1
Peter
2:11,12
Earthly Righteousness and Eternal Glory
- Abstain from "fleshly lusts"
- What the instruction means
- "Fleshly lusts"
- "Lust" in itself a morally neutral
term
- Angels "lust" to look into the
things that were hidden until Christ came (1.12)
- "desires" is a better translation
- Not merely sexual desire or even
bodily desire broadly speaking (e.g. gluttony) although certainly
that.
- Peter will define these lusts more
broadly in 4:2,3 as "lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries [in honor
of pagan gods], drinking parties, and abominable idolatries"
- And he will speak of Christ who was
"Put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit" 3.18
- I.e. The flesh is the realm of the
old, all that pertains to the old life that is passing away
- And the new has come in Christ and
been established
- Under such circumstances, who can
desire the old?
- Abstain
- = literally "Be far from."
- Because, as we shall see (and have
seen) your identity is far from the things of this earth.
- So let us be far from these desires which
pertain to our old way of life
- Peter's already said this in 1.18
- He now resumes this theme with a
different purpose, brought out in II and III
- Why we should heed it
- Because Peter "urges" it
- Urging = counselling on the basis of
the comfort of the gospel
- Paul uses this in Rom 12 after 11
chapters of expounding the doctrine of the gospel (I urge you therefore)
- In effect, Peter says, "Consider that
you've been saved and don't pursue a life that is like the life of the
world, the life you had before salvation appeared to you."
- Do you hear what he's saying?
- You've been saved from your sins!
Sin no longer has dominion over you that you should obey it. Tell it to
go to hell where it belongs. You are with Christ.
- You've been saved and given a new
identity. Those old sins are no longer who you are.
- Because you are "beloved"
- Unusual address in pagan lit. But
common to Peter, Paul, and John
- Certainly speaks of Peter's love for
these believers (whom he hasn't met)
- But more fundamentally speaks of them
as Beloved by God
- Recalls that they are "chosen
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." (v. 2)
- Recalls that they are the "chosen
race" mentioned in v. 9
- I.e. The love of Christ constrains us
- It is the word of a Father to his
children. It is the appeal of the gospel, not "Do this and live" but
"You have been granted eternal life (and God has loved you) so go forth
to love and good deeds."
- Children of God, God has loved you; he
has chosen you and called you to himself. Oh! Be far from these earthly
desires when the God of Heaven has loved you and granted you all that
you need in Christ Jesus! Oh that I could melt your hearts with the
knowledge of the love of God in Christ! In a second you would rise up
and cast off your useless sins and laugh at your foolish desires. Do
you long for this? Think more on the love of Christ each day.
- Because you are sojourners and pilgrims
- A reminder of how he began the letter
1:1 as well as how he opened this exhortation the last time 1:17
- He reminds these Gentiles that this
earth is not their home. And their stay here is brief.
- They are like Israel in Egypt
"Resident aliens in a country belonging to others" (Ac 7.42).
- And Ezekiel 47.22 makes it clear that
aliens have no inheritance in the land in which they sojourn
- Think about it. If you were living in
Cambodia and knew that any day the plane might come to take you home,
but it wouldn't take anything you'd accumulated there.... Would you buy
a grand piano?
- Think about this daily!
- As you look at your car, your
house, your clothing, your job, think "When the Lord comes I'll take
none of this with me."
- All the things in this life that
charm you most, football or gymnastics or food or music or books. NONE
of it is coming with you. So travel light.
- However, Peter is NOT saying
withdraw from the world. But hang on to things in it loosely and remind
yourself and one another that this is not your permanent home, so don't
get too comfortable.
- And then the lure of this world
will seem ridiculous. Wealth and food and sex and job advancement make
promises you know they can't keep.
- Calvin "The lusts of the flesh hold us
entangled, because mentally we dwell in the world, and do not realize
that heaven is our native land, but when we pass as strangers through
this life, we are not in bondage to the flesh."
- Because they war against your "soul"
- The "soul" here is not your
non-physical part vs. The flesh your physical part.
- The soul is your life, your eternal
life.
- The very nature of all these fleshly
desires, these desires for something permanent in a world that's
passing away, is that they are engaged in a fight to the death with
your eternal life. If they can get you to trust in the things of this
world and desire them then all is lost. Your very life depends on
trusting in Christ and him alone.
- Peter (like Paul and John) wants us to
see that this is spiritual warfare. You don't struggle
with flesh and blood. But it's a fight to the death (either the death
of your fleshly desires or your eternal death). And you have the
victory in Christ. Therefore engage the battle!
- Calvin "[Peter] reveals our
carelessness in this respect, in that while we anxiously avoid enemies
from whom we fear danger to the body, we willingly allow enemies
hurtful to the soul to destroy us, indeed, we as it were stretch forth
our neck to them."
- Think of the adrenaline rush that
Joshua must have had leading the armies of the living God to victory
after Achan's sin had been purged from the camp
- He knew that God would give them
victory; God had promised it
- Yet still! To have the arrows
whizzing by, the swords thrusting at his vital organs and the horses
rearing on their hind legs to crush him... well, he fought as though
his life depended on it.
