As we continue in the book of 1 Peter, we come to verses 17-21 of this first chapter. This is the eighth sermon in our journey through this wonderful and timely book.
Peter is beginning to get into some challenging subject matter here. Seems as though he’s moving us farther and farther from the ways of the world and closer and closer to godliness; distinguishing us from those in the world.
READ THE PASSAGE
I hope you’re beginning to see how this letter of 1 Peter is shaping up. When doing a verse-by-verse series through a book of the Bible, the danger is that you lose sight of the big picture, the overall purpose of the book or in this case, the letter or epistle.
The first twelve verses in this first chapter were sort of a reminder and a celebration of what God has done for His people. He has caused us to be born again; given us an imperishable inheritance; given us reason to rejoice through trials; and ministered to us through the prophets, preachers and angels so that we may know the good news of Christ. Remember how we said how God invested so much in our salvation!
Then in verse 13, he begins to give these exhortations or commands to his readers (which include us in our day and age). These exhortations which continue all the way into chapter 5 are intended to encourage the readers to walk in a manner worthy of God in the midst of their harsh circumstances, where there are trials and persecutions and all kinds of struggles.
We considered last week how we are experiencing certain struggles in our lives here in 2013. And just like the readers of Peter’s letter some 2000 years ago, we need to hear these words in order that WE may be encouraged and equipped to live our lives in a way that honors God, because our surroundings are getting more and more hostile as the days go by. The church is the called out ones, separated from the world to live for God in Christ. We are different from the rest of the world, yet we still have to live in it for a time.
So Peter is sort of raising their eyes and our eyes above and beyond the circumstances of the present condition of the world and all its challenges, and sets them on things above, on the God who loves us and is guarding us through faith until our salvation is made complete.
In verse 13, you remember from two weeks ago, he exhorts us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Exhortation #1
Verse 15, he exhorts us to be holy in all our conduct. Exhortation #2
We’ll look now at the third command or exhortation which is tucked into verse 17, “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile…”
“Conduct yourselves with fear…” That’s an odd thing to say, isn’t it? To understand what he means, we have to look to the words preceding this exhortation as well as to the words following it.
WE ARE TO CONDUCT OURSELVES WITH FEAR BECAUSE WE WILL BE JUDGED:
“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds…”
NOTE: “if” vs. “since”.
Our Father in heaven will judge everyone’s deeds. That’s a pretty sobering thought, isn’t it? Everything you have done (and said), is seen by God and is recorded and will be judged at some point.
This is not referring to a judgment unto salvation or damnation. That was taken care of at the cross when Jesus bled and died. Our sins have been dealt with once and for all at the cross.
Peter is talking to believers who have been redeemed. So this judgment is more of an investigation or inquiry, perhaps to see what rewards will be given or withheld.
Have you ever considered that God is watching your every action? Both in public and in private? And one day, He will ask you to give an account and to explain why you did something or didn’t do something? Quite a sobering thought. Not that we have to fear punishment, but we will be standing before the judgment seat and all things will be known. Are you comfortable with that?
That should cause us to conduct ourselves with fear. Not fear of punishment or retribution. But fear of embarrassment and fear of disappointing our God who loves us and rescued us from eternal hell.
When we talk about the fear of God, many people say “It’s not fear as terror, but a reverent fear.” Some of the versions, such as the NIV, include the word “reverent fear” in verse 17. That word isn’t actually in the original language, but the editors put it in there to clarify the flavor of the word fear. It’s not wrong, necessarily, but it may soften it too much.
I believe fear of God is a sort of mixture between reverence and fear as we understand fear.
When I was a child, I loved my dad and wanted to please him because I loved him. I respected him as my father. But I also feared him. I didn’t want to get spanked! If I lost one of his tools or broke a window with a baseball, I feared punishment. But more than anything, I feared a broken relationship with him.
Another example of fear is if you were to meet the President or Pope or Queen of England. You may be pretty nervous. There is protocol staff that instructs people how to act when meeting people of that stature so you will not show yourself to be an embarrassment and you will not put the honored person in an awkward position.
When I was in the military or at MITRE, I would meet generals now and then. You have a great deal of respect for a general and you don’t want to do anything to dishonor him or to bring discredit upon yourself or your unit. And you certainly don’t want to embarrass yourself, so you behave very carefully.
You conduct yourself a certain way because you don’t want to either be disciplined or you don’t want to look like a fool.
