into. We have noted that salvation is not just initial salvation, but a lifelong process. We are fully saved in the sense of going to Heaven as soon as we receive the Lord Jesus, but we will not be fully saved until he returns and redeems our bodies. We grow in salvation. But it takes milk for a baby to grow. That milk is the word of God and the fellowship of his people. A human body has many parts and each part must be nourished for full health. If a part should be separated from the body that part would die. The church is the body of Christ and each Christian is a part of that body. All the parts of the body help to nourish each other. That is the importance of genuine fellowship.
“If you have tasted that the Lord is kind.” Milk has a taste. It is to be hoped that a baby will love mother’s milk or its substitute. The baby Christian who is feeding on the logical, unadulterated milk will taste the kindness of God. He will want more, more of the Lord. He will grow. That in itself is the kindness of God.
Next we come to a very important passage of Scripture, one that is fundamental to an understanding of the church. It begins with
4to whom coming, a living stone, by men rejected, but with the Lord, chosen, precious, 5and you yourselves as living stones are being built a spiritual house
The living stone is the Lord Jesus. He was “despised and rejected by men,” as Is. 53.3 tells us, but chosen, or elect (the same word that we see in 1.1), with God his Father. Then we see that we are also stones, living stones, just as he is. The stones that we see lying on the ground do not have life, but we are living stones. As such we are being built into a house, a spiritual house. Allow me to say that one of my pet peeves is to hear someone call a church building the house of God. It is not! A church building is a building, one where a local church meets. God does not dwell in houses made with hands. The house of God is first of all the Lord Jesus, in whom God dwells (the Tabernacle and Emmanuel, God with us), and then it is the people of God, in whom Christ dwells. The church is Christ corporately expressed, nothing more and nothing less. A parallel passage to this is Eph. 2.20-22, which says that we are
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, 22in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
We are the house of God.
for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Ex. 19.5-6 says, “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you will be my own possession from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” A kingdom of priests. This word from God defines the kind of kingdom he wants to rule over. It was God’s desire at the outset for his kingdom to be a kingdom of priests. Now this is an absolutely creative and revolutionary concept. Every religion throughout history has had a few priests who were the only ones who could come into contact with God, with all the mass of people having to go to them to learn about God (or a god or the gods) and to know what he required of them. Christianity is the only faith (it is not a religion) that has as one of its tenets that all God’s people are priests, but even some so-called Christian denominations have re-established a priestly class, one of the very things Christ came to abolish, indeed died to abolish.
Thus we see that the Levitical priesthood of Israel was not God’s original concept for priesthood. It was never God’s desire to have a few priests and a mass of non-priests. He wants every one of his people to appear before him in the Holy of Holies, indeed to live there! We are always in God’s very presence. He wants a kingdom of priests. This concept actually goes back before Ex. 19.5-6 to Gen. 14.17-20, where we encounter Melchizedek, king of Salem (peace) and priest of God Most High. Hebrews tells us that our Lord Jesus is High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110.4, Heb. 5.6, 6.20, 7.15-17).
The Levitical priesthood was brought in because the Israelites were afraid of God and asked Moses for it: “You speak to us and we will listen, but don’t let God speak to us or we will die” (Ex. 20.19). But Jeremiah prophesied a new covenant under which all God’s people would know him, that is, be priests (Jer. 31.34, Heb. 8.11). (See my article, A Kingdom of Priests on this web site.)
This desire of God to have a kingdom of priests was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. He is our High Priest, a priest not of the Levitical priesthood, but according to the order of Melchizedek. Rev. 1. 6 and 5.10 finalizes this concept by saying that our Lord Jesus “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father,” and “made them to our God a kingdom and priests.” We are the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. And there is a wonderful verse, Is. 61.6, that says, addressed to the Israelites, “But you will be called the priests of I AM. Men will call you the ministers of our God.” In the end the Jews will be the kingdom of priests that God has always wanted them to be, just as Christians will be.
The sacrifices that we offer to God are not animals and flour and oil and so forth, but of a spiritual nature. Jn. 4.24 says that we will worship God in Spirit and in truth, and worship includes our offering of our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Rom. 12.1). Heb. 13.15-16 adds, “15Through him we should offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing his name. 16And don’t neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
6For it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen, precious, and the one having faith in him may not be put to shame” [Is. 28.16]. 7To you, those having faith, is the honor. But to those not having faith, “a stone which the builders rejected, this one became head of the corner” [Ps. 118.22] 8and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” [Is. 8.14], who stumble being disobedient to the word, to which also they were appointed.
We saw in v. 4 that the Lord Jesus is the living stone. Here we see in a quotation of Is. 28.16 that he is a cornerstone, the cornerstone of the church (2.4-5 and Eph. 2.20-22). We see again the word “chosen” or “elect.” He is also a precious cornerstone. We dealt with the word “precious” in 1.19. He is very dear to us, and he paid a high cost to become the cornerstone, becoming sin and laying down his life, even experiencing hell. Paul writes of the offense of the cross in Gal. 5.11. The offense is a suffering and dying Messiah. The Jews looked for a conquering Messiah who would deliver them from Rome and make them a great nation. That will take place, but what the Jews missed was that he would first go to the cross and then to the crown. Why? Because of sin. Sin has to be died for. We can die for our own sins and spend eternity in hell, or we can have a substitute die for us. It is our choice because he chose to make that choice possible. Because he made that choice he is not an offense, but the power of God and the wisdom of God. And he is chosen by God to be the cornerstone.
Those choosing to have faith in him may not be put to shame. We may appear to the world to be shameful because we have chosen to follow the offense of the cross, but from God we have honor. But to those not having faith, who rejected the stone designated to be head of the corner, this stone did indeed become head of the corner, and those who rejected him are the ones put to shame. They stumble over him and are offended by him. It is because they are disobedient to the word. Keep in mind that the word in this context is the Old Testament. All of this was prophesied, but they chose to be disobedient to the prophecy. The Greek word for “disobedient” in this verse is of interest. The word it is based on implies being convinced or persuaded, and thus believing. These who did not have faith were not convinced that the prophets were telling the truth. Indeed the prophets were mostly rejected in their own day. They did not believe the prophets, so they disobeyed. Disobedience based on unbelief.
Peter closes this paragraph with the words “to which also they were appointed.” Remember foreknowledge from 1.2 and 20? These people were not predestined to stumble and disobey. God foreknew that they would do so, and so appointed them to do so, just as he foreknew who would have faith and obey and so appointed them.
9But you are “a chosen generation [Is. 43.20 LXX], a royal priesthood [Ex. 19.6, 23.22 LXX], a holy nation [Ex. 19.6, 23.22 Hebrew and LXX], a people for possession [Ex. 19.5, 23.22 Hebrew and LXX, Dt. 4.20, 7.6, 14.2], that you may proclaim the excellencies” [Is. 43.20 LXX] of the one having called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, 10“those once not a people, but now people of God; those not having received mercy, but now having received mercy” [Hos. 1.6, 9, 2.1, 23].
Peter returns to Ex. 19.5-6. As we saw, this is a most important passage in the Bible because it shows what God’s desire is for his kingdom. He wants it to be a kingdom of priests, all of his people being priests, knowing him personally. Now Peter quotes Is. 43.20 from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, “a chosen generation” (the Hebrew says “a chosen people); Ex. 19.6 from the Greek Old Testament, “a royal priesthood” (the Hebrew says “a kingdom of priests”); “a holy nation,” Hebrew and Greek; and “a people for possession,” Hebrew and Greek. Also, when Peter writes “the excellencies,” he is quoting from the Greek Old Testament. The Hebrew says “praises.” The Greek Old Testament, called the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX), was translated from the Hebrew in the couple of hundred years before the birth of Christ, and there are some differences between the Hebrew and the Greek. The Greek Old Testament was largely the Bible of the New Testament, which was written in Greek originally. Sorry for all the explanation!
So – we as the church are a chosen (or elect) generation or race, a royal priesthood or kingdom of priests, a holy nation (see Mt. 21.43, the church as a nation), a people for God’s possession. One of our purposes is to show forth his excellencies or praises. The excellencies of “one having called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” How do we show forth his excellencies? By preaching the good news, by testimony, by living in obedience to God, by not being afraid for someone to know we belong to the Lord Jesus. And what are his excellencies? Everything about him, his love and grace, his providing for our salvation by giving his Son to die for us, his pouring out the Holy Spirit on us to make us alive spiritually and to guide us and teach us and comfort, encourage, and exhort us, and on we could go. His having “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Do you know what it is like to walk in darkness? Many of us have had dark times in our lives when we did not know what to do or where to turn. One of my favorite verses is Col. 1.13: God “delivered us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love.” What did you think when the light first dawned? I can see! I see! “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” How blessed we are.
The word “authority” is very important in this verse. I think most translations have “dominion,” but the word means “authority.” Why is that word important? We were under the authority of darkness. Power is brute force to do something, right or wrong. Authority is the right to do it. Before we became the Lord’s Satan had a right to us. He could do what he pleased with us, within God’s boundaries (see Job 1.10). When we were saved we passed out of that authority. Satan no longer has open season on us. We are under God’s protection. Satan can still tempt us and lie to us, but we are in the light and can see what is going on if we stay in touch with the Lord and study his word. He cannot make us do anything. We have the choice to obey God.
Once we were not a people. We were lost in sin. Now we are God’s people. Once we had not received mercy. Now we have received mercy. We have been brought from death to life. See Hos. 1.6, 9, 2.1, 23.
11Beloved, I urge you to avoid the fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12having your conduct to be good among the Gentiles, so that, in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, from seeing the good works they may glorify God in a day of visitation.
We come to the soul again. In 1.9 Peter writes of “the outcome of the faith, salvation of your souls.” We saw that the saving or healing of our souls is a lifelong process. Now we see here in 2.11 one of the things that damage our souls, fleshly lusts. We usually connect lust with immorality, and that is certainly one of the greatest and most damaging lusts, but we can lust for anything, Lust for money is also one of the greatest and most damaging sins. Paul writes in 1 Tim. 6.10 that “love of money is a root of all the evils.” Notice that it says “a root,” not “the root.” There are other roots of evil besides love of money. Lust for various pleasures. Lust for fame. Lust for revenge. We could keep going. The point is that these things damage our souls, and Christians can lust and do damage to themselves. Peter is writing to Christians here. Avoid these lusts that work against God’s efforts to heal our souls.
Instead we are to have our conduct to be good, not only for our own salvation, but to be a good witness among the Gentiles. We are told in 1 Cor. 10.32 that there are three kinds of people in the world, Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God, Christians. Gentiles are those who are neither Jew nor Christian. One of assignments from God is to be a witness to the lost so as to bring them to Christ and salvation. Living a lustful life is not being a good witness. Pursue good conduct.
In addition to our being good witnesses, we may be slandered by Gentiles as evildoers. In the days of the New Testament there were all sorts of religions, as there are today. Besides Judaism there were the Greek and Roman mythological gods. There were what are called mystery religions in which people thought that coming into knowledge of the mysteries, which were closely guarded secrets (little is known of them to this day) meant salvation. There was emperor worship. Christians would have none of these so they were accused of being evildoers because they would not worship the gods. We see the same thing in our day. At present in America it largely because many Christians will not follow certain liberal political beliefs that those who hold to them consider as “what Jesus would want.” It is of interest that many of them hate Jesus! My point here is that when Christians are slandered for evildoing, those who slander Christians will see their good works and some will realize that these people who live this way are on to something. There is a God who wants his people to live righteous lives, not evil. Some of them will turn to God because of our good conduct and works and “glorify God in a day of visitation.” A day of visitation is a day of judgment, but remember that a judgment may be guilty or innocent. When judgment comes many will be condemned, but there will also be many who are acquitted, justified, and not just that, but who will hear the Lord say, “Well done.”
13Be submitted to every human institution because of the Lord, whether to a king as one having authority, 14or governors as having been sent by him for punishment of evildoers, but praise of doers of good,
These verses continue the thought of our good conduct being a good witness to the world. He starts by telling us to obey the authorities, saying that these have been sent by the Lord to punish evildoers and praise the doers of good. I think we all would agree that we need to obey the law so that we have order and not chaos. There are those who believe that all government and law should be abolished. The result is chaos indeed. No one would be safe. If there were no law against murder and no one to enforce that law, anyone could go around murdering anyone. The response would be revenge by friends and relatives, constant war in the streets. God is a God of order (1 Cor. 14.33). Paul agrees in Rom. 13.1-7.
This brings up the question of civil disobedience. What are Christians supposed to do if a law goes against their Christian beliefs. A good example from the time of Peter is emperor worship. Subjects of the Roman Empire were required to worship the emperor. Should a Christian do so? No! We must follow God’s law when human law violates it, but we must do so knowing that there may be a penalty for doing so. Many Christians were crucified in Peter’s day for such real or perceived offenses. The Lord Jesus was faithful unto death, and many martyrs have followed in his footsteps.
15for thus is the will of God, by doing good to silence the ignorance of foolish men, 16as free, and not as having the freedom as a covering for the evil, but as God’s slaves. 17Honor all, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king,
Peter goes on to say more about what was just, saying that our good behavior before the law is a matter of our Christian witness. By doing what is right in the face of being accused of wrongdoing by the ignorance of foolish men we may silence them. And even if we do not silence them, we are to go on doing what is right, for that is the will of God, whatever the consequences to us are. We all know the old saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Someone else’s wrongdoing does not give us the right to do wrong. He has to answer to God for himself and so do we.
We are to live a free people, but we are not to use our freedom as a covering for our evil. We must not say, “He did me wrong, so I paid him back.” We can’t use our freedom to get revenge, a freedom we do have. That is using our freedom as a covering for our own evil. Revenge is not justified. God himself said, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay” (Dt. 32.35, Rom. 12.19, Heb. 10.30). And Peter adds that even though we are free, we are to act as God’s slaves. Indeed we are God’s slaves. Everyone is a slave. It is just a matter of who your master is (Rom. 6.16-18, 22). Those who claim freedom from God are slaves to sin. And those who are slaves of God find that this slavery is freedom indeed.
So – “Honor all, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king,”
18the servants, submitting yourselves in all fear to the masters, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse, 19for this is favor, if because of conscience of God one bears sorrow, suffering unjustly.
Having told us all to be subject to authority, Peter addresses the servants in particular. He does not give a reason for this. I do not like to do a lot of speculation, but perhaps Peter’s thought was that servants might be somewhat predisposed to resentment, especially if they were slaves, as many servants were in those days. As a Christian even a servant or slave should not be resentful, but to work as unto the Lord. Eph. 6.7 says, “serving with good will, as to the Lord and not to men.” See 1 Cor. 7.20-23, Eph. 6.5-9, and Col. 3.22-25 in this regard.
There are several Greek words that mean “servant.” The word used here is based on the word “house,” indicating that the servants referred to here by Peter may have been house servants, but these Greek words for “servant” tend to be used somewhat interchangeably.
Then Peter makes the point that it gains favor (or grace, the same word) with God to bear unjust suffering if because of conscience of God. We would think that Peter would have said “consciousness of God,” and the word could mean that, but its basic meaning is “conscience.” I think he is indicating here that it is not just consciousness of God, the awareness that God is there, but that we will know in our conscience that we have offended God. It will hurt our conscience.
20For what credit is it if when sinning being struck you endure? But if doing good and suffering you endure, this is favor with God.
When we sin we ought to be struck in some way. The Greek word here means “struck with the fist.” It may be a physical strike or some other form of punishment. The point is that if we sin we deserve it. See Heb. 12.4-11. We don’t get any credit for enduring just punishment. But we do gain favor (grace) with God if we endure when we suffer for doing good. Why would we suffer for doing good? We noted earlier that in Peter’s day subjects of Rome were required to worship the emperor. I would say that it is good not to worship the emperor, law or no law.
21For to this you were called, for Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example that you may follow in his footsteps, 22who “did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth” [Is. 53.9], 23who being reviled was not reviling in return, suffering, was not threatening, but was entrusting to the one judging righteously; 24who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we having died to the sins may live to righteousness, by whose welt you were healed [Is. 53.5].
We are called to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and he suffered the most unjust suffering in all of history. A not just innocent, but sinless, man died for us that we could be saved from our sins and their penalty, died for the ones killing him, which includes us. Talk about doing good! He is our example. If we suffer unjustly, follow in his footsteps. Do it as unto God.
Peter quotes Isaiah: he “did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” H was reviled and did not retaliate. He suffered and did not threaten. He entrusted himself “to the one judging righteously.” Follow in his steps. When we suffer unjustly, entrust it to God. He will not only deal with the evil, but he will use it to mature and strengthen us in himself.
Our Lord Jesus bore our sins in his body. How he suffered physically! The slaps in the face, the crown of thorns, the scourging that often killed, the carrying of his own cross after the scourging had left him so weak, the nails.
His purpose? That we, having died to sins, may live to righteousness.
“By whose welt you were healed.” Why does Peter say “welt” and not “welts”? I don’t know. Perhaps he was referring to the entire scourging that the Lord Jesus suffered: “By his scourging you were healed.” A welt is the red, swollen mark left by such a blow. We have been or are being healed from the effects of sin. Recall that we said that the word for “save” can mean “save” or “heal.” Here we have the medical word for physical healing. I believe Peter was using the word figuratively of our soul healing, but there are miraculous healings of people in this age and there will be an end to the need for physical healing completely one day.
25For you were like sheep being led astray, but you were turned now to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Here Peter gives the reason for our need of healing – we were sheep being led astray. We saw in 2.11 that fleshly lusts war against our souls. We can be led astray by lusts. We can be led astray by the attractive things of the world. We can be led away by being deceived or by going after a good thing in a wrong way. We can be led astray by false doctrine, showing our need of studying God’s word. But – “you were turned now to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” What turned these straying sheep to God? They heard the good news, perhaps through the preaching of Peter himself, or it may have been through the individual witness of someone else who had been turned to the Lord. The Holy Spirit revealed the Lord Jesus to them and convicted them and brought them to him. Is that not the case with all of us?
This Lord to whom we were turned is a Shepherd, the good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (Jn. 10.11), the great Shepherd (Heb. 13.20), the Chief Shepherd (1 Pt. 5.4). And he is the Overseer, the one who keeps watch over us constantly to keep us from harm to our souls. Not only is he working to heal our damaged souls, but he is preventing further damage if we will follow him as faithful sheep. The Lord give us grace to do so.
