The First Letter of Peter- 11

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 3

1 Peter 2:21-25. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 1, 2026.

In his instructions to household slaves leading up to this passage, Peter makes this point.  If you suffer for doing what is right and patiently endure it, there is favor with God.  He now points them (us) to Jesus as a great example of what he is talking about.  Jesus suffered for doing what was right, and he righteously endured it.

Jesus is not just an example to household slaves.  He is also an example to all of us in our situations that may have differences but are essentially the same dynamic spiritually.  We are going to see through the rest of the letter that Peter continually points us back to this example he lays out here.

No matter what relationship may bring us suffering, God’s purpose is to create millions of examples (exhibits) of those who suffered for doing what was right, and yet, patiently endured it.

Let’s look at our passage.

Christ is our example (v. 21-25)

Verse 21 adds the phrase “leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Think of all the steps that Jesus made in which he could have turned back, but he kept going forward. 

Peter is doing this when he asks to step out of the boat.  Peter made a choice to ask, and then he chose to step out of the boat.  Notice that there is a point at which the results of our decision carry us along, for good or for bad.  It is not that there are no more choices to be made, but that there are tidal forces carrying us.  We tend to warn about the power of consequences, but we should also see that there is a good in it.  The choice to step out of the boat created a scenario in which there was no going back.  He would either walk or sink.  There is a certain good in this.  When we steel our courage and follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we find ourselves in scary places, yes.  But we also find ourselves in places where God shows up to help us through it.  Just that first step to follow his example is often the opening of a whole river of God’s help.

Jesus chose to care the burden of the cross for us, and so we ought to carry our cross for him.  Praise God that He is working in us to help us do this very thing!

Theological liberals love to say that Jesus is only an example of love, i.e., he was not actually paying a price for our sins.  This is an error and contradictory to Scripture.  However, it is also an error to downplay the reality of the example that Jesus has given us.  Of course, this example of trusting the will of God would do us no good if Jesus had not truly atoned for our sin.  But he has made peace between us and God.  He has supplied the Holy Spirit within us to help us do this!

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53:9, “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.”  This is a passage describing God’s work through His perfect servant, the Messiah.  Israel had failed to rightly serve God’s purposes.  However, God would bring forth a perfect servant, a suffering servant, who would save Israel and the Gentiles by his righteousness and suffering.

This Old Testament verse uses a word that is generally translated as “violence.”  The word involves doing wrong to someone in a harsh way.  This can be a physically violent act, or metaphorically violent in the sense of brazen and bold wrongs done to another.

When translated into Greek, the translators chose a word that means lawlessness.  Only a lawless person would sin against others in such a bold and harsh way.  The quote in 1 Peter says, “who committed no sin.”  Peter expands the “lawless” translation of the earlier Greek manuscripts to the more general “sin.”  Definitely Christ was revealed to them as not being a violent, lawless man.  However, Jesus was more than this.  He was without sin.  We see Jesus challenging his opponents in John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”  Of course, the only “sin” they could pin on him was that he a man made himself one with God, which is no sin if it was true.  Hebrews 4:15; 7:26, 1 John 3:5, among many other New Testament verses, agree with this statement of Peter.  The Messiah was a sinless man.  The apostles came to see that Jesus was the only perfect imager of God the Father who had ever lived on this planet.

The second part of this Old Testament quote from Isaiah 53 says that he was free of deceit, or treachery.  There is nothing like suffering to bring out the worst in us.  It is often in our desire to avoid difficulty that we choose a path of misleading people or hiding the truth.

Jesus positively did good things to people, but he also refrained from doing wrong to others.  This is the example that we are called to follow, not because it saves us, but because we have been saved.  I can’t follow Jesus perfect enough to save myself, but I can follow Jesus out of perfect thankfulness for his saving grace.

This leads us into the next descriptions of the character and actions of Jesus.  These emphasize what he didn’t do.

Jesus did not respond with reviling to those who reviled him.  To revile someone is about verbal abuse.  It can be translated to rail against someone.  Any time you see someone spitting mad yelling obscenities and accusations at another person, you are seeing this in action.  In fact, this is a perfect example of the metaphorical violence that Isaiah 53:9 references.  How easy it is to become so angry with such people to begin shouting back at them and responding to them in kind.

Jesus was accused of many things in very unkind manners.  During his trial, he is even pictured as being blindfolded, punched, and in a mocking manner, told to prophesy who hit him.  This was both verbally abusive and physically abusive.  Yet, Jesus did not yell back and say hateful things against them.  When we are squeezed by life, the stuff that is deep within us is generally brought to the surface.  You and I have a history of failing in this area when we are in the pressure cooker of suffering.  Yet Jesus went through it without sin.

If you remember the night of his betrayal and arrest, you will also remember that Jesus showed the disciples how they could follow him.  It would require more than a spirit that was willing.  A willing spirit must deal with its weak flesh through prayer, wrestling with God over His purpose in our life and yielding to Him.

1 Peter 2:23 also mentions that he uttered no threats.  Sometimes threats are empty because we have no way of backing them up.  We may be powerless, but Jesus is not.  Jesus has great power and thus shows great restraint.

Of course, don’t get Peter wrong.  There is a great threat looming over those who reject Jesus.  How you treat him will determine your eternity.  However, Jesus doesn’t threaten people.  He only points out the truth.  During his trial, he found it best to generally not respond to their accusations, taunts, and lies.  Yet this doesn’t change the fact that there is a day of judgment for each of us and for this world as a whole.  God will hold us accountable for choosing our sin over the top of the righteousness of Jesus.

