Live the Word Bible Studies

1 Peter Study Five: 5:1-14

Dear Student of the Word,

It is Thanksgiving night here in the States, and I had a wonderful day with family. Now it's time to do some work on something for which I am most thankful and that is God's Word! In this installment, we finish Peter's first epistle before we move on to his second. In this fifth study, Peter discussed both leadership values and the suffering that was common to all believers. Here is what I wrote in part three of this seven-part study:

Study Five, Part Three

5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."   6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

5:5 – At this point, Peter addressed those who followed the elders.  He directed them to be submissive.  But it cannot be one-sided.  The leaders must rule as Jesus required and the followers must deal with their ambitions and youthful zeal and submit.  What a wonderful community that would be:  leaders who lead with the attitude of Jesus and followers who submit like Jesus did to the authorities in His day. 

The underlying attitude for effective leaders and followers is humility.  The opposite of humility is pride.  Pride is detrimental to accomplishing or building anything in the will of God.   There is perhaps nothing that activates God’s opposition like pride.  If you want God’s grace, then you must employ humility.  And if you are commanded to have humility, then it must be within your ability to function in humility.

You must choose to be humble.  If you don’t, then you are proud and run the risk that God will then humiliate you.  So your choice is between humility and humiliation.  Which one would you prefer, if those are the only choices?  In case you need more verses on pride and God’s feeling toward it, consider these from Proverbs (you may want to do your own search on the word ‘proud’ while I include those from the word 'pride'):

• To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech (Proverbs 8:13).
• When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom (Proverbs 11:2).
• Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice (Proverbs 13:10).
• Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).
• The proud and arrogant man — "Mocker" is his name; he behaves with overweening pride (Proverbs 21:24).
• A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor (Proverbs 29:23). 

5:6 – Once again you see that humility is a command and a choice.  You choose to be or not to be humble.  And if you choose the former, the promise is that God will raise you up “in due time.”  That means that you release the timetable for your vindication or reward.  That is where faith comes in.  You focus on God and what He wants and trust that He will focus on your own needs and reputation.  How has your attitude been lately?  Have you let pride or arrogance creep into your thoughts or behavior?  Ask the Lord to show you and then repent—quickly!

As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the unpublished volume of The Faith Files.

Download 1 Peter Study 5

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1 Peter Study Three: 3:1-22

Dear Student of the Word,

Greetings once again from my home office in Pittsburgh. I got back from Kenya last week, and it always takes me a week to catch up.  But I am caught up, so that afforded me the luxury of catching up on our study in Peter's epistles. This week, we move into 1 Peter 3, where Peter addressed issues of the home and the tongue!  Here is what I wrote in part five of this seven-part study, which you can download below:

Study Three, Part Five

14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened."   15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

3:14 -  Fear is debilitating and almost always makes you do the wrong thing or make the wrong decision, which is often to do nothing because you are afraid of doing the wrong thing, or doing the right thing in the wrong manner. What’s more, Peter gave us advice that seems counterintuitive, for he stated that if you suffer for what is right, you are a blessed person!  That seems like it can’t be, for you are being unjustly accused of doing something you did not do. That’s the time to stick up for your rights and clear your name. Not according to Peter. Are you being accused of doing wrong when you did right? Then relax and enjoy your blessing in God’s sight!

3:15 – If you are to overcome this fear of being vulnerable, then you must set Jesus apart as Lord.  In other words, you must make Jesus’ Lordship a more important issue than your fears, reputation or vindication.  That means you must die to self and live to God and His will.  You must pursue what is important to God and His priorities and abandon you own. 

Whenever you behave so contrary to human nature, you can expect questions as to why you are doing so.  At that point, you are not to complain or draw attention to myself.  You are rather to give testimony to God’s work in your life and to the reality of His kingdom.  Your are to point them to the hope that you have in God’s ability to bless you when you obey Him.  When is the last time someone asked you about the hope that is in you?  If no one has, then you must ask whether there is anything that sets you apart from everyone else who isn’t serving the Lord? 

3:16 – The early Christians were certainly slandered for their goodness.  They were so distinct from their pagan neighbors that they were labeled as incestuous, sexually immoral and anti-state.  And probably this was wearing on those to whom Peter wrote.  Yet he directed them to respectfully respond with gentleness to any who asked them about their chaste behavior.  Once again, Peter was instructing the Church on what to say – how to use their tongue for good. 

There is no guarantee that people who slander you will feel guilt when they behold your good behavior.  So you must continue to do what God wants regardless of whether you suffer or not.  You must respond to those who ask about your behavior, knowing that this may not change their opinion or cause them to correct the slander that they have spread.  My only hope in these matters is to use Jesus as my model and then ask the Spirit to create Jesus’ behavior in my own life.  I can’t produce what God requires without the Spirit’s help.  I must want to be like Jesus, but then I must surrender to the work of the Spirit if I am to be conformed to the image of Christ.

As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the unpublished volume of The Faith Files.  But you had better hurry on The Faith Files, for Volume 3 goes to press in a few days, and then I will remove it from my website.

