My 50th high school reunion is coming up in a few days.  Even though I will not be attending, the announcement made me think back to my graduation.  The year was 1976.  The nation was celebrating the bicentennial of its founding.  Every day, CBS Television would air one-minute segments called “A Bicentennial Moment.”  There would be a total of 912 such segments.  Each one provided a story about the American Revolution and the development of our country.  The cumulative goal of these segments was to show the coming together of thirteen separate colonies into a unified nation.  The union of the colonies was exemplified by the unofficial motto of the United States, “E Pluribus Unum,” which translates into English as “Out of many, one.”

            Now, fifty years later, we are marking the 250th anniversary of our country's founding.  But today, we hear more about diversity, not union. We hear more about the divide in our politics rather than a shared vision.  I make these observations not to lead into a conversation about politics or contemporary culture.  But rather to bring greater emphasis to the unchanging nature of the Christian’s relationship with Christ.  Our relationship with Christ, with Jesus, is not about our being diverse people; it is about each one of us being in a union with Christ and, therefore, united with each other.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus described this union with Christ three times, saying:

• 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you [union]. (John 14:18-20)
• 4 Abide in me, and I in you [union]. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine [union], neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him [union], he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)
• 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, [union], that they also may be in us [union], so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one [union], 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one [union], so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23)

In each case, Jesus was talking about a union forming between Him and His disciples so that they are made one, just as God the Father and God the Son, Jesus, are one.  A Christian’s relationship with Christ, then, is a union into one. 

To say that a Christian is in union with Christ is not a soundbite we want to assent to intellectually.  The idea that a Christian is in union with Christ is a hugely important idea to grasp. If, or rather since, we are in union with Christ already, it means we have a place before God.  We are moved from being enemies of God to friends of God. This transformation is not because we followed so many steps in some process for so many years.  This transformation happens because, upon the profession of our faith in Christ, we are made new and enter a union with Christ. If we are in union with Christ, then God’s Word is not given to qualify us to come into God’s presence.  God’s Word is given to guide us in the way people who are already in union with Christ are to live this life while awaiting the life to come.

The Apostle Paul wrote often about the union of the Christian with Christ.  Paul used the phrase "in Christ" (and its variants, such as "in Christ Jesus" or "in Him") as a foundational concept, appearing in his letters over 160 times, to describe a believer's deep spiritual union, new identity, and secure standing under Jesus' authority.  So everything the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write to different churches or individuals was meant to strengthen an existing union with Christ Jesus.

Our reading today was from the Apostle Paul to the believers in Thessalonica.  Paul opened his letter this way, “1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace” (1 Thessalonians 1:1).  Paul saw his life and the lives of the Thessalonian believers as being lived in Christ.  Therefore, Paul’s inspired words were written to express the reality of life in Christ rather than about some struggle in life.  This is like the idea we discussed last week about living a Christ-centered or gospel-centered life.  This means that when we talk about our lives or share our lives, it should be less about us and more about Christ.  To better understand the importance of our union with Christ, we might ask ourselves, when we share a story from our life, “Would Jesus tell this story about my experience in the same way that I am telling it?”  That is a difficult idea to consider, but I think it helps us understand the significance of being in Christ.

Let’s look at how Paul described his time with the Thessalonians from the perspective of Paul being in union with Christ.  In Chapter 2 of his letter, Paul wrote, “1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ” (1 Thessalonians 2:1-6).  I want to start here by noting that Paul mentions the difficulties, struggles, and likely accusations he endured in coming to Thessalonica and while in the city.  As for the difficulties Paul said he suffered, he was shamefully treated and experienced conflict.  It would also appear some claimed Paul was in error, was impure, a deceiver, used flattery on people, came with greedy motives, and sought glory from the people.  Paul was aware some people saw him as a disreputable character who got all the mistreatment he deserved.  Paul was run out of town and thus failed.  Paul might have been concerned that some in the Thessalonian church saw things that way.  We might even see our lives through such a lens at times.  We might be inclined to see our lives only through the lens of struggle, suffering, and misunderstanding.  And we get disheartened and see ourselves as failing or disconnected from Jesus.

But Paul began this passage instructively as one who is in union with Christ.  Paul said, “1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain” (1 Thessalonians 2:1). Paul began by saying his experience in Thessalonica was anything but a failure even though he would later speak of the difficulties.  Why was it not a failure? Because Paul said, “1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. (1 Thessalonians 2:1-6). Paul saw his experience in Thessalonica through the eyes of Christ and told his story as Jesus might have told the story.  If Jesus told Paul’s story, it might sound like this, “Paul did not act in vain.  He acted in union with Me.  Because of our union, he was bold in his words, speaking the gospel which had been entrusted to him.  Paul spoke without concern about whether men would applaud him.  Paul did these things as an imitator of me.  He spoke only to please God, and God was his witness.  Yes, Paul experienced hardship and false allegations, but that only made his presentation of the gospel stronger and showed he was in union with me, for I likewise suffered affliction and false allegations for the sake of the gospel.”

When we read and interpret the New Testament from the perspective that the stories are about the joy in being in union with Christ rather than through the struggles and misunderstandings of life, we see and experience hope that never disappoints.  We no longer see lives of desperation and discouragement, but lives of fulfillment and accomplishment for God’s glory.

Having read the opening of this chapter as Paul in union with Christ, we can now better see how Paul further exhibited Christ's character among the Thessalonians.  Paul said, “7 We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us…10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 10-12).

Paul showed his union with Christ by being gentle.  In Matthew 11:29, Jesus said of himself that he was humble and gentle of heart.  Paul imitated Christ because of his union in Christ.

Paul expressed maternal behavior toward the Thessalonians, seeking to give them the best.  In Luke 13:34, Jesus showed maternal behavior when he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”  Paul again imitated Christ because of his union in Christ.

Paul expressed fatherly behavior toward the Thessalonians by exhorting, encouraging, and charging them as though they were his own children.  In John 13, Jesus showed fatherly behavior when he said to his disciples, “33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:33-35).  Paul again imitated Christ because of his union in Christ.

Finally, Paul said that before the Thessalonians he was “holy and righteous and blameless.”  Is there a better description for Christ?  Paul again imitated Christ because of his union in Christ.

Paul’s words express a union with Christ.  What then can we do with Paul’s words to the Thessalonians? It is simply this.  Each person upon their profession of faith, in that moment, ceases to stand apart from Christ and instead, in that moment and for all eternity, is in union with Christ.  If you are a Christian here today, then you are in union with Christ. Since we are in union with Christ, He in us and we in Him, we ought to see our life differently from the past. We should see life differently because our life is profoundly different.  Jesus is not an addition to our life; He is the very center of our life. The joys we have and, yes, even the struggles of life are a mixture of experiences through which Christ will equip us to be better imitators of him.  They are experiences that shape us into being able to be more gentle, motherly, fatherly, blameless, righteous, and holy.  In Christ, we are no longer concerned with the diversity among believers but rather the shared union we enjoy with Jesus.

One of the greatest symbols of being in union with Christ is to see brothers and sisters share in the Lord’s Supper.  Each time we share the Lord’s Supper, divisions should melt, and unity strengthened.  When Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood,” he was speaking to people with whom he was already in union.  It is now our time through the celebration of the Lord’s Supper to pause, to reflect, and to acknowledge to ourselves and to one another that we are in Christ and He is in us.  Come, let us share our union with Jesus.  Amen and Amen.

            I would like you to think for a moment about the last three weeks of your life.  For the most part, I am asking you to think about what you did in July.  For Becky and me, this is an easy exercise as most of that time was spent on vacation in Maine.  For most of us, the last three weeks were largely unremarkable.  We lived our lives.  We shopped for groceries.  We prepared meals.  Cleaned the house.  Had an ice cream cone or two.  Wrote and read some emails.  Attended church.

