Thoughts From the Morning

I had some thoughts from I Peter 1 as I read it this morning; I was struck by Peter's starkly different perspective than we have- such an eternal perspective! Today, it's so common - and easy! - to become wrapped up into the day-to-day rigmarole of life, but it is the Christian's daily duty to separate, through the Spirit, the earthly from the eternal.

Jesus makes this very distinction in Matthew 6, when he refers to the dichotomy between heaven and earth: "Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

The same sentiment is dripping from Peter's pen in the first few verses of chapter one. He writes we've been given a new birth, "into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you." This, Peter says, is the reason we, "greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer in all kinds of trials."

And this was what caught me, because Peter had just said that as Christians, we, "through faith, are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

Shielded from what? With my 21st century eyes, I had immediately thought, "I'm safe - physically. I'm secure - physically. I'm protected by God - physically." It's a mentality that permeates the culture of today - a culture entirely wrapped up in the notions of current, and now.

But Peter makes the transition so rapidly from, "through faith, are shielded by God's power," to, "may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." These don't mesh with my cultural assumptions!

But the reason is simple: Peter has perspective I have not yet gained. He says, regarding the trials, "These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold... - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Peter has his gaze set on the coming, imminent return of Christ. He is so fixated upon Christ's soon-return that he is able to see trials, struggles, pains and griefs for what they truly are - mediums by which God can refine our faith. The physical persecution and struggle we often might experience is not a lack of God's providential control and guidance, but rather a result of it, refining and developing our spiritual faith! And Peter says that as we understand this pivotal fact of Christian submission, we will be, "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith: the salvation of your souls."

Jesus spoke of this perspective in Matthew, and other places. Paul speaks of it in II Corinthians, and other places. And this is reality in Christianity - in life subservient to God's will: He will treat us with an eternal perspective, and we must view our lives from one, as well. Only once we have taken our eyes off the immediate, temporal and earthly will we find the fulfillment that only comes from eternity with God.