READINGS ON PETER'S FIRST EPISTILE - 1 PETER 1
READINGS ON PETER’S FIRST [p. 387] EPISTILE - 1 PETER 1
This epistle was suggested with the thought that the government of God might be before us, and that we might see how the truth of the gospel is interwoven with that government. We all are the subjects of the government of God, and we are suffering under it. First, on account of Adam’s sin, as having part in the race, for we necessarily suffer the external consequences of his sin; then, secondly, as being among the nations we also suffer. National divisions are governmental. They were intended to be restrictive rather than liberative. These restrictions, which are governmental, have become greatly accentuated in modern times, especially during the last few years, and are felt to be burdensome in a peculiar way. Then, lastly, as forming part of the assembly, as a public body, on account of the declension and sin of it; although we may be morally clear of its departure in having separated ourselves from iniquity, and calling upon the Lord out of a pure heart, yet we cannot escape the governmental consequences of its sin. In this threefold way we have to say to the government of God, or rather, it has to say to us. There are, of course, other features, for God’s government has a special application to each of us. It is therefore of all importance that we should learn how the liberative truth of the gospel, and of the assembly, too, in its vital relations, is to be enjoyed in these circumstances. What suggests itself in this epistle is confirmatory of these remarks, for the saints are addressed as “the sojourners of the dispersion”. 1 Peter 1:1. It would mean that they were suffering under the government of God. They were not in Palestine or Jerusalem, but in the provinces of Asia Minor, which were not the territory promised to Abraham at all,
[p. 388] They were dispersed, as subjects of the government of God.
These “sojourners of the dispersion” were Jews; their national calling had reference to Canaan, but they were dispersed. God had acted in His righteous government, and although they were believers in Christ and had the Spirit, they were nevertheless suffering under the government of God in regard to Israel’s guilt.
The murder of Christ, and the refusal of the gospel, would enter into it as a final thing, but the dispersion really dated back many years. It was of the government of God and the prayer of Solomon had contemplated and provided for it. (See 1 Kings 8.) But in spite of all that, the gospel was there, the election, the new birth, and the possession of the Spirit — all these things were there.
You would hardly look at these Jews in the light of unfaithfulness. They were suffering with all the Jews, as we are suffering today with all men outwardly, in regard to the sin of Adam. We are also suffering with the nations on account of the tower of Babel, and because of the failure of the church; but this epistle would show how we are to enjoy spiritual privileges nevertheless.
When Adam sinned the cherubim were placed to guard the way to the tree of life. They were a testimony to the fact that man had departed from God, and had forfeited all right to the tree of life; but God found a way of coming into human circumstances consistent with his own honour, notwithstanding the sin that was there.
It was according to God’s ordering that some Jews from these provinces would be assembled in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, so that when the Holy Spirit came, and Peter was called upon to bear witness to the glorified Man in heaven, and to the Holy Spirit upon earth, there were those from the [p. 389] dispersion who would hear that testimony. The coming in of the Spirit brought into evidence the greatness of what had been effected, that the governmental consequences of man’s sin were overcome, God rising above them. There are many other instances. For example, when our Lord was about to be born, the whole machinery of the Roman Empire was set in motion so that Joseph and Mary should be in Bethlehem when the time of the Lord’s birth had come. And so when the Holy Spirit came, there were those that were necessary to bear witness to the triumph of God through Christ; and they said, “We hear them speaking in our own tongues”. Acts 2: 11.
The position in which Peter was when he wrote this letter would have some bearing; he wrote it from Babylon. There was some good thing there now. In Jeremiah’s time the Jews were sent to Babylon on account of their state, and because there was no remedy. Jeremiah was told to buy a girdle, put it upon his loins, but dip it not in water; Jeremiah 13: 1 - 11. This girdle was a testimony to the fact that God had originally drawn His people near to Him in love for them. Jeremiah was to take this girdle to the Euphrates, and hide it by the river in a rock to call attention to the fact that although God had brought His people near to Him, they were now very far away from Him and “good for nothing”. Later, Jeremiah by the word of Jehovah goes there again and digs up the girdle; it is good for nothing now. This epistle written from Babylon, evidences that now there is some good in it, but it is dipped in water. Peter enlarges on baptism. There is the acceptance of the judgment of God on man’s flesh and there is now in Babylon what is good for something. God has begun over again on the principle of death and resurrection “begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead”. 1 Peter 1: 3.