3. Likewise the wives being submitted to their own husbands, that even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won without a word through the conduct of the wives, 2having seen your reverent, pure conduct;
Like Paul, Peter says that wives are to be submitted to their husbands. Let me point out that Paul says in Eph. 5.21 that all Christians are to “be submitted to one another in the fear of Christ.” Then he says that wives should be submitted to their husbands. Husbands and wives should be submitted to each other in the fear of Christ and only then are wives submissive. If a husband is submitted first to God and then to his wife, meaning that he will do what is right by her, then she need have no fear of being submitted to him. I am not getting into one of those debates about wives submitting to their husbands. Read the Bible, submit yourself to God, and act accordingly.
Even a husband who is disobedient to God might be won to the Lord without a word as he sees his wife’s reverence toward God and her purity. The Greek is literally fear, “having seen your pure conduct in fear.” That is awkward in English so I have used the word “reverence.”
3 let their adornment not be the outward braiding of hair and wearing if gold or putting on of clothing, 4but the secret man of the heart in the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious before God.
I am not going to say that women should not braid their hair or have other hairdos, or wear jewelry and nice clothes. Eleazar was the slave of Abraham, a rich man, and he took jewelry to give to the one he found for Isaac, who turned out to be Rebekah. I think the point is that a woman should not try to draw attention to herself by her finery, but to be a witness for the Lord. One of our responsibilities is to call attention to the Lord, not to ourselves, and that applies to men, too. I do think a woman should dress modestly. An immodestly dressed woman can enflame a man sexually, and that is not pleasing to the Lord, or safe to the woman sometimes.
A woman’s adornment should be the kind of person she is, what comes from inside, from the heart. See Mt. 15.18-19 in this regard. A gentle and quiet spirit is much more attractive than a loud, demanding woman insisting on her rights, and it is very precious to God. Yes, women have rights and we have laws to protect them, and where there are not such laws they should be enacted, but it can be very much of the flesh to be making demands in the wrong way. The Scriptures teach that in a way none of us have any rights. If we are surrendered to God then we have surrendered our rights to him and he is free to deal with our lives as he sees fit. Look at what Paul suffered, much of it unlawful. And it is tradition that Peter was crucified upside down. His comment on that possibility:
13But I think it right as long as I am in this tent to be stirring you up by way of reminder, 14knowing that my removal from this tent is soon, as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15But I will also always be diligent to have you after my exodus to make a remembrance of these things. (2 Pt. 1.13-15)
He was not concerned for his rights, but for his readers. He wanted to stir them up in their service to God. He wanted to make sure his readers would remember the things of the Lord that he had taught them. Are you concerned to get what is yours and do what you want to, or to be pleasing to the Lord? This also applies to men.
5For so formerly also the holy wives, hoping in God, were adorning themselves, being submitted to their own husbands, 6as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you became, doing good and fearing not one cause of fear,
Peter refers to the godly women of the Old Testament, women who hoped in God, and said that they were adorning themselves as Peter sets forth here. They were submitted to their own husbands. He gives the example of Sara, saying that she obeyed Abraham and called him “lord!” Then he says that the Christian women he is addressing in this epistle are her children, meaning that they should conduct themselves as she did, especially in doing good and not being afraid. Fear is one of Satan’s weapons. He tries to make us afraid and worried and thus drag us down. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8.31). If we are the Lord’s nothing can harm us. We need not fear even death, for death is only the doorway to Heaven. Live in trust in God, not in fear.
7The husbands likewise dwelling, according to knowledge, with the wives as a weaker vessel, showing honor, as also fellow heirs of life’s grace, that your prayers not be hindered.
Husbands also have instructions from God. They are to dwell, according to knowledge. That is, they ought to know how to act and to do so. They are to dwell with their wives as a weaker vessel. I think this refers entirely to physical strength. Men are usually stronger than women, though there are exceptions, so a man should be protective of his wife, and he certainly ought not to abuse her physically. He should show her honor as one who is a heir of life, as he is. That is, both have the life of God dwelling in them. A man may have headship in the family, but he does not have some special life from God that his wife does not have. And they are heirs of the grace of life. Life is a gift from God, both physical life and spiritual life.
Then there is a strong word to the men: if you do not treat your wife as you should, your prayers are hindered. You are damaging your own spiritual life if you do not. You may be hurting her physically and/or emotionally, but you are hurting yourself spiritually. You will answer to God.
8Now finally, let all be single-minded, sympathetic, loving as brothers, tender hearted, humble, 9not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, for to this you were called, that you may receive a blessing.
Now Peter gives a list of do’s and don’t’s. We need not expound each of these, since they are obvious. We are called by God to bless, that we should also receive a blessing. That is, if you do not bless, you will not be blessed. It is the same as having our prayers hindered by mistreating our wives. We are hurting our spiritual life, our life with God, if we do not bless.
10For the one wanting to love life and see good days, let him keep the tongue from evil, and lips not to speak deceit, 11but let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those doing evil” [Ps. 34.12-16]
Peter quotes Ps. 34.12-16 in support of what he has just written. I think this statement is self-explanatory.
13And who is the one who will do you evil if you were one zealous for the good? 14But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, you are blessed.
Peter returns to his theme of suffering unjustly. There ought to be no one to do you evil if you are zealous for the good, but there are people in the world who hate the good and oppose those who are zealous for it. I think the matter of abortion is an example in our day. How anyone can think that abortion is good and not evil is beyond my comprehension. It is a spiritual matter, a work of the devil in blinding the minds of the unbelieving (2 Cor. 4.4). But many supporters of abortion vilify those who believe it is sin and even persecute them. Peter says that if you suffer wrongly in this way, for righteousness, you are blessed. That is, just as the man who mistreats his wife or the people who do not live by 1 Pt. 3.8-9 are hurting themselves spiritually, or those on the right side of these issues are helping their spiritual lives, so the one who suffers unjustly for righteousness, is blessed, is helping his life with God. Good things in this life are temporary. Blessing from God is eternal.
“But you should not be afraid of their fear or be troubled” [Is. 8.12], 15but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, ready always for a defense to everyone asking you a reason for the hope in you, but with meekness and fear,
Peter quotes Is. 8.12 in saying not to be afraid of the things that people can do. Mt. 10.28 says, “And don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather be afraid of the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” “What can man do to me?” (Ps. 56.11, 118.6, Heb. 13.6) Man cannot kill me, only my body. My body is not me. It is a means of communicating with the world. My soul is me. Only God can determine the eternal destiny of me.
Instead of being afraid, “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” That is, set him apart as your only Lord. Nothing is to be your Lord but Christ. Anything we put ahead of Christ is an idol, and anything we try to hold on to along with Christ will nudge him out. It was F.B. Meyer who made the famous statement that Christ said to him, “If I am not Lord of all I will not be Lord at all.” We cannot serve God and mammon, or anything else.
Then Peter pens the well-known statement, “ready always for a defense to everyone asking you a reason for the hope in you.” Can you tell why you have hope in Christ? Can I? The word “defense” in this statement is apologia, in Greek. That is where we get the term “apologetics,” a popular field of study and ministry in our day. The ancient world was very much a world of belief in God and gods and demons and so on. There was not much need to be able to defend one’s religious belief, but Christianity claims to be the only true faith. Thus many of the others oppose it and persecute its adherents. And in our day many claim not to believe in God or gods at all, and many of those are vehemently opposed to anyone who does, especially if it is Christianity. It is trendy to be Buddhist, for example. But not Christian. Oh no! So we live in an environment in which we need to be able to give reasons for our faith. Apologetics.
“But with meekness and fear.” We are not to be argumentative and overbearing. Let the others be angry, even furious. Remain calm. Let the Lord be the power in the situation, not our soul-power. We cannot convict anyone of sin. He can.
Meekness is a very interesting and instructive word. We tend to think of a meek person as a weakling, one who cannot stand up to anything. But the Greek word refers to the inner strength which enables a person of strength to control his anger and desire to hit back which is wrought in him by the grace of God. Barclay calls it “strength under control” and says that “behind the gentleness there is the strength of steel.” Trench writes, that it is directed first toward God:
It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting; it is closely linked with the word ‘humility,’ and follows directly upon it, Eph. 4.2; Col. 3.12; … it is only the humble heart which is also the meek, and which, as such, does not fight against God and more or less struggle and contend with him. This meekness, however, being first of all a meekness before God, is also such in the face of men, even of evil men, out of a sense that these, with the insults and injuries which they may inflict, are permitted and employed by Him for the chastening and purifying of His elect. (Quoted in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)
It was Amy Carmichael who said that in acceptance lies peace. Accept what comes from God’s hand, whatever it may be.
A great example of meekness is Moses. In Num. 12.3 we read, “Moses was very meek, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. He had the power and strength to rule over and lead the Israelites, yet he knew how to deal gently when it was needed.
The greatest example of meekness is the Lord Jesus himself. In Mt. 11.29, he says of himself, “… I am meek and humble in heart….” Mt. 21.5, quoting Zech. 9.9, reads, “Look! your King is coming to you, meek and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the son of an ‘under the yoke.’” (literal)
The Lord Jesus is the ultimate example of strength under control, the one whose gentleness has behind it the strength of steel. He was and is almighty. He could have come down from the cross, but he had the inner strength to be meek before his tormentors, giving his life for them and for us, rather than resisting God’s will for him – death in our place.
Meekness and fear. The fear of God, not of man.
16having a good conscience, that in what you are slandered they may be put to shame, those insulting your good conduct in Christ.
The Greek word for “conscience” literally means “knowing with, i.e., a co-knowledge (with oneself), a witness borne to one’s conduct by conscience, that faculty by which we apprehend the will of God, as that which is designed to govern our lives” (W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). Heb. 10.2 speaks of conscience of sin, actually about people who have no more conscience of sin because they have been forgiven. Paul writes in 1 Tim. 4.2 about people “having been seared in their own conscience,” that is, having violated their conscience to the point that they no longer sense or feel right and wrong. That is a very dangerous position to be in. Since our conscience is our guide to some extent, it is very important to keep a sensitive conscience. We should know instantly when we have sinned, or even sense that something is sinful before we do it. But keep in mind that a conscience can be misinformed by false teachings and so forth. It is important to have a spirit that is clearly in touch with the Holy Spirit. I think myself that he is to be our guide, but our conscience is still important.
If we have such a good conscience, indicating that our conduct has been good, that can help in putting to shame those who slander us and insult our good conduct in Christ. We want a strong conscience that will not generate doubts about ourselves. After all, God is our judge, not ourselves. Paul says in 1 Cor. 4.4, “For I am conscious of nothing against myself, but I have not been justified by this, but the one judging me is the Lord.” We want a good conscience, but God is the final judge, and he is able to let us know where we stand.
17For it is better if the will of God wills it, to suffer doing good than doing evil. 18For Christ also once suffered for sins, just for unjust, that he might bring you to God, having been put to death in flesh.
Again Peter comes to unjust suffering and says that it is better to suffer for doing good if God wills it than to suffer for doing evil. He gives the ultimate example, the Lord Jesus. He suffered for sins, but they were not his sins. He suffered unjustly above all. He suffered as the just for the unjust, us, that he might bring us to God, having died in the flesh, died for our sins. Over and over Peter stresses the matter of unjust suffering and indicates that it is the will of God. Indeed, nothing comes into our lives that he does not cause or allow, and he has purpose in it all. He is trying to teach us something or to change us. He is trying to strengthen us and mature us in himself.
It is of great interest to me that Heb. 2.10 says, “For it was fitting for him, because of whom are all things and through whom are all things, having brought many sons to glory, to mature the originator of their salvation through sufferings,” and 5.8, that “though being a Son, learned obedience from the things he suffered.” If the sinless Lord Jesus had to be matured through suffering as a man and to learn obedience through suffering as a man, how much more do we? That is God’s purpose in subjecting us to suffering. Our usual cry in suffering is, “Lord, get me out of this.” His reply is that he got us into it for a purpose. We should submit to him in it and allow him to get on with it. Worship him in your trials. Remember 1 Pt. 1.7, that our faith must be purified in fire as gold is?
But made alive in the Spirit, 19in which also having gone, he preached to the spirits in prison, 20having once disobeyed when the longsuffering of God was waiting in the days of Noah, the ark being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water,
This is a difficult passage. It raises the question as to whether or not Christ descended into hades and preached between his death and resurrection. This doctrine is held by some, but it is rather obscure in the Scriptures, and the reason for such preaching is difficult to discern. If Christ did descend into hades and preach to the dead in order to give them an opportunity to repent and gain salvation, then we are involved in the difficulty of believing in a second opportunity after death, a doctrine against all other Scripture, which plainly teaches that now is the day of salvation and that death is the end of opportunity for it, that if one dies without Christ he is eternally lost without hope of salvation. If Christ descended into hades simply to announce his victory over Satan, sin, and death, it seems to involve him in gloating over those who have rejected him, behavior hardly worthy of our Lord. So it is hard to see how Christ could have descended into hades during the three days of his physical death, yet the passage seems at first glance to say that he did. How are we to solve this problem?
The first question we have to answer is how to translate the word “spirit” in v. 18. The word is not capitalized in Greek when referring to the Holy Spirit, so it could be taken as either spirit or Spirit. If we take it as referring to the human spirit of Jesus, we are immediately involved in the problem of saying that the human spirit of Jesus died, but Eccl. 12.7 says that when a person dies the spirit returns to God who gave it. The other option is to take it as a reference to the Holy Spirit, as we have done in the translation above. If we are correct in this conclusion, then the statement has to do with the resurrection of Jesus. He was put to death in the flesh, the crucifixion, and made alive in the Spirit, the resurrection.
Another factor is the identification of the spirits in prison. We read in 2 Pt. 2.4 and 9, “For if God did not spare angels having sinned, but having cast them into tartarus he delivered them to pits of gloom, being kept for judgment…. 9the Lord knows to deliver those who worship properly from temptation, but to keep the unrighteous, being punished, for a day of judgment….” Jude 6 says, “… and angels not keeping their own domain, but leaving their own dwelling, he has kept for judgment of the great day in eternal chains under thick darkness….” These occupants of tartarus, another name for hades, the abode of the dead (Hades was the Greek god of the underworld), were fallen angels. It seems that tartarus or hades is a prison of some of the fallen angels, while there are other fallen angels still operating in the world today (Eph. 6.12). These are demons. I do not know why the Lord put some in prison and allowed others to keep operating. The judgment of the great day is the great white throne judgment of Rev. 20.
Peter then goes on to say, “in whom … he preached.” That is, he preached to the spirits in prison in the Holy Spirit. If it is true that he preached, not in his human spirit, but in the Holy Spirit who raised him from the dead, then the passage does not deal at all with the time between the death and resurrection of Jesus. When did he do such preaching?
The preaching was done in the days of Noah, and through Noah. Peter himself, in 1 Pt. 1.10-11, writes of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets. Noah was righteous man through whom the Spirit of Christ preached to the people living in his day, warning them of the coming judgment by means of the flood (2 Pt. 2.5 – “Noah, a preacher of righteousness) and calling on them to repent. They did not repent, so they were swept away in the flood. They died physically, but their spirits, because they were disobedient in not repenting, were imprisoned, where they are held to this day awaiting the final judgment (Rev. 20.11-15). The sense of 1 Pt. 3.19-20, then, is that the spirits who are now imprisoned are the spirits of human beings who lived in the day of Noah and that they are imprisoned because they disobeyed when Christ preached to them in the Spirit through Noah, as well as the fallen angels of 2 Pt. 2.4 and 9 and Jude 6.
Further evidence that Christ did not descend into hades is found in the good news according to Luke. In 23.43 Jesus tells the repentant thief, “Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise,” and in v. 46 he says, as he dies, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” The hands of God are certainly not hades, the place where the unsaved dead await judgment, and it is clear from 2 Cot. 12.2-4 and Rev. 2.7 and 22.2 that paradise is either Heaven or at least in Heaven. Just as the unsaved dead go to hades to await judgment, the saved dead go to be with the Lord while they await the resurrection of their bodies and the full realization of the blessedness of the saved that will come when Christ receives his kingdom and his bride. The Lord Jesus was the only man who ever lived who gained Heaven on his merits as sinless and perfectly obedient to God. When he died, he went to be with the Father, not to hades, the prison of the unsaved dead. (On the matter of hades as the prison of the unsaved dead awaiting final judgment, see my booklet, Hades, Hell, Paradise, and Heaven.)
The second question we must deal with is this: What is the point of Peter’s insertion of this note into this passage? His subject is set forth in v. 17, suffering for doing right. What does the preaching of Christ through Noah and the imprisonment of unbelievers of that day have to do with Peter’s theme?
Just this. Peter was the apostle of the circumcision and his readers were probably primarily Christian Jews, as we learn from the word diaspora in 1.1. The Jews looked for a Messiah who would restore Israel to earthly glory, saving them from the Romans and putting them at the head of the nations. The apostles preached Jesus as the Messiah, yet he did not drive out the Romans or bestow earthly blessings on his people. Thus he was rejected by the majority of Israel, and the few Jews who did believe had the double problem of dealing with their own earthly expectations and enduring the mockery and persecution of unbelieving Jews who said that he was no Messiah who could not deliver his people. The offense of the cross (Gal. 5.11). What discouragement these Jewish believers must have been tempted with.
In this situation Peter points to a historical parallel. In the days of Noah, a great judgment was about to break forth on mankind. Noah preached the judgment in the Spirit, that is, not with any outwardly visible proof. The Holy Spirit is not visible. All the people saw was a poor, misguided man building a boat on dry land, and I am sure they mocked him. When the judgment did fall in the form of the flood, only a few, exactly eight, were saved. Noah’s day was a day of testimony followed by judgment in which only a few were saved.
It was the same in Peter’s day. The Lord Jesus was preached as a heavenly Messiah who had been raised from the dead, but the resurrection was not an outward display of power, but was “in the Spirit,” as Peter puts it in our passage. No one saw the risen Lord except for a few who believed in him. He was invisible to all others, and even to all believers after that time. We have never seen the Lord Jesus. The resurrection was learned of only through the testimony of believers. But, as in the time of Noah, only a few believed and were saved. The majority, looking for an earthly kingdom, probably mocked. And a judgment did come in that day. In A.D. 66-70 the Jews rebelled against Rome and the Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian, says that over a million Jews were killed. Many were sold into slavery. Over 70,000 Jewish slaves built the Roman Coliseum. Then in A.D. 134-135 the Jews rebelled again and all Jews were expelled from Israel and were scattered throughout the world.
