And Peter’s begun this letter by saying, and look what he’s done!īut did you notice the first word of today’s passage? Verse 13, ‘Therefore…’ Understanding all that God has done for you in Christ is going to change the way you live.
It’s not what you do for God, it’s what he’s done for you. Religion is, moralism is, because they say that to find your way to God, or to experience true enlightenment, or just to be the kind of person you should be, you need to do this and this and not do that and that.īut Christianity’s different. You see, fundamentally, Christianity is not a list of things you’ve got to do. Plans and purposes he first revealed through the prophets, and then proclaimed through the gospel, that Jesus himself would suffer and then be glorified.Īnd what’s true for them is true for you. And it’s all because they’ve been caught up and carried along, Peter says in v10-12, in the great river of God’s plans and purposes in Christ. And, as a result, despite the increasing hostility they’re facing for being Christians, joy fills their hearts. He’s given them new life, new hope and an eternal inheritance in Christ. And he’s done a lot! Everyone else may be rejecting them, but God’s chosen them, loved them, and set them apart. Instead, it’s all been about what God has done for them. He’s given them no instructions, no commands, no ‘thou shalt do this’. And up until now in the letter, he’s not told them to do anything. We’re looking at the apostle Peter’s first letter - a letter he wrote around 63AD to Christians in what’s now modern day Turkey.
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