09 How to Live Now in Light of Eternity (1 Peter 4:7-19)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome. Thank you for downloading the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. Today we're going to be looking at 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 7 through 19. Just to remind you where we are in the book, Peter is writing this letter to give his readers the right perspective on life. He wants to inspire them and us by extension with the big picture, and that big picture is the gospel, which is what he explains in chapter 1. So he reviews, he starts his letter with the good news about the work of Jesus Christ, that all of mankind is guilty and sinful, and we need to be reconciled to God. But in his great mercy, God sent his son Jesus to die in our place. So Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and our guilt, and he bought us out of slavery, and we only need to trust him to be saved. So because of the blood of Christ, we have been rescued from God's wrath and from our guilt, but there is still more that we need to be rescued from. There is a future rescue that is still coming, and which is what he calls our living hope. Our living hope of an eternal inheritance which is guarded for us in the kingdom of heaven. So in the future, there is a day coming when death will be completely defeated. We will be rescued not only from our guilt, but also the very presence and consequences of sin. And that's our great inheritance. That's something we set our hope on. In chapter two, Peter encourages us to long for the word the way a newborn longs for milk. So the more we understand the word of God, the more our lives begin to reflect that understanding. And so he encourages us to continue to long for wisdom and understanding that will nourish our faith the way milk nourishes a baby and causes growth. Meanwhile, we live in a world that looks at things differently than we do, and the world may even hate us. And that presents us with choices about how we live and how we act. And we make those decisions based on who Jesus was, what he did for us in the past, and what we are hoping and expecting him to do in the future. So in 2.11 he begins a new section. He finished laying the groundwork of our hope, our inheritance, and our status as God's people, and that was all the big picture he was trying to inspire us with. And then he gives us a principle in 2.11 and 12, and then three examples of how we would live out that principle or how that principle matters and makes a difference. So in 2.12 he says, keep 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. So there's the basic principle. When you're being reviled, when you're being treated unfairly, when you're faced with a hostile Gentile world, keep your conduct honorable so that in the thing that they slander you as, they will eventually see there's no basis for that. And he gives three examples, and each of his examples are socially binding situations. So there's situations where believers can find themselves and in which they are being mistreated and they can't easily escape from that mistreatment. So the first one was citizens to a pagan government that is persecuting them, slaves with unjust masters, and then wives with unbelieving husbands. And in each case, his advice is the same. Live out your faith, communicate with your behavior that you love God and that you respect the person who is mistreating you, so that your suffering may have a redemptive purpose in that person's life and may even bring them to faith. So he basically encourages them in each situation, trust that there are more important issues at stake than getting your fair share, or and so you are free to turn the other cheek because you might win them to the gospel. Now the way I outline the book 4-7 marks the beginning of the end of the letter. It's the start of his conclusion. So he's wrapping up the letter and he's summing up his themes, and a lot of the information we're going to look at in this section is a repeat of the themes we've already been talking about, which is what you'd expect as this is his conclusion. So 1 Peter 4.7, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the purpose or for the sake of your prayers. So this is the second time Peter has urged us to be sober. The first time was in 113. And I think the idea here is that sobriety is tied to remembering that this world is not all there is. Remembering that we have this inheritance coming, we have this living hope, and that we're looking for that, and this world is not all there is. So as we wait, our lives make us metaphorically drunk, as and we get distracted by the here and now. We get taken over by the pleasures and the problems and the circumstances of our lives, and we get so caught up in solving our daily problems and meeting our needs and responsibilities, it is as if we get drunk with distraction. We focus all our energy and effort on doing better or fixing the things that need fixing in life, or scraping by. We need to be better or do better or achieve more or accomplish more. And it's all this kind of drunken focus on the here and now. No, I'm not saying that now is not important, and we can all run off, you know, and sit on some mountaintop in a lotus position. I'm not saying that. It's a matter of perspective and proportion. I think Peter would urge us to hold the things of today in proportion to our living hope, or in proportion to the end of the journey. So the gospel tells me that there are certain things that are true and are of primary importance. For example, it's very important that I understand that I'm a fool, but God has redeemed me. Or that we understand that we are sinners, but God has forgiven us. And that we realize that in this life God is leading us away from judgment and rebellion and into a living hope and an