The last thing that Peter points out about how Jesus endured suffering is that he entrusted “himself to Him who judges righteously.”  Persecution doesn’t only affect how we treat others.  It can also affect our relationship with God the Father.  Jesus entrusted himself to God the Father even in the face of death by wicked men.  He could do this because His relationship with the Father only knew Him as trustworthy.  Jesus stepped out of the boat of mortality and put himself into the hands of the Father.  “Do with me what you will, Father!”  God could powerfully stop his persecutors or not.  Regardless, Jesus both knew and trusted the decision of the Father.  May God help us to have such a relationship of trust in Him.

Remember that God is never “on the side of sinners.”  If it looks like they are getting ahead and that it pays to be wicked, don’t believe it.  They will eventually stand before God and despise themselves in His presence.  However, God is on the side of sinners in the sense that He is trying to break through their spiritual blindness.  Our righteous suffering may be the only thing that pricks the heart of the wicked and turns them back from sin.  Can I do that for Jesus?  He promises to reward our service for His purposes, but we have to trust Him with our life.  Yes, they may reject the witness we give, but at least God sees me.  He doesn’t like what is being done to me.  However, if I do this rightly, I can have His favor.  I can remain in the place of His favor.

This suffering of Jesus is more than an example of love and trust.  Verse 24 shows us that Jesus was a sacrifice that provides spiritual healing for us.  In Jesus, God is providing a way for sinners to find spiritual healing. 

We sometimes act like we don’t know what God is doing through us, but we do know in general.  He is showing Himself to the world through us.  We don’t have to perfectly understand all the ways that He is doing that in order to say, yes, to Him.  This is what faith (trust) is all about.

In trusting God, Jesus did something for God that needed to be done if any humans were to dwell with God in eternity.  Without Jesus even the best of humans would be stuck in the grave, unable to enter into His presence.  We may be clueless to what God is doing specifically, but we do know that it has to do with showing others who Jesus is.  Jesus provided for our spiritual healing, but then he uses you and me to bring that spiritual healing into the minds and lives of the lost.  We provide opportunities for them to know His spiritual healing.  Verse 24 explains how his sacrifice does this.

“He himself carried our sins in his body on the tree.”  If you approach this from an Old Testament mindset, you will recognize the importance of this word, “tree.”  This whole thing with sin started with some trees in Genesis three.  The Tree of Life was counterposed to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They chose (we choose) to go after the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than the Tree of Life.  There is something about trees in the word of God that is important.  We see this in Psalm 1.  The perfect Israelite (there was ever only one) would be a Tree of Life that would bring forth fruit rather than chaff.  This ultimate fruitful Israelite would only be the Messiah who is presented in the next psalm.  Blessed are those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:12). 

Scripture doesn’t describe the Tree of Life, but the New Testament presents Jesus as the ultimate Psalm One Blessed Man.  Yet the tree on which he provided life for us did not look desirable.  It was a cross.  Everything in our flesh wants to continue to flee to the other tree, but God calls us to embrace this tree of suffering in Jesus.

Jesus took your sins, my sins, in his body (a representative of whomever would believe in him) to the cross.  God’s punishment upon our sin came upon Jesus who was sinless.  Is this fair?  Of course, it is not!  However, it is love.  In Jesus, our sin has been nailed to the cross and punished.

Notice the contrast between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of this age.  Jesus embraces our death upon himself.  He sacrifices his mortal self in the name of God’s purpose in humanity.  The spirit of this age will sacrifice any number (the more the better) of humans for the sake of humanity.  Those who make the decision of just whom will be sacrificed will never be caught making sacrifices themselves.  Which of these hearts will you choose?

Peter than describes that this was “so we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”  Our sins and the guilt that comes with them have been dealt with by God.  He simply asks me to admit my fault, yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put my faith in him.  If we do this, our sin and guilt will be completely removed.  The flesh will still battle us, but it cannot change what Jesus has done, once and for all.  By faith, we can die to the sin that we so easily want to do and come alive to the righteousness that He wants to work in us and work through us.  If we claim that His love is working in us, then we will see it working through us to others.

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53 again (verse 5).  It is the wounding of Christ that provides for our healing.  This is important because Peter is pointing us to this as an example.  Because of Jesus, our suffering and wounds can do some good, both in our lives and in the lives of others.  My wounds and suffering can point others to Jesus and his salvation.

Spiritual healing does involve the removal of the external guilt of our sin that hangs over us.  However, it is the internal guilt of sin that is harder to heal.  We have to let the forgiveness of Christ and the love of God teach us the better way, the way of Christ!

Peter then ends with emphasizing our spiritual condition in verse 25. He breaks this up into two different stages.  Before Jesus, we were continually straying like sheep.  Notice that this is an allusion to Isaiah 53:6. Led by our fears, ignorance, and desires, we stray away from the Good Shepherd and the grace of God.  “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.”  This was true of Israel, and it was true of the Gentile nations.  It was true of me, and it was true of you.  This is our helpless state before Jesus came and before we came to know about him.

But now, after coming to Jesus, we are something different.  We are now sheep who are returning, coming back, to the Good Shepherd who is also the Overseer of our souls.  Both shepherd and overseer correspond with what later became role titles in the church: pastors and bishops respectively.  I don’t think Peter is giving any sense of religious title here.  Jesus is the good shepherd in every way that a shepherd is good for sheep.  He is the great overseer watching out against our enemies and for our good.

Doesn’t it seem odd that Peter (one of the sheep) is exhorting the rest of the sheep to be more like the Good Shepherd!  May God help us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the help of His Holy Spirit!

Witness 3 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 6

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 3

1 Peter 1:22-25; 2:1-3.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 28, 2025.

We continue in this section where Peter admonishes us to be a part of the new spiritual people that Jesus is creating.  He does this through a series of imperatives, or commands.  We have looked at the first three.

1. Fix your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1:13).
2. Be holy like obedient children of God (1:15).
3. Conduct yourself in the fear of the Lord during this time of your sojourn on earth (1:17).

