As I write this, I’ve finished up my own sermons from our series in 1 Peter. We’ve got one left in the series but that will be taken by another one of our preachers. After repeated readings of the letter, I have found myself much more optimistic about the trajectory of the church of God.
Optimism isn’t a trait that I would have ever ascribed to myself. I am pessimistic and cynical by nature. My tendency is to distrust, to disbelieve, to assume that the trajectory of everything is heading downward or into chaos.
That worldview is challenged by things like a belief in the sovereignty of God. From August 2024 to today, however, it has been challenged by reading and re-reading 1 Peter.
It’s a letter for Christians who are suffering for their faith. I take it that Peter is not writing to scattered Jewish Christians in particular but to Christians in general who are experiencing an exile from their true home by the will of God.
But why does this lead to any kind of optimism? Well, it is because Peter keeps repeating one singular fact. Jesus will be revealed to all one day.
- Our salvation will be revealed in the last time (1:5-7)
- Our hope is to be set fully on the grace brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1:13)
- Those outside of God’s people will glorify God on the day of visitation (2:12)
- Life is meant to be lived out in light of the end of all things (4:7-11)
- We will rejoice when his glory is revealed (4:13)
- Under-shepherds (and I think all the church of God) will receive the unfolding crown of glory when Jesus appears (5:4)
- At the proper time, he will exalt his people (5:6)
Growing up in a dispensational, pentecostal tradition, thinking about Jesus’ return always filled me with fear because everything was focused on all of the apparent bad stuff that was going to happen to everyone “left behind”. The big trouble with that teaching, besides the fact that it doesn’t hold up to proper exegesis, is that it leads to a faith that hopes not in Jesus but in not being left behind.
What Peter shows, though, is that the return of Jesus is absolutely everything. It is what we are looking forward to most because it will be the day we finally see the one we love (1 Peter 1:8).
And so I feel much less unnerved and anxious about what I see happening in the world around me. I’ve had people asking me what I think about the US presidential election. I know people who are very worried, very concerned. I am not so worried, not because I think Trump will do a good job (because I don’t), but because I know that God’s will is being done. I don’t know why it looks the way that it does but I do trust that God knows what he is doing.