42. Follow His Steps
Covering 1 Peter Chapters 2 to 5:
Peter managed to include nearly every part of the Gospel in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, he places us into the Church as the dwelling place of God and into our ministry to the Father. Then Peter continues with a closer study of our sufferings shared with Christ Jesus, and being made like Him in the midst of them.
And that, I think, is the best wording of how we will approach this lesson. – Our sufferings shared with Jesus and being made like Him in the midst of them. “Follow His steps” does not mean – What would Jesus do? Jesus did nothing of Himself. To follow His steps means to walk with the Father as Jesus walked with the Father, and to know a God inside of us reconciling the world to Himself.
Our Source, and therefore, our essence is out from God through the entrance into us of the Jesus whom we Love. This Jesus resolves all difficulties through His carrying Grace, taking us into a life of Devotion to the Father, whereby we walk every step in return to Him. This Jesus we receive makes us to be just like Himself that we might become the appearance of God in creation.
The Flow of Spirit Energeia. And all of it circles around sharing Hheart with God, the Father’s great Desire that Jesus be proven faithful and True by our love for one another. We then add that line to our focus from Slide 1. – Our sufferings shared with Jesus and being made like Him in the midst of them. – The Father’s great Desire that Jesus be proven faithful and True by our love for one another.
Now we can continue through the remainder of 1 Peter, knowing what God would show us of Himself inside of us. Yet we also understand this. We are speaking of the Pathways of Power, that flow of Spirit Energeia in the heavens that sustains and directs all things into the unveiling of Jesus Christ. We are speaking of the removal of the seals that bind and the stepping forth of a Glorious Church upon this earth.
Well-Fitted. (Chapter 2) 1 Since you have set aside all malice, and all deceit, fakery, and spite, and all speaking of evil words, • 2 now, crave logical and pure milk [as good words] like newborn babies so that you may increase inside of [Gospel] word into salvation, 3 if indeed you tasted and experienced that the Lord is good and well-fitted [to you] • 4 as you approach to [connect with] Him as a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and valued alongside of God.
Peter is using the construction of the House of God, made of stones fitted together, as his metaphor of our being joined with Jesus for the Father’s sake. This joining also matches the metaphor of the growth of a crystalline structure – the “sea of glass.” Jesus is “well-fitted” to us, and we approach “to connect” with Him. Thus He makes us like Himself that we might “follow His steps.”
Jesus Fits Us. Verse 1 contains three things that we have already set aside, things which I also emphasize – malice-spite, deceit-fakery, and the speaking of evil words. Then, it is the Flow of Gospel Word into us that takes us into that House Jesus is building for God inside of Himself.
Ruling Verse 5: The cross has already removed from us malice, fakery, and speaking evil words, that is, we rely upon Jesus having come into union with us to remove them utterly.
Covenant: True Gospel Word flowing into us increases us.
The Form for God through Jesus: Jesus fits us, just as He fits the Father. He is shaped to our persons and needs, just as He is to God, that He might connect us together with the Father. Yet by this “fit” He also connects us together as God’s House.
The Flow of Gospel Word. We can see that Peter is using the metaphor of “pure milk as an infant drinks” in a very different manner than Paul and Hebrews. It makes sense that a metaphor like this can have two very different meanings, depending on the context. Paul was speaking of childishness, whereas Peter is speaking of childlikeness, as he had heard Jesus say, “Except you become as a little child, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” There is nothing more fitting than a mother’s milk that a child might grow strongly into the man or woman God intends. This is the meaning Peter is applying to Gospel Word.
• 5 Also, you yourselves, as living stones, are being constructed together as a spiritual house into a devoted priesthood, to offer spiritual offerings welcomed by God through Jesus Christ.
The Dwelling Place of God. We do not “go out and save the lost.” God alone saves. Our task is to give ourselves to the Father, that He might welcome the opportunity to move through us into our world. We are priests to God first – for others, and then to others for God. Our ministry is to be that bridge, just like Jesus.
The Form for God through Jesus: Peter is expressing inside his letter the same thing as Ephesians 2:19-22, Ruling Verse 12, which Paul had written a year earlier. He adds this thought, that our service is to the Father, that He might be what He wants as Salvation through us.
Ruling Verse 9: We are priests to God first – for others, and then to others for God. Our ministry is to be that bridge, just like Jesus. Yet this ministry is something we share together as God’s fitted-together House.
