Author: Danny Panter

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 5:1-6 (day six)

Serve the Lord with gladness. Psalm 100:2

God is gravely concerned about the quality of your leadership. I’m writing to  pastors, or any other kind of shepherding church leader. The Psalmist gets to the heart of the matter, serve the Lord with gladness! 

Serving the Lord from a dutiful heart honors the self, not God; it exalts the human will, not a magnificent and glorious God.

BUT a glad heart rejoices and delights in God. The overflow of a heart like that can’t help but lead a shepherd to gladly give himself away in service to others.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 4:12-19 (day six)

14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.  1 Peter 4:14

That’s a strange thought, isn’t it? It’s not new; Peter heard Jesus teach the same thing, AND he experienced it first hand. This blessing, according to Peter, is not only a future reward but is experienced, in part, in the present because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. In other words Christians endure suffering not only by clinging to promises of future glory in Jesus, but through God’s gracious Spirit in the present.

I think the Spirit of God blesses us in suffering by giving us glimpses of the beauty and majesty of Jesus. Steven, the first Christian martyr, by the Holy Spirit saw the throne room of God while being stoned. He was blessed for the glorious Spirit of God rested upon him.

What a wonderful promise, and what marvelous grace! We are not left alone in our suffering, but when we do, we see and savor Jesus more fully though the Holy Spirit.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 4:1-11 (day six)

“The end of all things is near.”

I imagine when that rings true, it has a way of putting everything into perspective. That’s what Peter was doing after all, helping these churches put things in proper perspective.

How about you? If you were convinced the end of all things was near…let’s say, in a month, would your perspective change? Your priorities shift? Would you pray more earnestly? Would you zero in on your most important relationships? Would you try to help others along? Would you be generous? Would you live for what mattered most?

See, that’s what Peter is trying to do here.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 3:18-22 (day six)

¹⁹ So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—²⁰ those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat.

Have you ever wished God would hurry things along? Or wonder why he delays his judgement? I imagine Noah felt the same way. It likely took he and his family around 40 years to build the ark, all the while his neighbors became increasingly volatile and wicked.

What we feel as slowness, is actually a demonstration of God’s patient grace towards unbelievers. Paul wrote, “Don’t you know, God’s kindness (delay of judgment) is intended to lead you to repentance?”

So while we may ache for Jesus’ return, may we also recognize God’s desire for all men and women to come to saving faith. All the more reason to do good in the face of suffering.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 3:8-17 (day six)

There’s a difference between reacting and responding. Reacting often lacks preparation, awareness, and mindfulness, whereas responding is preceded by anticipation and readiness.

That’s Peter’s aim, readiness. He doesn’t want these churches surprised by suffering, he wants them to expect it, and be ready for it when it comes. Peter wants them to do more than survive, more than grin and bear it, but he really wants them ready to engage others with hopefulness in the midst of suffering.

When suffering comes that’s our cue that God is up to something in the lives of those around us, and he plans to use our readiness so they can see and hear about the hope we have in Jesus.

Are you responding or only reacting to life’s circumstances?

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 3:1-7 (day six)

³² Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Romans 8:32

We all get pretty anxious reading texts like 1 Peter 3:1-7. I’m a father of three daughters, and I get anxious. There is a high level of sensitivity when our autonomy and equality feels constrained. It can feel like something is being taken, or for some it feels like they have always been without.

What gives me comfort as I read hard texts is reminding myself that God is always a giver and never a taker. He never robs us or strips us of our humanity or dignity; he never takes away our joy, or our purpose. No, God’s desire is that we flourish as his image bearers; men and women, husbands and wives together.

I’m reminded I can always trust that God’s Word is good.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 2:18-25 (day six)

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:2

You who are slaves…1 Peter 2:18

Peter was writing to churches that were socially very diverse. This is a staggering thought. There were slaves, free citizens, rich business men, poor families, wives and husbands, the politically connected and the powerless, all together because of Jesus, which was virtually unheard of in the Roman empire during the first century.

That’s what the Gospel does, it tears down all barriers, bringing all people together. No one had seen anything like it!

Jesus makes us family; citizens of a new and different and glorious kingdom! Only the Gospel could do something like that!

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 2:11-17 (day six)

One way to live properly amongst neighbors is to submit to all authority for the Lord’s sake. And Peter is talking about the Roman government no less. I suppose it was true back then too, but our political culture is full of the kind of rancor that honor’s no one, always resulting in fear and separation. What’s worse, is that it would seem “Christians” are just as prone to participate as anyone else. Peter says, this should not be.

The result of willful submission is that God is honored by your neighbors, maybe even by those with whom you vehemently disagree. When we live by a different standard than the rest of the world (like submitting to all authority), it would seem our honorable words and behavior give away our truer citizenship.

To put it more bluntly, people are more likely to see Jesus in us, and maybe, just maybe turn to him and away from the false hopes and promises of the world.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 2:1-10 (day six)

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple…1 Peter 2:5

This is Peter’s better together moment. Bringing together the verses from the end of chapter one, he makes two hugely significant claims. First claim, if you are born again by his eternal living Word you can only grow up in your salvation through his eternal living Word. Or saying it another way, to be born of the Word is to also live and thrive by the Word.

Second claim, you cannot fulfill your born again purpose, nor experience salvation’s fullness, without being deeply bound and connected to one another. That’s his better together moment. Peter wants these churches to know that a part of their core DNA is only ever expressed when individual believers, like living bricks are welded together by the mortar of their faith in and love for Jesus.

Simply, to be a Christian is to grow up through God’s Word and His church.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. 1 Peter 1:22 

When Peter writes, “…when you obeyed the truth,” he is referring to the Gospel. The Gospel calls us to repentance and belief; we either obey the Gospel, the truth, or we reject it. Now, it’s notable that for Peter, the most important next step in obedience to the Gospel is to love each other, to be family.

I kinda like that; to obey the truth means becoming a family. How can you love your church like family today?