What I Found In First Peter One {Week 1 of The Great Summer Slowdown}

Author

Brianna R Wasson
June 30, 2014

**We’re slowing down this summer and looking for God in First Peter. Journaling through some questions together and showing up here every Monday for some together-looking. And, well, I would be super-duper thrilled if you decided to join in. Also. Super-duper is an actual word I use. I’m kind of a dork.

You can find the questions here. Or you can study it in your own unique way. Whatever floats your boat. Then come back each Monday, and we’ll chat through what we’re learning.**

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Be holy.

It’s always scared me. This command to be holy. Just like God Himself is holy. Because, really. Holy. HOLY.

Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

The Greek word is hagios. It means set apart, sacred; “likeness of nature with the Lord” because “different from the world”.

What scared me about it was the understanding that holy meant perfect. Without sin. No doing anything that God doesn’t want. No sin. At all.

Completely and utterly. holy.

And, while God is certainly all of those things, and His Word says He sees me as all of those things because of Jesus Christ, the command here in 1 Peter 1:16 is more a command to be set apart. To live differently.

Because God has set us apart, made us sacred, given us a way of life that marks us as His, marks us a citizens of an entirely different place than here.

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing . . . As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. (1 Pt. 1:13-16, MSG)

Set apart.

Peter wrote these words to Jesus-followers who were suffering because of the crazy Emperor Nero who worked to make their lives a living hell. They had been banished from their homes and sent away because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

I’m sure they wondered if they would ever make it back to their real homes, where they could settle in again and get comfy.

But it wasn’t just this disbursement that had them feeling out of place, it was their new life in Jesus Christ.

The truth is, earth is just the temporary place to live for those of us who follow Jesus Christ as our Lord.

You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers . . . with the . . . blood of Christ (1 Pt. 18-19, ESV)

And I imagine this truth was quite encouraging to those banished believers Peter first wrote this letter to. Because suffering sucks. Persecution is not fun. But knowing it will end  makes it suck a little less.

It’s called living hope.

Living. Hope. Real life because of the expectation of what is sure. Forever with God.

And that changes everything about the way I live. Because I am a citizen of an entirely different place. Where suffering does not happen and sad tears have no reason to fall.

That’s why the Holy Spirit had Peter write this chapter so many years ago. So those people who were suffering for following Jesus would remember this is not their forever home. So they would know how to live here, set apart.

And so you and I could live that way too. The way of life shaped by God’s life, set apart and blazing with holiness.

Your turn!

What kinds of stuff did you find this week in First Peter? Leave a comment or post a link to your own blog or come on over to the Facebook page and join the conversation.