Spurgeon's notes on PETER
"Hope to the end."
Our present reading is taken from the first epistle of
Peter, a letter full of pastoral teaching, but without a trace of a
priestly, much less of a Papal, spirit. Those whose wicked legends set forth
Peter as the first Pope find no countenance for their folly in either of his
epistles.
1 Peter 1:2
Christians were not ashamed of the doctrine of election in the olden time, but styled each other "the elect." We are chosen to be holy, and who shall deny the Lord's right to choose men for such a purpose? Well may the apostle proceed to bless the Lord as he thinks of this choice favor.
1 Peter 1:3-5
Observe that the inheritance is kept for the saints, and the saints for the inheritance. Christ who has gone to prepare Heaven for us has sent the Holy Spirit to prepare us for Heaven.
1 Peter 1:6
It is not merely that we are in manifold troubles, but we are in heaviness through them; the iron has entered into our soul. This is a needful part of those trials which are meant to chasten us. If the rod does not make the child smart, of what use is it?
1 Peter 1:7-9
Peter's Master once bade him feed the sheep, and here he does so very sweetly: every word, yes, every letter, is full of an infinite sweetness. Jesus is with us, faith in him is our strength, and his love fills us with unutterable joy. All this we daily experience. Do we not?
1 Peter 1:14-16
Children should be like their parents. Nature itself prompts the son to imitate the father; and shall not grace have equal power? Shall not the new birth be even more influential than the first? Shall not the children of the thrice holy Jehovah exhibit something of their great Progenitors spirit and character? It must be so, or we shall have serious reason to doubt whether we are children of God at all.
1 Peter 1:15-21
The obligations arising out of our redemption by the Lord Jesus are set forth in 1 Peter 1:15-21.
1 Peter 1:16
The essence of religion consists in the imitation of him whom we worship.
1 Peter 1:17
Let a childlike fear of offending your Great Father ever restrain you from sin. "Blessed is the man who fears always."
1 Peter 1:18-19
The same price which redeems us from destruction also redeems us from our vain conversation; and this is no less than the heart's blood of the Son of God. Until the world can offer us something more precious than the blood of Jesus, we shall feel ourselves bound by bonds of love to walk in holiness, to Jesus' praise.
1 Peter 1:20, 21
The love of Jesus to us is no novelty; he was ordained to redeem us before worlds began; let none of the trifles of earth charm us with their new pretensions. It was truly practical love which brought him to earth to be our suffering substitute; let our love be practical too; not in word only, but in deed and in truth. O to be a redeemed family, and to live as such. The Lord grant it for Jesus' sake. Amen.
1 Peter 2:2, 3
desire the sincere or unadulterated
1 Peter 2:2, 3
That is to say, if we be indeed believers, God has bestowed upon us a spiritual and incorruptible life; therefore, let us have done with the evil fruits of the old nature. We are born into a new world, let us cast aside the defiled and leprous garments of our former condition. Anger, deceit, and slander, are as unfitting in a Christian as the cerements of the grave would be unfit for a living man. It is ours, henceforth, to live upon the truth and to practice it, to rejoice in a gracious God, and act graciously ourselves. We desire to know the word of God, that by its sustaining power the life within us may be nurtured and made to advance to perfection.
1 Peter 2:4, 5
We desire to be holy because we are so near akin to our Lord Jesus. He is the foundation, and we are the stones of the spiritual building. Men may rail at us, as they did at him, but God has chosen us, and we are precious in his sight, even as Jesus is; hence we desire to live as consecrated persons, in whom God dwells, whose whole business is to present sacrifices unto the Lord. As is the foundation, such should all the building be: upon the living, chosen, precious foundation, there ought to be built up a church of lively, choice, and holy spirits.
1 Peter 2:6
This is good cheer for us who believe in him: let us be bold because of it, and never for a moment hesitate to confess Christ before men.
1 Peter 2:7, 8
But he does not say how precious. This is more than tongue or pen could tell. Truly, the Lord Jesus is all in all, and more than all to his people
1 Peter 2:7, 8
It is clear that none can be neutral, we must either feel Jesus to be precious or else we shall stumble at him: and, if we are so disobedient as to be offended at the Lord, our unbelief will not injure him, for God has ordained him to be the headstone of the corner; nor will it disarrange the purposes of God, for in them there is a dark place for the rebel as well as a bright spot for the believer.
1 Peter 2:9
As a family, let us remember how the Lord has favored us in his grace, and let each saved one among us remember whereunto he is called. Chosen, royal, priestly, peculiar, and beloved of heaven,—what manner of persons ought we to be? We ought to be far better than others, for the Lord has dealt so much better with us. May rich grace rest upon us, and cause us to show forth the praises of our God.
1 Peter 2:10
We were outcast Gentiles, who were counted as little better than dogs: how grateful ought we to be that we now enjoy the same portion as the favored people of old. Lord, cleanse us from all sin, and make us a family separated to your service.
1 Peter 2:13, 14
True religion is always the friend of order, as well as of liberty. The gospel is no doctrine of anarchy, and the Christian is no fomenter of strife,
1 Peter 2:13, 14
Civil government is necessary for the well-being of mankind, and those who delight in the law of the Lord are among the last to wish to see its power weakened, or its executive despised. We had sooner suffer wrong, than see our country the prey of lawless mobs.
1 Peter 2:15
Men are ready enough to speak against our holy faith, and in Peter's day the charge was laid against Christians that they were the enemies of social order; the habitual obedience of Christians to the laws of the countries in which they were scattered was the most conclusive answer to the calumny.
