Be Still And Know

Proverbs 22:13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!” There is so much blunt truth in the book of Proverbs, and here the writer laughs at the lazy person who has always got an excuse for doing nothing. On this particular day he fears that there may be a lion outside, and is concerned that he may get killed. He considers that he’s got the perfect excuse for staying at home and doing nothing. The writer of these Proverbs spent a lot of time reflecting on lazy people, because he was so fearful of the disease of laziness. He saw that it led to poverty and distress, and was keen for everyone to focus their attention on ants who were the exact opposite. In Proverbs 6:6 he wrote: “Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!” Ants are always busy and effective in their work, and we can all learn from them. I’m not accusing you of laziness! I’ll leave you to reflect on the issue, although I’m inclined to think that we all ha

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. This proverb, like so many of them, is just sheer good sense. It’s the kind of statement that could easily be turned into a good fridge magnet! At one level it is screamingly obvious, but we all know how incredibly easy it is to hurtle through life blindly without doing the necessary research. We live in a world that is full of potential risks and dangers and so it is sensible to come up with careful plans. This approach to wisdom is really helpful, so long as we put it alongside other wise sayings. For example, Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.” It’s good to plan but, as we do so, we need to commit the whole process into God’s hands. Jesus spoke about the importance of planning. He challenged people to follow him, but he didn’t want them to make this enormous step without first working out the implications of such a decision. He sai

Proverbs 21:26 Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give! Longing for more money and possessions is a terrible disease, but our materialistic society is built on the assumption that that is how we should all live. Long ago the Greek philosopher Epicurus wrote: “Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.” And yet the place of true peace and contentment is where you know you have enough, and have no desire to find more. The apostle Paul said that he had “learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything” (Philippians 4:11-12). God’s desire for us is that our focus should never be upon seeking to acquire more, but to become better at giving. I love seeing generosity and I hope that I am always learning from the example of other people. I have a friend who always carries a significant number of bank notes with him. He once explained to me why: “You never know when the Lord might give you the opportunity to bless

1 Peter 5:8-9 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. I have visited Africa on a number of occasions and have gone on several safaris. They are not at all like safari parks in this country where you are guaranteed to see a wide range of animals. On a safari there are some days when you will see very little, if anything, and so you need to be on the lookout all the time. On one occasion I went on a walking safari. Our guide had a gun with him because of the possibility of danger and, as you can imagine, we were incredibly vigilant as we walked together. In the event, nothing dangerous happened and I live to tell the tale. Peter was acutely conscious of the dangers that confronted the early Church. He knew from painful personal experience that the Church was threatened by the authorities and many individuals who were eager to see Christianity snuffed out. He knew that the

1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Whether they are large or small, we all carry various cares and concerns. They may be focused on health issues for ourselves or those who are close to us. We may be concerned about the future, money or what is happening in the world today. It is impossible to avoid a whole range of concerns, so the question isn’t whether we’ve got any, but what we do with them. If we hug them to ourselves, the likelihood is that they will turn into anxiety and end up dominating our lives. Peter encourages us to take decisive action by handing our worries and cares to God. The crucial statement that Peter makes is that God cares for us, and that takes us to the heart of the gospel. God could have stayed at a distance. He didn’t have to enter into relationship with us, but he chose to do so. In the Old Testament we see his care for the people of Israel, even though they frequently rebelled against him. This is poignantly described in the prophecy

1 Peter 5:5 All of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Some years ago, I was privileged to attend a conference at St George’s Windsor for key strategic leaders. We were given the task of identifying the most important personal qualities that were needed for strategic leadership. My small group included a chief constable, a general from the British Army, the managing director of a major engineering firm, a high-flying civil servant and the finance director of a large organisation. I was the only church leader. After many hours of fascinating conversation, the group decided without a shadow of doubt that the first quality that was needed was humility. This was because we recognised that a humble person is good at being flexible. They are willing to admit when they make a mistake and are eager to welcome other people’s ideas. Humility doesn’t often get a good press so I was amazed and delighted that this hugely competent an