inheritance. We are mortal, we will leave this life one day, but God is granting us eternal life if we trust in the blood of Jesus. Those are some of the essential facts of life. This big perspective we've been talking about, that understanding the gospel gives me that different perspective on life. So the gospel tells me that this life is like waiting in the lobby for the doors to open and the curtain to go up and the show to start. So I'm in the lobby, that's not the show, that's not the main event. Now, of course, there are important things to do in the lobby. I have to sort out my tickets and get in the right line, buy my popcorn or whatever, but ultimately I know that this is the lobby, this is the waiting room, the prelude to the main event. This is not what I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for the show. The show is the real deal, this is just the lobby. And I think that's kind of the perspective he is urging us to have. This is the lobby. Don't take it too seriously. Don't get drunk with life such that you forget the perspective of where we're headed, where this journey is taking us. Daily life threatens to cloud our minds and overwhelm us such that we forget this is the lobby and we get metaphorically drunk with this life. And Peter's saying, stay sober, stay clear-minded. Remember that this is the lobby. Don't get drunk on the pleasures and pitfalls of this world. Hold them lightly because there are bigger issues at stake and there's something better coming. We tend to forget that. It's easy to forget that we're aliens and strangers here. This is not the place I'm to put down my roots. I'm looking to the kingdom of God. God didn't design this life to last. So he's saying, be self-controlled, be sober-minded, be clear in your mind that this is the lobby and remember where we're headed and what life is all about. And he adds this strange phrase for the purpose of prayer, and that can be really confusing if we think of prayer as a religious ritual or a spiritual discipline. And I don't think that's what he's got in view here. He's not talking about some kind of religious discipline. Rather, prayer is the arena where each of us individually comes to terms with God. So when we're praying, that's where all the masks come off. The rubber meets the road, so to speak. I reveal who I am, what I'm counting on, who I think God is, what I want from him, what I hope he's going to do for me. So Peter's not advocating that his readers double their prayer time, but rather he's advocating a gospel perspective that will change your prayers. So when you pray, it's just you and God. No mass, no facade, no pretense, and you have to wrestle with the big life questions of what am I really counting on? What am I hoping for? Do I see God as the one I need to be concerned with, or have I forgotten all about him? So when he says, be sober-minded for the sake of your prayers, I think it's remember this is the lobby, so that you are right and clear with who God is, what you need him for, and why should he grant it to you. And that's going to affect what you pray about. Now he returns to the two main themes of his letter, how you deal with fellow believers and how you deal with hostile non-believers. And what you need in each case, again, is the right perspective. A lot of this is the repeat of the themes we've been talking about throughout the letter because this is his summary. And he's not really introducing any new ideas. He's summarizing what he said previously. So 4, 8. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. So love one another has been a common theme through his letter. The interpretive question is: does he mean all people or does he mean just believers? So does he mean love one another as in everybody on the planet or just believers? There are arguments you can make for both interpretations. My personal view is that he means fellow believers, as contrasted with the next verse, where he's talking about non-believers. And I think here he's repeating the emphasis of chapter 122. And that idea, remember, was if Christ means something to me, then those who belong to him and will share eternal life with me ought to mean something to me. Part of loving God is loving the things that God loves, and that includes his people. So you, my fellow believer, ought to mean something to me because we're on this path toward Christ together. We have an eternal bond that's going to outlast all the ties of this world. Then love covers a multitude of sins. Sin being covered implies that sin is dealt with, it's overlooked, it's not held against you. And there are again two interpretive options here. Whose sins are we talking about? My sins or yours? Let me explain that. One way to take that is that if we love each other, we will overlook the sins committed against us. So that would be the your sin option or the other person's sin. Because we love each other, we forgive each other because Christ has forgiven us. So to love my fellow believer is to be prepared to put up with whatever the sins, the disappointments, the disagreements, the thoughtlessness, or whatever. I overlook it, I let it go. I look make a choice to forgive the hurts and the sins and the selfishness that hit me. And that's true. That's a very biblical idea. That's an idea that's taught in the New Testament. The other way to take this is that love covers a multitude of sins, meaning my own sin. The idea in that interpretation is that when I respond to Christ's people with genuine, merciful love, instead of with my own selfishness, I am not sinning against other people. So as I learn to love the people of God and deal mercifully with my brothers and sisters, that keeps me from sinning against them and in essence covers my sin. If my heart is hard and selfish and I refuse to embrace my fellow believers, then I