This is the second message in our series on the first letter of Peter, written around AD 60. To understand this letter well, it helps to remember who Peter was. He began life as a simple fisherman in northern Israel. He and his brother James were among Jesus’ closest companions throughout His ministry. After the resurrection, Peter became foundational in the birth of the church and in extending God’s promises beyond Israel to the Gentile world.
Last week, we explored the first half of chapter 1, where Peter reminds us that we are exiles. This world is not our home. We are here temporarily, but we have an eternal promise that far outweighs anything we face now. Choosing Christ means choosing exile—choosing to be a wanderer in a society that doesn’t always understand or welcome us. Many of Peter’s original readers were suffering, and he writes to remind them that their true citizenship is in God’s Kingdom. They are co‑heirs with Christ.
One image from Matt’s message last week stayed with me: a marshmallow refined by fire. If your faith has little value or stamina, you end up with not much after it has been through the fire. But if it is genuine, trials refine it into something strong and enduring.
Peter writes:
“…though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)
Gold is refined by fire, yet even gold perishes. Our faith is being refined into something eternal.
One thing I’m keen for us to pick up today is that I don’t want us to read 1 Peter as a standalone letter. Get to know Peter, what he experienced, what his relationships were, the lessons he has learnt along the way and bring this with you into the reading.
In a few minutes Andrew, a 60yr old bloke with plenty of experience, to read the passage for us. But I want to share a bit of Peter’s experience and spiritual journey first.
Peter faced many trials. He writes as a practitioner:
For example, when Peter talks about facing trials, remember what he went through with Jesus including several attempts and multiple schemes on Jesus Life. Peter and James who were two of the inner-three Apostles. They were as thick as thieves. James was executed by sword in Jerusalem around 44 A.D. by order of King Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2). James, Peter’s brother was the first of the twelve apostles to be martyred and soon after, Peter was arrest and the plan was to kill him as well (Acts 12:3). The early church lived under intense persecution.
So, when Peter says ‘your inheritance is imperishable’ and ‘for a little while you may have had to surfer grief in all kinds of trials’. He’s not saying this from a safe monastery, but as someone living through decades of loss, danger and persecution. Around five years from this letter Peter himself will have been crucified on an inverted cross for his faith.
Peter led the way in opening the Good News of Jesus beyond the Jews to also include the Gentiles.
Twenty years before writing this letter, he received a vision from God of unclean animals being offered as food. God used this vision to show Peter that His plan of redemption extended beyond the Jews. This was a radical, almost unthinkable idea for Peter, yet God patiently led him to the home of Cornelius, where he witnessed the Holy Spirit fall on Gentiles just as He had on the Jews (Acts 10). Peter then had to explain this to the believers in Jerusalem.
So when Peter writes to the scattered believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, he writes with a strong sense of attachment.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” (1 Peter 1:3-4)
Do you notice the warmth of the inclusive ‘us’ in that verse?
And again:
“He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (I Peter 1:20-21)
Saved by Grace alone, but judged?
Peter sat through Jesus’ teaching on the parable of the talents and the parable of the ‘sheep and the goats’. If I know travelling speakers, Jesus wouldn’t have just shared these stories once. I assume Peter would have heard these parables told to many audiences.
The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) is about three servants who are given finances to steward (1 Talent = 6,000 drachma. 1 drachma was an average day’s wage. 1 Talent may have had the value of $1.8M). The first two servants double their talents and are rewarded, while the third hides his in the ground out of fear and is punished. The story warns against wasteful fear-driven inaction.
The parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46) is about the final judgement where the Son of Man comes in his glory and separates those who cared for the marginalised from those that did not aid those in need.
Peter raises for us what we may sense as an awkward tussle between being saved by grace alone, or by grace and works. We’ve lived through 450 years of reformed theology. I’ve stood where followers of Christ have been burned at the stake in Oxford over these interpretations of scripture just 465 years ago. I have also stood in unity with 5,000 Christians, both catholic and protestant in that same spot, still feeling the effects of that disagreement.
However, it doesn’t seem to have been so complicated for Peter or Paul. We are saved by grace alone, but salvation without works is dead. They also share that we are judged by the actions and decisions we make. Peter says. ‘be holy’, live in ‘reverent fear’. Jesus gave it all for you. ‘Love each other deeply’.
Let’s read 1 Peter 1:13-25 and listen to what Peter says.
Be Holy
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Through this chapter, Peter wants us to know:
- the incredible situation we find ourselves in.
- That God chose us and has given us a new birth, bought with the precious blood of Jesus.
- That we are now exiles where we live.
- Great and Eternal things are to come.
- We will be tested by tough times.
- Don’t live as you used to. Live in the hope and Joy God brings.
- love each other deeply.
I’m going to borrow the first verses from next weeks passage because they really belong with this chapter.
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:1-3)
Questions:
Question 1: What does it particularly mean to live as an exile in today’s world?
Question 2: How trials have shaped your faith, and what trials do you avoid that may refine you further?
Question 3: – Peter emphasises both grace and holy living. How do you hold these together without falling into legalism or complacency?
Question 4: I get a feeling Peter couldn’t hold back from talking about what God has done. What would help you spill more of what God has done into your natural conversations?
Question 5: What aspect of this passage—hope, holiness, reverent fear, or deep love—do you sense God highlighting for you currently?