1st Peter #4: Exemplary

1st Peter #4: Exemplary

Previously

• Chosen Stranger
• Privilege
• Consistent
• Precious Christ

1 Peter 2.11
11 Beloved, I encourage you, as
“temporary residents
” and strangers on earth,
to refrain from the desires of your own nature which make war on the soul.

Second time, Peter reminds us of this fact:

• temporary residents
• and strangers on earth.

Heavenly Belonging
If Christ is the cornerstone of our life, our ties are in Him:

• we are part of His family,
• our city is heavenly.

No more terrestrial anchorage
In fact, we no longer have

• neither rights
  nor legal status (literally), here below.
  We are there on a temporary stay.

Figure 1

Many biblical figures particularly devoted to God considered themselves residents and strangers:

• Abraham
• David Psalms 39.13 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cries! Do not be insensitive to my tears, for I am a stranger to you, a temporary resident, like all my ancestors.
• Jesus

Figure 2

Difference between Abraham and Lot

• Lot wanted to anchor himself in Sodom and Gomohrre, because it seemed advantageous, it flattered his success…
  These desires which wage war on the soul
  In the end, he lost everything:
• his moral sense,
• his couple,
• his property,
• his reputation,
• his descendants.
  Conversely,
• Abraham considered himself a stranger, passing through,
  and what resulted from his life was much more fruitful and glorious!
  And we are beneficiaries of it through Christ!

War between ego and soul

From the desires of man left to himself, his ego makes war on what is eternally attached to Christ (the cornerstone of our life).

Ego Desires
What are these ego desires?

To blend in ;
rebel.
Blending in with the crowd
This inner spiritual war has a practical echo in our daily lives.
Blending in with the crowd pushes me to do like everyone else so as not to be singled out, whatever society does: good or bad.

Rebel

• Rebellion can flatter but it can also stand against the biblical principles that God gives for people to live together.

To do this

1 Peter 2.12
12 Be good in the midst of unbelievers,
so that even when they slander you as if you were doing evil,
they will notice your good way of acting and give glory to God on the day he comes.

Shift at the time

• Master-slave
  Believers through their transformed lives denoted in master-slave relationships (Philemon)

it was said that the believers raised the slaves against the masters.

• At the family level, habits are no longer the same (games of domination, etc.):
• the idea of ​​the man who gives himself to his wife (entirely and exclusively);
• the woman subjected voluntarily and not under the domination and the constraint.
• He said to himself that the occasion of the Lord’s Supper was the occasion of child sacrifice.
• In the cultural and religious context, they no longer take part in unavoidable festivals.
• Some no longer frequented idolatrous butcheries:
  “so that, even where they blaspheme you, as if you were criminals”.
  Sueton (historian of the time) spoke of Christians as an « evil superstition ».

Beyond reputation, God invites through Peter to have a remarkable conduct:

Living Word
“may they be compelled to recognize for themselves that you lead a correct life. So even if they slander you and call you evildoers, when they examine (your life) more closely, your good deeds will open their eyes and they will eventually pay homage to God, on the day he visits them”

Visitation Day

It is unclear which is the day of the special meeting between those who slander and God:

Is this a final moment, the judgment, the return in glory of Christ?
Is it life circumstances that will make them reflect differently on the person of Christ?
Still, in these circumstances, the testimony of exemplary life of believers will be a source of references, so that these people give glory to God (in the context of repentance or judgment, if it is too late).

Encouragement
Even if, apparently, our way of life does not seem to have an echo.

Interpellation
If you left your neighborhood, would those around you notice the lack?

Or would we have preferred, so that our ego would not be hurt too much, to blend in with the crowd?

We can also be noticed negatively by:

« phew », the neighborhood breathes…

• Our good behavior, our beautiful way of acting translates into a special area.

1 Peter 2:13-15
13 For the sake of the Lord, submit yourselves to all institutions established among men: either to the king, because he is above all, 14 or to governors, because they are sent by him to punishing those who do evil and approving those who do good. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of men who lack sense.

The submission!
The subject of the submission will come up several times. It’s a subject that we don’t really like.

Many things
We are subject or have to subject ourselves to many things:

• the highway code,
• the laws of the country,
• the banking system,
• etc.

To whom, voluntarily and motivation
Submission and faith are part of our daily life. The question is more:

• to whom do we want to submit,
• voluntarily
• and for what motivation?

Submission to the authorities
And to show our good way of acting, we must submit to the authorities.

What hides the insubordination
Perhaps that the bad hyper-spiritual would say:

• « The persons in charge are all rotten, I submit myself only to God. » (in the background, the person does not submit to God at all, but God is a pretext to do as he feels).

Reason for submission
Why must we submit to the authorities?
Because the principle of authority is divine and we do it for the Lord and our example in this area is part of the will of God.