1 Peter 5:1-2 As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. After Jesus’ resurrection, he shared breakfast with his disciples beside the Sea of Galilee, and there he commanded Peter to take care of his sheep (John 21:15-17). In today’s verses, which were written 30 or 40 years later, Peter recognises that this crucial responsibility is one that he shares with many others. All churches need shepherds, people who have the gift of caring for other people and encouraging them in their Christian lives. Some of these shepherds may be paid for their ministry, but many will do it as a natural expression of their Christian service alongside other responsibilities. The truth is that we all need caring for. However old and experienced we may be as Christians, we need others to look out for us and pray for us. This is what is known as pastoral care, but sadly th

1 Peter 4:10-11 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. The New Testament is absolutely clear that we each have a gift. But isn’t it interesting that, so often, when we identify someone’s particular gift we focus our attention on the receiver and not the giver? We talk about a gifted musician or preacher or cake maker and praise them for their gift. But if we believe that such skills and abilities are a gift from God then, surely, we should be praising him for his generosity. In these verses, Peter encouraged his readers to remember where their gifts came from, and their need to keep their eyes on God as they used them. Peter illustrated his point in two ways. Firstly, he spoke of those who have the gift of speaking. This is a particularly intere

1 Peter 4:7-8 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other. The idea of the world coming to an end is a challenging thought, but Peter wasn’t in any sense threatening his readers. The New Testament writers all spoke of this as the climax and fulfilment of God’s purposes. They felt the end of the world was something that everyone should look forward to with great excitement. The last days began with the coming of Jesus into the world and will come to an end with his return. Whether Jesus returns to this earth within the next week or in a thousand years the time is limited, and Peter was concerned that this should focus his readers’ minds. There was no time to lose. The challenge that he posed in the first century applies equally to us today as we anticipate the return of Christ: that believers should be both earnest and disciplined in their prayers. I’m sure we all know how incredibly easy it i

1 Peter 3:15-16 If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. When Peter wrote his letter, Christianity was still quite new and so I am sure that many people were very curious about it. Peter was keen that his readers shouldn’t miss any opportunity to talk about it. But it had to be done in the right way. If they were aggressive and disrespectful it could put people off for ever. So he urged them to be ready for every opportunity but to ensure that their responses were gentle and respectful. In our own society so few people attend church that there is, once again, a great curiosity about Christian faith. Most people know that Christianity exists, but haven’t a clue what it’s about, so we all need to be ready to talk about our hope as believers. I know this may sound intimidating, but it shouldn’t. We don’t need to have all the answers, and in fact none of us does. We simply need to be able to explain why Jesus is so important to

1 Peter 3:9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. If you have ever been insulted, you will know that the immediate reflex reaction is to want to even the score. In the pain of the moment, we are all inclined to cry out for justice because it’s just not right that people should get away with insulting us. It would seem that Peter’s readers were well used to being insulted. Christianity was a new phenomenon, and its teachings stood in sharp contrast to the thinking of the time. Christians faced verbal and physical attacks on a regular basis. Christians have been under attack throughout the past 2,000 years. There are horrifying stories of the ways in which the Salvation Army was attacked in this country in the latter part of the 19th century. There are distressing accounts of dead animals, some set alight, being hurled at passing Salvationists as they

1 Peter 3:3-4 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. I don’t feel competent to comment on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes! However, I don’t believe that Peter was saying that these things were wrong in themselves. His point was that they shouldn’t be our priority, and they certainly shouldn’t become a matter of concern for us. Our priority needs to be our inner selves – our character. Our society is obsessed with image. What matters is how we look and the impression that we leave on other people through our appearance. There is no doubt that these things can easily become a matter of anxiety and Jesus drew attention to this. In his Sermon on the Mount, he spoke about people’s anxiety about their food or clothing. He pointed to the birds and observed that t

1 Peter 2:21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. I’ve known many wonderful people, and I am sure you have as well. I have only to think of words such as kindness, graciousness, love, thoughtfulness, joy, integrity, hospitality and hope, to be reminded of people who have reflected those qualities to me in a very special way. They weren’t perfect, but I saw something that was beautiful in their lives and my life has been enormously enriched through knowing them. It’s good to follow the example of other Christians and, on a number of occasions, the apostle Paul encouraged his readers to follow his example. But we need to remember that the supreme example that we need to follow is of Jesus himself. Jesus was unlike anyone else who has ever lived, because he was perfect. We are called to be disciples and that means deliberately looking at Jesus’ teaching and his way of life and allowing them to shape

