Download discussion questions:  1 Peter 1:1-12

The fourth and last of the four core commitments at Calvary Restoration Church is to “go show and tell the gospel boldly.”  Naturally, it is critical that we know what the gospel is.  What is it we are to be going showing and telling boldly?  What is God’s mission that we are to be carrying out?

Someone in our group suggested that some background about the passage might be helpful.  The book of 1 Peter is a letter written by the follower of Jesus, probably about thirty years after the events recorded in the gospels.  The recipients listed in verse 1 are in regions scattered across modern-day Turkey.  As a member of our group mentioned, these people may have had Jewish heritage, but they were a long way from Jerusalem, living in a very foreign culture.  Peter, after several decades of following the Lord, was writing to instruct and encourage believers in difficult circumstances.

Four Core Commitments

A brief review will help put our study in context.  We have been approaching the four core commitments with questions:

1. Who is this God whom we are to worship passionately?
2. Who are we that we might be able to connect authentically?
3. How does God’s Spirit work so we can know Him deeply?
4. What is God’s mission for us to show and tell boldly?

What is God’s mission for us to show and tell boldly?

After looking at the passage (1 Peter 1:1-12) individually for a few minutes, we began our discussion from the perspective of an inquirer.  Suppose a person investigating Christianity came to you asking about this passage (think of the Ethiopian and Philip in Acts 8, “How can I understand this?”).  How would you use this text to explain the gospel?

Several people pointed out the core elements of the gospel:

• The cleansing or sprinkling with the blood of Jesus (v. 2)
• The suffering of Jesus (v. 11)
• God’s plan (v. 2) prophesied long ago (v. 10)
• God’s mercy (v. 3)
• The protection provided by God (v. 5)
• The permanent and secure promises (v. 4)
• The resurrection of Jesus (v. 3)
• The importance of the preached message (v. 12)
• The need to be born again (v. 3)

We also noted the realistic reminder that Peter offers, that the Christian life includes trials that can seem like testing by fire (v. 6).  Yet one of the most exciting statements in the passage, just after the reminder about difficulties, is the assurance of “praise and glory and honor” accompanied by “joy inexpressible.”  Peter describes a life in which any suffering or sorrows are ultimately outweighed by a joy and delight that is beyond words.

In our discussion, one person commented that this text reflects complex writing, expressing ideas and depth that would seem beyond the capabilities of a simple fisherman.  Perhaps thirty years of following the Lord by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and leading the church had such an effect.  Peter is a good example of the fact that a PhD is not a requirement for theological depth and helping others to be spiritually formed.

Later in the chapter, Peter continues:

²² Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, ²³ for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For,

“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,
²⁵ But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word which was preached to you.  (1 Peter 1:22-25)

All through the first twelve verses (the passage we looked at), Peter has been addressing a corporate group (“you” plural throughout).  Now he explicitly says that the belief (“obedience to the truth”) was “for a sincere love of the brethren” – literally, “into a sincere love…” (εἰς , eis).  He also continues his earlier emphasis on the importance of the message that was preached to them (v. 25), resulting in their belief.

What Peter says in chapter 1 builds to his climax in chapter 2:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Clearly the message and the results that Peter is describing are not individualistic, but corporate.  The gospel does far more than save individuals.  The gospel creates a people – a race or nation as distinct as any other, bound together in unity as priests with direct access to God.  Furthermore, in this statement Peter continues the theme of proclamation.  Now his emphasis is not on what was proclaimed to his readers (as in 1:12 and 1:25), but rather on the opportunity that they have to proclaim the message together to others (2:9).

Peter’s theme is a message that creates a diverse unity of different persons bound together to proclaim joyful good news to others.  That theme grows directly out of the nature of the God described by the message.  From the beginning of his letter (1 Peter 1:2), Peter bases his description on the work of the Three-Personal God, each Person having distinct functions in the united and harmonious task They share:

• The foreknowledge of the Father
• The sanctifying or purifying work of the Spirit
• The atoning blood of the Son

Their perfect harmony and agreement and shared joy results in their work in our lives.  They have shared infinitely joyful relationships for eternity.  That joy never had a beginning, there was never a time when They were not jubilantly delighted with each other.  The ancient church used the word perichoresis (“dancing around”) to describe the eternal, joyful interactions of the Triune God.  That dance overflows into Their self-giving to others to share that joy.

The people or nation or race created by the gospel is just the beginning of that shared joy.  Peter provides more detail in his second letter:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.  (2 Peter 1:2-4)

The overflowing joy of the Trinity draws humans created in that Divine image into a shared fellowship (“partakers” is another translation of koinonoi, κοινωνοὶ, “sharers,” or “fellowshippers”).  We do not become “gods” in some New Age or pagan sense, but we are drawn into the dance together.  We corporately share in fellowship together and with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).  The message of the gospel draws us to the Triune God and creates a body of united believers, and that unified body is itself a powerful message to the world of the truth of the gospel.

The communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is indeed ineffable, yet so attractive to us in our personal aloneness….  Yet in God we are both individuated and yet united in the divine fellowship into which we are called.[1]

In our fractured and isolated and divided world, unity in diversity (“individuated and yet united”) is indeed a very attractive quality.  There is an inherent desire for that kind of “relational beauty” in humans created in the image of the Three-Personal God.  The cultural emphasis on tolerance reflects that longing.  However, in most cases, modern “tolerance” falls short, tolerating those in agreement.  Challenging differences are disparaged or repulsed.  Knowing the God as Triune may be a prerequisite for genuine unity in diversity:

Oneness for the single-person God would mean sameness. Alone for eternity without any beside him, why would he value others and their differences? Think how it works out for Allah: under his influence, the once-diverse cultures of Nigeria, Persia and Indonesia are made, deliberately and increasingly, the same. Islam presents a complete way of life for individuals, nations and cultures…. Oneness for the triune God means unity. As the Father is absolutely one with his Son, and yet is not his Son, so Jesus prays that believers might be one, but not that they might all be the same. Created male and female, in the image of this God, and with many other good differences between us, we come together valuing the way the triune God has made us each unique.[2]

Neither the isolation of individualism nor the uniformity of collectivism fulfill human personhood created in the image of Three Persons.  God’s message of salvation is neither individualistic nor collective.  We are not saved by ourselves, and we are not saved to become exactly the same.  We are drawn into the fellowship of the Triune God together with others to become fully ourselves.

Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most ‘natural’ men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.[3]

That eternal participation in the fellowship of the Trinity begins now in our fellowship with each other.  Those relationships form a key element in the “sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2).  As we become like Him, we are able to share in the “inexpressible joy.”  That joy overflows as we “go show and tell boldly” of the Triune God who desires to draw others into Their joyful, eternal dance.

God is glorifying Himself by preparing people who live and love like Jesus did.  Our part is to model and communicate the joy and community He calls people into.

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[1] James M. Houston, “The Nature and Legitimacy of Spiritual Theology”, Spiritual Theology: The Kingdom of God in Daily Life, address given at Regent College, 1990, https://www.regentaudio.com/products/spiritual-theology-the-kingdom-of-god-in-daily-life retrieved May 24, 2018.

[2] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity:  An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, Illinois:  InterVarsity Academic, 2012), 103-104; Kindle Edition, location 1592.

[3] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York:  HarperCollins e-books, 2009), 226; Kindle Edition location 2763.