41. The Proving of our Faith
Covering 1 Peter Chapter 1:
Peter wrote his letter in AD 64, around the same time as Hebrews and as Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus. This is the middle of the decade wherein most who had known Jesus and many leading ministries of the Church were martyred. Inside the Flow of Gospel Word, then, in the seasons of the entrance of power out from God into the human experience, 1 Peter sits most definitely in the meaning of the Ekenosis.
Christian believers, those who were paying attention, KNEW everything of our union with Christ, of being symmorphosed with the Lord Jesus, and of God filling His House, our gathering together, with all of Himself. Yet all this Word, along with the lives into which it has been sown by God, is now entering into great Fire.
The Context. I find that we should give only partial credibility to Martyr’s Mirror as they claim things for which they had no actual evidence. But by their account, the fire began with James being thrown off the roof of the temple in a parody of Jesus’ temptation, and then stoned and clubbed to death in AD 63. This would have been the year before Peter wrote his letter, thus he would have heard of this great loss. Peter had walked closely with James for years inside the Spirit and for the sake of the Jerusalem church. James’s death would have impacted him deeply.
Nero was Emperor from 54 to 68. The legendary “great fire of Rome” happened in July of 64, so it is possible that Peter wrote after that event, thus with a very fresh meaning of fire in his mind, and the persecutions coming out from it.
Seeking Peter’s Meaning. We do not take this setting to mean that Peter was influenced by these outward things, for he was not such a person. His devotion to Jesus was proven and complete. Yet he lived in real times and he wrote to real suffering.
I have titled these two lessons as “The Proving of Faith” and “Follow His Steps,” and thus I am setting those two lines as the main points of the Flow of Gospel Word in 1 Peter. This lesson covers only Chapter 1, and the second letter will cover the remainder of 1 Peter. Now, you will see that I wrote most of this lesson before I could understand Peter’s letter. Then, after I finally understood it, in slide 32, I went back and wove that understanding through many of the Gospel Comments even before we arrive there.
Personally Chosen. (Chapter 1) • 2 Personally chosen according to the pro-knowing of God the Father, inside the devotion of the Spirit for the purpose of submission to hearing and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
God does not “know about things before they happen.” God’s Pro-Knowing means that creation is nothing more than the visible expression of God’s own thoughts, part of Himself first. Ruling Verse 7 teaches us that we do not quibble over whether we are chosen or not, or whether we “choose” or not; rather, we place ourselves only there, in all confidence of faith.
Ruling Verse 7: To receive Jesus, to accept union with Christ already, is to embrace a confidence from God that says, “I am personally chosen of my Father, for I come out from His Pro-knowing, and His Spirit has made me devoted to Himself.”
Speaking Well of God. • 3 We speak well of the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the One who, according to His plenteous mercy, • has conceived us again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ out from the dead, • 4 into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, • that is being kept inside of the heavens entering into you. • 5 You are being guarded, watched over, and kept inside of the power of God • and carried through faith into a salvation that is complete and ready to be unveiled inside of the final season of opportunity.
There is so much here, which we must unpack a piece at a time. Peter begins with speaking well of God. What does that mean, to speak well of God, this One who is the Father of Jesus inside of us, and our Father as well?
Our Conception. Speak Christ: We bless and speak well of God our Father. This is a way of living and thinking; it is the Eucharist, the return of Word from us to God.
Then Peter asserts that we are conceived of God through the resurrection of Jesus. And, that we are conceived into a living hope. Okay, the hope of resurrection is also alive. This is the same word as Romans 1:4, that as Jesus was proven a Son of God through resurrection, so also are we.
Peter is introducing our conception, the metaphor of the reproduction of Life, as did James, thirty years before John developed that same truth much more completely. We don’t want to explain it fully, but just lay a firm foundation for what will come in John’s Gospel.
