When reading the New Testament epistles, I am often struck by the stark contrast between what was emphasized by Peter, Paul, James, John and Jude, and what is emphasized in contemporary “Christian” culture, specifically in churches, “Christian” bookstores, and on “Christian” television. These are often at polar opposites from Scripture, making them not just sub-Christian but anti-Christian.

Today I find myself thinking about that contrast once again. Clearly, Peter’s greatest concern was that his readers be holy and ready for the coming of the Lord. He was also concerned that they be on their guard “lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men” they “fall from [their] own steadfastness” (3:17). Yet so many teachers in the modern church do not share Peter’s concern, convinced that it is impossible for the saved to forfeit eternal life for any reason. In fact, rather than warning their flocks of this danger of which Scripture speaks repeatedly, they assure them that such a thing could never occur. Worse, holiness is equated to legalism and contrary to the gospel of grace! May God help us!

Peter was also concerned that after he and the other apostles had died, believers who remained would begin to wonder if they had been hoaxed, especially as mockers questioned why Jesus still had not returned (3:2-4). So Peter reminds us that it was God who created everything long ago, and it was God who once destroyed the world by a flood.

Some speculate that Peter, when writing of the earth that “was formed out of water and by water” (3:5), was not speaking of the time of Noah’s flood, but of an earlier flood in which God’s judgment was poured out upon an pre-Adamic creation, the aftermath of which is described in Genesis 1:2:

And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

This view is embraced by those who theorize that there is a gap of perhaps millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, which then makes allowance for an earth that is much older than a few thousand years, which is what one might conclude from the more standard reading of the book of Genesis.

Regardless of which interpretation is correct, God has historically demonstrated His wrath against the entire world in the past, and He has also historically demonstrated His mercy with a new beginning for the world. That same wrath and mercy will be demonstrated once again, yet with one difference. The next time, “the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (3:10). Afterwards, however, true to historical precedent, God will renew what He has destroyed. There will be “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (3:12).

Knowing this, according to Peter, should motivate us to be holy (3:11). In fact, he even states that we can hasten “the coming of the day of God” (3:12), implying that our obedience can affect the timing of Christ’s return. Contrasted with this, Peter tells us that one reason Jesus has been so slow to return is because He is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (3:9). So the reason it has taken Jesus so long to return is not because He is slow, but because He is lovingly patient, giving rebels more time to repent before their doom is forever sealed.

According to Peter, even in his day people were twisting Paul’s writings (3:16), so it shouldn’t surprise us to witness the same thing today. Some who distort Paul’s words do it “to their own destruction” (3:16), and Peter warns his readers to guard themselves against such teachers, lest they “fall from [their] own steadfastness” (3:17). Giving heed to false teaching can be spiritually deadly. Beware of the multitudes of pastors and teachers today who distort Paul’s writings about salvation by grace, all to their own destruction and the destruction of their hearers. Paul’s gospel was a call to repentance and holiness.

If Peter wrote his second epistle near the same time as Jude wrote his epistle, then there is little doubt that Peter would have been equally horrified over the heresy that was infiltrating the church then, a heresy that “turned the grace of God into licentiousness” (Jude 4). Peter also describes the false teachers who were responsible for spreading this heresy, and his words are so similar with some of Jude’s words that it seems safe to assume that one borrowed from another. Preachers take note: It is OK to borrow material from other preachers, as long as what you are borrowing is biblical!

The false teachers whom Peter warned against would “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” (2:1), indicating a subtlety in their methodology. Naturally, they were not publicly teaching, “We deny the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ,” or else they would have been easily identified and shunned by every believer. Rather, their teaching undermined the necessity of holiness while their lifestyles were characterized by sensuality and greed (2:2-3), which is why Peter wrote that they denied the Master, a title which emphasizes Jesus’ rightful role as Lord and our obligation to obey Him.

Notice Peter believed that Jesus had “bought” the false teachers, which indicates that Jesus died for their sins, paying the price for their redemption. Using the identical Greek word that Peter used that is translated “bought” (agarazo), Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). So, undeniably, Jesus died for the sins of the false teachers who were “bringing swift destruction upon themselves” (2:1). This exposes the error of the Calvinistic idea that Jesus only died for those whom God allegedly predestined to be saved.

Because it is impossible to circumvent Peter’s plain declaration that Jesus bought the false teachers, some Calvinists resort to claiming that the “swift destruction” that those false teachers would experience was only speaking of their imminent physical deaths, after which time they would be welcomed into heaven, secure in God’s grace. That is, however, a worse heresy than the one being promoted by the false teachers. If it were true, then we are to think that adulterers and greedy people (2:2-3, 14), whom Scripture repeatedly warns will not inherit eternal life (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5), will inherit eternal life. Moreover, the three groups whom Peter immediately cites to illustrate what happens to those like the false teachers, namely, the angels who rebelled and were cast into hell, the ancient world whom God judged with a flood, and the perverts in Sodom and Gomorrah upon whom God reigned fire and brimstone (2:4-6), are not very good examples of people who were ultimately welcomed into heaven!

Take note that the false teachers whom Peter condemned were formerly in good standing with God, having at one time “known the way of righteousness,” they had “escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2:20-21). Peter used a similar expression in 1:4, where he wrote of believers who have “escaped the corruption that is in the world” through knowledge of Jesus. There is no doubt that the false teachers had at one time been delivered from their sins through Christ. Yet they, like all of us, were still free moral agents, and they became “again entangled in [their sins] and were overcome,” so that “the last state had become worse for them than the first” (2:20).

This passage clearly debunks the cardinal doctrine of Calvinism that maintains that all true believers will persevere in their faith. It also debunks the widely-held notion among evangelicals that those who believe in Jesus for any amount of time, no matter how limited, can never forfeit their salvation.

It is also interesting that all Calvinists adamantly maintain that no person can escape his sins without the divine help of the Holy Spirit (which is absolutely true), yet some Calvinists want us to believe that the false teachers of whom Peter wrote were never actually saved, but had only experienced false conversions. Yet they had been delivered from their sins.

Praise God that “grace and peace” (1:2) as well as “everything pertaining to life and godliness” (1:3) are ours by means of “the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (1:3). Note that Peter stresses not just knowledge about God, but true knowledge about Him. A false knowledge does not result in grace, peace, eternal life or godliness. And by these criteria we can ascertain if our knowledge about God is true or false. If what we know is not producing godliness in our lives, for example, we do not possess true knowledge about God.

Peter essentially repeats that same concept yet a third time but by using different words in 1:4, where he writes that it is by means of God’s “precious and magnificent promises” that we have become “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world.” He is obviously writing about the holiness we possess due to our accurate understanding of God and His Son. Again we see that those who truly know God are transformed people. As John wrote, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).

Yet our transformation is not something that occurs without our cooperation; nor do we reach perfection instantly. Peter admonishes us to diligently apply ourselves to personal sanctification. Verses 5-7 are not a list of steps to take one at a time, but are a checklist of virtues towards which we should already be applying ourselves. Peter did not say, “Now that you’ve got faith (the first step), start working on the second step, moral excellence. And once you’ve achieved that, go to the third step,” and so on. Rather, he said, “In your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,” and so on. Moral excellence is born out of our faith, and the same is true for knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and Christian love.

Every true believer possesses all those traits to some extent and should be increasing in them: “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:8). Yet Peter describes the one who lacks those qualities as being “blind or short-sighted” (1:9), that is, lacking true knowledge, even though he may at one time have possessed it. He has, according to Peter, “forgotten his purification from his former sins,” and as I’m sure you know by now, he has put himself in a very dangerous spiritual condition, because he will stand before God “useless and unfruitful” (1:8).

That is precisely why Peter then admonishes us to “be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing” us (1:10). Those who lack the qualities Peter listed have good reason to question if they are among those chosen by God, because He chooses those who have faith in the Lord Jesus and whose lives demonstrate that faith. Only those whose lives make evident their profession of faith have a genuine assurance of salvation, as Peter writes, “As long as you practice these things, you will never stumble, for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you” (1:10-11). Again we see that heaven belongs to the holy. This is not salvation by works, but salvation by a faith that works.

Peter knew that “the laying aside of his earthly dwelling was imminent” (1:14), and he was concerned that once he died, some might give up hope that Jesus would ever return, since He had not returned in Peter’s lifetime. Thus Peter affirmed his confidence that, even though he would not live to see Christ’s return, Christ would return. He then recounted the time some 30 years earlier when he, along with James and John, saw Jesus transfigured and heard God’s voice (Matt. 16:27 – 17:8). That experience only confirmed what the prophets had been foretelling for centuries: God will one day come to earth and establish His kingdom. Everyone needs to be ready for that day!

When Jude wrote this short epistle—assumed to be some time between AD 66 and 90—he was quite alarmed over a certain heresy that was creeping into the churches. The very gospel itself was being subverted by false teaching, and so Jude wrote an appeal to all true believers to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (1:3).

More specifically, false teachers who had “crept in unnoticed,” were “turning the grace of God into licentiousness,” and “denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (1:4). Because they had “crept in unnoticed,” it seems unlikely that they were publicly and verbally denying the Lord. Rather, their false teaching about God’s grace—which turned it into a license to sin—was tantamount to denying the Lord and Master. Obviously, the titles of Lord and Master denote a person of authority who should be obeyed.

This same heresy, of course, has crept in unnoticed in our day as well. God’s grace, which Scripture says instructs us to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12), has been turned into a license for sin. When preachers tell us that holiness is not part of the salvation equation, or that any teaching about obedience is legalism, or that it is impossible for a true believer to forfeit his salvation for any behavioral reason, we should be greatly alarmed. God’s grace is being turned into licentiousness.

In quick succession, Jude lists some biblical examples that illustrate the necessity of holiness. Even though God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, most never entered the Promised Land because of sin (1:5). And there are angels who once resided in heaven who are now “kept in eternal bonds under darkness” (1:6). So one’s current favor with God is no guarantee of one’s future favor if one abandons obedience.

Jude also cites the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, sexual perverts upon whom God rained fire and brimstone; Cain, whom God judged for hatred and murder of his brother; Balaam, whose god was money; and the rebellious men of Korah, who, when the ground opened, were swallowed. All illustrate God’s hatred of sin and the necessity of holiness if one is to have a relationship with Him.

The false teachers and their disciples could be, just as Jesus said, “known by their fruits” (Matt. 7:15-21). According to Jude, they were characterized by sexual immorality, rejecting authority, reviling angelic majesties, grumbling, fault-finding, following their own lusts, speaking arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage, mocking and causing divisions (1:7-8, 16, 18-19). Yet they were within the church, “hidden reefs in your love feasts,” love feasts being shared meals among the believers (1:12).

Interestingly, Jude quoted two apocryphal books—that is, books that have not been accepted as being inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus were not included in the Bible. The first quotation is found in 1:9, where Jude referred to the devil having a dispute about the body of Moses. According to the writings of some early church fathers, that incident was recorded in a book titled The Assumption of Moses, and in it the devil tried to claim Moses’ dead body because he had once killed an Egyptian. Remember that, according to the record in Deuteronomy, no one knew where Moses’ body was buried because God performed the funeral (Deut. 34:6). Perhaps arch angel Michael did the actual burying of Moses’ body.

The other apocryphal quotation is found in 1:14-15, taken from The Book of Enoch. Enoch was the pre-flood man who “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). He prophesied in the book of his name concerning the return of the Lord to earth to execute judgment on the ungodly.

So why did Jude use information from books that are uninspired? Jude was not endorsing those apocryphal books as being inspired by God, but was simply endorsing two passages as being historically accurate. Just because something is true doesn’t mean it is inspired by God.

The main message today? Be holy.

Some modern biblical scholars debate if Peter is actually the author of this epistle. They doubt that an unlearned fisherman could write in such an urbane, cultured style of Greek. They seem to forget that Peter retired as a fisherman about 35 years earlier to embark in a career of public speaking! Is it possible that Peter learned some things about communication during 35 years of practice? May I also mention that even from the outset of Peter’s new career, learned men were amazed at his speaking ability since he was “uneducated and untrained” (Acts 4:13). The Holy Spirit is a good helper!

Incidentally, if Peter didn’t write this epistle, then we ought to rip it from our Bibles, as the person who did write it was a liar who claimed to be the same Peter who witnessed Christ’s sufferings.

Today’s chapter begins with instructions to elders regarding their shepherding responsibilities (5:1-2), so they are instructions to pastors/elders/overseers. Remember that there wasn’t a single pastor/elder/overseer to whom Peter wrote whose ministry was like that of most modern pastors. Those whom Peter addressed did not prepare weekly sermons or conduct services in special church buildings. They did not direct worship teams or Sunday school teachers, or oversee a staff consisting of assistant pastors, youth pastors and children’s ministers, and so on. They simply discipled little flocks that met in houses for participatory and interactive meetings. Therefore, such pastors could actually be “examples to the flock” (5:3), something that is impossible for most modern pastors, whose interaction with their congregations usually amounts to nothing more than standing in front of them for an hour on Sundays and shaking their hands as they exit the sanctuary. Only those pastors with little flocks have the potential to teach their flocks by their example.

Heavy-handed “pastors” who manipulate their flocks for their own selfish ends, beware! You will stand before the Chief Shepherd one day, who laid down His life to serve the sheep whom you “lord it over” (5:3). Genuine pastors who serve their flocks will “receive the unfading crown of glory” (5:4). God bless all the good pastors around the world! They deserve their future crowns!

How wonderful it is to know that God cares for us (5:7). That simple fact fills our hearts with peace. There is no good reason that we have to worry about anything, so we are wise to follow Peter’s instruction to cast all our cares upon the Lord (5:7). Worrywarts, repent! Worries are like prayers that say, “God, I know you can’t be trusted!”

Peter paints a picture of Satan as a “roaring lion” who “prowls around…seeking someone to devour” (5:8). His prowling about to devour someone was, in Peter’s mind, connected to the persecution that his readers were suffering (5:9). If Satan “devours” a believer by means of persecution through unbelievers, what is the outcome? It would seem quite logical to think that Peter was speaking once again of the danger of believers falling away from the faith, especially since Peter admonishes them in the same passage to resist the devil, “firm in their faith” (5:9). That is, suffering believers must hold fast in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, even though they are tempted to abandon their faith to escape the fires of persecution.

It is also good to remember that God is always in control even when He permits His people to suffer under persecution, and that He is working all things together for our good (Rom. 8:28). He uses our trials, according to Peter, to “perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish” us (5:10). If you will look back at your spiritual life, you will probably notice that your times of greatest spiritual growth were those times when everything wasn’t easy. It could well be said: “No spiritual pain; no spiritual gain!”

Peter closed this epistle with the admonition, “Greet one another with the kiss of love” (5:13). Have you kissed a Christian today?

Who wants to suffer? Not me! Who may want me to suffer? God!

Why is that? He wants me to be holy, and “he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (4:1-2). Pain, when it is associated with sin, has a way of motivating us to stop sinning—to escape the pain. That is why spanking disobedient children is a smart idea. And God is certainly that smart. “Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6).

God often disciplined wayward Israel by means of their enemies. He permitted various nations to persecute His people in order to bring them back to Him. And the New Testament teaches that God sometimes permits persecution in order to discipline His wayward children as well. I would not, however, jump to the conclusion that persecution is always an indication of God’s discipline. God may also permit persecution as a test. Peter affirmed this when he wrote, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you” (4:12). The intended recipients of his letter were being maligned and reviled for their holy lifestyles and love for Christ (4:4, 14). But Peter wrote that they should count themselves blessed, because their sufferings were proof that “the Spirit of glory and of God” rested upon them (4:14).

This was not, of course, Peter’s original thought. Jesus told His followers that they were blessed when they were persecuted for the sake of righteousness, as it was a sure indication that they were on the way to heaven, where their reward would be great. When we arrive in heaven and see the rewards that are given to those who suffered the most, I suspect we will wish that we had suffered more persecution on earth. So it makes sense to follow Peter’s admonition, “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (4:13).

What did Peter mean when he wrote that the gospel has “been preached even to those who are dead” (4:6)? I don’t think he meant that the gospel had been preached to people after they died physically, as there is no other scripture that would support such an idea. So the only other possibility is that Peter was speaking of the fact that the gospel had been preached to people who are spiritually dead. Peter did say that the reason for this was that “they may live in the spirit according to the will of God” (4:6), indicating that it was spiritual death and life that he had in mind. Yet his writing in that particular verse is admittedly not as clear as we would like it to be.

Praise God for everyone who has received some special gift from God that has been graciously given to them to benefit the body of Christ. Those who have gifts should never forget that a stewardship has been entrusted to them and that they will have to give an account. Peter first lists those who have been given speaking gifts. They should, he said, not speak their own ideas or theories, but “the utterances of God” (4:11). How many sermons meet that condition?

This chapter ends with sobering words: “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (4:17). God was examining all those who claimed to be His own, and He was disciplining those who were falling short of His expectations in order to purify them to ensure their ultimate salvation. According to Peter, people who are unrighteous don’t have a chance of being saved, because “it is with difficulty that the righteous are saved” (4:18). So let us trust God as He works to make us holy.

There is just no getting around it. The New Testament teaches wives to be submissive to their husbands. We read it today from Peter and we’ve read it before in Paul’s writings (1 Pet. 3:1-6; Eph. 5:22-24; Col 3:18). Of course, both Peter and Paul have instructions about how husbands should treat their wives, and so some Christian wives have adopted an attitude that declares, “I will gladly submit to a husband who loves me like Christ loves the church,” implying that they are only responsible to be submissive if their husbands first love them rightly. Peter, however, quashes that position, instructing wives to be submissive to their own husbands even if their husbands are “disobedient to the word” (3:1), that is, unsaved.

Of course, God does not expect any wife to submit to her husband’s demands if by doing so she must disobey the Lord. Rather, her “chaste and respectful behavior” will hopefully win her husband to the Lord. So when Peter or Paul instruct wives to be submissive to their husbands, they are not advocating blind subservience; nor are they giving husbands a blank check to dominate their wives. The husband who points his finger and yells at his wife, “You’d better do what I say, because the Bible says I’m the head,” is indeed a head—a pinhead! In the simple instructions of Peter and Paul, we find the remedy for most marital disharmony and our soaring divorce rate. If wives will be submissive, and if husbands will honor their wives “as fellow heirs of the grace of life” (3:7), marriage will become the enjoyable blessing that God intended. Otherwise, it can be hell on earth, as many can testify.

Husbands, take note that by not showing your wife the honor she deserves, your prayers may be hindered (3:7). There is a definite correlation between our obedience and the blessings that God bestows upon us. This is true not only within the context of marriage, but in every other area of life. If we want to “love life and see good days,” here is Peter’s recipe (quoting David in Psalm 34):

He must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (3:10-12).

That is a wonderful motto for daily life.

It is interesting that the early Christians were never told in the New Testament epistles to invite their unsaved friends to church, to go witnessing door to door, or to preach the gospel in the marketplaces. The early church considered the preaching of the gospel to be the responsibility of those who were supernaturally equipped to do so, namely apostles and evangelists. Yet this is not to say that average Christians had no responsibility in regards to spreading the gospel. They were to support those who were called to travel and proclaim the gospel. And they were to live holy lives before a watching world, and be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asked them to give an account for the hope that was in them” (3:15).

Our lives are to be like lights shining in the darkness, demonstrating such a contrast that people notice that we’re different. When they ask us why we live as we do, that is our opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

Who were the “spirits now in prison” whom Jesus preached to after His crucifixion, who “once were disobedient…in the days of Noah” (3:19-20)? It sounds as if they were the spirits of people who died physically in Noah’s flood, who are now in hell awaiting final judgment. Some claim, however, that Peter was actually saying that back in the days of Noah, Jesus preached “in spirit” to sinners, and those unrepentant people are now “in prison.” That seems to be stretching the text in my opinion. Yet I have no idea what Jesus would have had to say to people in hell after His crucifixion and before His resurrection. Stumped again!

Today’s chapter continues Peter’s emphasis on holiness. Obviously, believers are capable of committing the sins of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, otherwise Peter would not have felt a need to admonish his readers to put them all aside (2:1). Of course, lying, hypocrisy, jealousy and envy are all mentioned elsewhere as being damning sins (Rev. 21:8; Matt. 24:51; Gal. 5:20-21). Peter’s admonitions are more than just “helpful hints for self improvement.”

Peter paints a few metaphorical pictures to help us to progress in Christ. We are to be “like newborn babes” who “long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it we may grow in respect to salvation” (2:2). We all know how much babies desire their mother’s milk. Without that nourishment, they’ll die. Likewise, we need to feed regularly on God’s Word. A little snack once a week on Sundays is not enough. Babies need their mother’s milk every few hours. We literally can’t get too much of God’s Word. He told the Israelites:

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:5-9).

Peter not only wants us to see ourselves as hungry babies, but also as “living stones” that are being used to construct a holy temple, of which Jesus is the cornerstone. Together, we “offer up spiritual sacrifices,” that is, worship through our acts of obedience (2:5).

Peter also describes us as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (2:9). These are not metaphorical descriptions, but actual realities. If we see ourselves as God does, we are more motivated to “abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (2:11). All of us face those inward battles. Seeing ourselves as royal priests and a holy nation helps us to win that battle. When faced with temptation, we should remind ourselves, “Because of who I am, I don’t stoop to that sort of behavior.”

Unjust suffering is certainly not something from which Christians are exempt. In fact, Peter seems to imply that it is our destiny (2:21). Remembering Christ’s example can help us to endure. Truly, there has never been a greater example of unjust suffering than when Jesus, sinless and pure, was persecuted and crucified. Yet He patiently and quietly endured, and “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (2:23). He knew that one day, everyone who reviled Him would have to stand before His Father and give an account. So we can also rest in God’s ultimate justice. Our calm and non-retaliatory confidence is liable to make them wonder, just as Jesus’ silence astonished Pilate (Matt 27:14). Perhaps it will lead to their repentance.

Peter sums up the gospel beautifully in today’s final two verses. Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the cross” (2:24). His reason? That “we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (2:24). So the fifth verse of the American abolitionist song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, rings true:

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.

Both the repentance required and the transformation offered in the gospel are rooted in the Old Testament, indicated by Peter as he alludes to Isaiah 53. “All of us like sheep have gone astray,” wrote both Isaiah and Peter (2:25), but “now we have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls” (2:25). That is repentance. And “by Jesus’ wounds,” both Isaiah and Peter wrote, “we were healed” (2:24). That is transformation.

Scholars often place the date of Peter’s writing his first epistle between AD 60 and 64, the latter of which is the assumed time of his martyrdom. Peter wrote to persecuted believers who were scattered across modern Turkey, and he reminded them from the outset of his letter that they were “aliens,” an apt description of all Christians. We’re strangers to this world, a family whose citizenship is in heaven. Of course those who hate God hate us.

We’re also “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God” (1:1-2). God foreknows everyone intimately, and thus He can choose people before they are born. But did He flip a coin to determine who would be saved and who would not be saved? Or did He have some reason for choosing some and not others? Obviously, in light of the entire revelation of Scripture, the answer is that God chose all whom He foreknew would repent and believe in Jesus. And clearly, as Peter states, God not only chose us, but planned that we would be sanctified, or set apart for holy use by the Holy Spirit, that we might “obey Jesus and be sprinkled with His blood” (1:2). God’s original intention went beyond forgiveness to transformation. It is part of the package!

It is that transformation that attracts persecution from the world. Obviously, if Christians were no different than unbelievers, the world would have no reason to hate and persecute us. Thus, persecution serves a positive spiritual end; namely, it identifies believers. And when we persevere under persecution, it proves the genuineness of our faith. So Peter writes of “the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:7). We should rejoice when we are hated, just as Jesus instructed us:

Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets (Luke 6:22-23).

