First Peter, y’all. Read it because it’s pretty sweet. I loved getting to be taught through the book of 1st Peter last week at KI. We got to see so much cross-referencing and it really made things clearer and penetrating. One of my favorite parts of my time at the institute has been getting to see the Bible come to life through awesome teaching and in-depth study, really getting to understand the links between the Old Testament and the New. I’ve gotten to see the New Testament concealed in the Old and the Old Testament revealed in the New like never before. It’s been transformative in my approach to scripture and my study of it. That impacts my heart and stirs my affections for the God who breathed this Word into being (2 Timmothy 3:16). When His Word penetrates, we experience the reality of it (Hebrews 4:12) – they aren’t just words on a page; they are truth that our lives depend upon. With that perspective, studying any part of the Bible can be hugely impactful. Disclaimer: this post is pretty lengthy bc I’m gonna go through all of 1st Peter bc it’s too good to leave stuff out! I learned so much and I hope you can learn some of what I learned in reading this!

Let me share with ya what the Lord has shown me this weekend in my study and learning from 1st Peter. As believers, we can be affirmed in our hope of salvation through Jesus Christ’s holy blood sacrifice on our behalf. Looking at Hebrews 9 (HEBREWS – incredible book about Jesus, His role in our lives as High Priest), it’s an awesome picture of what Christ has done for us. He went into the holy place sacrificing His own perfect blood for our sake once and for all. We no longer have to go to an earthly priest to confess our sins and have him make sacrifices on behalf of us for each individual sin, or make blood sacrifices of goats and calves like people had to do in Old Testament times. Blood, innocent and perfect and holy blood, has been shed ONCE AND FOR ALL. That is Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who was the perfect Lamb who laid down His life for all of us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Praise God that our hope in salvation doesn’t waver by our actions – it is fixed on Jesus, the object of our hope, who has done what was necessary once and for all. Through Him, we have eternal redemption if we call upon the name of the Lord in faith (Romans 10:9-10). Nothing we do saves us (Ephesians 2:8-9), only the grace of God.

An interesting concept for me to begin to understand on a deeper level in this study was that of unconditional election. It is very clear in scripture that God has chosen His people before the foundation of the earth (Ephesians 1). There is a beautiful picture of this unconditional election we are overwhelmingly blessed to receive in Ezekiel 16. It blew my mind, really. We were helpless, naked and covered in our own blood, without hope, in an open field. But then God passed by and said to us, “Live!”He entered into a covenant with us and we became His. Then He bathed us with water, washed off our blood and anointed us with oil; he clothed us and adorned us with gold and silver. But we trusted in our own beauty and played the harlot. We were unfaithful to the very One who rescued us from death. He called us into life while we were wasting away in our own shame. Yet, we so quickly took His blessings and made them our gods. We found our identity in things rather than the One Thing. We were adulterers and adulteresses, yet God was and is faithful. He remembers His covenant of old and establishes an everlasting covenant with us in sending His Son Jesus. He forgives and offers us life abundant. Abundant life is found in faithfulness to our One True Love, while hurt, pain, discontentment, shame, and guilt are found in unfaithfulness and adultery. Beautiful picture of how we do nothing to deserve God to call out unto us, “Live!”

We rebel time and time again to our own desires and lusts of the flesh that wage war within us against the Spirit living inside us. We know who God is, but we often don’t really KNOW Him. We believe these things about the Lord that we read in scripture but we don’t really TRUST them. Huh. Yet He patiently pursues our hearts and doesn’t leave or forsake us because we don’t love Him back like we should. We would have no chance if that were the case. But praise God that Ephesians 2:8-9 is true – it is by grace we are saved; nothing of ourselves. But really understanding that should change our heart. Why would we love the world? It steals our joy, causes us heartache and pain, and ultimately destroys. Why wouldn’t we love God and let the things of the world fade knowing they pass away anyway? But the Word of the Lord endures forever. Hold fast to that and don’t waver – God’s Word reveals our hope. Our hope is Jesus and that hope is an anchor for our soul (Hebrews 6:19).

That fixed hope should for sure impact the way we live. We are called to be holy as God is holy. Christ fulfilled the law like we never could to offer us freedom from the punishment of transgressing the law. We pursue righteousness by faith and out of a deep love for our Savior. Living for the world is futile, but doing the will of God has eternal significance (check out 1 John 2). Christ offers us life and victory and freedom and joy and contentment, but we don’t experience it by living to experience all the world has to offer. There is so much more. We cannot serve two masters. To love the world (things of the world) and to love God is an oxymoron. It just doesn’t work – we will be divided; we cannot serve two masters (Matt 6:24). Wowowow that’s just a pretty summarized version of the transforming and penetrating truth found in chapter one!