Of course, there are more things that are attached to these three commands, but they are the core points.  Let’s look at our passage as Peter gives some more commands.

Fervently love one another from the heart (v. 1:22-25)

Peter gives them the same command that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples, particularly in John 13 to 15 on the night of his betrayal.  It is probably fresh in Peter’s mind just how wrong-headed he had been that night.  Yes, he believed in Jesus and was following him.  Yet, his flesh kept side-tracking him from where Jesus was leading.

We are to love one another as Jesus loved us.  On the night of his betrayal, we should first recognize that Jesus had risen and washed their dirty feet, something a servant should have done.  He loved them enough to do the lowest task among the group. Once we have absorbed this lesson, then we can move to the fact that Jesus physically was willing to die for them that they might live. 

Does this sound like something that is easy?  No, it is not!  One of the problems with American society is that we have exalted the idea of “falling in love” beyond any usefulness.  Today, people fall in and out of love without much thought.  They are simply led by the desires of their heart, which are often only lust.  Jesus is talking about a motivation that comes from Jesus Himself, rather than our own heart.  The love that Jesus gave to me when I didn’t deserve it becomes a motivation to give love to those others that he commands me to love.  In this case, he is talking about other disciples of Jesus.  If I have been forgiven much, then I should love Jesus much, so much that I am willing to love his other followers.  This is not a love of feeling, but a love of choice, a love of sacrifice.  Feelings will come and go, some good and some bad, but always we should make the choice to love.

Peter adds that this love is to come from the heart.  Some manuscripts have “from a pure heart.”  Both of these would be true.  There is an intellectual part to this choice to love, but we must not let hypocrisy and ulterior motives lead us.  Our heart has to embrace the decision.  We are not just intellectually seeing the vision that Jesus is laying before us but also capture that vision and making it our own.

We could say that acts which look loving, but are done in hypocrisy, are not truly loving at all.  They are self-serving actions in disguise.

Verse 22 starts off with “since you have in obedience to the Truth purified your souls…”  Peter reminds them of this prior action.  It is not in question, i.e., “since,” but the latter action of loving each other from the heart is in question (at least until we follow through).  The prior action is that they have purified their souls.  This may sound wrong.  Isn’t it Jesus who has purified our souls?  Yes, Jesus is the Purifier of our souls.  However, his work of purification involves the work of putting our faith in the “Truth” of the Gospel of Jesus. 

This is what is meant by “in obedience.”  The Gospel is first good news of what Jesus has done and has made available to us.  However, it is also a challenge.  Will you embrace this Jesus as God’s answer to your sin-sick soul?  Thus, it can be said that we purify our souls when we put our faith in Jesus.  It is understood that we could not do that, i.e., our works of faith would be useless, if Jesus had not done the foundational work of providing the foundation upon which we are putting our faith. 

There is also a work of the internal battle against sin that we are to engage with the help of the Holy Spirit, who was made available to us by the work of Jesus as well.  Like the Israelites taking possession of their inheritance in the Promised Land, believers are to take possession (purify) their souls that have been overrun by the giants and strongholds of sin.

We might not think about it in this way, but Peter says that we have purified our souls “for a sincere love of the brethren.”  The grammar depicts the sincere love of the brethren as a target, or goal, of the purifying.  

Think of it this way.  Jesus commands us to love one another, but my heart is filled with things that make it difficult to obey that command.  I am not enough like Jesus to do it.  However, I have put my faith in Jesus both for salvation and for the strength to war against the lusts that are in my own heart, all of this so that I can actually follow through on the work that Jesus has given me.  If you are going to do the hard work of fighting sin in your life, then follow through with the target of loving other believers.  This is what Jesus would do if he were here in the flesh.

Christians are not hypocrites that pretend to love people.  Instead, we are up front that without Christ none of us would love others.  It is his love for us that is transforming us and leading us in saying, “No” to our flesh, and “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.  We who have followed Jesus have also joined this new spiritual people.  Jesus wants it to be a community of love between one another just as the Father and He have always existed in a community of love between themselves and the Holy Spirit. 

We should not blame our lack of love for others on them.  Of course, we all have things that are hard to love, and we have things that are easy for us “to love.”  Our society has a sense of feeling good when helping others (the poor and powerless, etc.).  However, in our flesh, our target is not high enough.  Making yourself feel good is on the same level as drinking alcohol so that you can forget about your woes.  Jesus wasn’t making himself feel better when he loved us.  He was paying a price so that we could be set free from our sins.  His target was much higher than just his own human feelings.  This is why people can be so “loving” to one group but then spew vile hatred towards others.  Christians are not to be like this.  If someone spews hatred towards you, you are to love them as Jesus would love them.

Peter also brings up in verse 23 that they have been born again.  We should fervently love one another from a sincere heart because we have been born again.  We have been born from above, born of the Spirit of God, born of the will of the Father.  This spiritual life that has begun within us is working to express itself in our life through actions that are inspired by Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.

He goes on to point out that this new birth did not come from an imperishable seed.  This ties back to the phrase in verse 22, “in obedience to the Truth…”  Peter is helping them to see this metaphor that Jesus used in his parables in which the seed represents the Word of God, the Truth.

There are all kinds of seeds of “truth” in this world, but only the Word that comes from God the Father is “Truth.”  What word is planted in your heart and growing there?  The words of this world are all impotent and destined to fail, to perish.  However, the Word of God is imperishable.  Even when we ignore it, it accomplishes what it was sent to do.  Its living principle is not dependent upon us believing it.  Yet, we should believe it if we want to be on the good side of its potency.

