Be Still And Know

1 Peter 2.12 NLT '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 more important in an environment where the Christians were hated and often the target of slanderous accusations. It was vital that their way of life was so obviously good that false allegations would be immediately seen as nonsense. We might not live in quite such an em

1 Peter 2.10 NLT “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. Frank Sinatra’s ‘My way’ would be our signature tune. But when we see ourselves as one of G

1 Peter 2.9 NLT '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 related to 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 God’s holy nation. One of the distinctive features of the Church is that every Christian 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 drawn from the fam

1 Peter 2.4-5 NLT '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 brought 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 amongst 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 str

1 Peter 2.2-3 NLT '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 and we can have 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 organise our lives in su

1 Peter 2.1 NLT 'So get rid of all evil behaviour. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.' In the previous chapter Peter commanded his readers to love one another. He now spells out what that will involve, because if we are truly to love other people then bad behaviour must stop. There’s no way in which a church can be dominated by love when there is deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and gossip. All of those things are destructive of the love, peace and joy that God wants to dominate the lives of Christians. I have often heard people tell me that they have found their church deeply disappointing. Very often there is a problem with gossip, which so easily develops within any close community. And most odious of all is when Christians talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk. They are quick to criticise others for their failings, but are shown to be just as failed themselves. And so we could go on. It should never be a surprise that Christians often get it wrong, because we are all si

1 Peter 1.23 NLT 'You have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.' Terry Pratchett, the famous humourist and novelist, wrote, “It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.” Life here on earth is indeed brief, but Peter encourages us to look beyond, to see that God’s intention for us is to enjoy eternal life. When we hear that expression, we are inclined to think about the future, but the New Testament writers were absolutely clear that it starts right now. The moment you give your life to Christ you are born again. A new life begins and because that life comes from God it is indestructible. It can never come to an end because it is founded upon a relationship with our eternal God. Jesus made this very clear when he told his disciples, “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They w

1 Peter 1.22 NLT '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.' When you become a Christian, you are immediately a part of a world-wide family – the Church. You suddenly have brothers and sisters that you’d never had before! One of the most exciting characteristics of your new family is that it is held together by love and Peter declares that this flows from our experience of forgiveness. In 1960, C.S. Lewis wrote a famous book entitled The Four Loves. He pointed to the fact that the Greek language has far more words for love than there are in English and he drew attention to four of them. Storge is the sort of affectionate love that exists between a mother and her child. Philia is friendship love such as we see between David and Jonathan in the Old Testament. Eros is romantic love and, finally, agape is unconditional love such as God has shown us. Peter used two of these

1 Peter 1.15-16 NLT You must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” I suspect that we all respond in much the same way to the command that we should live holy lives. We feel a closeness to Isaiah who went into the Temple one day and was overwhelmed by the holiness of God. He responded with embarrassment, not only because he didn’t feel remotely holy himself, but because he was conscious that he lived in a society that was anything but holy. I am sure we can easily identify with his response. But Isaiah learnt that it was possible for him to be totally cleansed and, in that incredible encounter, he was set free from his sin and commissioned to become a spokesman for God. The word holy means separate or set apart. God doesn’t want our lives to be dragged down by the selfish and destructive influences of our society, but to be set apart for him and, just like Isaiah, that can only happen as we experience God’s forgiveness

1 Peter 1.14 NLT 'So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.' D.L.Moody, the famous Victorian preacher, once said, “There will be no peace in any soul until it is willing to obey the voice of God.” The problem with the word obedience is that we are inclined to see it as restrictive. Because I have the privilege of living amongst many children the word obedience is often heard! Time and again we have to insist on obedience in order to keep the children safe and secure. When they want to dash across a road without looking, or to go out on a cold day without a coat, we will ensure that they obey our requests. They may well grumble but we are content with that because we know that our words are loving and wise. When God tells us to obey his rules, the child in us will sometimes cry out, “but I want to do it my way.” We want to follow our own selfish agenda. As Peter describes it, we want to “satisfy ou

1 Peter 1.13 NLT 'So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.' In this opening chapter of his first letter, Peter writes a great deal about salvation. He looks forward to the day when we will see the completeness of our salvation, set free from every trace of sin and all suggestions of death and decay. But he doesn’t intend these wonderful spiritual insights to send his readers into an outer orbit of heavenly worship, but rather to equip them to get ready for action. They need to be prepared to face up to the brutal reality of living for God in a world that is fundamentally opposed to the Christian faith. True worship and bible study must always have the effect of equipping us to live more faithfully and fruitfully for God in the here and now. They must never be a form of escapism which we use to help us to run away from a challenging and hostile world. God needs us to be fit and r

1 Peter 1.6-7 NLT 'Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.' Let’s not play games. Hard times are hard. Nobody likes going through difficulties or facing challenges. To have to endure violent persecution, such as Peter’s readers experienced, must have been incredibly difficult. Peter wasn’t glad about the trials they were facing, but about the outcome from going through such times. He knew that the persecution that they were enduring not only proved the reality of their faith, but would have the effect of refining them and making them even stronger in their Christian lives. I find it fascinating that gold has been highly prized for thousands of years. The world has changed out of all recognition over that time, but gold continues to be eagerly sought after and over the past couple of chal