Download 1 Peter Study 3

1 Peter Study Two: 2:1-25

Dear Student of the Word,

Greetings from Kenya. I had some down time today, so I thought it was time to prepare the next installment of our study of Peter's epistles. We are only in the second chapter of the first letter, but already we have learned a lot. Those believers reading Peter's letter were under pressure from persecution and temptation. Peter was writing to encourage them to remain holy and to be models of godly behavior. I wrote the following in part one of this seven-part study, which you can download below:

Study Two, Part One

2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

2:1 – I knew a Bible teacher who said, “When you see a therefore, find out what it’s there for.”  This therefore probably refers back to 1:23: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”  Notice that you are to rid yourself of the negative things that are contrary to the imperishable seed with which you were born.  That is your responsibility in response to this great gift of God’s salvation.

The list of things to put aside here are subtle issues of the heart, like deceit, hypocrisy and envy.  Some of them manifest in things spoken, such as slander.  When you are hypocritical, often there are only two who know you are:  you and God.  So the issues that Peter addressed here are those secret things of the heart that will eventually manifest to others but usually exist in you long before others notice. 

I once taught a college class and we studied the seven deadly sins, one of which is envy.  I never gave much thought to the difference between jealousy (which is for relationships and what I have) and envy (which is for things and what others have).   Actually God is jealous for you—He doesn’t want to share us with any other gods or interests.  It seems that I can be jealous for my reputation, for my position with the Lord, and for my ministry. When I am this kind of jealous, I do not sin.  Yet envy is always sinful, for it resents what others have and either covets it and plots to either get it or undermine it.  That is perhaps why slander follows envy on Peter’s list.  When you envy what another has, you can begin to discredit their worthiness of what they have – so you run them down with your mouth.

At one time, I was envious of anyone who had writing success, especially if they had a best-selling book.  Do you harbor any envy for anything that someone else has or does?

2:2&3 – Your spiritual life is a life of growth and development.  It starts out with being born again and requires spiritual things that will sustain and nurture growth into maturity.  And if I understand this correctly, you are never to stop growing and developing.  I am in my 60s as I write and I thought when I turned 50 that my growth would continue or be minimal at best.  But I think I have grown more in the last ten years than during any other ten-year period since I met the Lord 40 years ago.

Are you growing?  Or are you coasting, satisfied with limited spiritual growth?  One of the other deadly sins we are studying is sloth.  Sloth isn’t related to laziness at your place of employment, but laziness where spiritual things are concerned.  When I think of spiritual growth and laziness, I think of two passages:

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first (Revelation 2:4-5). 

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10-11). 

Have you abandoned the things you did when you were young in the Lord?  Is it time to resume some of those early disciplines like fasting and radical giving? Are you still growing in the knowledge of God?

As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the unpublished volume of The Faith Files.

Download 1 Peter Study 2

1 Peter Study One: 1:1-25

Dear Student of the Word,

Having recently finished our study of Romans, it was time to choose another book or letter to study. I have chosen 1 Peter as our next focus for this study. Peter was writing to a church scattered abroad that was experiencing trials and persecution. It is always interesting and valuable to study anything from or about Peter, due to his close relationship with Jesus and his struggles in doing so. This week I wrote in part four of this seven-part study (which you can download in its entirety below):

Study One, Part Four

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

1:10&11 – It isn’t clear to which prophets Peter is referring, and perhaps he had no one specific prophet in mind.  It seems that all the prophets, while delivering a word about the future, were consumed with the matters of their day.  But Peter told us here that some were consumed with trying to find out what they were talking about, focusing on the future.  Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel and the like spent some time seeking the Lord so they could better understand their message in the context of the coming Messiah and not just the problems of their own day. That facts leads us to the whole subject of study, which is the study and application of God’s word to daily living.

I had a seminary professor who told us to study the whole Bible, but choose one book about which one could become “experts.”  He urged us to take that one book apart, so to speak, put it back together, and then take it apart again.  For me, that book is Proverbs.  I wrote a daily devotional from Proverbs in 1997 called A Daily Dose of Proverbs, and continue to study that book.  Even now I am doing more research on wisdom literature in general and Proverbs specifically.  I have written an online Proverbs study called A Daily Taste of Proverbs.

What are you studying from God’s word at this point in your life?  Do you have anything that you have studied for years and will continue to study?  Is there one book of the Bible that is your specialty?  One theme or topic about which you have spent more than a little time researching?  Or maybe you have considered furthering your education by taking classes at your church or Bible school?  Why not start your classes as soon as possible or resume them if you have taken a break?

1:12 – The prophets who searched were all given the same answer:  The message they were preaching was to be fulfilled in the future, in the time of and through the person of Christ.  At that time, the Spirit would empower individuals to go and preach the good news to that and future generations.  Even angels longed to look into what has been preached to every generation since Jesus.  So if angels are so anxious to study the matters of salvation, why aren’t you that anxious?  If you are, what are you doing to systematize your studies?  What are you doing to utilize what you have learned, and to impart it to others?

What if God wants you to serve future generations and not your own?  This is what the prophets had to do. Although they had an immediate impact, for the most part their greatest impact was to be in the future.  As I write these studies and my other material, it is my hope that God will use them today. There is a chance, however, that my work may be more useful in the future to a generation now maturing or even unborn.  So I write in faith, trusting God to use my labors for His glory now or later (or not at all), according to His divine purpose.

Something good always happens when you seek Him.  When you seek the face of God, you are changed, whether you obtain what you are seeking or not, and that’s always a plus.  My writings have furthered my development into the image of Jesus.  You may not receive what you are seeking, but you will be better off for the search. 

As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the unpublished volume of The Faith Files.

Download 1 Peter 1