Be Still And Know

1 Peter 4:7-8 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other. The idea of the world coming to an end is a challenging thought, but Peter wasn’t in any sense threatening his readers. The New Testament writers all spoke of this as the climax and fulfilment of God’s purposes. They felt the end of the world was something that everyone should look forward to with great excitement. The last days began with the coming of Jesus into the world and will come to an end with his return. Whether Jesus returns to this earth within the next week or in a thousand years the time is limited, and Peter was concerned that this should focus his readers’ minds. There was no time to lose. The challenge that he posed in the first century applies equally to us today as we anticipate the return of Christ: that believers should be both earnest and disciplined in their prayers. I’m sure we all know how incredibly easy it i

1 Peter 3:15-16 If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. When Peter wrote his letter, Christianity was still quite new and so I am sure that many people were very curious about it. Peter was keen that his readers shouldn’t miss any opportunity to talk about it. But it had to be done in the right way. If they were aggressive and disrespectful it could put people off for ever. So he urged them to be ready for every opportunity but to ensure that their responses were gentle and respectful. In our own society so few people attend church that there is, once again, a great curiosity about Christian faith. Most people know that Christianity exists, but haven’t a clue what it’s about, so we all need to be ready to talk about our hope as believers. I know this may sound intimidating, but it shouldn’t. We don’t need to have all the answers, and in fact none of us does. We simply need to be able to explain why Jesus is so important to

1 Peter 3:9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. If you have ever been insulted, you will know that the immediate reflex reaction is to want to even the score. In the pain of the moment, we are all inclined to cry out for justice because it’s just not right that people should get away with insulting us. It would seem that Peter’s readers were well used to being insulted. Christianity was a new phenomenon, and its teachings stood in sharp contrast to the thinking of the time. Christians faced verbal and physical attacks on a regular basis. Christians have been under attack throughout the past 2,000 years. There are horrifying stories of the ways in which the Salvation Army was attacked in this country in the latter part of the 19th century. There are distressing accounts of dead animals, some set alight, being hurled at passing Salvationists as they

1 Peter 3:3-4 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. I don’t feel competent to comment on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes! However, I don’t believe that Peter was saying that these things were wrong in themselves. His point was that they shouldn’t be our priority, and they certainly shouldn’t become a matter of concern for us. Our priority needs to be our inner selves – our character. Our society is obsessed with image. What matters is how we look and the impression that we leave on other people through our appearance. There is no doubt that these things can easily become a matter of anxiety and Jesus drew attention to this. In his Sermon on the Mount, he spoke about people’s anxiety about their food or clothing. He pointed to the birds and observed that t

1 Peter 2:21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. I’ve known many wonderful people, and I am sure you have as well. I have only to think of words such as kindness, graciousness, love, thoughtfulness, joy, integrity, hospitality and hope, to be reminded of people who have reflected those qualities to me in a very special way. They weren’t perfect, but I saw something that was beautiful in their lives and my life has been enormously enriched through knowing them. It’s good to follow the example of other Christians and, on a number of occasions, the apostle Paul encouraged his readers to follow his example. But we need to remember that the supreme example that we need to follow is of Jesus himself. Jesus was unlike anyone else who has ever lived, because he was perfect. We are called to be disciples and that means deliberately looking at Jesus’ teaching and his way of life and allowing them to shape

1 Peter 2:18 You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. Everything about slavery is horrifying. The idea that someone could own another human being sounds barbaric, and so it is difficult for us to handle a verse like this. Context is so important. At the time of the early Church, slavery was extremely common. About 20 per cent of the population were slaves and there was never any serious thought that the institution should be dismantled. It’s also important to realise that under Roman law, slavery was heavily regulated. Slaves received very low wages but they lived with the hope that one day they might be able to purchase their freedom. Slavery at any time is an odious idea, but clearly the experience was nowhere near as hellish or dehumanising as it became during the centuries of the transatlantic slave trade. It has been suggested that a better translation of the word slave could be ser

