Devotionary

Was Peter worth listening to? Was his message valid and the words he spoke worthy of his audiences’ attention? Peter is not above falling back on his credentials as a disciple of Jesus and supporting his credibility with proof of his one-of-a-kind relationship with the Messiah. In 2 Peter 1:16-21, he reminds those to whom he is writing that he was an intimate follower of Jesus, having spent more than three years in His presence as a disciple. Not only that, he had been privileged to be counted part of Jesus’ inner circle. And one day, he, James and John, had been invited by Jesus to join Him on a mountaintop where something incredible took place: The transfiguration of Jesus and the appearances of Moses and Elijah. Not only that, Peter and his companions had heard the audible voice of God, saying, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to Him.” Jesus had been transfigured right before their eyes and God had spoken to them – out loud. This once-in-a-lifetime experience had left the disciples stunned and convince

Nobody likes to be reminded. But sometimes, that’s exactly what we need. Which is why, in 2 Peter 1:12-15, we find Peter telling his audience that they can expect to hear him repeatedly remind them of their need to add to their faith the character qualities of Christ. Peter knew they would either forget or simply fail to do what he was calling them to do. Life would get busy. Difficulties would distract them. Paying the bills and trying to survive life in a fallen world would take precedence. And before they knew it, they would be adding everything but virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love to their faith. Because the reality is, if we’re not adding these qualities, we’ll be substituting them with something else. So, Peter made it his life-long objective to remind his fellow believers of their God-given responsibility to grow in spiritual maturity by making every effort to add to their faith these essential qualities of Christ Himself. Peter knew his days were

In verses 8-11 of 2 Peter 1, Peter continues his discussion of the Christ-like qualities that should be a part of every believer’s life. But they don’t just happen. We have to make every effort, Peter says, that they are added to our faith. And they should be increasing each and every day that we live on this planet. For Peter, this is all about our effectiveness as believers. These character qualities or attributes are not just window-dressing to make our spiritual lives look better on the outside. They are essential ingredients to living lives of spiritual maturity and gospel integrity. In fact, Peter says that if we practice these qualities, we will never fail. That’s quite a promise. But it’s based on the Word of God and the presence of the Spirit of God in the life of each and every believer. We have what we need to see that these qualities are added to our faith and that they increase over time. So, in essence, we become increasingly more like Christ the longer we live on this planet, in spite of an ene

In verses 5-7 of 2 Peter 1, Peter is going to provide us with a list of seven characteristics that we are to add to our faith. Think of them as spiritual supplements or divine vitamins designed to improve our spiritual health and increase the stamina of our faith as we live in this world. They are all characteristics of Christ. And they are all non-negotiable. In other words, we don’t get to look at the list and pick the ones we find attractive or easy to emulate. Each is essential to our walk. They each have a different purpose and application for life. And we have a part to play in seeing that they added to our faith. As Peter puts it, we are to make every effort. It’s not that we produce these characteristics in our own strength, but that we see them as valuable and long to work alongside the Spirit in order that they become increasingly more a normal part of our lives. Expressing belief in Christ, but failing to live like Him is unacceptable for the believer. Claiming to be a son or daughter of God, but l

Today, we transition into 2 Peter, yet another letter written by the apostle to various congregations located throughout the Roman Empire. As before, this is going to be a letter of encouragement, calling on the believers to whom he is writing, to live as who they are: Son and daughters of God. In these opening verses, Peter will let them know that they have all they need to live godly lives, because of what Jesus had done for them. They are fully capable of becoming “partakers of the divine nature”, as he puts it. Or, to put it another way, they have all that they need to become like Christ. And Peter, as he did in his first letter, is going to call them to live as who they are. He seems to know that his days are numbered and that he has a limited amount of time to poor into these believers scattered throughout Asia Minor. He is going to do all he can in the time that he has left, to encourage any and all believers to live in keeping with their calling as sons and daughters of God. They have been imputed the

