Thoughts on 1 Peter – Part 1
1PET 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Too many people treat the Bible like any other book. They will usually start out with the same line. Copyists make errors therefore the Bible has errors. While that might be true for copying Shakespeare it is NOT true for the Bible.
God did not promise to preserve Shakespeare. But He did promise to preserve His Word. The Bible is not a natural book; it is a supernatural book. Someone who says that God could not preserve His Word does not really understand who God is. They do not understand that God is Holy and cannot lie, so we must have His perfect preserved Word. They also do not understand that God is all powerful. They do not even think that God can overcome copyists. If God can overcome time, human penmen, and the sin of man to give us His Word in the first place, then God can overcome time and human copyists to preserve His Word so that we can have it today.
And God did keep His Word and it has been preserved. The pride of man does not like this. They like to be all scholarly and tell us where God messed up. This appeals to the pride of man. It takes a prideful man to correct the Word of God. They have many tools they use to do this. One tool they use is a Greek dictionary. The first thing that I say to that method is that God never promised to preserve a Greek dictionary. Greek dictionaries have errors in them and the Word of God does not. If the man written dictionary says something different than the Word of God, then the dictionary is wrong. Someone with some spirituality and faith in God say Amen!
We live in a day where many worship scholarship. They honor scholarship more than God. They put their trust more on men than God. We live in a day where man wants to be the final authority and decide what God really said. O I have heard it all before. I get people sending me stuff trying to teach me the errors of the KJV. But you know not one of all of their faulty reasoning and excuses is God honoring. Not one of them. In fact they love to take God out of the equation. Messing with the Word of God is not God honoring period. It does not matter if you mess with The Word with an old Satan corrupted manuscript or with a dictionary. It is wrong. It is without faith. It does not honor God.
Here is an idea. Just quit messing with God’s word. Quit putting scholarship above God’s Word.
If you get angry at this, that might be some God sent conviction that you need to get your heart right. Why not put your pride aside and decide to just believe in God’s promise and God’s power to preserve His Word.
1PET 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1PET 1:4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
1PET 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We have been saved by His abundant mercy. It is because of His mercy that we have hope. Without His great mercy, Christ would have never went to the cross to pay for our sin. Not one of us deserved salvation.
And we are not only saved from hell, but He has an inheritance for us. One day we will receive it. And this inheritance is incorruptible, it is undefiled and it will never fade away. It is so far above the inheritance that man might give you that there really is no comparison. When will we get it? Verse 4 says that it is reserved for us in heaven. It is reserved. It has already been planned. If you have been saved, then your name is on it. It is a done deal and cannot be taken away.
1Pe 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Everyone who calls upon Jesus with a repentant heart becomes His child. And as family you have an inheritance. An inheritance is not earned. You do not work for it.
You receive it because of your relationship. The inheritance that God gives is incorruptible, undefiled, and fades not away. It is reserved for you in heaven by Almighty God. I say Praise the Lord.
1PET 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Once saved, we do not have to hold out. We do not have to keep it. We did nothing to get saved and we do nothing to keep saved. We are kept by the power of God. It was His power that saved us and it is His power that keeps us.
Some wonder what does the last part of verse 5 mean, “unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” When you accept Christ as your Saviour, at that moment, you are saved from the penalty of sin. However, you still have a sin nature. We still have to deny the flesh, and we still have to live in a sin stained world. At this time we are saved from the penalty of sin and have eternal life, but we are not saved from the presence of sin. There will be a day when we will be saved from the very presence of sin. In Heaven THERE WILL BE NO SIN! Amen and Amen. I don’t know if you are like me, but I get tired of seeing the sin all around us every day. And praise God one day we will be saved from the very presence of sin and will never have to deal with it ever again.
We are saved from the eternal penalty of sin and that is an incredible and wonderful truth. But as of yet we are not saved from the presence of sin. We still have a flesh nature also inside us. We still have to fight temptation. The effects of sin are all around us and we even feel its affects in our bodies. We get sick, we have aches and pains our bodies are wearing out. But Praise God there will be a day when we will be saved from all of that also.
1PET 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
We do rejoice in the salvation to come from the very presence of sin. Though now for a while we have trials and temptations. But God has a purpose even in that.
1PET 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
The trial of our faith is precious the Bible says. When our faith is tried with fire it can bring praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. He sees everything and will reward accordingly when He comes. So we need to keep our eyes upon that day and endure our trials with faith.
1PET 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
A Christian should desire the Word of God. It is by the Word of God that we grow. Without the Word of God we would not grow. It is the Word of God that tells us how we are to live and what we are to do. It is the Word of God that tells us how to walk with God. Everything that we know about the Christian life and everything that we know about God comes from the Word of God. In fact we would not even know how to be saved if it was not for the Word of God.
In this verse the Word of God is likened to food. The nourishment of food makes the body grow physically. The nourishment of the Word of God makes us grow spiritually. Now I ask you how pure do you want the food that you eat to be? If you saw your waitress at the restaurant dump your food on the floor and then pick it up and put it on your plate, would you care? Would you want to eat your hamburger after you saw it on the floor? If you have any common sense or decency you would not want to eat it. You would demand that your food was clean.
