Pilgrims in Christ – Part 26

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

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:1-2

1 ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ཞབས་ཕྱི་དང་སྐུ་ཚབ་སི་མེ་ཡོན་པེ་ཏྲོ་ཡིས། ངེད་ཀྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་དང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་དྲང་བདེན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་ང་ཚོའི་རྩ་ཆེ་བའི་དད་པ་དང་གཅིག་པ་འཐོབ་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་འཕྲིན་ཡིག་འདི་ཕུལ་ལོ།

2 ཁྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་དཀོན་མཆོག་དང་ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་རྟོགས་པ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་དང༌། ཞི་བདེ་འཕེལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག

 

2 Peter 1:1-2

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

 

This could be Peter’s final letter to the disciples of Jesus dispersed across Asia and Roman territories.

Peter remember Jesus instructions to him to feed the flocks.

We know from history Peter was executed by Roman Emperor Nero sometime in 68 AD or earlier and this letter was dispatched to disciples before his death.

Peter was not in fear of death but well prepared to meet the Lord.

Peter’s message serves to encourage disciples to persevere in faith and be prepared for sufferings till death.

Peter’s execution together with that of Paul was unjustified. They suffered the same example of Jesus who was put to death in unjustified circumstances and expedited by unrighteous people.

Peter and Paul did not commit any criminal or civil offenses that deserve the death penalty. Historians today knew and do support the proposition that Nero was using Peter and Paul as “scapegoat” for political crisis, social disorder, and the Great Fire of Rome that destroyed about three quarter of Rome in 64 AD.

Peter’s message was delivered in times and circumstances disciples of Christ were faced with similar unjustified treatment from society.

It may seem puzzling why followers of Christ were targeted for ill-treatment but in the spiritual realm demonic forces are at work.

When people are faced with unjustified punishment many would turn rebellious and seek revenge, others would withdraw to isolation, and some would turn to oppression as the new normal. Eventually society will sink deeper into spiritual darkness. The lack of social justice is driving more people to desperation.

Peter’s message seeks to warn the disciples not to follow any of the practice of this fallen world but to know the will of God for us and to walk the path of redemption in Christ.

How do we know the will of God?

Christian habits of scripture studies and prayers are fundamental in helping us know and understanding the will of God.

How does God want us to do social justice? How are we to practice righteous living?

Especially in peace time all the more we must prepare ourselves through self-discipline and developing habits and practices of scripture reading, studies, and consistent prayer life. When crisis hit and situation suddenly turns chaotic our habits and practices of seeking and doing the will of God helps us stand on the right path with the LORD.

Peter speaks with confidence in preparing for his death for he knew he did the will of God.

Peter’s habits of godliness patterned after the example of Jesus the Christ was set forth as encouragement to the disciples to follow Jesus through sufferings and death.

The world we are living in today is heading deeper into spiritual darkness, more social chaos, rampant oppression and reckless blood-shed. There is no peace for the wicked.

We need to know the will of God and stand firm in our faith in Christ Jesus and in preparing for our ultimate redemption when Christ appear.

For in Christ and in His kingdom we find perfect and eternal peace, amen.

 

David Z