Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
Around 64 AD, the famous Emperor Nero was accused by the people of Rome of being responsible for the great fire that consumed almost three-quarters of the city. To deflect these accusations, Nero had a few Christians arrested and tortured until they allegedly implicated some other Christians. Nero used this to lay the blame on Christians in general and basically declared open season on Christians. This set off a period of horrible persecution where Christians were rounded up and put to death in the most horrific ways for the entertainment of the Romans. I am giving you this brief history lesson so we can better understand Peter’s intentions with this letter. Most historians agree that Peter lived in Rome during these times and was a witness to what was coming. I believe, as you read his words, you can sense that he is trying to prepare his fellow Christians for the days ahead and encourage them that their eternal future is imperishable.
Can you feel Peter’s reassurance as he tells us in verses 3-4 that it is God’s great mercy that allowed us to benefit from Jesus’s resurrection and obtain an inheritance that is; a) imperishable b) undefiled c) will not fade away d) reserved in heaven for you? I’ll take one of each, please. And what kind of inheritance would that be? Only one that would be customary for the child of a King.
Now verse 6 caused me to wince a bit. Peter says to continue to praise although for a “little while” you have been “distressed by various trials”. Two areas here I would like to unpack. The first is a “little while”. Do you know how hard it is for us as humans to grasp our definition of time versus God’s? We are so bad at this because we cannot even remotely understand eternity. I heard it described like this one time. If you took a block of granite, measuring 1 mile X 1 mile X 1 mile, and had a bird come land on this block of granite and sharpen his bill. By the time this bird sharpened his bill enough that he ground down the block of granite to a pile of dust, that would equal 1 day in eternity. That helped me, just a little bit, put eternity in perspective. So, regardless of how long this “little while” was or how long the “little while” is in our life, it really pales to the everlasting life God has promised. The second area is related to “distressed by various trials”. God, please, please, please forgive me when I whine about trials that really are not trials. Take a quick inventory with me. I woke up this morning in a warm house. I opened the closet and had enough clothes to choose from to dress an 11th grade class. I opened the pantry and it looked like a Sam’s commercial. No one bombed my city last night. No checkpoints to drive through to get to town. My church is sitting there right out in the open. Now, don’t let me minimize trials. I have certainly had my share, and I know you have also. But thus far, no one has tried to feed me to the lions for writing this devotion.
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.