Why is it then that Christians will accept and even prefer dirty spiritual food? Trying to feed spiritually from corrupted bibles is like feeding on a hamburger that is contaminated with dirt. It is still a hamburger, but it is not pure. The new bible perversions still have the Word of God in them, but it is no longer pure. They have corruption in them.
How much dirt do you want with your hamburger? How much dirt do you want with your Word of God?
As for me, I want a pure hamburger. As for me, I want a pure Word of God. In fact I need a pure Word of God. It is a sad thing that most Christians are more concerned about the purity of their hamburgers than they are about the purity of their Word of God.
1PET 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
1PET 2:10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
We are to be a peculiar people. A people who are not the same as the world. A unique people who are a holy people. God has called us out of the wicked darkness that we were in. He called us into His marvellous light. What a wonderful gift that is. To switch from going to hell to going to heaven. To switch from being children of the devil to children of God. From having no mercy to now having obtained mercy. We are now the people of God. We now have brothers and sisters in Christ. We now belong to a people who have the same Lord we do, the same Spirit that we do, and the same love that we do. We get the blessing of fellowship, of sharing our burdens and helping each other. We now belong to Him and He will watch over us and take care of us. It is a great thing to be the people of God.
And that is to have an effect upon us. Verse 9 says, “that ye should shew forth the praises of him” We are to be a thankful people. He has given us so much. In fact everything we have. We are not only to have praise for the Lord in our hearts, but we are to show them. We are to praise the Lord to the lost and we are to praise the Lord as a people. There are many reasons that we are to assemble ourselves together, and one of them is to praise the Lord. To show forth our thankfulness and His greatness. And notice that is says praises, plural. We are not to only praise Him once, but over and over again. He is worthy of far more than we can ever express.
When we gather we praise the Lord in song, we praise the Lord during the preaching, we praise the Lord in prayer, and in our testimonies. All praise and glory are to go to Him.
1PET 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
In a judicial act of Almighty God, Jesus took our sin upon Himself on the cross. The Bible says that, “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree”.
He took every sin of mine upon himself that day and paid its penalty. Every lie I ever told. Every selfish thing I ever did. Every sin. That might be hard to grasp, but it is true. We are not told and could not understand all the mechanics of exactly how He bore our sin on the cross. All we need to know is that Jesus bare our sins in his own body on the tree. Jesus died for our sin. Ours. Not His for He had no sin of His own.
1PET 2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
Jesus never did sin. Never. Not even once. Not even as a two year old. The fact that He took our sin and our punishment so that we would not have to is supposed to affect us. Look at verse 24 again.
1PET 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Because of what Jesus did for us we should live unto righteousness. He paid a terrible price for our sin, so we should never be involved willfully in sin.
1PET 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
Here we have instructions about a wife that has a lost husband. The husband does not obey the word of God. You can show him from the word of God how he is a sinner and needs to be saved, but he will not obey it. The Bible then says that the husband may be won by the conversation of the wife. This is not just talking about the words that she says. Everything you do also communicates. For example if you wear skulls on your clothing you are communicating. You are making a statement without even opening your mouth. Wearing skulls communicates rebellion and darkness. What you wear communicates, where you go communicates, who your friends are communicates. The things you do and the things you refuse to do communicates. In fact everything in your life is making a statement and communicating to others.
1PET 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
The saved wife’s life is communicating and the lost husband is seeing it. This will have an effect upon him. He also needs to see his wife’s chaste conversation coupled with fear. This is not fear of him. This is talking about how she needs to have the fear of the Lord. The Bible teaches us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
1PET 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1PET 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
Verse 3 is not teaching that a woman is not to do her hair or make herself look nice. You have to take the verse in context with what is being discussed here. Some women will talk a good talk with their mouth to their lost husband about getting saved, but then they do not live like it. She will tell her husband that we are to put our affections on things above but then she will turn around and have her affections on her hair, jewelry, and clothing. She will tell her lost husband that Christ is everything and then live like her wardrobe is everything.
If the woman is going to win her lost husband, she needs to be more concerned with the things listed in verse 4 than she is with the things listed in verse 3. A better wardrobe will not win the husband. A better heart will. She needs to wear the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
To win the husband the wife needs to not only communicate the right words, but she needs to get her life communicating what her mouth is. He needs to see that Christianity is real. He needs to see by watching her that she has something that he needs. If the wife lives right and has the right heart it will communicate to the husband that he needs to get saved.
1PET 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
The Bible tells us that God will answer our prayers, and that we can go boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. The Bible also tells us that sin will hinder prayer. And in verse 7 we are given a specific sin that will hinder the prayers of husbands. Not giving honour to your wife will hinder your prayers. God did set up an authority structure in the home. But God also told men to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Men that is a lot of love. And here we are told to give honour to the wife. Both of those will give balance to the authority that God has given you over the home. If a man will follow all of God’s instructions (too many only like the authority part) then the wife will have no problem following the man. If he loves her, cherishes her and honors her, then he will not misuse his authority.
Giving honor to the wife is very important to God. And He has consequences for the man if he does not. One of them is that your prayers will be hindered. As the leader in the home you need to be able to get your prayers answered. You need to pray for wisdom in job decisions, wisdom for providing for your family. You need to pray and get guidance for leading your family. You can’t raise kids in this wicked society without prayer. And God says how you treat your wife will affect how your prayers get answered.