1 Peter 2:16
Believers are the freest of men, but they know the difference between liberty and license. As servants of the Lord, they submit for peace sake to man's laws, because their Great Lawgiver so commands.
1 Peter 2:17
This is quite as much our duty as to honor the king. Manhood deserves honor,—not wealth, dress, rank, and so on, but man, as our own flesh and blood; for however poor or obscure a man may be, he is a man for all that, and as such must not be treated as if he were a beast.
1 Peter 2:17
Four precepts which are meant to balance one another. There should be a blending of them all in our lives.
fear or respect
1 Peter 2:19, 20
Ordinary people can do that, but Christians are extraordinary men, and must rise to the highest style of virtue;
1 Peter 2:19, 20
but if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Many will say, "If I had deserved it, I should not have cared about it." But it is evident that were we guilty we ought to care all the more. If we are wise, we shall feel that if we do not deserve a rebuke, we can bear it patiently, and thank God for the grace which enables us to rejoice amidst it all.
1 Peter 2:23
What an example! May the Holy Spirit enable us to imitate it. He was the paragon of patience, the mirror of endurance. He was absolutely perfect, and yet was infinitely a sufferer, but he never complained, or resented wrong. Master of Patience, teach your disciples.
1 Peter 2:25
Let us then follow our Shepherd wherever he leads the way. Especially in the paths of sacred patience and forbearance, let us walk in close attendance upon him. For this we need your grace, O Spirit of love!
1 Peter 3:1-6
A woman's sphere is her home, her scepter is love, her crown jewels are domestic virtues. She is most graceful who is most gracious, and she is best arrayed who is clothed with holiness.
1 Peter 3:7
Tender love and affectionate honor must be rendered to the queen of the little kingdom of home, through whom God blesses the household so much.
1 Peter 3:8, 9
We cannot wash off dirt with dirt, or cure evil by evil; let us not try to do so. If we are indeed believers, we are blessed, and we are yet to be more blessed, therefore let us bless others.
1 Peter 3:10-17
Yet we hear persons say, "I would not mind being blamed if I deserved it," which is very absurd, since it is the deserving of blame which ought to trouble us far more than the rebuke.
1 Peter 3:18-20
This passage nobody understands, though some think they do. It is for our good to be made to feel that we do not know everything. The point which is clear is that as Jesus suffered though innocent, we also must be willing to suffer at the hands of the ungodly.
1 Peter 3:21, 22
Noah's deliverance in the ark, and our baptism, are figures of salvation. Both represent a living burial, a passage from the old world into the new, by death and resurrection. Was our baptism the answer of a good conscience toward God?
1 Peter 4:2
We reckon the sufferings and death of Jesus to be ours. We cannot, therefore, love the sin for which such sufferings were endured. We have, in Jesus, been put to death for sin, and henceforth we are dead to it.
1 Peter 4:3-5
Regeneration makes a marvelous change in men, and it generally happens that the ungodly see it, and at once begin to persecute the convert. Have we been converted? If so, we may expect opposition, but we need not be afraid of it, for the Lord is on our side.
1 Peter 4:6
Our departed brethren heard the gospel to this end, that, though condemned to die by their cruel persecutors, they might win the immortal crown, and glorify God as his witnesses.
1 Peter 4:8
Of love, the Christian poet sings
"'Tis gentle, delicate, and kind
To faults compassionate or blind."
1 Peter 4:11
trying to follow both the sense and spirit of the inspired Scripture
if any man minister or render service
1 Peter 4:13
By such exhortations as these the heroes of the cross were trained to endurance, so that they defied death, and torments worse than death. Have we any of their brave spirit?
1 Peter 4:14-18
A solemn question! Answer it, each one of you, if you are still unsaved. Where will you appear? Oh, be wise, and fly to Jesus; enlist beneath his banner, cost you what it may. May the Lord lead you to do so.
1 Peter 5:1
He did not style himself Lord Bishop, much less Head of the Church; but though he was an apostle, he took the lowest room and called himself an elder
1 Peter 5:1
This last is best of all. It was an honor to be an elder, and a high distinction to have been an eyewitness of the sufferings of our Lord, but to be by faith an heir of the coming glory is far beyond both. It is a happy circumstance that we may all attain to this, though we cannot to the other two. If we believe in Jesus we are "partakers of the glory that shall be revealed."
1 Peter 5:2, 3
Feed the flock of God which is among you this is what the Lord Jesus bade Peter himself do
Ministers may do more by their example than by their discourses. Let us pray for them that they may be upheld in the path of integrity.
1 Peter 5:5
In the olden times servants wore long white aprons, and the original word here used alludes to that dress. We are not to assume a lordly style, but stand apron-ed with humility, ready to serve our fellow Christians in all lowliness of mind.
1 Peter 5:6
If it should seem hard to yield to others, do it for the Lord's sake, as under his hand, and he will in due time honor you.
1 Peter 5:7-9
If we were the only persons who were tempted of the devil we might be terrified; but since he is the common enemy of all believers, and has been defeated by them all in turn, let us show him a bold front, that it may be said of us as of Christian in "Pilgrim's Progress,"
"The man so bravely played the man
He made the fiend to fly."
1 Peter 5:12
Silvanus or Silas
To exhort and to bear witness were the chief works of an apostle, especially the latter. By these Peter fed the sheep and lambs of Christ. We also can exhort and testify if we know the Lord, and have experienced his goodness. Are we doing so?
1 Peter 5:14
This blessing is given to all in Christ Jesus, but to none else. "There is no peace, says my God, unto the wicked." Restlessness here, and woe forever, are the portion of those who are out of Christ. O Lord, let none in this household remain without faith in Jesus.