As Peter wraps up his first letter, he will stress our need to stand firm as we await the coming of the Lord. We must live on this earth, eagerly anticipating the return of Christ, but fully aware that the days will be difficult because we live in a world that hates us and face an enemy who is determined to destroy us. But we are not alone. And we have no reason to worry about the final outcome of our lives or that of the world. God is in control. He holds our future and that of the world securely in His powerful hands. So, in the meantime, Peter calls us to resist the enemy. Not in our own strength, but in the strength of the Lord. We are to remember who we are and who has called us to be His children. We belong to God. We are citizens of His Kingdom and heirs of all that belongs to Him as God. We know how the story ends, so there is no reason for us to worry or fret over the outcome. We know our eternity is secure, so we have no cause to panic in the face of opposition in this life. As Paul so aptly put it:

In chapter five of 1 Peter, we are going to find the apostle giving some serious words of direction to the elders within the churches to whom he is writing. He is not addressing those with grey hair or a significant number of years behind them. He is talking to the shepherds or overseers of the church. These were men who had been appointed to provide spiritual direction to the various local fellowships that made up the body of Christ in that day. These men were leaders, but they were to be a different kind of leader. They were not to see themselves as autocrats or dictators, demanding unquestioned allegiance from their congregations. No, they were to be servants. Their lives and ministries were to reflect the nature of Christ Himself, who came to serve, not be served. But godly leadership not only requires a heart of service, it demands humility. No one is truly qualified to lead. There is no one who deserves to be a leader over God’s people. His right to lead comes from God. His power to lead comes from the

Rejoice in suffering. We know it’s a command found in Scripture, but that doesn’t make it any less difficult to grasp or pull off. In 1 Peter 4:12-19, Peter is going to give us a fairly blunt command to “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings. And James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote virtually the same thing in the book that bears his name. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Both of these men sound like their elevators don’t go all the way to the top. How in the world are we supposed to find joy in the midst of trials and rejoice because we get to suffer for the sake of Christ? For both Peter and James, the issue is one of outcome. As Christians, our suffering has a divine purpose. It is intended by God to purify and perfect us, like extreme heat refines precious metals. Neither one of these men is telling us to like trials. But they want us to realize that trials are a normal and expected part of life as a believer. In the hands of God, they are tools He uses

Good service. We all love it, when we’re the recipients of it. But in the Kingdom of God, service is to be other-oriented, not me-centered. As followers of Christ, it’s no longer about us. Our lives exist for God’s glory and for the good of those around us. In 1 Peter 4:7-11, Peter is going to provide us with a primer on service. First of all, he is going to instruct us to live with a short-term, goal-line mentality, fully expecting the return of the Lord at any time. And while we wait, we are to focus our attention on the needs of others. None of this what’s-in-it-for-me stuff. God has equipped us with gifts, not to lavish them on ourselves, but to build up the body of Christ. We are to steward what God has so graciously given us, so that we might serve as His Son did: selflessly and sacrificially. Life on this planet can be hard. There will be days of difficulty and moments of strife and turmoil. We will find ourselves the objects of persecution and facing rejection by this world. But while we’re here, we a

Are you prepared to live the life Christ died to provide? Are you ready to follow in His footsteps and to emulate His example? In 1 Peter 4:1-6, Peter is going to provide us with some strong words of encouragement and incentive to live in a dramatically different manner than we did before we knew Christ. As Peter has pointed out repeatedly in this letter, part of our new life will entail suffering. But rather than seeing suffering as an unnecessary burden or an unexpected setback to our new life in Christ, we are to see it as part of the process of sanctification that God has planned for us. Part of the reason behind our suffering will be because our lost friends will not understand why we do the things we do, and they will attack us. Our new lives in Christ will convict them, because we are no longer willing to go along with their sinful lifestyles or to condone their actions with our mutual participation. When, with the help of the Spirit of God, we stop sinning like we did before, our friends will not unde