A People Together. • 9 You, however, are a chosen kindred and family, a royal priesthood, a devoted ethnic family, a people into His gain and possession, so that you may publicly declare the goodness and virtue of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. • 10 You were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. You once had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Everything in verse 9 is plural – kindred, family, priesthood, ethnicity, and a people. Included in these words is the rejection of modern “patriotism.” I have everything in common with a believer in Jesus in outer Mongolia and nothing in common with an unregenerate American down the street. And my connection with that believer in Mongolia is the House of God.
God Wants a People. Though I do not know personally that believer in Mongolia (or anywhere else), our task together continues to be to declare publicly the goodness and virtue of the Lord Jesus – as He is, that is, as the One who, having come into union with both of us, makes us to be one family together. At the core of the Covenant are these words – “And I will be God inside of them, and they will be a people inside of Me.”
Kingdom: We are one family and kindred with all believers in Jesus across the earth. We have no connection with sons of refusal “next door.” The Church of Jesus Christ is our country and ethnicity; we are loyal to no other.
Covenant: At the core of the Covenant are these words – “And I will be God inside of them, and they will be a people inside of Me,” the thing God desires above all.
Blessed Silence. • 15 For this is God’s desire, to put to silence the senseless ignorance of men through your doing good, 16 yet as free, but not “freedom” as a cover-up for evil, but as servants of God.
I am aware that people actually use “union with Christ” to justify hurting other people. – “Christ lives as me, so when I hurt you, that’s Jesus doing it.” This is something I cannot understand, for I do not know the absence of the fear of God. Verse 15 is the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, for senseless ignorance goes silent when God is seen through us. It is also the removal of seal seven, the silencing of all accusation.
Ruling Verse 9: Part of the ministry of setting creation free is to bring to silence all accusation against God and all lying about self. We do this through doing good (see Romans 12:20-21), that is, by presenting the goodness of Jesus.
The Boundaries of Our Path. • 21 For you have been called into this, because Christ also suffered for you, for your sake, leaving you a pattern, as of word to copy, that you should follow His footsteps: 22 “Who did not commit sin [did not fall short of God], neither was trickery found inside His mouth.” 23 Who, when He was reviled or abused, did not revile or abuse in return. When He suffered ill treatment, He did not threaten, but gave Himself over to Him who judges justly.
I can see now that the outward word of law and the outward pattern of Jesus “to copy,” share the same role in our lives. Just like Jesus, we can do nothing of ourselves. We also know that “trying to obey” or “trying to copy Jesus” is iniquity. As we walk in union with Christ Jesus, the outward word and the outward pattern show us the boundaries of our path.
Jesus Humbles Himself. Looking closely at verses 15-16 and 21-23 in this light enables us to see so much depth of truth, things I also teach. The great danger is that we would use our freedom inside of Christ and our union with Him as a coverup, an excuse, for evil words and actions against other people.
In complete contrast, I have found union with Christ to give me a great and unwavering strength NOT to speak unless I can speak blessing. (Except towards my own wife, which is at the heart of my human dilemma and the agony of God with me inside my human inability.) Let’s say that I tell someone that I will do something. But then when it comes time, I find that I cannot. Do I lie? Do I use trickery of words? Or do I humble myself in honesty in order to honor my brother? Jesus humbles Himself, and so do I.
To Follow His Steps. Ruling Verse 5: “Trying to copy” Jesus is iniquity, just as “trying to keep the law” is lawlessness. Just like Jesus, we can do nothing of ourselves. It is Jesus Himself who, having come into union with us, reveals Himself as He is through our stumbling humanity. Our job is to know that He is our Life.
Definition: Outward word as the law and the outward pattern of Jesus “to copy,” do serve a vital purpose for us. They provide the boundaries for what union with Christ really is. We do not hurt others and call it “Christ as me.” Yet when we do wrong, we give it to Jesus. He alone saves us.
Covenant: Inside the Covenant Jesus is between God and us is the implicit expectation that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself in all ways, but especially in His redemptive footsteps of giving Himself to the Father for others through suffering.