[p. 390] The reference to the girdle is very striking. The elect in Babylon, as dipped in water, would show a sympathetic interest in what their co-elect brethren were suffering in Asia Minor. There was a great triumph of the grace of God in those of the dispersion. The apostle says, “She that is elected with you in Babylon salutes you”. 1 Peter 5: 13. It is the work of God in both instances among the dispersed Jews.
The characteristics of the whole letter savour of suffering. It goes right through from beginning to end; the sufferings of Christ, and those who were identified with Him; but there were joys, too, as begotten to a living hope, which was in Christ, whom not having seen they loved. They had joy unspeakable and were filled with the glory. Peter was perhaps best qualified to write such an epistle, since he had witnessed the sufferings of Christ, and was told by the Lord the manner of his own death, that he should follow Jesus to martyrdom.
Peter’s history delineates the government of God, as Job’s did. Paul’s history delineates the whole longsuffering of God for all that should afterwards believe. Peter’s is the delineation of the government of God, and how it eventuates in what is of God. His two epistles pursue that government to its final end, having good in view. We get many references to Peter’s personal history, showing the ways of God in discipline. If we look at it in Matthew, we shall see that he was taken up largely in view of the government of God because the Lord said to him, “I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens”, Matthew 16: 19. That would be a most important ministry, to have those keys in order that he should open the door of the kingdom. The keys would denote the administration of it subordinately, as showing the necessity for the vessel himself being subjective to the extraordinary discipline of God, which was actually the case.
[p. 391] The government of God is represented, as we have already remarked, in the cherubims in the garden of Eden. It is seen again in Noah. We cannot say much as to the cherubims or how they functioned in detail, it is simply the fact that they were there to guard “the way of the tree of life”, Genesis 3: 24, but when you come to Noah you have a man wielding the sword of government magisterially. Later, in Israel, you have a throne; and it is said definitely that Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah. The government of God was in the hands of a man fitted to wield it, especially as endued with wisdom. He is a type of Christ. In Matthew we have Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. The government is on His shoulder. Matthew’s gospel sets out the government of God. It is His rights in government; when the kingdom is referred to there it is generally “the kingdom of the heavens”. The kingdom as found in the other gospels refers more to the presence of God here in Christ or in the Spirit. Romans 13 says there is no authority except from God.
When you pursue the history in Genesis, Noah, as we know, failed in the government, and subsequently you get Nimrod. He began to be mighty on the earth; he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, that is, he turned his power into subordination of God’s creatures for his own pleasure. These creatures were called living souls earlier; Genesis 1. The logical outcome of Nimrod’s example would be slavery. As we proceed in the history we find a world-war, four kings against five, evidently brought about by their lust. But God had His king in the presence of all that; He had a man who comes out mysteriously when Abraham was returning from the slaughter of the kings, Melchizedek by name. He brought out bread and wine to him. There you have the kingdom, the government of God in its benign and blessed character; and we have to understand [p. 392] and know it in that way. It deals retributively with the evil, but it meets the good and supports it; Abraham was supported with bread and wine. (See Genesis 14.) In 1 Peter it is in favour of the saints; in the second epistle it is against the wicked.
As a climax of what we have been speaking, evil was personified in Pharaoh, and therefore God brings in Israel. Another king had arisen who knew not Joseph, and government was grossly abused in the destruction of the male children; but Moses sees one of his brethren wronged by an Egyptian, and slays the Egyptian. He clearly evinces kingly instincts and power in that way. And then he would set his brethren right, but the brother who was in the wrong said to him, “Who made thee ruler and judge over us? dost thou intend to kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2: 14). There was no readiness to accept one capable of judging and dealing with their enemies. Going away in fear he remains away in Midian forty years, but returns as the deliverer of Israel; and Exodus 19 is the logical result of all this, for “he was king in Jeshurun [that is, among the upright people], when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together”, Deuteronomy 33: 5. The rule of the kingdom is now accepted as a testimony; completely so, in that he is acknowledged king by the upright people.
In Exodus 24 it is indicated that the people accepted the government referred to; then the blood of sprinkling is put upon them as confirming it. Moses says, “Behold the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has made with you concerning all these words”, Exodus 24:8. This epistle is the direct allusion to the position of Israel in the wilderness. We are elected and sanctified unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ then “begotten again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead”. 1 Peter 1: 3. The epistle is to encourage [p. 393] the saints of the dispersion, as suffering in relation to the government of God, so that they might do so according to God. First, there is the sanctification of the Spirit to the obedience of Christ and the sprinkling of His blood; God would have among the dispersed Jews correspondence with Christ. He has left us a model, that we should follow in His steps. Entrance into the position, and the profit derived from the teaching, implies that you begin with the acceptance of the governmental conditions; then there is obedience — it is greatly emphasised. You cannot alter these conditions, but you can be altered in them. Obedience is the great test.
We cannot escape the suffering from the consequences of Adam’s sin, and along with all men we are suffering because of national discriminations, and we are suffering, too, because of the sin of the assembly. It is a wholesome thing to accept it. We cannot get out of Christendom, it would be apostasy to do so; and yet Christendom itself is essentially apostate, and cannot but bring suffering upon us. The Lord Himself entered into similar conditions and suffered in them; we have to learn how obedient He was in those conditions; it is “the obedience ... of Jesus Christ”. 1 Peter 1: 2. In verse 11 reference is made to the sufferings of Christ, not only for us, but as entering into these governmental sorrows there are the sufferings and “the glories after these”. Our hopes are bound up with those glories, as were those of the dispersion. In that way there is a reversal of what is said in Hosea 1. Israel were Lo-ammi, “not my people”; but now, in the acceptance of Christ, there is for every one of them a status of “sons of the living God”. When Solomon built the temple, he made two large cherubims for the holiest; and the walls were carved about with sculptures of cherubims, palm trees, and half-opened flowers; 1 Kings 6. The order of things which he established involved [p. 394] the government of God worked out in the production of life; and it does that as it is accepted. These things suggested life, and are the governmental result.
Now the Jews of the dispersion were in untoward circumstances outwardly as among the Gentiles, but Hosea brings out what happened in their experience. The book unfolds the working out of divine love towards them, which became effective in them, so at the end of it Ephraim says, “What have I to do any more with idols?” Hosea 14: 8. Then it says, “I will observe him” Hosea 14: 8; God is taking account of him, because he voluntarily gives up idols. Then Ephraim says, “I am like a green fir tree”, Hosea 14: 8, meaning that he would stand against all weathers. Fir is evergreen; it stands the tests of adverse winds and retains its vitality. It is very suggestive of life. Then God says to him, “From me is thy fruit found”. Hosea 14: 8. Solomon’s regime had that great end in view. Connected with the government of God, under David his father, Solomon brought about living conditions. Every right-minded person values the government of God, because it is against evil but fosters and promotes good. The reigns of these two men brought to pass typically what Christ will effect actually, namely, conditions of life; the cherubims and the half-open flowers are a testimony to the result of government. Of Ephraim God says, “I will tear and go away; I will carry off”. Hosea 5:14. The next passage begins: “Come and let us return unto Jehovah: for he hath torn, and he will heal us”. Hosea 6:1. Then, “After two days will he revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before his face”, Hosea 5 and 6. The suggestion of the figure at the end of Hosea is, that the fir tree grows under most adverse conditions, suggestive of the government of God. Then God says, “From me is thy fruit found” Hosea 14: 8; it is more than fir cones!
[p. 395] When the Lord was here, the Edomite was on the throne and the conditions of life were not there, but rather those of destruction. The Lord brought in life under God, as under those governmental conditions, connected with the sin of Israel; and we are sanctified “unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”. 1 Peter 1:2. There we have the standard in the way He moved in those governmental circumstances. He developed life in them. John in his gospel tells us that “in him was life”. John 1: 4. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”, John 1: 14, but the life was there; chapter 1.
Peter got his foundation for writing such a letter as this in the revelation of the Father to him: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matthew 16:16. It is a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. It makes a Christian unconquerable. No circumstances can overwhelm him. God has come into the circumstances. He found a way of coming into them in Christ; and He has begotten us again to a living hope. The Lord has marked out by His obedience the path in which, if we follow, we shall find the government of God favourable on our behalf. The great point is that we must be changed. It is not now something good for nothing, but good for something. We are begotten again to a living hope, to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance. We are brought out for that. This living hope would take both them and us into a region beyond national restrictions, for in chapter 2 we are said to have come to the living Stone, and as living stones are built up a spiritual house.
The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ is in contrast to the sprinkling of the blood in Exodus 24. The whole universe is to be reconciled by the death of Christ. In Exodus 24 all the people were sprinkled with blood, thus bringing into view the pleasure of [p. 396] God in a reconciled people. The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ opens up such a vast line of thought.
At one time Peter would have set aside the suffering, but now he accepts it and enjoins the saints to do the same.