Pilgrims in Christ – Part 42

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

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 3:14

དེའི་ཕྱིར་གཅེས་པའི་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས། དོན་དེ་ཚོར་རེ་སྒུག་བྱེད་དུས་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དྲུང་དུ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་དང༌། སྐྱོན་བརྗོད་རྒྱུ་མེད་པ། ཞི་བདེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཡིན་པར་བརྩོན་ཅིག

2 Peter 3:14

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

Peter’s message “waiting for these” correspond to what Jesus taught him about the Parable of the Weeds in Matthew 13

མད་ཐཱ། 13:24-30

24 དཔེ་གཞན་ཞིག་ཁོ་ཚོར་བསྟན་ཏེ་ “དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ནི་རང་གི་ཞིང་ཁར་ས་བོན་བཟང་པོ་འདེབས་མཁན་དང་འདྲ་བ་ཡིན།

25 འོན་ཀྱང་མི་རྣམས་གཉིད་ཁུག་དུས་ཁོའི་དགྲ་བོ་ཡོང་ནས་གྲོའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་རྩྭ་ངན་བཏབ་ནས་ཕར་སོང༌།

26 གྲོའི་མྱུ་གུ་ཐོན་ནས་འབྲས་བུ་སྨིན་སྐབས། རྩྭ་ངན་དེ་ཡང་མངོན།

27 ཞིང་བདག་གི་གཡོག་པོ་རྣམས་ཡོང་ནས་ཁོང་ལ། སྐུ་ཞབས་ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཞིང་ཁར་ས་བོན་བཟང་པོ་མ་བཏབ་བམ། རྩྭ་ངན་འདི་ཚོ་གང་ནས་བྱུང་ཞེས་སྨྲས།

28 ལན་དུ་ཁོང་གིས་ཁོ་ཚོར་དགྲ་བོ་ཞིག་གིས་བྱས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཟེར། གཡོག་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ། ང་ཚོ་ཕྱིན་ནས་རྩྭ་ངན་དགོག་པར་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས།

29 བདག་པོས་དེ་ལྟར་མ་བྱེད་ཅིག གང་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན། གྲོ་དང་རྩྭ་ངན་གཉིས་ཀ་དགོག་ཉེན་ཡོད།

30 ལོག་ཏོག་མ་སྨིན་པའི་བར་དུ་དེ་གཉིས་མཉམ་དུ་སྐྱེ་རུ་ཆུག ཞིང་ཁ་རྔ་རན་པའི་དུས་སུ་ངས་རྔ་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ། སྔོན་ལ་རྩྭ་ངན་བསྒྲུགས་ནས་མེས་སྲེག་གཏོང་བའི་ཕྱིར་རྡོག་ཁྲེས་སུ་ཆིངས་ཤིག དེ་ནས་གྲོ་ངའི་བང་མཛོད་དུ་སྡུས་ཤིག་ཅེས་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ་” ཞེས་གསུངས།

Matthew 13:24-30

24 He (Jesus) put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Based on what Jesus taught about the kingdom of God there is an appointed time in the future set by God as the “harvest time” when the good seed having matured and bore grain will be separated from the weeds.

The disciples of Jesus hearing this parable knew He was not just talking about farming and agricultural products. Jesus was talking about people. What should be interesting about this parable is the response of the master when the servant wanted to do the usual proper thing as most farmers will do, that is to do weed control by means of removing weeds to ensure productivity of what farmers actually planted.

The good seed can be identified as those who received the truth of God’s words and live in obedience to God’s truth. The weeds represent those of the opposing camp and willful rejection of God’s truth.

In real life circumstances it is often very difficult to separate the wicked and righteous because people’s characters do swing from good to bad and bad to good. Deception and being led astray from God’s truth can cause good people to do evil. Therefore the Gospel of Jesus Christ offer repentance and forgiveness of sin for those who will turn away from their wicked deeds and follow Christ in living according to the truth of God’s teachings.

The words of God, scripture truth, separate and divide what is approved of God and what is not. Therefore to live in obedience to God’s truth is to be approved of God and to do otherwise is to be rejected.

So the “harvest time” will be the set appointed time of God’s final judgement when those who are wicked, continue to be wicked, and willfully engage in evil acts be separated from those who are redeemed by Christ and living in obedience to God’s truth.

Peter’s message speaks of perseverance of faith and living in obedience to Jesus’ teachings in preparing for “the harvest time“.

Peter had been repeatedly warning against those who cast off their duty and commitment to follow Christ by going back to their old sins and therefore Peter tell us

དེའི་ཕྱིར་གཅེས་པའི་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས། དོན་དེ་ཚོར་རེ་སྒུག་བྱེད་དུས་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དྲུང་དུ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་དང༌། སྐྱོན་བརྗོད་རྒྱུ་མེད་པ། ཞི་བདེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཡིན་པར་བརྩོན་ཅིག

“be diligent to be found by him (Christ) without spot or blemish, and at peace”

Salvation is by grace through faith and we are to continue in faith and obedience to Christ’s teachings.

