One of my heroes of the faith is Corrie Ten Boom. In World War II Nazi occupied Holland her family hid Jews in their home, but eventually got caught. Corrie and her sister ended up together in a German concentration camp. One of my favorite analogies of hers was an embroidery she carried around. Its bottom side was all gnarled and knotty, a hodgepodge of zigzagging threads. On the top side, though, was a crown. The confusing bottom side is how we see trials, hardship, and pain in this life, but God sees a crown that He’s stitching. The Lord has a purpose behind everything that’s going on in our lives.
The apostle Peter wrote to Christians being persecuted and even killed for their faith. The Roman Empire was ruled by a madman, Caesar Nero. He lit up Christians as torches to illuminate his gardens at night. He eventually had Peter crucified upside down in Rome. This letter we know as 1 Peter offers spiritual guidance to Jesus followers living in dangerous times and perilous situations.
How Peter sees trials of this life is way different than we 21st century sheltered Christians in the West typically do. Peter labors to elevate our thinking about trials up to God’s higher thoughts. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Isa 55:8). Peter’s approach to ministering to believers experiencing trying times is radically different than yours and mine. When I hear of Christian brothers and sisters in trouble, I often pray for comfort, peace, and safety. Not Peter. Not that those aspects are unimportant. But Peter has light from God about His higher purposes that we need to learn. The message of 1 Peter is not, “Ouch this hurts. God, make the hurt go away.” Peter wants to open your eyes to see trials as God sees them. God will use that ouch to reach the person that’s hurting you by doing a miracle in their life.
Grace is one of the key themes in the opening of the letter. Peter wishes grace be multiplied to you (1:2), exhorting you to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:13). Revelation is about illumination and understanding who Jesus Christ is. Grace to us is very vital and important because we need to be holy as He is holy (1:15-16). We need to be transformed from glory to glory. What happens, though, after this grace is working in us? God’s heart yearns to use us as His ambassadors to be salt of the earth and let our light shine. But before He can use us out there, we need grace to us on the inside. We’ll be focusing on the pivotal transition in Peter’s letter from grace to us to grace through us, specifically towards those who persecute us. That’s where they were living then. The world we’re living in now is becoming more and more dangerous and perilous as it was in those days. We’ll see how grace will work through us if we do it God’s way and not lean to our own understanding. Peter will turn our eyes to Jesus as He went through the same kind of hardships. This same God who’s alive in you will do the same kind of miracles in those who are antagonistic towards you.
1 Peter 1:1 through 2:10 is what I consider the foundation that the remaining letter rests upon. In this literary unit life’s fiery trials are but a blip on the screen whereas in the remainder of the letter they dominate the big screen. In the introductory section trials are only mentioned in these two brief verses:
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV
Trials viewed from above—the God’s eye view—is distinctly different than viewing them from below. A hurricane seen from a weather satellite appears as a nice, puffy white cloud. That’s not how it is being under that cloud! The latter part of 1 Peter is life in the hurricane. Here the furious gales of opposition threaten to tear us apart. Storm surges threaten to drown us. Trials confuse us. It’s not easy to understand what God is doing.
The foundation that Peter established needs to be kept in the forefront of our minds. We’re not to forget it in the hurricane part of the letter, thinking that Peter has moved on to a new, unrelated topic. His carefully laid foundation shines the divine light of understanding into the hurricane that follows. Its heavenly rays burst through the clouds as we trek our pilgrim way through the chapters that follow. Here’s one of those rays of sunshine piercing through the gloom:
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 insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12-13 ESV)
When is Christ’s glory revealed? Is that when Jesus comes again? Yes, that’s true. That’s a general truth affirmed in the pages of Scripture. The foundation, though, points to His glory being revealed at some point during the trial. That’s under God’s discretion. None of us like pain. We want the easiest, fastest route out of pain, but God doesn’t always lead us along the swiftest path. The good news, though, is that at the end of it He will bring glory. That’s what He’s guarded us as a military sentry for (1:5). Your heavenly Father stands guard like a soldier from dangers all around to make sure you will have glory at the end. You will. It’s His timing, not ours. But He will bring glory. His glory is revealed that you may “rejoice and be glad.” Now where did we hear that before? In the foundation. “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1Pe 1:8-9).
