The Story: Peter really knows how to encourage – not with sappy words and silly promises, but with the hard facts of who we are and where we stand as followers of Jesus Christ. Christians have been born again; we’re not the same people we used to be. We are a wholly different kind of people with an entirely new and eternal purpose in life (1 Pet. 2.9, 10). It only makes sense that the world will not understand and, on occasion, lash out at us harshly. But we have a living hope – a hope that Paul describes as “the hope of glory” (Rom. 5.1, 2). It’s not just that we “hope” we’re going to go to heaven when we die. We hope in glory, glory revealed to us by God’s Word and Spirit as existing in the living Christ, Whom we love and Whom we serve (2 Cor. 3.12-18). We hope every day to encounter Christ in His glory, to be deeply and dramatically affected by that glory, and then to show the hope of glory to the watching world (1 Pet. 3.15). And not even persecution must be allowed to rob us of this hope!

The Structure: Hope is a powerful affection. Hope moves the Christian movement along through the course of history, as we are a people who, rooted in the past, live our present with a firm eye on the future. The Christian thus maintains a three-faceted approach to his existence: He is who he is by virtue of events accomplished in the past. He aspires to all that God has promised (2 Pet 1.4) by gazing firmly and confidently toward the future. And thus he finds meaning, purpose, and strength for living in the present by knowing who he is and where he’s bound. In the midst of persecution, though, it can be easy to lose sight of these verities. So Peter, a true pastor, offering true comfort to his people, doesn’t just give them some schmaltzy “this too shall pass” advice to tie a knot and hold on. No: he urges them to remember who they are and to cling to their certain hope!

How do you nurture the hope into which you have been born again through the resurrection of our Lord? How do you encourage other believers to live in that hope?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “Suffering and Beyond: 1 Peter 1.1-11,” simply click here..

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.