This Word of the Lord is essentially the Gospel that they received.  Simultaneously, the Gospel, even all Scripture, is an analog of Jesus, the Son of the Most High, who is the Truth.  To obey the word of God (Scripture) is to obey the Word of God (Jesus Christ).  In fact, we can tie this back to prophecies in the Old Testament that refer to seed, but in this case, the seed is the offspring.  Genesis three promises that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.  Later in the same book, God promises that the Seed of Abraham would bring blessing to the whole world.  We also find the importance of the Seed of David that would eventually come forth to rule over Israel and the Nations.  In Jesus, this promised Offspring (the Anointed One) is also the One who is the Seed (Truth) of God.

Jesus is the Imperishable Seed.  If you believe on him, his imperishable nature will make you imperishable too!

Peter fills out what is meant by this imperishable seed by calling it the “living and enduring word of God.”  God’s Word is living versus dead.  It has life in and of itself because it comes from the Author of all life.  The words of men may make us feel alive, but they will not bear out in the end to be true life.

God’s Word is also enduring.  It remains, or stays, when all else fails and falls aside.  God’s Word remains as a stalwart signpost pointing back to Him, back to life, even as we stand on the cliffs of destruction.

This brings Peter to quote Isaiah 40:6,8. It emphasizes the contrast between humans, who are like grass, and the Word of the Lord, which endures forever!”  Sometimes in Scripture God emphasizes that the wicked are like grass (see Psalm 92:7).  They may look intimidating and substantial to us, but they are here today and gone tomorrow.  Theirs is temporary power, temporary success.  However, the grass imagery can also be applied to all humans (wicked or righteous).  Our time to impact this world is brief and short.  What we do is important, but we will also quickly be gone. 

This may sound cynical, but those who have placed their faith in the Word of the Lord, Jesus, will find that His enduring life is greater than our mortal, grass like nature.  Jesus will not leave us behind.  We have been born again by the Spirit of God because we have believed the Word-Become-Flesh that was sent by God the Father to us.  Though we are perishable in our flesh, the Word of the Lord will raise us up!  We will live because we are connected to the living Word of Life!

All of this is about loving one another.  It may feel like a worthless life, just loving other grass-people.  However, we can trust God and offer it up as an offering of worship unto Him.  We have truly born the grass image of Adam, but we shall also bear the image of Jesus, which is anything but grass!

Peter reminds them at the end of verse 25 that this is what they have received, the Living, Enduring Word of the Lord!  This really is the only thing we have to offer people.  My ideas, my thoughts, are here today and gone tomorrow.  But, when we proclaim the Word of the Lord to people, we give them something that will never fail them!  It is this Life of God that should drive our ability to fervently love one another from the heart as Jesus has commanded us.

Long for the pure milk of the word like newborn babies (v. 2:1-3)

A spiritual person needs to live upon spiritual food.  The Scriptures are our spiritual food because they speak of Christ and are from him.  To read and to embrace the Scriptures is to embrace Jesus Himself.  This spiritual food will enable them to grow.

Peter particularly speaks to them as newborn babies.  Many Gentiles were completely unfamiliar with the Word of God.  When they believed in Jesus, there were many things they did not understand and in fact were too hard for them to understand quickly.  Easier to understand things from God are like spiritual milk.  Newborns exist only on a diet of milk because their stomach is not able to digest more complex foods.

So, what are these easier to digest things of God’s Word?  In short, the Gospel itself is based upon an elementary understanding of God’s Word.  The Creator of humanity loves us.  Our sin has separated us from Him and brought about the pain and suffering we see.  He has sent Jesus to remove that separation and bring us back into a loving relationship with the Creator.  We need to share this good news with others.

Of course, there are things that are harder to digest, or understand.  In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul expected the Corinthians to be able to eat “solid food” by now.  Though Peter does not address solid food, we might ask ourselves this question.  How do spiritual babies get to a place where they can eat meat?  They do so through a steady diet of milk.  Peter is reminding them to desire the milk of the word, not so that they will remain in that state, but so that they will grow spiritually.  Believers are called to long, to yearn, for the pure milk of the word.

For what are we hungering?  A believer may start out hungering for the milk, but then other things that are not spiritual food draw our attention.  A new believer can become distracted by harder to digest truths that they are not ready to eat, but they can also become distracted by unspiritual food, the philosophies of this world etc. 

Here is another question.  Do adults still drink milk?  Of course, they do.  However, they will not be able to do adult work on a diet of milk.  As you grow spiritually, you are going to need to grow in understanding the Word of God.  This will take time, but it will also take intentionality and focus.  Make sure you are hungering for God’s Word at the appropriate level and not going after supplements that come from the devil, the world, and our flesh.

This spiritual growth is mentioned in verse 2 (“so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation”).  Babies take on the image of the ones by whom they were born.  We ought to take on the image of Jesus more and more.  We should be taking more and more possession of our soul as an inheritance given to us by God.  Our discipleship in this life is important, even though we have a greater inheritance in the age to come.

A person who is listening to the Word of God and being led by the Holy Spirit will grow in becoming more like Jesus.  This is not without difficulty and spiritual battle, but it is the work Christ is committed to doing within us.

Peter lists up front (vs. 1) some of the negative things that we need to battle against within our hearts.  These things not only get in the way of doing everything Peter has commanded so far, but they also get in the way of our desire for the Word of God.

We need to put aside all malice.  This is a general term for any ill-will (literally bad will) that we might have for others.

We need to put aside all deceit.  This is the type of activity that the devil employed against Eve in the garden.  Deceit has an ulterior motive underneath a nice-looking veneer.

We need to put aside hypocrisy, which is putting on an act rather than being sincere.

We need to put aside envy, which is often a source of hypocrisy and deceit.  We envy others when we desire what they have more than what God has for us.  There is nothing wrong in desiring something, but it becomes an idol when we sacrifice relationship with God in order to get it.

He ends with telling us to put aside all slander.  This word is more general than how we use it.  It simply means to speak evil of another person.