The Cause of Our Metamorphosis. • 24 Who Himself carried our sins inside of His body upon the tree so that, having been already fully removed from sins and from all falling short of God, we are free to live in just innocence. By whose wounds you have been healed. • 25 For you were like sheep wandering away, but now you have returned, and come back to yourself, upon the Shepherd who keeps His eyes upon your souls.
“The Shepherd who keeps His eyes upon our souls” is a metaphor of the relationship inside between transubstantiation and metamorphosis, that as Jesus transfers His own substance to us, so He causes us to be metamorphosed into His same image (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 & 3:18). – “My divine strength is brought to completion inside of your human weakness.” – Yet Peter is also speaking of Jesus as the Propitiation.
As the Propitiation. It is Jesus as the Propitiation whose steps we follow, joining others together with the Father inside our own hearts.
Ruling Verse 5: We are already crucified with Christ; we are already free to live inside of just innocence, inside the knowledge of God through the intimate union of Jesus with us. It is this sharing of soul with Jesus wherein we follow His steps as the One who carries all.
Ruling Verse 9: The thing God wants, that releases Him into our world, is that we follow Jesus in Love for the Church.
Covenant: Jesus “keeping His eyes upon our souls” is another way to say that Jesus within makes us to be just like Himself, our metamorphosis (see 2 Corinthians 3:18), by the transfer of His substance, His propitiation, to us as He shares soul with us. We follow Jesus’ steps in giving ourselves to the Father in Love for a Church restored into Glory.
Into Christ Community. (Chapter 3) • 8 Now, this is the goal and completion: let all be of one mind, sharing the same passion, loving as brothers and sisters, tenderhearted, humble, 9 not repaying evil against evil or insult against insult. On the contrary, speak good words, because you were called into blessing, that you should inherit good-speaking and blessing.
Peter is taking everything into Christ Community, into daily life together, into loving one another with pure hearts fervently. The GOAL of the Gospel, the GOAL of Salvation, is Christian Community, sharing all together, loving one another, speaking good grace into one another, the revelation of the Father forever.
Verse 9 – My inheritance is you speaking good grace into me. And your inheritance is me speaking the same into you.
The Goal and Completion. Kingdom: The goal of the Gospel and the completion of Salvation is Christian Community, sharing all together, loving one another, speaking good grace into one another, the revelation of the Father forever. Christian Community is the beginning of the Kingdom, out from which proceeds God just being Himself inside all creation.
Ruling Verse 8: We have arrived when we love one another as brothers and sisters, of Truth, for our love for one another is the Completion of Jesus.
Speak Christ: We speak the good words of Christ our only life as all blessing into one another. Indeed, this is our inheritance, that we might possess from each other the blessing of good speaking, life forevermore (see Psalm 133).
Our Devotion. • 15 Let the Lord Christ, however, be devoted inside of your hearts, and be ready always to speak to all in defense of the hope inside of you, yet with gentleness and fear. • 16 Possess a good consciousness so that when they speak against you, reviling your good manner of life inside of Christ, they would be ashamed.
Peter says the same things that Paul and the writer of Hebrews did, just in his own way. Thus we know Peter as the strong third witness, shared with James, of Paul’s Gospel.
Ruling Verses 8 & 7: Christ Jesus devoted inside of our hearts is His devotion through us as Love for one another, Jesus proven faithful and True. Our devotion in return, then, is to speak our hope, that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself.
Ruling Verse 6: Jesus has carried us already into pure Devotion to God, with our hearts cleansed from an evil consciousness. Never do we think “good versus evil,” for the Goodness of God is all we know.
Propitiation. • 18 For Christ also suffered once all around sins, the justly innocent for the unjust, so that He might bring you to connect with God. He was put to death in the flesh but was made alive in the Spirit.
Peter is adding important meanings to our understanding of the Propitiation that Jesus is. Propitiation is the heart of the Covenant, a life given for the sake of others. Think of Christians today, ignorant of the Gospel and defining God as one who “knows evil.” What hope is there for a Glorious Church now upon the earth? We do not “duplicate” Jesus. Rather, He now shares His essence with us.
Covenant: Jesus shares all that He is with us, including a life given for the sake of His Church, to bring her to the Father.
The Issue Is Source. (Chapter 4) • 1 Since Christ suffered in flesh, so you also equip and make ready the same mind, because the one who suffers ill treatment in flesh no longer disconnects from God, 2 but rather lives the remaining time in flesh not out from human passions, but out from God’s desire.