            I want to contrast our last three weeks with a different time.  In this different time, a man and a few of his friends arrived to visit a city they had never previously visited.  The city had about 100,000 residents.  While there, they found work as day laborers.  They found a kind man who let them stay in his home.  Three times they attended church, and each time they spoke from the pulpit.  By the end of the three weeks, the presence of these men led to a riot among the city’s citizens.  Vigilantes hunted for the men but could not find them.  So the rioting mob descended upon the kind man who offered to let them use his home.  The kind man was imprisoned.  The men the vigilantes sought were secretly escorted out of the city into safety.

The upheaval in this otherwise quiet city unfolded in just three weeks because these men came to the city, worked as day laborers, and preached from the pulpit.  What was it about these visitors that would cause a city to riot?  It was this.  These men had the nerve to come into the city and tell them about a man the residents had never met.  That man’s name was Jesus.  These men told Jesus’ story and then declared that Jesus had suffered, died, and risen from the dead.  That this Jesus was the Christ, God’s chosen messenger, God’s Son.  And if people believed in this Jesus as the Christ, then God would forgive their sins, and they would escape the wrath of God’s judgment. These men preached that good news of Jesus.  Some who heard these men speak were persuaded that Jesus was the Christ and joined the men. Others became jealous of the men and incited a mob to riot.  Who were these men who, in three weeks, caused a city to riot because they spoke about Jesus?  The two most notable men were Paul and Silas.  The city that they visited was Thessalonica.

From my perspective, in July I managed to rest, enjoy the beach, and have some lobster in three weeks.  In that same period, Paul and Silas established a church, sparked a riot, and had to make a secret escape from the city because they had the nerve to say Jesus was the Christ who suffered and died for the sins of the world.  What a difference between my activities and those of Paul and Silas during three weeks.  Paul and Silas’ story in Thessalonica is found in the Book of Acts, Chapter 17.  That story serves as a backdrop for understanding our text today from the book we call 1 Thessalonians.  This letter from Paul to the Thessalonians is believed to be the earliest piece of the New Testament.

Paul began his letter this way: “1Paul, Silvanus [Silas], and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.  2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:1-3).

Paul, who was in Corinth sharing Jesus’ story there, was thankful to God for the church, the believers, in Thessalonica.  Paul prayed for these people every day, praising God for three things about them: their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in Jesus, the Christ and their Lord.  Let’s consider what Paul’s words here mean.

First, the Thessalonian church members had placed their faith in the gospel.  The people had reoriented their daily life to make the gospel of Jesus the centerpiece. What does that mean?  It meant that Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and offer of forgiveness and new life became the defining reality that shaped their identity, priorities, decisions, and daily rhythms more than anything else.  Paul mentioned in verse 9 that many in the church had turned from idols to God. There was nothing in the lives of these church members that was not measured or governed by the gospel of Jesus, and so Paul thanked God for the overwhelming transformation of these people.

Second, Paul thanked God for the labor of love by the church members in Thessalonica.  What did Paul mean here?  Paul mentioned that these church members became imitators of Paul and Silas and of Jesus himself.  These church members put their faith to work.  They did not keep their faith hidden or keep it as an intellectual activity. They did not use the truth that Jesus would one day return to avoid physical work.  They did not take the attitude, “Why bother working, Jesus is coming soon.”  They lived out the gospel as Paul and Silas had shown them.  They worked.  They shared what they had with other members of the church who were in want.  They embraced those who came into the church as brothers and sisters.  They cared for one another, sharing in each other’s burdens.  Their lives became a visible example of working in love for others. Paul saw this and, in his prayers, gave thanks to God for allowing him to be part of this wonderful expression of the gospel.

Finally, Paul said he thanked God for the steadfastness of hope in Jesus displayed by the church members.  What did Paul mean here?  To be steadfast meant to be unwavering in your beliefs in the face of great trials and suffering.  The church members were being afflicted and suffering because they believed in the gospel of Jesus.  The kind man, Jason, who offered his home to Paul and Silas, had been arrested and jailed for his hospitality.  Others were being persecuted for separating themselves from idol worship and worshipping the one true God.  Life as a Christian got harder, not easier, for these church members.  But Paul noted that these people remained steadfast, able to withstand such abuse because they had possessed one thing above all others. They possessed hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.  These church members had hope that all things would be made right in the coming of Jesus. This hope was brought to them because they had joy in their life believing that the Holy Spirit of God lived within them and would see them through to eternity with God.  So remarkable was this church that Paul said, “7You became the example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.  8For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything” (1 Thessalonians 1:7-8).  Paul was exceedingly thankful to God that the message of the gospel of Jesus had taken such deep roots in the church of Thessalonica.  So deep that others, just hearing about the reputation of this church, were convicted and convinced that God was at work through these people.

The opening words of Paul’s letter provide a breathtaking insight into the early Christians of Thessalonica.  It is a remarkable account of the impact God can make through his people in just three weeks.  The message and lived example of Christians changed idol worshippers into exemplary disciples.  And so, what then can we draw from these words?

First, we come to see that Paul saw the Christian life and the church identifiable by three words: faith, love, and hope.  In this, his earliest letter, Paul said he thanked God for the Thessalonians for three things:

• Works of faith,
• Labor of love,
• Steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This literary triad of faith, love, and hope would recur in various forms throughout Paul's letters to churches and individuals in the New Testament. Paul would say:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:8 — References the “breastplate of faith and love” and “helmet of the hope of salvation.”
• 1 Corinthians 13:13 — The most famous: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
• Colossians 1:3-5a - 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. 
• Galatians 5:5-6 - 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

This literary triad used to describe the exemplary disciples and church also appears in Romans 5:1-5, Ephesians 1:15-18 and 4:2-5, Hebrews 6:10-12 and 10:22-24, and 2 Timothy 1:12-13.  When God’s Word speaks to a principle multiple times, we ought to recognize that what is being said must be exceedingly important—faith, love, and hope.

So from an individual perspective, we can use God’s Word to measure our personal life.  What might we say about our own faith?  Do we have a faith that places the gospel of Jesus Christ at the center of our life?  Do we see that God created us for relationship with Him, but sin separates us?  Do we see that Jesus, fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life, died on the cross bearing the penalty for sin for us, and rose from the dead, defeating death?  Do we see that through repentance and faith in Him, anyone can be forgiven, reconciled to God, and given eternal life and the Holy Spirit?  Does the gospel guide our priorities, or are we guided by something or someone else?  We should see that our faith, our perseverance in the gospel, the good news of Jesus, should set all other activities and relationships in our life because doing so would show not just our obedience to Christ but also our gratitude to Him.

Secondly, we should ask ourselves, “Do I love like Jesus?”  Do I labor in life from a posture of love to better the life, ease the burden, share the grief of a brother or sister in Christ? Is my focus on showing the beauty of a loving Christian community, or am I more interested in being served, or in being affirmed and thanked by those of the world for my acts of kindness?  Do I labor in love?  The test that Paul gives is to be an imitator.  Do I imitate Jesus in such a way that people can draw no other conclusion than I am in union with Christ?  That through my efforts, Christ, who cannot be seen, is seen in how I love Jesus’ brothers and sisters.  Am I doing the work of forgiving?  Am I doing the work of reconciling?  Am I doing the work of being a servant to other disciples of Jesus?  We must make apparent and unmistakable to all that we truly love those of the church.

Third, we must ask ourselves, do I live a hope-filled life? Do I believe and act on the belief that Jesus will return and make all things right?  Do I act as though Jesus’ return will be tomorrow and I would be excited for it, or that it could happen long after my body ceases to function, but either way I am supremely joyful?  Why am I joyful?  Because Jesus has given me hope while I await his return.

I have met a lot of people who live and act hopelessly.  They do not see life as a precious gift because living always entails trials.  Those trials may be not having as much money as someone else, or having poor health, or experiencing the loss of a loved one.  They are overwhelmed by a grief that things are not as they want them to be now.  Does that mean we, as Christians, should never feel depressed, sad, or the heartache of grief?  Of course, not.  We are human and will experience all these circumstances.  But Paul said what distinguishes the Christian from the worldly people is this: “that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13b).  God wants each of us to have a hope-filled life.

