Things that Angels Desire
Chosen and born again, with resurrection life from Christ
1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
and Bithynia,
2. elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4. to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5. who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
After an introduction of the apostle Peter and the people, to whom he is writing, I want to refer to the first verse again, simply to look at the word pilgrims. When Jacob met the Egyptian Pharaoh, he referred to his life as a pilgrimage… he was one, who had not settled down, but was on a continual journey: “Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years.” (Gen.47:9). He had learned that lifestyle from his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham.
In Psalms 39:12, David identified with his forefathers as a foreign sojourner: “I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.” The writer of Hebrews referred to the Old Testament saints, using the same Greek word, translated pilgrims in Hebrews 11:13, as in Peter’s first verse: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Peter is writing to pilgrims and I can see no other position for a Christian in this world, than that of a pilgrim (1).
The apostle goes to great lengths to express to these people, with temporal residency on earth, that they have a history that was initiated by God the Father in eternity. He had chosen them, from the time that He had knowledge of them. Now, of course, we must consider the fact that, due to His omniscience, there is no beginning to His foreknowledge. In the timeless eons of eternity, He knew these pilgrims and chose them for His own. The place that they occupy in Peter’s day, was the result of God’s special attention given them from before the beginning of time.
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 Christians, to whom Peter is specifically writing. We are the spiritual offspring of Jewish Christians, grafted into the plan of God, given to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” 1 Peter 1:1
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.
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