1 Peter 1.5 NLT 'Through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.' I wonder how you or I would cope with persecution from the civic authorities. Just imagine what it would be like to live with the knowledge that the police are after you, simply because you are a Christian. This is precisely the experience of thousands of Christians today in many parts of the world, and it was also a reality in many periods of the early Church. Peter wanted to equip the Christians to face up to the fires of persecution with courage and confidence, and so he reminded them that God would protect them. The verb that he used for “protecting” was a military term and the tense made it clear that God was continually protecting them. Whatever happened they could be confident that God would be with them and give them courage to stand for him. Peter encouraged his readers to look forward to the day when they would see the full reality o

1 Peter 1.3-4 NLT 'Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance— an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.' I wonder if you are waiting for an inheritance. If so, I wish you well but, as you probably know, things don’t always work out in the way that we might hope. Many potential inheritances are eaten up by nursing home fees, or are lost through poor investments or changes in market conditions. In short, inheritances in this life are vulnerable and certainly cannot be relied upon. What a joy that this is completely different from our spiritual inheritance which is absolutely guaranteed. Nothing can ever alter it, because it lies well beyond the reach of change and decay. Most people fail to enjoy today because they are so overwhelmed by problems from the past and fears about the future. The wonder of the Christian faith is that it enables us to live today to the full, knowing that God has set us free from the sins an

1 Peter 1.3 NLT '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.' When Peter wrote these words the storm clouds were gathering, and the church was soon going to be facing very sharp and painful persecution. Many Christians were going to die, and Peter was well aware that he needed to equip them for the challenges to come. I love the fact that he does so not by offering them words of comfort or sympathy, but by an outburst of praise! It’s a good reminder to us that it is always the right time to praise God. That is not a way of dodging the challenges or putting a brave face on things, but because God is always worthy of praise. Even in the harshest and most testing moments of life, God is God and continues to be faithful, gracious and loving. Peter reminds his readers that they have been born again because of God’s mercy. The new life that we have in Christ is never because of anything good that we

1 Peter 1.1 NLT 'I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.' I wonder where home is for you. The older one gets the more interesting the question becomes because there are so many potential candidates. Perhaps it’s the place where you were born. I left my birthplace when I was 18, but I still look back at it as a place of great importance. But, since then, I have lived in many different places. When I lived in India I remember concluding that my home was wherever I happened to have a bed, table, chair, paper and pen! So long as I had those five items, I was content and could feel at home. Every place that I have lived has become very precious to me, but Peter would want to remind me that I am, at the end of the day, a foreigner. This world is not my true home, because I have a permanent home in heaven. In this letter Peter addresses his readers as foreigners and, throughout the letter, he spells out the implications of

Psalm 96.1-3 NLT 'Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.' Many people see life as being divided into two categories – the sacred and the secular. The sacred is, for example, what we do when we go to church and worship God, and the secular is our normal daily routine of family life, going to work and relaxing. This way of looking at life is strongly Greek in origin and is very different from the Hebrew thinking which we see reflected in this psalm. The psalmist had no thought of confining his worship to his visits to the Temple! He was eager to proclaim the good news of God’s salvation every day. Whatever he was doing he wanted to declare the greatness of God and encourage other people to do the same. The idea of living in two separate compartments was completely unknown to him. When we see God at work in ever

Psalm 95.6-7 NLT 'Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!' These words of invitation are often used at the beginning of church services to remind us of how wonderful God is, and how much he deserves our worship. But although God is perfect and is worthy of our complete devotion, he will never impose himself on us. It is up to us to respond, and listening is a crucial part of that response. The sad reality is that we often do not listen and the psalmist reflects on a time when the people of Israel refused to listen. They were at the start of their wilderness wanderings and there was no water to drink. I don’t want to minimise the acute difficulty of such a dilemma, but the people’s response was to complain and not to listen to God. Although he had miraculously delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and provided regular food for them through the provi

Psalm 94.18-19 NLT I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer. Sharing honestly and openly what God has done in our lives is incredibly powerful. The most wonderful thing about testimony is that nobody can deny it. Other people might choose to interpret our experiences differently from us, but the moment we declare our personal accounts of how we have seen God at work in our lives they are bound to take note of what we have said. I draw the conclusion from this that we need to give one another generous opportunities to share what God has done. Sharing our testimonies is good at every level. In a large congregation they can inspire faith and stimulate worship. However, it is particularly good when we share our experiences in small groups where we can be totally honest with one another and where one person’s testimony can trigger other people to share what they have been through. But probably the mo

Psalm 93.4 NLT 'Mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore— the Lord above is mightier than these!' I was brought up by the sea and have always enjoyed the sight of waves breaking on the shore. I love the rhythm of the waves and the drama as they crash onto the beach in their own unique way. There is a timelessness about waves, and it is easy to understand why the psalmists often refer to them. But, however powerful and violent the sea might be, the psalmists insist that God is even more powerful. They often remind us that God is incomparably great. However powerful anything or anyone might be, God is always greater and stronger. Whatever threat you are facing, God is more than able to cope. I wonder what challenges you are facing at the moment. They may be connected with your family, work, church, neighbours, community or something else. Life in our broken world inevitably produces a stream of challenges for all of us. And when we think beyond our immediate lives, w