Q&A: 1 Peter 1 week 1

1 Peter 1 part 1 Q&A

Here are some brief answers to our questions from our Sunday evening service.

1. if suffering is so often used to glorify God does the Christian walk inherently involve suffering? Is glorifying God through/despite suffering more powerful?

Followers of Jesus want to see God glorified in every part of their life. This should happen when things are going well, and when things are not. Suffering is a part of life. Glorifying God therefore should happen whilst we are facing times of suffering also. But it is not necessarily "more powerful".

The refiner's fire that Peter speaks of (verse 7) is an analogy of gold being refined in the fire. When it is passed through this intense heat, the impurities are burned off - it is purified. Suffering can have this effect on the Christian. When we go through the "fires" of suffering, it can be a time to make us more like Jesus - a time to trust God more, a time to focus on what is important, a time to prioritise our lives well, so that we might reflect on him more. Suffering is an opportunity to be changed significantly by the work of God's Holy Spirit in our lives.

Suffering is not necessarily a time where glorifying God is more powerful, but it can be.

2. Why are we tempted so much throughout our life with the risk that we might lose faith as a result of succumbing to temptation?

Satan loves to undermine our confidence in Jesus. When we place our lives in Jesus' hands, we are forgiven and given eternal life. Like any good Father, God does not let go of us when we make a mistake, deliberately or accidentally. God calls us back. And keeps calling us back. But Satan loves for us to doubt our salvation. He loves for us to think that we don't deserve grace, forgiveness, and love. He looks for us to think that God has given up on us. But remember the promises of God. We are elect. Chosen by Him for his purposes and his plans and his future. These promises of God are repeated throughout the Bible again and again.

In the song, "Before the Throne of God Above", verse 2 says it well:

When Satan tempts me to despair,
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look and see Him there
who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God the Just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me;
to look on Him and pardon me.

Click here for a link to the video of the song

3. How do we wrestle with v4 and those that have come to faith but have later fallen off. V4 talks about an inheritance not fading . Does it mean they didn’t believe

It could mean they didn't believe already. But this is not what Hebrews is usually talking about...

Hebrews 2:1 says:

Hebrews is full of warnings not to drift away, not to walk away from God. It is talking about a deliberate giving up, a deliberate decision, despite God's calls back, to turn away from the faith one known to you. This is not accidental. But it happens when we drift, not staying connected to God and his people. What do we expect will happen? God will not "force" us to keep following him. But he will not give up chasing us. Hebrews hold these two ideas closely - don't give up, but also, if you choose to deliberately give up, to deliberately pursue sin, what then is left for God to do but to hold you in judgment?

Remember, like any inheritance, we can make that choice to forfeit it. But that would be a very deliberate and difficult choice to make. It won't happen accidentally. And it won't happen without us realising.

Happy to talk more about this. It is not easy to discuss this in brief writing like this, as it is a difficult and complex idea.

4. In modern Australian society, the socio-cultural landscape is the main arena of the persecuted Christians. What are your thoughts on how to positively stand out?

I think the social justice issues are a common place i our society for persecution. Abortion for example is an area where God calls his people to stand firmly in supporting all human life. However, we also need to understand "why" people choose (or need) to have abortions. We need to wrestle with how to help people with unplanned pregnancies. We could say "Abortion is wrong" but we need to say "How can I support this person in having this child?" This is how we stand out. And being anti "choice" is not popular. There are also medical reasons peope need to have abortions, for the sake of the life of the mother. Christians are often seen to neglect this very important area of the issue.

The issue of sexuality is another area that is rising fast as a complex issue where Christians often face persecution because of their beliefs. However, this is, in my opinion, often due to a poor understanding or poor choice of words from Christians in how they speak about these things. We are often spoken about badly because of what a few people have carelessly said about these matters. I think we need to be better in talking about these things. We need to have more discussions with people on both sides of these issues. We need to, even when persecuted for our Biblical beliefs on sexuality, be prepared to face the abuse of the world, but also be kind and loving in sharing our beliefs.

You'll notice that the people Jesus had a go at the most were the Jewish leaders, not the unbelievers. He was forever telling them that they were arrogant and foolish in their interpretations of the Scriptures. We need to NOT be those people. Arrogance and foolishness is not a good way to respond to persecution But neither is silence. We need to find the words in our society to hold to the Bible's truth, but also to love those who do not agree, or who stand against God. And we need to not focus all our attention on particular areas like sexuality. We want peope to know that by far the biggest problem we all face is not knowing the forgiveness Jesus offers. We are all sinful, none more so than another. Whilst we have certain views that may mean we are persecutedd, we also have the greatest message of hope that anyone can offer. We want to be preaching that message of hope, not condemnation.

We can positively stand out when we are thinking more about what the other person believes (their worldview) instead of trying to TELL them what we believe. My feeling is that we are often persecuted as Christians in Australia because we often come across as arrogant and lacking in pastoral care. Love God, love your neighbour. Thought word and deed. Don't ever hide the truth, but also, don't "throw" the truth at people and expect them to thank you for it.

5. I think I might be a little bit too heavenly minded that I have lost touch with some things in this world. Eg. emotional and physical pain. Is this a bad thing? (edited)

Perhaps. It sounds like you are aware of a bit of a disconnect there. So there is space to think about this. Jesus spent a lot of time with all sorts of people. He also had time out on his own to pray and focus on his "heavenly-mindedness". It is good to have "time in" and "time out". It may be good to talk with a Christian friend or pastor, or even a counsellor, about this - what do you feel you are missing when you feel disconnected like this?

As God's people we are called to be in the world, but not belonging to the world. Elect. Exiles.

6. The prophets known as S Club 7 extol us to 'Don't Stop Moving'. What other spiritual wisdom can be attained from their hymns?

See Sarah's answer in eh Q and A - I can't top that!

7. How do we train our emotions to guide us towards God, his plans and heaven vs earthly things that are fading but are temptations?

Be regularly in his word. You'll probably notice that Christians who do this well - who keep their priorities on God's kingdom, are regularly in His word and regularly praying. This is the antidote for worldly consumption. Another practical way is to ask yourself - where do I spend the majority of my time? My money? My thinking? My reading? This often tells us where our real focus is in this world - but the good news is that it's easy to change those priorities when we need to. We can simply choose to do things differently.

8. Refer to v6, can we not complain or groan amid the trials to refine our faith?

I think verse 6 reminds us that there are times in life when we do groan and even complain. But we are reminded that this is only temporary. But it's not that healthy to complain. Groaning is good - expressing our emotions is good. But complaining is a way of saying to God "You're not doing the right thing here!" Instead, we should groan admitting that the world is not right because of sin, and remembering that God has the plan to deliver us from this broken and sinful world. The main thing this chapter teaches us is that suffering is short-lived in comparison to God's promises for us in eternity.