Christ in Our Hearts. The resurrection of Jesus, His resurrection LIFE, becomes the conception of an imperishable Word inside of us. Yet all of this is found inside of “Christ lives inside our hearts through faith.” I think I will place this Truth here.
Ruling Verse 2: The resurrected Christ, in all that He is now, lives inside of your heart through faith.
Then consider verse 4. No one in Peter’s day imagined “heaven” as a far away place, as a geographical location “up there somewhere.” That false imagery came only as Nicene thinking began to drive Jesus far away from His Church. Heaven and earth are one place, spirit and matter are always fitted together. We are heavenly beings right now as much as we are earthly beings – and are so forever.
Our Inheritance. We KNOW fully heavenly things, we just don’t know they are of heaven. The heavens are always flowing into us, that’s why we are alive. If spirit and flesh are split apart, if heaven and earth are divorced, we’re dead, as James said. Inheritance is Kingdom, a heavenly Kingdom, that is, a living earth, which we call Jerusalem. This inheritance is actively “kept” inside the heavens, yet the next preposition is eis, that is, INTO, or even more, entering into.
Definition: We know the heavens, for our spirits are a body of the heavens and we live and walk in the realms of spirit. Because we are heavenly and earthly together, the things of the heavens belonging to us enter into us as life.
Kingdom: God is our inheritance, yet we know God as our Love for one another, making the Church our inheritance.
Defining the Gospel. Then, “kept inside of the power of God” is a foreshadowing of John 17, the prayer that birthed the Kingdom, Jesus requiring of God to KEEP us and to MAKE us DEVOTED to Himself. Again, we want only to lay a foundation for that coming later. Then, “carried through faith into salvation” is the same definition of the Gospel that Paul gave in Romans 1:16. Essentially, this is a repeat of the Gospel Comments there.
Definition: The Gospel is defined specifically as the power of God, a power that carries us into Salvation as God means Salvation, we who actively believe that God speaks the Truth.
Ruling Verse 6: “Carried into” is the action of Jesus as the Way, something that has already happened. The Salvation into which Jesus has carried us is the Most Devoted Place, that is, inside of all that is God, who shares our lives with us.
The Apocalypse. Finally Peter brings in a word that Paul does not introduce until Romans 8 – apocalupsis – the Unveiling, the Apocalypse, and he tied it together with something Paul introduced in Ephesians, just a couple of years before, God’s final season of opportunity to be known. I first placed the Apocalypse as the goal of the Christian life in my early thirties, but for many years, I imagined that the “cover” to be removed was our “outer flesh nature.” Only in recent years have I realized that the cover is cataracts on our eyes, for we have not seen Jesus as He is, that we are like Him.
Definition: “The Unveiling” is the Greek apocalupsis – the Apocalypse. It means to remove the cover that prevents what is already True from being seen and known. That cover is the blindness upon our eyes, for when we see Jesus as He is, we know that we are just like Him.
The Fellowship of His Sufferings. • 6 Inside of this salvation, you greatly rejoice. For a little while at present it is inevitable that you are distressed and grieved in various trials, • 7 so that the proving of your faith, which is more precious than perishing gold being refined through fire, that your faith might be found into praise and glory and honor inside the unveiling of Jesus Christ.
Living inside of Salvation, knowing the Father, Life shared with God, brings overwhelming JOY. Again, there is much here to bring in a piece at a time. Peter is writing the same word as Paul’s letter to the Romans, just in his own wording and layout of thought. Peter 1:6 is the same word as Romans 8:17-18 and it leads to the same outcome, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. In fact, the remainder of Peter’s letter develops our fellowship with His sufferings.
Jesus Faithful and True. The “proving of our faith” is Jesus proven faithful and True, which is the completion, part of Kingdom. “More precious,” however is Covenant, Jesus making us to be just like Himself. That means we are placing Covenant inside of Fire. Peter is doing the same thing as Paul did in Romans 8, placing our symmorphy with Jesus into the ministry of Christ through us in the same intercession for the Church and for all creation.
Definition: The proving of our faith is Jesus proven complete as our love for one another. This proving of Jesus in us, in pure hearts fervently, is the Heart of God, the Father’s desire.
Ruling Verse 9: All difficulties we endure, we place entirely into the intercession of God through us, the deep groanings of the Spirit – for the sake of the Church.
The Unveiling Again. Now, entirely inside this large context being shaped by Peter, we must place a more complete definition of the Unveiling, for the revelation of Jesus Christ is what it’s all about.
Definition: The unveiling of Jesus Christ is Jesus already here, already True, as He fulfills Christian love among us that Father might be known.
Covenant & The Form for Jesus: Through Chapter 1, Peter lays out a simple progression. We are conceived of God, by Word, the Jesus whom we love inside our hearts, the Jesus who carries us into a life devoted to God. Inside such devotion, Jesus makes us to be just like Himself, that we might love one another, that all might see Jesus as He really is. This proving of our faith is more precious than gold, more precious than life itself.
The Jesus We Love. • 8 Whom, not having seen, you love, into whom now you believe, though you do not see outwardly; moreover you exult with joy inexpressible and filled with glory, • 9 receiving the full completion of your faith, the salvation and healing of your souls.
We do NOT see anything outwardly. Those who work on their own performance in order to “prove Christ” are repulsive to us, for what they bring to appearance is fake. We are looking for something much deeper, something real from the inside out. I have personally never been able to look for anything real that is not coming from God inside of me, out from knowing Jesus in Person Sent into me. Yet this Jesus we cannot see outwardly is the Jesus we LOVE.
Inside of Love. This is so very important. Here’s Paul’s same thought, 2 Corinthians 4:18. – We are not looking at or regarding the things that are seen [by outward appearance], but we are looking at and regarding the things that are not being seen [the substance of God]. I hardly know where to place verse 8, but I think I will put it into Ruling Verse 2, again, especially since this line of thought takes us to God’s definition of the salvation of our souls.
Ruling Verses 2 & 8: The Jesus whom we love lives inside of our hearts, though we “see” Him not. We are so convinced of His real-ness, that we are inside of Him, living and walking inside of Jesus’ own consciousness. We love this One who is our life with joy unspeakable and filled with Glory. We know His beyond-all love for one another.
The Salvation of Our Souls. What are our souls? And what is their salvation?
Definition: Our souls are who and what we are, our center, the part that is “me.” Our souls are a story of words inside of a spirit self-awareness. We learn from John 1, that Jesus as Light becomes, in fact, our human consciousness. Yet our souls are shattered and darkened by our life in this world, even as believers. To be healed in soul is to have our shattered selves woven together, healed and made whole, by the Jesus whom we love becoming complete inside of our acknowledgement as every Gospel Word fulfilled. The salvation of our souls then becomes our love for one another with pure hearts fervently. A “saved” soul is our human consciousness filled with the knowledge of God and overflowing as rivers.
Calling Forth Grace. • 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets searched diligently, having prophesied and called forth grace into you, 11 and, inquiring into who or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ inside of them was making clear, they testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that must follow. • 12 To them it was revealed that they were serving not themselves, but you, in words declared to you through those having proclaimed to you the gospel inside the Devoted Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels desire to look.
“Concerning this salvation.” Apart from a clear and accurate definition of the salvation of our souls, none of this can make any sense. But out from such a definition, it flows together so beautifully.
The Scriptures Are for the Gospel. We must position what Peter is saying. First, like Paul, he is deeply concerned over the need to draw in all the words of Scripture, yet not as the old covenant, but rather as the Gospel. The Old Testament is meant for the Gospel, not for a failed and discarded attempt at an external relating with God.
Then he adds this extraordinary statement – “Things into which angels desire to look.” The angels of heaven do not know God as He is; they do not know God as we do. You see, this places even the good angels who stayed with God into the vanity of creation, longing to know God and waiting on humans to get with the program, to be what God made us to be, just like Jesus, to synergeo with God, calling all things into goodness.