So, we can use Paul’s words today to do some self-examination and see how we are personally doing with faith, love, and hope.  But what might Paul’s words offer us collectively as a church?  I think it is this.  By what measure do we want to be known?  What do I mean by that?  Some churches stress that they are nondenominational, evangelical, liturgical, seeker-sensitive, welcoming and affirming, missional, or traditional.  Jesus or his apostles would have recognized none of these labels.  They are a later invention.  Paul had no single word to describe the church he was most thankful for to God. Instead, he described the desired church in three ways:

• You receive the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit, even when afflicted (v. 6)
• You are an example to all believers (v. 7)
• Your faith in God has gone forth from you so that we need not say anything (v. 8).

I think these descriptors are the ones we, as a church, should ascribe to live out and be known for.  These descriptors are not connected to the size of the congregation, the type of music or lighting in the sanctuary, or any other modern measure. None of those things matter.  What matters is whether we receive the word of God with joy, serve as an example for all believers, and whether our faith in God goes forth so that it is evident, perhaps without words, that we love God and one another.  That is the church we should strive to be.  For in that church, there will be found people of faith, love, and hope. Let’s walk together as that kind of church.  Amen and Amen.

            Every year, we experience a progression of changes.  We call them seasons.  We have spring, summer, fall, and winter.  Each season has its purpose and sets the conditions for the next.  There is a predictable order to the seasons.

            Similarly, the Church of Jesus Christ is subject to forces that set in motion predictable, progressive changes.  These forces have existed since the Church's earliest days and have grown stronger and more malignant over time, taking full advantage of technological advances.  How might we view those progressive steps as they affect the Church?  Today, we will call those progressive changes: receiving, rejecting, ridiculing, and replacing.

            The first force present with the message of the Church is to receive the good news of Jesus Christ. This is a good thing, and it was the work begun by the first apostles, starting in Jerusalem and then spreading from there across the known world.  Some people received the good news, accepted it, and were saved. Churches, typically operating out of homes, were established in most major cities and began to expand from there. Some people, though, received the good news, the first step, and then progressed to the second step, and outright rejected the message of salvation through Christ.  They preferred instead to continue to worship their own gods and emperors, usually with a mixture of incense and animal sacrifice.  That was the expected pattern.  Either you received the good news and were saved, or you received it and rejected it.

            But not long after the early church began, a second pattern developed among those who had received and accepted the good news.  It is a pattern within the church itself that has continued since the days of the apostles. What was the pattern within the church? The pattern was that some people who received and accepted good news later rejected it.  But they did not leave the church.  They stayed. Over time, the pattern progressed from ridiculing the church from within to finally seeking to replace it.  The four forces, the four seasons, if you will, within the church are receiving, rejecting, ridiculing, and replacing.  Today, there are entire denominations that are unrecognizable compared to their past.  They have progressed from receiving the good news to rejecting it, ridiculing it, and are now actively seeking to replace the Church.  They call themselves Progressive Christians, and yet, they are neither.  They are in their final season of life, seeking to replace Christianity itself.  Many other churches put on shows every Sunday that rival those on Broadway, while other churches throw everything they have into a message of ultra-conservative politics.  They call themselves Evangelical Christians, and yet, they are neither.  They, too, are in the final season of their life, seeking to replace Christianity itself.

            The desire to replace what has been received is not new.  Our reading today from the letter of Jude addressed earnest Christians in the early church, warning them of these dangers from within.  The letter began this way, “1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.  3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1-4).  Before we consider what Jude said, let’s consider who Jude is.

            Jude said he was a “servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James” (Jude 1a).  James here is taken to mean James, the leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem and Jesus’ brother.  Jude, once called Judas, was a brother of James and a brother of Jesus, but preferred to think of himself as a servant of Jesus, even calling Jesus his Master.  Jesus had four brothers: “James and Joseph and Simon and Judas” (Matthew 13:55). James was the oldest of the brothers, and Jude the youngest.

This Jude, Jesus’ youngest brother, half-brother to be most correct, says to his readers that they are beloved by God the Father and they are kept for Jesus Christ.  Jude, like all the apostles, began by drawing his readers' attention upward toward God. Jude said, “You are beloved in God and kept for Jesus.”  Jude was saying your existence is known to God, and He loves you.  The idea of being beloved by God was important to Jude, as he emphasized this point in verses 1, 2, 3, 17, and 20.  Jude said God loves you and sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to do the work necessary for your salvation, and that same Jesus now works on your behalf in heaven to keep your salvation for you.  Jude said God the Father and God the Son have given you mercy, peace, and love, and that Jude hoped those blessings would be multiplied. This is the starting point of Jude’s letter.  In contemporary language, the opening would sound like, “Dear Readers, before you read what I have to offer, take a moment, remind yourself that God loves you, Jesus died for you, and continues to protect you.  From God, you have received the gifts of mercy, peace, and love. This is who you are in God.” Powerful words.  Beloved.  God the Father. Jesus Christ.  Mercy. Peace. Love.  These are words with which we would do well to start each day.

            In a posture of focus on God, Jude said he wanted to write a letter about salvation, but urgent circumstances required him to address a different topic.  What was urgent? Jude said certain people have crept into the church unnoticed.  They seek to pervert the grace of God for sensual pleasures.  Not only that, but from within the church, they deny Jesus as Lord over their life.  Jude outlined four things here.

            First, some people came into the church, by all appearances, as true believers and accepted Jesus as their Savior.  But it has now become clear that they crept into the church like thieves, intent on stealing from the church.  They do not seek to steal earthly wealth.  They seek to steal God’s blessings from his people.  Jude’s words remind me of Jesus’ words from the Gospel of John describing the behavior of a thief seeking entry to the sheep’s pen. Jesus said, “9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:9-10a).  Jude was saying that thieves had come into the sheep’s pen, the church, to destroy it.

            Second, they begin destroying the church by rejecting its central doctrine.  They claimed salvation through Jesus but now deny Jesus as Lord.  In the original Greek text, Jude points out that the true believer willingly sees God the Father and Jesus, the Christ, as the master, whereas those who crept in deny this. Placing the denial at the end of that thought was done to emphasize how destructive their thinking had become.

            Third, those who crept into the church make a mockery of it; they ridicule God’s grace and the freedom to worship God in purity.  The rituals and sacrifices of the past had been done away with when they came into the church.  There was now freedom to worship God in the spirit because of Christ's work.  But these people wanted to use this freedom to bring immoral behavior into the life of the church.  What those behaviors were, we are not told.  But they must have been a very pronounced part of the beliefs of these people because Jude alluded to immoral living that they were promoting in verses 4, 7, 8, 9, 13, 16, 18, 19, and 23.  These certain people were ridiculing God by claiming the freedom they had in Christ now meant they did not need to restrain themselves from anything God had previously prohibited.  They were operating on the concept that if it feels good, it is good.

            Fourth, the ultimate objective of these thieves was to replace the good news of Jesus Christ. They were building a new theology of their own, taking parts of Jesus’ teaching, and perverting or just outright denying the balance.  This was an attempt to replace Christianity.

            Jude saw this progression unfolding within the church and sought this occasion to alert the faithful to the dangers these people posed and to their eventual destiny.  Let’s consider the dangers these people present.

            Jude said people who claim salvation through Christ but then deny Jesus’ Lordship over them, meaning they will not genuinely follow Jesus, are compared to things of nature. Jude said such people are hidden reefs (v. 12), a navigation hazard.  They are waterless clouds (v. 12), offering nothing to those who are thirsty for righteousness.  They are fruitless trees (v. 12), having nothing for the spiritually hungry.  They are wild waves (v. 12), just casting up foam and nothing else.  And finally, they are wandering stars (v. 12) from whom there will only be bitter darkness. Properly understood, people who claim the salvation of Christ, thus declaring themselves Christians, and who refuse to submit themselves to Jesus, to His authority over them, offer nothing useful to the church or its members.  Such people offer chaos, decay, thirst, and hunger for the soul.  Jude said these people rely on their dreams (v. 8) and, all day long, blaspheme the very things of God they do not understand (v. 8, 10).  They destroy like unthinking animals (v. 10).

