1 Peter 2:13-25 The Government & How We React To It

Just reading the paragraph title before verse 13 caused me to want to rebel:  “Yield to Every Human Authority”.  Although I’d like to think that the reason my defenses went up was based on my enormous disagreement with the policies, actions, and manner of operation of our national government, by the end of the chapter I was forced to admit that the main problem stems from my sin nature.  It began in Eden when Adam and Eve decided that they wanted to be like God and rebelled.

 

My commentary said a Christian’s responsibility is to advertise God’s virtues.  “When we do something in the will of God and as servants of God, then we are doing it for the Lord’s sake.  God has willed that we silence the critics by doing good, not by opposing the authority … Anyone can fight back; it takes a Spirit-filled Christian to submit and let God fight his battles.”  Christ suffered, and His suffering came when He submitted to earthly powers.  “As we live godly lives and submit in times of suffering, we are following Christ’s example and becoming more like Him.”

 

Father, take my rebellion down a notch.  Lower my hackles.  Help me to remember that Christ wasn’t a political activist.  He simply did what You told Him to do and showed You to the world as He did so.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 2:1-12 Our Position In The World, Our Internal Struggles

I read a lot this morning about getting along with other Christians and being an effective witness to the world.  So much of that depends on how we keep corruption out of our own lives.  My commentary said:

 

“When Christians are growing in the Word, they are peacemakers, not troublemakers, and they promote the unity of the church …

 

 It is important that we, as God’s priests, maintain our separated position in this world.  We must not be isolated, because the world needs our influence and witness, but we must not permit the world to infect us or change us.  Separation is not isolation; it is contact without contamination….

 

God commanded them to put a “difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean,’ but they ignored the differences and disobeyed God …

 

Peter emphasized submission in the life of a believer … Submission does not mean slavery or subjugation but simply the recognition of God’s authority in our lives …

 

There is something deeper than obedience because of duty, and that is obedience because of devotion …

 

We are soldiers involved in a spiritual battle.  There are sinful desires that war against us and want to defeat us.  Our real battle is not with people around us, but with passions within us … If we yield to these sinful appetites, then we will start living like the unsaved around us and will become ineffective witnesses.”

 

Father, wise words and reminders today from the One who knows me better than I know myself.  Thanks for the heads-up, enabling me to have my defenses ready why attacks come.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 1:13-21 Where We Aren't vs Where We Should Be

My Bible entitles this section “A Call To Holy Living”.  I sure don’t want to boil it down to a checklist to do each day, because that’s what the Pharisees had done with the law, but rather I think Peter was telling us how to make sure we were ready to be living a holy life.  Here were his points:

 

1)       Prepare your minds for service

2)      Have self-control

3)      Do not live as you did in the past

4)      Be holy (different) in all you do

5)      Live with respect for God

 

I sure liked the following that I read in my commentary about these points:

 

“To a dedicated believer, there is no such thing as secular and sacred.  All of life is holy … If something cannot be done to the glory of God, then we can be sure it must be out of the will of God.”

 

“The Word reveals God’s mind, so we should learn it; God’s heart, so we should love it; God’s will, so we should live it … We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible.  We study the Bible that we might get to know God better.”

 

“We need to be serious about sin and about holy living.  Our heavenly Father is a holy and righteous Father.  He will not compromise with sin.  He is merciful and forgiving, but He is also a loving disciplinarian who cannot permit His children to ENJOY sin.  After all, it was sin that sent His Son to the cross.”

 

“God will give us many gifts and privileges as we grow in the Christian life, but He will never give us the privilege to disobey and sin.  He never pampers His children or indulges them.  He is no respecter of persons.  He shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.  Years of obedience cannot purchase an hour of disobedience.  If one of His children disobeys, God must chasten.”

 

“We ought to cultivate an attitude of godly fear … the loving reverence of a child before his father.  It is not fear of judgment, but a fear of disappointing Him or sinning against His love.”

 

Father, it’s so great to have a reminder of where we should be to refer to so we can note where we aren’t and adjust our paths accordingly.  Keep this ever before me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Peter 1:1-12 His Hand On The Thermostat

Peter was writing to scattered Christians.  Likely, they weren’t where they’d planned to be.  Yet he reminds them that they were right in the middle of God’s will for their lives.  God’s power was protecting them, even in the midst of bad things happening to them.

 

He told them that though these troubles might bring sadness, they were being used by God to prove to them that their faith was real and would bring them and God glory and honor some day.

 

In the midst of this sadness, they could still be filled with joy because they loved Christ and believed in Him and trusted Him despite their circumstances.  He was their living hope and is our living hope as well.

 

God is preparing US for what He has in store for us.  Our trials are some of God’s tools and textbooks, my commentary explained.  “Sometimes trials discipline us when we have disobeyed God’s will.  At other times, trials prepare us for spiritual growth, or even help us to prevent us from sinning.  We do not always know the need being met, but we can trust God to know and do what’s best.”

