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The beginning of Peter’s first letter did not disappoint.  We started our discussion around the questions, “What was on Peter’s mind?  Why did he take the time to write this letter?”  After looking at the passage individually for about fifteen minutes, we talked about the various themes that seem to permeate those twenty-five verses:

• the starting point of the Trinity (v. 2)
• the immediate contrast between the hope of the future (vv. 3-6a) and the harsh present reality (vv. 6b-7)
• the repeated distinction between what is perishable and fading versus what is imperishable and enduring (vv. 4, 7, 9, 18, 23, 24)
• the apparent paradox between an imperishable, unfading inheritance “reserved” for believers who are protected by God (vv. 4-5), but who also are warned against falling back into old ways (v. 14)
• the tension between “joy inexpressible” (v. 8) and the exhortation to fear (v. 17).

Any of these themes (and others in the chapter) would make for a fruitful discussion, and we did spend time exploring each of these.  Peter’s statements about joy and fear generated the most intense part of our conversation.  Reconciling (if possible) how we experience joy and fear may be important in understanding the rest of Peter’s letters.

Joy seems easy.  We like joy. We are all pro-joy.  Fear is another matter.  If “joy” immediately evokes a positive response, the very word “fear” can make us flinch.  Our group had no trouble agreeing that some aspects of fear are not what Peter meant.  One member recounted his pre-Christian days, picturing God holding a large baseball bat waiting to use it.  The fear Peter encourages for believers is not anxiety about punishment for mistakes or even for sin (cf. 1 John 4:18).

The context for Peter’s call to fear is God’s holiness (vv. 15-16).  With that in mind, we looked for words or phrases that might communicate that dimension of fear:  respect, reverence, awe, importance, otherness.  Pictures or phrases that came to mind included things bigger than us, such as angels.  Our awe increases in comparisons that remind us of our own smallness and finitude.  Our consensus centered around the idea of seriousness.  J. I. Packer’s phrase “the greatness and weight of spiritual issues”[1] was helpful.

But if fear is a sense of seriousness, how does that help us reconcile fear and joy?  Isn’t joy the opposite of seriousness?  One person suggested a great metaphor:  Salted Caramels.  Two flavors that are so different but yet they balance each other.  Likewise, joy and fear maintain a healthy and Biblical tension.  Joy without the awe of who God is quickly deteriorates into flippancy and superficial emotion of the moment.  Fear without the joy of relationship with God distorts into the baseball-bat image.  Salted caramel is a good image of the tension C. S. Lewis describes in one of his space-trilogy books:  “something that would have been terror but for the joy, and joy but for the terror.”[2]  Joy and fear together result in “a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious.  It is too good to waste on jokes.”[3]

The salted caramel of joy and fear coats and flavors the other themes noted in this first chapter:

• the awe of the Triune God and the joy of our promised inheritance;
• the trials of present circumstances while we look forward to an imperishable reward;
• the certainty of God’s protection and the warning against falling away.

May we experience the joy Peter promised as we grow in our awe of the God who is the source of that joy.

[1] J.I. Packer, “Introduction: Why Preach?” in: The Preacher and Preaching, ed. by Samuel T. Logan Jr.  (Phillipsburg, N.J.:  Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1986), 7.  Quoted by John Piper, “A Passion for Christ-Exalting Power,” http://www.desiringgod.org/biographies/a-passion-for-christ-exalting-power (accessed January 17, 2014).

[2] C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (New York:  Scribner Classics, 1996), 226; Kindle location 3926.

[3] C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York:  Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1976), 170.