TerryLema

In 1 Peter, chapter 4, sandwiched between an opening section about “Living for God,” and the ending section regarding, “Suffering for Being a Christian,” Peter gave us a few things to consider.  Prayer. Love. Hospitality. And the last, using God’s gifts. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

Peter then sums up the “various forms” of God’s grace given two ways. “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” [1 Peter 4:10-11]

Speaking and Serving are the two ways we display the grace of God. When speaking we speak the words of God. We don’t revise what God says or omit or add to God’s truths. We simply speak the very words of God with wisdom and grace. Some will like them; others will reject them. Our job, however, is to remain true to God’s truths.

We are also to serve, not in our own weaknesses but with the strength that God supplies. Servanthood is the vocation of everyone who calls Christ Jesus Lord and Savior. We are to serve from a willing heart, wherever God plants us. We are to minister to Him in worship and praise, we are to minister to others in love, kindness, compassion, and generosity.

If we use the gifts God has given us to serve, God will be praised. He receives the glory – not us. “To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 4 has a small list of actions and attitudes which are to aid us in how he begins the chapter, “Living for God,” and how he ends the chapter, “Suffering for Being a Christian.” The first two are prayer and love, then he turns his attention to ungrudging hospitality. “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”  [1 Peter 4:9]

Hospitality is hospitality in either the Greek or the English. It’s opening our homes, our hearts, to others without grumbling or complaining.

In Peter’s day there weren’t any Motel 6s or Holiday Inns where travelers could find rest on their journeys. Peter encourages his readers to make their homes a bed and breakfast for fellow Christians.

Remember how he began this section?  “The end of all things is near, therefore ….” 

Peter anticipates that the times are going to get tougher as we approach the return of the LORD. Not only do we need to engage in watchful prayer and covering love for each other, we may need to actually open our homes and hearts when the time comes, as we may find ourselves without church buildings, without homes, facing persecution – even martyrdom.

As the family of God, the body of Christ, we need to look out for each other.

1 Peter 4 contains two sections, the first labeled in one of my translations as “Living for God,” and the second labeled, “Suffering for Being a Christian.” Between those two sections, Peter outlines a small series of attitudes and actions that are necessary to do both. The first is about prayer, the second is about love. “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”  [1 Peter 4:8]

We are to love each other “deeply” or as the NKJV translates it, we are to “have fervent love for one another.”

That means a love that never ceases. It never grows cold. It never diminishes. That kind of love covers sins. That kind of love is agape love … the love God has for us. Just as we are in a covenant relationship with God to forgive (He forgave us; we forgive others), we share a covenant relationship with Him to love (He loves us; we love others).

It is God’s love that covers our sins. God doesn’t display our sins to others; He doesn’t blab them on the evening news or write them across the skies. He could, but He doesn’t. When we repent, in His love He forgives us, then buries our sins in the deepest part of the seas, as far as the east is from the west. He grants us righteousness and dignity in Him to go on “Living for God.”

He expects us to do the same. We are to love each other, forgive each other, protect each other in agape love. Once that sin has been repented of and forgiven, it needs to be forgotten in love.

I was reading in 1 Peter this morning, chapter 4. My Bible subtitles the beginning of chapter 4 as “Living for God,” and the ending as “Suffering for Being a Christian.”

In the middle there is a paragraph that lists a few attitudes and actions that we should note. When reading I thought these attitudes and actions were vital for both “Living for God” and “Suffering for Being a Christian.

The first is verse 7: “The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” 

 The NKJV translates it, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.”

 The end of all things is much nearer now than it was in Peter’s Day. If it was important to be clear minded / serious and self-controlled / watchful then, how much more so now.

Prayer is vital. Peter recommends prayer that isn’t frivolous. Somehow the idea of prosperity prayer seems at odds with “Living for God” or “Suffering for Being a Christian.” But good solid, serious prayer that flows from a heart that is controlled by the Spirit of God, watchful prayer that sees the dangers and traps around us – that kind of prayer is essential.

Holy Spirit, help us to have a serious prayer life, one that is dependent upon You and recognizes that “the end of all things is near.” Amen.

When we enter a covenant relationship with the LORD Jesus through our salvation, we also enter a covenant of forgiveness.  Jesus told us when we pray, we are to say … “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive the debts of others.”  [Luke 11:4]

The Apostle Paul reiterated the covenant in both his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians: “forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you,” and “forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” [Eph 4:32, Col 3:13-14].

A covenant is an agreement between two parties. There are numerous examples of covenants in the OT. Most have similar attributes. Both parties are responsible for keeping the covenant, they were often sealed by blood sacrifice, and there were consequences for not keeping them as they were a sacred commitment.

The covenant of forgiveness is simple. God forgave us; we forgive others. Simple. But certainly not easy.