Verse 2 is not speaking of good versus evil, but rather, of Source. Life is all about Source, good versus evil is all about self. The one who “suppresses” human passion, in order to “seek” God’s will, lives for a fake self and nothing more. In complete contrast, when I know God as my Source, that I am coming out from His thoughts concerning me, I give all my human passions to God, that He alone might keep me. And I live my life out from God’s desire to share life with me, that He might be Himself inside my world.
The Ekenosis. This way of thinking, then, makes Verse 1 to be the Ekenosis, possessing the same mind that is Christ Jesus, that we might, through humbling ourselves, make God visible to all. Because we have turned around, all these things are no longer “us going into God,” but, as with Jesus inside of us, our sufferings are God through us into our world.
Definition: The knowledge of good and evil pits “doing the will of God” against “doing what the flesh wants.” This thinking is death. Life, on the other hand, is first concerned with Source.
Kingdom: When we know God as Source, that we are coming out from His thoughts, we give all our human passions to God, that He alone might keep us. And we live our lives, every next step, out from God’s desire to share life with us, that He might be Himself inside our world.
From Community to Glory. • 10 As each has received a gift for the purpose of serving one another, as good stewards of the many different graces and kindnesses of God. • 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the speaking of God; if anyone serves, let him serve out from the strength which God provides, so that God might be glorified in all through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might into the unfolding of the ages.
You can see that I have arrived at my final translation of the Greek idiom, “the ages of the ages,” as “the unfolding of the ages.” I hope to make this consistent throughout the JSV. Peter is now speaking of the same graces given to each as Paul did in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. We are to be stewards over our Spirit gifts, for they are the kindnesses of God to one another.
Stewards of God through Us. That’s an interesting thought – “the many different graces and kindnesses of God,” over which we are good stewards, for they come through us to one another.
The Form for God through Jesus: God’s gift to each one of us is that we might serve one another inside of a shared life together. Indeed, God has made us to be stewards of His many different graces and kindnesses coming through us into our world and towards one another. As we give ourselves in joy to one another’s service, so God is glorified through His Church as the form of Jesus in all glory.
Speak Christ: We speak the same word that is Christ as the very speaking out from God. We speak no other word. We serve one another out from the Treasure of God filling our human vessels, for the power is of God (see 2 Corinthians 4:7).
The Unveiling of His Glory. • 12 Beloved do not be startled among yourselves at the fire as if it is a temptation or test taking place, or as if a strange thing were happening to you. 13 But rejoice as you have shared the sufferings of Christ, that you may also rejoice exultantly inside the unveiling of His glory. • 14 If you are reviled in the name of Christ, you are blessed and happy, because the glory and Spirit of God rests upon you. Indeed, by them He is slandered, but by you He is glorified.
The Apocalypse, the Unveiling of His Glory, is what it’s all about. Peter continues to show the immediate relationship between Covenant and Kingdom, between sharing with Jesus in His redemptive essence and being His glory revealed. This also is the meaning of the Eucharist and the Ekenosis. It is the direct connection between Jesus offering the agony of his soul to God in Psalm 22, and Jesus being exalted above all.
Community Is the Unveiling. But do you see how Peter is also going back and forth between Christian Community and the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. This is not something we do as solitary individuals, for we are partakers of Christ as one House together (see Hebrews 3:6 & 14). Community is the Unveiling.
Covenant & Kingdom: Covenant always brings forth Kingdom; Kingdom is always coming out from Covenant. As we share with Jesus in the fellowship of His sufferings, so we are His glory unveiled (the Apocalypse).
The Form for God through Jesus: Peter is going back and forth between Christian Community and the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. This is not something we do as solitary individuals, for we are partakers of Christ as one House together (see Hebrews 3:6 & 14). Community is the Unveiling.
Salvation Is Not Easy. • 17 For it is the opportune time and the right season for the judgment to have begun out from the house of God, and if now first out from us, what will be the outcome of those refusing to be persuaded by the gospel of God? 18 And, if the justly innocent one is scarcely saved, in what place will the disrespectful and sinner be made visible? • 19 Therefore also, those who suffer in the midst of God’s desire are committed to setting forth their souls alongside their faithful Creator inside of His well-doing.