Jesus, however, also spoke of those who “fall away…when affliction or persecution arises because of the word.” They “have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary” (Mark 4:17). And this is why we are so often admonished in Scripture to “continue in the faith” and “hold fast” to what we have (Acts 14:22; Col. 1:23; 1 Cor. 15:2; Heb. 3:6, 14, 4:14, 10:23; Rev. 2:25, 3:11).

These verses are often ignored by preachers who realize that people would rather hear scriptures that seem to guarantee eternal security for everyone who verbalizes faith in Christ. But those scriptures which guarantee God’s faithfulness (some of which are found in today’s reading) do not guarantee our faithfulness. There is a difference! And this is the reason Peter so strongly admonishes all of us who “address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work” to “conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our stay on earth” (1:17).

All of us must stand before the impartial Judge one day, and if that judgment was nothing more than a passing out of rewards as some claim, then there would be no reason to fear. In fact, if the worst consequence of that judgment was a little verbal reprimand, there would still be no reason to fear. Peter was concerned that his readers might, like the goats in Jesus’ foretelling of the judgment of the sheep and goats, be shocked to find themselves condemned because they did not possess “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

As free moral agents, we can choose to obey or disobey. So it makes perfect sense that Peter wrote to born-again believers, “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” (1:15). Who is holy? Those who want to be holy. It is that simple!

The world is watching to see if there is any difference between us and them. They are watching for two reasons. Some observe us because they are sincerely searching for some meaning to life, and they wonder if we have something that they don’t. Their hearts are open. If they observe hypocritical behavior, however, it convinces them that we are no different than anyone else in the world. And their conclusion is accurate.

Others watch us in hopes of discovering hypocrisy so that they can justify their own sin and continue in it. They think to themselves, “I’m better than Christians, because at least I’m not a hypocrite.” When professing Christians do what is right, however, it condemns those who watch. So they revel when they discover flaws in professing believers. Our sins are a salve for their guilt. Worse, our sins strengthen them in their sin.

How important it is that we live lives that mirror our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! The greatest hindrance to the gospel in the earth today is the church, the hypocritical church that is. Paul’s instructions regarding the behavior of professing believers is motivated, at least in part, by his concern “that the word of God not be dishonored” (2:5), and so that “the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us” (2:8).

For this reason, we should make it our goal to shame Christ-rejectors by our deeds. Twice in today’s chapter, and three times in the next chapter (2:7, 14; 3:1, 8, 14), Paul stresses how important it is that we be engaged in “good deeds.” In fact, Paul declares that the reason Jesus gave Himself for us was to “redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (2:14). God’s intention in the gospel was not just to forgive us, but to make us holy.

Holiness is indeed the major theme in today’s reading, and Paul hones in on specific behavior that is expected of older men, older women, young women, young men, Titus himself, and bondslaves (2:1-10). It is not that God has different standards for each of these groups, but that these groups each tend to face unique temptations because of their cultural roles. It is older women with time on their hands, for example, who are most likely to fall into the sin of gossip (2:3). Paul admonishes them to make use of their time by discipling younger women who can learn from their experience and wisdom.

How some women bristle when they read Paul’s words in 2:4, where he encourages younger women to “love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands.” Such women have been brainwashed (or better said, “brain-dirtied”) by the world into thinking that being a devoted wife and mother is ignoble. It is, however, a very honorable career, requiring the greatest virtue, servanthood. Keep in mind that in Paul’s day, there were no day-care centers at which mothers could drop off their children while they hurried off to earn a paycheck. The result was that mothers exerted great influence over their young children by virtue of their time together, and their children did not experience the negative socialization that comes from spending their days with groups of miniature cannibals!

Remember, “A scripture a day keeps Calvinism at bay,” and Paul does not disappoint us today. He wrote, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (2:11). God’s offer of saving mercy is offered to all, not just a selected few. Paul was not a Calvinist.

And is the grace that God is offering to all a grace that gives them license to sin? Is it so they can continue on their self-willed path while hiding behind the blood of Christ? No, Paul wrote that God’s grace instructs us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (2:12). That may not be the grace being proffered from many churches, but it is the only grace being offered from heaven!