SOAP

My Heart Under Injustice

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:18-25

18Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

 

Observations:

No love of slavery here.  But in thinking about where I am under authority:

Be in under your master with respect — to the good and unjust.

Do this without sinning.

Do this following the example of Jesus, our Lord, our Saviour, our Shepherd who suffered for our sins and brings our healing through His suffering.  vs. 21-25

Application:

No love of slavery here.

To bring this text into today we must think in the realm of employee / employer relations.  How to be holy in that setting?  In our free market we have much more freedom to just leave and find new work if we are being treated badly.  Often though people feel locked in by their situation and finances.

But this remains:  Can I persist in doing good when I am being treated unjustly?

See the example of Jesus.  Experience and reflect on His mercy toward you.

Prayer:

Thank you Heavenly Father for extending so much mercy towards me.  Help me persist in doing good even when there seems to be no pay off.  Help us persist in doing good even in the face of injustice.  May the glory of Jesus and His provision of healing for our hearts in such an unjust world transform our souls.  AMEN.

Freedom and Entitlement

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:13-17

13Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Observations:

  • “For the Lord’s sake”  — our relationships are informed first and foremost by our relationship with Jesus Christ the Lord.
  • Be subject — be properly responsive to authority:  to agents of the emperor or to the emperor.
  • an aspect of rule:  to punish those who do evil & to praise those who do good.
  • vs. 15  apparently some people were saying that followers of Jesus Christ were subverting authority and were dangerous to society.
  • vs. 16 Live as people who are free!  Our freedom is not a cover-up for evil behaviour, since we live as servants of God — the ultimate authority.
  • vs. 17 the movement in relationships as a person under authority yet free:  honour and love.

Application:

To be under the authority of God in Christ Jesus is to be free!  Free from the law of sin and death.  Free to love.  Free to forgive.  Free to serve.  Free to delight in the work of God.  Free to delight in the wonders of humanity at its best.  Free to press in fiercely for the life and blessings of God’s Kingdom in the world today.

Pride and its companions self-righteousness and entitlement will hinder the Gospel of Jesus and will poison our relationships so that honour and love depart.  When I act as if the rules and the issues of ethics apply only to everyone else and not to me, I poison my relationships.  A selfish, narcissistic, tyrannical ruler poisons his whole society.

I’m not sure we know how to honour rightly today.  Being subject to human authority and yet living free without dominating fear of oppression is an incredible gift in our Canadian society.  Who can I honour today?  Who can I show love to today?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father thank you for the freedom we enjoy.  Guard us from the fog of entitlement and help us steward this freedom well.  May my freedom in Christ not be used as a license to sin.  Instead may your Spirit generate immense love for Jesus and awe for the weight He bore at cross to deliver me from sin.  AMEN.

The War for Your Soul

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:11-12

11Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Observations:

Sojourners — they are just passing through

Exiles — are looking forward to “place they really belong.”

Abstain — to not partake of

The passions of the flesh — (Could be a long list!)

Our conduct among people is to seek to honour God and to honour them, so that it contributes to the cause of Christ in bringing people to know Him;  those who know Him will praise Him.

Application:

I live in this world, but I’m not to be of it.  We are wired to seek belonging in relationships.  However, I must not confuse connecting to people with an unrestrained connection to the passions and desires of my flesh.  Those desires range from the appetites of my body to the desires to be liked, loved, respected, and appreciated.  I will love better if I do not expect my relationships with people, the stuff of earth, and even with my own achievement to bear the weight of my soul.  Only God can do that.  Otherwise I will use people and use stuff to prop me up rather than loving people and stewarding stuff for the glory of God.  Honouring God and people rightly requires the strength of knowing I’m loved by God and “just passing through.”  Ultimately, this world is not my home, it has nothing for me.  Yet, life with Jesus Christ is good in this life and in that I rejoice.

 

Prayer:

 

Oh Heavenly Father you know the desires that war against my soul.  These longings are just a shadow of my deeper and sometimes unrecognized hunger for you.  May your Spirit empower me to say Yes to Jesus over and over today.  Fill me with your Spirit and put a new song in my heart.  Let praise start now in my life and in the lives of my friends.  AMEN.

Jesus is Excellent!

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:9-10

9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Observations:

The church of Jesus is:

a chose race
a royal priesthood
a holy nation
a people for his own possession

For the purpose of:  proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus — He called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

His mercy has made it so!  Before His choosing we were not a people, but now by His choosing we have become His people.

Application:

When Jesus is larger in our minds than our racial profiles, our religious power plays, our self-righteous politics, and our pre-occupation with self-expression and validation, then the church will be what God intends.  That’s how mercy works.  Having been mercied by Jesus I can be realistic about the mess that I am and that we are.  However, its His mercy that also lets me see Jesus with awesome admiration.  Like, Peter in the boat after the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5) we might be pressed to say, “Go away from me Lord I’m a sinful man.”  However, then Jesus invites us in closer, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.”  Jesus’ marvelous light casts out the darkness and transforms our lives for His glory.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father have your way with me today.  Jesus has been so merciful to me.  You have included me in your people.  I am yours.  I am loved.  Show me again today something admirable in Jesus Christ my Lord.  May your truth and grace generate strength and courage to proclaim the many ways Jesus is excellent!  AMEN.

Don’t Buy The Lie

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:6-8

6For it stands in Scripture:  “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”  7So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Observations:

In the Scripture God says He has a plan that involves His people of Israel, “Zion” — to lay down a chosen and precious cornerstone.  Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.  There is honour for those who believe.

Even though they others reject God’s chosen One, He will still become the “cornerstone” from whom their lives will be evaluated.  For those who do not believe in God’s cornerstone this “person” becomes a stumbling block; for they disobey God’s word.

Application:

The “cornerstone” is an architectural term.  The cornerstone becomes the reference point for the whole building.  What are you building?  A life?  A family?  A career?  An organization?  A nation?

Our culture brings tremendous pressure for the person of faith to live an unintegrated life.  Our culture treats faith as an appendix that should be surgically removed if it seems to cause us too much trouble. There is a temptation for leaders (Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as a leader, but you are;  the most difficult person for you to lead is yourself.) to make decisions seeking honour and some kind of vision of success without looking to Jesus.

If we buy the lie we will stumble over Christ and find that we are offended by Him.  We are so taken by the beauty of our own lofty visions that we stumble over the rough stone  on the ground right in front of us.

Seek the grace to obey His Word, and live your life with the confession “Jesus is Lord” as the reference for all the designs of your life.  We need the Joseph Principle(See the story of Joseph in Exodus), to trust that character forged through persistent obedience to God is the better payoff.  Looking to Jesus as the cornerstone of my life creates a longview and protects me from the seduction of short-term gains bought through rejection of Jesus and His ways.

Prayer:  

Heavenly Father have mercy on me.  Extend my view of life by giving me the grace to trust Jesus today.  He is the cornerstone of my faith and my life.  AMEN.