1 Peter 2:16 You are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. On the face of it this verse doesn’t seem to make much sense. Surely freedom means that you can do whatever you like? All constraints have been thrown off and you can do exactly what pleases you. But it doesn’t take long to realise that this kind of freedom would be a horrific experience. If you were able to do whatever you wanted, then you would have a licence to dominate everyone else and to destroy whatever you liked. Freedom ruled by our own selfishness would be nothing less than hell on earth. The New Testament introduces us to the concept of true freedom, and that can only be found by being slaves to God’s will. By finding his perfect will for us we are set free to be everything that God intended us to be. When we get to heaven God will not ask us: “Why weren’t you like Abraham, Moses, David or the apostles?” He will look to us to be everything that we were created to be, which will be very diffe

1 Peter 2:12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbours. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give honour to God when he judges the world. Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, once said “the unconsidered life is not worth living”. Peter would have agreed with him, because he knew that it was crucially important for Christians to think very carefully about their way of life. It wasn’t good enough for them merely to have the right doctrines. They needed to ensure that their daily life reflected their Christian faith, so that those around them would get a very clear picture of what it meant to live for Christ. But the importance of living well was even greater in an environment where the Christians were hated and often the target of slanderous accusations. It was vital that they lived uprightly so that false allegations would be immediately seen as nonsense. We might not be in such an embattled situation, but you can be sure

1 Peter 2:10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” The television series, Who do you think you are? always makes fascinating viewing. Researchers delve into the lives of famous people and reveal amazing details about their family history. It is interesting to know about our history but what really matters is who we think we are today. What is our identity? Peter says that as Christians our identity has completely changed. In the past we had no identity but now we are God’s people. In the past we had not tasted the mercy of God, but now we have. A true understanding of our identity is of crucial importance to the way in which we live today. If we thought that our lives were our own and we could do whatever we liked, we would live in one particular way. We wouldn’t be bothered about other people’s rules and expectations. “I did it my way” would be our signature tune. But when we see ourselves as one of God’s people,

1 Peter 2:9 You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. In the Old Testament we learn that God decided that the people of Israel should be his chosen people. In Exodus 19 and Isaiah 43 they are described in a number of ways, and here Peter brings together all those descriptions and applies them to the Church. The people of Israel enjoyed their position by birth. They were all descended from Abraham, the father of the faith. And now every Christian is part of the Church, the new chosen people, by our new birth. Through our faith in Christ, we have all the privileges and responsibilities of being a citizen of God’s holy nation. One of the distinctive features of the Church is that each one of us is a priest. In the Old Testament, the privileged role of the priest was to have access to God, and to enable others to come to God. The priests were dra

1 Peter 2:4-5 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. In the Old Testament, huge attention is given to the building of the temple. King David took the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and longed to give it a proper home. He went to enormous lengths to prepare for the building of the temple, but this only happened during the reign of his son, Solomon. The temple was the place where God lived among his people and at the heart of it was the Holy of Holies, which was so special that it could only be entered once a year and only by the high priest. All of God’s people looked to the temple as being at the heart of their worship, and it was the focus of the elaborate sacrificial system. In the New Testament we learn that Jesus was in the process of building a new temple and this would be completely different from the impressive structure

1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness. Babies are not subtle in their demand for milk. When they need feeding they are very happy to let everyone know about it! Peter uses this powerful imagery to describe a young Christian’s desperate need to be fed spiritually. There can be no doubt that he is referring to our need for the word of God. We have been given the treasure of the Bible and we need to ensure that we are continually receiving nourishment from it. Only in that way will we grow and become strong and mature. The need to be fed isn’t just good advice for new Christians. We all need feeding and we need to organise our lives in such a way as to ensure that it happens. We wouldn’t think of being haphazard about our physical feeding, having a meal from time to time when we happened to be in the mood. We know full well that without

1 Peter 2:1 So get rid of all evil behaviour. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and all unkind speech. In the previous chapter Peter commanded his readers to love one another. He now spells out what that will involve, because if we are truly to love other people then bad behaviour must stop. There’s no way in which a church can be dominated by love when there is deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and gossip. All of those things destroy the love, peace and joy that God wants to dominate the lives of Christians. I have often heard people tell me that they have found their church deeply disappointing. Very often there is a problem with gossip, which so easily develops within any close community. And most odious of all is when Christians talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk. They are quick to criticise others for their failings, but are fail just as much themselves. It should never be a surprise that Christians often get it wrong, because we are all sinners. But what is tragic is when bad behaviour is

