Pilgrims and Bondservants

¹¹ Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, ¹² having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. 

¹³ Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— ¹⁶ as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. ¹⁷ Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:11-17, New King James Version)

Since we are just visitors here, staying for a short time on this earth, we need to keep ourselves from being entangled in the things that would hinder our progress.  Pilgrims and sojourners must travel light, and whenever we give in to fleshly lusts we find ourselves hauling around emotional and spiritual baggage.  Not only that, but the reason God leaves us here in the world, rather than taking us home immediately when we come to Him, is so we can invite others to receive His free gift of salvation.  We must conduct ourselves in such a way that they'll see a difference in us and want what we have.

The way to silence those who accuse us is to live honorably.  To submit to and obey the laws.  There may still be those who will falsely accuse us, but they will know deep in their hearts that their accusations are lies, they won't be able to make these accusations before God in the day of Christ's return, but will fall silent before Him. 

We are free in Christ (vs. 16). We know that even we sin our Lord forgives us.  Yet we are not to use that freedom as a cloak for vice, we are not to sin intentionally and hide behind our freedom in Christ.  Rather we are to live as bondservants of Christ.  Remember, a bondservant was a slave who had been given his freedom, but who loved his master and his home and so chose of his own free will to continue serving his master all the days of his life.,(See Deuteronomy 15:12-17)  So while we have our freedom we should, out of love for our Master, freely choose to do His will.

We should treat all people with honor and respect, not only those who are living righteously and serving our Lord, but also those who don't know our Lord and are caught up in lifestyles of sin, because we won't win anyone by despising them and treating them like dirt.

We also need to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  When those around us see our love for one another, how well help each other, forgive each other, and pray for each other, they will know that we are His disciples,  (See John 13:34-35), and some of them will drawn to Him as well.

We also are to give honor to the rulers in government.  In the time this epistle was written, it was king.  Today in America, it is our president.  We are to honor him, whether we agree with him or not.  We are not prevented from speaking out against policies and participating in the political process, but we should NEVER resort to verbally attacking the person.  We should honor him, just as we are to honor all men, and treat him with respect.

So I pray that the church will put away the jokes, the unflattering posters, the unfounded accusations, and will start to pray for our president.  I pray if we write letters in regards to policies we disagree with, whether those letters are to the editor of our local paper, to our congressmen and women, or to the White House, that our letters will be polite and respectful and will speak to the issues, not attack the person in office.

Lord, help me to abstain from all that would hinder my journey.  Help me Lord, to live in such a way that those around me will either be drawn to You or at least be silenced before You.  Help me to honor all people, so not will have a just reason to accuse.  I thank you Lord, that each day You give me freedom, and that I am free to choose to stay with You.  I choose You today Lord, I will stay with You to serve You.  Help me to be a good servant today Lord.

Where We Belong

 ¹ Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, ² as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.   
⁴ Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, ⁵ you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

      “ Behold, I lay in Zion
      A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
      And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

⁷ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“ The stone which the builders rejected
      Has become the chief cornerstone,”

 ⁸ and

      “ A stone of stumbling
      And a rock of offense.”

   They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:1-10, New King James Version)

Because we are born again through the precious, incorruptible blood of Jesus and the eternal word of God, we now need to lay aside all of those things that are not suited to our new nature.  Malice, or ill intent, has no place in our new life.  We must reject every form of deceit and dishonesty, and hypocrisy which is that tendency to say one thing and do another, to pretend that we something other than what we are.  We need to stop envying each other for their possessions, their talents, gifts, relationships, whatever, because this is often the source of malice and hypocrisy.  We must continue to be careful not to speak evil of others.  We must stop making excuses for all these things and make a choice to lay them aside, rejecting them as behavior not suitable for a new creation in Christ.

We need to feed on God's word and not resist the things it says, but rather  let it do its work to change us and cause growth.

Indeed our Lord is gracious and precious to us who yielded our lives to Him.  He is the solid Rock on which we stand and base our lives, but to hearts bent on rebellion He is a stone which trips them.  Having been offered a free pardon and then choosing to reject it, they heap more condemnation on themselves.

