Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Peter in these verses mentions four details about his readers, taken from descriptions that were used of Israel in the Old Testament. So here we have a reminder that from a biblical understanding the church is the true Israel. It is not wise to use Old Testament predictions about Israel in a literal manner; in fact, many of them were fulfilled in Old Testament times. Instead, any opinions we have about the current situation of the Jews and their future should be based on the New Testament, particularly in Romans 9–11.   In addition to the four descriptions, Peter informs them of their duty, which is to proclaim the excellencies of God. He also mentions two contrasts between their former and current spiritual state: previously they had been in darkness, now they were in the light because they had received mercy from God.   The four privileges Each of the four privileges is given in a corporate manner, indicating what they are as the church rather than as individuals. This ...

Many a person wants to visit Athens today, a city renowned for its history and culture. It was the same when Paul was there two thousand years ago. Although even then its golden age was long past, much of its splendour remained and could be admired.  In God’s providence, Paul found himself there on his second missionary journey. He may have found himself there sooner than he had planned. Perhaps he would have wanted to walk through Greece, preaching in the various places on the way, especially after he had been called to go there through a vision that he had in Troas of a man of Macedonia urging him to go there with the gospel. Since then, he had gone to Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea, but he had been forced by trouble instigated by some Jews to leave each of them. So he had been taken to Athens on a boat by friends in Berea, who took him there for safety purposes.    Mind you, 1 Thessalonians 1 indicates that the new church in that city had managed to spread the gos...

Often when we meet someone for the first time we will ask them who they are, who they belong to, and what they do. Those questions come at different levels, and they can be asked of us as Christians. And Peter answers those questions in this passage. These verses are not the only occasion in this letter when he does so. Here he alludes to several Old Testament roles and cites a couple of Old Testament verses. An activity – coming to Jesus The activity is said to be that they come to Jesus, following on from what Peter said in the previous verse about tasting that the Lord is good. It is an ongoing activity (a present plural participle). This means that it should be a constant and corporate response, although there is a conditional element. It should be constant because the Lord is the only source of grace; it should be corporate because believers don’t have different sources; yet it is conditional because what Peter goes on to say about Christians depends on them coming to Jesus for hi...

Love is a very common word in everyday life. People speak about it, write about it, argue about it, and sing about it. Yet although the word is used frequently, it is not always used with the same meaning. For some, it is only a temporary feeling, with no commitment to whoever or whatever caused the emotion to arise. For others, love is self-centred and is therefore only an expression of selfishness. Some regard it as an elusive dream, which will happen if one is lucky. Yet many have experienced real love. Still, the question remains: ‘is there more to love than we have experienced?’   How would we describe love? Obviously, love is an affection, indeed the deepest and strongest of affections. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to remove love from a person. But love is more than an affection, it is also an attitude. I suppose attitude brings the mind into play because it often reveals the reason or reasons why a person loves. Moreover, love is active because love must express...

One of the current priorities of today’s world concerns personal identity and one’s role in life. People want to know who they are, what is significant about them, what effect does their experiences have on them, what contribution can they make? Christians should ask such questions of themselves.  In this passage, Peter deals with the issues of who his readers are, what are the effects of their experiences, what others are meant to see about them, and what should be their priorities in life. It is striking that he does not mention what we might regard as most important, which is the difficulty of their circumstances that had been referred to earlier in the chapter by Peter. The implication is that the believer’s circumstances are never valid reasons not to be who they should be, nor are their circumstances reasons for not achieving what God wants them to be.   The reality of a life-changing encounter  In verse 22, Peter reminds his readers of what happened to them when th...

A soldier, when engaged in battle, would have a helmet on his head, a shield in one hand, and a sword in the other. The obvious difference between them is that, while the helmet and the shield could deal with attacks from a distance through fiery darts thrown by the enemy, the sword could not. A sword was for close fighting. A soldier could use the three pieces when fighting personally with an enemy soldier, and when each was used, the soldier would have what was needed for victory. The sword of the Spirit is the only aggressive piece of armour mentioned by Paul. The helmet and the shield were largely defensive in use whereas the purpose of the sword, while also defensive, was to wound or slay the opponent. Since we cannot slay the devil, the purpose of using the sword must be the equivalent of disarming or wounding him in some way.   The ‘word’ of God One other detail may also be significant for using the sword. The word translated as ‘word’ [rhema] in the phrase ‘word of God...

There is hardly a day in which Israel is not mentioned in the news. As a country, she is frequently involved in wars and threatened wars. She is one of the leading countries in distributing the vaccine to her citizens. There are disputes about the suitability of Jerusalem as her capital city. Recently, more Arab countries have made peace treaties with her. Although small in size, she constantly functions above her size or punches above her weight. People either love her or hate her. Of course, there is more to Israel than the country of that name. Of whom would we use the word Israelite? Those who live in the Middle East are called Israelis. They are Israelites, but then so too are all Jews, most of whom do not live in Israel. Israelite is a broader term and fits in with the Bible’s picture of them. Because in the Bible, when we come to its close and ask where the Israelites are, the answer is that most are in exile away from their homeland. This has been the case since the Babylonian ...