            People within the church who claim Christ, but who do not conform to Christ, represent a significant danger to the faithful, to the very fabric of the church.  The faithful, Jude said, must “contend for the faith” (v. 3). The Greek word for contend is epagōnizomai, from which we get the English word “agonize.”  The sense here is that Jude said the faithful must fight and struggle, literally agonize, with an intense effort to remain faithful and not allow the seductive voices of these certain people to draw them into their dangerous web of lies.

            What makes the lies of these people so dangerous?  That is the second point Jude wanted to make.  It dealt with the destiny of these certain people.  Jude said, “5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 5-7).  The destiny, Jude said, of these people who crept into the church to reject it, ridicule it, and replace it is destruction and hell.  As much as the faithful’s destiny is assured and kept safe by Jesus, the destiny of these thieves is assured.  They are going to hell because they have grieved the Holy Spirit by being blasphemers.  This is the danger these people pose to the faithful.  These people want the faithful to follow them.  Jude said the way of these people is Cain’s way, it is Balaam’s error, and Korah’s rebellion (v. 11). Cain was a murderer and was exiled from God.  Balaam’s error was trying to lead the Israelites away from God, resulting in eternal judgment upon Balaam.  Korah’s rebellion was the rejection of the authority of Moses and Aaron, leading to his destruction, that of his household, and the destruction of his followers.  Jude said, “Woe to them!” (v. 10).  The judgment for these certain people was fixed.  It was destruction.  The faithful did not need to rebuke or punish these people.  God would see to that.

            What did Jude want Christians to do then and now?  I think there are two important things.

            First, we must lift our eyes upward and fully embrace that God loves us and that our salvation is not only given to us by Jesus but also kept secure for the faithful.  We are the recipients of mercy, peace, and love. This was the starting point of Jude’s letter, and that was not accidental.  This uplifting perspective of being loved, having received mercy, and given peace by God, and that our salvation is being kept for us, should be the starting point for our day.  Focusing our minds on the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit reminds us that God was, is, and will be forever faithful and unchanged.  Anchoring our freedom in God's unchanging nature helps ensure that we are not mistakenly looking for a progressive God, one who is evolving and changing His ways.  God is the same from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.

            Christian theologian Augustine thought a lot about the unchanging nature of God and the assurance and comfort that brought him.  Augustine wrote, “What, then, are You, O my God — what, I ask, but the Lord God? For who is Lord but the Lord? Or who is God save our God? Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained of none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud and they know it not; always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. You love, and burn not; You are jealous, yet free from care; You repent, and have no sorrow; You are angry, yet serene; You change Your ways, leaving unchanged Your plans; You recover what You find, having yet never lost; You are never in want, while You rejoice in gain; You pay debts while owing nothing; and when You forgive debts, lose nothing.” God is not moved to change, and we should not be looking for progressive theologies.  God will not be found there.

            Secondly, we must, as Jude said, “contend for the faith.”  We must be willing to stand for the faith in its simplest terms.   We must be able to make clear to others that we believe Jesus is our Savior and our Lord. We must be able to state positively that we have received divine blessings of mercy, peace, and love, and that we know our destiny is kept for us in Christ.  We must be joyful in worship, participation in the Lord’s Supper, in baptism, and in seeking to further understand our faith.  We should never shrink from our faith but strive to live it as simply as the way Jesus called us to do when he said, “Follow me.” Christianity is not an evolving belief system.  It is the receipt of the good news of salvation from God the Father, through His Son Jesus, who are the same before, now, and forever.  Amen and Amen.

            Two men went to church one day to join in the worship of God.  Each man sat apart from the other.  One man sat in the front of the sanctuary.  The other sat in the back.  When it came time to share joys and concerns, the man in the front of the sanctuary stood to speak.  He turned to face the congregation and in a loud voice said, “God, I am thankful today. I am thankful that I am not like other men here.  Some intimidate others for money.  Others are unjust.  Some may even cheat on their wives.  And at least one takes in taxes on behalf of a government that abuses us.  God, I am thankful I am not like other men.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”  When the man had finished sharing his prayer, he sat down.  Everyone in the sanctuary sat in stone-cold silence.  Into that void of sound came a man’s voice, just above a whisper, coming from the back of the sanctuary where the second man had seated himself.  And the people heard, “God, forgive me, I am a sinner.”

            This, of course, is not an original story.  This is a retelling of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector preserved for us in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 18, verses 9 through 14.  Jesus used this story to teach the point that “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

            But this story also teaches us that some of the harshest critics, some of the most unloving people we will encounter, will be found in the church.  People with whom you share the worship of God, people you would expect to be caring, compassionate, and loving, sometimes can be harsh, judgmental, and envious.  Jesus knew something about unloving behaviors within the church.  Judas would betray him for a few silver coins.  Religious leaders, Pharisees, people who loved to pray in public, would accuse him of all sorts of crimes and then lie to the Roman governor, and shout, “Crucify Him!”  Jesus knew this fate awaited Him.  So, before these most unloving acts by God-worshippers occurred, Jesus shared a meal with his disciples.  There, Jesus washed their feet, expressing his love for them.  Then Jesus said this, “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

            Jesus' words to “love one another” were not a suggestion.  It was not a brainstorming idea.  His words were a commandment to those who would claim him as Lord and Savior. His words were a commandment and the single standard by which all people, those who followed Him, those ignorant of Him, and those who reviled Jesus, would know who His true disciples were. If people claimed Christ and loved others who claimed Christ, then they had proven themselves to be his true disciples.  Claiming Christ and being unloving toward others who claimed Christ proved they were not Jesus’ true disciples.  Clearly, Jesus understood how corrosive unloving attitudes are to the message of redemption and hope that He brought into the world.

            Jesus’ words had a significant impact on his disciple John, who recorded Jesus’ words in his gospel account.  John would go on to restate Jesus’ words six more times in his letters to the churches he oversaw.  John wrote,

• 1 John 3:11 - 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
• 1 John 3:23 - 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
• 1 John 4:7 - 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
• 1 John 4:11 - 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
• 1 John 4:12 - 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
• 2 John 1:5 - 5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.

The Apostle Paul similarly spoke of the essential nature of loving one another when he wrote, “8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). These references give us insight into the fact that loving one another was and is an indispensable part of the Christian experience.  Remove it from the Christian experience, and Jesus said, “It is no longer Christian.”

And so, with that extensive New Testament background, I want us to explore Peter’s apostolic command in his letter to the exiles of Asia Minor to love one another.  Peter said this, “22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding 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, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”  And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:22-25).

Peter, addressing these exiles in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, began by telling his fellow Christians that the ability and capacity to express love for one another begins with obedience to the truth.  Obedience to the truth, Peter said, purifies the soul. Importantly, Peter did not say obedience purifies the soul.  Peter said instructively that only obedience to the truth, not my truth, not your truth, but the truth, purifies the soul.  What is the truth that Peter was talking about here?  Peter had addressed the central elements of the truth in the 3 imperatives that preceded this one.

Peter said, “13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming” (1 Peter 1:13).  The truth is found not in temporary things of humanity such as fame, wealth, beauty, and status.  The truth is found in the eternal, in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who were, are, and will be.  Our minds must be freed from the anxiety of a mortal existence alone, and we must see the truth that God created us in the flesh and spirit.  Knowing that we have hope for eternity through the grace of Christ Jesus relieves us not only of concern about where we will spend eternity but also of human pettiness, envy, and jealousy.

Peter then said, “Be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15a).  Peter encouraged the exiles to be holy because Christ is holy. Therefore, they should “not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14).  The truth is our human ways are evil in the sight of a holy God.  God said, “8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. 9 ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts'” (Isaiah 55:8-9).  The truth is that our old ways of doing things do not represent God’s way. There is an overwhelming sense of self-importance in our old ways.  We are, if you will, always the hero of our own stories.  We are, Peter said, acting out of ignorance.  That is the truth.  However, when we accept the holiness of God, begin to learn from Him, and conduct ourselves in a holy manner, what underlies our behavior is purified.

