2 years start the implementation...1 Peter 3:1-7...Be Subject To 3 & 4

 

What you see above is 2 years of work.  It is also for me about another year of work to implement.  It has been a labor of love of who God is and who His people are.  The core attenders of SCC put in many hours together to produce a new mission/purpose statement; a membership covenant; and a walk through of a new statement of faith.  If you would like to read all of it, you can follow the link below.

https://stillwater-chapel.org/resources/New%20Constitution%20local%20draft%202-1.pdf

This work is like what we have been studying in the letter to the persecuted Christians of the 1st century called 1st Peter.  Peter is giving detailed instructions on what to do in the situation they find themselves in.  This document is doing the same for us today and that is why it is laced with God's words throughout.  As we have seen, Peter goes from the general to the specific.

The general are two actions:  keep your conduct honorable and continue to do good.

These are to be done even in the face of persecution.  Some are calling them evildoers.  Some are treating them unjustly.  Some are requiring what God has forbidden and they need to raise their hand for God and accept the earthly consequences.  This is done while keeping their conduct honorable and continuing to do good.

Peter first specific deals with the governing authorities that are requiring them to say, "Caesar is lord."  The second specific deals with servants who have become saved and free in the site of God under the submission to earthly masters and some of them are treating them unjustly.  The third specific deals with wives who have become saved and they are married to a husband who is not.  The fourth deals with husbands who have become saved and they are married to a wife who is not.  

In all these situations, the instruction is the same.  They are to "be subject to" because their new governing authority; their new master; their new spouse has told them how to respond.  The "New" is giving orders to be followed that are so counter cultural to the world.  The question has been, "Will we follow what the "New" has said?"

What I love is Peter's single focus to following these instructions.  Peter wants us to follow these instructions because he wants those who do not believe to see us obeying what God has said and ultimately responding to God with repentance and belief.  He addresses the hardness and suffering with a purpose for it that lies in our love for God by being obedient to what He has said and a love for others to be saved.  

Is this the focus of the modern church?  It is getting harder and we are feeling some pressure for holding onto the words of God.  Do we still have the focus that we are here to be ambassadors of Him who died on the cross, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven and is coming again for His own?  Is our primary efforts in whatever we do with good deeds that He puts before us for the people who do not yet believe to see God as we have?  I fear this may have taken a back seat to other causes and our comfort.

Peter continues to challenge us to be people of God's words living them out.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 40th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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