Thus Peter is actually encouraging those who suffer for doing right to continue, faithful to the Lord, just as the eight did. They were justified when the flood came. Those who go on with the Lord Jesus in the days of testimony “in the Spirit” will also be justified when judgment comes, a judgment not “in the Spirit,” but visible.
We can take the same encouragement from Peter and the Lord Jesus himself, who said in Mt. 24.37-39,
As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Noah’s day was a day of testimony in the Spirit followed by judgment. Peter’s day was the same. So is ours. If we, too, suffer for doing what is right, let us take heart. When the judgment comes, we will be saved.
21which antitype is now saving you also, baptism being not putting off of dirt of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, angels and authorities and powers being submitted to him.
Finally, we have 1 Pt. 3.21, a difficult verse because it reads as usually translated, “… baptism now saves you.” The difficulty arises, of course, because the Bible is abundantly clear that we are saved by grace through faith with no reference to works at all. The difficulty comes when we see this verse as applying to initial salvation, the coming alive of our dead spirits, but it does not. It applies to the salvation of the soul. A better translation of the Greek would be, “Baptism is now saving you.” Baptism is commanded by the Lord Jesus. When we are baptized we are being obedient, and we have already seen that obedience is saving and healing in its effect. Obedience to the Lord works in us toward the healing of soul damage and toward conforming us to the image of Christ. Baptism did not save us when we were born again, which has to do with our spirits. It is saving or healing our souls after initial salvation as we obey. And keep in mind that we are baptized after we are born from above. We trust Christ and our spirits are made alive by the entrance of the Holy Spirit. We do a work of obedience by being baptized after that, and that is salvific.
Let me add, too, that Noah and his family were not saved in the sense of escaping hell and going to Heaven by being in the ark. They were saved from physical death. Nor are we saved in the spiritual sense by baptism.
Baptism is not the figurative washing us clean of sin by “the washing of water with the spoken word” (Eph. 5.26), of which washing the flesh with water is a picture, that is, initial salvation. This passage in Ephesians is not dealing with initial salvation, but with the sanctification of Christ’s bride to be, “that he himself may present to himself the glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any of such things, but that she may be holy and blameless.” Sanctification is the saving of the soul, the lifelong process of making us holy in fact as well as positionally. Baptism is one of those steps of obedience that we take that is healing to our souls.
It is “an appeal of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” That is, because we have been obedient to God in baptism, a testimony to the world that we have trusted in Christ and have figuratively gone into the grave (our old man) in Christ and been raised up with him to new life – because of that we have a good conscience and can appeal to God. The word “appeal” is based on the word “ask,” asking a question or making a request. We can make requests of him. And this is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because he has been raised from the dead, we, too, have new life and are in a right relationship with God. Without the resurrection there is nothing (1 Cor. 15.13-19). But he has been raised from the dead, so we can appeal to God. “Let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4.6).
The Lord Jesus is at the “right hand of God, having gone into Heaven.” He is on the throne, ruling over the universe. He can answer requests. (He does reserve the right as to how he will answer. He knows what is best for us.)
His absolute authority and power are seen in the fact of “angels and authorities and powers being submitted to him.” These angels and authorities and powers include all such, whether of God or of Satan. The Lord is like the Supreme Court. There is no appeal beyond him.
4. Therefore, Christ having suffered in flesh, arm yourselves with the same intent, for the one having suffered in flesh has ceased from sin, 2to live the rest of the time in flesh not for men’s lusts, but for God’s will.
Here is another “therefore.” Since what Peter has written before this verse is true, particularly that Christ has died for our sins, has suffered in the flesh, we should do what comes next. We should arm ourselves with the same thought. The word I have translated as “intent” (ennoia) is an interesting one. It literally mean “in the mind.” It can mean mind, thought, purpose, and so forth. Peter says that “the one having suffered in flesh has ceased from sin.” That does not mean that we never sin again. Rom. 6, Eph. 2 and 4, Gal. 2.19-20, and Col. 3 teach that we have died with Christ and been raised up to a new life. We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Though we do sin, we are not sinners. We have ceased from sin. We have new intent, to obey the Lord. Though we have failures, being still in the flesh, our intent is not to sin. F.W. Beare has a good statement on this:
This ‘death’ to the old life is an ennoia for the Christian – a mental concept of himself as ‘crucified with Christ’ – as having made an end, in imagination and thought, of the life of the flesh, and having begun to value the life of the spirit, the new life as lived in and with Christ, as the only true life.
We might say that we have ceased from sin in intent. From now on we intend to live our lives in the flesh not for the lusts of the flesh, but for God’s will. Peter says that this intent is something we arm ourselves with. It is a shield against the flaming arrows of Satan, a breastplate of righteousness, a helmet of salvation, or even an offensive weapon like the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6.13-17). If we have no intent, no purpose, we will not achieve anything. Arm yourself with the intent not to sin, but to do God’s will.
3For the time having passed is sufficient to have done the desire of the Gentiles, having conducted oneself in sensualities, lusts, drunkennesses, carousings, drunken orgies, and lawless idolatries, 4in which having been surprised at your not running with them into the same excess of dissipation, they slander you. 5They will give account to the one ready to judge living and dead. 6For this reason good news was also preached to the dead that they might be judged in the flesh according to men, but might live in the spirit according to God.
We have had plenty of time already to do our sinning. Now it is time to do the will of God. Those who engage in such practices, and with whom some of us may have engaged in the same practices, are surprised that we do not run with them, so they slander us. But they will give account. A judgment day is coming. Keep in mind that just as there is a judgment day coming for the lost, there is the judgment seat of Christ awaiting the saved. We will be judged, too, not for salvation, for that is settled, but for our rewards and position in the millennial kingdom.
Peter refers to the preaching of the good news to the dead, that is, those who are now dead, but were alive when they were preached to, as we saw in 3.19-20. Those who repent when preached to will have been judged guilty of sin in the flesh according to men, that is, humanly, but may live in the spirit according to God. I have taken the word “spirit” as the human spirit, as in the sense of being born again (1.3, 23), the dead human spirit coming alive by the entry of the Holy Spirit. It could be taken as the Holy Spirit.
7But the end of all things has come near. Be of sound thinking and be sober for prayers;
We are living in the last days. We see this in several Scripture verses, 1 Tim. 4.1, 2 Tim. 3.1, Heb. 1.2, Ja, 5.3, 2 Pt. 3.3, and 1 Jn. 2.18. Some may say that there have been almost two thousand years since Christ was here in the flesh. God does not see time as we do. He has existed from eternity past, which has no beginning. Time is irrelevant to him. And he says in 2 Pt. 3.8 that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. We saw in 1.11 that there are two Greek words for “time,” chronos and kairos. The words are not used here in 1.11, but kairos is an important word in 1 Peter, occurring in 1.5, 4.17, and 5.6, as well as 1.11, and is applicable here. It is meaningful time. With the coming, life, and ascension of the Lord Jesus, the kind of time changed. We are in the last times, the times in which God will bring this present evil age (Gal. 1.4) to a close and bring in the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus.
Since we are in the last days, Peter says, “be of sound thinking and be sober for prayers.” To be of sound thinking does not mean that we cannot have any enjoyment in life, but it does that mean that the times are serious and we should take life seriously. Don’t be frivolous in your thinking, but realize that the eternal destiny of people is at stake, as is the judgment seat of Christ for those who are saved, and “the end of all things has come near.” Be sober in prayer. What is the content of our prayers, asking God for all the things we want, a new car, a bigger house, the things of the world? “The form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7.31). “The world is passing away” (1 Jn. 2.17). I am not saying we should not have the things we need in life, but they are not what life is about. God and the things of God are what life is about.
8before all things, having earnest love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins;
God is love. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 13 that the more excellent, indeed, the most excellent, way is love. Peter himself says in 1.22 of this epistle to “love one another earnestly from the heart.” The Lord Jesus said in Jn. 13.34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you should love one another; as I loved you, that you also should love one another. 35By this will all know that you are disciples to me, if you have love for one another.” How important a statement is that? We just wrote that we should be sober in prayer because people’s eternal destiny is at stake, and here the Lord says that our love for one another is a validation of our testimony. See also Rom. 12.10 and 13.8, and 1 Jn. 4.7 and 12.
This love covers a multitude of sins. Just what does Peter mean here? It could be that Peter had in mind his own question of the Lord, “Lord, how many times will my brother sin against me and I will forgive him, until seven times?” I think Peter had in mind that he was being very generous to forgive someone seven times. The Lord’s answer? “I don’t say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven”(Matt. 18.21-22). And if we think he meant to keep count up to 490 and then stop forgiving we have missed the whole point. How many times has the Lord forgiven us? If he had stopped at 490 with me I would have been gone long ago! He is telling us that we should forgive as he has forgiven us. He adds in Mt. 6.15, “If you should not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
And Peter’s thought may have been simply that our earnest love for one another will mean that God covers our sins, without the thought of our forgiving others. I suspect the former possibility, and certainly it could be both. And earnest love for one another would surely lead to our forgiving another if necessary, just as we would want to be forgiven if we wronged someone else.
9being hospitable to one another without complaint;
In addition to Peter’s directive here Rom. 12.13 says, “Pursuing hospitality.” Paul says in 1 Tim. 3.2 that an elder or overseer in the church is to be hospitable.” Ti. 1.8 says the same. The writer of Hebrews adds in 13.2, “Do not neglect hospitality, for because of this some were unaware having entertained angels.”
It was Dale Evans, wife of Roy Rogers, who wrote the book Angel Unaware, the story of their Down’s Syndrome daughter. They were advised to “put her away.” The following is taken from an ad for the book. “The Rogerses ignored such talk and instead kept Robin, and she graced their home for two and a half years. Though Robin’s time on earth was short, she changed her parents’ lives and even made life better for other children born with special needs in the years to come. Angel Unaware is Robin’s account of her life as she looks down from heaven. As she speaks to God about the mission of love she just completed on earth, the reader sees how she brought her parents closer to God and encouraged them to help other children in need. This book, which changed the way America treated children with special needs, is now available to a new generation. It is the perfect gift for parents of special needs children, parents grieving the death of a child, or anyone whose life has been touched by a special child.”
Hospitality was quite important in New Testament days, when hotels, especially nice ones (!), were not so plentiful. We may not think so much of hospitality in our day with hotels everywhere, but it can play a vital role. It has to do not just with travelers, but with such situations as just described.
Now I am going to be a bit personal. My wife and I never had children. When I was 60 years old and she was 46, we decided to adopt a child. We adopted a one year old girl from Kazakhstan. She is 15 at this writing and I am 75! What a trip! I had not had any interest in adopting, but when we learned about the tens of millions of children with no families (over 150,000,000 at this writing), we began to pray about it. The Lord led us to give a child a home and we did. It is a wonderful way to show hospitality, not just for a few days for a traveler, but for as long as we live. I am not bragging. It was the Lord’s doing. I cannot tell anyone to adopt a child, but I can encourage people to pray about it.
And hospitality for the traveler is important. One example is that many missionaries are traveling to speak and so forth. Many have little by way of financial support. Putting missionaries up for a few nights is a welcome ministry.
I know that what I just wrote is not the usual Bible exposition, but don’t we expound the Bible to encourage people to live it out? I am not trying to give people information. I am trying to help people grow in the Lord and a part of that is putting what is learned into practice. Hospitality is one such means. And as Peter says, don’t complain about it!
10as each one received a gift, ministering it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11If anyone speaks, as utterances of God; if anyone serves, as from strength which God provides, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might into the ages of the ages. Amen.
All of us have some gift. I know many of us have said that we do not have a gift. We look at people who can make beautiful music or sing or write music, or preach powerfully, or do executive and administrative work, or make lots of money so they can give to worthy causes, and we think, “I can’t do any of that. What can I do?” We all can do something. I just dealt with hospitality. I cannot sing or preach oratorically, but I can write and I can teach the Bible. These things I love to do. Others will have to say how well, or not well! Some have a gift of consoling the hurting. There are so many things that can be done to help people and to show the love of God to a hurting world, or to hurting Christians. We may not all have what Paul called in effect an evangelist, but we can all tell how we came to the Lord.
You have a gift, and Peter says to be a good steward of it. We always think stewardship means giving money to the church, and the Bible does teach that, but stewardship is the proper use of whatever God gives us. We are all accountable to God for what he has enabled us to do. Be a good steward. Be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. The manifold grace of God is the many ways he enables all of us to serve him. Grace at its root is simply a gift, something God has given us. And the purpose of all of it is “that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” Our ultimate goal is the glory of God, our showing of how great and wonderful and loving he is. To him “be the glory and the might into the ages of the ages. Amen.”
12Beloved, don’t be surprised at the burning taking place among you for testing you as though a strange thing is happening to you, 13but as you share in the sufferings of Christ rejoice, that also at the unveiling of his glory you may rejoice, exulting.
Peter returns to the matter of purification by fire, as he said in 1.6-7: “Now for a little, if being necessary, you suffer in various trials, 7that the proof of your faith, much more valuable than gold which perishes, but proven by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Our trials are a burning, as gold is purified by fire. We are put through the fire to test us to see how real our faith and surrender to God are and to purify us. It calls to mind 1 Cor. 3.11-15:
According to the grace of God having been given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, but another is building on it. 11For no one is able to lay another foundation besides the one having been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12But if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13the work of each one will become manifest, for the day will make it clear, because it is revealed by fire. For the work of each one, what sort it is, the fire itself will prove. 14If the work which anyone built will remain, he will receive a reward. 15If the work of anyone will be burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.
This is not a strange thing. We all go through sufferings in life, and the testing of things is basic to life. If we build a floor, we test it to make sure it holds. Many things in life are tested in that way. And so are we.
Peter tells us to rejoice as we share in the sufferings of Christ. We do not enjoy suffering. We are not masochists, at least most of us! But our suffering is an indication that God is working to strengthen and mature us. He could just let us go and destroy ourselves, but no. He does what it takes to save us from ourselves. We mentioned athletes, who suffer getting into shape for their sport. They are not masochists. Their coaches are not sadists. They are trying to help their charges be their best. So God whips us into shape, we might say. We do not enjoy it, but we will enjoy the victory that results, just as an athlete does. “At the unveiling of his glory you may rejoice, exulting.”
14If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
A bit more unjust suffering: “If you are reproached in the name of Christ.” But if we accept the reproach in submission to the Lord we are blessed. Why is that a blessing? Because as we obey the Lord and honor him no matter what, the “Spirit of glory and of God rests on” us. Is that not our goal? Someone has said, maybe many have said, “You get what you pay for.” If we “pay” for the “Spirit of glory and of God” by glorifying him in whatever we encounter, that is what we will get. If we try to wriggle out of trouble, or demand that God get us out of trouble, we won’t have much pay!
15For let not one of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a busybody, 16but if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name.
If we suffer for sins or crimes even, we have cause to be ashamed, but there is no cause for shame if we suffer as Christians. Christ was crucified as a blasphemer and a traitor. Is he ashamed? Are we ashamed of him? Of course not. We glorify God for what he did for us. He has been exalted to the highest place (Phil. 2.9-11). And so will we be if we are faithful to him in our trials.
17For it is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God, but if from us first, what is the end of those disobeying the good news of God?
Did you know that God will judge his people? Heb. 10.30 quotes Dt. 32.36 LXX, “The Lord will judge his people.” We have referred to the judgment seat of Christ or God (2 Cor. 5.10, Rom 14.10). Peter himself writes in 1.17, “And if you call Father the one judging impartially according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear the time of your stay.” Now Peter says that it is time – the word kairos again – for judgment to begin from the house of God. Most of the translations read “with” or “at” the house of God,” but the Greek word is “from.” That is, judgment starts with the house of God, his people, and goes out from there. We are the first to be judged. It is so important that we be prepared for the judgment seat of Christ by faithfulness and obedience to him. There are rewards in the kingdom.
If we who know we will be in Heaven are judged, “what is the end of those disobeying the good news of God?” The Greek word for “disobeying” here is based on the word for being convinced or persuaded. We believe the word of God because we are convinced that it is true. Those who do not obey, as in this verse, are not convinced that the good news is true. They do not believe it, so they do not obey it. And I am afraid there are those who are convinced that it is true, but still do not obey it. They prefer the temporary pleasures of sin (Heb. 11.25). They give up eternity for a few years or pleasure. And how much pleasure is there, really? This is a sobering verse of Scripture.
18And “íf the righteous one is saved with difficulty, where will the improperly worshipping one and sinner appear?” [Prov. 11.31 LXX]
It is not hard for God to save us – he is almighty – but it is hard in the sense of what it cost him to save us, the precious blood and life of his only Son. And it was certainly hard for the Lord Jesus to endure what he did. And it is hard from our standpoint because of what great sinners we are. Yes, we are all great sinners. We may think we are pretty good compared to a lot of people, and perhaps we are outwardly, but God looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16.7). Jer. 17.9 says that the heart is deceitful. God knows that we all have what the Bible calls the flesh. Flesh is our self-centered sin nature. That is our real problem. Sin, the flesh, gives rise to sins, our wrongdoings.
I think that actually the Lord is talking about the salvation of the soul here, not initial salvation, which we have seen is the bringing to life our dead spirits, but the lifelong process of healing our souls, us, from the damage we have incurred from abuse or sin. Christ died for the forgiveness of our sins and initial salvation, but he spends our lifetimes healing us. In that sense we are saved, healed, with difficulty.
If it is hard for us who believe to be saved, initial and lifelong, “where will the improperly worshipping one and sinner appear?” The Greek word I have translated “improperly worshipping” is a combination of the word for “well” and another word having to do with worship. There are proper and improper ways to worship. It is obvious that idolatry is an improper way to worship, whether it be a false god or trying to worship God through an idol. But it is also possible to worship God without a good understanding of what that means. The word for worship we are considering here has awe at its base. We dealt with the fear of God and saw that awe includes a measure of the fear of God. We are not to be flippant in our worship, but to realize that we are dealing with the only one who is holy and worthy of the greatest respect and seriousness. And it is possible to feign worship in the hopes of getting something from God. Do we think we can fool God? Apparently some do. These could be Christians who will be saved in the end, but will lose rewards, their works of wood, hay, and straw being burned up at the judgment seat of Christ. Where will they appear? There are those who believe that not all Christians will be in the millennial kingdom. I cannot say that I believe that, but I do believe in rewards that can be lost.