Finally, Peter said, “Conduct yourselves with fear” (1 Peter 1:17b). In fear toward God, our lives can reflect reverence and respect for God.  We come to understand the truth that God granted us mercy through the blood, through the death of Jesus.  That is the truth.  We are blessed not by works that we do but are blessed by the completed work of Jesus.

From this truth, Peter reiterates Jesus’ commandment and tells the Christian exiles of Asia Minor, “22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22).  Peter understood Jesus’ commandment that loving other Christians was an essential part of the witness to the world, especially a world that was suspicious of Christians.  The original word here for love was the Greek verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω). It denotes unconditional, sacrificial, and active love. Unlike phileo (brotherly, emotional affection), agapaō is a choice—a commitment of the will to cherish, prefer, and act in the best interest of another.  This type of love is active, not passive.  It is a love that is consciously seeking association with the other and is looking, listening, and thinking in terms of how the interest, the welfare, the betterment of the other can be advanced. It is a love that does not grow weary of doing good for the other.  But Peter’s description here is not a love universally shared with all of humanity. It is a love that is to be shared between brothers and sisters in Christ.  Peter said further, “17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17).  Love (agapaō) the family of believers. To all others, show proper respect.  There was to be a difference.  The Christian community was to be to the world a “wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9b).

In some sense, Peter’s words might suggest that Christians have two sets of standards—one way of behaving toward the world and another toward other Christians.  But Peter was not emphasizing disregard for the world.  Instead, Peter was emphasizing the standard of Christ: “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).  The witness to the world was not to be expressed in loving each other.  That would prove the genuineness of discipleship.

            Peter would emphasize the necessity of active love near the closing of this letter.  Peter said these words, part of which have become quite well known.  “8 Above all, keep loving (agapaō) one another earnestly, since love (agapaō) covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Love one another earnestly,” is the repeated commandment to make the love for other Christians distinctive, attractive, and self-sacrificing.  Peter added, “9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:9-11a). 

To that Peter famously added, “love (agapaō) covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8b).  Love (this deep, agapē-style love) forgives, overlooks, and does not keep a record of the many ways people fail or hurt each other.  This is similar to what Paul famously wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).  Love does not seek to hide sin or pretend that it is not so.  Instead, love seeks to forgive sin, refusing to let it destroy relationships, and not broadcasting or holding grudges over every offense. It seeks patience and does not change even when the other Christian falters.  Instead, such love seeks to lift the other quietly and in a restorative way, so that they can continue to contribute to the community of believers.

Around you today are your fellow exiles.  This is the community of believers to which God has called you and me.  This is the community that Jesus said you and I must actively love as part of the outworking of our discipleship in Christ.  Now do we exhibit love (agapaō)?  Are we actively loving, always seeking the best for others, or is our love more passive, in that we help one another, we uplift one another, whenever it is convenient and only for those people I know and like?  Do we keep a record of the “multitude of sins" others have committed, rather than choose mercy and patience instead of constant score-keeping? Do we say in our way, “God, I am thankful today.  I am thankful that I am not like others here”?

The kind of love Jesus commands of us is not an easy love. Neither was the love Jesus expressed an easy love.  Jesus knew the cross was going to be a horrendous ordeal of pain and suffering. Jesus knew that becoming sin for others would be a gut-wrenching experience for someone who had never known sin. But this was the love Jesus willingly displayed.  Why did Jesus do so?  In Jesus’ case, it was to cover over a multitude of sins.  Sins you and I have committed.  Sins that the blood of Christ covered over so that we could be born again with a new Spirit.  Since Jesus did that for us, how then can we not love one another?

Let us then take stock in how we love one another.  Let us love actively, and let the world see Christ in us.  And let us say, I do this for Jesus, for to him belong glory forever and ever. Amen and Amen.

          An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of a multi-word phrase.  For example, we might use the acronym “USA” instead of “United States of America.”  We use acronyms all the time.  Today, I want to start us off using the acronym “PDA.”  PDA, many years ago, stood for Personal Digital Assistant, like the Palm Pilot.  Those are no longer in use.  PDA can also stand for Public Display of Affection, such as hugging, kissing, and holding hands in public.  In some places, such affectionate displays are discouraged.  One final use of PDA is a medical term.  It is called Pathological Demand Avoidance, or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy.  This form of PDA is one in which a person is driven to avoid or resist any instruction they receive.  We all probably had a touch of this form of PDA when we were two years old.  Tell a two-year-old what to do, and their response is almost automatically “No.”  Most people outgrow this form of PDA as they mature and find that some instructions are quite useful.  “Don’t touch that stove, it’s hot!” can become a very useful instruction to follow. 

I wanted to focus on PDA, Pathological Demand Avoidance, because it seems as though, spiritually, we humans have a touch of a two-year-old in us when it comes to instructions and imperatives from God.  In Genesis 2, we would read, “15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’” (Genesis 2:15-17).  Well, I think we know that imperative to leave the fruit alone did not stand the test for very long before the man and woman avoided God’s instruction.  There are many such examples in the Bible, including Jesus healing people and telling them not to tell anyone who healed them.  In every case, the people ran and told others that Jesus healed them.  So, we can be spiritual toddlers having a touch of PDA or Pathological Demand Avoidance when it comes to Biblical instruction.

Knowing this is important because Peter’s letter to the Christians in Asia Minor has a sequence of imperatives or instructions.  The heart of Peter’s letter had four imperatives.

• Prepare your minds for action (1:13)
• Be holy in all your conduct (1:15)
• Conduct yourselves with fear (1:17)
• Love one another (1:22)

Over the past couple of weeks, we have looked at the first two imperatives: preparing our minds for action by setting our hope fully on the grace of God, and being holy in all our conduct.  As we have looked at Peter’s words concerning those imperatives, we can easily imagine many behaviors we could engage in that avoid preparing our minds and acting in ways that are not holy.  We avoid demands because we want to set our own course or to show others that we have autonomy.

And for today, I want us to look at Peter’s third imperative, “conduct yourselves with fear” (1 Peter 1:17).  Now in one sense, Peter’s instruction to these Christians from Asia Minor to conduct themselves fearfully was unnecessary.  These Christians were exiles who had no rights because of their faith and were being subjected to persecution.  They would naturally be concerned and fearful about their physical safety.  Therefore, the imperative “conduct yourselves with fear” must have a different context. To see that context, let’s look at the full verse.  Peter said this, “17And if you call on him [God] as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blook of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:17-19). We now see Peter’s imperative was to conduct yourselves with fear toward God the Father who serves as Judge.  The Greek word for fear is phobos, which, in this context, refers to respect and reverence for someone in a position of authority or rank, or who is very dignified.  Conduct yourselves with fear, great reverence and respect for God, the Father, who arranged your ransom, not with silver or gold, but with the blood of his own son, Jesus.  Peter used the same term, phobos, in Chapter 2, verse 18, when he wrote most simply, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear (respect).”  He did so again in Chapter 3, verse 2 when describing Christian women’s behavior toward their husbands as “respectful and pure conduct” (1 Peter 3:2).  Finally, Peter used phobos in Chapter 3, verse 15 when he said, “15 Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and (phobos) fear (respect)” (1 Peter 3:15).

          Using imperative language, Peter told Christians to have a measurable and evident phobos, a fear (respect and reverence) of God for two simple reasons.  First, God is the Judge of all, both the just and the unjust. It is never to anyone’s advantage to be disrespectful to a judge of any sort.  Not only is God a judge, but God is the Judge over all creation.  There is no appeal from God’s judgment.  So, having respect and reverence for God, the ultimate judge, is wise.  Second, God the Judge of all, Peter said, had established a single process for people to be found innocent before Him.  Peter wrote, “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).  God said that belief in Jesus Christ means you will be born again into a new spiritual identity and thus freed from the sins of your former identity that would require conviction.  We might think of it as appearing before God the Judge with Jesus as our defense attorney only to hear God say, “If Jesus is your defender, then a trial is unnecessary because I find you “Not Guilty’.”  This was all due to God’s mercy, an undeserved pardon granted to us because of the work done by Christ upon the cross and our accepted of Jesus as Savior.  Peter’s imperative was “conduct yourselves with fear (respect and reverence) before God because He has granted you mercy.” 

