Thursday, May 4, 2017
“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.” Dear friends, I
warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly
desires that wage war against your very souls.
Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong,
they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he
judges the world. 1 Peter 2:10-12(NLT)
As dramatic
as apostle Paul’s conversion was, from persecutor of the church to defender of
the faith, Peter’s conversion was just as wide a swing from impulsive, brash,
volatile, and self-serving to humble servant who lived-into the mercy he
received. The difference in the two
apostles was simply time. Paul’s
happened nearly in a heartbeat; it took Peter a lifetime.
Jesus had
called Simon “Peter”. He called him a rock; not a boulder, but Jesus
said Peter, when he finally reached maturity, would be a little pebble. A boulder is pretty much immovable, but Peter’s
behavior was anything but steady. He
could vacillate from boldly declaring he would die for Jesus, raising a sword
against the high priest’s soldier to cut off an ear, to wimping-out when a
little girl asked him if he was a follower of Jesus outside Pilate’s
house. Peter had a hard time matching
his bragging and his behavior. Will the
real Peter, made of stone, please stand up?
Paul had to
call him out at least once. When Paul
had been discipling the young believers of the Galatian church, Peter came to
see this miracle of Gentiles brought into the faith. He ate and fellowshipped with them, but when
the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem arrived, Peter drew back from the Gentiles
like they had leprosy. Paul got in Peter’s face and reminded him that
hypocrisy is a pretty poor witness. (Galatians 2:11)
Fast
forward years down the road to not long before both Peter and Paul are to be
martyred and you find this letter Peter has written to the young believers
everywhere, humbly encouraging them to be consistently honorable in their
behavior. Is this the pot asking the
kettle to not be black? Are you telling
us, dear Simon Peter that we ought to do as you say, and not as you do?
Well, of
course; that’s the whole point! Peter
had lived a lifetime awakening to the fact that all his bragging,
ready-to-fight, mouth running/brain on hold, aggression was not what Christ had
lived before Peter and the world; nor was it what Christ prophesied that Peter
would be…little stone…humble stone.
Peter had
learned that pushing your way through life like a boulder rolling through a
china shop wasn’t strong leadership, it was demonic and so anti-Christian, it
makes you twice the child of Hell in the eyes of those to whom you’re supposed
to be Christ’s witness. Peter’s former
ways were all about Peter; now the old apostle understood living the
Christ-life was all about giving glory to God.
It finally got through to the hard-charging man of action that when it
comes to sheep, leading is better than driving!
For You Today
In
the kingdom of God we are all leaders AND
followers; we are following the One who was meek and lowly, and we are leading
others with our behavior.
NOTES
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