Peter is calling his readers to live out their newfound life in Christ in tangible, practical ways. They are to live godly lives, not to earn salvation, but as a result of the salvation provided for them by Jesus Christ. They are to live in the power of the Spirit, given to them by God and intended to transform their lives in radical ways. But while living for Christ, we are also to follow His example, and be willing to die as He did. The fact that Jesus came to earth and took on human flesh is important, but it is incomplete if we leave out His death and resurrection. So, in 1 Peter 3:18-22, Peter is going to remind us that Jesus came to die. That was His mission. It was not a detour or an unexpected ending to His original plan. It was the plan all along. And it is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that gives the gospel its significance. The resurrection is the key. Without it, we are without hope, as Paul says. Without it, Jesus died in vain. But the resurrection of Christ is a resounding message

Hope. It seems to be in short supply these days. We live at a time when the darkness around us seems to be deepening and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ appears to be diminishing in strength. But Peter would encourage us to have hope. In 1 Peter 3:13-17, he reminds us of the hope that we have within us as followers of Jesus Christ. We have been chosen by God and made members of His family. And that new relationship with Him comes with the guarantee of an eternity that has been secured for us in heaven. All because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. We live in this world with hope, even in the midst of all the darkness. We live our lives in eager anticipation of Christ’s eminent return. We count on it. And it is the promise of His return and the hope of our eternal destiny that allow us to endure all this world has to throw at us. But when we do good and find ourselves suffering because of it, Peter tells us we need to be ready to share with all those around us just why we are willing to p

In 1 Peter 3:8-12, Peter begins to wrap up his thoughts regarding the believer’s behavior toward the various relationships in their life. He has been specific, now he gets a bit more generic, calling all believers to bless one another. But what does that even mean? Is it as simple as saying, “Bless you” to someone else? Probably not. While there is certainly nothing wrong with those two words, Peter’s point seems to be focused on the heart behind the words. While we can use our tongues to say good things to or about others, we can also use them to curse.  But just because we choose NOT to curse doesn’t make us godly. And neither does saying good things. The real issue Peter is dealing with is the condition of our heart. Do we really love others? When we express love for them, is it coming from within or are our words a sham, a righteous-sounding, reputation-building attempt to come across as Christ-like? If we have been chosen by God, adopted into His family, made heirs of His Kingdom, appointed as priests, a

So, what about husbands? Peter has had quite a bit to say to wives, and now he takes on the married men in his audience, but he packs it into one short paragraph, found in 1 Peter 3:7. And while he won’t have anything to say about how husbands dress or what they do with their hair, he will demand that they treat their wives with honor. They are not to lord it over their wives, which was a common problem in that day and age. Women were not held in high esteem and, in most cases, a wife was expected to accept whatever religious faith her husband held. She didn’t get a choice. And as with his input to wives, Peter is going to address the God-ordained treatment Christian men were to show to their wives, whether they were believers or not. Just like what he had to say to slaves and wives, Peter is most interested in godly behavior, that kind of conduct that reflects a right relationship with God, made possible through faith in Christ. A Christian husband was to honor his wife. He was to view her as a gift from God

There’s not a pastor alive, who is in his right mind, who wants to take on the topic of women’s clothing or how they dress. It is a mine field littered with devastatingly dangerous traps that could spell disaster for even the most well-meaning pastor. But in the opening verses of 1 Peter 3, Peter is going to voluntarily run right into mine-infested territory willingly giving advice on women’s hair, clothing and jewelry. And, as if that wasn’t enough, he’s going to call them to submit to their husbands – even if their husband is an unbeliever. Is Peter nuts? Has he lost his mind? Or is he some kind of chauvinistic, gender-biased bigot who has it out for women? We have to keep in mind that Peter has just finished talking to believing slaves, those who had come to faith in Christ, but still found themselves living in the same miserable conditions they were in before salvation. And the women to whom Peter was writing we in a similar situation, many of them having come to faith in Christ, apart from their husbands

