Year 9, Day 216: 1 Peter 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The transition from Joel to 1 Peter is incredible, especially considering the point from yesterday that taught God is upset about how treat each other.  What makes the transition incredible is its unified message.  It is awesome when two unrelated books of the Bible are placed side by side to form a unified message.  It shows how the authors may not intended their union but because it is all God’s message it comes out as unified anyways.

God’s main issue with the sinfulness of humanity is that we tear community apart.  Our sin divides and destroys.  We are individually broken.  We are communally broken.

Along comes Jesus.  Peter’s point in verse 2 could not be clearer.  We have been purified through Christ; we should be about loving one another.  We are born again.  We do not need to be a people who are spreading sin like an infectious disease.  We are a people who can bring unity to the world around us through the message of God’s love.

That is the story of God in a nutshell.  God is interested in creating community.  He wants relationship.  He wants relationship between us.  He wants relationship between us and Him.

There is one other cool point.  Earlier in the chapter, Peter speaks about how the prophets and others who came before Christ told about God’s work.  He says that they were working for us.  They were serving us.  God is not only about making community, He is concerned about perpetuating community.  He is concerned about community laying the foundation for future community.  He is concerned about us looking ahead to the needs of those who will come after us.  Our perspective is not just on what God did in the past and how it affects our present.  Our perspective is on where God is taking us because of what He did in the past to affect our present.

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