Another aspect of fear is the fear of disappointing the one to whom you belong. This is evident sometimes in the workplace. You have a job to do and your boss is counting on you. You sometimes have a kind of fear or anxiety that you’re going to let your boss down.
That’s what Peter is saying here. It’s kind of a mixture of all those kinds of fear. He is saying conduct yourselves with fear because the worst thing you can do is to bring discredit or shame upon the one to whom you represent.
If we are known as Christians, and yet we behave like pagans, we would bring discredit upon God, it would harm your witness as a Christian and it may bring about discipline upon you.
As Christians today, we should have a holy fear…a fear of living in such a way as to be seen and known as someone whose faith is not in God. Do you understand what I mean?
Spurgeon:
We should be living in such a way, as Christians, that distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world. We are to be holy, for God is holy. We are to live according to, and in obedience to the standards in the Bible, regardless of the cost; regardless of what everyone else is doing around us.
This is the point at which the modern church fails terribly. Not any specific church necessarily, but universal body of Christ. Instead of us influencing the world for Christ, the world is influencing the church for the world! The church has lowered her standards so far that there is no appreciable difference between it and the world.
I have no doubt that there are just as many Christians in any given R-rated movie theater as there are non-Christians. There are just as many Christians watching filth on night-time television as there are non-Christians.
Some Christians have no fear of how they are living because the church is not holding them accountable. Because they have no clue of this passages like this one in 1 Peter that God is watching and that their salvation was bought at a tremendous cost.
Shame is almost non-existent in the world or the church these days. Things that brought shame upon people when I was a child are embraced and even celebrated by the world today.
But shame can be a good thing. It can be a good deterrent so that we stay on the straight and narrow. None of us wants to be shamed, and we shouldn’t want to bring shame upon our loving heavenly Father.
So that’s one side of Peter’s argument to convince people to conduct themselves with fear. It’s kind of the negative aspect of it. Conduct yourselves with fear because someone, God almighty, is watching you and is going to judge everyone according to their own deeds.
The second side of his argument is found in verses 18-21. If the first argument wasn’t enough, he now gives us another convincing reason why we should conduct ourselves with fear.
WE SHOULD CONDUCT OURSEVLES WITH FEAR BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN RANSOMED WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST.
“…knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
This is a little harder for us to relate to. But have you ever considered at what cost your salvation came to you? God owns everything on the earth and all the universe is His; all creation.
He did not purchase our pardon with silver or gold. All the silver and gold in the universe would not be enough to buy our pardon. The fine for any given sin that you or I have ever committed exceeds the value of all the silver and gold in the world.
I’m not sure gold and silver are perishable in a physical sense, but the value is certainly perishable. A few months ago, gold was valued at close to $1900, now it’s less than $1400. The metal may not be perishable, but the value is! But it is somewhat perishable too. Mish’s wedding ring.
The only price that could be paid for our sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. And that blood is so precious because it is the blood that flowed out of the Son of God Himself. It was perfect, untainted by sin. A perfect sacrifice, acceptable to God. Since Eden, God required the shedding of blood as payment for sin.
When I bought Mish’s wedding ring, I went to the diamond exchange in Boston. It’s a nice ring, about .77 carats. And she likes it. But if I flew to South Africa, mined my own diamond, got my certification in gemology, cut and polished and mounted the diamond myself. Wouldn’t that diamond ring have a little more meaning than simply buying it in a store?
We have to consider at what cost our salvation came to us and just how precious it is. God gave up everything. He gave up His place in glory and His place in heaven to come and walk among us. We won’t appreciate that sacrifice until we get to heaven. But He gave it all up because of His love for you and me and all His children.
We honor our veterans, and we should. They sacrifice so much, leaving their wives and children and jobs and go to a far away land and engage in hostile fighting in order to secure our freedom. We would never say any derogatory word against a war veteran because they sacrificed so much. We are grateful for them. We have days that we set apart to honor and celebrate them. And we should.
But God gave up infinitely more to come and ransom us. Should we not live in a way that honors Him for His sacrifice?
If we grasp that, I believe it will cause us to conduct ourselves in a manner that will honor His sacrifice and not seek to cheapen it.
When you think of it, how could we possibly choose to do anything that would cheapen what Christ did for us. Satan deceives us and temporarily blinds us from remembering at what cost our salvation came to us.
We are to conduct ourselves with fear throughout the time of our exile because 1) God is watching, and we’ll have to give an account for our words and actions, and 2) the price with which God ransomed or redeemed us, is so great, nothing should be more important to us than that.