Precise submission
Today’s text even details part of the chain of responsibility of these authorities.
1 Peter 2:13-14
either to the king because he is above all, 14 or to the governors because they are sent by him to punish those who do evil and approve those who do good

Not subject to authorities and to God

It’s a safe bet that « the Christian », who does not submit to visible and human authorities, does not submit to the authority of God either…

No perfect authorities

Note, there are never perfect authorities on earth, because they have always been assumed by fallen people like us!

However, the principle is divine and we must be exemplary to honor the One who is at the origin of the principle, God.

Example of Stone

I note that it is the apostle Peter who points this out, he who was

• arrested (wrongly),
• imprisoned (wrongly),
• tortured (wrongly)
• and finally put to death by these authorities (not for committing a crime but for preaching the gospel).

Example of Jesus

The supreme example is Christ, subject to the Roman tax authorities, while these taxes were sources of more or less brilliant businesses…

How far ?
Obviously, we ask ourselves the question: how far can we submit to the authorities?

Example of Daniel

We have the example of Daniel who refused to submit to a royal injunction because he was forced to worship the king (obligation against God).

Two exceptions
The two main axes:

it is when we are forced, forced to give up our faith in God, in favor of another belief (religious political ideological)
and when we are forced to do harm, to harm the representatives of God, that is to say all human beings, whatever their status, sex, origin, lifestyle. Each human being is of original nature, in status of representative of God, it is my equal on whom I watch.
Jesus says it very well in the parable of the Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37 ). Romanian, border…

It is for these reasons that some hid and protected Jews during the second war.

But we should have the same attitude:

• if curlers were persecuted and put to death for curling;
• ditto for members of a political party;
• the same for people because of their sexual preferences;
• ditto for people because of their religious preferences.

What is striking in this text is that Peter speaks of submission.

1 Peter 2:16-17
16 Behave as free men, not making freedom a veil that covers wickedness but acting instead as servants of God.
17 Respect everyone, love brothers and sisters, fear God, honor the king.

Submission and freedom are linked
Believers submit to authority,

• not under pressure
• or out of necessity,
  but rather by choice, they do so with a full awareness of being truly free in Christ!

Free in relation to one’s desires
To be free is to choose to submit to God rather than to the desires of our own nature, to man left to himself who makes war on the soul.

This freedom is not inspired by selfishness or animality.

Echo of this freedom

• Respect each one, the neighbor
• love the brothers and sisters, place a priority
• fear God, really
• honor the king. as we have just seen

Freedom is expressed voluntarily in a respectful

• spiritual,
• human,
• societal framework.

War between desire and soul
Is it easy?
No, because there is a war going on between

• man left to himself
• and our life redeemed by Christ.

This is why in this area, we need God’s help so that we

• do it voluntarily
• and not under duress.

Typical exercise, the professional field: it was very different in the Roman Empire where there were far more slaves than citizens.

1 Peter 2:18-20
18 Servants, submit yourselves with great reverence to your masters,
not only to those who show kindness and gentleness,
but also to those who are wicked in spirit,
19 for it is a grace to bear difficulties by suffering unjustly to keep a clear conscience towards God.
20 For what glory is there in enduring mistreatment if you err?
But if you endure suffering while doing what is right, that is grace in the eyes of God.

Normal

• There is no glory, it is logical, normal.
  On the other hand, bearing
• difficulties
• unfairly,
  not to show that one is a beautiful person or that one is resilient or resistant, but to honor God.

It is a grace of God that He makes us honor Him in such circumstances.

It is a path of witnessing and the typical example is Christ.

1 Peter 2:21-25
21 In fact, this is what you were called to do, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example to follow in his footsteps,
22 he who committed no sin and in whose mouth no deceit was found,
23he who insulted did not reciprocate the insult,
ill-treated did not threaten but relied on him who judges justly,

24He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that, freed from sin, we might live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed. 25You were indeed like lost sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and protector of your souls.

Freely accepting to endure something unjust for God is much more fruitful, much more fruitful than leaving man, left to himself, to fight back selfishly.

• The Holy Spirit helps us: is asserting our rights always the best way?
• We may be successful on the legal, human level,
  but • will we have been fruitful on the spiritual level?

May we let ourselves be guided in all things by the Holy Spirit!

Example of Abraham

Going back to the example of Abraham:

• he made choices guided by fear, the flesh, the man left to himself (saying that his wife was his sister, Ishmael);
• others, contrary to human interest, legitimate human feelings (Isaac in sacrifice);
• in terms of the history of humanity;
• in terms of salvation (all nations are blessed in his seed).

Example of Jesus

But the much more fruitful example of renunciation is that of Christ.

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