- So here. Do not fear! The Lord has
given you victory in Christ. But recognize what your fleshly desires
intend. They war against your very soul, your eternal life in Christ.
- That passing lustful thought
desires to conceive and give birth to the sin of fornication or
adultery. And the adultery hopes for nothing less than your eternal
damnation. Forever away from the kindness and grace and love of the
Lord, your bridegroom!
- That laziness which tempts you
to stay in bed or to cut corners at work in "small" ways — lengthening
your lunch beyond permissible bounds, extra coffee breaks, a quick nap
at your desk when you're being paid by the hour? These little sins hope
for nothing less than your eternity in hell! Hate them with all your
heart. Be far from them by clinging to Christ and patiently waiting for
the rest that comes to pilgrims when they come home.
- Your house. Your car. Your
computer. Your job. All the things you "own" scream at you that they
are permanent and beg you to believe they are the things that matter.
And by tempting you to trust in them, they hope to cheat you out of an
eternal inheritance! Oh the deceitfulness of riches. You must view them
all with suspicion and own them as one who is unattached, using them
while this world persists, but heartily hoping for the world to come.
- This is war!
- Indeed, we are confident in Christ,
but what sort of confidence is it.
- Is it really that we are so
confident that he has conquered sin that we don't fear hell?
- Or is it all too often that we
simply don't understand the danger and the intent of sin and so do not
need a very big Christ to protect us?
- See the danger! And hide yourself
in Christ in his very bosom. To step outside of Christ and be confident
that sin will not overtake you and damn you is no confidence but the
proverbial fool who sees his destruction coming and keeps going anyway.
- I don't say this to trouble you about
Christ but about yourselves
- You have no ability to conquer
sin; no hope in yourself of victory in this war
- But Christ has the victory!
- Be frightened of sin and entirely
skeptical of your ability to combat it
- But be confident in Christ.
- And don't let your heart be
troubled: You are the beloved, the chosen ones of God. Sin shall not
have dominion over you. Hell shall not gain the victory. This very word
has turned you again to Christ; he has called you again to himself.
Your sin shall not overtake you. Christ will protect you. The war has
been won!
Introduction to
Sermon 2
(v. 12)
"I'm never hiring
a
Christian again!" I've heard more than one person say
that... and some of the people saying it were Christians!
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, who would you rather play poker with, a
Christian who is morally shaky or a man who's been brought up to
believe that "Gentlemen don't cheat"?
Peter is writing
to
pilgrims and sojourners. He has given them a heavenly identity
and urged them on the basis of that identity to abstain from
fleshly lusts. This identity separates them from all the things
the Gentiles eagerly seek and leaves them free to seek after the
eternal things of God.
But he doesn't
want them to
get the wrong impression. It's not as though unbelievers are
irrelevant. So, having given them this heavenly vision, he brings
their thoughts crashing down to earth. These sojourners have been
facing persecution from unbelievers. How should they deal with
it? Peter answers: Make sure it's unjustified.
- Conduct yourselves "honorably" among the
"Gentiles"
- That is, behave with "civil righteousness"
- "Honorable" conduct is a good translation
- This is distinct from what he said the
last time he spoke about "conduct."
- There he said their conduct should be
"holy" (1.15), i.e. set apart for God's purposes, distinct, pure
- Now he says it should be "honorable"
or "admirable" or "full of integrity".
- Do you hear the difference?
- If you, as an employer, told your
employee to do his work in a holy manner, he'd have no idea how to
respond. It's a distinctively religious word.
- But if you said do your work
honorably or "with integrity" he'd know what you were after.
- And this is what we call "civil
righteousness"
- non-saving
- When unbelievers do it, it's nothing
before the Lord... filthy rags
- But they can do it, and you
know that by observation.
- The Mormon printer down the street
can do your printing quickly and well
- The atheist contractor can finish
pouring concrete for your patio on time and at the price he quoted you.
- In other words, Peter's saying, I told you
to have holy conduct and that meant conduct separate from the world.
But don't be "separate" in the sense of thinking it doesn't matter what
the world thinks of your conduct. Be "in the world but not of it."
- Peter will tell you in 4:3 that your
conduct should be totally different from that of the Gentiles. But
don't take that to mean they can't do anything right. Externally they
can.
- So in the things the world approves that
are genuinely approvable, make sure you do those things
- Yes, Peter's talking about nitty
gritty, simple, mundane stuff.
- He's talking about showing up to work
on time because that's honorable.
- He's talking about quoting fair prices
and delivering on your promises
- He's talking, in particular, about
submitting to those in authority over you, whether to governments or
husbands or slave masters
- And if I don't say much about this
now, it's because Peter will expound on these thoughts at length in the
weeks to come.
- To sum up, Peter is insisting that
your new identity in Christ does not somehow free you from your
societal obligations, particularly your obligation to obey and respect
those in authority over you.
- You begin to see why Peter needs to bring
his hearers crashing down to earth lest their liberty in Christ become
a scandal to their superiors.