These are the things that we need to put aside or take off like filthy clothes.  We saw this language in our study of the Letter to the Colossian Church.  When these things fill our heart, we will not long for the word.  We need to take hold of them and expel them from our heart, but we also dare not let ourselves act upon their leading.

If my heart is not longing for the Word of God, then the response is to start cleaning while asking God for help.  None of us can do these things without the help of the Holy Spirit.

In verse three of chapter two, Peter says, “If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  I don’t think Peter is questioning whether they have “tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  He knew that the Gospel had drawn them into putting their faith in Jesus.  They had even believed in the face of difficulty and persecution, which supports the reality of their faith.  Peter is actually reminding them or challenging them to remember.  Don’t let yourself be sidetracked from the original drawing to the Lord that you had.

To taste something requires you to take it into yourself.  It is one thing to know about apples, but it is quite another thing to eat one.  Taste is about intimate knowledge.  Of course, Peter is talking about spiritual things.  To taste the kindness of the Lord is to hear about it and then to take it into yourself by putting your faith in it, in Jesus.

The idea of tasting the nature of the Lord comes from Psalm 34:8. There, the psalmist refers to the “goodness of the Lord.”  When we trust the Lord, we will no longer only know about Him.   We will come to have the knowledge of experience.  Yes, there are bitter-sweet things that we experience in the Lord, but the Lord works them to the good for those who trust in Him!

God doesn’t just want us to know about Him.  He wants us to know the goodness, the kindness, that He desires to lavish upon us.  He wants us to experience His love by faith.

How does this relate to these mostly Gentile Christians?  God had cast off the Gentiles and handed them over to the false gods that they worshipped.  Yet, now, He was drawing them near to Him like children to a Heavenly Father.  We might accuse God of not being kind when He cast them off (us off), but then, we didn’t experience the wickedness and evil that was happening because of a rejection of His wisdom.

God is good even when He lets us go into the results of our choices.  Even in His judgment, He is bringing us to a place where repentance is possible.  His grace is without bounds, but it will not believe for us.  We must believe for ourselves.  The Word of God helps us to do this.

New Spiritual People 3 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 3

Subtitle: The Joy of Our Salvation- part 2

1 Peter 1:8-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, November 30, 2025.

We continue in this letter as Peter has described the great salvation and inheritance that we have through Jesus.  Not only should it cause us to rejoice, but it should also stir up a love for Jesus that is wrapped up in our faith in him.

Let’s look at our passage.

Praise to God for His salvation (v. 8-9)

Peter had just described that they were rejoicing in this salvation in the midst of trials and tests.  They were able to do that because they had faith in God.  Verse 8 commends them for the way their faith led to a love of Christ. 

This is done by placing two statements in a parallel construction.  The first statement is this.  You love him even though you haven’t seen him.  The second is similar.  You believe in him though you do not see him now.  This brings up the issue of our faith and its relationship to what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present.

The majority of those embracing Jesus Christ in the first century did not see his ministry, death, and post resurrection appearances.  Yet, they had come to love the Lord Jesus regardless.

Of course, Peter had seen Jesus in all of these aspects.  He had further seen Jesus glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration and ascending into heaven later.  Peter’s love for Jesus was deep and involved a past relationship with Jesus.  However, these people (like everyone who believes today) did not have that. 

How can you love someone that you have never seen?  It starts with receiving the knowledge that Jesus had done something for you that is both great and unthinkable in its quantity and quality.  To hear that someone laid down their life for you so that you can live is a shocking understanding.  Of course, it will be based upon the faith you have in the trustworthiness of those telling you about him.  Men like Peter, Paul, James, John, and the others more than proved their trustworthiness.  In the face of threats, imprisonments, and even death, they held fast to the testimony of the teachings and resurrection of Jesus.  On top of this, the Holy Spirit did great signs and wonders through them which brings up another side of faith.  The work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people helps them to both understand and embrace Jesus in faith.  Of course, this is not a coercion, but an influence that we can embrace or reject.

This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16.  Peter had declared that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Peter didn’t know the fullness of what those words meant, but he did believe.  Jesus commended him but notice what he says.  “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  Jesus did not teach his disciples that he was the Messiah.  Rather, he did the works of Messiah and let the Spirit of God teach them.  Yes, they had seen Jesus, but in the end, they were putting their faith in what the Spirit of God was revealing to them.  To see Jesus or not to have seen Jesus is not what is crucial.  What is crucial is that we respond in faith to the evidence that is put before us by God.

Jesus knew that the majority of Christians throughout history would be in the position of believing in something they didn’t see.  The atheist believes that this is preposterous.  Yet, we believe in all kinds of things that we have never seen for ourselves.  It is how we are designed as human beings who don’t and can’t know everything.  Those who believe, without having the benefit of what Peter had seen, would be and are blessed even more.  This is why Peter is commending them.  Their faith in what Jesus had done led them to love him.

Yet, they cannot see what Jesus is presently doing for them.  Scripture tells us that he is seated at the right hand of the Father awaiting the command to take up the kingdoms of the earth.  Yet, he also intercedes on our behalf and sends forth the Holy Spirit for our enabling.  Technically, no one can see this naturally.  Stephen was given a vision of this, but he was being put to death.  Peter did see Jesus ascend into heaven and disappear out of his sight.  So again, believers through the ages have put their faith in a past and present work of Jesus, though they have not seen and do not see it for themselves.  They both believe in Jesus and love him.

I will say that, though we cannot see Jesus interceding and pouring out the Holy Spirit, we can see the effects of this through many powerful demonstrations of the grace of God, both in our life and in the testimony of countless believers through the centuries.

How can you say, no, to such a love?  How can we not reciprocate the love that God has lavished upon us through Jesus with our own hearts full of love for him?  We love Christ not just for what he has given us and will give us.  We love him because his heart is such that he not only gives us things, but he has ultimately given us himself.  His heart of salvation, that refuses to leave us in bondage to sin, was more than willing to pay an enormous price for us.  His greatest gift to us is a relationship of love that we can have with Him!

