The Story: That phrase, “day of visitation”, is, I believe, deliberately oblique. It can refer to the day of Christ’s return, when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2.5-11). It can refer to a situation in which someone, not a believer, observing our conduct, acknowledges God as being at work in us (cf. Dan. 2.46, 47). Only when God “visits” people with such insight will they, who otherwise neither know nor regard Him, give Him glory. Or it can refer to the kind of visitation Saul of Tarsus experienced on the Damascus road, when Christ revealed Himself and claimed that worldly rebel as His own. We should be living for the glory of God with a view to all three such “visitations.” Such a life begins in “honorable” conduct – honorable to God, that is, but also honorable in the sight of men, since it will be strong enough to silence those who vilify us as “evildoers.” God is determined to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory (Hab. 2.14). We are the people He has saved and sent for that lofty purpose. Let us live honorably and journey well.

The Structure: In short, Peter suggests, there is no excuse for not living to the glory of God. Remember who you are. Get in line with what the Word declares. Shed the vain trappings of this world. Stand firm in the midst of adversity. Grow in the grace of the Lord together. Live honorably. Journey well. This is the way God gets glory in the world.

What will it mean for you to “live honorably and journey well” in the week to come?

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, “The Power of Grace: 1 Peter 2.1-12,” 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.