Peter explained the significance of God’s mercy by recounting the story of Noah.  Peter said, “18For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the waters” (1 Peter 3:18-20).  The message here was stark and severe.  Sin would be dealt with.  The story of Noah was that when God vowed to wipe away sin, only eight people were spared by God’s mercy.  As such, Christians ought to fear, respect, and revere God's power.

Peter’s chose imperatives to speak to this group of Christians.  Prepare your mind for action (1:13), be holy in all your conduct (1:15), and conduct yourselves with fear (1:17).  Those hearing Peter had a choice.  Do as Peter demanded or show their own autonomy and avoid Peter’s commands.  We cannot say what every Christian who heard Peter’s letter did in response, but we do know that early Christians in Asia Minor were persecuted for their faithfulness to God through Jesus Christ.

One Christian in particular, a man named Polycarp, exemplifies Peter's command in his letter.  Polycarp was part of the church in Smyrna, one of the seven churches cited in Revelation.  Smyrna is in modern-day Turkey, the very area Peter was considering in his letter. Around the year 160 AD, Polycarp, a church leader, was arrested for refusing to worship the emperor.  He was sentenced to death.  Just before his death, Polycarp said this, "Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong.  How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked." Polycarp was burned at the stake and pierced with a spear for refusing to burn incense to the Roman emperor.  On his farewell, he said: "I bless you, Father, for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ.” Polycarp understood that he would appear before God in judgment and therefore desired to approach the throne of God, the seat of Judgment, in a fearful way, showing great respect and reverence.

     Today, in the modern church, people do not like to hear words such as "judgment" and "fear". They are uncomfortable with such language because they do not think fear is the proper motivation to follow Jesus. They believe we should instead emphasize only that Jesus is a good example to follow.  There is, of course, nothing wrong with encouraging people to follow the example of Jesus.  I do that all the time.  But saying “Follow Jesus” is an incomplete thought.  Jesus is a good example to follow, and He loves us, but He is, first and foremost, our Savior.  There is no Savior needed for our lives if we live without fear or judgment.  If you approach someone on the street and say, "Jesus loves you, and he is a good example to follow; call Him 'Your Savior and you will be born again,” it is not exactly clear what Jesus would be saving them from.  There is no imperative calling people to act urgently.  Now ask a person drowning in a lake if they would like help; they would understand the need for someone to save them urgently.  Suggesting to them that they would be in a better position if they followed Michael Phelps's example in swimming would not do much for them in that moment.  Fear and judgment are essential parts of the Christian witness and experience, and we should not avoid conversation about them.  The thief on the cross understood this principle.  The thief professed his belief in Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him.  Jesus told the thief that they would be together in paradise, heaven itself the dwelling place of God.  The thief understood God’s judgment was coming upon him, and he saw Jesus as his Savior, not a lifestyle example to follow.

Perhaps you do not believe me.  Maybe listening to Jesus would help.  Jesus said, “28And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).  Read simply, “Fear God,” for He has the power over all life, mortal and eternal.  Jesus told this same truth in a parable we now call the “Parable of the Wicked Servant.”  Jesus said a king said the time has come to settle accounts—judgment time. One servant owed the king 10,000 bags of gold, a sum that could never be repaid.  The king ordered everything the man owned, including his family, to be sold. The servant, fearing the king’s judgment, begged the king for more time.  The king knew more time would not change the situation.  Instead, the king forgave the servant's debt and set him free. This is mercy granted by a savior. Jesus said this same servant then found a man who owed him a small amount of money.  Instead of forgiving the man his small debt, the servant sent the man to prison.  Upon hearing this news, the king found that wicked servant, reinstated his massive, unpayable debt, and sent him to be tortured until the debt was paid.  The servant who had feared the king’s judgment did not fear the king.  The servant did not see and treat the king as his savior, so the reprieve from judgment was only temporary, and now, because he did not conduct himself with fear, the judgment became permanent.  Jesus said, “Fear the Lord your God.” 

Many Christians have a Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) toward fearing God.  Why is that? It stems from two ideas.  First, as we have already spoken about, too many people think of Jesus as primarily their friend, not foremost their Savior. Secondly, too many people are focused on what they do and what they have accomplished, rather than on what God has accomplished.  This is the selfie thinking.  You see this all the time on social media – people take photos of the self in front of the canyon, rather than the canyon. Our society has lost sight of the canyon because we are too self-absorbed.  That self-absorption leads to ignorance about God.  And so, many Christians pathologically avoid the demand to fear God because it would conflict with their sense of autonomy.

Proverbs 9:10 said quite memorably, “10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).  Fear of God is necessary for us to understand the salvation God has granted us in His mercy through the blood of His own Son, Jesus.  Fear that genuinely evidences itself in respect and reverence should result in a change in our conduct towards God and towards one another.  For this reason, Peter instructed the exiles, “Conduct yourself with fear.”  Peter’s words were and remain a call to Christians to get and keep their priorities straight.  This is essentially the message from the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes, Chapter 5, verse 2, “2Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2).  I think Peter summed this thought up well when he said, “Conduct yourself with fear.” Let us not avoid the imperative to properly and fully give respect and reverence to God through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Amen and Amen.

            In an accusatory tone of voice, the words come out loudly: “And you call yourself a Christian!” Those words are spoken harshly and with great judgment toward someone who says they are a Christian.  The accuser can be either a Christian themselves, or they can be, and very often are, people who are not Christians, including atheists.  The words, “And you call yourself a Christian,” are an indictment about the conduct of a Christian.  The words are intended to do two things.  First, the words are intended to call attention to some behavior that is, or appears to be, grossly inconsistent with the character of Jesus Christ.  The first intent is to show that someone has failed to meet the high standards of imitating Christ that they take upon themselves when they say, “I am a Christian.”  Second, the words are intended to shame someone into changing their position on a matter or altering their behavior.  To say to someone, “And you call yourself a Christian,” is a call to action, immediate action, to change and reclaim the higher ground of Christianity.  When the charge is properly laid, they are bitter words for the Christian to hear because they reflect a disappointing witness of Christ to the world.  When improperly laid, those words are a sign of ignorance by the accuser about the person of Jesus Christ.

            I want to pick up with the last thought regarding accusations expressed in ignorance about the person of Jesus Christ.  Ignorance about Jesus has existed since his birth.  When the announcement of Jesus’ birth was received by the religious leaders of Israel and the king, King Herod, there appears to have been no excitement among the religious leaders and only murderous rage among the king.  Throughout Jesus’ public ministry, the religious leaders accused Jesus of being of Satan.  In the end, to get the Romans to execute Jesus, the religious leaders falsely accused Jesus of being a traitor to their one and only king, Caesar. After the early church began to take hold across the Roman Empire, accusations were made against Christians for engaging in bizarre and devilish behaviors.  Early Christians were accused by Romans and pagans of cannibalism (including eating babies) and related crimes like infanticide, often alongside incest. These accusations arose from the misunderstanding of the words used in the Lord’s Supper and from calling each other brother and sister.  People have been and remain suspicious of Christ and Christians.

            The Apostle Peter understood pagans' misunderstanding of Christians, and he wanted to address that matter to Christians undergoing persecution for their faith.  Peter’s approach was to begin with a simple command. Peter wrote, “He [Jesus] who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15 ESV).  Peter’s approach toward understanding proper Christian behavior was to start with the character of Christ, “He is holy.”  The meaning of the original word here for holy is that of the highest moral standing, meaning to be sinless, pure, and upright.  Jesus was forthright in his behavior, never wavering in the purity of his motives or uprightness, never deceiving anyone.  He was without sin.  Peter said, therefore, that as Christians, followers of Jesus, we must be holy in all we do.  They must be pure and upright in their behavior so they can reflect Jesus' virtues and stand in stark contrast to the way of the world.  This contrast is essential because Christ represents light and the world darkness.  Peter observed that Christians were called that they “may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9b). To understand the significance of Christ, Christians must reflect his light.