Verse 8 then describes that they greatly rejoiced with a joy inexpressible and full of glory.  How can one rejoice in the midst of trials?  Faith helps us to see what is on the other side of the trials.

How can it be said that our rejoicing is inexpressible and full of glory?  The glory is that which God attaches to our salvation by His grace.  It is the same glory of Christ who endured the ugliness of this world for our sakes and for the sake of the Father.  When he is revealed to the Lord in all of his glory, we will be at his side in glory as well.  We have nothing but glory ahead of us.  Though this world may heap shame and dishonor upon us, it is to our glory to carry that mocking, ridicule, and even persecution, as he did.  We walk the way of the cross by putting our feet into the footsteps of our loving Lord.  Even if we have the absolute worst experience and have been dealt the absolute worst hand in this life, none of that should matter to us.  What matters to us is what we do with it.  We must pick up our cross, our difficult lot in life, and carry it to the end for Jesus!

The joy of bonding with Jesus in his sufferings followed by glory is described as inexpressible not because we cannot attempt to describe it.  It is simply because our words fall short of the full reality and our vocabulary falls short of the description worthy of his love.  However, it is also because we do not know all the wonderful and good things that God has for us.  “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9). 

Of course, the goodness of God is not just something that is off in the future.  His work in our lives throughout this wilderness is filled with His love, grace, help, and more.  How great our rejoicing will be when we understand all that God has done, is doing, and even yet will do in demonstrating His love for us!

Verse 9 then speaks of the salvation of our souls that we receive as an outcome of our faith.  This is pictured as something that is happening now.  It is not that God is miserly giving us a small portion of salvation over time.  Rather, it is what we spoke about several sermons ago.  Salvation can be seen as something we receive instantaneously at our initial faith in Christ.  It is like a status: we are a person who has entered into God’s salvation.  It can also be seen in the sense that God gives us title to it.  It belongs to us and no one can take it away.

Yet, salvation can also be seen as something that God is doing in us throughout our life.  He is saving us from our past life of sin and our present temptations to sin.  We should think of salvation in this sense as a kind of healing.  The spiritual hurts and wounds of the past take time to be healed.  God uses this life, its trials and tests, to help us heal spiritually.  In that sense, we are daily obtaining the salvation of Christ in our life as we put our faith in him, his word, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, salvation does have a completed sense that is in our future.  At death, my soul will be completely healed and saved from sin, and at the resurrection, by body will be completely healed and saved from sin.  I will see Jesus and know him because I will be like him!  All of this because we are trusting Jesus.

May God strengthen our faith.  May we also guard our hearts and be careful that our faith in Christ is not shipwrecked during these trying times.

Praise to God for His salvation (v. 10-12)

Peter takes some time to remind them of the grace of God that we are receiving in these days of Messiah.  In other words, let’s talk about this salvation that you have obtained!

This salvation that we are experiencing is the same salvation that the prophets of the Old Testament sought to understand.  They knew that God promised salvation to those who trusted in Him.  This was in the face of the failure of humanity as a whole from Adam to Abraham and the failure of Israel as a special nation to God.  They were curious in every generation about this salvation.  Thus, they searched the Scriptures that they had at the time, looking for any clues that would give understanding about the salvation of God.  They also inquired of God in prayer about this Messiah. 

Peter describes two questions that they were seeking to have explained.  The first had to do with what person, or manner of person, would be Messiah.  What would he be like?  How will we know him?  What exactly will he do?  And the question would go on and on.  The second question had to do with the timing.  The word for time that Peter uses is not so much about chronology as it is about seasons.  Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, do follow a clock-like chronology, but they also have a purpose that is for something greater than a particular amount of time.  There is a quality to those periods of time.  Similarly, God has seasons in His dealings with humanity.  Yes, He would save humanity, but it would be done in seasons, seasons that had particular purpose known to God.

These prophets sought to understand the greater arc of God’s purposes through time.  This would help them to understand why Messiah’s coming was so delayed, but also to recognize when his coming was close.

Over time, God revealed a little here and a little there.  Progressively over the generations, from Genesis 3 to Malachi 4, God revealed to them some answers to these questions.  Notice that Peter describes it as the “Spirit of Christ within them.”  The summation of all this revelation is that Messiah would first suffer and then his glories would follow.  Messiah would not just come to be great and make others suffer.  Rather, he comes to reject the things that we think are glorious.  He then ingloriously dies on our behalf, showing us the way.  God’s glory is not like our glory, and if we want to be glorified, we will be quick to jettison the desire for “our glory.”  Our glory is focused on self and does not care for others except for the ways that they can accentuate our glory.  God’s glory is about saving others out of shame and humility and bringing them back into the glory that He made for them.

Now is not the time for us to seek glory.  Now is the time for us to join our lord in his path of suffering, not for suffering’s sake, but for the saving of others who are trapped in sin.  We too have an allotment of suffering before our day of glory.

And yet, this life is not all suffering.  We enjoy God’s goodness in so many ways, but particularly in the fellowship we have with Him and fellow believers.  Even after being beaten and put in the stocks, Paul and Silas lifted their voices in songs of praise to God. How could they do this?  They could do this because they saw the smile of their Lord Jesus and the inheritance that he held securely for them.  They could do this because they knew they were not at the mercy of the magistrates of Philippi, nor a jailer and his guards.  They were at the mercy and steadfast love of God Himself!

So, Peter tells us that the prophets recognized that God was showing them things that they would not see in their time.  Instead, they wrote them down for the generation that would witness and follow the days of Messiah.  They lived faithfully not knowing fully the details of Messiah.  They lived by faith in the Coming Messiah though they did not see him or know fully what he would be and do.  This, of course, is similar in every age, even ours. 

