Early

Does this ever happen to you?  I woke up early this morning, with a start, thinking about 1 Peter.  We are on Chapter 2 this week and I have not had much time to dive into the book.  So at 4 AM I woke dead awake with 1 Peter 2 on my mind.

I have learned – check that – I am learning that when that happens, I need to pay attention.  So I quietly got out of bed put on my robe and house shoes and made the commute from our bedroom to my office, across the living room to the left of the front door, as you enter.

For the next three hours I worked on 2 Peter 2.  It was a rich time.  I saw things in there that even though I have studied the book before, I had not seen.  I may share some of that in the days to come – oh heck here is something I saw this morning…

In 1 Peter 2:1, Peter tells us we are to lay aside some behaviors.  I was intrigued by that word in light of some of the other themes in the first two chapters so I looked up all of the places that I occurs in the New Testament.  It shows up 9 times in:

• Matt 14:3 
• Acts 7:58 
• Rom 13:12 
• Eph 4:22 
• Eph 4:25 
• Col 3:8 
• Heb 12:1 
• James 1:21 
• 1 Pet 2:1 

In every case but Matthew and Acts the word is paired with “therefore.”  It is a response to some aspect of God’s great work in our lives we are to therefore – well there is a long list of thing we are to lay aside.  I am still processing this in the context of 1 Peter, but at least what I am seeing is that as a result of God’s overwhelming gift of grace which He tests so that we will understand it full power, we are to use that faith through the ministry of the Spirit in the Word of God to radically alter our behavior.  I am still sorting out this thought in relation to others in the New Testament, most notably Colossians 2:9 – 10.  But it is clear at least that a normal response to redemption is a radically changed behavior.

Take a look and see what you see, it may cause you to lose a little sleep.