Throughout these 2 letters of Peter he had warned against false teachers and prophets who were leading disciples astray by means of corrupted interpretation of scripture truths. Among those damaging teachings were willful neglect and rejection of God’s judgement.

In our modern day situation there is that misguided teaching about “unconditional love of God” regardless of sins committed and that replaced our human need to walk the path of repentance!

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་དང་པོ། 1:8-9

བདག་ཅག་གིས་རང་ལ་སྡིག་པ་མེད་ཟེར་ན། དེ་ནི་རང་མགོ་རང་གིས་གཡོག་པ་ཡིན་པས། བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ནི་བདག་ཅག་གི་སེམས་སུ་གནས༌པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཡིད་རྟོན་རུང་བ་དང་དྲང་བདེན་ཡིན་པས། བདག་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་སྡིག་པ་མཐོལ་བཤགས་བྱས༌ན། ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ཅག་གི་སྡིག་པ་བསལ་ཞིང་དྲང་བདེན་མ་ཡིན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་གཙང་མར་མཛད་ངེས་ཡིན། བདག་ཅག་གིས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་མ་མྱོང་ཟེར་ན། བདག་ཅག་གིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཞལ་རྫུན་གསུང་མཁན་དུ་བརྩིས་པས། ཁོང་གི་བཀའ་ཡང་བདག་ཅག་གི་སེམས་སུ་གནས༌པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

1 John 1:8-10

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us

It is interesting that mega churches in our societies today thrives on doctrines and teachings like “unconditional love of God”, “prosperity gospel”, and “God will not judge and condemn a person to hell”.

What happened to Jesus’ warning about hell and destruction?

Scripture truths do teach on God’s compassion and love but not to the extent that God will not judge! To delete and neglect the judgement of God is like a drunken person driving a car on the road and not expecting any accident!

Scripture truths do reveal to us God’s principle of separation and division, making distinction between those who serve God and those who do not. And this is why scripture truth speaks of “living by faith”.

For us who serve and worship the one true living God through our redeemed life by Jesus and by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit we can expect to be in peace with God even till the “time of harvest” when the wicked will be judged.

This peace of Christ in us and among us will guide us towards the path of maturity and fruitfulness for the glory of God.

Disciples and followers of Christ who had been subjected to deception and misguided false teachings often struggles with confusion and lack of peace.

Peter’s message was to ensure we keep peace with Christ and fellow disciples as we walk in the truth of God’s teachings. We are redeemed by the blood of Christ and we must continue to live in faith and obedience to God’s truth.

We should be concerned that majority of churches and congregations today across the world hardly teach on sanctification, purification, and holiness. There are Christian fellowships that do consistently teach on such subjects but we who do so are in the minority. So what could be the reasons for such neglect in our modern day churches?

Lost in clear definitions what does it mean to live in sanctification, purification, and holiness for the Lord?
Not our duty to do so?
Subtle rejection of God’s moral laws revealed in scripture?

རོ་མཱ་པ། 12:1-2

1སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། དེ་ལྟར་ཡིན་པས། ངས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བསྐུལ་བར་བྱ༌སྟེ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་ལུས་པོ་ནི་གསོན་མཆོད་དུ་ཕུལ༌ཞིག དེ་ནི་དམ་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཐུགས་མཉེས༌པ་དང་། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སེམས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བསྙེན་བཀུར་ཡིན་ནོ།། 2དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་བཟང་པོ༌དང༌། ཡིད་དུ་འོང༌བ། ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་བཅས་རྟོགས་པའི༌ཕྱིར། འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིའི་ལུགས་བཞིན་མི་བྱེད་པར། སེམས་གསར་པར་བསྒྱུར་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་གཤིས་སྤྱོད་ཀྱང་སྒྱུར་ཅིག

Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Jesus’ call for repentance remains valid for us today.

The apostles’ teaching to live in faith and holiness is still applicable for us today.

All of us from the time of Peter till today, we are still waiting for the return of Christ and He is coming soon. We are waiting for “the harvest time” set by God.

The instructions given to us to wait and be prepared for Christ return is to live in faith and obedience to God’s truth.

In our modern societies God’s moral values revealed in scripture truth are fast being replaced by human preferences and ideology of relativism. Therefore it is foreseeable that human behaviors world-wide are plagued with increasing moral corruptions, unrestrained violence and bloodshed, confusion and spiritual darkness.

We who love the Lord Jesus Christ and waiting for His appearance we must walk in the light of God’s truth.

David Z