Pilgrims in Christ – Part 30

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

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:10-11

10 དེའི་ཕྱིར་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས། ཁྱེད་ཚོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་བོས་པ་དང་བདམས་པ་དེ་བརྟན་པོར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཆེད་དེ་བས་བརྩོན་ཞིག དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་ན་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་ལས་ཁ་བྲལ་ནས་ནམ་ཡང་མི་ལྷུང༌།

11 དེ་ལྟར་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་དང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་དུ་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ་ནས་ཞུགས་པར་འགྱུར།

 

2 Peter 1:10-11

10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

What is our “calling and election”?

Peter encouraged the disciples dispersed to “confirm your calling and election” means to persevere and sand firm on it.

As disciple of Christ we are first called to believe, acknowledge, and receive the redemption works of God established through Jesus the Messiah.

God redeem us from sin and death through Jesus the Christ.

Most people in this world are still confused about “sin and death” because they are living in darkness. But when the light of the Gospel, the truth of God’s words, shine in their path they begin to see their need for a savior.

We were once lost and blind in this world of darkness but when the light of the Gospel shine in us and we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior we begin to walk in the light of God’s truth.

That explains the importance of preaching Jesus, sharing of the Gospel, calling people to receive the salvation plan of God.

After receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior we become born-again through the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to live in newness of life.

This new life we have in Christ is the assurance of our eternal peace and fellowship with God in His kingdom.

This is our hope and calling in Christ, to be delivered from sin and death and to enter into eternal fellowship and peace with God in His kingdom.

Peter was communicating with a generation of believers who were under pressure to walk away from their calling in Christ due to sever persecution and in those days of political tensions between Rome and Jews which could boil over into a full scale war.

We have the benefit of hindsight Peter was addressing disciples who will be subjected to the historical Jewish Roman War. Disciples across the Roman world were affected.

Especially in times of wars and conflicts, people are under immersing pressure to do what they need for survival. There were people who gave up on their faith and confession for survival and for safety of families and friends.

Peter encouraged the disciples not to give up on their faith as the kingdom of God awaits them!

We need to stand firm in our faith when the world plunged deeply into spiritual darkness and turmoil.

Peter was addressing disciples who knew of or were informed of Stephen being martyred for his faith in Christ.

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 7:54-60

54དེ་ནས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེ་དག་ཐོས་པ་དང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་ཏེ་སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་གྱི་ཐོག་ཨམ་གཙིགས་བསྡམས༌པ་རེད། 55འོན༌ཀྱང༌། སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཁྱབ༌ཅིང༌། ཁོང་གིས་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ལ་ཅེ་རེར་བལྟས་པ༌ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་མཐོང་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཡས་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བཞེངས་འདུག་པ་མཐོང༌བས། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། 56ལྟོས་དང་། ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ཕྱེས་ཡོད༌ཅིང༌། མིའི་བུ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཡས་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བཞེངས་འདུག་པའང་བདག་གིས་མཐོང་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། 57མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེར་ཉན་འདོད་མེད་པར་སྐད་ཆེན་པོས་འུར་བརྒྱབ༌ཅིང༌། ལག་པས་རྣ་བ་བཀབ་པ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་གྱི་མདུན་དུ་བརྒྱུགས༌ཏེ། 58ཁོང་ཉིད་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་བསྐྲད་ནས་རྡོ་རུབ་བཏང་བ༌དང༌། དཔང་པོ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་ཕྱི་གོས་ཕུད་དེ་སོ་ལོ་ཞེས་པའི་ན་གཞོན་ཞིག་གི་མདུན་དུ་བཞག་གོ། 59དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་རྡོ་རུབ་གཏོང་བཞིན་པའི་དུས༌སུ། སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་གྱིས། ཀྱེ། གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ༌ལགས། བདག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་ཁུར་དུ་བཞེས་པར་མཛོད་ཅེས་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པ༌དང༌། 60ཡང་པུས་མོ་སར་བཙུགས་ཏེ་སྐད་ཆེན༌པོས། ཀྱེ། གཙོ་བོ་ལགས། ཉེས་པ་འདི་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་མི་འགེལ་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ་དང་གཟིམས༌སོ།།

 

Acts 7:54-60

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

 

The “Saul” in v58 later encountered the living Christ, repented and became a fearless preacher for Christ. This “Saul” who thought Jesus was dead and gone because he was living in spiritual darkness until he met the resurrected Christ!

As disciples stand firm in their faith in times of danger and persecution, the truth of God’s words gets glorified! Therefore disciples who were scattered everywhere testify to the death and resurrection of Christ.

One of our “calling and election” is also to bear witness to the resurrected Christ and we all await the return of our King and Savior!

 

David Z