Pilgrims in Christ – Part 1

What we can learn from the letters of Peter and practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་པོ། 1:1-2

1 ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐུ་ཚབ་ང་པེ་ཏྲོ་ཡིས། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་བདམས་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ཏེ་པོན་ཏུ་དང༌། ག་ལད་ཡཱ། ཀ་པ་དོག་ཡཱ། ཨེ་ཞེ་ཡཱ། པི་ཐིན་ཡཱ་ཞིང་ཆེན་གནས་གཡར་བ་ལྟར་སྡོད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་འཕྲིན་ཡིག་འདི་ཕུལ་ལོ།

2 ཡབ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་མཁྱེན་ནས་བདམས་ཤིང༌། ཁོང་གི་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་དམ་པར་མཛད། དེ་ནི་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་པ་དང༌། ཁོང་གི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་གཏོར་བའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་དག་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ལ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་དང་ཞི་བདེ་འཕེལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག

 

1 Peter 1:1-2

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you

 

This letter of the Apostle Peter teaches us about hope and perseverance in Christ as we live in this world as pilgrims while waiting for our final ultimate redemption in the Lord when He returns –

 

ཨིབ་རི་པ། 9:28 – དེ་ལྟར་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའང་ལན་གཅིག་ལ་མཆོད་པར་ཕུལ་ཏེ་མི་མང་པོའི་སྡིག་པ་ཁུར༌བ་དང༌། མ་འོངས་པར་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཐེངས་གཉིས་པར་མངོན་ཞིང༌། དེའི་དུས་སུ་སྡིག་པ་དང་འབྲེལ་བ་མེད་དེ། ཁོང་ལ་རེ་བ་ཆེན་པོས་སྒུག་མཁན་རྣམས་སྐྱོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན་ནོ།།

 

Hebrews 9:28 – So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

 

The Apostle Peter was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus identified in the Gospels and personally commissioned by Jesus to preach the Gospel to the nations.

Peter was also among those who witnessed the risen Christ.

Peter’s letter was first sent to believers in the Roman provinces in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).

 

Peter addressed the believers as chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Our faith in Christ, our position in Christ, is in the plan and purpose of God. Such affirmation of our identity in Christ is the foundation of our life in Christ

 

Peter addressed the position of believers as “in the sanctification of the Spirit.” As believers and followers of Christ we are being separated from sin through repentance and being adopted as sons of God through Jesus and such relationship we have in Christ provided for our sanctification in the Holy Spirit. This is essential for our holiness in Christ.

 

Peter addresses our purpose as “for obedience to Messiah and for sprinkling with his blood.” This shows a clear purpose of our calling and identity in Christ to live our newness of life in obedience to the teachings of Christ.

Peter with reference to the “sprinkling with his blood.” points to the first Passover event when God’s delivered His chosen people from slavery in Egypt and they were “Passover” from death and destruction. So we today in Christ are delivered from death and destruction of sin through the blood sacrifice of Christ and we now belongs to Christ and the Father and we are called to live in obedience.

 

As we read and study Peter’s letter we must not overlook the relevance we are faced with today wherever we are residing. As we stand firm in our faith in Christ we should know we live in this world that majority of people do not share the same faith and identity in Jesus.

While some believers live in real physical violent persecutions, but all of us have been subjected to social ostracism due to our acts of obedience in Christ.

Sometimes we may have to face unnecessary slander and targeted exclusion but we take courage in our identity in Christ. Having like-minded believers together in encouragement can be of great help and blessing. As Peter said “May grace and peace be multiplied to you”.

 

David Z