And of course, those who have not been saved will appear in hades at death or at the return of Christ and in hell ultimately. This is serious business that Peter is dealing with.
19Therefore also let those suffering according to the will of God be entrusting their souls to a faithful Creator in doing good.
There are people who suffer unjustly, as we have seen all through 1 Peter, but we all suffer in one way or another. Keep in mind that nothing comes into our lives without God’s permitting or causing it. Think about Job. God is the one who started the whole process when he asked Satan, “Have you put your heart on my servant Job?” (literal translation) God was trying to take Job from being the most righteous man on earth to a man who knew the Lord intimately. It took suffering to do it, but Job said in the end, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, so I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” If we fight against our sufferings, maybe even blaming God for them, we are missing the point that he is using them to grow us up in him. It took Job some time, with all of his arguing with God and making demands of him, but he finally got the picture. So when we are suffering, let us entrust our souls to God. He is a faithful Creator in doing us good. He is not allowing us to suffer to torture us. Suffering comes with life because of sin. It is our fault, not God’s. He would have every right just to let suffer and suffer and go to hell, but instead he uses suffering, a necessary thing because of sin, for our good, to mature us in him. He is indeed a faithful Creator in doing good.
5. Therefore I urge elders among you, a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory about to be revealed,
Having completed some rather heavy teaching and instructions, Peter turns to the elders of the local church. It is quite clear in the New Testament that the local church is to have a plurality of elders or overseers (the same – Ti. 1.5 and 7), not one man over the church. The word “overseer” as used in Ti. 1.7 is sometimes translated “bishop.” What is called a bishop today, that is, an overseer over a number of local churches, is nowhere to be found in the New Testament. An overseer is one of several overseers or elders in a local church. Peter himself was an elder.
He was also “a witness of the sufferings of Christ,” an apostle. Acts 1.21-22 indicates that the apostles were men who had seen the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. In 1 Cor. 9.1 Paul writes, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” The apostles had seen the Lord, and Paul saw him, not just a vision, on the road to Damascus. As an apostle, Peter gave direction to the elders.
Peter had said in 1.7 “that the proof of your faith, much more valuable than gold which perishes, but proven by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In 4.13 he says, “… as you share in the sufferings of Christ rejoice, that also at the unveiling of his glory you may rejoice, exulting.” The glory is the Lord’s, not ours, but we are blessed to share in it if we are faithful and obedient. Now he says that he is “a partaker of the glory about to be revealed,” implying that his readers are, too, if they are faithful and obedient.
What is glory? I do not know of a definition in the Bible. Sometimes we think of it as a very bright light shining all around God, or something like that. Lk. 2.9 tells us that when the Christmas angels were announcing the Lord’s birth to the shepherds, “the glory of the Lord shone around them.” Heb. 1.3 says that the Lord Jesus is “the radiance of his glory.”
The root of the Hebrew word for “glory” has to do with weight or weightiness. We sometimes think of a person as a lightweight or a heavyweight, meaning not having much ability or having great ability. God is a heavyweight. His ability is infinite. Out of this great ability there grow the ideas of fame and honor. Think about our sports teams or the military. We say that they win glory on the field of play or the battlefield. That is, they become famous and are held in high esteem. I believe that is the underlying meaning of the glory of God. He is worthy of all fame and honor. It is interesting that the Greek word for “glory” comes from a root meaning “to seem” or “opinion.” God seems worthy of all fame and honor to us – he is glorious!
God’s full glory will be revealed at the coming of the Lord Jesus, and we will bask in that glory even though it is not ours. It is like a situation in which someone we love is very successful and wins great fame and honor. We join in his or her glory because we love him or her. We will rejoice in the glory he has won, as we rejoice when our team wins a championship. We say, “We won, we won!” No we didn’t! The team won, but it is so dear to our hearts that we feel as though we won, too. God wins in the end (actually he has always been the winner – Satan has no chance against him and the Lord Jesus utterly defeated him at the cross) and we will be so overjoyed that we will celebrate and feel as though we won, too. And in a sense we will have won. Satan has opposed us every step of the way, but we came out on top by the grace of God. To him be all the glory!
2shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, according to God, and not for shameful gain, but with passion, 3and not as lording it over those in your charge, being examples of the flock, 4and, the Chief Shepherd having been revealed, you will receive the unfading wreath of glory.
Now Peter gives some direction. The elders are to shepherd the flock of God. The idea of God and his people as sheep and shepherd is very prominent in the Bible. There are good shepherds and bad shepherds. There are good sheep who are obedient to God and there are bad sheep. The Lord Jesus, of course, is the ultimate good shepherd, as we see in Jn. 10. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The elders or overseers are to shepherd the sheep, not under compulsion, resenting what they have to do, but willingly. Good shepherding is not easy. There is a lot of sacrifice in shepherding the Lord’s sheep. Those who have such a calling must love the sheep and be willing to what it takes to do the job, according to God, that is, in God’s way of love with firmness.
The elders or overseers are not to do the job for money. That does not mean a shepherd should not earn his keep by shepherding (1 Cor. 9.14), but that he should not do it for the money. He does it for love of God and the sheep. Doing it just for the money is shameful. In 1 Tim. 6.6 Paul says that some think religion is a means of gain, then he says that there is great gain in proper service, but that gain is spiritual, not material. I am afraid we are living in a day when there are many who are trying to make big money through their so-called ministries, and I suppose it has always been that way. God have mercy on us.
One of the great beauties of real Christianity is that every Christian is a priest, as we saw in 2.5. When there is a priesthood of a few over the many, it is very easy for the priests to use that position for some of that shameful gain as Peter mentions here. As I noted earlier, even some so-called Christian denominations had reinstituted a clerical priesthood, one of the very things the Lord Jesus died to abolish. There are no clergy in the New Testament. We are all the people of God. The Greek word for “people” is laos, from which we get “layman” and “laity.” There is no word for “clergy.” There are those called by God to minister in particular ways, but they are part of the people of God.
The elders or overseers are to minister with passion. It is interesting that the word for “passion” is the same in Greek as the word for “suffering.” It is not that an elder or overseer has to suffer, but that he has such passion for the Lord and his people that he is willing to suffer if need be, and indeed there is some suffering, some self-sacrifice, in serving the people of God.
The elders or overseers are not to lord it over their charges, as some unworthy priest might do, but to be examples to the flock. They are to take the lead in laying down their lives for the Lord. I do not mean physical dying, though there are martyrs and that may happen, but living for the Lord and his people. They should be an example of what they are telling the sheep what they ought to be.
The result? “The Chief Shepherd having been revealed, you will receive the unfading wreath of glory.” We dealt with glory. The faithful and obedient elders and overseers will receive that unfading wreath of glory. The word “wreath,” usually translated “crown,” is the word for the wreath that an athlete won in the ancient games in Greece. You may remember that in the 2004 Olympics held in Athens, Greece the winners stood on the podium with a wreath on their heads as the symbol of victory. Paul, James, and Peter all use this wreath as a symbol of victory in the Christian life. In 2 Tim. 4.8 Paul writes that “there is laid up for me the wreath of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me in that day, but not only to me, but also to all those having loved his appearing.”
James 1.12 says, “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for having been approved he will receive the wreath of life which he promised to those loving him.” In Rev. 2.10 we read, “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the wreath of life.” And here Peter writes of the wreath of glory. All of these are wreaths of victory, as they were in the Olympic games.
We read in 1 Cor. 9.24-27,
24Do you not know that all those running in a race all indeed run, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Now everything striving exercises self-control in all things, they indeed then that they might receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable. 26I therefore run thus, as not uncertainly. So I box, not as beating air, 27but I treat my body severely [the Greek is literally “strike under the eye”!] and enslave it, so that having preached to others I myself might not be disqualified.”
As Christians we are running a race. Unlike the earthly race referred to, we can all win. But we can also lose. In Rev. 3.11 the Lord Jesus says, “Hold fast what you have, so that no one take your crown.” This was spoken to the church in Philadelphia, the model church. Hold fast to the end. Losing does not mean that we will lose our salvation, but that will not receive the wreath of victory, and I think every serious Christian wants to have that wreath to cast at the feet of the Lord Jesus when we see him. He is the Victor and we are victors only in him.
One more personal word: the Greek word for “wreath” is stephanos, from which we get the names Stephen and Stephanie. We named our daughter Stephanie with the prayer that she would live a victorious Christian life, and we like the name.
5Likewise, younger ones be submitted to elders, but all of you put on humility to one another, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” [Prov. 3.34 LXX, see Ja. 4.6].
It is only natural for the younger ones to be submissive to the older ones, whether it be children to parents or other situations, such as elders in the church, but Peter says that all should be humble. Just because the elders have some authority over the younger is no excuse for pride. Peter’s quotation of Prov. 3.34 LXX is one of the few Old Testament quotes that occur more than once, so it appears three times in the Bible. The wrong kind of pride is deadly, especially spiritually. There is a right kind of pride. We should all take pride in our work, meaning that we should do our best, but even there we could develop arrogance, looking down on others who may not be able to do as well as we can. Parents want to be proud of their children, but not for the wrong reasons. God hates the wrong kind of pride, and he resists the proud. Do you want to be resisted by God? Of course not. Life is hard enough with God on our side, or we on God’s side! We surely do not want him against us. Instead he gives grace to the humble. Grace is his favor and surely we want that. And grace is God’s strength to enable us.
The younger are supposed to be yielded to the elders, but the elders are to be humble just as all the flock is. We saw in v. 3 that elders are not to lord it over their charges.
6Be humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in time [kairos], 7having cast all your care on him, for it matters to him about you.
Since God gives grace to the humble, then be humbled! It is interesting that the Greek is not an adjective, humble, but a verb, be humbled. We all have that flesh we have referred to and the flesh is inherently proud. It is so proud that it can even be proud of its humility, if it has any! Life will give us plenty of opportunities to be humbled. Take advantage of them. God will humble us if we are obedient to him. If we insist on being proud before him and resist humility, he has ways, and he can humble us ultimately by condemning us for eternity if we refuse to trust Christ and receive him as Savior, or by saying, “Not well done” at the judgment seat of Christ. Everything we have was given to us anyway. The Lord says in Jn. 3.27, “A man cannot receive one thing unless it has been given him from Heaven.” And 1 Cor. 4.7 adds, “But what do you have that you did not receive? But if indeed you received it, why do you boast as not having received it?” Any talent or ability we were born with was given to us by God. We did not create it. How can we be proud of it? Easy, such is the pride of man.
If we will submit to being humbled, in due time – kairos again – God will exalt us. We will have a place of responsibility in his kingdom, reigning with him. If we admit our inability and cast our care on the Lord (this does not mean we can just lie in bed and wait for God to get us up and bless us – we have to do our part), he will exalt, because it matters to him about us. I like translating the word that way: it matters to him. Do you have things and people that matter to you? So does God – you! You matter to him. Be humbled under his mighty hand! That is the way up.
8Be sober. Be awake. Your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, 9whom resist firm in the faith,
We encountered the word “sober” in 1.13 and 4.7. Life is serious business. Be sober-minded. There are serious matters to be prayed for and we need to be sober-minded for prayer. Here Peter couples being sober with staying awake, that is, being alert and watchful. Why do we need to be sober and alert? Because “the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” He is our adversary. He is against us. Just as a hungry lion walks about looking for prey to devour, so does the devil want to devour us.
The word “devil” is diabolos, which literally means “casting through.” That is, he is the accuser of the brothers (Rev. 12.10). The picture is that of an attorney arguing a case at law, trying to cast charges at the defendant. He tried to cast charges at Job, telling God that if God would touch all that Job had, then Job would curse him to his face. When Job did not curse God, the devil said to touch Job’s bone and flesh and he will curse you to your face. The charges did not stick and Job was acquitted. The devil lost that case.
He is doing the same with us. He tries to accuse us, to drag us down with guilt. We do not have to let him devour us with guilt. Our sins have been forgiven and they no longer exist. We have been acquitted, justified. Case dismissed. I remember hearing a preacher say that he had talked with a woman who told him that she had begged God’s forgiveness for the same old sin every day for years that she had confessed many years before. His reply was that God did not know what she was talking about after the first confession! Is. 43.25 says that God will not remember our sins, and Jer. 31.34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.” Do not let the devil devour you with guilt. If you have confessed your sin to God, he has forgiven it, and he has and will cleanse you of all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1.9). Just as the Lord Jesus quoted Scripture when he was tempted in Mt. 4.3-10, Lk. 4.3-12, so can you. But don’t get into a discussion with the devil. He is smarter and trickier than we are, the greatest liar who ever lived. Quote these Scripture verses and move on. You are forgiven. That is how we resist the devil in the matter of guilt and accusation, firm in faith in God’s word. The devil is the liar (Jn. 8.44). God cannot lie (Ti. 1.2, Heb. 6.18).
knowing the same kinds of sufferings to be accomplished in your brotherhood in the world.
Peter recognizes that our dealings with the temptations and accusations of the devil can be suffering to us. The Lord Jesus “suffered having been tempted, [and] he is able to help those being tempted” (Heb. 2.18). Rely on him. It is very instructive to me that Peter writes that the brotherhood are accomplishing suffering. We do not think of suffering as something to be accomplished, but as something to be endured, and to get out of if possible. But in fact suffering is something to be accomplished. It has a purpose, as we have seen seeing all through 1 Peter. When we suffer in faith and submission to God we gain ground. We grow closer to him relationally, (We cannot get any closer to God spatially – he is in us!), we are strengthened in our faith. We are matured. We saw that the Lord Jesus himself was matured and learned obedience through suffering (Heb. 2.10, 5.8). That is God’s purpose in our sufferings. Our sufferings accomplish something if we are faithful and obedient in them.
10But the God of all grace, the one calling you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, you having suffered a little, will himself complete, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
We have seen the God of grace. This God of grace is calling us to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus. We have suffered only a little while (see 2 Cor. 4.16-18), but that suffering is leading to glory. By means of it God is completing, confirming, strengthening, and establishing us. “Complete” translates a word that means “right ordering and arrangement” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). It is used of mending nets in Mt. 4.21 and Mk. 1.19, and of mending men in Gal. 6.1, but it is not limited to mending. It can refer to preparing or framing something properly, such as a teacher training a student in Lk. 6.40 or to equipping (Heb. 13.21). It is a word with a broad range of uses, but all point to the completion of something – or someone, as here in v. 10. God will complete us. He is in the process of completing us now. He will bring the completing to completion.
There is an interesting word in Gen. 25.27. The Hebrew says literally that Jacob was a complete man. I could not find any English translation that says “complete.” The translators apparently do not know what “a complete man” means. If you study the story of Jacob and Esau, you find that Esau had no interest in spiritual things. He sold his birthright for one meal. He was an incomplete man, interested only in the things of this world. Jacob was complete. He was a scoundrel, but he valued the things of God. He wanted to use God for his own benefit, to get what he wanted, but he valued the things of God. God had something to work with. It took twenty long, hard years, but God finally got Jacob, and his completeness was brought to fruition. He became a man of God. That is what God is trying to do with us. We value the things of God, but we all contend with our flesh. God is working on that. He will complete us if we go on with him.
God is confirming us, making us firm, well supported. We do not need to fear falling down. God will carry us through to his kingdom.
He is strengthening us. In Mt. 26.41 the Lord Jesus sys that “the spirit is willing, but flesh is weak.” (I do not think the flesh here is our sin nature, which is quite strong, but our physical flesh.) Paul writes in Rom. 5.6 that we being weak Christ died for the ungodly, and in 1 Cor. 1.27, that he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Perhaps the most instructive verse in this regard is 2 Cor. 12.9 where we read that “power is perfected in weakness.” We are all weak in ourselves in spiritual matters. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot do the will of God in human strength. We cannot speak to the lost to bring them to Christ in ourselves. We cannot reach Christians to help them grow in ourselves. These things take the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. If we will yield ourselves wholly to God he will give us his strength to accomplish his purposes. As we walk with him now he is strengthening us, and he will bring it to completion.
Finally, the God of all grace is establishing us. The word for “establish” here means to lay a foundation. The importance of the foundation is obvious. The best example of this importance is a building. A building must have a good foundation or it might fall in. The Lord Jesus uses this as an example of the need for a good spiritual foundation in Mt. 7.24-27:
“Everyone therefore who hears these my words and does them will be likened to a prudent man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell and the rivers came and the winds blew and fell against that house, and it did not fall because it was founded on the rock. 26And everyone who hears these my words and does not do them will be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27And the rain fell and the rivers came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and its fall was great.
Only a foolish, or dishonest, person would build a house on sand. The house built on rock is much more likely to stand, and notice that Christ is the Rock on which we build our lives (1 Cor. 10.4) if we hear his words and do them. Christ is to be the foundation of our lives. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 3.10-12 that the foundation is Christ. Eph. 2.20 adds to this line of thought that the house of God (his people, not a building) is built “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” I think we would all agree that the apostles and prophets are not the foundation, but that Christ is, and that the foundation of the apostles and prophets is what they preached, which is Christ. He is the cornerstone, as well as the foundation. This is a bit different metaphor for the same thing.
Eph. 3.17 adds another angle on the foundation: “being rooted and founded in love.” This is a bit of a mixed metaphor, “rooting” having to do with trees and “founded” with buildings. But roots are the foundation of a tree so it amounts to the same thing. The point we want to make here is that we are rooted and founded in love. God’s love for us. Our love for him and for his people. And God is love. Son of Sol. 8.6 says that “love is as strong as death.” Is that not true? Do you not still love your loved ones who have gone ahead to be with the Lord and long to see them again? What stronger foundation could we have than God’s love?
Then Paul tells us in 1 Tim. 6.18-19 that we are “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, laying up for [ourselves] the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that [we] may take hold of that which is life indeed.” Christ is the foundation. On that foundation we build, as 1 Cor. 3.10 and 12 tell us. What we build on it matters. In 1 Cor. 3 it is gold, silver, precious stones, wood hay, straw. Here it is doing good and being generous. They amount to the same thing. What we do now lays the foundation for our eternal future. If we do as we ought to do before God, he will finally have us fully founded, fully established, ready to stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11To him be the might into the ages. Amen.