Peter connects these believers to that long chain of the glories of Messiah Jesus which are only continuing today.  He connects them to the glories of the revelation of Jesus that will occur at his second coming.  These are the things that were announced to them by people like Peter who came preaching the Gospel of Jesus.  This was all through the work of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Peter even adds that these are things that even angels are curious to know.  Notice that he puts that curiosity in the present tense.  Angels are not omniscient, though they surely know much more than we do.  Of course, the devil would have a vested interest in figuring out exactly what God is going to do and when, but I believe Peter is talking about the faithful angels, just as he had been talking about the faithful prophets.  These angels don’t understand everything about God’s purposes, but they do their work on God’s behalf ministering to humans who are being saved.  All of the faithful, in heaven and on earth, seek to find these things out.

This brings us to a great section regarding how we are to respond to such great salvation.  Yes, we respond in faith, but Peter is going to get into specifics.

Let me just close by challenging you.  Don’t let the enemy get into your head when you can’t figure out what God is doing.  The devil wants to undermine, to destroy, to steal your faith.  However, God is building your faith and making it a strong bulwark that the enemy cannot breakdown. 

Why does God require so much faith?  Perhaps, it is because He wants us to have the joy of discovery.  We have had much revealed to us about what the future holds, but we have not been given an exhaustive understanding.  It is enough for us to know that God is with us, helping us, and bringing us to a good thing that is better than what we can do for ourselves.  If God be for us, who can be against us?  Or, even better, what does it matter who is standing against us?  We can have the same joy that David had on that day that he grabbed the stones by faith and went out against Goliath.  What are you doing today, Lord!  Let’s go find out!

Joy of our Salvation audio 2

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 07

Subtitle: The Dangers around Them-2

Colossians 2:9-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

We continue looking at the danger that the Colossian Christians faced of teachers who would try to take them captive through wise sounding ideas.  Of course today, such teachers are readily available on the internet.  It is the same danger, but we face far more of it.

Paul had challenged them in verses 6 and 7 to walk in Christ.  When we are positively focused on Jesus, it is our best defense against false teachers.

In verse 8, Paul identified the roots of the attacks from these teachers on the Gospel of Christ.  These teachers were using philosophy and empty deceit that was often mixed with religion and personal visions.

Let’s pick it up at verse 9.

The benefits of being in Christ

When a person understands what they actually have in Christ, they are not susceptible to these philosophies and vain deceptions that false teachers use.  They are looking for people who are hungry for something more.  This is why Paul has emphasized over and over that we have everything we need in Christ.

Verse 9 ties back to chapter 1 verse 19.  There, in the hymn to the Son of God’s love, Paul made the statement that “it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in him.  In chapter 2 verse 9, this statement is made again, but some more exact language is added.

The first word added is the word “deity.”  Although “the fulness” was strongly connected with the concept of God and deity, Paul adds the word deity so that there is no  question.  The fullness of deity dwells in Jesus.  The believer needs to understand that there is nothing about what makes the Father to be God that isn’t fully present in Jesus.  We can use ideas like omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence as a starting place.  There does not exist a “greater fullness” of deity than exists in Jesus.

Paul also adds the adverb “bodily.”  Part of the attacks against Christians had to do with the inability to accept that full deity could exist in human form.  It was common for these teachers to diminish the man Jesus and treat the “spirit of Christ” as something separate.  Yet, they still sought to attach themselves to Christianity because it would make it easier for them to draw Christians after them.

Jesus has full deity, and yet, he is fully man, body and all.  This bodily emphasis shuts down the penchant for Greek thinkers to view the body as evil or incompatible with full deity.  This is the one you are following.  He is fully God.

Secondly, You are complete in him who is the head over all rule and authority (v. 10).  The word for complete here is the idea of being fully supplied.  Jesus has full deity, and in him, you are fully supplied for whatever you may face.  Essentially, there is nothing you need that hasn’t already been supplied for you.

Notice that Paul emphasizes that Christ is “the head” over all rule and authority.  This would be over human authorities for sure, but Paul is more focused on spiritual rulers and authorities.  These false teachers loved to project spiritual hierarchies that one could discover and benefit from them.  However, Paul shuts that down.  There is no higher authority than Jesus.  No other spiritual entity can give benefits to you that are greater than those Christ gives, and without his approval.  These fallen spiritual beings that were being worshipped by the Gentile world have no power and authority over Jesus.  It is the other way around.

So, why is it that Christians sometimes feel like there must be something more than what we have?  This can be for various reasons. 

One reason is that you may not be completely trusting Christ.  If we are only half-hearted in our “walk” with Christ, sometimes trying his way, sometimes listening to the world, then the Holy Spirit will stir up in you a holy discomfort so that you will press into Christ more.  You need to take Christ seriously.

Another reason could be that you are paying too much attention to the messaging of the world around you.  The world is great at telling you that you need to act now, or you will not get what you want.  It stirs up an unholy dissatisfaction with life and the supply of Christ because he is not supplying the whims of your flesh.

Also, you may simply be a weak human who is learning how to trust in the power of Christ, rather than the feelings of your flesh.  We walk by faith not by sight, nor by feelings.  Those moments of “feeling”  like there should be more is a test to double down and trust the Lord.  Lean into the supply of the Christ: the Word of God, the Holy Spirit’s help, and mature believers in Christ who can help you.

In verse 11, Paul shows them some of the things they have in Christ that are connected to what the false teachers were often promoting.  One of those teachings had to do with Gentiles being circumcised.  Paul tells them that they were circumcised without hands, in Christ.  This is a clear reference to a spiritual circumcision of the heart, which is done by the Holy Spirit.  We’ve seen this before in the Old Testament.  Even as Moses is declaring God’s love of physically circumcising Hebrew boys on the 8^th day, we find passages that emphasize a circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16).  The Lord spoke to Israel through Jeremiah about this as well (Jeremiah 4:3-4).  Here is Deuteronomy 30:6.  “Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

The physical circumcision of a child was representative of a greater circumcision of the heart.  It would remove the barrier of the desires of our flesh from between  us and the LORD.  It would allow for a relationship of love.