Nobody in their right mind likes to suffer. Normal people don’t wake up in the morning hoping that their day is full of pain, suffering and trials. But as Peter continues to elaborate on the Christian life, he is going to stress the undeniable and inescapable reality of suffering. In verses 18-25 of 1 Peter 2, he is going to drive home the point that all believers, no matter their station in life, can expect to suffer as Jesus did, because they have been made a part of His body, the church. And the church, then, as now, was made up of all kinds of people from all walks of life. And in these verses, Peter is going to address a particular group of individuals who knew first-hand what suffering was like because it was a regular part of their daily lives. Believe it or not, the early church had a good percentage of slaves or household servants who had come to faith. Some of them even attended the same churches as their masters. While these individuals had come to know freedom from sin because of their relationshi

What is the Christian’s relationship to earthly governments to look like? That is what Peter brings up in verses 13-17 of 1 Peter 2. And what he has to say may be a bit surprising to some of us. I’ve entitled this episode, “Submit Like It” because Peter is going to continue his call for believers to live out their newfound status as sons and daughters of God by living lives that are set apart from the rest of the world. Our behavior is to reflect our identity as the chosen people of God, royal priests, and as members of a holy nation. We are exiles here, but we still have to get along with the rest of the world and live according to the rules and regulations established by earthly rulers and governments. Peter is going to make it perfectly clear that, as Christians, we are not free to live as we choose or to use our citizenship in heaven to declare our independence from any form of earthly rule. No, he tells us to submit to every human institution, for the Lord’s sake. And it is important to note that the aud

If we are children of God, shouldn’t we behave like it? Peter seems to think so. In 1 Peter 2:9-12, we will hear Peter reminding his readers that they have a remarkable new identity in Christ Because of their faith in Christ, they have been changed and given new responsibilities within the Kingdom of God. They have been hand-picked by God, made His priests, set apart as His people and given the responsibility of proclaiming the greatness of the One who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. What Peter has in mind here is a change in behavior. Their status before God has changed, because they have been declared righteous by Him because of the sacrificial death of His own Son. Now, they were to live like who there were. But the danger they faced was one that is common to all believers: To fail to recognize their new identity and to fall back into the the familiar patterns of their life before Christ. So, Peter is going to go out of his way to ensure that they understand exactly who they are and h

In today’s episode, entitled, “Build Like It”, Peter is going to use a construction metaphor to get across his point that our lives are to exhibit a transformation. We are part of a master building plan designed by God Himself. We are not just individual works in process, we are parts of a greater whole, a spiritual house. And Jesus is to be the foundation upon which we rest and find our stability. As we dig into 1 Peter 2:4-8, we’ll see that Peter has a community concept in mind. The Christian life is not to be a solo-sport or an individualized pursuit. We are in this together and are being built up in conjunction with every other believer. And our common ground is our faith in Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone, as Peter puts it. But for many, this stone that was to bring stability and structure, ends up being a stone of stumbling. Rather than resting on Him, they trip over Him. Instead of seeing Him as Savior, they view Him as someone or something to be avoided at all costs. But we are not to live like th

You’re probably familiar with the phrase, “Dress for success.” Well, in 1 Peter 2:1-3, we are going to learn Peter’s definition of what the successful Christian wears. But first, he’s going to tell us what is inappropriate attire for the believer. That’s why I’ve entitled this episode, “Dress Like It.” As children of God, we should appear as what we are. That means there are certain characteristics that are not acceptable and should be avoided at all costs. In essence, it’s like saying, “I wouldn’t get caught dead wearing something like that!” Just as there are certain kinds of clothing that are age-inappropriate or improper for certain situations, there are certain outward character qualities that are not faith-appropriate. They no longer go with who we are in Christ. You don’t wear heavy sweaters or a wool coat in summer. You don’t put on sandals to shovel snow in the middle of winter. And you don’t put on things like malice, deceit, slander and envy if you call yourself a Christ-follower. It is one thing t