1 Peter 1:23 You have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. Terry Pratchett, the famous humourist and novelist, wrote: “It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.” Life here on earth is indeed brief, but Peter encourages us to look beyond, to see that God’s intention for us is to enjoy eternal life. When we hear that expression, we are inclined to think about the future, but the New Testament writers are absolutely clear that it starts right now. The moment you give your life to Christ you are born again. A new life begins and because that life comes from God it can never come to an end. Jesus made this very clear when he told his disciples: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life” (Jo

1 Peter 1:22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. When you become a Christian, you are immediately a part of a worldwide family – the church. You suddenly have brothers and sisters that you’d never had before! One of the most exciting characteristics of your new family is that it is held together by love, and Peter declares that this flows from our experience of forgiveness. In 1960, CS Lewis wrote a famous book entitled The Four Loves. He pointed to the fact that the Greek language has far more words for love than there are in English and he drew attention to four of them. Storge is the sort of affectionate love that exists between a mother and her child. Philia is friendship love, such as we see between David and Jonathan in the Old Testament. Eros is romantic love and, finally, agape is unconditional love such as God has shown us. Peter used two of these words in

1 Peter 1:15-16 You must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” I suspect that we all respond in much the same way to the command that we should live holy lives. We probably all feel a closeness to Isaiah who, as we saw on Day 41, went into the temple one day and was overwhelmed by the holiness of God (Isaiah 6). He responded with embarrassment, not only because he didn’t feel remotely holy himself, but because he was conscious that he lived in a society that was anything but holy. But Isaiah learned that it was possible for him to be totally cleansed and, in that incredible encounter, he was set free from his sin and commissioned to become a spokesman for God. The word holy means separate or set apart. God doesn’t want our lives to be dragged down by the selfish and destructive influences of our society. He wants us to be set apart for him and, just as with Isaiah, that can only happen as we experience God’s forgive

1 Peter 1:14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. DL Moody, the famous Victorian preacher, once said: “There will be no peace in any soul until it is willing to obey the voice of God.” The problem with the word obedience is that we are inclined to see it as restrictive. But think of how we look after our children and grandchildren. Time and again we have to insist on obedience in order to keep the children safe and secure. When they want to dash across a road without looking, or to go out on a cold day without a coat, we will ensure that they obey our requests. They may well grumble but we are content with that because we know that our words are loving and wise. When God tells us to obey his rules, the child in us will sometimes cry out: “but I want to do it my way”. We want to follow our own selfish agenda. But God has a better way for us and that is entirely found through obedience to him

1 Peter 1:13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. In this opening chapter of his first letter, Peter writes a great deal about salvation. He looks forward to the day when we will see the completeness of our salvation, set free from every trace of sin and all suggestions of death and decay. But he doesn’t intend these wonderful spiritual insights to send his readers into an outer orbit of heavenly worship, but rather to equip them to get ready for action. They need to be prepared to face up to the brutal reality of living for God in a world that is fundamentally opposed to the Christian faith. True worship and Bible study must always have the effect of equipping us to live more faithfully and fruitfully for God in the here and now. They must never be a form of escapism that we use to help us to run away from a challenging and hostile world. God needs us to be fit and ready

1 Peter 1:6-7 Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. Nobody likes going through difficulties or facing challenges. To have to endure violent persecution, such as Peter’s readers experienced, must have been incredibly hard. Peter wasn’t glad about the trials they were facing, but about the outcome from going through such times. He knew that the persecution not only proved the reality of their faith, but would have the effect of refining them and making them even stronger in their Christian lives. I find it fascinating that gold has been highly prized for thousands of years. The world has changed out of all recognition over that time, but gold continues to be eagerly sought after and over the past few years we have seen its price rise enormously. The crucial question with gold is its

1 Peter 1:5 Through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. I wonder how you or I would cope with persecution from the civic authorities. Just imagine what it would be like to live with the knowledge that the police are after you, simply because you are a Christian. This is precisely the experience of thousands of Christians today in many parts of the world, and it was also a reality in many periods of the early Church. Peter wanted to equip the Christians to face up to the fires of persecution with courage and confidence, and so he reminded them that God would protect them. The verb that he used for “protecting” was a military term and the tense made it clear that God was continually protecting them. Whatever happened they could be confident that God would be with them and give them courage to stand for him. Peter encouraged his readers to look forward to the day when they would see the full reality