Pilgrims in Christ – Part 28

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

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:5-7

5 ཡང་དོན་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་དད་པའི་སྟེང་སྤྱོད་ལམ་བཟང་པོ་དང༌། སྤྱོད་ལམ་བཟང་པོའི་སྟེང་རྟོགས་པ།

6 རྟོགས་པའི་སྟེང་ཚོད་འཛིན་དང༌། ཚོད་འཛིན་གྱི་སྟེང་བཟོད་པ། བཟོད་པའི་སྟེང་ཆོས་སེམས་དང་ལྡན་པ་དང༌།

7 ཆོས་སེམས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྟེང་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་ལ་བྱམས་པ་དང༌། སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་ལ་བྱམས་པའི་སྟེང་མི་ཚང་མར་བྱམས་པར་ཁ་སྣོན་རྒྱག་པར་འབད་རྩོལ་བྱེད་དགོས།

 

2 Peter 1:5-7

5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

 

Peter message to the disciples has clear reference to the regeneration works of the Holy Spirit mentioned of Paul in his letter to Titus

 

ཐེ་ཏུ། 3:3-5

3ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། དེ་སྔར་བདག་ཅག་ཀྱང་ཡིད་རྨོངས་ཤིང་བཀའ་ལ་མི་ཉན་པ་དང་བསླུ་བྲིད་ཐེབས༌པ། མ་རབས་ཐ་ཤལ་གྱི་ལས་དང་འདོད་ཡོན་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་དབང་དུ་སོང༌སྟེ། རྟག་ཏུ་གདུག་རྩུབ་དང་ཕྲག་དོག་གིས་འཚོ༌ཞིང༌། གཞན་རྣམས་བདག་ཅག་ལ་སྡང་བ༌དང༌། ཕན་ཚུན་ལའང་སྡང་བའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།། 4འོན༌ཀྱང༌། བདག་ཅག་གི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་དང་ཁོང་གིས་མི་རྣམས་ལ་བཅངས་པའི་བྱམས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱུང༌ཚེ། 5ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ཅག་བསྐྱབས་ཤིང་། དེ་ནི་བདག་ཅག་གིས་དྲང་བདེན་གྱི་ལས་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་མ་ཡིན༌པར། ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན༌པ་དང༌། ཡང་བསྐྱར་སྐྱེས་པའི་ཁྲུས་དང་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་གསར་དུ་མཛད་པ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་བདག་ཅག་བསྐྱབས༌པའོ།།

 

Titus 3:3-5

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

After we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we become born-again through the works of the Holy Spirit and we are being transformed into the image of Christ.

Being born again in Christ means we are dead to our old sinful habits and now being empowered by the Holy Spirit to live in obedience to God’s teachings to reflect God’s attributes of godliness.

God created Man with the ability to express godliness but we fell into corruption due to sin.

Sin is the acts of disobedience in the flesh against God’s teachings therefore God will judge man based on what we did. The standard of judgement God used is in His revealed teachings which is found in scripture.

Christ died on the cross to deal with human sins.

The living example of Christ is to show us the way of godliness approved of God. Jesus Christ first offered us forgiveness of sin and through the power of the Holy Spirit sanctifies and purifies us to serve God in holiness.

Now in Christ Jesus we are to turn away from sinful behaviors of the flesh and live in newness of life being lead of the Holy Spirit. This newness of life is guided by God’s teachings found in scripture and Jesus being the manifested living word of God. Therefore Jesus is our ideal teacher.

This regeneration works of the Holy Spirit will enable transformations of human behaviors to submit to God’s will.

This newness of life enable us to develop a habit of prayers and scripture reading every day so that we may gain understanding of the Holy Spirit from scripture about the will of God for us. We are to live according to the will of God with understanding and knowledge. We should not be ignorant of the will of God.

God did not left us alone to play guessing games what is the will of God and what to do about godliness. We have the scripture to teach and guide us and the Holy Spirit to provide enlightenment according to the truth of God’s words.

We are being transformed to the image of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Peter was warning the disciples not to fall back to the sins of this world.

Every day we are faced with temptations trails and testing, we must stand firm in our faith in Christ and persevere in our loyalty and commitment to serve God.

 

David Z