Pilgrims in Christ – Part 31

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

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:12-15

12 ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དོན་དེ་རྣམས་ཤེས་ཤིང༌། ཁྱེད་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་བདེན་པ་ལ་བརྟན་པོར་གནས་ཀྱང༌། ངས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་དེ་ཚོའི་སྐོར་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱེད་པར་འདོད།

13 ང་ལུས་ཕུང་གི་གུར་འདིའི་ནང་ཡོད་རིང་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱེད་པ་དེ་འོས་པར་སེམས།

14 གང་ཡིན་ཟེར་ན། ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀས་ང་ལ་གསལ་པོར་བསྟན་པ་ལྟར་ངའི་ལུས་ཕུང་གི་གུར་འདི་རྡིབས་པའི་དུས་ཉེ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས།

15 ང་འཆི་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཡང་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་འདི་རྣམས་དྲན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ངས་བརྩོན་པར་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

 

2 Peter 1:12-15

12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

 

Peter received prior knowledge of his physical death as Jesus knew of His journey to the cross. The Holy Spirit through the word of God prepares His people for future events.

Although circumstances had been life threatening for Peter since Acts 2 after his sermon during Pentecost and the increasing hostilities from the Sanhedrin it had been a time of perseverance and standing by his faith in Jesus.

The Lord had kept Peter alive for the sake of shepherding the sheep for a period of time so that God’s people may learn to stand firm in their faith as Peter did.

We know in Acts 7 Stephen was the first known Christian martyr, and later in Acts 12 the apostle James, brother of John, was executed by Herod. Many disciples were shaken and scattered but they needed to be restored to faith in Christ.

Peter continued to serve the fellowships of disciples for about 30 over years before his execution by Nero. By that time the Lord had added to the numbers of disciples although they were scattered all over the Roman world.

What made Peter sure of his imminent physical death soon this time in his 2nd letter to the disciples?

 

 གང་ཡིན་ཟེར་ན། ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀས་ང་ལ་གསལ་པོར་བསྟན་པ་ལྟར་ངའི་ལུས་ཕུང་གི་གུར་འདི་རྡིབས་པའི་དུས་ཉེ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས།

“as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me”

 

Peter was in close relationship with God and living in godly sanctified life that he heard clear from Jesus! As Moses was in close relation with God and heard from God.

Peter perhaps received a vision from the Lord as he did before.

Peter in preparing for his departure was most concerned about the welfare of the sheep as that had been his duty and responsibility as instructed by Jesus in person.

 

v15 ང་འཆི་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཡང་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་འདི་རྣམས་དྲན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ངས་བརྩོན་པར་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

v15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

 

Peter’s death was expected to have major problems for all fellowships across the Roman world because by that time James the brother of Jesus who was serving as leader of Jerusalem congregation was already martyred. There was some sort of leadership vacuum and transition at that time. And about the same time Peter was expecting Paul to put to death as well by Nero.

The longest surviving apostle would bad been John but by then the numbers of disciples had increased tremendously and scattered across the Roman world and the need for next generation leadership was urgent.

Furthermore the foreseeable Jewish Roman war would cause disciples’ faith to be shaken again.

Peter’s departure will have some sort of impact for that generation of disciples who witnessed the death and resurrection of the Lord and later the destruction of Jerusalem in Ad 70.

Here is the key point of Peter telling them of his imminent death

 

v12 ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དོན་དེ་རྣམས་ཤེས་ཤིང༌། ཁྱེད་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་བདེན་པ་ལ་བརྟན་པོར་གནས་ཀྱང༌། ངས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་དེ་ཚོའི་སྐོར་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱེད་པར་འདོད།

v12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have

 

What are the “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus?

Salvation belongs to God and through the appointed Messiah Jesus.

We all knew that, but for that generation who will encounter the destruction of Jerusalem their faith would have been shaken very badly. Remember that generation of disciples who continued from Jesus to the apostles was accustomed to Temple worship services and keeping of Sabbath and God’s appointed feast at the Temple.

Like in the days of the prophet Daniel, together with fellow Jews who were exiled to Babylon, their faiths were shaken after the destruction of Jerusalem. Letters and instructions from the prophet Jeremiah helped provided godly guidance in waiting for God’s restoration.

The “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus are first and foremost being a living witness for the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

The “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus speaks of our faith and trust in the redemption and restoration of God through His chosen Messiah Jesus.

Throughout the time of Acts the most debatable and controversial subject had to be the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ!

ཀོ་རིན་ཐུ་པ་དང་པོ། 15

14སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པ་མིན༌ན། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཆོས་སྒྲོག་པར་སྙིང་པོ་མེད༌ཅིང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་དད་པ་བྱས་པ་ལའང་སྙིང་པོ་མེད་དོ།། 15ད་དུང་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞེས་པ་དེ་བདེན་པ་ཡིན་ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཀྱང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་པ་མིན༌ལ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་པ་ལ་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས༌པས། ངེད་ཅག་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་རྫུན་གྱི་དཔང་པོ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡིན་པ་གསལ་པོར་མངོན། 16རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པ་མིན༌ན། སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའང་སླར་གསོན་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 17གལ༌ཏེ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པ་མིན༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་དད་པ་བྱས་པར་སྙིང་པོ་མེད༌ཅིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ནི་ད་དུང་སྡིག་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཡོད༌དེ། 18སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་དད་ལྡན་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་འཇིག༌པ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 19གལ༌ཏེ། བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཚེ་འདི་ཁོ་ནའི་ཆེད་དུ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀར་སྐྱབས་སུ་བཅོལ་བ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་ཀྱང་བདག་ཅག་སྙིང་རེ༌རྗེའོ།།

 

1 Corinthians 15:14-19

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

Disciples were being persecuted and put to death because of their faith that Jesus rose from the dead and that was Peter’s message during Pentecost as evident of Jesus being the Christ.

Such “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus would be in danger of perishing if disciples decided not to continue being living witness for the resurrected Lord.

Circumstances and situation may look depressing due to persecution and warfare and conflicts, but we need to look to the words and promises of God for hope.

Therefore Peter encouraged the disciples to stand firm in their “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus even when faced with death threats.

Such “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus will also help us to live godly sanctified life in preparing to meet the Lord when He return, amen!

 

David Z