            Peter outlined specific behaviors that Christians must and must not engage in to show forth the light of Christ and represent holy conduct to a hostile culture.  We discussed some of these behaviors last week when we prepared our minds for action.  Peter said:

• “Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1).  These five behaviors are associated primarily with verbal conduct. The ancient world was verbal. Traditions were handed down by word of mouth, making what you said a reflection of who you were.  In three years of public ministry, we have no evidence that Jesus ever wrote a letter.  Everything was verbal.  Jesus told his followers, “37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (Matthew 5:37).  One’s spoken word meant everything and, therefore, deceit, hypocritical language, and slander were witness-killing behaviors, and they still are.

• “16Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.  Honor everyone.  Love the brotherhood.  Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:16). Peter’s charge was to be free of worldly concerns but not to misuse that freedom by being arrogant.  Instead, from that position of freedom, show respect to everyone from the common person to the emperor, even if that same emperor was engaged in persecuting Christians.  Peter explained why.  He said, “12Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).  Peter said similarly, “16Having a good conscience so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:16).  And again, Peter said, “3For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.  4With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:3-5). Peter challenged the Christians to be free but to live honorably toward everyone so that when Jesus returns, the pagans will have no excuse for failing to give God the glory because they witnessed God’s character in the people who followed Christ.

Peter’s message urging Christians to be holy in all their conduct was part of Christ's essential witness to the world.  Holiness was evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence within them and a true followship of Christ.

            Some hundred years or so later, a man named Diognetus wanted to know about Christians.  A friend wrote him to explain who the Christians were and said in part, “The distinction between Christians and other men does not lie in country or language or customs.  They follow local customs in clothing, food, and in the rest of life, and yet they exhibit the wonderfully paradoxical nature of their own citizenship.  They live in their own countries but as if they were resident aliens.  They share all things as citizens and yet endure all things as if they were an underclass.  Every foreign country is their homeland and every homeland a foreign country.  They marry like everyone else and have children, but they do not abort their young. They keep a common table but not a common bed.  They live in the world but not in a worldly way.  They enjoy a full life on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.  They obey the appointed laws, but they surpass the laws in their own lifestyle.  They love everyone and are universally derided.  They are unknown and roundly criticized.  They are put to death and gain life.  They are poor but make many rich.  They lack all things and yet have all things in abundance.  They are dishonored and are glorified in their dishonor.  They are abused, and they call down blessings in return.  When they are beaten up, they rejoice as men who are given a new life.  In short, what the soul is in the body, that the Christians are in the world; the soul lives in the body but is not confined by the body, and the Christians live in the world but are not confined by the world.  God has appointed them to this great calling, and it would be wrong for them to decline it.” This ancient letter showed that Peter’s words had taken root, and Christians focused their attention on living in a holy manner even when derided, abused, dishonored, and even put to death.  They were willing to have someone ask them, “You call yourself a Christian?” and reply, emphatically, “Yes.”

            This posture of being holy in a hostile world, as Peter painted it, was essential to the life of a Christian.  Being holy reflected the best possible way of living for someone freed from worldly concerns. And Peter said this for this important second reason.  Peter said, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).  The call to be holy included with it the call to share testimony for being so respectful and positive in the face of hostility.

            The questions for us today then are three.  First, “Am I free of worldly concerns because I have placed my hope in Christ?” Second, “If I am free of worldly concerns, am I living in a holy way?”  Third, “If I am free of worldly concerns and living in a holy way, am I prepared and willingly giving a defense for the hope that I have?”  Let’s take these questions in order.

            Am I free of worldly concerns because I have placed my hope in Christ?  What are worldly concerns?  There are some obvious things we can consider as worldly concerns, such as wealth and possessions.  Worldly people are preoccupied with acquiring more of both, or at least more than their next-door neighbor or more than that member of your extended family who always brags about their income and stuff.   The pursuit of wealth and possessions necessarily takes us away from our pursuit of being holy.  But there are other, more subtle ways of being tied down, constrained, by worldly concerns.  I think one of those concerns is to be accepted by others, especially by people around the world.  As humans, we like to be accepted by others.  Standing alone or being mocked can be difficult.  This is where we differ quite a bit from Peter’s audience. Because Peter’s audience was Christians, they were automatically excluded from the world's acceptance. We, however, especially in this country, are not automatically excluded from being accepted by the world because we are Christian.  However, there is great pressure on Christians to bend their ways to gain increasing acceptance.  As we have been studying the Book of Revelation, we have seen time and again that Jesus’ message to the seven churches focused on their slow slide into the integration of non-Christian beliefs and behaviors.  Doing so is the natural slippery slope all Christians face: slowly and in small ways incorporating worldly concerns into our lives, which necessarily forces our attention away from being holy, away from being a light.  And many of those subtle changes in our lives come about because we want to be accepted or not be known as Christians, to avoid any difficulties that the label might bring upon us.  Regardless of the reason, when we slide toward worldly concerns, we give up our freedom.

            The remedy for this slide, provided by Jesus in the Book of Revelation, is to remember what you have received from Him, salvation; repent, that is, turn back to Christ; and returnto doing the things you first did when freed from the world and your hope was in the eternal.

One of the imperatives when participating in the Lord’s Supper is for Christians to examine themselves before taking the elements.  And so, we should examine our lives to see whether we have become entangled in worldly concerns and sacrificed our freedom in Christ. If we have, then remember, repent, and return, and be free again from worldly concerns.  We must be free of worldly concerns if we are to take the next step.

            That second step, of course, is for our conduct from a posture of freedom to be holy.  To be moved toward holy conduct is, of course, evidence of the Holy Spirit moving us.  To have that movement in our life, we must continually invite the Holy Spirit to guide our behavior.  Are we speaking words that are encouraging?  Is it a conscious effort on our part to ask, Is what I am doing holy conduct?  Would someone seeing what I am doing say to me, “And you call yourself a Christian!” Be holy by following Jesus’ example, for He is holy.

            Our final step is to be the light to others and be willing to share why you are the way you are. When someone says, “How do you do it? How do you remain upbeat even in tough times?  Why are you kind even when others are nasty?”  Tell them.  It is not me. It is Christ living within me. Tell them what Peter told the exiles, “6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).  You can make your answer shorter.  “How do you do it?”  “Christ enables me to live this way because he cares for me, and he will care for you as well.”  You can then say humbly but with a measure of assurance, “And yes, I call myself a Christian!”  Amen and Amen.

            In 1939, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) released the movie The Wizard of Oz.  The movie has become a classic, featuring Dorothy, her little dog, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wizard of Oz, to name a few.  I want to focus for a moment on the Scarecrow's character.  The Scarecrow agreed to accompany Dorothy to Emerald City to see the Wizard of Oz in the hopes that the Wizard would give the Scarecrow a brain.  In this fantasy movie, even though the Scarecrow believed he lacked a brain, he nevertheless had a sharp mind.  He was able to reason and use experience to predict future outcomes.  When he and Dorothy were hungry, he tricked the talking apple trees into throwing apples at him, which he and Dorothy ate.  The point here is that the character in the movie had a mind separate from the brain.  The brain is an organ of the body; it is the instrument of the mind, but they are distinct. Our mind is our consciousness, thoughts, emotions, reasoning, experience, self-awareness, and intentions. Our minds are teachable as well as subject to wandering.

            A person’s mind says who they are.  As such, a person’s mind was a very real concern for Jesus and, later, for his apostles. Let me give you a few brief illustrations.

