Reading:
1 Peter 3:13-22
Devotional:
Here we are again, back with Peter and our early Christians living in Asia Minor. Same topics, same ideas, but we haven’t covered everything yet. Now in chapter 3, we’re hitting the same points from a slightly different perspective, saying it all again but with new examples to connect the concepts together.
It’s like those professors who start their lecture writing notes on the middle chalkboard. Then they migrate over to a second chalkboard on the right and start drawing arrows between the two as the lecture gets going. Eventually, they fill up the right-hand chalkboard and have to move all the way back over to the far left chalkboard, drawing more arrows across the middle as they connect it all together. As long as you’ve been following from the start of the lecture, you’re fine, but to jump in at the end, the metaphors and arrows start to overlap.
Halfway through 1 Peter, the arrows and analogies are starting to build and overlap, but Peter is determined that we would understand. We, the followers and family of Christ, are confident and assured in His work to us and through us, which both builds us and guides us even through the fiercest of trials, such that we would rejoice in our sufferings. It’s hard, we expect it, and we’re reframing our mindsets to understand how we will endure with gentleness and reverence.
We already know part of the how from chapter 2: it is because we are being built up, designed by God to be dwelling places for God. It was always the plan for Him to live among us and in us, and Peter shows us. However, we have to know a couple of our Old Testament references.
First, Peter quotes Isaiah 8, saying that when suffering for righteousness, “Do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled.” The rest of the passage in Isaiah is talking about the prophesied invasion of Assyria on Judah, likening it to a flood that will overwhelm them. Isaiah is being warned not to honor or fear the same things the Assyrians would. Instead, don’t be troubled, and fear God, who will become their sanctuary (their abode) even when they feel they are being overwhelmed and crushed. Similarly, we aren’t to be afraid of those who would persecute us—God intends to dwell with us.
Peter gives us a second flood reference, reminding them of how patiently God waited while the ark was being constructed, where a sanctuary was being built for His people. It’s that same sanctuary where He would shut in Noah and his family, surrounding them with His protective presence and bringing them safely through the very circumstances that looked like they would overwhelm them. In this flood story, God waits for the dwelling place to be built, that He would be able to be with His people, wrapping His arms around them.
Within these stories of dwelling and protecting, Peter also wants us to understand the overlapping of the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He writes, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”
Being alive in the Spirit goes all the way back to creation, when God speaks and breathes life. Speaking and breathing happen together — Words need Breath to be heard. So when God speaks (even a still, small voice) His Word and His Spirit in unity bring life within us and around us. God is both in Adam and Eve and walking with them. God is within us giving us life and among us sharing in that life. And like Noah, we are sealed in Him with the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 115 describes the situation the opposite way, showing false gods who have eyes, ears, noses, hands, mouths, but they can’t see, can’t hear, can’t smell, can’t touch, can’t share. They have the container, but without Word and Spirit, there isn’t any life.
Ezekiel says it another way too, rebuking the would-be shepherds who take the food that would be God’s, who wear the clothes that would look like holiness, but who have none of the life that comes from God—no healing, no strengthening, no restoring or saving. You can dress up the outside with the right activities, but life isn’t a byproduct of performance.
There’s no pretending to be God, no Breathing the Word of life into ourselves. It is God within us—by His own virtue—that gives life.
So like last week, we should be reassured—the effort isn’t on us! Peter reaffirms it is God who does the work again to our early Christians. He asks, “What harm is there if we prove zealous for what is good?” In English, we hear the words of our own effort, but that’s not the case in Greek. Proving could just as easily be translated as becoming. What harm is there if we become zealous—our enthusiasm boiling over with passion—for what is good? Good is especially interesting because it is that which originates from God. And what harm could there be in the things that originate from God? Goodness comes at His hand, causing us to become passionate. Of course it would be God within us, preparing us to defend the very hope He gave us in the first place.
And keeping a good conscience? Well that’s the same God-originated substance again. And conscience is co-perception, seeing together. He’s sharing His good perspective with us, showing us the mystery of godliness.
Peter, the Psalmist, Isaiah, Ezekiel—they’re all painting a picture. We aren’t going to usurp God’s seat, because He’s offered to sit beside us. When He’s within us—when the Word is spoken with the Holy Breath of Spirit, giving us life—well, then we see godliness come through. Then we see the gentleness and reverence. Baptism (God around us and in us) saves us, not because we did the work ourselves, but because He has conquered the prisons of death to make us alive in the Spirit.
Psalm 115 encourages “trust in the Lord. He is [Your] help and shield.” A shield is an external protection, but it’s also something you wear—it’s part of you. The helper is the same word as Eve being a helpmate and as the Holy Spirit being sent as a comfort. It’s outside help that is meant to become one with you.
Jesus puts it this way in John: “My peace [or wholeness] I leave with You. My peace I give to you.” Indeed even if we do suffer for righteousness, we are blessed.
All along it’s been His plan and intent to be with us, surrounding us with protection, filling us with perspective, gifting us Life and wholeness.
A Prayer for Each Moment
God Our Peace,
We know You are within us, and we in You, united in wholeness of Spirit and Word. Cause us to remember that You choose to abide, existing permanently within us and inseparably united to us, that we may experience a life even greater than heaven. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
Amen
A Prayer for Each Other
Our Father,
You know the grieved, the crushed, the outcast. You know when we feel constrained and limited, when we find ourselves lost and scattered. Find us like You have done before and will do again—with earnest, heartfelt attention and love—to strengthen us, stitch us back together, restore us to life, and take care of us.
Amen
Blessing
May we feel the comforting goodness of God in us and among us, surrounding and shielding us from without and supporting and strengthening us from within.
