Reading 1 Peter Together - 1 Peter 1:3-12

It's day 2 of reading 1 Peter together.  I hope you've read the entire book again today.  For your meditation and today please look more carefully at 1 Peter 1:3-12.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹ obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹ inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 

After the introduction in which Peter told the readers of his letter that they were chosen to obey Jesus Christ, he begins not with a list of rules to obey but a glorious statement of what God has done for the believers, who they are and what they have in Christ.  This is consistent with the Biblical pattern of indicative and imperative.  If you remember your elementary grammar, an indicative or declarative sentence is a statement of fact.  An imperative is a command.  Throughout the Bible we see indicatives followed by imperatives.  The Ten Commandments don’t begin with the first commandment, they begin, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). The Great Commission doesn’t begin with “Go..”, it is preceded by, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).  

So Peter doesn’t begin with commands to follow, he begins with assurance of salvation.  It’s not obey the rules and you will obtain salvation; it’s you have salvation, so obey the commands of Christ.  You have a living hope, so live like one with a living hope.  You are holy, so live holy.  

Here are some questions for you to consider from 1 Peter 1:3-12.

Do you have the absolute assurance of your own salvation that Peter has in the salvation of his original readers? Why or why not?

Why does the resurrection of Jesus give us a living hope?

Why do Christians have the ability to rejoice through trials?

Would you say that your life is characterized by rejoicing with joy that is inexpressible because you know who Jesus is, what he has done, and what awaits you in eternity?

Have you ever thought about the fact that you have knowledge that the prophets of old desired but was kept hidden from them?  That the experience of salvation is something into which angels long to look?  What does this say about our position in the kingdom of God?