am very likely to sin against them. But if I'm humble and contrite before God, seeking God's mercy and extending that mercy to others, then I am less likely to sin against them. That's also a very a biblical idea. I'm not really sure which one he means here. I always thought it was the first option, and then one of my mentors pointed out this other interpretive option, the second one, and that that appeals to me. But I can't really find a clue in the text that knocks me off the fence one way or the other. In either case, the point is we are to love each other, and that loving each other is a necessary implication of our faith in Christ. So one of the ways I am sober-minded and clear in my thinking is that I seek the welfare of my fellow believers. Because what ties us together is not the ties of blood or friendship or mutual interest, it is the ties of the Spirit of God at work in us. We have this fellowship. We share in the blood of Christ, and that is a bond that is going to outlast all the things of this world. So believers share in the blood of Christ. We may not naturally get along with each other or gravitate to each other to be best friends, but we can recognize if we're both following Christ, we're in this together. We have this bond that overcomes all the differences that might otherwise divide us. 4.9. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Hospitality in Peter's Day was more than throwing the occasional dinner party. There were not that many inns and hotels and places for travelers to stay, so as folks traveled through towns, hospitality often meant staying in the homes of others. And traveling rabbis, in particular, or sojourners, needed a place to stay. Hospitality was highly valued in first century culture. It was a matter of honor. And so he says, Show hospitality without grumbling. Well, we can understand that. Grumbling comes from the sense that I'm being put upon, that I have all my important affairs, and they're being disrupted for the sake of somebody else who's coming to stay with me. So of course I'm gonna do it. I mean it's a matter of honor, it's important, I have to do it, but it's such a pain or such a bad time, and why did you have to arrive this week and not next week? And that puts extra work on me, and so on. Yeah, that's grumbling. And grumbling is the fruit of being selfish and drunk with this world. It results from overly thinking about myself and losing sight of what this life is all about, and forgetting that part of faith is caring for other believers. Then four ten and eleven, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I don't think he's talking about what we traditionally think of as spiritual gifts here in four, ten, and eleven. When I first became a believer, I understood spiritual gifts as a kind of superpower that God gives us when we become a Christian. And everybody had their own unique superpower, and my task was to figure out what my particular superpower was or combination of superpowers, and then use it to smite evil and bring in God's kingdom. And so I viewed gifts as kind of being infused with this supernatural power to do something great and miraculous for the kingdom of God. As I've grown older and learned more in my faith, I've come to understand spiritual gifts more as opportunities than as superpowers. I think the idea behind a spiritual gift is that God gives you opportunities to serve the kingdom in particular ways, and he equips you for that service. So a gift is a particular role he's given me to play in the story of redemption. And that gift, that opportunity may grow and change and adapt as I go through life. At different seasons, I may be called upon to use different gifts in different ways. But no matter what the opportunity or the situation, I can trust that he will equip me to handle that opportunity. So if he opens a door, I shouldn't run away from it on the excuse that that's not my superpower. And in this particular passage, I don't think Peter's talking about gifts as superpowers. In fact, I think this is one of those passages that has pushed me to understanding that gifts are more roles and opportunities and responsibilities and ways we might serve the kingdom. And it's really easy to get confused because some of the gifts do require a supernatural enabling. For example, if I'm a prophet, that's a particular which I'm not, but being a prophet is a particular supernatural enabling to hear God's word and speak for him. So there was a special kind of enabling to be given the responsibility to say, thus says the Lord, and that is actually what God was saying and a message he went communicated. So an Old Testament prophet did require a particular supernatural enabling, just like the New Testament apostles required being given a particular supernatural understanding of the gospel and the responsibility to speak for Christ, such that if we're debating did Jesus mean Y or did Jesus mean X, the apostles had the authority to settle that debate. Both of them were confirmed in their roles by signs and miracles that were manifestations of the Spirit that confirmed, yes, this person is a prophet or an apostle and he speaks for God. So when he says, Thus says the Lord, thus says the Lord. Now, most of the gifts don't require that kind of supernatural manifestation of the Spirit. They're more roles and responsibilities that we are tasked with in service to the body of Christ. And they arise out of who we are, where we are, what opportunities we have, and so on. We have strengths and weaknesses and resources and desires, and we've gone through certain experiences and we've learned things, and all of that combines to shape a particular way in which we serve the body of Christ. Because of who I am and what's happened in my life up to this point and what I've learned in my walk with God so far, and