            In the Gospel of Mark, we would read that early in Jesus’ public ministry, Jesus’ family, his mother and brothers, arrived at a house where he was preaching, teaching, and healing. The text says Jesus’ family came to that house because they believed Jesus was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21). Jesus’ behavior had raised concerns in his family about his mental stability. They did not see how Jesus could be saying and doing what he was doing, given his lived experience.  Therefore, Jesus must be “out of his mind.”

            In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Peter, the author of today’s letter, told Jesus that Jesus must not speak of his death at the hands of evil men.  Jesus’ response to Peter was, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33).  Peter was in his right mind when he expressed his concern about Jesus’ talking about his death. Still, the issue was that Peter was not in the mind of God.  Jesus was so emphatic about the significance of Peter’s state of mind that Jesus equated having the mind of natural man as being akin to having the mind of Satan. Jesus rebuked Peter, saying that to be his apostle, Peter must acquire the mind of God and have in his mind the things that were of God’s concern.

Jesus’ words must have stung Peter, but they must also have had the desired effect of reshaping Peter’s mind into that of Christ. Because it was that same Peter who wrote to the Christians of Asia Minor, telling them they must have the mind of Christ.  In the short letter 1 Peter 1, Peter wrote about the believer's mind and mindset. Peter said:

• “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13)
• “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (1 Peter 3:8).
• “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers” (1 Peter 4:7).
• “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Peter was calling upon these Christians, who were undergoing persecution and suffering for their faith, to prepare their minds for action, to be of one mind, and to be sober-minded.  What was Peter driving at here?  There are three contexts that Peter focused upon.

            First, in Chapter 1, verse 13, Peter challenged these early Christians to prepare their minds for action.  In the sense of the original language, the concept of preparing was like tightening one’s belt before lifting something heavy.  The mind here meant understanding, feeling, and desiring. So, Peter was challenging his readers to prepare their minds for the heavy work that lay ahead.  And that work was to absorb the suffering they were experiencing and realize that through it, they could acquire the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ?

            Peter began explaining that acquiring the mind of Christ required action.  To have the mind of Jesus is not an intellectual exercise. Jesus is not a subject to be studied; He is a person to imitate and a divine being to be worshipped.  Therefore, Peter said that the first step in acquiring the mind of Christ is to be obedient to Jesus.  Peter wrote, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14 ESV).  The original sense here is that Christians must no longer act in worldly ways like they once did when they were ignorant of divine ways.  The natural human mind is ignorant of God’s mind.  Peter understood that point from Jesus’ stinging rebuke of Peter when Jesus called Peter by none other than the name of Satan for having the things of man upon his mind, not the concerns of God.  Satan fosters the worst elements of human thought and attempts to pervert any knowledge of God and His mind that we may possess.  Peter’s point was that, having received the gospel of Jesus and accepted him as Lord and Savior, the Christian begins to understand the mind of Christ.  Once that understanding begins, Peter said, we must act first by obeying what Jesus’ mind is set upon and not behave like one who is ignorant by thinking about worldly things.

            What is the way of the ignorant passions, and how does it differ from the mind of Christ?  Peter told his readers to “Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1).  These are behaviors of the world that know nothing of the mind of Christ.  How can we be sure of that?  Peter gave the contrasting example.  “21b Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.  22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21b-23).  The mind of Jesus, the man from Galilee, was fixed upon obedience to the divine nature of God, not upon the passions of the world.

            Peter’s words come from his own lived experience with Jesus, in which he witnessed Jesus living out the life described by Isaiah, in Chapter 53, of the life of the suffering servant.  Isaiah wrote, “7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth…9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7, 9).

            Peter’s words carried the sense of needing to tighten one’s belt.  His audience, a group of people exiled for their faith in Christ, suffering from persecution, were just told to endure the suffering because they are blessed by it.  In what way would they be blessed?  They would be blessed because they would acquire the mind of Christ.  In their suffering, their faith would be strengthened.

The second context of Peter’s remarks about the Christian’s mind was that they must be sober-minded.  When we hear the word sober, we naturally think of someone who was abstaining from the use of alcohol.  The context of the Greek word for "sober," however, reflects someone calm and collected in spirit.  To be calm and collected in the spirit, especially when undergoing suffering, is to have confidence in the eternal.  This is the very definition of the mind of Christ, who always was, is, and will be.  It is not that physical life has no meaning or purpose, but rather to recognize that everything about our physical life is but a tiny moment compared to eternity. Jesus put it this way, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36).  Being sober-minded then brings about a calmness of spirit in dealing with the real issues of this life, but by dealing with them in a manner that does not alter the outcome of one’s eternal destination.   Peter had warned, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).  The devil, Satan, is an adversary who will always try to get Christians to focus on their present difficulties, creating agitation and an upset that keeps them from Christ.

            The third context of Peter’s letter on the Christian mind was that having the mind of Christ should be a shared experience of mutual support from fellow Christians.  Peter emphasized that the mind of Christ is unlike that of man and that each Christian must follow Jesus' example. Peter said, “8All of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain blessing” (1 Peter 3:8-9).  Peter concluded the first point with these words. “1Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2).  Peter’s point is that we must be of one mind with other Christians and draw near to Christians who are hurting, who are suffering, and lift them in that suffering.

            What do we do with Peter’s words concerning having the mind of Christ?  I think there are two things for us to consider.

            First, Peter chose to write these words to Christians who were suffering.  They were exiles and being subjected to persecution.  Many of the early Christians were physically maimed, losing fingers, hands, and arms as they were being forced to renounce Christ and worship only the emperor.  Some lost their lives.  Others were faced with lesser persecution in the form of prejudice and shunning.  Most simply, these Christians were suffering.

            Suffering for one’s faith is one of the most difficult things for people to understand.  The question inevitably comes, “Why, God, am I suffering as I profess my faith in you?”  What we are really asking is “Doesn’t my public expression of faith obligate You to protect me from suffering?”  This is the natural mindset of humanity.  “I have done something for you, and now you are obligated to do something for me.”  We, in the human mindset, believe we have a business relationship with God.  If we are to understand Peter’s words, the words of Scripture, we must think of suffering differently.

            Our experience of suffering is not just what we experience; it also includes what we do with that experience.  We can and always do shape our experience of suffering.  If we suffer and question the goodness of God because we suffer, our suffering hurts even more, and we feel spiritually depleted.  However, if we recognize that God’s own son was not exempt from suffering, we can better understand the mind of Christ when we suffer. Most simply, when we suffer, we have an opportunity to follow Jesus in ways that cannot be experienced any other way. To be with Jesus in suffering is to stand upon holy ground.  No one enters holy ground and remains the same.  Allowing ourselves to let God make use of our suffering so that we can acquire the mind of Christ is a blessing.  Our experience of suffering, then, is not just suffering but is reshaped to bring us closer to Christ.  I have met a lot of people who are suffering from grief.  Without exception, every person has been changed by that experience. Some who suffer without Christ suffer terribly.  Others who grasp hold of Christ still suffer, but their lives are changed because they have become more like Christ through that experience.  No one seeks suffering.  Suffering finds us, and we must decide what to do with it.  This message is not for the faint of heart.  I think that is why Peter said to prepare your mind for action.  In our language, tighten the belt around your waist for some heavy lifting.  To suffer and hold on to Christ is a heavy lift, but it brings us deep intimacy with Christ, and we come to acquire the mind of Christ.

            The second point deals with the unity of Christians in suffering.  When you are invited to enter the suffering of another Christian, you must remember you have been invited into holy ground.  When God drew Moses to Himself by the burning bush, God said to Moses, “Do not come any closer.  Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). When we offer comfort to those who suffer, we should be humble in our approach and unite ourselves with our brother or sister who is suffering.  Peter said in his letter, “Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (1 Peter 3:8).  You may never be more Christlike than when you participate in the sufferings of another person.  As you model the life of Christ in ministry to others, you become Christ to hurting people. Peter wanted the exiles to support and care for one another in their sufferings so that they would become more like Christ.  To have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly or sisterly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind requires more of Christ and less of us.  In the process, we acquire the mind of Christ.

            “13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13, ESV).  May each of us be blessed with the mind of Christ.  Amen and Amen.