Year 6, Day 217: 1 Peter 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

You may not have realized that Peter wrote so much on obedience.  If we look at the witness of the Gospels, it really makes sense.  When we read through the Gospel stories, Peter is the man who tries everything and seemingly fails at His first attempt.  What does this show us?  He has a heart for obedience.  But it also shows us that he understands that there is a difference between desiring to be obedient and actually succeeding at being obedient.  Then we turn to Acts, where he develops into a strong and mighty tool in the hand of God.  In Acts, Peter has managed to sort out obedience in a very rich and meaningful way.

When we take this into consideration, we find that Peter really has some great thoughts with respect to obedience and its development.  Where I want this to take us in this blog is the “why.”  Why should we obedient?  What purpose does obedience serve except for the accomplishment of someone else’s will?

Do you notice that Peter doesn’t actually mention the accomplishment of God’s will as the answer to the why?  Naturally, I still believe that the accomplishment of God’s will is the primary reason.  After all, God’s hand at work is what we are all about.  But look deeply at why we are to be obedient.  We are to be obedient so that we do good things.  Why do we do good things?  Not for our reward in heaven!  No, we do good things so that when people look at us and accuse us and malign us and mistreat us they will be confronted with our charity and generosity and kindness.  We do good works so that the mean things that people will say about us will not resonate with the visible character that people see.  We are obedient as a protection against slander and mistreatment!

Isn’t that an interesting perspective on obedience.  So often obedience is looked down upon as being subservient and undesirable.  But Peter tells us here that obedience is actually for our own good and our own protection.  Obedience to the will and ways of God is what will keep the falsehoods of the world around us from harming our character and our witness.

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