Yearly Archive: 2009

Reading what Peter has to say about how the church (believers) should respond to the government in First Peter chapter 2. What struck me was how similar he sounded to Paul in Romans 13. Sure enough, it was like an echo. Here were two of the biggest men in early Christiandom, and they were echoing one another.

Remember, Peter was the guy who thought Paul should not be trusted. And Paul was the guy who, early on, wanted to eliminate those pesky followers of Jesus, like Peter. Yet, here they are sounding like twin brothers – each with the same vision for how the believers were to treat government officials.

I found though that they are both consistent – "live your life so that they may see your goodness (the way you live) and by doing that silence the ignorance of foolish men."

It's how you live that speaks, not your words! It's "doing right" that says it all!

Kind of skipped over this in my reading of First Peter, but went back this morning to the first verses of chapter two. Here was something to which I could easily relate in two ways.

Firstly, my memories of building a retaining wall of cement blocks started with the lowest spot, where I placed the corner stone. People thought I had lost my marbles when they saw how far down I dug the hole for the footing and then dug a much deepet hole in which to place the reinforcing rods that would be surrounded by cement. Then we placed the first block. That block was below the sidewalk – everybody else just dug a little trench and laid down some cement and started building their walls. But I did not want my wall to be moved by the earth it was going to hold back.[more]

Looking back all those years, and returning to the scene of my labors has found the wall "rock solid." Once the foundation was secured, the wall held firm.

Peter in verses 4 through 8 lays out a construction scene not unlike that. Lives – our lives need to have a "sure" corner upon which the rest of the life gets built. If we were to build our walls or homes like we build our lives, what would they be like. Slipping and sliding, moving with the mud or sand.

The second thing about corner stones is that they were what all measurements for the house, barn, temple were based on. Nowadays, we hire a surveyor to mark the boundaries of the property and where things should be, but check with any builder – they still start in one corner and work from there following the plans of the architect.

Who is my architect, and who or what is my corner stone? Will my life be built to stand the trials of living?

Oh boy, Peter is at it again! He somehow (First Peter 2 verses 11 and 12) says in effect, "People are watching Y O U and because of that, they need to see you as different." It's interesting here how he points out (to the people to whom he writes) that they are not living where they used to live, so the people have only heard rumors about how "believers" act, and what they do.

In other words, they have heard everything on the grapevine (radio and TV today) about how bad people like "that" are, and fully expect you to be just like "that." His answer is "be different." Don't let your behavior confirm what they have heard about hypocrites, shysters, murderers, thieves or adulterers. Peter's challange is "be better than that – in fact be excellent in how you live." (kinda hard just being normal, let alone reach for "excellent")

Tough call to action. Let them see something better in me? It's like he is asking me to be so good (the way I act, talk, treat people) that they see a difference. Now that's worth praying about every day, because every day is new and there are the people from yesterday who will see me again, and people who have never seeen or heard me before.

Ask yourself, "what impact will I have today?"