I Peter 5:12-14
(A Bible Study Led by Dr. Larry
Reynolds)
January 17, 2013
I realize that this is the kind of passage that many
of us tend to skip over in our personal Bible study. We tend to read the personal greetings in the
NT letters as if they have little application to our lives. But it is a mistake to do that. God included these greeting passages in
Scripture for a reason and there is much for us to learn from them. From this paragraph we can see some qualities
that should be in the lives of those who choose to follow Jesus.
WE SHOULD
BE FAITHFUL
1.
Notice how Peter
begins this greeting in verse 14 – “Through Silvanus, our faithful
brother (for so I regard him), I have written...” This could mean that Silvanus was the scribe
who wrote down Peter’s words or that Silvanus was the one who delivered the
letter from Rome to the churches in Asia Minor...NT scholars are almost
unanimous in agreement that “Silvanus” which is a proper form of
the name “Silas” is the same Silas who is associated elsewhere in
Scripture with the ministry of the Apostle Paul...the Scripture tells us much
about him...
--don’t know when he first came to faith in Christ,
but was a leader in the early church in Jerusalem...(Acts 15:22)
--was part of a delegation sent to carry a letter of
encouragement and instruction from the Jerusalem church to the new Gentile
Christians in Antioch...(Acts 15:22ff)
--accompanied Paul on his 2nd missionary
journey (Acts 15:40)
--was with Paul in Philippi when they were beaten,
thrown in prison, and eventually freed from their chains by an
earthquake...(Acts 16)...--mentioned by name in three of Paul’s NT letters [2
Cor., 1 & 2 Thess.] and may have been the secretary who penned Paul’s words...
--was obviously with Peter in Rome when I Peter was
written...probably served as Peter’s secretary...and probably was the one who
delivered this letter to the churches...
2.
No wonder Peter
called him “our faithful brother”...Silas was a person who stayed
with it...from the early days of the church in Jerusalem, through the rigors of
a difficult missionary journey, to staying by Peter’s side in Rome, he never
left his post...he never quit...he never gave up...he just kept faithfully
doing what God had called him to do...
1.
James Dobson tells moving story of Marine Corporal
Jeffrey Lee Nashton who was severely wounded in bombing of the Marine barracks
in Beirut, Lebanon in the 1980's...was transported to a hospital in Frankfurt,
Germany...one day Marine Corp Commandant Paul Kelly came to visit the wounded
soldiers in that hospital...when Commandant Kelly stopped at Corporal Nashton’s
bed, Nashton, unable to speak because of his wounds motioned for a slip of
paper and a pen...on the paper he wrote two words and pressed it into the
Commandant’s hands...the words were “Semper
Fi” the Latin motto of the Marines meaning “forever faithful”...[J.
Dobson/G.Bauer, Children at Risk, Word, 1990, pp.187-188]
2.
And that is how
God’s people should be…forever faithful!
WE SHOULD
BE ENCOURAGERS
1.
In last part of
v.12 Peter explains his reason for writing...he says “I have written [for
the purpose of] to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true
grace of God. Stand firm in it!”...the
word translated “exhorting” is parakaleo...compound
word...para is preposition meaning by or beside...kaleo
is verb meaning to call... word carries idea of being called to stand
beside another person for purpose of helping, upholding, encouraging...
2.
That’s what Christians
should do for one another in the church...we’re not to beat each other
down...we’re not to attack and fight and devour each other...we are to build
each other up...to encourage each other...
3.
As story first published in Reader’s Digest tells
of a man named Marion Gilbert who witnessed something that graphically demonstrates
the power of encouragement... one morning opened his from door to get the
newspaper and found a little stray dog sitting on the front porch with the
paper in its mouth...Gilbert said he praised the dog, scratched its head, and
gave it a treat...the next morning he found the same dog sitting on his porch,
tail wagging, surrounded by eight newspapers... [Reader’s Digest, February, 1994, p.12]
4.
That’s what
encouragement can do...and to be the kind of people God desires us to be, we
should encourager rather than discourage others…
WE SHOULD
BE GROWING
1.
Notice what Peter
says in v.12...”I have written to you briefly...” ...what did he
mean by that...one person says there are only 2,585 words in I Peter...I didn’t
count them so I’ll just take the word of someone who says he did...the text of
the letter could fit on four single spaced typed pages...and Peter is saying, “This
isn’t all there is...there is more to the Christian life than this...there is
more to learn than I can tell you in a single letter...”
2.
The Christian
life is a pilgrimage, a journey...as we travel the road of Christianity our
lives should be marked by—
--a constantly growing in the faith...
--a steadily deepening relationship with the Lord...
...we must never be content, never be satisfied with
where we are...there is always more to learn...always more to
experience...always more to understand...
3.
We must never
forget that no matter—
--how much we think we know...
--how spiritually mature we think we are...
--how grounded we are in Scripture...
Our spiritual lives are always a work in progress...
4.
In the book Holy Sweat Tim Hansel tells of
picking up a friend from the airport who was returning from attending the 40th
reunion of his high school class...Hansel says he noticed the friend seemed
depressed and asked why...here’s what the friend said, “It has been forty years, forty years--and
they haven’t changed. They had simply
gained weight, changed clothes, gotten jobs...but they really hadn’t changed.”...and
then after a long pause Hansel’s friend continued, “I never, never want that to be said of me, Tim. Life is too precious, too sacred, too
important. If you ever see me go
stagnant like that, I hope you give me a quick, swift kick where I need it ...
I hope you’ll love me enough to challenge me to keep growing.” [Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, Word, 1987, pp.54-55]
5.
And to be the
kind of people God desires for us to be, we must continue growing and maturing
in the faith…
WE SHOULD BE AFFECTIONATE
1.
While the word
affection does not appear in these verses, the concept permeates the passage...
--greetings are sent from “She who is in
Babylon...”...that phrase probably refers to the church in Rome...”she”
probably refers to a church...in the NT the church is often referred to
with feminine pronouns...”Babylon” is a cryptic way of referring
to Rome...so Peter sends greetings to these church from the church at Rome...
--greetings are sent from Mark...this is most likely
John Mark, the writer of the second gospel and earlier travel companion of
Paul...
--then Peter instructs them to “Greet one
another with a kiss of love...”...this is a reference to the eastern
tradition of greeting someone with a kiss on the forehead or on the cheek...it
was sign of goodwill much like our handshake...
And the cumulative affect of all those statements is
to create a tone of genuine affection as Peter closes this letter...
2.
And, of course,
that’s how Christians are to relate to each other...
CONCLUSION
1.
The heart of this
passage is the command at the end of verse 12 to “Stand firm…” This is a military term carrying the idea of
not retreating in the face of an attack.
The people to whom this letter was addressed were facing an onslaught of
terrible persecution. In effect Peter
tells them to get ready for battle and don’t give ground. How is it possible
for Christians to do that?
2.
I’m not sure where I heard it, but there is an
interesting fact about the huge groves red cedars that dot the western coast of
our nation...from a distance they appear tall and sturdy and strong...but
underground their roots are shallow...and the thing that keeps these majestic
trees from toppling over is not just their root system...they gain strength to
stand by leaning on each other...their branches literally reach out and touch
the branches of other trees...their roots intertwine with the roots of trees
near them... and while they can’t stand alone, together they are strong...
3.
That is how it
should be among God’s people…as we—
--remain faithful to our calling...
--encourage and
support one another
--continue
growing and maturing in the faith...
--express
genuine love and affection for each other...
We are able to “Stand firm!”
