LEARNING TO LOVE REALITY
If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? 1 Peter 4:18, N.I.V.
You know them. They live lives in mortal fear that they will do something to merit God denying them eternal life. They continually measure the hems of their garments and spend hours reading labels in the supermarket. Their libraries are full of books that admonish, their cupboards reflect a careful sterility, and their sleep is like that of one on death row who has been granted only a tentative reprieve. Yet they say that God loves them.
Perhaps they have read today's text and shuddered. But, friends, Paul is not saying that it is hard to be saved! He is addressing the attitude of believers who act as though it is. In verse 12 he begins, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you" (N.I.V.). It is not strange that we who are in this world should experience hurt--Jesus Himself did. This world is a hurtful place because it has rejected the One who is the source of all goodness and love. That is reality. If we do not accept this reality, feeling that our connection with God should somehow prevent any further hurt done to us, we will never experience being "overjoyed when [God's] glory is revealed" (verse 13, N.I.V.). The revelation of who God is, is inextricably connected to that very reality--and if believers have a hard time experiencing joy over God, "what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"
Paul's advice is that we should "commit [ourselves] to [our] faithful Creator and continue to do good" (verse 19, N.I.V.). We need not be dismayed by the trials of this life and the hurt that inevitably follows. We may learn to love even painful reality because of the larger reality of who God is. In seeing His commitment to salvaging every fragment of our hopes in hopeless situations (without compromising the personhood of any individual), we experience comfort. In realizing that we are exposed to grief, not because of some inadequacy on our part (or God's!) but because of God's reluctance to manipulate circumstances, we find peace in knowing that He will never manipulate us.
Let us make a firm commitment not to let our relationship with the Father look so unpleasant and tenuous that we turn away those who do not yet know Him.
If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? 1 Peter 4:18, N.I.V.
You know them. They live lives in mortal fear that they will do something to merit God denying them eternal life. They continually measure the hems of their garments and spend hours reading labels in the supermarket. Their libraries are full of books that admonish, their cupboards reflect a careful sterility, and their sleep is like that of one on death row who has been granted only a tentative reprieve. Yet they say that God loves them.
Perhaps they have read today's text and shuddered. But, friends, Paul is not saying that it is hard to be saved! He is addressing the attitude of believers who act as though it is. In verse 12 he begins, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you" (N.I.V.). It is not strange that we who are in this world should experience hurt--Jesus Himself did. This world is a hurtful place because it has rejected the One who is the source of all goodness and love. That is reality. If we do not accept this reality, feeling that our connection with God should somehow prevent any further hurt done to us, we will never experience being "overjoyed when [God's] glory is revealed" (verse 13, N.I.V.). The revelation of who God is, is inextricably connected to that very reality--and if believers have a hard time experiencing joy over God, "what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"
Paul's advice is that we should "commit [ourselves] to [our] faithful Creator and continue to do good" (verse 19, N.I.V.). We need not be dismayed by the trials of this life and the hurt that inevitably follows. We may learn to love even painful reality because of the larger reality of who God is. In seeing His commitment to salvaging every fragment of our hopes in hopeless situations (without compromising the personhood of any individual), we experience comfort. In realizing that we are exposed to grief, not because of some inadequacy on our part (or God's!) but because of God's reluctance to manipulate circumstances, we find peace in knowing that He will never manipulate us.
Let us make a firm commitment not to let our relationship with the Father look so unpleasant and tenuous that we turn away those who do not yet know Him.
RSS Feed