 

I really liked this:  “Trials are controlled by God … When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat.  If we rebel, He may have to reset the clock, but if we submit, He will not permit us to suffer one minute too long.  The important thing is that we learn the lesson He wants to teach us and that we bring glory to Him alone.”

 

Father, I’ve been feeling the trials, but I trust You.  Produce in my soul what I need, to know You better and to bring You glory.  Continue to give me hope, Father.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 6 -- What Paves The Way

The legalists loved to catch someone in sin and loved to gloat about it, for they believed it made them look holier.  Jesus had told us to practice accountability with love and forgiveness, though.  “Christian love would lead us not to expose a brother’s failures or weaknesses, no matter how much better it would make us look,” my commentary said.

 

It also talked about sharing our blessings, sowing to either the flesh or the Spirit what God has blessed us with, and once something is sown, the harvest can’t be changed.  “All that we do is either an investment in the flesh or the Spirit.”

 

Paul mentioned a promise regarding that harvest, too:  “In due season we shall reap if we faint not.”  We have to be careful not to get weary in the work of the Lord, though.  The motivation we need is faith, hope and love.  And we must remember that the seed that is planted does not bear fruit immediately.  “We have to give the seed time to take root and bear fruit … The Lord of the harvest is in charge, not the laborers.”

 

Paul also said something about works, but not in regard to salvation.  My commentary said, “It is not only by words that we witness to the lost, but also by our works.  In fact, our works pave the way for our verbal witness:  they win us the right to be heard.”

 

Father, there are times when I am so worn out, but Your love prods me to keep going.  You showed me long ago that important jewel that our works pave the way for our verbal witness and win us the right to be heard.  After all, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 5: 13-26 WOW!

I wish I could reproduce whole sections of my commentary today.  What awesome words!

 

God, through the Holy Spirit, works in us to free us from ourselves and the tyranny of our sinful natures.  “What God the Father planned for you, and God the Son purchased for you on the cross, God the Spirit personalizes for you and applies to your life as you yield to Him … The Spirit frees us from the power of sin in our daily lives.”  God substitutes love in the heart for the laws and threats that were there under the law.  The Holy Spirit within us gives us the love that we need, and obeying out of love is always easier than obeying out of fear.

 

Paul did not mean the body when he spoke of the flesh (the old nature), my commentary said.  “The human body is not sinful; it is neutral.  If the Holy Spirit controls the body, then we walk in the Spirit; but if the flesh controls the body, then we walk in the lusts (desires) of the flesh.  The Spirit and the flesh have different appetites, and this is what creates the conflict … The solution is not to pit our will against the flesh (the old nature), but to surrender our will to the Holy Spirit.”

 

It’s very important to understand that when Paul says the person who practices these sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God, he’s not talking about an act of sin, but a habit of sin, my commentary noted. 

 

“He tells us that the flesh (the old nature) has already been crucified.  It is our responsibility to believe this and act on it … We must accept what God says about the old nature and not try to make it something that it is not.  We must not make provision for the flesh (the old nature) by feeding it the things that it enjoys.”

 

“In short, the secret is the Holy Spirit.  He alone can give us that fifth freedom – freedom from sin and self.  He enables us to fulfill the law of love, to overcome the flesh, and to bear fruit.”

 

Father, I so needed a fresh look at the Holy Spirit and a reminder of how He energizes and empowers my life.  Keep this constantly before me, that I may always remember the difference He makes between my old nature and my new life in You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 5:1-12 Grace (Works Can't COMPARE)

The Judaizers couldn’t stand the thought of the human heart unrestricted by the law.  It had to run wild without it, they thought.  They were misunderstanding the freedom Paul was speaking about.

 

He knew that once the Holy Spirit took control of a life and enabled the Christian to obey out of love and not out of fear, not trying to be good in their own strength, God’s grace would supply them with all that they needed.  They’d be free from the checklist mentality of the Judaizers, who could never ever be sure they’d been good enough to earn their way to heaven.  They’d been trying to convince the new believers that they were missing something and that they could be more spiritual if they practiced the law.

 

My commentary used an illustration of a driver deliberately running a red light, then defending himself before the officer by saying, “I know I ran that red light – but I have never robbed anybody.  I’ve never killed anybody.  I’ve never cheated on my income tax.”  “The policeman smiles as he writes out the ticket, because he knows that no amount of OBEDIENCE can make up for ONE ACT OF DISOBEDIENCE.”  The legalists knew they hadn’t kept all of the law, but still defended their beliefs!  Grace was the only answer to the sin problem.

 

Father, I am a sinner.  I can do nothing on my own to overcome that fact.  It’s only by Your grace in sending Your Son to die for me that I can know that I will live with You.  Never let me believe that I can do any better than that on my own.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford