1 Pet 2:4 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The New Testament has two main analogies for the Church – a body and a building. Paul uses both. (There is a third analogy – the bride of Christ (Rev 19:7,8)

Let's consider first the body: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body , and each member belongs to all the others.” (Rom 12:4,5) and “who are many, are one body.” (1 Cor 10:17) and “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Cor 12;27). The emphasis on the body is the picture that we all contribute to be the expression of Christ as he continues his ministry.

Then there is the building that Peter speaks about here – a spiritual house. In the previous meditation we considered the following: “ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household , built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit,” (Eph 2:19 -22) where Paul refers to the church as God's household, a building, a temple and a dwelling in which God lives. The emphasis of this picture is of us being God's dwelling place on the earth. In the Old Testament He revealed Himself at and in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Today, this picture says, He reveals Himself through His people who form a living temple. Paul taught, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor 3:16) and “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor 6:19 ).

This is the amazing truth that Peter reiterates in his verse above, that we are a spiritual house (or house of God – i.e. temple), so the first emphasis is of us being indwelt by God, but the second point is that we are stones that are living – alive by the Spirit. Now a house isn't a pile of bricks; it is a carefully designed and constructed building made up of walls. In this case, this building is made of stones, stones that are alive and we allow the Master Mason to build us in where He sees fit.

But then Peter pivots the picture. One minute it is a building, the next it is a priesthood. What is a priesthood? It is all the priests. What did the priests do in the Old Testament? They brought mankind to God (as distinct from the prophets who brought God to mankind). When people came to the Tabernacle or to the Temple to meet with God, the priests saw to it that they came in the acceptable manner, the manner laid down by the Law, and that was by bringing a sacrifice.

The particular sacrifices or offerings that we find in the early chapters of Leviticus were the burnt offering which was to be an expression of an open heart to God, the grain offering which was a giving over of personal work or achievement, the fellowship offering that indicates a desire for unity and communion with the Lord, the sin offering for dealing with specific wrongs committed, and the guilt offering for making restitution and atonement.

But we don't make these sacrifices any longer for Christ himself has become a sacrifice that covers all of these things, so how can Peter say that we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ ? I suggest we do all these things above by our heart attitude that responds to the work of Christ on our behalf.

Burnt Offering : So when we come to Christ initially, we come with a completely open heart and lay down our lives to God, and in so doing we receive the work of Christ on our behalf – he was a perfectly obedient Son, given over totally to his Father's will. We are thus received.

Grain Offering : As we walk out our Christian life we realise that all we have and all we do comes through the grace of God and so we surrender our hopes, ambitions and desires, as well as our achievements, to God and in so doing we reflect the work of Christ who utterly surrendered and gave up all his three years of ministry to the will of the Father for the Cross, which was the greater purpose in his coming.

Fellowship Offering: As we grow in the Christian Faith we begin to realise that the most precious thing we have is not our gifts or our talents or anything else, but simply the possibility of fellowship with God the Father. As we wait upon Him we can wait confidently knowing that Jesus was our perfect sacrifice who showed he wanted nothing more than to totally do the Father's will and live with the Father in eternity, as he died on the Cross.

Sin Offering: As we grow in Christ we become more and more aware of the awfulness of sin and especially as it manifests itself in our lives, and we come in repentance and trusting Christ's atoning work on the Cross to put us right again and again with the Father.

Guilt Offering: As we become sensitive to the hurt and harm we cause others and God, so we look to the enabling work of the Spirit that is released to us to bless others, the Spirit's presence that was earned for us by Christ on the Cross. We cannot restore others who have been harmed by us, but we can look to God for His grace to flow directly to them and through us to them.

All this is the work of Christ on the Cross and it is this alone that enables us to be able to approach God wholeheartedly, surrender our whole lives to Him meaningfully, seek for fellowship with Him, know cleansing from sin and know His healing work for flow between us in restoring relationships with others around us. How wonderful!

1 Pet 2:5 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion , a chosen and precious cornerstone,

The correlation between the Old and New Testaments is often quite strange. Sometimes the New Testament writers take the Old Testament writings as they are to confirm what is happening in the present is from God, and sometimes they slightly adapt those writings. There are no firm rules. Sometimes they don't bother to justify themselves with Old Testament writings, and sometimes they do. This is one of those latter times for Peter packs together three quotes from the Old Testament that refer prophetically to Jesus.

(v.6) "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (from Isa 28:16) This first part reiterates that Jesus was a stone of God's choosing, to act as a cornerstone who would become a secure ground of trust. He continues to quote (v.7): “Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone” (from Psa 118:22) Now, says the psalmist, this stone will create two different responses. First of all there will be those who believe in him and to them he will be precious. We said in a previous meditation that precious means ‘of great value, held very dearly, very special to us'. That is how Jesus is to us who have believed on him and see him as our Saviour.

But then there are all those other people who do not believe in him. First of all these people rejected him. It's not merely a case of them not noticing him; they actively reject him because he doesn't allow for any midway position; you either believe in him and receive him, or you don't believe in him and you reject him. Yet, says the psalmist, their rejection doesn't alter the outcome for he has become the capstone or top stone of the building. God wasn't put off by the rejection of men but instead made use of it to bring about the redemption of the world.

Yet there is a further prophetic word that comes from Isaiah: “and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall ." (Isa 8:14) and in case we are not sure what that means, Peter adds his own footnote: “They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.” Before hearing about Jesus, men may be in blissful ignorance but once they have heard about him they either receive or reject him and if they don't receive him then from then on they are struggling against the truth, they will be stumbling through life with a guilty conscience, because that is how God has made us. We may try and suppress it with loud denunciations of the truth, but deep down God will be telling us that it is the truth and our pride will be constantly warring against that.

If we stub our toe on a stone there is the initial pain but after a while it is like a dull ache that we hardly notice but is still there. This is how it is with people who have heard about Jesus and have rejected him and ultimately they will fall. People will fall deeper into sin, deeper under Satan's influence, deeper into the deceptive and destructive ways of the world, deeper into despair, deeper into failure and eventually they will fall before God in heaven, and eventually fall into the abyss which is another way of saying into eternal isolation outside of the presence of God. The direct cause of their stumbling is because they reject the message and live outside of God's will and blessing. From then on they are actually opposing God's will and cannot, therefore, be on the receiving end of His blessing.

No wonder they are stumbling! Infront of all the heavenly onlookers they have made their choice and are living in a second-best environment. They lack God's strength and God's wisdom in their lives and it is no wonder that they get it wrong and stumble and stagger throughout life. Even the greatest of figures with the greatest of achievements will, when they stand before God in the courts of heaven, see that despite all of His help they still fell short of what He had on His heart for them and they will see that in a multitude of ways they will have stumbled. Why? Because they have not believed and are therefore in opposition to the truth and in opposition to God's will.

What about those closing words of Peter, “which is also what they were destined for.” Imagine there is a fork in life, the path ahead splits in two. The sign post on one says, “Believing in Jesus and letting God lead you” and the sign post on the other says “Rejecting Jesus and relying upon your own self”. One person believes in Jesus and takes the left fork. The other hears of Jesus and rejects what they hear and take the right fork (there is no political connotations to these directions!). From above as we watch them we see the Christian weathering the storms of life with God's grace and guidance. The unbeliever stumbles and falls and pushes himself up a number of times.

The two paths come together again to a meeting point and a further fork. The Christian follows the same path and follows Jesus still. The unbeliever rejects for a second time the possibility put before him. And so they continue through life. There are numerous occasions when choices are presented but they both stay on course. The believer remains faithful and the unbeliever hardens his heart. Suddenly both the paths run out and the believer finds himself in the most wonderful of places while the unbeliever falls over a cliff to destruction. It is an imperfect picture but it does convey what is happening. Once the unbeliever has chosen unbelief he is destined to destruction. He will have choices along the way and some do turn but most do not. The end is determined by the path chosen. There is a salutary warning here!

1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Families have a lot to answer for. We very often are what our families have made us. Here are some parents who are negative about education and so they convey it to their child who happens to be very bright but now with a very low motivation to learn. We could multiply illustrations of how families constrain the individual. But we might say the same things about a nation. National characteristics are a strange thing. When we British think about ourselves we think about the ‘stiff upper lip', meaning we are known to be unemotional. We tend to be down on ourselves and we go on about the weather. All nations have national characteristics. Being a member of a club or group or gang imposes certain characteristics and expectations.

Peter has just been speaking about those who stumble at Christ, people who are destined for destruction, but now he turns away from them and turns to who we are, we the church, we the Christians as he starts out, “But you…” Then he goes on to give a list of corporate descriptions of who we are. Yes, note that these are all group descriptions. We are what we are because we belong to a group, a special group.

First of all he notes that we are “a chosen people” and we have been chosen, the Bible tells us, by God. The Greek word for ‘church' is ekklesia which means “called out ones”. God has called us out and chosen us, the ones who would respond well to His Son, Jesus.

But then Peter calls us “a royal priesthood”. Do you remember, he's already called us that in verse 5: “built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”? And we said when we considered that that the role of priest was to bring the people to God in the acceptable manner. But note that we aren't just a priesthood; we are a royal priesthood because we are sons and daughters of the King who is God. We are those who have been born of God to reveal the Lord to the rest of the world, to seek to bring them to Him in the same way we came – on bended knee.

But we are also “a holy nation.” Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God and Paul wrote, “he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son.” (Col 1:13). Speaking of a nation speaks of a corporate people living together under a ruler and as our ruler is holy, so we too are holy. We are distinct, pure, good; those are dimensions of holiness.

Furthermore we are “a people belonging to God.” We belong to God because He has purchased us with the blood of His Son, purchased out of the bondage of sin, purchased from being under the sway of Satan and purchased from a destiny of destruction. He has the rights to us today, not sin or Satan or the world. They no longer have any claim on us, only God does.

But then he clarifies our calling, the purpose of our calling, the outcome of our calling, if you like: “that you may declare the praises of him who called you.” We are to be a people who praise God. You praise someone when they have done something well, and God has certainly done very well in the way He has redeemed us. We declare His praises by the words we use but also by the lives we live.

Part of that is the corporate dimension, the way we live together. Jesus prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:23). Throughout the Old Testament there were clear signs that Israel were to be a light to the rest of the world to reveal God to the world. Now we, the Church, are to do the same. God has called us out of darkness into the glorious light of the kingdom of His Son , and this is indeed something that we should be shouting about. Tragically so often we let the enemy subdue us and we forget how wonderful all that He has done for us is. We need to take hold of these things afresh.

He, we have already noted, has “called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” This is a cause for great rejoicing. Look and listen carefully to the lives of the people who live around us who do not know Jesus, and recognise the darkness in which they struggle. Life is hard and life is difficult and they anguish and suffer and struggle – and we take it all for granted! We must not! We must see the awfulness of their darkness and realise afresh the wonder of living in the light. Then perhaps we may become again a praising people and as we do so we will reveal the Lord to the world and many will be drawn to Him. May it be so!

1 Pet 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The word for church in the original text is ekklesia meaning a ‘called out people'. It is the same sense as when used of a people who were called out to the market square by a town crier. We have been called out of darkness by God and taken into the kingdom of the Son, a kingdom of light. And because that hasn't happened to just me, but to many of us, we are “ a people”, a body of people with one head, Jesus. We are now the “people of God”, God's people. Because of what Jesus achieved on the Cross we belong to Him: “the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) Thus Paul taught, “you were bought at a price.” (1 Cor 6:20 & 1 Cor 7:23) Thus we are now the people belonging to God, the people of God, millions of us all over the world and stretching back in history to the day of Pentecost and stretching into the future until the day Jesus returns and winds everything up – millions and millions of redeemed people, the people of God.

But then Peter says something that emphasizes even more the wonder of being part of this people – how we came to be part of this people. He speaks about mercy. Now William, Shakespeare understood something of this wonder when he wrote the Merchant of Venice. Antonio, the merchant of Venice , had foolishly signed a bond granting to the Jew, Shylock, who lent money, a "pound of flesh" if he defaulted. He does default and so Portia pleads with Shylock to release him from the bond. Eventually she declares to him, “Then must the Jew be merciful,” to which Shylock replies, “On what compulsion must I?” She then responds with those famous words, “The quality of mercy is not strained,” meaning that compulsion is precisely contrary to the spirit of mercy, which is not "strained" or forced. Mercy is a voluntary thing, it is not given because the Law demands it, but despite the Law, and so mercy, in Shakespeare's words, “drops gently like heaven's rain”, a natural and gracious quality rather than a legal one.

Once we had been under the Law and condemned by justice. We deserved to die and death was on the horizon as the punishment for all our sins. God could have left us in the state for we deserved it. Punishment is what is deserved for wrong doing so that was all we could look forward to. But then, amazingly, the plan of God is revealed and we see that even before the foundation of the world the godhead had planned how to redeem us. Mercy was the quality of what emanated from the throne room of heaven. Surely the angels must have looked on in amazement. Surely these foolish human beings deserved to be judged, deserved to be destroyed, but instead it is a member of the godhead who steps forward to the place of punishment and takes what is deserved for every sin. Why is this happening? Why is he doing that? The answer has to be mercy.

Yes, make sure you are quite clear on this: mercy is undeserved grace. There was absolutely no reason why this had to happen. This is the thing about mercy – it is freely granted for no other reason that the giver gives it!

When the Bible describes God as merciful; it means that it is natural for Him to express mercy rather than judgment. When Lot ended up in Sodom and was led out by angels to avoid the judgment it was, “for the LORD was merciful to them.” (Gen 19:16). He could have left them to die with the rest but in His mercy He led them out. Moses instructed Israel about the future, “When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.” (Deut 4:30,31)

When Israel fall, the Lord could just leave them, but He didn't because of his mercy. Looking back, Nehemiah confirmed that this was exactly what had happened: “For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” (Neh 9:30,31) Yes, the Lord could have given them up for that is what they deserved but mercy was seen when he restored them and raised them up again.

Perhaps one of the most amazing prayers recorded in the Bible is that of Daniel who intercedes for his nation which is going into exile and apparent extinction. In the early part of it he prays, “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him,” (Dan 9:9) and near the end concludes, “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” (v.18) He knew his God and he knew that he could appeal on the basis of mercy. Israel had utterly failed the Lord yet he pleaded for their future on the basis of the Lord's mercy – and his prayer was answered! Hallelujah!

1 Pet 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

A hundred years ago the word ‘aliens' would not have been familiar but in the space age and sci-fi age, as well as the age of falling national boundaries, ‘aliens' is a word we easily understand. An alien is simply someone from somewhere else, from another planet ort another country, someone who is quite different from us. That latter phrase is quite significant and important. People who live in the next town or the next county aren't aliens. No, aliens are those who come from a completely different place and from a completely different culture and who probably have a completely different way of thinking from us.

Now Peter has just been talking about us being a chosen people, a people of the light, a people who have received God's mercy and who have become God's people, but now he adds anther description which should speak volumes to us if we are willing to think about it for a minute of two. We are, he says, “aliens and strangers in the world.” Now before we move fully into that we have to note something associated with this. When we think about the world being the planet on which we live, we should be those who appreciate it and enjoy it more than most, because we see it as a gift from God to us. Sadly Christians in the middle of last century had adopted a platonic view of the world and saw spirit as all important and material things as worldly. Now that is an ancient philosopher's assessment of life, not the Bible's. The Bible sees the world as God's wonderful provision for us; He made it and He gave us the capabilities to enjoy it. If we make that the most important thing in life we loose sense of perspective, but it is important because it is God's gift and we should appreciate it as such.

But there is another sense to the word ‘world'. The apostle John wrote, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1 Jn 2:15,16) It was misunderstanding this verse that pushed many Christians into a platonic way of thinking. When these apostles used the word ‘world' in this sort of context they were referring to the godless mentality of mankind, the human race that does not know God. Hence man without God is driven by sin and the ‘cravings' that John speaks about simply refer to the man who is driven by his senses and those linked to what he can see with his eyes, drive him. He is quite self-centred and so boasts about what he has and does, in an attempt to make something meaningful out of himself. This godless ‘world' is self-centred and sense-driven.

Now Peter says we are aliens and strangers to this ‘world'. We are culturally different, we think differently and we behave differently because we are different because we have a different origin. The world has been born but we, we have noted earlier in this letter, have been born again, or born twice. They were born of natural flesh; we have been born of God's Spirit. They are energized by natural physical desires; we have natural physical desires but are now energized by the Spirit of God within us. They work to please themselves and seek to get fulfilment from personal achievement and have goals that are purely material; we seek God, to please Him who loves us, and get a sense of fulfilment by being children of God living out God's design-purposes for us and have goals that are first to please Him and, second, that end in heaven and eternity. They seek to emulate pop stars or football stars; we seek to be like Jesus. In all of these ways we are utterly different.

This is why Peter concludes with a very practical appeal: “to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” The ‘world', we have just noted, works on the basis of desires for self-pleasing, self -aggrandisement . Because they have no boundaries because they have rejected God as the arbiter of what is right or wrong, they go into things that are clearly wrong, things that are against God's design for human beings, things that are therefore ‘sinful'. These are things that are alien to us and so if they are allowed in our lives they will be warring against the Spirit of God who dwells within us.

Because of everything else we said above, about who we are today, such things will be alien to us. It's like having an eyelash in our eye; it will be irritating until it is removed, or perhaps it is like having a small stone in your shoe which, again, is uncomfortable until removed. If we allow the things that the ‘world' do, to be in our lives they will cause discomfort and upset. Is this why some of us feel a lack of peace in our lives? Is it because we are allowing attitudes or practices or behaviour in our lives that are alien to the presence of God in us? These are very real issues for us and we ignore them at our peril.

1 Pet 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Whether it be desert fathers or shrinking violet Christians (who may just be shy or of the ilk that says you keep religion to yourself), there have always been those who prefer to hide their faith away from the limelight. Yet, unfortunately for them (and us if we have those inclinations) the New Testament (indeed the whole Bible) portrays a very different kind of faith that is expected by heaven.

Peter has gone from talking about us being a distinct people, to describing the nature of who we are, to now speaking about how visible we are. Look at his opening phrase, “Live such good lives among the pagans…” Even before he moves on, that suggests lives that are clearly visible by their goodness. If we weren't certain about that we must be by a later phrase, “they may see your good deeds”. So there it is again: live lives that stand out for their goodness. Oh, that's all right then, says our shy Christian, I only have to be good, not religious. Well no, not exactly. Put aside the ‘religious' bit and take note of the final bit, “and glorify God.” There are lots of godless but good (ethically) people in the world. If you are going to glorify God people are going to know who you are and that you have a relationship with the Lord, i.e. you are what you are because of God!

You are not just good because you are a nice person, but because you have been saved and changed and energised and motivated by the Lord. He is the cause for your particular lifestyle. The unbeliever may challenge us on a variety of things (as the modern crusading atheist does) but he should not be able to challenge us on the goodness of our lives. They should be clearly seen to be good – and I believe that is a very real challenge in today's world. Do we stand out with godly goodness? That, I have to admit, is the difficult bit, because it is so easy to appear superiorly pious in the doing good, and that is not what we want.

Our ‘doing good' is to flow out of a humility that is not looking down on people or making people feel we are looking down on them, but is to be a simple expression of our obedience to the leading of God's Holy Spirit. Many times in these meditations we find ourselves looking at Paul's word on this: “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10) Surely this means that God knows what He has on His heart for us to be doing, what fits in with who He has made us to be, and therefore His Holy Spirit will be seeking to lead us into those things. As the Lord said through Isaiah, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you , who directs you in the way you should go.” (Isa 48:17).

We find Jesus taught the same thing: “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16) There we have the same concept: be good and let your goodness reflect something of your relationship with the Lord so that people recognise that and glorify or praise or recognise and acknowledge the Lord.

Again and again in the New Testament we find this call to let our lives reveal something of the goodness and love of God. In his final prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:21) i.e. may their experience of us, the godhead, be so clear and transparent that it becomes obvious so that others will see, realise the truth and also become believers. Shortly afterwards he prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:23) Again, the same thing, may their lives as the whole church reflect such a wonder and unity and expression of my life that all the world will see and realise that this is our love being expressed. Lives that reveal God to the world!

Peter finishes with a strange expression, “on the day he visits us.” i.e. do good and glorify God when He turns up. Now commentators are generally at sea as to the meaning of this. It is not clear. The day he visits may be the last day. Jesus did challenge us about being ready, living out the lives he wants when he returns: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Lk 18:8) i.e. put another way it is like Peter is saying, make sure you are indeed revealing the life and love and goodness of God so you will not be caught out when Jesus returns. This seems perhaps the most likely understanding of this.

So how do we do this? It has got to be with the leading, guiding, teaching, empowering and motivating of God's Holy Spirit. We thus need to be open to Him and sensitive to Him and seeking to live out the lives that the New Testament speaks about. If we seek to comply with His word and we remain open to His leading, we may yet have a chance of becoming the church that He wants. May it be so for His glory!

1 Pet 2:13,14    Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

We have to remind ourselves again and again when focusing on one or two verses that they come in a context, they fit into what has gone before and what follows. There is a train of thinking in the mind of the writer and we need to try to follow it. Peter has just said, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (v.12) and the whole of the previous meditation was about us being visible, about being seen. What we now have is an illustration of how we are to live godly lives that are seen, and it is in respect of how we react to those in authority in our world.

Now I confess that being a modern person I find this difficult because, especially as at the time I am writing this we are in the run up to an election, and I do not feel good about the way our present government has been leading the country and not very excited about the alternatives. We live in an age where the media encourage us to challenge and criticise what government does. It is also an age that is large ungodly, where the majority do not acknowledge the Lord; one party leader acknowledges no faith and the two others appear to have a scanty faith. But does Peter say we have to like them or like what they have been doing? No, but he does call us to something else. He calls us to have a submissive attitude. Now that is difficult in today's age! We need to consider the extent or content of his teaching.

First of all his call is to submit to ALL authorities in our nation. We are to have a right attitude towards authority. Why? We are to have a right attitude, says Peter, because all authority, of whatever kind, comes from God. God is the one who institutes authority, and Peter goes on to tell us why He does: “to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right,” i.e. the purpose of all authority, declares Peter, is to establish and maintain the Law and to ensure Law and Order is maintained so that we may live peaceful lives. Now there is inherent in this an assumption that Governments and authorities are to clarify what is right and what is wrong and to make sure that society adheres to that, doing what is right and not doing what is wrong.

Now of course we live in a very much more complicated society today where government intervenes in daily life in ways that in Peter's day could not be imagined. Even in establishing and maintaining the welfare state imposes immense regulation, the application of which goes way beyond the bounds of simple moral right and wrong. The Ten Commandments, for instance, have nothing to say about corporate or governmental administrative law. In a relativist age where society has put aside God's moral absolutes, it is arguable that the vast majority of government policy comes outside the moral area that Peter has in mind.

Yet the truth still remains that while we are part of a democracy, while we are still Christians, the call to submit to and accept the dictates of Government (as long as they do not stray outside the morality of God's word) is still there. That is not to say that we cannot campaign and speak out against things we believe government are doing wrong, but until we can get them to change the law, the requirement upon us is to be those who keep the law. This means that we do what the law says and we don't seek to dodge it. We may not always like it, but while it does not go against the moral law of God we are called to adhere to it. Paul said a similar thing to Titus: “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good.” (Titus 3:1). As Peter has already hinted, how we submit to authorities, how we maintain a right attitude towards them, should be an expression of our goodness which might speak to others and point them to the Lord.

Indeed Paul opened up this whole subject to the church in Rome who were similarly struggling with the authority of Rome : “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.” (Rom 13:1-5) This is not something that is just a Peter issue; it is the witness of the leadership of the early church and it has not changed.

1 Pet 2:15    For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

The Church has not done a good job in following this verse in latter centuries and the result has been a surge for the last couple of hundred of years of negative comments from atheists. Now let's be quite clear, the Scriptural assessment is that “The fool says in his heart, "There is no God.” (Psa 14:1, 53:1). That is the atheist! The apostle Paul weighed in, speaking about, “men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Rom 1:18-20) Anyone who has eyes to see should see God's greatness is the Scriptural assessment and if they don't they condemn themselves.

Now having said that, the Scriptural assessment is that the Church also should be a witness to God. Throughout the Old Testament the idea of Israel being a light to the rest of the world comes up again and again. Now it is the turn of the Church to reveal God. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:20-23). Our unity and experience of God should let the world know the reality of the Father and the Son. How far we have fallen short!

On an individual level, Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16). It is said that in the first few centuries of the life of the early Church, the Christians were often known as key members of the local community who helped hold it together and bring goodness to society. Without doubt the Church has taken the Gospel to the world, and on occasion there have been bursts of light that have revealed God's goodness through the Church, but how often today do the local community look begrudgingly to the Church as the bringer of goodness to society?