maybe the ways he's used me in the past, or the needs and the opportunities he's given me, I find the place I serve. So I would think of spiritual gifts as opportunities, not superpowers, and they make change and adapt with the seasons of your life. So, how do you find out what they are? Well, I'd recommend you just try it and see what happens. There's a lot of tests out there, and tests can be useful and they had their place, but I wouldn't let them limit you. I'd be open to whatever God might do, regardless of your test results. Now, Peter divides the gifts into two basic categories, speaking gifts and serving gifts, and we can serve each other by speaking, explaining, encouraging, and so forth. And we can serve each other by doing and showing and acting and lending a hand in a lot of ways. And he includes any role I might play in the body of Christ that involves words or actions, which covers a lot of ground. I think there are four key ideas here that come out of what he says. The first is that these are gifts. Notice he refers to the diverse grace of God or the multifaceted grace of God. These are gifts because it's gracious and kind of God to give us a role to play in his kingdom and in the body of Christ. Paul, you'll see in his letters, was very grateful for the grace given to him to be an apostle. It was a difficult job, he suffered for it, but he saw a great dignity and honor in representing Christ to the world, and he was grateful for that role. We ought to have that same perspective. There is great dignity and honor and value in everything we do that serves the body of Christ. Whether it's lending a shoulder to cry on, or speaking a word of encouragement, or meeting someone's financial need, offering a smile of friendship, or a gentle, humble word of caution or rebuke, sharing a meal, helping each other when we're in need. I mean, the possibilities are endless. Peter's saying these are gifts, these are great and wonderful ways to. Serve the kingdom, and there's something valuable and meaningful in playing that role. It is a gift both to the one being given the opportunity to serve and it is a gift to the one being served. The problem is we can get really puffed up about it. That brings me to the second point, which is the point of having these gifts is serving each other. Ultimately, my gift is not about me. I think that's what he's saying in 410. My gift is not about bringing glory to me. It's not about being a big shot or being noticed or being the person of prime importance or the person who changes the world and leaves a mark and makes an impact kind of difference. My gift is about serving the rest of the body of Christ. And that may be visible and have a lot of impact, or it may not. But in either case, my role is not to make a name for myself. My role is to serve the body of Christ. The minute I start making the gift about me, I think I have crossed a line I dare not cross. The blessing of the gift, the joy of the gift, the value and honor in it comes in serving another. So there's this inherent tension there. It's a gift. I haven't the opportunity to do something great, but that greatness is in serving the body of Christ. It's not to make me important or bring glory to me. And we're very inclined to get self-centered about the gifts and start bickering and complaining about who has what and who doesn't and who gets the recognition and who doesn't and who got the glory and who doesn't. And I think part of what Peter's saying here is stay focused, stay sober, keep your mind sharp and focused on grace. Ultimately, the gifts are to serve others, not yourself. The third idea is then that we are stewards of the grace of God. So a steward was a manager of a household. So the head of a household with a lot of property and business to manage often had a person that ran that, ran the household. That was the steward. He ran the business or he managed the household, but he did not own it. So a steward has an obligation to use all his master's wealth and resources to serve his master's interests. He exercises his authority on his master's behalf. If he serves himself in that responsibility, that's embezzlement. The question of ownership is not up for grabs. The master owns it. The steward is obligated, duty-bound, to use the resources he's entrusted with to serve his master. And that's what Peter emphasizes in verse 11. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. And when you go to help and serve, don't use your own strength, you use God's. So the one who speaks should be speaking with the understanding that he is serving God and making it clear that he is not serving himself. The one who helps should help in a manner that makes it clear that he's entrusting himself to God and not trying to seek his own gain. So whatever service he's rendering, whether it's financial or resources or muscles or skills or really anything, whatever strength he has, he should use that strength in a way that glorifies his heavenly Father. Use it in a way that makes it clear he is a slave of Jesus Christ. So we speak because he's given us understanding. We serve because he has blessed us. We show mercy because he has been merciful to us. We forgive because he forgave us. We love because he first loved us, and so on. Again, he emphasizes so that in all things God may be glorified. The result should be that we are all grateful to God for what he's doing among us. So it's very meaningful to have a role to play in the body of Christ, but the focus is on the other two parties in the equation. I am using the resources that belong to God, which God has entrusted me to serve the people of God. So the emphasis is not on me, it's on God and others. I don't serve because I think I'm the center of things. I don't serve as long as it doesn't cost me too much and you aren't too annoying and