It is a lot easier to forgive someone who hurts us and then repents asking forgiveness than it is when people don’t know or care that they hurt us. The thing about the covenant of forgiveness, our part isn’t founded on what’s in the heart of the offender – only what is in the heart of the one granting forgiveness.

It doesn’t matter if the offender repents or not. It doesn’t flow from our feelings. It is an act of the will. We choose to forgive others because we remember (and are eternally grateful for) the magnitude of forgiveness we received in Christ Jesus. 

I was reading Psalm 27 this morning. It begins with a very familiar verse – “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?”  Whom, indeed.

One of my translations describes this song as “An Exuberant Declaration of Faith.” David expresses his confident faith in the LORD God Almighty even in the face of being surrounded by evil men. He trusts the LORD to rescue Him. Then David says, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD….”  [vs 4]

One thing. David wanted to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of his life for one purpose, simply to behold, to gaze upon his beautiful Savior. As I meditated on that verse this morning, I realized that David sought that one thing – to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD – because he knew that is the only way his faith would remain strong “when evil men advance[d] against [him] to devour [his] flesh.”  [vs 2]

David knew that he would be safe in the day of trouble if he remained in the presence of the LORD, if he kept his gaze on God and not on the evil, the danger around him.  The writer of Hebrews tells us the same thing when he urges us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”  [Heb 12:2]

The world is a dangerous place; it always has been and will continue to be so for those who profess faith in Christ Jesus as LORD. Persecution and martyrdom have always accompanied faith. The only safe place is in the presence of the LORD, fixing our eyes upon Him, gazing upon His beauty.

One Thing ….

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD Almighty!” [Revelation 4:8]

In my heart, it seems fitting to close this week of learning what it means to say, “In God We Trust,” with God’s Holy, Holy, Holy Nature.

John MacArthur writes about God’s holiness: “Of all the attributes of God, holiness is the one that most uniquely describes Him and in reality is a summation of all His other attributes. The word holiness refers to His separateness, His otherness, the fact that He is unlike any other being. It indicates His complete and infinite perfection. Holiness is the attribute of God that binds all the others together.”

God’s Holiness is the foundation of His trustworthiness. It is also the attribute that makes us fall to our knees as Isaiah did in recognition of our own unworthiness. We cry out as he did, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” [Isaiah 6:7]

As He sent the angel with the coal to cleanse Isaiah’s “unclean lips,” He sent Jesus, His Precious Son, to cleanse our souls with His Precious Blood.

God is perfect. We are imperfect. God is holy. We are not. Yet He loves us. He sent His Son to die on our cross in our place. He invites us to call Him Father, to come boldly to His throne. He has given us an inheritance in His presence, reserved in the heavenlies for us. How could we not love Him and serve Him.

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen!

“The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star And reaches to the lowest hell …. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.” [The Love of God, Frederick M Lehman, 1917]

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” [1John 4:7-8]

The love of God is eternal, sovereign, unchanging, and infinite. God’s love is active. He draws us to Himself. It is personal – He doesn’t just love all of mankind in some generic sense – He loves you and He loves me. Nothing in us – nothing we do – can change God’s love for us.

While we can please or displease God, we cannot by our meager actions change God’s love for us. His love is as His nature – it knows no beginning and no end.

To learn to abide in that love should be the goal of every human heart. “Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.”

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen

“The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.” [Psalm 145:8]

Oh, the grace of God – the Amazing, Wondrous Grace of God. The grace that seeks out human misery and guilt and provides merit where none is due. That grace that provides the way to the very Presence of God. That grace that flows from the cross – from the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Savior and LORD, Christ Jesus, God’s Precious Son.

That common grace that “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” [Matthew 5:45]

That saving grace that flows in abundance to those who put their faith in Christ Jesus. That grace that provides all we need so that we can live for Him here and enjoy Him for all eternity.

Oh, the grace of God – the Amazing, Wondrous Grace of God.

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen

Yesterday I wrote about God being All-Powerful. And how that power is governed by His goodness. I grew up in a denomination that gave me the impression that Our Father God was always looking for ways to keep us out of heaven. One misstep and our name disappeared from the Book of Life.

Then someone told me about the love and the goodness of God. Psalm 34:8 invites us to “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”

It is easy to affirm the goodness of God when things are going well. But when life becomes difficult, we can question God’s goodness. The thing we must remember is that God’s goodness is not controlled by our circumstances. His goodness is birthed in His unchanging (immutable) nature.

It is interesting that just a little further in Psalm 34, David declares “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” [vs 19]

God’s goodness does not eliminate “the afflictions of the righteous.” Good people still suffer. But it does carry us through them and promises deliverance out of them. Whatever difficulty we face in this life stays in the grave. It cannot follow us into our eternal inheritance. God is good.

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen