Peters 1st letter in today's world (Theology)

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Madad21

Boast in Christ
Dec 28, 2013
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The importance of Peter’s letter today
Suffering is the overwhelming theme of this encouragement; today we are surrounded by a great many prosperity gospels reinforcing the notion that faith in Christ solves all your financial social and medical problems. These popular contemporary gospels ignore the fact that like Peters letters much of the New Testament was written against a backdrop of persecution and suffering in the name of Christ. However more and more these days we are witnessing the horrific struggles of Christians trying to bare up under heavy oppression in warring and poverty stricken third world countries. At this very moment Christians are being butchered by the Islamic group ISIS in an unscrupulous pursuit toward ethnic cleansing, making no attempt to disguise the genocide, women and children are being beheaded and the men hung all broadcast in the streets, on the news and social media sites, it would be assured that the letters of Peter will hold a vastly different meaning to those amidst such suffering. On the flipside those of us in the western world need to heed every word just as much as those in strife. Peter tells us that we run the risk of being consumed by our enemy in the comfort of our own homes. Many of us are asleep living our lives on constant auto pilot unaware of the destructive forces we so readily accept without question. This world holds many temptations and for Christians dying to sin, these temptations are a constant struggle with the flesh.
“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11) “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:7) Peter makes it known that with salvation comes suffering and in his letter he encourages us to hold on to and reinforce our knowledge that we have risen to life with Christ, so no matter what we go through we must be very careful to represent our salvation not only in submission to those who persecute us but also in joy reflecting the transformation the gospel truth of Jesus Christ raised to life has made in our lives keeping our eyes on what is eternal and persevering against what is temporary.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,”
(1 Peter 1:3-4)​

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Read Peters first letter here
 

Madad21

Boast in Christ
Dec 28, 2013
1,108
39
0
Lookup said:
May I ask who wrote this?
A wonderful summary of our present problem in the west.
Amen and amen.
Thanks bro, but its just a summery of a study I did recently in to the 1st letter of Peter. Glad you enjoyed it. and good to meet you sorry I havent taken the time to say hi to you yet.
Thanks again. :)
 

DanielGarneau

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What struck me as I studied 1 Peter recently was that 1 Peter 5:5-11 can be seen as the grand finale of the entire epistle. From that perspective we are reminded that behind any human conflicts we might be having, there is a spiritual war going on. So, for example, whether we are thinking of conflicts at work (1 Peter 2), within the family (1 Peter 3), or in the Church (1 Peter 5), we have to remain conscious that a spiritual war is on. The same is true about suffering persecution (1 Peter 1-5).

Yet 1 Peter 5 and 2 Peter 1 show us that God is the provider of all resources necessary to live holy lives under all circumstances. Now for our brethren being persecuted in the world, I do pray, and threads like this one encourage me to go on praying...