One of the reasons for Peter’s writing
was to help a group of Christians persevere while under pressure from the
world. By its very nature, perseverance
deals with the future. If we are going
to succeed in following Christ in the future, we cannot keep one foot in the
past. To put it simply, Peter tells us
that we have wasted enough time already.
It begs the question, “How exactly have
you wasted time?” All of us are guilty
of being less than productive, sometimes even counter-productive. Maybe some of the things in our past were
detrimental to our spirit, and even our body.
Keep them in the past Peter warns us.
Maybe some of the things were not bad in and of themselves, but they
consumed our life so as to drain us of all productivity. Keep them in the past, Peter tells us. We can’t go back and change all of our
mistakes; we can’t redo the decisions where we could have exercised more
wisdom. All we can do, and this is no
little thing, is make sure that the past does not spill over into the present,
and then the future.
Why should we care so much about changing
the way we live, especially if the way we are living now is easier, and more
fun than the way God wants us to live?
Again, Peter returns to the theme of the future. What seems like the easiest path, the most
fun path now, almost always leads to a difficult present and a future full of regret. Maybe it’s the one-night-stand that was a lot
of fun at the time, but that leads to chronic health problems or an unplanned
pregnancy, or the college drinking binges that lead to a lifetime of alcoholism,
or the extravagant living beyond your means that has you trapped now in a life
of poverty. Christians were left with
difficult choices in Peter’s day. While
many of their persecutors lived a luxurious and powerful life until death, Christians
often died in poverty, sometimes even violently at the hands of their accusers. They were referred to as haters of humanity,
accused of political disloyalty, and even of cannibalism (because of popular
misunderstandings concerning the Lord’s Supper). I am sure that many Christians asked
themselves why they continued to put themselves at risk. Why not make life easier and give up on faith? Peter tells them why: The hope of a better
future.
Because we do hope for a better future,
we remain clear-headed, and hard-working in the present. It’s not that our works save us, but rather
they are a testimony to our belief that what God has said is true, and that
what he wills for the future will come to pass.
Peter roots this duty of the Christian in a devout and sincere prayer
life. Why? Because in the words of Peter H. Davids, “proper prayer is not an “opiate” or escape,
but rather a function of clear vision and a seeking of even clearer vision from
God.”
Prayer is the conduit through which we are reminded of God’s vision for
the world. Because of this we should be
asking the question, “how much do we spend listening when we pray?” Before we can speak and serve out of love as
Peter instructs us, we must listen for God’s Spirit in prayer. One of the ways we speak and serve in love is
by showing hospitality. Hospitality
is mentioned explicitly five times in the NT (Romans 12:13; I Timothy 3:2;
Titus 1:8; Hebrews 13:2; I Peter 4:9).
Furthermore, it was used as a qualification for eldership, and for being
enrolled as a widow in the Pastoral Epistles.
In other words, hospitality was an expectation, not an option for a Christian. Notice Peter does not say “when the preacher
speaks”, or “when the deacon serves”. He
casts the net broadly in terms of Christian proclamation and service, stating
that “whoever speaks” and “whoever serves”, should do so in accordance with
God’s will, and by God’s strength. We
are stewards of the gifts that we have received through the Spirit, to speak
and to serve as Christ would serve. We
will be judged not by what gifts we have, but by how we use those gifts to
transform the world around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment