September 30, 2017: Day 41 – I Peter 2

Well, that sure was a long break.  Sorry for the interruption there.  Here we find ourselves in I Peter 2.  I encourage you to read Psalm 34:8 which is lifted up directly here in vs.3.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  What a great image, to be able to actually taste and see that the Lord is good.  

As you read through this chapter there is one recurring thought that keeps coming up for me.  It is unsettling and it doesn’t provide comfort, this thought, but rather it makes me wonder how do I apply this as a person who is supposed to interpret Scripture?  The issue at hand is found in the build up to vs.23.  If one were to take this Scripture out of context we would find ourselves encouraging women who are in abusive relationships to stay.  We would find ourselves telling young people to just take what people give to you even if it is harmful to them physically or emotionally.  That is not consistent with the messages of Scripture that we have seen throughout.  

Jesus absolutely was led to the slaughter as a lamb.  I think of those innocent lives which were just recently taken in Las Vegas.  I can’t see a God who says just accept it as an event and move on.  In the end God will win out.  But what about now?  How do we deal with the death, the loss, the questions that surround an event like this?  I absolutely agree that we are witnesses to the greater community so we must act in a way that those who do not believe would be able to say with conviction that they are curious as to what we believe.  But to accept and put our head down in the face of abuse is simply not our way.  But it was the way of Jesus.  

Peter, the apostle that we know from Scripture, calls us stones, living stones.  This is significant because his name, Peter, means rock, or stone.  He calls Jesus the cornerstone, the one upon whom all things are built.