Throughout 1 Peter, Peter exhorts us to persevere in trial and suffering. In chapter one, he offers us a great picture of sanctification and the reward we receive through it. Fire and gold. Gold is refined through the fire – the impurities are burned away to ash, but what remains is the pure gold. That is what God does in our lives through sanctification – it might be painful at times but there is great reward that does not disappoint.

We grow in godly character by the work of God’s Word in our lives. Sanctification happens when we truly taste the kindness of the Lord, then allow that understanding to motivate us to put aside the lusts of the flesh and allow the Word to penetrate our hearts and move us to action.

Peter affirms us in our identity as believers – 1 Peter 2:9-10 is so powerful. That is who we are in Christ. And not only does that tell us our identity, but it tells us our calling. Incredible. Then Peter goes on to encourage us in godly living. He exhorts us to respect and honor all authority in our lives. He tells us to use the freedom God offers us as bondslaves of God. LOVE that metaphor. A bondslave would be freed from their master but chose to stay with them, under their authority, because they loved them and trusted them. This is a picture of obedience to God, not out of obligation but out of true love and deep affection. If you ever feel a little ehhh about our government situation in America, read verse 18 in chapter 2. No matter how we feel about those in authority, we are called to respect them and pray for them!

Chapter three talks about the harmony intended between a husband and wife in marriage. Wives are to submit to the leadership of their husbands, while husbands are to honor their wives. The two should be one and compliment each other. Ephesians 5 goes into more detail about the beautiful picture of a Biblical marriage relationship. When we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts (Col 3), there is not conflict and quarreling in relationships (James 3-4).

We are called blessed if we suffer for the sake of righteousness (cross-reference beatitudes in Matt 5). We are charged to present the gospel message of Jesus, the hope within us, with gentleness and reverence (we are to be salt and light to our dark world – cross-reference Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5). Physical baptism doesn’t save us; rather, it is the baptismal picture of Jesus – His resurrection, which has the power to save us.

Chapter four… Christ suffered in the flesh but committed no sin; we, as Christ-followers, are called to the same purpose – to live to the will of God rather than to indulge the lusts of the flesh. We do the will of God by living in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit so you do not gratify the desires of the flesh; when we walk by the Spirit it is evidenced in the fruit produced in our lives (Gal 5:16-26). The defining characteristics of life in the flesh should be no longer; those who live in this way, nonbelievers, should be offended by the way we live to a higher calling. Our calling is to do the will of God – to be discerning, sober in spirit purposed in prayer, fervently loving one another, hospitable without complaint, employing our spiritual gifts to serve one another, stewarding the grace of God well.

The Gospel isn’t just for us to be saved for eternity; it is for us to be saved now – for our sanctification and proclaiming of the gospel, glorifying God in all the earth. We, as Christians, are called to discipline ourselves for the sake of godliness (1 Timothy 4:7-8). God bestows a calling upon us that is higher than anything achieved in and of the flesh – joy and contentment is found in this living (look at 2 Timothy 1:8-11).

Peter exhorts the church elders to shepherd the flock of God well. He points to our hope in Christ’s second coming, where we will receive our reward in full. He encourages younger Christians to respect their elders in humility, going on to encourage believers to have humility before God. We are to be always on the alert about the devil, who is our enemy seeking to destroy us. We are to be encouraged in standing firm in faith and resisting the devil. In our suffering, God will confirm, strengthen, and establish us. Stand firm!

In light of all this truth packed into 5 simple chapters in 1st Peter, there are plenty of questions we should be asking ourselves. I’ll just list a few… Where do we place our hope as Christians? Does that hope ever waver? Should it? If we profess faith in Christ and receive salvation, what is our identity? Do we not only say we believe it but do we trust it in our core and allow that identity to manifest itself in the way we talk and act?What does it mean that we are referred to as aliens and strangers? (1 Peter 2:11) What do we learn from Peter about suffering and suffering well? What is our high calling as Christians, mandated by God, in light of receiving salvation? How can we practically stand firm and persevere according to what we’ve learned in studying 1 Peter?