There are several Greek words, at least six, that have to do with power. Probably the most well-known is dunamis, from which we get our word “dynamite,” though it has nothing to do with our dynamite, which had not yet been discovered (it was patented in 1867). It is sometimes translated as “miracle,” but that means simply “a work of power,” but I cannot find any Greek word for “miracle.” It is very difficult to make a distinction for all the Greek words dealing with power. They are pretty much used interchangeably in the New Testament. The word used here in 1 Peter is kratos. In order to keep these several words distinguished I usually translate kratos as “might,” as I have done here. One student of Greek says that kratos is exerted power, not just the ability to do something, but doing it. The bottom line is that God is mighty, powerful, strong, forceful, able, energetic. He is all of these infinitely. He is almighty! “Is anything too hard for God?” No! Emphatically no! Such is our God.
“Into the ages,” or “into the ages of the ages” as some Greek manuscripts have it means forever. God is eternal.
12Through Silvanus, the faithful brother, as I regard him, I wrote to you in a few words, urging and testifying this to be God’s true grace, in which stand! 13She who is also elect with you in Babylon greets you, and Mark my son. 14Greet one another with a kiss of love.
These last three verses are a close to the letter. “Through Silvanus” probably means that Silvanus wrote down this epistle as Peter dictated it. Most agree that Silvanus and Silas are the same person. I will not go into all the pages of discussion of who Silvanus was and what role he actually played in writing the epistle. You wouldn’t believe it! Peter regarded him as a faithful brother. That is good enough for me!
Through Silvanus Peter wrote to urge and testify that what he has written is true and comes out of God’s grace, in which we stand.
V. 13 is fraught with questions. Who is “She who is also elect with you”? Was she an individual, Peter’s wife perhaps (1 Cor. 9.5)? Was she a local church, as the elect lady referred to in 2 Jn. 1 probably was? What does Babylon mean? Is it a cryptic reference to Rome? Was it the ancient city of Babylon in Mesopotamia? Or some other place? Babylon has become a symbol of sin and evil, the center of Satan’s activity, as Jerusalem is the city of God. Who is Mark? Most think he was the Mark who wrote an account of the good news. Was he actually Peter’s son or is that a spiritual reference to a son in the faith? Tradition has it that Peter ended his life in Rome and that Mark was with him and learned from Peter much of what is included in the Good News According to Mark. Others believe that Peter was not in Rome at all and that that scenario was made up by those who called him the first pope (nonsense), but in the actual Babylon. There has been a large Jewish presence there since the deportation of the Jews there in the seventh century B.C. These people believe that Peter went there to evangelize the Jews there and wrote his epistle from there. None of these questions can be answered with certainty, and I see no point is debating questions that cannot be answered.
Whatever the answers to the questions may be, Peter tells his readers to “greet one another with a kiss of love.” Paul says “holy kiss” in Rom. 16.16, 1 Cor. 1.20, and 2 Cor. 13.12. In 4.8 Peter says to be earnest in love for one another, and now he calls for a kiss of love.
Peace to you all who are in Christ.
Peter said to his readers in 1.2, “grace to you and peace be multiplied.“ He refers again to the grace of God in 5.12, and now he closes with, “Peace to you all who are in Christ.” The recipients of Peter’s epistle were in “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” More importantly, they were and are “in Christ.” Amen.
2 Peter
Symeon Peter, slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those having received faith of like preciousness as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Whereas Peter began his first epistle by calling himself Peter, here he begins with Symeon Peter. And in 1 Peter he calls himself “apostle of Jesus Christ.” Here he is “slave and apostle.“ Paul called himself a slave of Christ Jesus in Romans and Philippians, a slave of God in Titus, and a prisoner of Christ Jesus in Philemon. He majors on the fact that we as Christians are slaves of the Lord in Rom. 6.16-18 and 22. Everyone is a slave. The choice is the master. Do we want to be slaves of sin or slaves of God? And here Peter calls himself a slave as well as an apostle. He does not give a reason.
In 1 Peter he addresses his remarks to the “elect sojourners of the diaspora of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” Here it is “to those having received faith of like preciousness as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Are these the same people he addressed in 1 Peter or a different group? 2 Pt. 3.1 says, “This now, beloved, is the second epistle I am writing to you,” which indicates that they were the same.
These people had received faith “of like preciousness as ours.” There is a sense in which we must exercise faith, but there is also a sense in which faith is a gift. The literal translation of Gal. 2.20 is, “… I live by faith which is of the Son of God.” Faith is one of the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor. 12. Every good thing given by God is by grace, something given. Why is one person saved and another lost? We might answer that the one had faith and the other did not. That is true, but why did the one saved have faith? Grace. We have free will and we can reject the Lord, but we can exercise faith and be saved. I cannot answer all these questions, but we receive faith.
Faith “of like preciousness as ours.” Peter was an apostle. Did he have a better faith than the non-apostles? No. We are all blessed with the same faith. We have different callings, but we all have precious saving faith, “faith which is of the Son of God.”
We have received faith “by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Some commentators say it should be “in the righteousness” rather than “by,” because righteousness comes by faith, not faith by righteousness. But Peter is not dealing with our righteousness, but Christ’s. We do not have any righteousness of ourselves. Paul makes that quite clear in Rom 4.11, that the righteousness of Christ is credited to us, not of us. Yes, we are made righteous by faith, but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus must be there to have faith in. It is by the righteousness of Christ that we can be made righteousness by faith.
2Grace and peace be multiplied to you in full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
Peter’s greeting in the first epistle is “grace to you and peace be multiplied.” We dealt with those terms there. It would be good to review those thoughts.
The word for “knowledge” here is not just knowledge, which can be just head knowledge or a mental concept. The Greek word is an expansion of “knowledge,” full knowledge. “Full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” does not mean that we know everything there is to know about them, an impossibility, but that we have come to a spiritual understanding of deeper things of God (1 Cor. 2.10). We know him in our hearts and have a grasp of spiritual truth that we would not have through study and teaching. Peter’s wish is for his readers to have this full knowledge. Heb. 6.1 says, “Therefore having left the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to maturity.” That is, being carried on to full knowledge. In the last verse of this epistle we read, “But grow in grace and knowledge….” The word here is just “knowledge,” not full “knowledge,” but as we grow in knowledge we grow into full knowledge. That is one of Peter’s aims for his readers.
Grace and peace and full knowledge can be multiplied to us because of
3his divine power having given to you all things pertaining to life and proper worship
The divine power of the Lord Jesus has given us “all things pertaining to life and proper worship.” The word “life” here is zoe, the word used for God’s life in us, spiritual life, eternal life, and not just physical life. Whatever we need to get on in this life that God has given us is available to us.
The word I have translated as “proper worship” is of great interest. I referred to it in dealing with 1 Pt. 1.9, which see, but without explanation. The Greek word, eusebeia, is very difficult to translate. It is usually translated “godliness,” but the root of it, the sebeia part, refers to worship. Eu is a common word meaning “well.” We have a number of English words beginning with “eu”: euphony, a good sound as compared with cacophony, a bad sound; euphemism, a good way of saying something that is not nice; eugenics, good genes; eulogy, saying nice things about a person, usually deceased; and a kind of contradiction in terms, euthanasia, good death; and so on. Eusebeia is good worship. And the root of sebeia is awe. Good worship or worshiping well begins with being in awe of God.
I dealt with this awe in considering holiness in 1 Pt. 1.14-16. Let me quote what I wrote there:
There is awe about God, and awe includes a measure of fear, the fear of God, the beginning of wisdom. How could we not tremble before so awesome a presence as God? In Dt. 9.19 Moses says that he was terrified at the anger of God. Moses was not the one who sinned, but when he saw the anger of God at the sinners he was nonetheless terrified. He knew that he himself was a sinful person, as we all are. In Lk. 5.8 Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” We do not need to live our lives afraid of God because he loves us, but we had better have some of the fear of God in us.
Taking all these matters into account I have come up with “proper worship,” perhaps not the best translation for good writing, but I am more concerned with understanding the Scriptures than in having the most polished writing. And don’t forget that proper worship includes at least one other aspect: “in Spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4.24).
through the full knowledge of the one having called us by his own glory and excellence
We come back to full knowledge. We do not have “all things pertaining to life and proper worship” in actual working order when we first come to the Lord, but it is all there in seed form, we might say. As we go on with the Lord, being “carried on to maturity,” the seed takes root and grows and produces ever increasing spiritual knowledge, full knowledge. The plant begins to bear fruit.
The full knowledge is “of the one having called us by his own glory and excellence,” of the Lord Jesus. As we grow in the full knowledge of him, the “all things pertaining to life and proper worship” take root and bear fruit. And let me stress again that we are not dealing with information about the Lord Jesus, but knowing him personally, relationally. It is not just knowing about him, but knowing him. I know about thousands of people I have never met. I know a lot about the Lord Jesus from my studies, and that is important, but it is all worthless if we do not know him, and if we are not going on with him to fuller and fuller knowledge.
And should we not want to go on with the one who “called us by his own glory and excellence,” the one who gave his life for us to bring us to himself? We have already dealt with glory. What about excellence? This is another very difficult word to translate. First, it has a long history in secular life having to do with achievement, eminence, manliness, especially martial valor, and fame. These point to the glory of man. Then it is used only four times in the New Testament, in Phil. 4.8, where it is joined with truth, venerability, rightness in the sense of moral right, purity, loveliness, things well spoken of, and Paul concludes, “if there be any excellence and if any praise, take these things into account….” The other three occurrence are here in 1 and 2 Peter. In 1 Pt. 2.9 we read of the “excellencies of the one having called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Then the word is used here in 2 Peter 1 in verse 3, where it again relates to the Lord. Then it occurs in v. 5, where it is applied to us, as we will see momentarily. It is obvious that the secular use is secular indeed, dealing with the ability and achievements of man, whereas in the New Testament it has to do with the Lord and his people.
The word is often translated “virtue,” but I think of virtue as more a human quality. In fact, the word comes from the Latin word vir, man or male, and it is related to virility, having the qualities of a man, including sexual virility. Indeed, virtue can mean moral purity. It seems to me that the triune God is infinitely beyond the qualities of man. He is not virtuous as a human might be. He is divine. Thus “excellency” seems to me to be a better translation. God is excellent in every way, and that is an understatement.
4through which he has given to us the precious and greatest promises,
Through his divine power, our full knowledge of him, his glory, and his excellence, “he has given to us the precious and greatest promises.” His divine power – he is able to make and keep promises. Through our full knowledge of him – as we know him we can receive communications from him and grasp them. Through his glory – we saw that his glory is his fame and honor brought about by his mighty acts. His excellence – we saw that in the secular world excellence has to do with man’s ability and achievement. God is infinitely beyond the ability and achievement of man. He is almighty.
What are God’s precious and great promises? The first promise he made was to Abraham in Gen. 15.7 and 18-20. In v. 7 he told him that he brought him ought of Ur of the Chaldeans to give him this land, what we know as Israel and the land of promise. In vs. 18-20 he says to him,
To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite 20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim 21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.
These boundaries, by the way, have never yet been reached. The Jews have not yet reached their promised boundaries. We have never reached the boundaries of Christ, and we never will! There will be more to learn of him throughout eternity, which never ends. But I am getting ahead of myself. It is interesting that Rom. 4.13 says that the promise was made to Abraham and his seed that he would be heir of the world. The promised land was the Old Testament promise, but prophecy tells us that the Lord Jesus will come back and take his seat on the throne, in Jerusalem I believe (Is. 9.6-7, Jer. 33.17, Mt. 19.28, 25.31-32), and he will rule the world from there as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will be heir of the world.
In Lk. 24.49 the Lord Jesus made the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples (see also Acts 1.4, 2.33 and 39, Gal. 3.14, and Eph. 1.13). This was fulfilled at Pentecost and ongoing. Acts 13.23 and 32-33 tells us that the Lord Jesus himself is a promised Savior and that his resurrection, securing ours, is a promise.
In 2 Cor. 6.16-7.1 we read,
For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, “’I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people’” [Ex. 29.45, Lev. 26.12]. 17”’Therefore come out from among them and be separated,’ says the Lord, ‘and touch nothing unclean’ [Is. 52.11], and I will welcome you, and I will be a Father to you and you will be sons and daughters to me,” says the Lord almighty. 7.1Therefore, having these promises, beloved, we should cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The Father God himself will dwell with us and walk among us. He will be our God and we will be his people. He will welcome us and be a Father to us. Some of us did not have a father or a good father, or even had an abusive father. God will be a perfect Father to us.
We have the promise of life to come in 1 Tim. 4.8, of life in 2 Tim. 1.1, and of eternal life in Ti. 1.1 and 1 Jn. 2.25.
Hebrews tells us that we have the promise of entering God’s rest in 4.1. This does not mean that we will have nothing to do in Heaven, but that we will not be doing work that we hate or that is unfruitful, and that we will not have the constant battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We will leave behind the heavy burdens of this world. Hebrews adds that we have better promises than those of the old covenant (8.6), not just of living this life on land in Israel, but of an eternal inheritance (9.15).
Ja. 2.5 says that we who love God have the promise of a kingdom, a place in the millennial kingdom of God. And we will see in 2 Pt. 3.12-13 that we have the promise of a new sky and a new earth purged of evil (see also Is. 65.17 and 66.22). Imagine it – a sinless universe full of the glory of God!
And the greatest of these, I believe, is the promised marriage supper of the Lamb, participation in the bride of Christ, in Mt. 22.2-11 and 25.1-13 and in Rev. 19.7-9. But there are qualifications for this promise. The parable of the five prudent and five foolish virgins tells us that we must be ready for the Bridegroom when he comes. How do we make ready? By our faithfulness and obedience to the Lord Jesus, by not being satisfied with being saved, though that is essential. Being saved in this sense is being born again, as we have seen, becoming a baby. But babies need to grow up, as we saw in 1 Pt. 2.2. We must be matured. We must have extra oil for our lamps, the oil of the Holy Spirit. Don’t be satisfied with just receiving the Holy Spirit to give us eternal life, but be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5.18), that he may teach us and lead us and empower us to do the will of God. If we do not have that extra oil when the Bridegroom comes, while we are out trying to buy some, he will close the door and we will be left out of the marriage feast. We will be saved, but we may fail to be a part of the bride.
Mt. 22.11-13 says that we must have a wedding garment to attend the marriage feast, and Rev. 19.8 tells us that the fine linen of the wedding garment is the righteous deeds of the saints. That is, by doing the will of God, not just good deeds as we see it, but doing his will, we are weaving a wedding garment. We weave our own wedding garment now by how we live our lives. If we do not have a wedding garment we will not be allowed into the feast, and if we should somehow sneak in we will have the embarrassment of being thrown out, though I believe this latter cannot happen, but is put in the parable by the Lord for emphasis. How important it is to be ready.
And being ready does not apply just to the coming of the Lord, for most will not be here when the Lord comes. Most will have died, so we must be ready at death if that comes before the Lord does. That means we must be ready at all times for we do not know when death will come. Be busy about weaving your wedding garment. We do not want to miss this most precious and greatest promise.
that through these you may be partakers of divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Through these precious and greatest promises we “may be partakers of divine nature.” Because of these promises from God we can exercise faith in the promises, in what God says. As we saw in considering 1 Pt. 1.13, faith is believing what God says and acting on it. What God says is true and can be acted on. When we act on the belief, that is faith. We act on God’s precious and greatest promises and that is faith. How do we act on them? We accept them as true and conduct our lives on that basis. We rejoice in them. We plan our lives insofar as we can on those promises. We lay up treasure in Heaven rather than on this earth. By that I do not mean that we should not save money for a rainy day and for retirement, which is prudent, but that money is not the governing factor in our lives. We do not live for money and the things it can buy. We live for an eternity with the Lord. We do that by worshiping God, doing his will, sharing the good news with the lost, helping those in need, and so forth. When we have difficulty we do not blame God and try to get him to get us out of it, but we accept his dealings with us as designed to deliver us from our sins and to strengthen and mature us in him. You can think of many more ways we exercise faith.
The result? We become “partakers of divine nature.” Some have taken that to mean that we become divine. That is absolutely not true and there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that. Only God is divine. To partake of his nature is to have his life dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit. He becomes our life. Col. 3.4 says, “Christ, our life.” It is not that we become divine, but that he is what makes us alive. We were crucified with Christ (Gal. 2.19) and have been raised up “that we might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6.4).
It also means that we feed on Christ as the bread of life. In Jn. 6.50-51 the Lord tells us, “This is the Bread coming down from Heaven that one may eat of it and not die. 51I AM the living Bread having come down from Heaven. If anyone eat of this Bread he will live into the age, and the Bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Lord Jesus is our life and he sustains our life as we feed on him spiritually. When I think of Christ as the bread of life I always think that it is interesting that he was born in Bethlehem, while means “house of bread.”
Having a new, divine life dwelling in us and directing us as we yield to him, we have “escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” Life is life. Corruption is death. Paul writes in Rom. 8.6 that “the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.” There is a working of corruption, death, in our bodies because our bodies have not yet been redeemed (Rom. 8.23), and that corruption can work in our souls, too, if our minds are set on fleshly things, if we lust, that is, having a consuming desire for anything that is not of God. Paul speaks in 1 Tim. 5.6 of one who “is dead even while she lives.” But we have the option of feeding on the bread of life and setting our minds on the things of the Holy Spirit. If we do that, Paul says that “if indeed our outer man is wasting away, our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4.16). Even as our bodies age and waste away and eventually die, we have a working of life in our inner man that will never die. We have escaped both the corrupt ways of living of the world that is spiritual death while we live, and ultimate spiritual death in hell, and we have gained eternal life, really an ever-increasing life. And we do have the promise that one day our bodies will be redeemed either by resurrection or by being changed “in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet,” when the Lord returns (1 Cor. 15.52). Precious and greatest promises indeed!
5Now for this very reason also, having brought in all diligence, supply with your faith excellence,
Peter now turns to the matter of growth. We read in 1 Pt. 2.2, “… as newborn babies long for the logical, unadulterated milk, that by it you may grow in [or into] salvation.” But of course we are to get beyond milk to solid food. Here he sets forth an aspect of that growth. He begins with faith, which is fundamental. Without faith there is nothing. That is how we are born again and receive life to begin with. But if all we do is dwell on our initial salvation all of our lives we will not grow. The writer of Hebrews wrote in 5.12-14,
For indeed you, being obligated to be teachers because of the time, you have need for someone to teach you again the elementary principles of the beginning of the sayings of God and you have come to have need of milk and not strong food. 13For everyone partaking of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. 14But strong food is for the mature, those having the senses trained because of practice for discernment of good and evil.
