Our FATHER by Ben Fronczek

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Our FATHER

1 Peter 1:17 – 2:3    Our FATHER    by Ben Fronczek

A story is told of a young orphan boy who moved into another family’s home.  Since he never had a father figure in his life before, he asked the man of the house if he could be his father and call him Dad. The nice man explained to the boy that it was ok with him as long as he didn’t mind the responsibilities of being called his son.

It is more than a name it is a position. That title says you are giving someone authority over your life. That’s why I didn’t want my kids calling me Ben, but rather, dad, daddy, or father.

In Peter  1:17-19, Peter writes, 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Sometimes when I study different Bible verses I like to reword them. It helps me understand them a little better. For example when I rework the words here it says this:  ‘Since you were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, the lamb without defect, and since you call on the Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time here as foreigners in reverent fear.’

Someone by the name of  By John R. Wayland wrote what I believe is a good explanation of this passage. Here it is…

 “We have the amazing privilege of calling the God of the universe our “Father.”   We are in this fantastic Father/child relationship with Him only because He was willing to pay a huge price in order to bring us into His family. To live in reverent fear of Him means we do not take any of this for granted.

Keeping in mind the huge price the Father paid to have us in His family, let’s live our lives in such a way as to honor Him. Keep in mind that He’s our Father! As His children, we are to stay away from anything that would displease Him. I am convinced that we will do that as a result of living a life of reverent fear.”  By John R. Wayland | Mon, 21 May 2007

As Peter continues on here in his letter encouraging and instructing those early Christians, he has some practical things to add. In the first lesson one Peter makes a special point or reminding them that of God’s grace and salvation.  He also reminds them of the hope we have as Christians; the fact that God has promised the faithful Christian an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade. It is a place in that unseen realm where angels tread and where the all faithful who ever walked this earth will be blessed with an existence of perpetual love,  majesty and a sense of security. That is what we should all be looking forward to, and the reality of that hope should empower us and give us strength when times get hard.

And in the last lesson we saw that Peter let’s his readers know that with such blessings come responsibilities. We are to do our best to get our heads screwed on right, be self controlled,and do our best to live a holy life because our new Lord is holy and call us to that life style.

In our text today we see that Peter not only continues to remind them of how blessed they are and what responsibilities we have as Christians, he also brings to light a few more interesting facts. So let’s look these  lessons now:

#1 – Our God is not a distant celestial being who just watches from afar, rather He is our Father.  When Peter and the other disciples saw Jesus praying, and  John the Baptist and his disciple praying they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.  (John 11:1-4)

And what did Jesus teach? He taught them to approach and pray to God as ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’   Never before had God, the Lord of the universe, been revealed in such an intimate manner as Jesus revealed Him. He is not anything like the mythical God’s of the Romans, Greeks or Babylonians, nor like the god of any other people. God is a life giving and caring father, and we can approach Him as such.

I personally believe if one wants to understand why we are here, and who God is, for me I need to look at who God is in this light. He is our Father, we are His children. He brought us into being into this universe for the same reason we want to have children; in Ephesians Paul says, it’s for His pleasure (Eph 1:5).  And Iike us, I also believe He wants us to love, honor and obey Him because we truly want to; because we love Him. Like a loving dad He even forgives us when we mess up. Just think of the Parable of the Prodigal son. It’s a parable more about the God’s fatherly love than about a son’s  mistakes. (Luke 15)

# 2 – Peter lets his readers know that Father God judges each person’s work impartially. Since we are all his children, He loves us all equally. He is not going to favor the doctor, or brain surgeon over a hired farm hand.

He is not going to give the kings, presidents, or any other ruler preferred treatment over anyone else. It doesn’t matter if we are black, white, yellow or red. It doesn’t matter what race or family we were born into. We are all his children. And in the end those differences will not matter, but He will look at what we’ve done with our life.

In Luke 19 starting with verse 12 Jesus tells an interesting parable about a noble giving his servants some money to see how well they invested it. Well after he leaves them he is appointed king over all the land and when he returns he calls those servant to him to see how faithful they were with his money. The first man turned his share into ten more and as a reward he was given 10 cities to rule over. The second man made five more share with the share given to him by his master and so he was rewarded with charge over 5 cities. But the last man did not do anything with his master share. That one share was take away from him and given to the one who had ten and then the man was punished .  Luke 19:12-27 and Matthew 25:14-30

Many commentator suggest that this parable teaches that faithful service now in our earthly life will result in blessed positions of authority later. Let me ask you this; do you think when you get to heaven all you are going to do is just sit around, play a harp forever? I think not. Yes I believe we will spend time getting to know God better and worshipping Him.  And we will spend some quality time with angels and our brothers and sister in our new home, but I personally don’t believe that God created us to be eternal beings just to exist like bumps on a log.

No, we are not told what we will be doing in that plain of existence, in Heaven; maybe we just can’t understand it all now. There must be a reason why God created us in His own image. But what we do know is that those who have shown themselves to be faithful here will be given a proportionate measure of authority there.  Let your imaginations run away with that!

# 3 – Peter also reminds them and us that we that this world is not our permanent home.  The NIV  says that we should ‘live in reverent fear as you live your lives as strangers here.’    The NLT translate verse 17 as “ you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” 

The NAS version says to, “conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;”   As Peter has told us already, this world is not our permanent dwelling place, it is not our REAL home and we should not live our life like it is.

In the reading by John Hayward, he said, “To live in reverent fear of Him means we do not take any of this for granted.” I like what he said here!

What Father God has done for us is just too important and too precious to take those things for granted.

Regarding people who accept Jesus as Lord and then turn back to a sinful life, in Peters second letter he writes, “20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

I don’t think you can get any more graphic than that. The point is that we need stand our ground and hang in there because the blessing outweigh any benefit that we could receive in giving up.

 #4 – So in verse 1:22 – 2:1:3 Peter gives some practical advice on how to live.  Read 1:22-2:3

1.  Love one another deeply from the heart  vs. 22. Now we are not talking about a superficial love here. Peter encourages Christians to start loving one another deeply from the heart. The Greek word implies earnestly or with intensity.  That’s a bond that will support you through trials and temptations. That’s a bond where we will find ourselves spending time with and encourage our brother and sister in Christ.
2. And the next thing Peter tells us is to clean up our act; to get rid some bad habits and start craving something new. 

Read 2:1-3  “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Closing Question:

How far is God’s Love and His promises going to carry you?

Will they carry you beyond your hardships, beyond your personal grief and pain?

Will His promises empower you to make needed changes in your life?

Will they be the very source of strength in your life? I hope so. I hope that God’s love and promises carry you beyond this life and into the next with God Himself telling you, ‘Well done good and faithful servant.’

For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566