Look, says Peter, this is God's plan, that you silence the doubters and the critics, and you reveal God's goodness “by doing good.” Yes, individuals have done good and have started charities that bless the world, but the Church as a whole has not been good at doing that; we have been more concerned at running our spiritual organizations which are often inwards looking and self-concerned. Now this should not be seen as a condemnatory and judgmental comment, but more a challenge to say that we have much to do to regain the ground that has been lost. It is also difficult in the modern world because Governments tend to take over the welfare aspects of society and there are also many other people who work for good in society.

So how does the Church go about it? Obviously, first of all, at an individual level, we simply seek to be loving, caring and compassionate individuals who reach out and touch the people we encounter and bless them with our servant-hearted attitude that seeks the welfare of others instead of putting self first. Corporately we need to face the truth of Scripture that calls us to be this sort of people, outward looking, seeking to bless others with God's love as well as sharing the Good News in words only.

The Good News is Jesus incarnate. He became flesh to come and live among us and the Gospel record is that he spent much of his time using the power of God to touch people physically and being healing to their lives. If we are to be his body we need to have an ear open to God in the same way Jesus did, to know what he should be doing and where he should be going, and seek the power of God to bring blessing and change wherever the opportunity arises.

While we are thinking of good works, we need to remember that verse which crops up again and again in these meditations: “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works , which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10) God alone knows best how we operate and what gifts He has given us, and so He is the one who has a plan for us to follow. All we have to do is find out what it is for us locally and individually. When He directs the ‘good works', we will find a new level of fruitfulness and impact within our society, and then God will truly be honoured and glorified. May it be so!

1 Pet 2:16   Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.

I wonder how many of us are really free? The New Testament has quite a lot to say about freedom. For example James refers to “the perfect law that gives freedom.” (Jas 1:25). The context there seems to suggest the will of God, originally expressed in the Law of Moses but now fulfilled in Christ, the law of love, which brings freedom to its followers. The apostle Paul writing to the Galatians declares, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,” (Gal 5:1) when he is speaking about no longer having to comply with Old Testament regulations. In fact throughout that letter he is suggesting a freedom from a rule-keeping mentality that still hung on from Old Testament times but which was no longer appropriate.

Why is it no longer appropriate? Because as Paul says, we are now freed children of God: “the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom 8:21). Moreover because we have the Holy Spirit within us, He brings freedom: “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor 4:17 ). Freedom is the outworking of the ministry of Jesus: “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners …. to release the oppressed” (Lk 4:18 ). All the things of the past – a sense of failure in rule-keeping, shame, guilt, fear etc. – have all been swept away when we were redeemed and were adopted as children of God empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Our sins have been dealt with: “Christ … has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Heb 9:15). Part of this means we no longer have to fear facing God in eternity: “that by his death he might … free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb 2:14,15). Paul, speaking of this was then able to declare, “now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation .” ( Col 1:22) or as he put in to the Romans, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1). No longer are we having to worry about keeping the rules (and failing) and having to face God after death. All of our sins have been dealt with by Christ on the Cross and so we are free to live as children of God. We are free children of God and we can look forward to meeting Him!

But there is a danger that Peter has in the back of his mind: “do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.” Freedom that is unrestrained reverts to license. Here is the young Christian who hears these things. Before they were a Christian they used to drink too much. They were convicted about that, became a Christian and then heard the good news that they were no longer under the Law or having to adhere to rules, and so say, “Fine, I can drink as much as I like then.” Hold on, says Paul, that is silly; you'll be leading yourself into greater temptation and the likelihood of a fall: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph 5:18)

“Just a minute,” I hear you saying, “that is a rule; you're putting us under the Law again, surely?” Well yes, the Law is always there in the background. It acts as a safety factor if we are being insensitive to the Spirit. He will always be seeking to lead us in righteous living, that is ‘right-living', living according to God's design, that is not harmful to us or to others. If we are immature, slow of understanding, or insensitive to the Holy Spirit, then we find the Law being applied by God, or at least the teaching with which the New Testament is full. Freedom does not mean we are free to do anything. Too much food is gluttony and leads to obesity, sex outside the confines of marriage leads to promiscuity, adultery and a whole host of other damaging actions. Excessive use of alcohol leads to drunkenness and again, a whole host of harmful spin-offs. If we are unable to enjoy our freedom without falling into excess, it probably means that we have obviously not yet realised what incredible lives we now have, i.e. low self esteem still rules, which needs to try to boost itself in some harmful way.

