The brethren and sisters who first read Peter’s first epistle were in trouble.
“Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations…they speak against you as evildoers…the fiery trial which is to try you…your adversary, the devil (the political and religious powers of pagan Rome), as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 1:6; 2:12; 4:12; 5:8).
Persecution had begun
“For a season” (I Peter 1:6) the brethren in central and northern Asia Minor were to be persecuted by the Gentiles amongst whom they lived. As can be the case in our own lives, the world turned on the believers because the brethren would no longer join the wicked ways of those around them: “They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” (4:4). They brought false accusations against the believers: “They speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they…falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ” (3:16). Therefore, the believers would face the odious situation of “suffering wrongfully;” of doing good but being buffeted as if they had done wrong because they believed the Truth God had revealed (2:19-20; 3:14; 4:14,16).
Every believer must suffer trials of some form and no believer finds them easy to endure. These brethren were no exception and neither are we. They needed encouragement that they might faithfully endure their period of trial, and so do we.
A purpose in trouble
One thing they needed to keep in the forefront of their minds was that trial has a beneficial purpose. They were encouraged to remember the analogy of gold. Gold must be tried by fire before it can be pure and beautiful.
In the first century, they would have seen goldsmiths subjecting gold to the intense heat of a fire in order to liquefy the gold. When the goldsmith did this, the impurities would rise to the surface for him to skim off. The goldsmith continued the process until he was able to see the reflection of his face in the liquid. He would then remove it from the fire because he knew the contents were pure gold.
As gold was precious to the goldsmith, so their faith was to God. As the goldsmith wanted to remove impurities from the gold, so God wanted to remove impurities from their faith so that He might see a reflection of Himself. The objective was that their faith “might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1:7).
If they could only endure the process now for a season, they could look forward to “receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (v.8).
So when trouble and injustice befell them, there was no need for them to become despondent, as if God had deserted them. He had not deserted them; He was preparing them for the great inheritance they were promised — “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (v.4).
The same consolation is true for us. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Heb. 12:6-7). Our trials may not take the same form as the difficulties that befell the believers in Asia Minor, but we will experience the fire of purification in some form. It may be a problem of loneliness or health or injustice or finance. Whatever form the problem takes, we will endure it better if we remember the purpose it can serve toward the purification of our characters.
A living hope
And we will endure better if we realize our hope is a living hope -”we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance…kept in heaven for you…ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:3-5 RSV).
As we know, the inheritance is not in heaven in the sense that we will go there to receive it. This very chapter makes it perfectly clear that the blessing will only be revealed “in the last time…at the appearing of Jesus Christ” when it “is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:5,7,13). We will not go to it but it will be brought to us when Christ returns.
Furthermore, the inheritance is not a living hope in the sense that it is guaranteed to us no matter how we behave. As we are warned in Peter’s second epistle: “Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election” (II Peter 2:10). We have received the call and we are part of the elect of God but this blessed position can be lost if we do not confirm it in our lives.
Our personal participation in the great hope is dependent upon how we reflect the character of God in our lives: “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (I Peter 1:16-17).
Yet the hope of glory is not a matter of speculation, it is certain! It is alive! Because God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory exalting him to His own right hand.
By him we “believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (I Peter 1:21).
A thrill to Peter
What a thrill Peter would have inscribing these words. All the thrill of that resurrection day would come rushing back to his mind: the report of Mary Magdalene that “They have taken away the Lord,” his running to the tomb with John and looking in wonder at the linen clothes lying there. Great hope was raised, a hope that competed in his mind with doubt and worry. If Jesus had risen, what would he say to Peter about the denials? And then later when he met the risen Lord: “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” John 20:20. What a marvelous understatement — they were “glad” — they were filled with “joy unspeakable and full of glory” as they stood with the Lord of glory who was now glorified for all time. And Peter, forgiven Peter, what relief and joy would fill his whole being.
Jesus was alive and all their hopes were alive again with him! And all our hopes are alive because he lives and gives us a living hope. “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8).
Suffering and glory
Our living hope is further assured by the fact that Jesus Christ suffered before he was glorified. Throughout the prophets, the revelation of God spoke of “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” (1:11). First suffering, then glory.
Suffering does not mean we are deserted by God. If we endure grief, suffering wrongfully, this should not surprise us for the same thing happened to Christ. And when it happened to him, he set us an example of how to respond in such situations. “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (2:23).
A living way
We are associated with a living hope, a hope that will not corrupt or be defiled or fade away. In like manner, our way of life should consist of those things that will not fade away. We have been born again into a new sphere of living “by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1:23).
All of the things associated with the flesh are as grass. The hope of the flesh is to flourish for awhile and then wither away. The accomplishments of the flesh and all the glory of man is nothing that will last. And the conduct of the flesh is that which will eventually be eradicated from the earth and should now be eradicated from our lives.
We look forward to being like the glorified Lord Jesus who now lives. Let us now live like him, living as though we were free from the domain ruled by sin and death. “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:10-11).
Peter exhorts us to be “as obedient children” (1:14). The Greek for “obedient” is Hupakoe which indicates “attentive hearkening” (Strong’s). In other words, an attitude where one is listening carefully to instruction with the full intent to comply.
Brethren and sisters, as we focus our attention on the emblems, let us rejoice that we are related to a living hope, a hope of glory that has been assured by the resurrection and glorification of our Lord Jesus. But let us be exhorted, too, for if we are to finally share in this living hope, we must even now be walking in the living way. Let us give ourselves wholly to that way that we might be amongst those “who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One