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

Pilgrims in Christ – Part 27

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

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:3-4

3 དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་གི་ནུས་མཐུའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཚེ་དང་ཆོས་སེམས་ལ་གང་དགོས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ང་ཚོར་གནང་བ་ཡིན། དེ་ནི་ཁོང་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ཐུགས་བཟང་པོ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ང་ཚོ་བོས་པར་མཛད་མཁན་རྟོགས་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་དེ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཐོབ།

4 དོན་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་ཁོང་གིས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་རྩ་ཆེ་དང་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་ཞལ་ཆད་རྣམས་ང་ཚོར་གནང་བ་ཡིན། དེ་ཚོ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རང་གཤིས་ལ་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱོད་པ་དང༌། འདོད་པ་ངན་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་ནང་ཡོད་པའི་ངན་རུལ་ལས་ཐར་བར་གྱུར།

 

2 Peter 1:3-4

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

 

Peter speaks of “life and godliness” with reference to the fullness of life and peace God granted to us through Jesus our Lord and Savior.

When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, He made atonement for sin once and for all, and those who are called to His purpose following Him in faith and obedience received of His forgiveness and partake of His divine blessing. This divine blessing we received through Christ redeemed us from condemnation of sin and restored us to eternal peace with God the Father.

Eternal life is only found in God through Jesus, amen.

The resurrection of Christ demonstrated God’s power over sin and death and all disciples of Jesus will partake of the same resurrection power over sin and death.

It was necessary for Christ’s death and resurrection to be witnessed by His disciples as they will be witness to the saving power of God.

What blessing we are receiving from God Almighty through the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. This is our hope and future in the kingdom of God.

Peter also speaks of this blessing of divine nature from Christ that we are to escape the corruption of the flesh. The corruption of the flesh is what causes us to sin and disobeyed God’s teaching. Jesus helps us break the bondage of sin and corruption through enabling us to partake of His divine blessing.

Jesus through His blood sacrifice, death and resurrection, empowered us through the Holy Spirit to do the will of God, to live in obedience to God’s teaching. So we are to rely on the completed works of Christ for our redemption and restoration to eternal peace with God the Father.

All glory and praise to Christ who is raised from the dead and had broken the bondage of sin and death.

What blessing God have given to us that we can share of this divine blessing with Christ in His kingdom, amen.

 

David Z

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