1 Peter 2:10-12

1 Peter 2:10-12   Once your were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (NIV).

   Following Jesus is a journey.  I write this on April 15th, which is my spiritual birthday.  (It has been a rough spiritual birthday because of the tragedy at the Boston marathon.  I have a headache right now.)  I gave my heart to Jesus on April 15, 1990, and it has been a wild journey since!  There are certain circumstances I have endured which could not be repeated, yet they were suitable for a season.  There are things I would do differently.  Yet all along, I have changed for the better, thanks be to God.

   I resonate with Peter's statement in verse ten.  Before that time, I was not a Christian.  I thought of Christianity in a sense as denominational membership.  Now I know it is a relationship with God through Jesus, and also a relationship with brothers and sisters in the family of God.  I am a Christian thanks to Jesus.  Before then I had not received mercy.  Receiving Christ, I received His forgiveness, the One who died as the substitute for my sins.  I could not have articulated all of this at that time, yet I have learned of this truth more and more since.

   Regarding verse eleven, the long journey has involved this willing child of God to be consistently improving.  Before I had a relationship with Jesus, some people may have thought that I was "moral," yet in my heart I was in a state of sin.  Thus things were getting worse for me.  Since turning to Christ, I have been getting better all through the 23 years.  Even just a year and a half ago I made additional improvement regarding anger.  And Peter addresses the irony in verse 12 of Christians getting accused.  There have been times, even recently, when I strongly felt my reputation was better as an Eagle Scout and Resident Advisor at Virginia Tech compared to me being a Christian.  Especially soon after I entered youth ministry, I was getting social challenges I had never had before.  I have even encountered that in the past year.  Yet one thing always tops gossip: doing God's will.

   Likewise sometimes it seems like my "good deeds" were more evident when I was a completely committed Boy Scout.  Yet the motivation was to pile up the awards.  My "good deeds" as a Christian might not be so fancy, and I have never been given a cool patch for any of the countless sacrifices I have made, yet sometimes I realize that certain people I am caring for know I love them.  Love is what people need, and my love may be the reason that someone has or will turn to the source of true love: God.  All who have the love of God will indeed glorify God when Christ returns.

Hunter Irvine