Two Kinds of Lost People

There are those who hate Jesus and they hate Jesus’s followers, and sadly they persecute people for no other reason those because they love Jesus. It can be emotionally wearing and in situations of severe persecution in our world, harmfully painful physically and even imprisonment or death. Peter challenges the believer with eight ways we are to respond to persecution.

The Christian life is a miracle transformation wrought in our lives by the True, Living, Eternal God by means of His grace provided through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ and applied to our lives through faith. Peter tells us in this passage that this divine work is the distinguishing character that separates genuine salvation from counterfeit gospels or redemptive philosophies in this world. If we seek to live the Christian life without daily seeking God’s power and strength, we are not living the Christian life, we are living some weak imitation of the Christian life.

In light of the imminent return of Jesus and His judgment seat, we are admonished to recognize the seriousness of our task and the short time we have to complete it. Knowing that our enemy is Satan, and he is destroying this old world, we find ourselves in an urgent situation that calls for action. Paul admonishes us today to wake up!

In 1Peter 4 we were challenged to pray for each other, to love each other and to show hospitality to each other. As we strive to incorporate these actions into our church life, let’s consider what Peter has to teach about going into our hearts and tapping Christ-like qualities that the Holy Spirit has brought to us when He moved in at salvation. Last time we considered what to do on the outside, today let’s focus on bringing what’s inside, out.

In the height of the battle against sin and the struggles we face in a sin broken world, we can isolate our attention on ourselves and forget about our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing the same things. We are not to neglect or abuse our church family. Peter reflects on this reality as it relates to the church in 1Peter 4:7-9 Peter highlights certain responsibili-ties that we have to each other in the church.

As goes the home, so goes society and the nation.  Centuries ago Confucius said, “The strength of a nation is derived from the integrity of its homes.” One of the greatest things we can do as believers is help to build godly Christian homes.  In Colossians 3, Paul addresses the various members of the family and points out the factors that make for a strong and godly home.