Then he adds in 6.1-2, a passage we have already quoted,
Therefore having left the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, 2of teachings of baptisms and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Faith is at the beginning and indeed it goes on throughout our lives, “for we walk by faith, and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5.7), but we need to get beyond the beginning. So here Peter says, “having brought in all diligence, supply with your faith excellence.” We dealt with excellence just above in 1.3 as God’s excellence, and we saw that excellence is a divine quality, but now Peter says that we are to add excellence. How do we add a divine quality to ourselves? Not by becoming divine, but by becoming partakers of divine nature, having Christ as our life and feeding on him spiritually. As we pursue that course of taking him as our life and feeding on him, we grow in the matter of excellence. It is really his excellence manifested in us, not ours. Anything of value in us is of the Lord. We cannot supply the excellence ourselves because it is not of us, but of the Lord. Our part is to be diligent in pursuing excellence as we seek the Lord, study his word, fellowship, and so forth.
and with the excellence knowledge,
Knowledge here is the not full knowledge we dealt with earlier, just knowledge, but as we pursue spiritual knowledge along with excellence we will grow in knowledge so that we are moving toward full knowledge. This is all about growth. We stress again that pursuing knowledge is not pursuing information, but a spiritual understanding of the Scriptures and a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
6and with the knowledge self-control,
The Greek word for “self-control” literally means “in power” or “in strength,” that is, having power over oneself, whether it be bodily appetites, as seen in 1 Cor. 7.9, where the verb “have self-control” is used, discipline in physical training, as in 1 Cor. 9.25, where the athlete is seen preparing for the games, or life in general, as in Ti. 1.8. The noun “self-control” is used only four times in the New Testament, twice here in 2 Peter, and once each in Acts and Galatians. In Acts 24.25 we have “righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” in Paul’s words to Felix the governor, which frightened Felix so much that he sent Paul away. It appears that the combination shows that we are to be in control of ourselves so as to live righteously, with the prospect of judgment if we do not.
The other use of the word is in Gal. 5.23 in the list of fruits of the Spirit. The implication is that we are not capable of the kind of self-control required by God in living a disciplined, moral, righteous life and must have the power of the Holy Spirit to do so. I think we would all admit that we are not as self-controlled spiritually as we should be. Many athletes do have great self-control in training for competition. Others study hard to make top grades in school so as to prepare for a successful career. I think of such fields as medicine where a prospective doctor must have great discipline and stamina to reach the goal. There are those who abstain from sexual satisfaction for various reasons, something that is very difficult to do.
But the matter of self-control in spiritual life is different. We are contending with that old enemy, the flesh. We must learn to crucify the flesh (Gal. 5.24, immediately after 5.23), and that takes the power of the Holy Spirit. We contend with the flesh all through life and we must have a Spirit-governed life to succeed. We tend to lose our tempers and “fly off the handle,” as the saying goes. When the axe head flies off the handle someone is liable to be hurt! Usually those hurts come from angry words and those words cannot be taken back. We can be controlled by a drive for things we want to have. We need to have the discipline to study the Lord’s word and spend time with him in prayer, and not just prayers of asking for things, but of worship and praise and thanksgiving. How we need self-control!
and with the self-control endurance,
The Greek word for endurance is literally “bear under,” that is, bearing up under a load, not caving in. We all know about endurance. We mentioned athletes who endure rigorous training to reach their goals. We have all had to endure under some kind of suffering, some under very severe suffering. Heb. 2.1-2 says,
Therefore we also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having laid aside every weight and the easily entangling sin, let us run with endurance the race lying before us, 2looking to the founder and perfecter of faith, Jesus, who for the joy lying before him endured the cross, having despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Who can match the endurance of the Lord Jesus? We cannot imagine what he endured, and he is given here as the supreme example of endurance. In our struggle to endure we look to him for his strength to endure. Our life in the Lord is like a race. In Phil. 2.16 Paul expresses the hope that he “did not run in vain or labor in vain,” and in Gal. 5.7 he asks, “You were running well. Who hindered you so as not to obey the truth?” Back to the games in 1 Cor. 9.24-24, Paul says in v. 26-27, “I therefore run thus, as not uncertainly. I box not as beating air, but I batter my body and bring it under subjection, so as not having preached to others I myself might be disqualified.” Endurance.
and with the endurance proper worship,
Once again we see our word “proper worship,” eusebeia, as seen in 1.3. I will not go into detail here since I did so in dealing with 1.3, but just point out the important place of worship. Worship is one of the key matters in the universe. One of the great questions is, Who will be worshipped, God or Satan? Many of us tend to worship ourselves or money or things. The only being in the universe worthy of worship is the triune God. If we are not worshiping God we are worshiping something else, and that is idolatry. Paul tells us in Rom. 12.1 that our logical worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. If what Paul has written in Romans is true, it is only logical that we worship God. True worship involves sacrifice. (See my article Worship in this web site.)
7and with the proper worship brotherly love, and with the brotherly love, God’s love.
In Pt. 1.22 we read, “Having purified your souls in the obedience to the truth for an unhypocritical brotherly love, love one another earnestly from the heart.” In that verse Peter combined brotherly love (philadelphia) with agape love, God’s love, so I have combined both words for love here also. The church is the body of Christ and it is essential that we love one another. Eph. 5.29 says that “no one ever hated his own flesh” or body. So it is in the church. Every person in the church is a member of the body of which we all are parts. If we do not love the other members of the body we are raising questions about ourselves.
Then Peter shows the real key to brotherly love. It is the love of God, another fruit of the Spirit seen in Gal. 5.22. We need love that goes beyond or natural human love. We need the love that the Lord Jesus demonstrated at the cross. That comes only by our submission to the Holy Spirit to produce it in us.
8For these things being in you and increasing, it will render you not idle or unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Are you an idle Christian? Am I? We need to be busy about the things of God, seeking him, studying his word, sharing him with others, ministering as he leads. The boy Jesus says in Lk. 2.49, “Did you not know that I must be about the things of my Father?” So should we be.
The Lord Jesus says in Jn. 15.2 and 8, “Every branch in me not bearing fruit, he takes it away, and every one bearing fruit, he prunes it that it may bear more fruit…. 8By this is my Father glorified, that you should bear much fruit and become my disciples.” He also said, “From their fruits you will know them” (Mt. 7.16). What kind of fruit are we producing? Are we bearing any fruit?
And once again Peter mentions full knowledge. If we are adding these Christian attributes of vs. 5-7, we are growing in full knowledge and will not be idle or unfruitful.
9for he in whom these things are not present is blind, being short-sighted, having received forgetfulness of the purification of his former sins.
One who is idle in the things of God is not adding these qualities, but he does not just stand still. He is losing ground. He is becoming blind, spiritually short-sighted (the Greek word is myopazo, from which we get “myopic”). He may even forget the purification of his former sins and lose that sense of having been saved and beginning to walk with the Lord. This is dangerous ground to be on. Indeed we should be about the things of our Father.
10Therefore rather, brothers, be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for doing these things you might not stumble, ever. 11For thus entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.
Let me say that our calling and election are sure if we have trusted in Christ as our Savior. I believe that Peter means that we need to be sure in our own hearts and minds that our calling and election are sure. How are we sure? By faith. We believe God. We trust God. We take our stand on what God says, the one who cannot lie.
Let me also say that I suspect (I will not be dogmatic about this) that it is possible to thwart God’s predestination of us to be conformed to the image of Christ. I have already referred to 1 Cor. 3 six times in this exposition. It says plainly that our works as Christians can be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ. We will be saved, but we lose our reward if they are burned up. It is possible for a Christian to stumble, that is, to sin or get onto a wrong track. Ja. 3.2 says, “For we all stumble in many ways.” Peter says here that if we do all that he has said in vs. 5-8 and here in v. 10, we “might not stumble, ever.” I doubt that any of us would say that we do not stumble ever. “Might” is in what is called the subjunctive mood (pardon the grammar) which means that it is conditional. “If” is the key word in the subjunctive mood. We will not stumble, ever, IF we walk in the ways prescribed here. But if we do stumble, as John says, “if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 Jn. 1.9).
Then Peter adds another note: if we do walk in this way, “entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.” Does that mean that if we do not walk in this way that entrance into the eternal kingdom will not be supplied? We have already seen that it is possible to lose rewards in the kingdom, and that some believe that there will be Christians who will not be admitted to the kingdom. The point is, walk in the way Peter is describing here and be sure of a place in the millennial kingdom.
12I will always be sure to remind you concerning these things, though you know them and have been firmly established in the truth present with you. 13But I think it right as long as I am in this tent to be stirring you up by way of reminder, 14knowing that my removal from this tent is soon, as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15But I will also always be diligent to have you after my exodus to make a remembrance of these things.
Here Peter gets at part of the purpose of his letters. He writes that his readers already know the things he is writing about and are firmly established in them, but he wants to remind them and to stir them up to keep living by these truths. I think we would all admit that it is easy for us to forget some truth we have learned or some way of living we should observe. The Bible is not a small book and the thoughts it sets forth are many. I often find myself thinking of some truth or of some direction I have had from the Lord and his word that I have not thought in some time, and I have to renew my attention to those matters. And the routine and busyness of life can be distracting. We all need a good reminding and stirring from time to time.
Then he adds that he thinks it only right to stir them up as long as he in this tent, this human body. Our body is a tent in which we, the real person, lives. Peter knows that he will leave this tent one day, and he says that he knows that will be soon. He is leaving behind something in writing to remind and stir when he is no longer here, after his exodus or going out. And are we not blessed to this day to have these reminders and this stirring? I doubt that Peter had any idea that his words would still resonate more than 1900 years after his exodus. But he was writing the word of God, whether he knew it or not. Thanks be to God!
16For not having followed cleverly devised myths did we make known to you the power and coming/presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but having been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For him having received from God, Father, honor and glory, such a voice was brought to him by the majestic glory, “This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” 18And this voice having been brought from Heaven we heard, being with him on the holy mount.
In these verses Peter makes his only reference to an event from his time with the Lord Jesus during his earthly ministry. That is remarkable to me. Peter would have had so many memories, good and bad, of his time with the Lord, but he deals with only one in these two letters. Why does he do that?
Before answering that question let me comment on my translation “coming/presence.” The Greek word literally means “presence.” It is often used of the second coming of the Lord Jesus, so it is often translated “coming.” The idea is that at his coming he is present. Both concepts are included in the word. It emphasizes not just the coming, but the very presence of the Lord.
By the time these letters were written, false teaching and conduct had already found its way into the church. In Mt. 7.15 the Lord himself says, “Be on guard against the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Peter will mention false prophets in 2.1. We read in 1 Jn. 4.1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” There were false prophets with “cleverly devised myths” trying to lead people astray. They lived in a time of myth, as we know from Greek and Roman mythology with all the gods and goddesses and their stories. In 1 Tim. 1.4 we read of “myths and endless genealogies.” In 1 Tim. 4.7 we have “old women’s myths,” and in Ti. 1.14, “Jewish myths and commandments of men.” Peter is making the point that the Christian faith did not come from a made-up story, a myth, but from actual historical events. All of those mythological gods and goddess never lived, except possibly as real demons who were deceiving people. But the Lord Jesus lived on earth as a man. The disciples walked with him for three or so years. They saw what he did and heard what he said. They did not make up a story about the Lord to start a new religion. They saw him transfigured. It actually happened in human history. They were eyewitnesses. They heard God say from Heaven, “This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” They were with the Lord Jesus on the holy mount when God spoke. Peter was referring to the transfiguration itself in these verses, not the second coming.
No, our faith is not a new mythology. Our Savior is not a new mythological god. Our Savior is God in the flesh who lived on earth, was transfigured, was crucified, and rose from the dead. This is real!
19We have the even more sure prophetic word,
The words of the prophets were sure because they were words from God and there is no reason to doubt them, but because of what Peter and James and John saw they are even more sure.
to which you do well paying close attention as to a light shining in a squalid place,
We do well to pay close attention to what the prophets said. All that they prophesied came from the mouth of God. The events they prophesied will take place. They prophesied the coming of a Messiah who would be crucified (see especially Ps. 22 and Is. 53) and it took place exactly as they said. They prophesied a coming judgment on the world with the saved being rescued and the lost being condemned. It will take place. Pay attention. Be ready. They prophesied a coming kingdom in which some will have a place of honor with the Lord and others will be saved, but so as by fire. It will take place. The prophetic word is sure.
The prophetic word is “a light shining in a squalid place.” The word here translated “squalid” occurs only once in the New Testament. It is not a usual word for “dark,” but literally means dry or arid, and thus dirty or dark from neglect, and by extension, squalid. And squalid is defined as “marked by filthiness and degradation from neglect or poverty; morally debased” (Webster). That is the world we live in, a morally and spiritually dark, dirty, filthy, debased place.
The matter of darkness is a whole study in itself. Light has to do with truth and knowledge, and darkness with deception. In Gen 1.3 God says, “Let there be light,” and in 2 Cor. 4.6 we read, “For it is God, the one having said, ‘Out of darkness light will shine,’ who shined in our hearts for the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” God intended for his world to be a world of spiritual light, but sin entered and the creation fell into darkness. Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3.4-5) and their response plunged the whole world into spiritual darkness.
Rom 1.21 tells us, “For having known God they did not glorify him or thank him as God, and they were made futile [serving no good purpose] in their reasoning, and their heart without understanding was darkened.” As Adam and Eve turned from God so did the whole world. Eph. 4.17-18 adds, “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, 18being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart.”
Light and darkness is something of a theme in John’s account of the good news. The Lord Jesus says in Jn. 8.12 that he is the Light of the world. In Jn. 1.4-5 we read, “In him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” We see that the mind darkened in reasoning and understanding cannot comprehend the light. What we as Christians believe and practice makes no sense to the darkened mind. Of those with darkened mind the Lord Jesus says, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” Mankind is not just in darkness, but it loves darkness, because their deeds are evil. Darkness has overtaken them, as the Lord puts it in Jn. 12.35.
But there is good news. The Light has shined in the darkness. God has “shined in our hearts for the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” God sent Paul “to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those having been sanctified by faith….” Col. 1.13 adds that he “delivered us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love.” That word “authority” is important in these two verses. The Greek word is sometimes translated “domain” or “dominion,” but the word is “authority.” A domain can be enforced by brute force, but authority is the right to exert power. When we were lost in sin Satan had a right to us, within God’s boundaries (see Job. 1.6-12 and 2.1-6), but now that we have been transferred to God’s kingdom, Satan does not have that same right to us. Satan can lie to us and tempt us, but he cannot make us do anything. We are free from his clutches and can obey God (see Rom. 6.6, 12-18). And we saw in 1 Pt. 2.9, “that you may proclaim the excellencies of the one having called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
There is an even darker side to darkness. When the Lord Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane he said, “This is your hour and the authority of darkness” (Lk. 22.53). He deliberately put himself under the authority of Satan to be put to death. [Note: The Lord said, “Because of this the Father loves me, that I lay down my life that I may take it again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. This commandment I received from my Father” (Jn. 10.17-18)]. It was the dark power of Satan that seduced the Jewish leaders to crucify the Lord Jesus.
The darkness is real and intelligent and evil. Eph. 6.12 says, “… for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.” This world is ruled by the forces of darkness. Men and women are not our enemies. We do not wrestle with flesh and blood. Our enemies are dark spirits of evil, headed by Satan. The whole world is deceived. The result: “These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved” (2 Pt. 2.17). And Jude 13, “for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved into the age.” Gloom. Thick, deep darkness (Is. 60.2). Darkness that can be felt (Ex. 10.21). This is chilling. This is what awaits those who refuse to turn from darkness to light.
Back to 2 Pt. 1.19. The light of the prophets is a light shining in this squalid place. Pay attention!
until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts,
This matter of the day dawning and the morning rising in hearts is a difficult concept to deal with. There is much disagreement among students of the word. Some believe it refers to the second coming of Christ, others, that it refers to Christ having come into our hearts now by faith. Some of the discussions are hard to decipher. I have struggled to come to my own conclusion. Here it is.
The word of the prophets is a light shining in this squalid world. But it is a word spoken by men, inspired by God and without error, yes, but still by men outside of us speaking to us, just as John the Baptist was a lamp, not the Light (Jn.5.35: John was a lamp, Jesus was the Light). Having received Christ we have the Light of the world dwelling in us, but we still walk by faith. There is much that has still not been revealed to us. We have much prophecy of the end times, but we cannot say that we know everything about those times. I believe that the day has dawned and the morning star has risen in our hearts to a degree, but only to a degree. The Old Testament often speaks of some event taking place at that time, but then moves on to the end times seamlessly. It may be a judgment on Israel or Judah in that day, such as Assyria or Babylon, but then deals with the final judgment at the return of Christ.
I think there is something of this here in 2 Peter. The day has dawned and the morning star has risen in our hearts. We are not living in darkness, as the world is. We have both the word of prophecy as a light shining in a squalid place and the personal experience of the Lord Jesus, who is God’s speaking (Heb. 1.1-2) and who is light, but there is a final day coming. “The day of the Lord” is a common term, especially in the Old Testament, and it refers not to just one day, but to the end of this age and the coming in of the millennium. Rom. 13.12 says that “the day is near,” and 1 Cor. 3.13, that “the work of each one will become manifest, for the day will make it clear.” Peter speaks of “the day of God” in 2 Pt. 3.12. The Lord Jesus is the ultimate light shining in a dark place and he is the morning star (Rev. 2.28 and 22.16, but the word for “star” there, aster, is a star we would see in the skies) is different from the word here in 2 Peter). The word for “star” here is phosphoros, meaning literally “light bearing.” The world, and we, will never be fully illuminated until the Sun of righteousness rises with healing in his wings (Mal. 4.2).
knowing this first, that every prophecy of Scripture is not of its own interpretation, 21for no prophecy was ever carried by the will of man, but men from God spoke, being carried by Holy Spirit.
When thinking about the prophetic word of v. 19, let us be much aware that no prophecy is of “of its own interpretation.” There has been much discussion and difference of opinion as to what this statement means. Without going into the weeds of trying to explain all the possibilities, let me just say this. The Greek words “prophecy” and “Scripture” and “its own” are all in the feminine gender (sorry for more grammar). That means they all go together. The prophecy is not of its own interpretation. No prophecy is separate from other prophecy, as though Isaiah’s prophecy meant one thing and Jeremiah’s meant another, disagreeing with each other. All Scripture is not of man, but of the Holy Spirit. It all agrees.