Creation Set Free. Ruling Verse 3: The Spirit of God flowing through reveals Christ as He is, that of which the entire Old Testament speaks (see John 5:39-40). The Spirit of God searches the deep things of God and then opens our eyes to see the Lord Jesus inside our hearts (see 1 Corinthians 2:9-12).
Speak Christ: Out from that same Spirit, we also prophesy Christ, calling Him forth into the knowledge of all.
Ruling Verse 9: The angels of heaven do not know the Father as we do. They are waiting, with all creation, in deep longing, for believers in Jesus to be made the revelation of Jesus Christ, that they also might be set free into glorious liberty.
Set Your Hope Fully. • 13 Therefore, since you have girded up the loins of your mind and are sober-minded, set your hope fully upon the grace being brought to you and carrying you inside of the unveiling of Jesus Christ. • 14 As children submitting to word, do not design or shape yourselves to your former passionate desires held in ignorance [that is, not knowing God]. • 15 But as the One who called you is devoted, so also be devoted [to God] yourselves in all your manner of life, 16 as it is written, “You will be devoted to Me, because I am devoted to you.”
Peter is out-doing Paul. He is cramming the entirety of the gospel into one short chapter. And he is not finished, for there is much more to come. “Therefore” – living inside of and coming out from this great Salvation. Peter assumes that we take our Salvation seriously.
Grace that Is Jesus. In verse 13, the thing we are to set our hope upon is Grace, but a specific quality of grace, a “pheron-ed” grace. The Greek allows for two interpretations, so I included both. This Grace “is carried to us” and this Grace “carries us.” Jesus brings the knowledge of God to us, and more specifically, the knowledge of a God who gives Himself to us. Then, this knowledge of a shared Life with God carries us. “Set your hope upon” is God’s doorway, the same as “In that day” you will KNOW. We call it Today.
Ruling Verse 10: We set our hope upon a Grace that Jesus brings to us, the Grace of a shared life with God as the unveiling of Jesus Christ. This Grace causes us to know that we are inside of Jesus and He inside of us. This Grace that is Jesus then carries us inside Himself into the Father.
Devotion. We can turn verse 14 into a positive. – As children submitting to Word, design and shape yourself according to that Word. This is the definition of metamorphosis. Our action of “designing and shaping” is not self-improvement, but faith that Jesus is already metamorphosing us into His image. Our part is to be confident that Jesus as Word defines us.
Definition: Peter uses the Greek word “pheron” as an adjective of this Grace upon which we set our hope, meaning “carried and sustained.” It means both a Grace carried to us by Jesus and a Grace that carries us all the way inside Himself into the Father, for Jesus is the enabler of that God-Life shared with us.
Covenant: As we submit ourselves to Jesus as Word inside our hearts, so He designs and shapes us to be like Himself according to His Word. – Metamorphosis (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).
The Means of Devotion. Then we have one of the key “be just like God” verses. For the first time I see that Peter’s description and placement of Devotion in verses 15-16 defines everything else in Chapter 1. I will not change the categories, but I can see that the seven pathways of power better fit Peter’s letter. And the Means of Devotion is the key out of all of those, for it shows the incredible reality of the LIFE that is God and the Flow from God to us and us to God in return, which return swallows up all creation into LIFE.
You see how this was replaced in “Christianity” with the horseman of Death, carrying us to “meet our Maker,” which is the effective and cruel banishment of God Today. For us, however, Devotion is the Living Flow from God to us and us to God, the Jesus in whom we live TODAY.
Placing Devotion. Our devotion to God in return is the Life of Grace that Jesus continuously carries to us and by which He carries us.
Definition: The word “holy” carries the thought of external appearance, whereas the Greek halig means what belongs only for God’s use. The English ‘devotion’ carries the meaning best.
Covenant & Kingdom: Verses 15-16 are a strong “Be just like God” command. We can give back to God only what God has first given, of Himself, to us. Devotion is our return to the Father, giving back to Him the Life He has given to us – through others. We receive the Father’s Devotion to us with “I belong to You. Let it be to me according to Your Word,” and we return devotion to the Father through giving ourselves with Jesus in love for one another.
We Are Redeemed. 17 And if you call on Father who judges impartially according to what each one does, so conduct your life inside of fear during the time of your sojourning, • 18 knowing that you were redeemed out from the useless way of living you inherited from your ancestors, not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by the precious and valued blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, • 20 a Lamb PRO-KNOWN before the foundation of the cosmos, but that then became visible in these present final times for you, for your sake. • 21 Through Him you believe into God as the One who raised Him up out from the dead and gave Him glory. For this reason your faith and hope are penetrating with purpose into God.
We KNOW that we are redeemed!
The Lamb. The cause of turning all of this wondrous relationship with God through Jesus into human performance is the hard unbelief that drives Jesus far away from us in the imagination. It is the Lamb that is the cause and flow of the Devotion by which we live with God our Father, and specifically, by His Blood, which is His Life Flow, bringing the knowledge of God to every one of us. The Lamb “was slain” but is now alive forevermore. “Was slain” convinces us that this Lamb alive inside our hearts is Love given for us, for our sakes.
Ruling Verse 8: The meaning of “the Lamb” is the One who gives Himself for our sakes. – By this we know Love, in that He set forth His soul for us. Now, we know this same Lamb as alive inside our hearts forevermore – giving Himself for others.
The Lamb Pro-Known. Okay, in verse 21, the words “your faith and hope are penetrating with purpose into God,” reference our side of the cycle of Devotion, which means the same thing as “Pheron-ing” Grace. More than that, I have titled this lesson “The Proving of Faith.” I am realizing that 1 Peter Chapter 1 is far more complex than we have known, and that God’s meaning is very deep. With that in mind, let’s place “the Lamb Pro-Known.” God is saying that this Lamb inside our hearts is written all through His thoughts concerning us that are part of Himself separate from our existence.
Through the Blood. Definition: Peter uses the word ‘prognosis,’ that is, Pro-Known, referencing God’s thoughts concerning all things that are part of Himself. The Lamb “pro-known” means that God knows Jesus given for us at the center of every thought He possesses concerning us, out from which we will come.
Ruling Verse 6: The Blood, meaning the Life of Jesus given for us, shapes the Way through which Jesus has already carried us into the Most Devoted Place inside of God. That Blood is the most valuable thing to God, and by that Blood, God values us. This Life given for us is beyond all other value.
Ruling Verse 7: We believe into God. The proving of our faith is that faith which has penetrated with purpose into God, going forth in every next step in the full confidence that God shares all with us – through the Fire – for the sake of others.
A Pure Heart Fervently. • 22 Since you have purified your souls [the words of your self-stories] inside of a submitted hearing of the truth resulting in sincere brotherly love, love one another out of a pure heart fervently. • 23 You have been conceived from above, not out from perishable seed, but out from imperishable Seed, through the living and abiding Word of God. 24 For all flesh is like grass and all of its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away, • 25 but the speaking of the Lord abides, remains, and continues into the age. This, moreover, is the speaking of the gospel proclaimed into you.
Okay, verse 22 is part of Peter’s primary meaning, but to truly know what that means, we must consider our conception. Yet first we must somehow understand the main point.
Trying to Understand. At the time of writing this, I realize how little I understand 1 Peter Chapter 1. To understand something, you must be able to define its “main point,” that is, “what this is about.” For instance, the main point of Colossians through Philippians is a House built for God, Ephesians 2:19-22. Then, with that knowledge, it’s not hard to see how everything else FITS.
Let’s list the “main points” of 1 Peter 1, each of which could be the rule over the meaning of everything else. (1) Conceived again, (2) carried into Salvation, (3) the Unveiling, (4) inside of Salvation, (5) the proving of faith, (6) the Unveiling again, (7) the Jesus we Love, (8) the completion of faith, (9) the Salvation of our souls, (10) Grace that carries, (11) metamorphosed, (12) Devotion, (13) the Lamb Slain and Pro-Known, (14) Faith into God, (15) metamorphosis (souls saved) again, (16) Pure Love for one another, (17) Conceived of God, of imperishable Seed.
The Main Point. Among these, and others not listed, I see three types of thought. The first are those things that are already True and established, and the second are those things that Jesus does for us. The third, then, is our response. I think it is right to say that our response is the main point in Peter and God’s mind through this huge chapter.
The main point of 1 Peter Chapter 1 is the proving of our faith. And that main point continues through the rest of Peter’s letter as we follow His steps. This main point is of all importance to us, for it determines whether we are found inside the Unveiling of Jesus Christ or whether we are “whistling Dixie,” that is, pining for something that “might have been,” or the awful words on the road to Emmaus – “we had hoped.”
Now I can go back through and weave this understanding through everything previous. Indeed, our layout now matches the Pathways of Power.
The Source of Our Life. In verses 23-25, Peter confirms everything that I teach regarding this Flow of Gospel Word flowing into us. We are conceived “from above,” best worded by James – The Father… Out from His own desire, He gave birth to us by the Word of truth.
This Seed by which we are conceived is an imperishable Seed; it is the Lord Jesus Christ; it is the living and abiding Word of God; it is the speaking of the Lord; it abides into the age, and it is the speaking of the Gospel spoken into us.
God is our Father. This does NOT mean that we are “little gods running around.” It means that we love one another. Being conceived of God, then, is the Source of our LIFE and of everything else in the meanings of Peter’s letter.
Jesus Inside. Ruling Verses 5 & 8: “Purifying our souls” means to define our self-story as the Lord Jesus having come into union with us, sharing all with us. It means “the salvation of our souls,” Jesus making us to be just like Himself. The immediate result is “loving one another with pure hearts fervently.” The proof of faith, Jesus proven faithful and True, is reciprocal Love among believers inside daily life together. Loving one another is the very Heart of God; it is God among us as He Desires.
Definition: The “Seed of God” is the Lord Jesus Christ written in our hearts as every Word God speaks. God uses both plant seed and human sperm as the metaphor He carefully designed to enable us to know what being “conceived out from imperishable Seed, the living and abiding Word of God” really means.
Conceived of God. Life: Life is knowing the Father through knowing Jesus Sent into us as every Word fulfilled (see John 17:3). God is our Father. This does NOT mean that we are “little gods” as the serpent suggests. It means that we love one another. Being conceived of God, then, is the Source of our LIFE. God gives Life to us, through the Jesus whom we Love. We give that same Life back to the Father – through others (see 1 John 5:16). The unveiling of Jesus Christ is the result, God as Love among us made visible to all, the proving of our faith.
Covenant: The Seed of God is Jesus planted in our hearts, our all-Connection with the Father, the Covenant. This Seed by which we are conceived is an imperishable Seed; it is the living and abiding Word of God; it is the speaking of the Lord; it abides into the age, and it is the speaking of Gospel Word flowing into us.
Joy Unspeakable. Placing the points Peter makes into the same chart in Word that I used for the seven overcomings and the removal of the seals, fills me with such joy. I put them in randomly, and then moved them around to discover that they FIT into the same beautiful pattern.
To understand the meaning of God’s Word, even as it is the Lord Jesus inside of us, the One we do not see outwardly, the One we Love, this is Joy unspeakable and filled with Glory.
Yet we have not discovered “what Peter means.” Rather, we now see the meaning of “God-is-Word” bubbling up as springs of living water into Peter first, and now into us. The Flow of Gospel Word is the Father Himself, arising in joy from one to the next.