If you command wisely, you’ll be obeyed cheerfully.
– Thomas FullerFeed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof…
…Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
– Peter (I Peter 5:2-3)Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
– The author of Hebrews (13:17)
“Sanctifying the Lord God”
I’ve been writing on a commonly misused verse, I Peter 3:15. (Part One, “This verse is about persecution.” Part Two, “Courage, Dear Hearts.” Part Three, Apologia and “Be Ready.“) We’ve seen that it has in view boldness when facing persecution, and obedience to the Holy Spirit as preparation for persecution — a timely message for believers today.
The previous posts have mentioned some ways people often misuse the verse. In this post and the next, I want to look at using the verse rightly.
A friend wrote that in his 70 years, he didn’t recall ever hearing or reading any teaching on “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” This is the main clause of the verse, with the rest being supplementary / explanatory, so we’ll try to get it right, and end his wait. 🙂
Remember having a brilliantly happy time, playing with friends or family? You were having the best time of your young life, and then — DISASTER.
Your mum or dad said, “Time for bed.” The best day ever came to a crashing and unhappy end. “I’m not really tired! Can’t I stay up a little longer?” Remember that?
In Heaven, the “best day ever” will never end.
Revelation 22:3-5
3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:20
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Dogs aren’t cats. The distinction predates Britain. If the Commons legislates that dogs are cats, feline and canine won’t change, it just makes Parliament ridiculous.
We need a law permitting people to say horse meat is beef. Britain is so intolerant. Stop stigmatising horse-meat eaters! Parliament must act! People should be free to love whoever eat whatever they want without stigmatising distinctions! 🙂
The Mother of all Parliaments may recognise the emperor’s new clothes, but if he’s naked…. Hurry! Make it illegal to say, “The emperor has no clothes!”
But horses are still horses, cows are cows, pigs don’t fly, and the emperor has no clothes. There are some things government can’t change, and it just looks stupid when it tries.
Marriage will be fine. God made it. We don’t have to “protect” it. It was around before the UK, and will outlast it. It has survived government stupidity before.
News flash! Men will still notice women, and women men (this is not a hard concept :)). People still want love and stability. They will still want children, and will love them, and want to raise them in a home with both a father and mother. God made people that way. Marriage will be fine.
Marriage has a history and a future. Parliament? It has a history, anyway — it has made itself foolish and been mocked before, so perhaps it fits that many who don’t know the difference between marriage and homosexual relationships have found a home there.
Lord Mountararat
I don’t want to say a word against brains–I’ve a great respect for brains–I often wish I had some myself–but with a House of Peers composed exclusively of people of intellect, what’s to become of the House of Commons?
Indeed. Marriage will be fine, but what will become of the House of Commons, and of a society that elects so many foolish people to represent and rule them?
The Internet is a neat place, so much that can be done. I’ve just added to the sidebar the ability to translate this blog using Google translate. I know Google translate is hardly ideal, but it is better than nothing for those who don’t know a language, and there are people who use it here fairly frequently. This puts the entire blog into the target language.
The only reason I didn’t do this long ago was because I was sure it would be a lot of work. This only took about ten minutes to put together, thanks to timethief at One Cool Site. If you happen to blog on WordPress.com, and want to do something like this, see Translation widget for WordPress.com Blogs and this code on the WordPress forums. It is really, really easy. If you have any trouble, feel free to ask me.
Apologia and “Be Ready”
I’ve been writing on a commonly misused verse, I Peter 3:15. It is not a verse about modern apologetics ministries, evangelism training, or willingness to teach, but how believers are to respond to persecution. (Part One, “This verse is about persecution.” Part Two, “Courage, Dear Hearts.“)
We may not face severe persecution yet, but few serious believers who watch the news would doubt that it could come soon. We cannot afford to throw away Biblical instruction for persecuted believers, mangling it into something completely different. As we still have freedom to teach freely, believers should be learning what the Scriptures say about persecution and preparing for our own fiery trials.
Perhaps someone who knows Greek has been reading through these posts, patiently. He’s just dying to say, “Wait a minute, Jon! The Greek word for ‘answer’ in this verse is apologia. It’s the very word from which apologetics is derived, and it means answer, or defence, or reason. Of course this is talking about apologetics.”
If that is your response, your Greek is correct, but the “of course” is mistaken, and I have an apologia (defence) for saying so. 🙂
From the Birding Bunch, Hues of Blues.
Mind Renewers 