Skip to main content

Living Holy: 1 Peter 2 & 3

Taste of Goodness
Have you tasted that the Lord is good? In 1 Peter 2, right off the bat, Peter makes a side comment that is very interesting. He asks whether we’ve truly ever experienced that the Lord is good? His question makes the point that if we have, this should make us yearn for God and the life sustaining power that God offers. When we have a real yearning for God, we want to be brand new people living new lives that emulate God’s likeness. We should ask ourselves: Do we actually feel this yearning? If not, maybe we should first ask God to give us a true taste of his faithfulness and his love. Getting a real experience of God’s goodness can change our hearts and give us a yearning to be more like God.

Succeed in Your Deeds
In chapter 2, Peter is very concerned about Christians doing good deeds. To him, it’s not only about professing your faith in Jesus. As he’s talking to exiles, people living in places and in situations where they lack power and influence, Peter realizes that the biggest witness of their faith, would be their actions. Peter frees them to accept that the situation they are living in may not be ideal, may not be perfect, and may not even be holy. Nonetheless, he tells them that they could still be powerful in spreading the gospel by their actions being good and Christ-like. Peter's encouragement still applies to us today. In the troubled times we live in with civil unrest and a lack of trust and peace, people don't want to just hear us preach the good word - they want to see our actions "walking the walk". Our actions coupled with our words are powerful ways to witness about God's goodness.

A Beautiful Spirit
A “gentle and quiet spirit”- Peter says this is an “imperishable beauty” in a wife. I read this in 1 Peter 3 and thought of the multiple proverbs that describe the lack of peace as living with a quarrelsome wife. I can’t say that’s not true and I’m daily trying to teach this to myself. PEACE is the key here and a gift of the Holy Spirit, which allows a person to have a gentle and quiet spirit. When we have peace, there’s no fear in our hearts about what’s going on around us. Peace frees us from worrying about proving our self worth and frees us from the traps of comparison. Having peace frees us to love ourselves as God loves us and frees us to trust that our lives and our families are within God's total control. No fear. Having the traits of a gentle and quiet spirit produces a lasting impression and is beautiful to the people around us and to God. It was good to read this reminder and encouragement from Peter.

1 Peter 2 and 3 encourages us to practice holiness, by doing more than reading our Bibles and preaching about revering God. Just as Peter, himself, learned with Jesus - when Jesus taught Peter about practicing servant leadership - we also practice holiness through our actions towards others. Our acts that display the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) can be our biggest testimony. So let's practice living holy by being thoughtful and acting on what we know will show love to the people around us. Say that kind word; do that kind act; "turn the other cheek" and give that person the benefit of the doubt. Our actions will spread God's love and make us holy.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts and reflections spurred on by this post. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Comfort in Discomfort

Our small group chatted recently about a comment our pastor mentioned a few Sundays ago. The comment left some of us scratching our heads and trying to understand how we really  felt about it. Our pastor said that he's noticed a common thread stated by people who experience hardships. They all said they would not change their bad experiences because they now value the good lessons they learned following their trials. The common sentiment was that the pain and hard lessons were worth it in order to grow. I intellectually understood this point, but my physical and emotional, pain-understanding being, disagreed! Do I want to experience hurt and discomfort just to learn how to lean into God and understand that He is my shelter and Comforter? The answer is no , not really. I'd rather just know it. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. We live with our human nature, ripe with opportunities for exercising freewill. This freewill can positively and negatively impact our live...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wisdom Walk

I'm reading Proverbs 4 and 5 and some of the takeaway points were: (1) learn about wisdom and instruction, (2) let your whole body be in submission to wisdom, and (3) embrace correction Proverbs 4 implores us to get wisdom and understanding. We learn from this chapter that King Solomon's "father" taught Solomon the value of gaining wisdom and the dangers of ignoring it. ( Proverbs 4:3-4 ) "Wisdom is the principal thing" which sets you up for promotion, honor, grace and glory. ( Proverbs 4:7-9 ) If we want all of these good things, we need to be given wisdom and shown the right paths. We need to be teachable. Proverbs 4 is written in a dual way where it's implied that Solomon was taught by his father King David. We can also read Solomon's words and see him speaking metaphorically as a "father" to us. This writing style was oddly soothing because it helped me get past the thoughts of - well, what should people do if they don't hav...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Expanse

I participated in a Zoom prayer call tonight with other women at my church and at the end I just had that feeling of loveliness. It felt good, it felt connected, and it made me want to connect with God even more. I opened my Bible and read Jeremiah 2:2 .  Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” My thoughts after reading this was: Lord increase my wonder of You.  When things are brand new we have a strong urge to learn more, seek more, engage more. When the shine wears off, we become complacent and less interested. Maybe it’s because we feel we’ve learned all we need to know. Maybe it’s because we are too comfortable in the now. Maybe it’s because we can’t see the possibility of there being so much more for us to gain.  When it comes to my spirit and You, God, please open my eyes to see the expanse of all that you have for me to...
Post a Comment
Read more