- Christians saying to the gov't: Our
king is Christ. We owe you nothing.
- Slaves to Masters (and employees to
employers): I only answer to God.
- Wives to unbelieving husbands: I don't
respect your authority until you convert to Christ
- Peter's God-given command is to submit
to those authorities until Christ returns
- Having given you an identity as citizens
of the Kingdom of God, he tells you to live as good citizens of this
world.
- Among the "Gentiles"
- Briefer point, but worth noting.
- Peter is writing to "Gentiles" according
to the flesh.
- But in keeping with his declaring them a
chosen race, he declares the unbelievers surrounding them to be
"Gentiles"
- He is in effect saying, "I haven't given
you this identity only to take it away and put you back in the world.
But in the midst of the world, God knows his own and distinguishes
them." You are different from those with whom you rub shoulders each
day.
TRANSITION: But
isn't this
anticlimactic? All this talk of a heavenly inheritance reserved
for God's own special people. We're pilgrims on this world, our
home is in the next. We're the chosen race, the holy nation, the
royal priesthood. We're being built into a temple. And that's
been leading up to this?!? To punctuality and reliability and
table manners?!? Why not just give up the pretense of religion
and join the Boy Scouts? Well, Peter doesn't bring you crashing
down to earth to leave you there. But he says that in these
mundane exercises you will accomplish a heavenly purpose. He
"eschatologizes" the simplest of your actions and
encourages you to do so also.
- That they may "glorify God" when He comes
- Although they malign you as evildoers
- Peter assumes that this is going on and
he's right to do so
- 2 Ti 3.12 "All who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted"
- The pervasive theme of this book is
that suffering characterizes the believer's life until Christ comes
again. (E.g. "May the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after your have suffer a while, perfect,
establish, strengthen, and settle you"
- Friendship with the world is enmity toward
God and vice versa
- You are a stench of death toward those
who don't believe, a constant reminder of the approaching judgment of
God
- It is natural that they should look
for some way to malign you
- Then they don't have to take your
message seriously because you are flawed
- And if they're better than
you and you're being allowed into heaven, surely they will be
as well.
- Thus the world rejoices whenever someone
bearing the name of Christ is trapped in a sin. "Christianity is a
fraud! they cry. It is of no value in restraining the deeds of the
flesh." Or "All my non-Christian employees are willing to put in extra
hours when I need them to"
- They will see your good works
- Just a brief recap, because I've described
this above.
- They will see the things you are
doing. It will be obvious to them that here is someone with integrity
and honor
- What does an unbeliever know of the
fruit of the Spirit or of the glories of your eternal inheritance or of
the exceeding greatness of the promises made to you by God?
- He cannot see these things which you
receive and know by faith.
- And Peter does not therefore advise
that you steal your employer's time to proselytize co-workers as the
best way of communicating these invisibles to them.
- But let these things do their work in
you by calling you to a sort of integrity that even an unbeliever can
see
- This integrity is non-saving. Even
an unbeliever can do it.
- But for you, even this mundane
behavior gets caught up in the glory of your salvation
- Because it is the indwelling
Spirit and the knowledge of the gospel that empower and impel you
- And because you do these
things with an eye to the approaching end... point C.
- And because of them glorify God in the day of
visitation
- "Day of Visitation" is an ambiguous term
- It either means the day on which God
judges — Jer 6.15 "At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down,"
says the Lord."
- Or the day in which God rewards — Luke
1.68 "God has looked favorably [visited] his people and redeemed them"
- Or, in one case, both — Zec 10.3 "I
will punish [visit] the shepherds, for the Lord of hosts cares for
[visits] his flock"
- Hebrew word has same ambiguity.
- Peter is being purposely ambiguous,
providing for either outcome
- The softening of the unbeliever's
heart to repentance (as in 3.1,2)
- Or its hardening to judgment (as in
3.16 if "ashamed" means ashamed on the last day)
- Either outcome will bring glory to God
from the observers' lips
- If hardened, they will still be forced
to confess that their slander was unjust and thus they will give glory
to God by telling the truth.
- And how much more gloriously then if
converted! Then they shall give glory to God by testifying that they
saw your good works as consistent with your Christian identity and were
moved to ask you for a defense of the Christian hope. (Or were simply
moved to seek that hope without asking so that they were won "without a
word" rather than by your constant prattling about how great it is to
be a Christian.
- Unbeliever: You will glorify God one way
or another when he comes.
- Believer — Consider the future glory that
is wrapped up in your simplest present actions. Your being a good
citizen or employee or wife or your raising civilized children—All of
these things may, in God's grace, have eternal consequences.
- I don't say this to paralyze you with
fear or guilt trip you into providing a better witness but to overwhelm
you with this heavenly vision. (I missed the whole point when I was
glad to switch high schools at age 15)
- If you fail, there is forgiveness.
Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ. So go out and
sin boldly, as Luther would say.
- But don't just leave this vision of
who you are here at Redeeming Grace. Take it out into the world and let
it affect the smallest of your actions.
- Lewis, Weight of Glory — You have
never met a mere mortal
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