it fits my busy schedule, and you gotta ask nicely and thank me properly and all that. That's the wrong attitude. It's true that serving can bring great worth and self-esteem, but if that's my goal, I've started on the wrong foot. It is joyous, it is meaningful to have a role to play, but I play it not for my glory but for God's. Yes, it's a blessing, it's a gift that God has given me this honor of playing a role in His kingdom, but that role is defined by service to others, and it's done with resources that belong to God, and that's a very humbling perspective, nothing to get puffed up about. When I first started teaching, I used to put a footer in a big bold font on the bottom of every page of my notes, and that footer said, It's not about me. And I kept that footer on all my notes for years until the idea became ingrained in my soul, such that I approached every opportunity to speak from the starting point. It's not about me. It's about the word of God and it's about the body of Christ and the people I'm serving. Then finally, the last thing he emphasizes is the diverse grace of God or the manifold, varied, multifaceted. The emphasis is, I think, the same thing that Paul emphasizes in 1 Corinthians with his analogy of Christ's body. The idea is that each believer has a different role to play. So there is no one cookie-cutter way to be a mature believer, and we wouldn't expect to see the person who is truly spiritual is going to look one and only one way. While it's true that we have the same spirit working in us, there are a variety of things to do. There are many, many gifts. There is no one single way to serve, and that's the way God designed it. He has given different gifts to different people to be used different ways on purpose, and that brings glory to him. That's the way it's supposed to work. In fact, the body works best that way. And I think all of this has great implications for self-worth and honor and finding value in serving the body of Christ. The problem is we're all needy people, we're all hurting in various ways, and we all want to matter. And we all want to know that yes, we're doing something important and worthwhile, and that our lives make a difference. And there are a lot of ways to get the feedback that says I matter. And the world has a particular way of giving us that feedback, primarily by measuring our beauty, athletic ability, and intelligence. Those are kind of prime on the list. But the Bible does not measure gifts that way. Now, it is true that some gifts are going to have more impact than others. Some gifts are more visible than others. The apostles clearly had a huge impact. Martin Luther had a huge impact, C.S. Lewis had an impact, and so on. And compared with them, you could say, well, I'm no one from nowhere. My letters get recycled, nobody reads them over and over again, and that's as it should be. And yet we're studying Peter's letter 2,000 years after he wrote it. So it's very true that I will never have the kind of impact he had because he was an apostle. He had a different kind of role to play. Now we all want that kind of impact, whether it's on the global stage or the national stage, or even in our own church. We all want to be the pastor or the person up front or the worship leader, the person where that everybody knows when they come to church, and no one wants to be the person that comes and leaves and no one knows their name. And I think that's a mixed desire. I think God built into us a longing for that kind of meaning and significance. The problem is how we measure it. The wrong way to measure it is through the fame and the celebrity and the impact. I think the right way to measure it is using the gifts God's given you to serve God's body, simply doing what God has called you to do. And that may be a behind-the-scenes job that nobody notices. That may be an upfront job that everybody notices. Fundamentally, I'm to see myself as a child of God, that Christ died for me, his blood covers my sins, his spirit is at work in me. I have a place and the inheritance and an inheritance in the kingdom of God, and that is the foundation for my self-worth. And right now, I have a way to serve. And that service is important, it's honorable, there's great dignity in it. Now I know you're thinking easy for you to say, you get to stand up in front of each people with a microphone. And okay, point taken. But we can always find someone to compare ourselves with who makes us envious and covetous. We can always look up and down the line and say, well, that person's got it better, that person's got it worse, and always find someone who has it better than us, at least in our perspective. And that's where the perspective Peter's been emphasizing comes in. Roles are not for me, they're not for my glory, they're for the body of Christ and the glory of God. And the more I try to make my role about me and my glory, the less it is about the body of Christ and the glory of God. What I ought to want is to faithfully follow God's word. The more I embrace belief, I realize that this is about serving the body of Christ and not me being great, the better off I'm going to be. It's really not healthy to focus on trying to find a role that makes me feel validated or important or celebrated because that's not what gifts are all about. What we're called to do is recognize the end of all things is at hand. This is the last age before the second coming. In terms of redemptive history, we're in the last period. The next big event in redemptive history is going to be the second coming of Christ. So God's kingdom is coming, but meanwhile, I have this opportunity to be one of the followers of Christ. I have an opportunity to take my little role, whatever it is, and serve the body of Christ in whatever way God has asked me to serve. That's my job. That's my calling. That is where I will find worth and fulfillment, whether anyone ever notices or not, or whether anyone thanks me or not. The less I make it about me, the more it will be ultimately satisfying to me. And that's the irony of the situation. You have to die to live. You have to serve to find worth. Okay, moving on. 412. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ's suffering, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. Okay, I think he's alluding back to chapter one with the fiery ordeal. The idea that he brought up in chapter one with the metaphor of our faith is tested the way gold is tested by fire. And I think he has in mind the particular kind of trial where the world rejects you because you belong to God, because you are a person of faith. And he gives two reasons not to be surprised when you are persecuted for your faith. One was if people don't like Christ, then they're not going to like you. And the more you are like him, the less they're going to like you. And second, God has made it clear that testing and trials are part of his curriculum for us in this life. These are the places, the trials are the places where our faith is tested and shown through the test to be the real deal. So they force us to face into the question of who am I counting on? What am I hoping for? Am I going to follow God or am I going to follow something else? If following God makes me look ridiculous to the world or act different or puts or costs me something, am I still going to do it? Those are fundamentally questions of faith. So in this life we share the sufferings of Christ. That is, we experience the same kind of rejection that Christ did. And if we've embraced the faith, and those who reject the faith will therefore reject us just like they rejected Christ. Those who don't like Christ are not going to like us either. But as he said in chapter 1, keep on rejoicing. You are blessed if you're reviled for the name of Christ, because it proves that you are his. It is tangible evidence that all the promises of the gospel are yours because your faith has been tested and shown to be the real deal. I think Peter learned this directly from Jesus. We have this in the Sermon on the Mount. This is Matthew 5, 11 and 12. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. It's the same point that Peter is making here. Rejoice because this means you belong to God. There's a glory coming in the future for Christ and his people. There's a living hope of a guaranteed inheritance in the kingdom of God. In the end, Christ is going to be victorious, and you are going to share in that victory. So you may be rejected now, you may be reviled now, you may be persecuted now, but there is great blessing and joy to come. And then he concludes in 17 and 18, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. In 4.18, I don't think he means that our final salvation is uncertain when he says the righteous is scarcely saved, but rather that the way through is hard discipline. The way to get to salvation is through hard discipline. This whole verse is taken from Proverbs 1131. The idea is this testing, this fiery ordeal is the beginning of a judgment to come. So now in this life you're being sifted like wheat, as Jesus says to Peter one time. So there's a sense in which this is the beginning of judgment. Being a believer involves suffering. It is the beginning of this process of sorting the sheep from the goats, of sorting Christ's people from rebellious people. The righteous, those who are right with God because they have faith in Jesus Christ, are saved with difficulty. That is, their lives will be difficult. They will go through these fiery ordeals, these trials. Being a believer, being a follower of Christ in this world is not an easy thing. It's like going through the fire, and if it's tough for us, then think of the outcome for those who reject Christ. We make this choice to follow Christ and we're going to face hardship. So remember, Peter's readers are facing one of the most difficult tests believers go through. They are being rejected by the world because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Many of his readers of this letter, his first readers, would be martyred under Nero's persecutions of Christians, and he's writing to help them face that. And he's saying, when you suffer, entrust your souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Be sober-minded, keep fixed on the gospel perspective. Remember your living hope and keep striving to do the right thing. Keep striving to turn the other cheek or to not revile when being reviled. Ultimately, they need the perspective that to share Christ's sufferings is to share Christ's glory. This suffering can't be avoided because it's God's purpose to test our faith and take our faith through fire so that it is proven to be the real deal, so that it is matured and tested and strengthened. So 419, I think, is his concluding summary statement. It's a restatement of the principle of 211 and sums up this whole section. Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. This is the essence of it. You're going to be reviled for your faith. You're going to be tested. Life is going to be hard. And when that suffering comes, fix your hope completely on God. Entrust your soul to a faithful creator and keep striving to do the right thing. Let's pray. Father, we confess that we are not the people we should be, that life is hard and it throws us for the loop, that we get easily distracted by the things of this world and the circumstances of our life and the cares of today. And I just pray that you would give us this gospel focus and make us people who look past the here and now and fix our hope completely on the grace that you brought in so graciously and mercifully through your Son Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.