Now, in the context this fiery trial that’s going on, our faith is being tested and purified (1:6-7). This revealing of Christ’s glory that causes us to rejoice will shine beyond us. It’s going to go outward. How does Jesus get that light inside of us to shine out in the world? It’s through our brokenness. It’s through these fiery trials that that come. The apostle Paul, Peter’s comrade in suffering, says it this way: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2Co 4:8-10). As we as jars of clay are being broken, the treasure of the glory of Jesus within us radiates to people all around us.
The key verse that we’ll be focusing on is this:
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.
1 Peter 2:12 ESV
What is this day of visitation? Usually when I’ve read this, I thought it meant the day of judgment. That’s when God rains down His wrath in Sodom and Gomorrah style on all the ungodly sinners. The Greek word for “visitation” is episkopē (ep-is-kop-ay’). It’s not a very common word in our New Testament, used only four times. The verb form episkeptomai (ep-ee-skep’-tom-ahee), visit, shows up a bunch of times. I think this better conveys the sense of what this day of visitation could mean. One instance is from James 1: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction…” (Jas 1:27). What kind of visit is that? It’s not a visit of judgment or condemnation. It’s a visit to help them. Your personal presence provides for and takes care of the helpless. You’re not a removed and distant spectator with soothing “Be warmed and filled” platitudes. Episkeptomai embodies a personal presence of merciful, compassionate help to these widows and orphans.
Another picturesque use of episkeptomai is how God visited a widow in her affliction. This is one way Jesus practiced pure and undefiled religion. In Luke chapter 7 Jesus interrupts the funeral procession of young man in Nain. The Lord sees the deceased’s mother, a weeping widow, and has compassion on her. He commands her dead son to arise and gives him back to her. The people erupt with gusto, “God has visited his people!” What does that mean that God visited His people? Did He visit His people to destroy them? No, He came in compassion and brought life out of death. He was personally present in a way that manifested care. So this “day of visitation” that Peter’s talking about suggests not a day of judgment but a day of God’s personal involvement to bring life out of death. The verses that follow are in agreement with a day when God’s presence is on hand to show mercy.
Interestingly, Peter goes on to point out how Jesus is the Shepherd and Overseer—episkopos (ep-is’-kop-os) —of our souls (2:25). Our English word “overseer” lacks the warmth and “personableness” that the original Greek word does. I usually think of an overseer as some authority figure coolly observing behind the scenes, exerting his authority as fires arise and need to be put out. Overseer seems distant, institutional, and impersonal. That’s very different than the personal, compassionate, one-on-one kind of care we’ve looked at with its cognate episkeptomai. I don’t believe that Peter’s use of Overseer is just coincidental. Overseer (episkopos) is artistically threaded into this beautiful literary tapestry commencing with the day of visitation (episkopē). The day of visitation leads lost sheep to Jesus, the Shepherd-Visitor!
I am super excited in this upcoming blog series where Peter draws attention to the lives of Jesus and of Sarah to best illustrate this day of visitation! You’ll be amazed by how remarkably powerful and revolutionary our trials are in God’s able hands. So many gaps in how we’re to rejoice in persecution and trials have been filled in for me. What Peter reveals here has transformed my perspective and heightened my faith and prayers to expect a day of visitation in the lost around me and my fellow believers.
Peter will show how our submission to God in trying circumstances and with difficult people brings the visitation of God to others. The Lord Jesus is going to be revealed to others through our sufferings and afflictions. He’s going to reveal Himself in a supernatural way if we allow the life of Jesus as the submissive pilgrim to live through us. We’re going to see Him act in a way that’s going to impact the world. And it’s very unique, very different, and very supernatural.
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 