1 Peter 2:18 You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. Everything about slavery is horrifying. The idea that someone could own another human being sounds barbaric, and so it is difficult for us to handle a verse like this. Context is so important. At the time of the early Church, slavery was extremely common. About 20 per cent of the population were slaves and there was never any serious thought that the institution should be dismantled. It’s also important to realise that under Roman law, slavery was heavily regulated. Slaves received very low wages but they lived with the hope that one day they might be able to purchase their freedom. Slavery at any time is an odious idea, but clearly the experience was nowhere near as hellish or dehumanising as it became during the centuries of the transatlantic slave trade. It has been suggested that a better translation of the word slave could be ser

1 Peter 2:16 You are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. On the face of it this verse doesn’t seem to make much sense. Surely freedom means that you can do whatever you like? All constraints have been thrown off and you can do exactly what pleases you. But it doesn’t take long to realise that this kind of freedom would be a horrific experience. If you were able to do whatever you wanted, then you would have a licence to dominate everyone else and to destroy whatever you liked. Freedom ruled by our own selfishness would be nothing less than hell on earth. The New Testament introduces us to the concept of true freedom, and that can only be found by being slaves to God’s will. By finding his perfect will for us we are set free to be everything that God intended us to be. When we get to heaven God will not ask us: “Why weren’t you like Abraham, Moses, David or the apostles?” He will look to us to be everything that we were created to be, which will be very diffe

1 Peter 2:12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbours. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give honour to God when he judges the world. Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, once said “the unconsidered life is not worth living”. Peter would have agreed with him, because he knew that it was crucially important for Christians to think very carefully about their way of life. It wasn’t good enough for them merely to have the right doctrines. They needed to ensure that their daily life reflected their Christian faith, so that those around them would get a very clear picture of what it meant to live for Christ. But the importance of living well was even greater in an environment where the Christians were hated and often the target of slanderous accusations. It was vital that they lived uprightly so that false allegations would be immediately seen as nonsense. We might not be in such an embattled situation, but you can be sure

1 Peter 2:10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” The television series, Who do you think you are? always makes fascinating viewing. Researchers delve into the lives of famous people and reveal amazing details about their family history. It is interesting to know about our history but what really matters is who we think we are today. What is our identity? Peter says that as Christians our identity has completely changed. In the past we had no identity but now we are God’s people. In the past we had not tasted the mercy of God, but now we have. A true understanding of our identity is of crucial importance to the way in which we live today. If we thought that our lives were our own and we could do whatever we liked, we would live in one particular way. We wouldn’t be bothered about other people’s rules and expectations. “I did it my way” would be our signature tune. But when we see ourselves as one of God’s people,

1 Peter 2:9 You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. In the Old Testament we learn that God decided that the people of Israel should be his chosen people. In Exodus 19 and Isaiah 43 they are described in a number of ways, and here Peter brings together all those descriptions and applies them to the Church. The people of Israel enjoyed their position by birth. They were all descended from Abraham, the father of the faith. And now every Christian is part of the Church, the new chosen people, by our new birth. Through our faith in Christ, we have all the privileges and responsibilities of being a citizen of God’s holy nation. One of the distinctive features of the Church is that each one of us is a priest. In the Old Testament, the privileged role of the priest was to have access to God, and to enable others to come to God. The priests were dra

1 Peter 2:4-5 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. In the Old Testament, huge attention is given to the building of the temple. King David took the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and longed to give it a proper home. He went to enormous lengths to prepare for the building of the temple, but this only happened during the reign of his son, Solomon. The temple was the place where God lived among his people and at the heart of it was the Holy of Holies, which was so special that it could only be entered once a year and only by the high priest. All of God’s people looked to the temple as being at the heart of their worship, and it was the focus of the elaborate sacrificial system. In the New Testament we learn that Jesus was in the process of building a new temple and this would be completely different from the impressive structure

1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness. Babies are not subtle in their demand for milk. When they need feeding they are very happy to let everyone know about it! Peter uses this powerful imagery to describe a young Christian’s desperate need to be fed spiritually. There can be no doubt that he is referring to our need for the word of God. We have been given the treasure of the Bible and we need to ensure that we are continually receiving nourishment from it. Only in that way will we grow and become strong and mature. The need to be fed isn’t just good advice for new Christians. We all need feeding and we need to organise our lives in such a way as to ensure that it happens. We wouldn’t think of being haphazard about our physical feeding, having a meal from time to time when we happened to be in the mood. We know full well that without