But those of us who know Jesus as our Savior and our Lord are chosen.  We are a royal priesthood.  Royal because we are children of the King of Kings, and a priesthood because we are God's servants and ministers.  We are His hands and feet, going and reaching out to those around us, a light in the darkness that so heavily hangs over this world of ours.

We are a holy nation, we no longer claim citizenship in this world, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we are strangers and visitors here on earth.  We are God's chosen and special people, set apart to proclaim the praises of  God bring glory to the One who called out of the thick choking darkness we once walked in and into His marvelous light.

Once we were not a people, once we did not belong, we had no place or people to which we truly belonged, but now we belong to God Himself, we are His people, on which He has chosen to show His incredible love and mercy.

Lord, I thank you for your mercy.  I thank you that now I truly have a place I belong, in Your loving arms.  I praise You, Lord, for choosing me.  I don't understand why you did, there was nothing in me to warrant or be worthy of  Your choosing, yet You chose me as a vessel to display Your mercy.  I can only respond with humble thanks.  I ask Lord, that You will help me to lay aside everything that would hinder my usefulness to You, anything that would stop other people from seeing Your glory.  Praise You LORD.

Our Motivation

¹³ Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; ¹⁴ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; ¹⁵ but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

¹⁷ And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; ¹⁸ knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. ²⁰ He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you ²¹ who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

²² Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, ²³ having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, (1 Peter 1:13-23, New King James Version)

This passage begins with the word therefore, which basically means, "because of what was just said". So following my old pastor's instruction, whenever you see the word therefore, look back and see what it is there for. What came before this was a collection of verses which expounded on how we are saved and kept by God, by His grace and mercy and mercy alone, not our own works, and how God has given to His church greater revelation, grace, and mercy than has been extended to the prophets of old or even to the angels in heaven. (See Who Hold's Us and Keeps Us and Mysteries Even Angels Wish to See.)

So it is because of that awesome grace which saves us without works, and because of that incredible revelation given us in Scripture that we should be sober and put our hope fully in Jesus. It is because of God's grace that we should be obedient and not conform ourselves to our former lusts, it is because we know how good God has been to us that we should walk in holy conduct.

What motivates us to be obedient and to live righteously is knowing how much God has given to us, knowing that He loves, has saved us, and will keep us irregardless of our works, this should be our motivation. We should be motivated out of love and thankfulness to not want to tread upon such awesome mercy and grace, but rather to serve Him with a whole heart.

No longer motivated out of fear of hell, but out of thankfulness for our sure deliverance from it, we are free to obey and do the work God calls us to do. The only fear (vs 17) which now has any part in our motivation is the fear of defaming our Lord, fear of our conduct driving others away from Him, fear that others will see us who claim to have Christ inside us, and will wrongly judge Christ based on the wrong they see in our lives. For indeed, the world does judge Christ, and the credibility of His word, based on what they see in us. The fear of causing others to think that Christ is not true. That is the only kind of fear which has place in a heart transformed by love.

We know how precious and incorruptible is Christ's blood which has redeemed us, and we should fear making it look like a common, unholy thing in the eyes of those who watch us to find out what Christ is like. But even that fear is grounded in love and in knowledge that our salvation is sure no matter what, knowing that we have been born again of incorruptible seed, knowing that we have God's word telling us that our salvation is sure in Him and that He will keep us in His hand, and knowing that despite all the weaknesses of our flesh, God's word will stand forever.

²⁴ because
“ All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
²⁵ But the word of the LORD endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:24-25, New King James Version)

Lord, I thank you and I praise you that you have saved me, and that my salvation is not dependent upon me, but upon You. I praise you Lord that Your perfect love casts out fear, and that now I can serve You out of thankfulness for what You have done, rather than out of fear of what You might do. I pray Lord that I will not defame Your holy name today. That I will walk as You would have me, that when others look at me, they may not see me, but may see You through me. I ask this in Your precious name Jesus. Amen.