This whole set of verses has always been poorly interpreted, partly because it was poorly translated. Verse 18 means two things. First, it is very difficult for Jesus to draw us out from our psychotic insanity. He is well able, and He does it well, but it takes a LOT. And second, the hope for everyone is “to be made visible,” for the goodness of God leads to repentance.
Judgment to Life. The judgment coming out from us as the dwelling place of God is judgment to Life. Judgment to Life takes time; for some, it might take a lot of time. Verse 19 as it reads in the JSV is beyond all wonder. I place it as the full and final revelation of God, many just like Jesus.
Kingdom: Judgment is always to Life. It is a difficult thing for Jesus to draw us out from clinging to our psychotic lostness. Yet He accomplishes all Salvation well. In fact the sinner “being made visible” is the hope of Life, for only those who see can turn from self to Jesus.
Kingdom: God’s end result is to have many sons just like Jesus, setting forth their souls alongside of His for the sake of others, that God might “do well,” that is, give life through them.
The Ekenosis Again. (Chapter 5) • All of you now put upon yourself humility as a garment, each to the other, for God opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the lowly. 6 Be humbled, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may lift you up in the right time. • 7 Cast all of your anxiety upon Him, for His care is all around you.
These verses have far greater meaning for us when we comprehend the Ekenosis, having turned around. This is not “you are nothing,” this is HOW God appears inside of creation. Grace is God sharing all with us; humbling ourselves is the revelation of the Father. Let this same heart-gut thinking be inside of you. Being made just like Jesus. From the start of this lesson: Our sufferings shared with Jesus and being made like Him in the midst of them.
Living Turned Around. And – The Father’s great Desire that Jesus be proven faithful and True by our love for one another (each to the other). Living turned around places this grace and this humbling of ourselves for Father’s sake, into verse 4:19, that our suffering with Jesus is ALONGSIDE the Father doing good through us.
The Form for God through Jesus: Grace is God sharing all with us; humbling ourselves is the revelation of the Father. Let this same heart-gut thinking be inside of you (Philippians 2:5-8). The Father’s great Desire is that Jesus be proven faithful and True through our love for one another. Inside of this Love, God is at Home.
Ruling Verse 10: “To cast all of our care upon Jesus for He cares for us” is Peter’s way of saying John 14:20, KNOW Jesus inside of yourself, for you ARE inside of Him.
A Shared Suffering. • 8 Be sober and awake; watch. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour. 9 You should resist him, steadfast and firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are happening to your brothers and sisters throughout the world. 10 • Now the God of all grace, the One who called you into His age-unfolding glory inside of Christ Jesus, as you suffer ill treatment a little while, yet He himself completely prepares you; He will fix and establish you, will strengthen you, and will set your foundation.
Peter is writing out from Ruling Verse 4, and when we know the Ruling Verses as God’s Ruling Thoughts, we know where everything fits. Our “resistance” of the evil one is for the sake of the Church, our brothers and sisters throughout the world. Yet even this is a shared suffering, they for us as much as we for them. There is no elitism inside of Christ.
The Father Revealed. In verse 2:21, Peter defined our calling as – into the fellowship of His suffering, following His steps. In verse 5:10, Peter defines the same calling as – into His age-unfolding glory. Again, this is the Ekenosis, the Father revealed through our care for one another.
Ruling Verse 4: We cast down the evil one for the sake of all our brethren across the earth, even as they are doing the same for our sake.
Kingdom: We are called into the fellowship of Jesus’ suffering, that we might follow His steps in giving our souls to the Father for the sake of others. We are called into age-unfolding glory.
The Form for God through Jesus: God our Father is revealed to all creation as Jesus proves Himself Complete through our love for one another and for the Church.
Gospel Word through Peter. I am so impacted by this Flow of Gospel Word through Peter. I want to sum up what Peter’s letter means for us.
The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the Unveiling, fills the entire letter, and places that Completion of God’s House into two things together, into the proving of our faith, the faith of the Son of God given to us, and into our love for one another inside a shared life together, both locally and as the entire Church.
Since the “apocalypse” means that we see; it is Jesus, this One inside of each of us, whom we Love, that we see. Then, Peter states clearly the goal of the Christian life and of all Salvation, that we would love one another in a life shared together as the dwelling place of God – the Church. Finally, in 4:19, Peter places us with Jesus, sharing His propitiation, alongside of God, that God might show Himself through us.