Peter has a helpful motivating thought: “live as servants of God.” So how is that helpful? He is saying, realise the wonder of who you are and you won't do these things, you won't feel you need to do these things to boost your ego. You are a servant or representative of God; that is an incredible privilege. All of heaven looks on at the wonder of who you are: “ His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 3:10) Our lives make the angels gasp at the wonder of God's love being expressed in us. How can we possibly live as anything less than the wonderful, holy, love-filled children of God who are salt and light to the rest of the world (Mt 5:13-16). Let's live in the freedom that Christ has bought for us, with wisdom and understanding, avoiding anything that leads others to deride His name as they watch us. Let's live with His grace and goodness that is called righteousness.

1 Pet 2:17   Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

There is an ongoing flow in Peter's train of thought. We might trace it back to verses 9 and 10 where he speaks of us being “a chosen people… a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him … now you are the people of God.” We are, in other words, a special people. Having identified us in this way, he wants us to stand out for good: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.” (v.12). Expanding on how we are to act within society he said, “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority” (v.13) so that “by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.” (v.15) and, on a negative note, he warns us “do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.” (v.16). In all of these ways he wants us to be people of good standing in society so that we will glorify God through our lives.

Which then brings us to “show proper respect to everyone.” There's been a lot about respect in the media in recent years, largely because of the feeling that it is something that is largely absent in modern society. So what does respect mean? Why does it permeate right the way through culture? Even the youth culture phrase, “Don't you dis me,” (i.e. don't you disrespect me) speaks of this requirement to be respected, something we would like but which seems is often missing.

Now when Peter speaks of showing ‘proper respect' there is an implication that respect should be given to every person. Respect means holding a good and right attitude about others, accepting them and esteeming them for who they are. At the very basic level, every person is made in the image of God, and every person is loved by God. Yet God has made each of us a sovereign figure, we rule our lives (in some measure at least) and have the ability to make choices that affect our own lives. We are not mere animals and we are not robots. We are human beings with an amazing range of abilities. We hold multiple roles in life – e.g. daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, employer etc. etc. – and in what we do and how we live we reveal something of the wonder of God, whether we realise it or not.

If we were really able to see one another with God's eyes, we look past the failures and foibles and go, “Wow!” I really like the prophetic gift because it allows one to see past the exterior and see something of the reality of the person before you and their potential and we are all considerably more than a cursory glance reveals. Because of that, each and every person is worthy of our respect in some measure.

But then Peter continues with three further brief injunctions which will reveal to others what we are really like. First there is “Love the brotherhood of believers.” That is shorthand for having a good attitude towards all other Christians. Note ALL other Christians. Why? Because we are all part of one big family that has God as its Father and who have their origins in Him. We are indeed all brothers and sisters in this family. We are related by the Holy Spirit and therefore there should be love among us.

Second there is simply, “fear God.” That is shorthand for, hold on to a right and proper relationship with the Lord whereby we honour Him for His greatness and glory and give Him the worship that is due to Him. He may be our heavenly Father but don't be over familiar or casual with Him. He is God Almighty, Creator of all things. ‘Fear Him' means realise the awesome wonder of who He is!

The third and final injunction in this simple verse is, “honour the king.” There is a right balance here. Honouring God first and then the rulers He has put in place, the figurehead of human society. The head of state or government is a powerful person and a person who carries much responsibility and, Scripture testifies, is answerable to God for the way they exercise their rule at the head of society. This person also deserves our respect (and prayers).

As we respond in different ways as Peter indicates here – with love, fear, respect – we reveal that we are people who understand our place in the scheme of things and our responses indicate we understand those to whom we respond. Thus, more than any other people, we should reveal reality. That is what this is all about! This is a world with God at its head and, one way or another, everyone is related to Him. Christian or otherwise, they deserve our respect, our ‘esteeming them for who they are.” May it be so!