The false prophets dealt with above may have used one Scripture to say one thing out of context, and another to say something disagreeing, and thus to come up with “cleverly devised myths.” We are not to interpret Scripture piece by piece, but as a whole. My paper Unfulfilled Bible Prophecy attempts to do this. F.B. Hole writes that this statement is
a warning against treating each individual prophetic utterance as though it were by itself, a kind of self-contained saying to be interpreted apart from the mass of prophetic teaching. All prophecy is connected and inter-related and to be understood only in connection with the whole. It was never uttered by the will of man but by inspiration of the Spirit of God. He used different men in different ages, but His one mind pervades it all. Each individual prophetic utterance will only therefore be properly understood and interpreted as it is seen relation to the whole, of which it forms a part.
As Peter puts it in v. 21, “… for no prophecy was ever carried by the will of man, but men from God spoke, being carried by Holy Spirit.”
2. But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among you who will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master, the one having bought them, bringing quick destruction on themselves.
The false prophets spoken of here were Old Testament prophets (see Is. 9.15, Jer. 37.19, Ezk. 13, 14, and 22.25 and 28). The word “people” in this context refers to the people of Israel. There will also be false prophets among Peter’s readers and indeed, among Christians generally, to this day.
These false teachers will “bring in destructive heresies.” Heresies are false doctrines or sects based on those doctrines. The Greek word comes from a verb meaning “to choose.” It is as though there is a number of possibilities and you just choose the one you like. It is an opinion. But Scripture is not based on opinion, but on the speaking of God. These heresies are destructive, spiritually destructive. Peter goes on to say that they even deny the Lord Jesus who bought them with his blood, and so will bring the destructiveness of these heresies on themselves. That destruction will be quick. I believe that the word “quick” does not necessarily mean “soon,” thought it can mean that, but that it will be quick, like lightning, when it does come (see also 2 Thess. 5.3 – sudden destruction).
Paul gives a similar warning in Acts 20.29-30: “I know that after my departure grievous wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from your own selves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.”
2And many will follow their shameless conduct, through whom the way of the truth will be maligned, 3and in covetousness they will exploit you with fabricated words,
The conduct of the false teachers is shameless. The Greek word used here is very hard to pin down. It has been translated as excess, sensuality, licentiousness, wantonness, lasciviousness. Gal. 5.19 classes it with works of the flesh, showing that it can mean satisfying the bodily appetites. There seems also to be an element of satisfying any desire, the senses, such as a desire for emotional pleasure. Eph. 4.19 speaks of those “who, having lost all feeling, have given themselves to shameless conduct for the working of all immorality in greediness.” In whatever sphere the word appears it is categorized as shameless. I remember being in a public place where there were men and women, perhaps children, also, where a man was speaking out about something he did not like and he was using filthy, degraded language repeatedly. He apparently did not care who heard it. A couple of us asked him to stop speaking that way, and he did. His conduct was shameless.
These shameless people of 2 Pt. 2 will lead others down such a destructive path. They will malign the way of truth. The way of truth is the Lord Jesus and the good news about him. How much do we hear these days maligning him and his way of righteousness? I can remember hearing people rejecting the Lord or neglecting him, but today we hear of people who hate him and hate the good news. They want to cancel him from our society.
Further, they, being covetous, that is, being greedy and wanting what others have, will try to use fabricated words to exploit you. I cannot help thinking of preachers who try to use the good news as a means of profit, promising people that if they will send them money God will make them rich. There was a song out some years ago in which one of the lines was, “They want you to send your money to the Lord, but they give you their address.” Paul writes in 1 Tim. 6.5 of men “supposing godliness to be a means of gain.” He goes on to say that there is great in godliness, but it is spiritual, not monetary.
for whom the judgment of old is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.
We now come to a very sobering and chilling portion of the word of God. It deals with the judgment of those whom Peter has just been describing. He says that this judgment is of old. This takes us back to Gen. 2.16-17: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.” And to Gen. 4 and God’s judgment on Cain. And to Gen. 6.5-7:
And I AM saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And I AM was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And I AM said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground, both man and beast and creeping things, and birds of the skies, for I am sorry that I have made them.
The great flood follows. Judgment goes back to the beginning of sin.
And their judgment is not idle. We do not see lost ones in hades, but they are there and the same judgment awaits others who reject the Lord. It is not asleep. Hades awaits the lost. I need to explain here that hades and hell are not the same. Hades is the prison of the lost dead, as we will see here, and hell is the final judgment after the great white throne judgment. There is no one in hell and there never has been at this time.
Other words for hades in the New Testament are “abyss’ and “tartarus,” which we see here. The Old Testament word is sheol. There is no word for “hell” in the Old Testament. I mentioned my booklet, Hades, Hell, Paradise, and Heaven earlier. Please see that for a full explanation of hades and hell.
Peter brings this out at this point in a long sentence in vs. 7-10. Because of this long sentence with several “if’s” I will print it now in a different format from the usual. There are numerous similarities between 2 Peter and Jude and I will point them out as we go.
4For if God did not spare angels having sinned, but having cast them into tartarus he delivered them to pits of gloom, being kept for judgment –
5and did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, the eighth one, a preacher of righteousness, having brought a flood on the world of those not worshipping properly –
6and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, having reduced them to ashes, having made them an example to those living in time to come in improper worship –
7and delivered righteous Lot, troubled by the shameless conduct of the lawless ones (8For the righteous one dwelling among them day by day, by the lawless deeds, what is seen and what is heard, tormented his righteous soul.) –
then – 9the Lord knows to deliver those who worship properly from temptation, but to keep the unrighteous, being punished, for a day of judgment, 10but especially those going after flesh in lust of defilement, despising lordship.
Peter begins with angels who sinned. See Jude 6 in this connection. This could refer to the former heavenly angels who rebelled against God with Satan, as seen in Is. 14 and Ezk. 28. Some think it may refer to Gen. 6.1-2, believing that the sons of God were fallen angels who saw the beauty of women and lusted after them. This is speculative, but perhaps it is true. Whatever it may be, Peter says here that God did not spare them, but cast them into tartarus or hades. God delivered them to pits of gloom. We saw that gloom is deep, thick darkness, darkness that can be felt. There is no light in hades. No one will see anything (see Jude 6 and 13).
It is very important that we take note that Peter then says that they are “being kept for judgment.” That judgment is hell. Just as the saved will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so will the lost appear before the great white throne, after the millennium (Rev. 20.11-15). The “kept for judgment” is hades. The judgment is hell. Just for information let me say that the first inhabitants of hell will be the antichrist and his false prophet (Rev. 19.20), before the millennium.
And God did not spare the ancient world, but judged it by the flood on “those not worshipping properly.” Remember our word eusebeia, proper worship based on the awe of God. Here is the negative of that word, and it occurs again in v. 6. I would say that the lost who died in the flood are now in hades awaiting final judgment. He protected Noah, who is now waiting, with his family, in Paradise for the end of this age.
Another example of the judgment on the ancient world is Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7). Peter says that they are “an example to those living [in time to come] in improper worship.” I have inserted “in time to come” as an explanation. Obviously the people who have known of Sodom and Gomorrah since their judgment are the ones to whom they are an example. People have no excuse for rejecting God. They have the word of God that tells them of the judgment for sin, and they have examples, such as the great flood and Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter adds that those judged were living in improper worship, worshipping idols or false gods or self, or not worshipping at all.
There is a bit lighter note in vs. 7-8. Lot was rescued from the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was troubled and his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds around him, what he saw and what he heard.
THEN. The word “then” is not there in the Greek text, but it is implied. IF God did not spare the sinful, THEN “he knows to deliver those who worship properly [eusebeia again] from temptation.” And he also knows “to keep the unrighteous [in the prison of hades], being punished, for a day of judgment,” the great white throne judgment. Make no mistake. Judgment may be delayed, even for centuries and millenniums, but it is sure and it is coming.
Peter emphasizes “but especially those going after flesh in lust of defilement, despising lordship.” Perhaps because God created man and woman to be an example of Christ and the church (Eph. 5.32), he is especially offended at the sins of fornication and adultery. In 1 Cor. 6.15 Paul writes, “Do you not know that the members of your bodies are members of Christ? Having taken then the members of Christ, should I make them members of a prostitute? Let it not be.” This is blunt language that shows the enormity of God’s indignation against such fleshly lust. I am sure we have all been tempted in this regard, and it is one of the most difficult temptations to resist, but we are free from sin and can make the choice to obey God. When we pursue any sin, we despise lordship, the lordship of Christ and the lordship of government. We are to submit to authority, especially God’s, but also to man’s (1 Pt. 2.13-15).
Daring ones, self-willed, they do not tremble when reviling glories, 11where angels, being greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a reviling judgment before the Lord.
Peter continues with descriptions of these who reject God. They are daring ones, not trembling even when reviling glories (Jude 8). Even the demons tremble with the fear of God, knowing their doom (Ja. 2.19), but these have no respect for anything holy or right, no fear of God. They are self-willed, caring only for themselves. There is debate about what “glories” means. Are they angels? Are they leading people? Both? We do not know, but we see their universal disrespect.
In contrast, God’s angels, even though they are stronger than these daring ones, will not bring a reviling judgment before the Lord against even them, who seem to deserve it completely. Judgment is not theirs or ours, but God’s, at least in this age (see Mt. 19.28 and 1 Cor. 6.2-3). And see especially 1 Pt. 2.21-24 where we see that even the Lord Jesus during his days on earth did not revile or threaten, but bore his trials and our sins in his own body on the cross.
12But these, as unreasoning, instinctive creatures, having been born for capture and destruction, reviling in things in which they are ignorant, will in their destruction also be destroyed, 13suffering wrong as the wage of wrongdoing.
These people are like animals, except that animals are not accountable. They are not rational in their thinking (Jude 10), but do things that any reasonable person, even non-Christians, would not do. They are instinctive, doing what their feelings and appetites tell them to do, without regard for the consequences. They even revile in matters of which they are ignorant (Jude 9). We have probably all known someone like that who spouts off about things where he has no knowledge. We have probably all, or most of us, done that ourselves at some point!
In the destruction of these unreasoning, instinctive creatures, in the sense of not being reasonable and seeking to do what is right, but just doing whatever their appetites desire (Phil. 3.19), these rejecters of God will also be destroyed at the judgment, not destroyed in the sense of ceasing to exist, but of being eternally lost. They “will suffer wrong as the wage of wrongdoing.” We reap what we sow.
considering luxurious living during the day a pleasure,
This verse is difficult to translate and the various translations available differ quite a bit. I take it to mean that these people, thinking only of themselves, as in v. 10, neglect hard work and or helping others or any worthwhile pursuit and live for pleasure. One of the cultural failings of our day is hedonism, living for pleasure. I see nothing wrong with pleasure in itself, but the kind of pleasure is important, and seeking the meaning of life in pleasure is not a worthy goal for one’s life. Heb. 11.25 speaks of “the temporary enjoyment of sin.” Sin can be very enjoyable, but it comes with a price, too high a price.
spots and blemishes,
The word for “spot” occurs only here and in Eph. 5.27, where Paul says that the church as the bride of Christ will have no spot or wrinkle. I am sure she will be a beautiful bride, but the real meaning is that she will be holy and without blemish, and the bride of Christ is not one woman, but all of the body of Christ who have lived in faith and obedience. Without blemish is what the Lamb of God is, an unblemished Lamb. And the word for blemish here in 2 Peter is the same, except that it is not un-blemished. These people are blemishes, unholy and marked with sin.
reveling in their deceits,
Some of the ancient Greek manuscripts have “reveling in their love feasts,” which are the taking of the Lord’s Table. The weight of manuscript evidence is in favor of “deceits,” and it is unlikely that there would be reveling at an observance of the Lord’s Table. Jude 12 says, “These are those who are hidden rocks in your love feasts, feasting with you without fear.” There are many similarities between 2 Peter and Jude and this is one of them. It is thought that some ancient copyist or copyists took “love feasts” from Jude and put it into 2 Peter to make them conform, but that “deceits” is the correct reading in 2
Peter. I take it that “deceits” is correct, though I am no expert.
There is much deceit in our world, as there has always been. Satan deceived Eve in the garden, leading to sin, and deceit has never stopped. The Lord Jesus said that Satan is a liar and the father of lies (Jn. 8.44). Whether it is false prophesy and teaching or lies on someone or the use of lies to gain something wrongfully or scams on the internet, our world is full of deceit. And there are people who revel in it, loving to deceive.
as they feast with you,
This seems to be a pretense of being servants of the Lord. Remember that these are false teachers. They feast with the Lord’s people when there is opportunity, but they are secretly trying to undermine the true teaching (Jude 12).
14having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin,
I tend to think that there are a few things that drive just about everything, money, power, sex, love, hate, and hunger, including thirst. We saw that Paul writes in 1 Tim. 6.10 that “love of money is a root of all the evils.” Notice that it says “a root,” not “the root.” We see greed, theft, murder, and so forth coming from the love of money. It seems there have always been power-mad people who want to rule the world, and they do not care how many people suffer and die because of their ambitions. Here in 2 Pt. 2.14 Peter lists “eyes full of adultery.” There is a very instructive and interesting book by Paul Johnson entitled Intellectuals, in which he shows that immorality was behind much of the behavior of some well-known men and one woman. Many if not all of them were atheists and Johnson indicates that they were atheists largely because they wanted to sin with impunity. If there is not God there is no sin, no accountability, no judgment. Do away with God and do as you please. These people were set forth as great minds, but the truth is that they were common garden variety immoral people driven by lust, if Johnson is correct.
Immorality is behind much of what goes on in our world today. Illegitimate births, rape, seduction, trafficking in women and children, adultery, fornication, the sex industry including pornography and much of our “entertainment” are all driven by lust and love of money. Our world has eyes full of adultery and all the rest. Unceasing sin. Peter is referring to false prophets. It is so unfortunate that many Christian leaders are guilty of immorality. It is not my place to say that any particular person is a false prophet without evidence, but this kind of behavior comes out regularly, it seems.
enticing unstable souls,
The Greek word for “enticing” is based on the word “bait.” It is holding something before a person to lure him into a trap. That is exactly what Satan does. He does not come to a person and say, “I am Satan. I want to lure you into hell.” He says that whatever he is offering will make one happy or fulfilled or whatever. But what Satan offers is bait. It has a hook in it. Too late does the poor fish find that out. There are many unstable souls. “Unstable” is another interesting word. It is based on the word for a prop or staff. We think of a weak person as needing a prop and we sometimes look down on that. The truth is that we all need a prop. We are all weak. The prop we need is the indwelling Holy Spirit, but most people do not have that, and many are weak in the world’s terms and can be led astray by Satan or the unscrupulous. Satan said to Eve that if she ate the fruit, it would open her eyes and she would be like God. He did not tell her that it would plunge her into sin and misery, ending in death. It was a trap with bait in it. And we have all taken that bait and fallen into that trap. Thanks be to God for our salvation from that situation. We do still sin in our weakness, but we have the Holy Spirit in us to deal with that condition.
Peter uses this word “unstable” again in 3.16, where he says that the unstable distort the Scriptures. We will deal with that when we come to it.
having a heart having been trained in covetousness,
While I am into word meanings let me say that this word “covetousness” literally means “wanting to have more.” The world trains us in this sin. We are constantly told that if we just get this new item, we will be happy and fulfilled. If we have more money everything will be alright. If we have a bigger house. A more expensive car. On and on. There are things that we need to live, but more and more does not make us happy and fulfilled. If anything it just fans the flames so that we want even more. If we have enough, the only things we should want more of are the Lord and love and such. Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses. They probably have more of one thing that you don’t want, debt!
accursed children,
Such people are under the curse of God, under condemnation, and are bound for hell if they do not repent and turn to him.
15leaving a right way they were led astray, having followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wage of wrongdoing, 16but had a rebuke of his own offense, a donkey unable to speak, with the voice of a man hindered the insanity of the prophet.
Balaam was a prophet dealt with in Num. 22-24. When the Israelites had traveled as far as Moab on their way to the Promised Land, Balak, the king of Moab, in great fear because of what they had done to the Amorites in Num. 21, hired Balaam to come and curse the Israelites. During the night God came to Balaam and told him not to go with Balak’s men and not to curse Israel because they were blessed. Balaam refused to go. Balak sent to Balaam again and promised him whatever he wanted to curse Israel. God told Balaam to go, but to say only what he told him to say. On the way the humorous story of Balaam and his donkey occurred. God was angry because Balaam went and sent an angel to block the way. Balaam could not see the angel, but the donkey could. Three times the donkey turned away and three times Balaam struck her.
And I AM opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have smitten me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said unto the donkey, “Because you have mocked me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am not I your donkey on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Was I ever accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”
Then God opened Balaam’s eyes to see the angel and he bowed before the Lord. God told him to go ahead, but to say only what he told him to say. Three time Balaam blessed Israel rather than cursing them. Then he and Balak parted ways.
But Balaam, though a prophet of God, had a love for the wage of wrongdoing (Jude 11). He wanted that money, so he gave Balak another way to get at Israel. He told Balak to invite the Israelites to their sacrifices to their false gods, particularly to Baal of Peor. In those days there was temple prostitution (see Gen. 38.21-22, Dt. 23.17, Hos. 4.14). Apparently there was a belief that prostitution at the temple would have some effect on their crops, pleasing the gods and assuring a good harvest. Balaam’s plan worked. Israel sinned and 24,000 of them died in the plague God sent (Num. 25.1-9).
These false teachers, Peter writes, followed the way of Balaam, loving the wage of wrongdoing. That is common in false religions. We saw above that “every religion throughout history has had a few priests who were the only ones who could come into contact with God or a god or gods, with all the mass of people having to go to them to learn about God (or a god or the gods) and to know what he required of them.” Dishonest priests knew how to charge fees for such “services” and to enrich themselves. We read in 1 Tim. 6.5 that some think there is material gain in godliness. Such are these false teachers.
17These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. 18For speaking boastful things of futility they entice with lusts of the flesh in shameless conduct those barely escaping from those living in error, 19promising them freedom, they themselves being slaves of corruption, for by what one has been overcome, to this he is enslaved.
Peter continues with graphic descriptions of these false teachers who try to lead others astray for their own benefit. They are “springs without water.” This reminds us of Jn. 4.14: “… but whoever may drink of the water which I will give him will not thirst into the age, but the water which I will give him will become in him a well of water welling up to life eternal.” These false teachers promise water, but cannot deliver. They are dry springs themselves (Jude 12). The Lord Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, the water of life, and he delivers.