Christians, even Gentiles, have had their hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirit, the greater circumcision.  They do not need to go back and do the physical.

Yet, there is a second layer to this teaching.  Though Christians have been spiritually circumcised in heart, everything that Jesus did in the body as the perfect man is applied to them.  Our faith in Christ allows his perfect work to apply to us.  Thus, Jesus was physically circumcised on the 8^th day.  That act doesn’t save us, but it does apply to us.  His circumcision is our circumcision by faith.

We see this same mechanism in verse 12 concerning water baptism.  Water baptism symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus died to this world and its false life, and was raised up to live the true life that God the Father had for him.  When we are water baptized, we are identifying with Jesus.  Just as he died to this world (literally), we die to this world (spiritually),  Of course, we will physically die and be physically resurrected one day too.  However, we do not have to wait until then to have the benefits of his death and resurrection apply to us. 

We are identifying with what Jesus did and what will one day be done for us, but we are also participating in his death and resurrection spiritually.  We continue to physically live, but we do so with the same attitude and heart that Jesus had.  We do not live for this world or our flesh and its desires.  Instead, we live for the will and plan of God the Father through the Son of His love.  Jesus is the victor over the worst that the devil can throw at us.  This victory also belongs to those who are in Christ today.  The same power that raised Christ from the dead works in us to break free from the hold that wicked spiritual beings have had on us through our sin.

We have been raised up already by the Spirit through our faith in Christ and the working of God.  We are alive to God and His purposes while remaining dead to the world and its purposes.  This is not a mere mental trick.  This sinful world and the sinful spirit-rulers crucified the Lord of Glory.  Do you think Jesus is interested in anything they have to offer now?  He wasn’t interested when he was in mortal flesh, and he is even less interested now that he is in immortal flesh.

The sin of this world, my own included, will only lead to death and judgment before God.  This brings us to verse 13.

All of these benefits of Christ come to us while we are yet sinners.  Paul reminds them that they were dead in their transgressions and in the uncircumcision of their flesh.  It was precisely in such a condition that Christ made us alive together with Him.  You are alive spiritually, which allows you to hear and to be led by God.  All of this is possible because Jesus has forgiven us all of our sins and transgressions.  Of course, Christ didn’t just willy nilly zap you.  It was your faith in him that becomes the channel of God’s grace to you through the forgiveness of Jesus.
This leads to a Holy-Spirit-influenced digression by Paul.

How can Jesus simply forgive us our sins?  The short answer is that he has died in our place as a substitute.  He paid our penalty for us.  Yet, it is deeper than that.

Paul pictures Jesus at the cross with a sign above his head that was supposed to list the charge against him.  However, Pilate put on the sign, “King of the Jews.”

Of course, the charges against Jesus were bogus, and he was not worthy of being put to death.  Yet, if you and I were put on a cross, there would be all kinds of true charges that could be placed on our cross.  This is what Paul is talking about when he mentions the hand writing document of decrees that are against us.  Some versions couch this in debt terminology.  That is okay, if we think of it as a moral debt.  Yet, in light of the experience of Jesus on the cross, it is probably better to see this as a document of the charges for which we have been found guilty.

As Christ is nailed to the cross, so too the accusations against him and us are nailed there too.  In Christ, our accusations and charges are nailed along with his.  The fact that Jesus would purposefully do this is a powerful act of love.  Our charges are stuck there on his cross forever, unable for any spiritual being to take them down and try to pin them against us again.  Jesus has cleared the way for us to approach the Father and come into His presence.  If God does this for us, then what spiritual being could stand against Him and us?

Satan is the origin of the concept of lawfare.  It has been his only weapon against humanity.  He has always used the law as a weapon against God and his human imagers.  Why didn’t God stop him from tricking Adam and Eve?  A deeper question would be this.  Why didn’t Adam and Eve (and you and I for that matter) remain faithful to the God who had only done us good?

In verse 15, most translations say that Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities.”  Of course, he was not disarming Herod and Caesar.  It is talking about Satan and his cohorts.  Yet, the word for disarmed is about more than simply taking a weapon from Satan.  These continual charges and accusations of Satan against humans have been taken by Jesus and publicly nailed to a cross.  The accusers are not only disarmed, but also disbarred.  They have nothing with which to approach heaven and accuse us, and they have lost access to make such accusations.  The power of this lawfare has been ended in Christ.

Satan has always played the cool lawyer.  He can always point to the action of others and present his own in their best light.  However, his actions with Jesus publicly demonstrate his true heart.  If given the chance, he would kill God.  His accusations have nothing to do with true righteousness.  He does not really desire social justice.  This is only a convenient placard that he uses to retain the color of law.  At the cross, Jesus made a public spectacle of just how wicked the devil is, and just how loving and gracious the Father is.  He triumphs not only over the devil’s plan, but over the devil’s argument.  He is our champion, and the devil is powerless to do anything about it.

This means that we have a choice.  Whose on the LORD’s side?  He can cover every single sin of ever single person that has ever lived on earth.  Yet, God is giving us a choice to walk away from the powers of this world, and to turn towards Jesus, who is the Messiah of God.  The character of both has been put on display once and for all.  The devil is a self-righteous, lawfare operating, spiritual being whose future is to be walled off from God’s good creation by the Lake of Fire for eternity.  Yet, Jesus is the one who took  your punishment upon himself so that you could be set free from your sins and live in God’s good creation forever.  If you haven’t yet, make the choice today to turn from your sins and turn towards the One who saves sinner!

Dangers 2 audio