To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout the earth, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (8:30 PM EDT Wed., Sept. 19, 2001)

"(17) Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. (18, 19) For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (20) He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (21) Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." (1 Peter 1:17-21 - NIV)

I will say again, as I have already, that GOD is speaking to us through this writing of the apostle Peter. we are God's elect. We have been chosen by God the Father, according to his foreknowledge, for grace and glory -- for cleansing from sin and to be made perfect through Jesus Christ. In verses 13 through 16 immediately preceding today's passage, Peter tells how we must live in view of what God has done for us -- as obedient children, setting our hope fully on what God has promised us. Today's passage is a continuation and expansion of the same exhortation. It actually starts out with the words, "and since," but the NIV translators chose to leave off the word "And."

The first verse, verse 17 says, "Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." What does this verse tell us? It tells us that, first of all, as believers, God is our Father. He is the one who gave us the "new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Then, God is the judge. He is the creator and ruler of all the earth and of everything else as well. He is our creator also, and sustains our very existence from moment to moment. He has set the times and places for our lives (Acts 17:26). He decides all matters.

Also, God judges each man's work impartially. "Each man" includes both those who are his children, us, and those who belong to the world, as we used to. What, then, is the significance to us of the fact that God judges our works impartially?

The significance of God's impartiality is that he judges every man's work, believers and unbelievers, by the same standard. He does not show favoritism to his children. Human fathers may tend to spoil their children and overlook disobedience. But our heavenly Father's purpose for us is for us to be perfect as he is perfect -- to be obedient to Jesus Christ (v2). Our heavenly Father will not spoil us. He will discipline us to be obedient. Because of this, we ought to live our lives as strangers -- as not belonging to this world in any way -- and in reverent fear.

Verses 18 and 19 say, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." Verse 18 starts out with the word "For." Peter is going to give us more reason to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear. Fear of punishment as the only reason for obedience to someone who is indifferent toward you is pretty burdensome. But we were redeemed from our empty way of life -- our empty way of life that was bringing absolutely no glory to God, no benefit to our neighbors and only utter destruction to ourselves -- we were redeemed from it by the precious blood of Jesus, the perfect, flawless Lamb of God. God loves us. And because the one who holds the power of life and death over us loves us, we can rejoice.

According to verse 20, God chose Jesus as his sacrificial lamb before the creation of the world, but revealed him when he did for OUR sake -- so that we could see and know God and know his love and mercy and salvation -- so that we could have real life, not the empty way of life we had before we knew him. Because of Jesus -- because God raised him from the dead and glorified him (v21) -- we believe in God -- that is we trust him. Our faith and hope are in God.

Aren't you faith and hope in God? Peter talks a lot, in this first chapter of his letter, about the difference between our old way of life when we belonged to the world and our new way of life as God's children. How great the difference is between "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." and "praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (v7)" and "the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls (v9)." Father, we praise you and thank you that you did so great a thing for us. Your way is true and noble and right and pure and beautiful.

By the way, brothers and sisters, in today's passage, Peter talked about God's judging of man's works impartially. You may want to ask what kind of work God considers good. Peter talks a lot about the kinds of works believers should do further on in this letter. But Jesus gave the answer in one sentence. When some of the people in the crowd around him asked, "What must we do to do the works that God requires," he answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

Pray that we may know fully the truth of today's passage. Pray, especially, that we may know that we were redeemed from the empty way of life that we once lived by the precious blood of Jesus. Pray also that we may learn what it means to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.

Love in Christ,
Dean

PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer requests back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for them.