The First Epistle of Peter
Finally, I have opportunity to write on the first epistle of Peter. I have wanted to do so for some time. There is no substitute for an expositional study, verse by verse, of the Scriptures. I will attempt to comment solely on what is written and confirmed by other passages, which add clarity, avoiding personal comment. I invite you to follow along with me, because you and I need to be instructed by the unerring, powerful truth of the word of God. To the left, I have a map of the dispersion of Jewish Christian, to whom Peter is specifically writing. The large circle is around the territory of Asia Minor. In the right hand corner, you will see the modern location in the country of Turkey. We are the spiritual offspring of Jewish Christians, grafted into the plan of God, given to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.
To Save a Soul from Death
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James gives warning to the prosperous
1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
2. Your riches
are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
3. Your gold and
silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will
eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
4.
Indeed the
wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry
out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth.
5. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
6.
You have
condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
James certainly was far from being a promoter of prosperity, in fact, he seriously warned the rich of the danger of prosperity. Paul, also, in total agreement with James, knew the pitfalls of wealth and, though the wealthy may have been few among Christians, they certainly existed. He tells Timothy to counsel them: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” (1Ti 6:17-19). There are Christians, who have known how to use their good fortune, have heeded this advice, and have been wonderfully used of God to further His purposes.
However, in 1 Timothy 6:5-11, Paul gives a clear and concise teaching to Timothy on the Christian position concerning earthly prosperity. He began his doctrine, writing of “useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.” This portion in Timothy merits a few observations. Verse 5 teaches that any search for getting gain from Christianity is done by men of corrupt minds, using devious means that are far from truth. “From such withdraw yourself.” Christians, certainly men in the ministry, need to shy away from this kind of teaching. “
“Christian” Adultery
Unconverted churchgoers
1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2. You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
I think that the apostles knew that, when they wrote to the Christian churches, that they were not writing to a congregation of totally converted people. Yet they wrote for the benefit of all, converted and unconverted. The apostle, John, taught that those, who left the church, proved by their departure that they were never true believers, though they formerly congregated with them: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 Jn.2:19).
Paul showed that “from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Ac.20:30). He said that divisions in the church were necessary to reveal those who were approved as true Christians: “For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you” (1 Co.11:19). Later, he challenged the members to examine their own lives to make sure that they were genuine: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Co.13:5).
Jeremiah, especially, but other prophets also, revealed that there were false prophets and priests, among the leadership of Israel: “The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me; The prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit” (Jer.2:8). Jesus taught clearly that the same trend reached a climax in His day. He affirmed, concerning the leadership in Jerusalem: “But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you” (Jn.5:42). “Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, 'I do not know Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word” (Jn.8:55). He told His disciples: “And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me” (Jn.16:3).
About the Tongue and Wisdom
The Power of the tongue
1. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
2. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
3. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
4. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
5. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
7. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
11. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
12. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Personally, the bulk of the early part of my ministry was missionary evangelism. Of course, besides evangelism, it involved Bible teaching and discipling new converts. But I did not concentrate, particularly, on a teaching ministry. I often say that the first five years on the Costa Chica of Oaxaca, Mexico, was my Bible school training. I gained practical experience in Christianity on hostile foreign soil, saw evidence of the Providence of God, and read consistently time and again the sacred pages of God’s word. Doctrines formed, as I watched the word play out in the circumstances of people, who were not different than the people, along with their stories, as those in the Bible.
Many years later, the teaching learned from those years and experiences transformed into something that I could share with the body of Christ. Doors opened in teaching conferences from Argentina to India and many places in between. My “heroes” in the faith have always been those, who have battled on the front lines in mighty conflicts against spiritual forces. I have often wondered how young students can put so much faith and trust in teachers, who have gained most of their theology, sitting in warm offices, studying from commentaries and volumes of hermeneutical works, written by superior intellects.
The Faith and Works Package
Chapter 2:14-26
14. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
15. If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16. and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
17. Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!
20. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?
22. Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
23. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." And he was called the friend of God.
24. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
An ineffective faith. Let every critic of James, no matter who he may be, examine carefully his teaching, and he will see that his doctrine is very constructive and positive concerning faith. He does confront an ineffectual faith, unable to save, but also presents a true faith. We could say that James shows that works are the fruit of true faith. Speaking of faith without works, I notice that the English Standard Version, the American Standard Version and the Amplified Bible, add the word that to faith in verse 14, asking the question, “Can that faith save him?” These translations would indicate that there are different kinds of faith and we will learn that they come from different sources.
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