Peter writes to this group of Christians
under fire for a reason. One of the
things he wants to do is remind them of why they are being persecuted. He is reminding them that their vocation is
of the utmost importance, which explains why it has drawn so much fire from the
world. That vocation is nothing less
than holiness.
If they are going to successfully answer
God’s call for them to live holy lives, they must first be prepared. The word usually translated as “prepare” at
the beginning of this passage literally means “gird”. It’s a word which implies impending action,
as to gird up literally meant to gather in your cloak or long garment, and tie
it up in preparation for running, fighting, or other strenuous work. When simply walking, sitting, or at leisure,
the garment was allowed to remain long.
The exhortation to “gird up” invokes images of Israel, specifically
their preparation to leave Egypt during the Exodus. During the one season I played basketball in
high school, on the junior varsity team, I was rarely required to “gird myself”
for action. My warm-up almost always
stayed on, and I seldom saw the court.
Peter is telling us here that when it comes to faith, there are no “bench-warmers”,
we all must be ready to go into the game.
What is the game exactly you may be
wondering? Too often, holiness is
described as abstaining from certain things.
While it is true that part of our calling to be holy requires us to forego
many of the things the world deems acceptable, and even good, holiness is more
than abstention. Holiness is also, and I
would argue primarily, concerted action on behalf of God. In both the Old and New Testaments, imitation
of God is the standard of our ethics. Placing
our hope totally in Jesus Christ means we invest fully in his service, and in
the spread of the gospel. How do we
accomplish that? To put it simply, we accomplish
it through action, through the loving service of our neighbor that we see so
powerfully manifested in the life of Jesus himself. In the words of Clement of Rome, “seeing then
that we are the portion of one who is holy, let us do all the deeds of
sanctification.”
In order to perform those “deeds of
sanctification” that Clement refers to, God gives us great freedom. Not a freedom that is an escape from
responsibility, but one that liberates us from the restricting power of sin and
death. It was freedom that came at great
price, the blood of Jesus, which means that we should not think we can waste the
gift that God has given us without consequence. Our relationship with God, namely his being
our Father, should not lead us to believe that he is partial, and that he will
refrain from judging us fairly. In fact,
his punishment is often motivated by love, and a desire to see us grow into the
task he has set before us. I remember
back in high school when I brought home the worst grade I ever made on a report
card, a “D” in Algebra II. For the
entire six weeks that followed, I was not allowed to watch television. Why was it that my parents punished me? Was it because they hated me? Far from it, it was because they knew I was
capable of doing much better than a “D”.
The last thing they wanted was to see me squander my talent because of
laziness, or a lack of desire to do my best.
We should not think that our relationship with God will cause him to
compromise his sense of justice, and righteousness. If we truly know God, we know that justice
and impartiality is part of who God is.
It was the justice of God that required
that he purchase our redemption, rather than simply granting it. It was the costliest transaction in history,
as our redemption led his only Son to be hung on a cross. In his allusion to the Passover lamb, Peter
refers simultaneously to Christ, as well as to our identity as the people of God,
Israel. The blood of Christ does more
than cleanse us from sin, it cleanses our consciences (Hebrews 9:14); gives us
bold access to the Father (Hebrews 10:19); and rescues us from a sinful way of
life. In other words, it does not just do
away with the negative consequences; it adds positive aspects as well. Reinforcing the point made earlier, it does not
just aid the aspect of holiness that requires us to abstain from evil, but it
also empowers us to actively participate in the positive side of holiness, to
take part in the “deeds of sanctification”.
This has been God’s plan all along.
The phrase “chosen in advance”, points to the fact that God did not just
predict these events, but rather planned them from the beginning. Jesus is the revelation of God for us, and
also the one through whom we believe.
Indeed, our relationship with God is through Christ, because we see done
in Christ what will ultimately be done in us.
Jesus resurrection gives us hope that God can and will also raise us,
and vindicate us no matter what the world does to us as we live out our lives
in holiness.
In this passage, Peter is reminding them
that they are saved for a purpose. How
many of us think only of salvation, and not about why we are saved? Our salvation is not about avoiding death, or
hell, it’s about living life, and embracing a relationship with God. I am reminded of Lieutenant Dan in the movie Forest
Gump. Lieutenant Dan saw his purpose
in life as being to die in combat, just as several prior generations of men in
his family had done. When Forest saves
him from that death he so desired, his world is shaken to the core. He was alive, but for a long time he refused
to live. How many of us have been spared
death, but have yet to embrace life? What
does it mean to embrace life you may ask?
In essence, embracing life is to order our behavior according to God’s
principles. God’s word reveals
imperishable truth, namely the command for us to love one another. There is power in that love, a power that
unleashes in us eternal life. We are after
all, not now the product of corruptible seed, but the incorruptible word of
God, which creates, and recreates (see Genesis, John, etc.). Peter longs for his audience, and for us, to
realize that our faith should extend to every part of who we are. Christ’s redemption of our souls, God’s plan
for our life, is as all-encompassing as the love which made that plan possible
in the first place.
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