Photo by Conor Sexton on Unsplash
1 Peter 3:13-22
Devotional:
Here we are again, back with Peter and our early Christians living in Asia Minor. Same topics, same ideas, but we haven’t covered everything yet. Now in chapter 3, we’re hitting the same points from a slightly different perspective, saying it all again but with new examples to connect the concepts together.
It’s like those professors who start their lecture writing notes on the middle chalkboard. Then they migrate over to a second chalkboard on the right and start drawing arrows between the two as the lecture gets going. Eventually, they fill up the right-hand chalkboard and have to move all the way back over to the far left chalkboard, drawing more arrows across the middle as they connect it all together. As long as you’ve been following from the start of the lecture, you’re fine, but to jump in at the end, the metaphors and arrows start to overlap.
Halfway through 1 Peter, the arrows and analogies are starting to build and overlap, but Peter is determined that we would understand. We, the followers and family of Christ, are confident and assured in His work to us and through us, which both builds us and guides us even through the fiercest of trials, such that we would rejoice in our sufferings. It’s hard, we expect it, and we’re reframing our mindsets to understand how we will endure with gentleness and reverence.
We already know part of the how from chapter 2: it is because we are being built up, designed by God to be dwelling places for God. It was always the plan for Him to live among us and in us, and Peter shows us. However, we have to know a couple of our Old Testament references.
First, Peter quotes Isaiah 8, saying that when suffering for righteousness, “Do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled.” The rest of the passage in Isaiah is talking about the prophesied invasion of Assyria on Judah, likening it to a flood that will overwhelm them. Isaiah is being warned not to honor or fear the same things the Assyrians would. Instead, don’t be troubled, and fear God, who will become their sanctuary (their abode) even when they feel they are being overwhelmed and crushed. Similarly, we aren’t to be afraid of those who would persecute us—God intends to dwell with us.
Peter gives us a second flood reference, reminding them of how patiently God waited while the ark was being constructed, where a sanctuary was being built for His people. It’s that same sanctuary where He would shut in Noah and his family, surrounding them with His protective presence and bringing them safely through the very circumstances that looked like they would overwhelm them. In this flood story, God waits for the dwelling place to be built, that He would be able to be with His people, wrapping His arms around them.
Within these stories of dwelling and protecting, Peter also wants us to understand the overlapping of the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He writes, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”
Being alive in the Spirit goes all the way back to creation, when God speaks and breathes life. Speaking and breathing happen together — Words need Breath to be heard. So when God speaks (even a still, small voice) His Word and His Spirit in unity bring life within us and around us. God is both in Adam and Eve and walking with them. God is within us giving us life and among us sharing in that life. And like Noah, we are sealed in Him with the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 115 describes the situation the opposite way, showing false gods who have eyes, ears, noses, hands, mouths, but they can’t see, can’t hear, can’t smell, can’t touch, can’t share. They have the container, but without Word and Spirit, there isn’t any life.
Ezekiel says it another way too, rebuking the would-be shepherds who take the food that would be God’s, who wear the clothes that would look like holiness, but who have none of the life that comes from God—no healing, no strengthening, no restoring or saving. You can dress up the outside with the right activities, but life isn’t a byproduct of performance.
There’s no pretending to be God, no Breathing the Word of life into ourselves. It is God within us—by His own virtue—that gives life.
So like last week, we should be reassured—the effort isn’t on us! Peter reaffirms it is God who does the work again to our early Christians. He asks, “What harm is there if we prove zealous for what is good?” In English, we hear the words of our own effort, but that’s not the case in Greek. Proving could just as easily be translated as becoming. What harm is there if we become zealous—our enthusiasm boiling over with passion—for what is good? Good is especially interesting because it is that which originates from God. And what harm could there be in the things that originate from God? Goodness comes at His hand, causing us to become passionate. Of course it would be God within us, preparing us to defend the very hope He gave us in the first place.
And keeping a good conscience? Well that’s the same God-originated substance again. And conscience is co-perception, seeing together. He’s sharing His good perspective with us, showing us the mystery of godliness.
Peter, the Psalmist, Isaiah, Ezekiel—they’re all painting a picture. We aren’t going to usurp God’s seat, because He’s offered to sit beside us. When He’s within us—when the Word is spoken with the Holy Breath of Spirit, giving us life—well, then we see godliness come through. Then we see the gentleness and reverence. Baptism (God around us and in us) saves us, not because we did the work ourselves, but because He has conquered the prisons of death to make us alive in the Spirit.
Psalm 115 encourages “trust in the Lord. He is [Your] help and shield.” A shield is an external protection, but it’s also something you wear—it’s part of you. The helper is the same word as Eve being a helpmate and as the Holy Spirit being sent as a comfort. It’s outside help that is meant to become one with you.
Jesus puts it this way in John: “My peace [or wholeness] I leave with You. My peace I give to you.” Indeed even if we do suffer for righteousness, we are blessed.
All along it’s been His plan and intent to be with us, surrounding us with protection, filling us with perspective, gifting us Life and wholeness.
A Prayer for Each Moment
God Our Peace,
We know You are within us, and we in You, united in wholeness of Spirit and Word. Cause us to remember that You choose to abide, existing permanently within us and inseparably united to us, that we may experience a life even greater than heaven. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
Amen
A Prayer for Each Other
Our Father,
You know the grieved, the crushed, the outcast. You know when we feel constrained and limited, when we find ourselves lost and scattered. Find us like You have done before and will do again—with earnest, heartfelt attention and love—to strengthen us, stitch us back together, restore us to life, and take care of us.
Amen
Blessing
May we feel the comforting goodness of God in us and among us, surrounding and shielding us from without and supporting and strengthening us from within.
Photo by Conor Sexton on Unsplash