If there appears to be any water, it is only mist. Not everything these teachers say is false, but they know how, like Satan, to use even God’s word to try to deceive, but whatever mist of truth they use is quickly blown away by the storm of untruth.
We have already seen the gloom of darkness in 2.4 and it is also in Jude 6 and 13. This is a judgment of eternal black darkness for those who reject the light.
We also saw the word “entice” in 2.14, the word based on “bait.” These false teachers use boastful words to entice (Jude 16). The bait in this verse is lusts of the flesh. We all know sexual desire and its pleasures, but we know that we must keep them under control rather than giving in to the shameful conduct of lust or it will lead to great damage, spiritual and otherwise. It is like joining Christ with a prostitute (see 2.10 and 1 Cor. 6.15) damaging our spiritual life. And from it come divorces and the damage they do to spouses and children, children born out of wedlock, abortion, diseases, and so on. Yes, the pleasures of lust are bait and there is a hook in them. True teachers work by their teaching example to lead their hearers deeper in the Lord and his word. Some do barely escape the false teachers, but many do not.
The false teachers promise freedom, freedom from the restraints of law and discipline, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. Paul tells us in Rom. 6.16-18,
Do you not know that you are slaves for obedience to the one to whom you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness, 17but thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin, but you obeyed from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18But having been set free from sin you were made slaves to righteousness.
They are slaves of corruption, and corruption is by definition death and destruction.
20For if having escaped the defilements of the world by the full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but having been entangled with these again they are overcome, the last things to them have become worse than the first.
Then Peter gives a sober warning. Apparently some of these false teachers had “escaped the defilements of the world by the full knowledge of our Lord.” Whether that means they had actually been saved or only knew the truth in their heads is not for me to say, but it seems that they became entangled again with these defilements and were overcome by them, and this last state is worse than the first, which was before they were saved, if they were saved.
This statement raises the question as to whether or not a person can be saved and then lose salvation. I am inclined to believe that the weight of Scripture is in favor of “once saved always saved.” A fallen Christian can lose reward, but not salvation. There are several passages of Scripture, such as this one, that seem to leave open the possibility of losing salvation. In writing to Christians in Gal. 5.2-4 Paul says, “Look, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised Christ will benefit you nothing. 3I testify again to every man being circumcised that he is debtor to keep all the law. 4You were severed from Christ, you being justified by law. You fell from grace.” The write of Hebrews says,
For it is impossible for those once been enlightened and having tasted the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit 5and tasted the good speaking of God and the powers of the coming age 6and falling away, to renew them again to repentance, crucifying to themselves again the Son of God and exposing him to public ridicule. 7For land having drunk the rain coming on it often and bearing a crop suitable to those for whom it is also cultivated receives a blessing from God, 8but bearing thorns and thistles it is disapproved and near a curse, whose end is for burning (6.4-8).
And in 10.26-27 he writes, “For when we sin willingly after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and zeal of fire about to consume the adversaries.”
My position, as stated, is that once a person is saved he is always saved, but I do believe that Scripture leaves the question open enough that we would be great fools to take a chance on it. Do not turn from the Lord back to sin. It is not worth the risk.
21For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment having been handed down to them. 22It has come about to them the true proverb, “A dog having returned to his own vomit” [Prov. 26.11], and, a sow having washed, to wallowing in mire.
Just as Christians will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ for reward or loss of reward, so will the lost appear before the great white throne for punishment, for degrees of punishment according to their deeds. Some will suffer greater punishment. Peter says here that “it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment having been handed down to them.” Those who turn back will be like dogs returning to their vomit and like a washed sow wallowing in mire. Take warning. Judgment is real and it is eternal.
3. This now, beloved, is the second epistle I am writing to you, in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2to remember the things having been spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior by your apostles,
Peter interrupts his chilling chapter on judgment to say a word about his purpose in writing. It recalls 1.12-15, which see, and he again uses the words “remind” and “stir.” His purpose is to remind his readers of his teachings and to stir them up to follow them, and especially of the words of the holy prophets and the Lord Jesus, the word of God.
Peter says that he is writing for the second time. Some students of the Bible do not believe that Peter wrote both epistles because of the difference of their teachings and the similarity between 2 Peter and Jude. I have no reason to doubt that Peter wrote both. Is it not possible for one person to write on various themes? Jude (Judas in Greek) is thought to be the brother of the Lord Jesus, though there is no proof. Perhaps he and Peter had discussed these matters. We do not know, but there is nothing to make it impossible that Peter wrote both epistles, and I am more prepared to take what the Scriptures say than to follow the scholars who disagree.
3knowing this first, that there will come in the last days mockers with mocking, going after their own lusts 4and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For from when the fathers fell asleep, all things remain thus from the beginning of creation.”
In addition to the false teachers, and perhaps including some of them, there will be mockers, those who say that nothing has changed. Everything is as it was from the beginning. They point out that the coming of the Lord Jesus has not occurred. But notice that the matter of lust comes up again. So much of the denial of the word of God is based on the desire to sin with impunity. If there is no one to judge and punish, then it is alright to do whatever you please. There will be no consequences. This is obviously not true. There have always been consequences from sin in this life and that will hold true in the next. The word for “mockers” here is based on the Greek word for “child,” and reminds us of children making fun of each other and mocking.
5For they willfully let this escape their notice, that by the word of God the skies existed of old, and the earth was formed from water and through water, 6through which the world then, having been flooded, perished. 7But the present skies and earth by the same word having been stored up are for fire, being kept for a day of judgment and destruction of men not worshipping properly.
One of the great falsehoods of our day is the denial of the creation by God. It all just appeared out of nothing. That is true, but it was because someone, God, said, “Let there be….” It did not “just happen.” Gen. 1.6-10 tells us that God created the skies between the waters below the skies from the waters above the skies. I take the waters below to be liquid water and the waters above to be vapor, and there is constant movement of these waters. Liquid water is evaporated into the air, the skies, and vapor condenses into rain. Then God had the waters below to be gathered together so that dry land appeared. This all came about by the word of God, as both Genesis and our passage here in 2 Peter say. It is also of interest that Heb. 1.3 says, “… and bearing all things by the speaking of his power….” The universe was created by the word of God and continues to function properly by the speaking of the Lord Jesus. It was through these very waters, those below the skies and those above the skies, that God judged the ancient evil by a flood as the rain from above caused the swelling of rivers and seas to overwhelm the dry land and everyone perished except those eight righteous people in the ark. Such judgment awaits the evil since that time, though it will not be by water, but by fire, the “destruction of men not worshipping properly.” There is our word eusebeia again in a negative form, worshipping the gods in wicked ways, such as child sacrifice and the like, or not worshipping God at all as we see in our day.
8But let this one thing not escape you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
When the mockers say that nothing has changed since the ancient times, so where is the promise of his coming, they do not see that what seems a long time to them is as nothing with God. A thousand years are as one day with God, and a day as a thousand years. There is no difference, for there is no time with God. Everything is present to him. Is. 57.15 says that God inhabits eternity. Why does this matter?
9The Lord is not slow concerning the promise, as some count slowness, but is longsuffering toward you, not being willing for any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
What man considers a long time, thousands of years, since God made certain promises that have yet been fulfilled, are not a long time to him, and they are not evidence of his slowness to keep his word. He is not slow, but longsuffering. He does not want anyone to perish so he gives plenty of time to repent. It is grace that judgment seems to us to be delayed.
10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the skies will pass away with a loud noise, in which the elements will be destroyed, being burned up, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up.
There will come a time when he will act in judgment, suddenly, like a thief in the night giving no warning of his approach.
I believe that the end of this age will begin, if I may put it that way, with the rise of the antichrist, his covenant with Jews and his breaking of it and the resultant great tribulation. At the end of that three and one-half year period the Lord Jesus will come in judgment and the rescuing of his people, Jew and Christian, from that most terrible of times. He will set up his thousand year reign at that time. At the end of that period there will be a final rebellion against God which will be put down by the Lord Jesus, with Satan being cast into the lake of fire, and the great white throne judgment. Then what Peter writes here in 3.10 takes place, the purification of the universe itself. The “elements will be destroyed, being burned up, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up.”
In the midst of this prophecy of the burning up of the skies and the elements and the earth, Peter asks a most searching question.
“11All these things being thus destroyed, what kinds of persons is it necessary for you to be in holy conduct and proper worship, 12looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the skies will be destroyed, being set afire, and the elements will melt, being burned up?”
This question is addressed to Christians. I am afraid many preachers give people the idea that if they just get saved they will go to Heaven and everything will be wonderful, but I have tried to stress in this exposition that there are rewards for Christians who live in faithfulness and obedience to God and these rewards can be lost, not salvation, but the rewards. What kinds of Christians ought we to be? It matters in the millennial kingdom what kind of life we live here. We must be holy, that is set apart for God and living out that reality. It is possible to be saved and not live for the Lord. We must live in proper worship, eusebeia again, giving God his proper place in our lives and worshipping and serving him from the heart. We must be looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. How do we hasten the day? By living in holiness and proper worship, sharing the good news with the lost, doing the will of God.
The outcome?
13But we are looking for new skies and a new earth according to his promise, in which righteousness dwells.
New skies and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Rev. 21.1 says, “And I saw a new sky and a new earth, for the first sky and the first earth went away, and the sea is no more.” Having done away with Satan and wicked people, the Lord purifies his creation of any defilement caused by their presence and activity. Every trace of evil is burned up and a new sky and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells become the fitting dwelling place of the triune God, his angels, and his people. (See Is. 65.17, 66.22). This is a promise of God, and he cannot lie and he can deliver.
14Therefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent to be found spotless and unblemished in his sight in peace,
We saw in Eph. 5.27 that the bride of Christ will be spotless. Eph. 5.26 speaks of “having made her clean by the washing of the water with the spoken word.” As the Lord Jesus speaks to us throughout our lives, correcting our failures and giving us proper guidance, and opening our minds to understand the Scriptures (Lk. 24.45), he is in the process of washing us with the water of his spoken word as we yield to him in this cleansing process, making us spotless.
The word for “unblemished here” is the same as the word for the Lord Jesus and a Lamb without blemish. We are all very blemished people. He specializes in removing our blemishes and making us like him, as we yield to him. We must be diligent, not haphazard, in surrendering our lives to him and following his directions. Such a course of life brings peace, peace with God, the peace of God, Christ as our peace, as we saw in dealing with 1 Pt. 1.2.
15and consider the longsuffering of our Lord to be salvation,
We go back to the mockers in 3.3-4. They take the hundreds and thousands of years of delay in the return of the Lord as slowness on God’s part, or more likely, as evidence that he is not coming back. There will be no final judgment. But Peter says in v. 9 of this chapter that God’s delay is not slowness on his part, but longsuffering, giving people much time to repent, not wanting any to perish. And now Peter says to consider this longsuffering as salvation, much time to be saved before it is too late. It is grace.
as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom having been given to him, wrote to you, 16as also in all the epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and weak distort, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17You therefore, beloved, foreknowing, be on guard, so that not being carried away in the deceit of the lawless you fall from your own steadfastness,
Peter says that Paul and all the writers of the epistles have written the same things to them, reinforcing what Peter writes. He says that some of the things in the epistles are hard to understand. An example might be 2 Thess. 2.1-12 where Paul writes about the man of lawlessness at the end of this age. Another might be the whole matter of suffering – Why do God’s people suffer? – which Peter has addressed at some length in his first epistle. Hebrews speaks of some things about Melchizedek being hard to explain (5.11).
The main point Peter is driving at in this statement is that “the ignorant and weak distort, as also the rest of the Scriptures.” This leads to their own destruction. Do not go with them to destruction, but follow what Peter sets forth in these letters. Be on guard, having been forewarned. Do not be carried away “in the deceit of the lawless” and “fall from your own steadfastness.”
18but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
One of the best ways to keep from being led astray is to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we are going on with the Lord, studying his word, learning from good teachers, worshipping and having fellowship with other believers, and seeing to our own private time with the Lord, we are so much less likely to follow those who try to distort and lead us in the wrong direction. Closeness to him is our greatest safeguard. “To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
An Epilogue
Having seen what Peter wrote to his readers, let us go back and look at the man himself. We will begin with Matthew and go through Acts to see the “old Peter” and the “new Peter.” In Mt. 16.22 (Mk. 8.32), just after Peter’s revelation that the Lord Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” we read of Peter, when the Lord had told him of his impending death, “And having taken him aside Peter began to rebuke him saying, ‘God be merciful to you, Lord! This will not be to you.’” Imagine Peter rebuking the one he had just named as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God! We see Peter’s tendency to blurt out whatever came to mind without thinking. Someone has called him impulsive.
Mt. 17 (Mk. 8, Lk. 9) tells us of the Lord’s transfiguration, his revealing to his disciples of his heavenly glory that he had before he came into the world as a man and that he would have in Heaven again. When Peter, James, and John saw this glory and Moses and Elijah appearing with him and talking with him, Peter said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish I will make here three tents, for you one and for Moses one and for Elijah one.” Mk. 9.6 adds, “For he did not know what he should say, for they were terrified.” He should have said nothing. The Lord Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are talking together and Peter has to say something! Impulsive Peter again.
In Mt. 18.21 we read, “Then when he had come, Peter said to him, ‘Lord, how many times will my brother sin against me and I will forgive him, until seven times?’” Peter was being very generous in being willing to forgive seven times, for some of the Jewish Rabbis said that one should forgive three times and no more. What did the Lord say? “I don’t say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven.” And if you think he meant to count up to 490 and then stop forgiving, you have missed the whole point! How many times has the Lord forgiven me? Innumerable! Peter was very much a son of his environment, the Jewish law, and well he should be, for they were God’s chosen people and their law was given by God for their good. But some of his people became legalists and held people to strict accounts. The New Testament will teach later one that we are not under law, but under grace. I should be willing to give as much grace as I have received. How much is that? Innumerable!
In Mt. 19 (Mk. 10, Lk. 18) we read of the rich young ruler. The Lord told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor and follow him. The man went away sorrowful because he was rich. The Lord said, “Amen I say to you that it is with difficulty that a rich man will enter into the kingdom of the heavens. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples were surprised at this statement and said, “Then who can be saved?” It was the belief at that time among the Jews that blessing was an indication that a person was righteous, and poverty, that he was not. Surely this ruler was a good man, for he had been so blessed. Then when it sunk into Peter that one should give all to God, he said to the Lord, “Look! We have left everything and followed you. What then will be to us?” If giving everything to God meant one would be blessed, Peter wanted to get in on it!
The Lord Jesus says to the disciples in Mt. 23.31-32 (Mk. 14.27-28), “Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be caused to stumble because of me on this night, for it is written, “I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” But after I have been raised I will go before you to Galilee.’” Peter answers him in v. 33 (Mk. 14.29, Lk. 22.33), “If all are caused to stumble because of you I will never be caused to stumble.” Peter boasts of his ability not to stumble.
But then comes v. 34 (Mk. 14.30), “Jesus said to him, “Amen I say to you that on this night before a cock crows you will deny me three times.” And Peter boasts again, in v. 35 (Mk. 14.31), “Even if it be necessary for me to die with you, I will not deny you.” Then the disciples all said the same. Peter leads the boasting.
I will not go into all the details, but in Mt. 26.69-75 (Mk. 14.66-72, Lk. 22.56-62) we have the sad account of Peter’s denial of the Lord. So much for boasting. Peter’s problem was that he had confidence in his flesh. In Phil. 3.3 Paul writes, “For we are the circumcision, those worshipping in the Spirit of God and boasting in Christ Jesus and not having confidence in the flesh….” Peter was boasting in the flesh. Paul had learned not to boast in the flesh, but in Christ Jesus, and, of course, Peter had learned that, too, from his bitter experience. How many of us have boasted about our faithfulness to the Lord? How many have failed to live up to the boast? Boast in the Lord Jesus Christ! He never fails.
One other somewhat minor matter occurred. The disciples cannot be looked on too harshly because they did not understand what was going on. After Peter’s and the disciples’ boast that they would never stumble, the Lord took them out to the Garden of Gethsemane where he would pray, seeking power to go through what would shortly take place. He told the eight disciples to wait, and then took Peter, James, and John on a bit farther, where he told them to watch with him while he went to pray. Then he went through that agonizing prayer where he asked for the cup to pass from him, but said, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.” He went back three times to see if the disciples were watching with him, but all three times they were asleep. He addressed Peter directly, “So, you were not able to stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Peter had boasted in the flesh and failed, and now he fails again, and “the flesh,” the Lord says, “is weak.” That is the old Peter.
But wait! There is a new Peter. On the day of Pentecost he and the others were filled with the Holy Spirit and Peter preached such a powerful sermon that three thousand people were saved on the spot (Acts 2.41)! He along with John said to a lame man, “Silver and gold, there is none to me, but what I have, this I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!” And he walked! (Acts 3.8)
Acts 4 records the story of their arrest for preaching the Lord Jesus. When the officials asked them by what power or in what name they were doing this, “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,” said to them that “in the name of Jesus the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him this one stands before you whole.” He went on to say, “And there is salvation in no other one, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” What boldness in this man who denied his Lord three times. When he and John were commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, they said, “Whether it is right before God to listen to you rather than God, you judge, for we cannot but speak what we have seen and heard.”
In Acts 9 we read of a man named Aeneas who had been paralyzed for eight years. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise up and make your bed.” He rose up! “And all those living in Lydda and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord.”
Acts 10 tells the story of Cornelius, a centurion, a commander of about one hundred men in the Roman army, stationed in Caesarea, a devout man who gave alms to the Jews and prayed to God continually, to whom an angel appeared. The angel told him that his prayers and gifts had ascended to Heaven and instructed him to send for Peter in Joppa. Meanwhile Peter had had a vision instructing him to go with the men who came for him, which he did. When he got there he began to tell the people Cornelius had assembled that he had just realized that salvation was not just for the Jews, but for all in every nation who would fear God and do righteousness, and he preached the Lord Jesus to them. While he was still speaking the Holy Spirit interrupted him and fell on his listeners, who received the Holy Spirit and were speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then he had them baptized and spent several days with them.
Peter did all these things and more, and he wrote these two letters that make up part of the living word of God and bring such blessing to us as we as we read and study them. Thanks be to God for such a gift.
Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.
Old Testament quotations are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version.
Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.