Author: Danny Panter

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?

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 1:10-17 (day six) 

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3

There is nothing quite so dramatic as new birth. For nine months we wait, all the while a little human being mysteriously and miraculously is being formed in its mother’s womb, AND then at just the right time a new life arrives in dramatic fashion.  New life’s presentation is followed by great joy, adoration, blessing and praise!

Borrowing the words of Jesus, this is how Peter describes the reality of this new life we have been given. And what a great way to summarize our present condition as chosen foreigners (v. 1), a stark contrast between now and our former life.

There is only one thing more dramatic than our new birth (which our new birth in fact points to), our bodily resurrection. Both realities are inseparable; in fact Paul writes

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn (speaking of his resurrection) among many brothers and sisters. Romans 8:29

We are and will be a dramatically different people! So, let’s be glad! AND let’s take action and really live BORN AGAIN!

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 1:1-9 (day 6)

⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9

Have you ever considered that your faith in Jesus comes by way of the testimony of others? From faith to faith, we have been the recipients of the greatest story in all history, of a savior we have never seen with our own eyes. The Apostles, like Peter, were the first of us, although he saw Jesus with his own eyes, and the prophets before him. Even now, their testimony leads us, all the more, to love and trust so great a Savior.

And so it is with us, our most powerful and compelling testimony, is not our colonnade of theological truths, but the story of knowing and loving Jesus, the Son of God who became a man, and then a servant, furthering humbling himself by dying on a cross for the sins of the whole world.

Do you love him? Do you trust him? And does his story pass from your lips into the hearts of others? If not, remember, from the very beginning his story was to travel from faith to faith, even yours.