LIVING IN GODLY FEAR

1 Peter 1:17-21   And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you ²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

            Peter says we Christians call on a Father “who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds” (v. 17).  In this one sentence we see that God is both a father and a judge.  Many people love to think of God as the Heavenly Father but there are few who like to think of him as a judge!  God is our Father because he made himself our Father.  In 1:3 Peter wrote, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again…”  It is most important for us to remember that God made himself our Father.  We did not make ourselves his children!  The fact that we belong to God’s family is a matter of grace alone!  But God is also the judge of all men.  He is judge because he is the creator of all that exists and because he is holy and just.  I know many people do not like to think of God as a judge but we cannot ignore the truth that God is both holy judge and loving Father at the same time.  There is danger in emphasizing one over the other and there is danger in ignoring one in favor of the other.  What if we think of God only as a loving Father?  Then we will encounter the temptation to think that it really doesn’t matter how we live because our loving Father will always forgive us because he would never do anything that hurts us.  What if we only think of God as a judge?  Then we lose out on the intimacy, comfort, and security that we receive from a loving Father!  There is great danger in thinking only of a loving Father who never judges and there is danger in thinking of a judgmental God whose judgment surpasses his love!  What role does a loving Father play in our lives?  He is the one upon whom we are always calling for strength, comfort, and guidance. 

            But our Father is also the judge of the universe and Peter says he judges each man’s deeds without partiality, without playing favorites.  In other words, Peter is saying that each person will stand before God individually!  There are no group judgments!  This was the mistake that was far too common among the ancient Jews.  They tended to think they would receive God’s blessing simply because they were Jews!  Many of them mistakenly believed in a national Jewish blessing!  We know that each person has a personal and individual accountability to God.  We baptize our children into the covenant and into the visible church.  At the same time, even though our parents might bring us before the Lord for baptism, there is nothing they can do to contribute to the salvation of our souls!  We do not believe that the baptism they give us can save us!  We each must trust in Christ and make our own profession of faith!  No priest can go to God on our behalf.  Each of us stands before God to be judged individually.  Think of this:  Peter wrote in verse 15, “You shall be holy because I am holy.”  This holy God is our judge and he judges without partiality.  Peter wants us to stop in our tracks and think about how weighty this truth is!  How do we stand before God?  This is why Peter writes, “…Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (v. 17).  We are to live with an appropriate fear of a Heavenly Father who is infinitely holy and who will discipline his children whom he loves.  

 

            God has taken us out of the empty way of life in which we lived before he gave us new birth and he has taken us into his family.  We are now merely pilgrims, sojourners, strangers in this world.  This world is not our home.  We are not of this world and we do not fit in here!  Satan is the father of those who are of this world and if we grow too comfortable here or if we begin to resemble the children of Satan then we can expect our Father to lovingly administer judgment and discipline.  The fact that we are sojourners in this world reminds us that our time here is temporary.  The grief and pain of this world are only temporary so it is worth it to live for this short time in godly fear!  We are also reminded that when our sojourn is over we will be in the house of the Lord where we will be home at last, never to wander again, and no longer strangers or aliens!  We live in godly fear because our Father is the holy judge who calls upon us to be holy as he is holy and he loves us so much that he won’t let us fall short!

 

OUR FATHER'S GENETICS

1 Peter 1:14-16  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”    

             When we were born spiritually we were adopted into God’s family.  We became his children.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  We were not allowed to bring all our old things into the home of our new Heavenly Father.  All the stuff from our old lives had to be left outside!  But those old things want to cling to us and we are tempted to sneak out to play with them and try to bring them inside!  Instead, if we desire to be obedient children we must leave all those things outside along with our old lifestyles!  We can no longer live our lives according to the old pattern of living which was ours before we received grace.  Peter gives this command because he knows those evil desires are still alive in Christian people.  We are still tempted by those things.  However, the Holy Spirit has broken their control over us and he has empowered us to have victory over them and leave them behind!  If listen to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit then we will be able to deny the temptations of our old lives.  But if we are lax and lazy, careless and unprepared, and worldly in our thinking we will be pressed into our old way of life and be defeated!

            Children have the natural tendency to imitate their parents.  Often, sons want to be like their fathers because they admire them.  Peter says, “Your Father who gave you birth is holy so be like him!  Carry on the family characteristics in your life!  You have a family name to uphold!  Your Father expects you to do everything you can to be like him!”  If we are the children of God then we have our Father’s spiritual DNA.  He has given us his Spirit and we are to live according to the Spirit.  “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  The Old Testament proof text Peter uses is a powerful reminder that it was God’s intention from the beginning to make a holy people for himself!  It was his plan to take spiritually dead, fallen sinners, and breathe spiritual life into them and shape them into his own holy image.  Holiness is not optional for the children of God!  It is not just a good idea or a suggestion!  God is going to work holiness into our lives and Peter calls us to be obedient children! 

 

         How are we supposed to do this?  How do we say “no” to our old patterns of life?  "Prepare your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13).  We must gird our minds for action!  Be sober-minded!  We should fill our minds with the hope of God’s grace!

TESTED BY FIRE

 

            I read this passage in my devotions this morning:  “You have made me see many troubles and calamities and will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.  You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.  I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 71:20-22).  This reminded me of a passage I just preached a couple of weeks ago and which has been with me ever since.  1 Peter 1:6-8, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you have not seen him, you love him.  Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory…”

            It seems clear to me that American Christianity is very different from the Christianity I have observed in other places in the world.  Most of us have inherited a Christianity that teaches us that if we work hard and are faithful to the Lord then we will find success and peace and we will be spared from poverty and trials.  After all, that is generally the experience of Christians for a long in our country.  My brothers and sisters in India would not understand such thinking.  Neither would my dear brethren in Romania.  But when we encounter hardships and trials we wonder what in the world we did wrong and why God is allowing painful things to happen.  We miss the significance of what Peter wrote to the churches in northern Asia Minor.

            The testing nature of trials proves the authenticity of faith.  Peter compares the proving of our faith to the refining of gold through the fire.  He says our faith is more precious, of greater worth, than gold.  Our faith is the most precious possession we have!  Everything else we have is a stewardship.  Our bodies, our health, our possessions, our children, and our ministries are not really ours.  We are simply charged with the care of them for a little while.  Our faith is most precious because by it we have salvation.  Nothing else can obtain salvation for us!  And our faith is more precious than gold because, in the end, gold becomes valueless and it passes away with the rest of this creation.  But the main point here is the fact that our faith is proved genuine in the same way that gold is proved genuine and purified.  Our trials are not meant to harm us any more than purifying fire is meant to harm the gold!  The fire takes nothing of value away from the gold.  Rather, it increases its value!  In the same way, the fire of earthly trials takes nothing of value away from our faith.  Rather, it increases the value of our faith to us!  The trials prove that our faith is genuine and the trials purify our faith!  Have you ever considered what kinds of impurities the fires of trials burn away from our faith?  I can only give you a bit of personal testimony here.  The trials in my life have burned away wrong ideas about God and what he is like and how he works.  Trials have burned away weaknesses in my faith and doubts about God’s work in my life.  God has drawn me closer to himself through trials I have encountered.  And after years of trials and sorrows I stood up and realized that my faith was still there!  It had not collapsed under the suffering.  Instead, it grew stronger!