1 Peter 2:13-17 — Living as Exiles in an Empire
How do “aliens and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11) live in an empire whose commitments and values are not their own? Accept. Honor. Love. Reverence. Those are the imperatives in 1 Peter 2:13-17. The first,...
View Article1 Peter 2:18-20 – Living as Slaves in the Empire
Even “slaves” in the empire are “free.” They are “free” because they are bound to no authority other than God (cf. 1 Peter 2:16). But they “submit” as “slaves” within the empire because they fear...
View Article1 Peter 2:21-25: Jesus as Model for Submission
Imperial residents, submit to the empire. Slaves, submit to your masters. This submission, Peter tells us, is grounded in our vocation or calling. We are called into a life of submission because Jesus...
View Article1 Peter 3:1-7 – Living as an Exile with an Unbelieving Spouse
Imperial residents, submit to the empire. Slaves, submit to your masters. Wives, submit to your husbands. “In the same way” (homoios) heads the Greek sentence and connects Peter’s advice to the wives...
View Article1 Peter 3:8-12 — A Community Under Threat But Bound Together in the Fear of...
As aliens and exiles, abstain from unhealthy desires and live among the nations as people who “do good” so that everyone may see your good life and glorify God (1 Peter 2:11-12). Consequently: Imperial...
View Article1 Peter 3:13-17 — When Suffering Comes
In 1 Peter 2:11-3:12 Peter addressed how followers of Jesus live as “aliens and exiles” within a Roman culture which often abused others under its authority. In 1 Peter 3:13-4:11, he turns his...
View Article1 Peter 3:18-22 — Suffering and the Meaning of the Christ Event
Because Christ also suffered… If one suffers for “doing good” as an expression of the will of God, Peter writes, it better to suffer for that than suffering for doing evil (1 Peter 2:17). Why is that?...
View Article1 Peter 4:1-6 — They Think It Strange, But Follow Christ
1 Peter 3:18a: Christ suffered for sins. 1 Peter 4:1a: Christ suffered in the flesh 1 Peter 4:1 resumes the primary topic: the suffering of Christ provides a model for living in a...
View Article1 Peter 4:7-11 — Communal Life in a Hostile World
Here is concluding counsel for a marginalized, victimized group. As exiles and aliens (1 Peter 2:11-12) within Roman society, Peter calls them to transcend their situation by living as an authentic...
View Article1 Peter 4:12-19 – Suffering as Trial, Fellowship, and Blessedness
This is the third movement of the letter. In the first Peter stressed the identity of believers as God’s chosen people whom God has loved from the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:13-2:10). In the...
View ArticleReading Jonah
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai” (1:1) Shipmates, this book containing only four chapters—four yearns—is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet...
View ArticleJonah 1:4-6 – A Severe Mercy, God Pursues Jonah
Jonah refused God’s commission, but that was not the end of the story. God pursued Jonah. The narrative begins with God’s call (Jonah 1:2), moves to Jonah’s refusal by flight (Jonah 1:3), and now God...
View ArticleMissional Exiles–A Word from Jeremiah 29:4-7
In 597 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, exiled Jehoiakim, the King of Judah, along with some 3,000 others to Babylon. This was the second deportation from Judah (an earlier one was in 605...
View ArticleJonah 1:7-17a – Salvation Through Judgment
Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy is the title of Bryan Estelle’s book in The Gospel According to the Old Testament series (Presbyterian and Reformed). Judgment for Jonah is not retribution or...
View ArticleJonah 1:17-2:2 — A Great Fish “Tale”
But Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, from the belly of the fish, and said: “Out of...
View ArticleJonah 2:2-6 — Jonah’s Prayer, Part I
Jonah sings a thanksgiving song, even while in the belly of the great fish. Because the great fish rescued Jonah from death, the fish now gives him a “boat ride” back to land. Jonah is not terrified by...
View ArticleSuggestions for Our Harvests
I have some suggestions for Christmas! But first a little biblical theology…. Israel enjoyed their Spring and Fall harvests with week-long celebrations. In the Spring, seven weeks after Passover,...
View ArticleJonah 2:6-9 – Jonah’s Prayer, Part II: Did Jonah Repent?
The first half of Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:2-6a) recalled Jonah’s plight in the sea—thrown into the water, engulfed in the waves, and sinking deep into Sheol—and his prayerful response, a cry for help....
View ArticleUnto Us A Child is Born: Hope in the Darkness (Isaiah 9:1-7)
[Listen or watch the sermon on Isaiah 9 here.] Isaiah spoke into a world analogous to our own, one soaked in darkness. When night descended upon Judah, people saw only “distress and darkness, the...
View ArticleJonah 2:10-3:3a – The God of Second Chances
Jonah got a second chance. Yahweh commissioned him a “second time” even though Jonah willfully, deliberately, absolutely, and defiantly told God “No!” and rejected the first commission. Yahweh said,...
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