What is the subject of 1 Peter? It may be hard to figure out what it is. But the Life-Studies make this and other background information about each book so clear. In the first couple of chapters in this book, Witness Lee mentions that Peter’s Epistles center on God’s governmental judgment.
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| My son took this when he was at Crater Lake this week. |
This week I read chapter 30 of the LIfe-Study of 1 Peter, and it gives a comprehensive view of God’s judgment from eternity past to eternity future. I would strongly recommend that you read this Life-Study! It’s definitely eye-opening in its presentation of this truth. Here's the verse that opened up his fellowship:
For it is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God; and if first from us, what will be the end of those who disobey the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17
What helped me here was seeing the purpose of God’s judgment—I’m sharing excerpts from pages 267, 268, and 269:
The basic concept of God’s government is a basic thought in Peter’s composition of this Epistle….Of course in 1 and 2 Peter we cannot find the word “government.” But in these two books we see the means by which God carries out His government. The means by which God carries out His government is by judging. Eventually after God’s judgment has been completed, there will be a new heaven and new earth wherein righteousness dwells....God’s judgment began to be exercised in the Old Testament, and it has been continually exercised through the generations. Today God is still judging. In the New Testament we see that God’s judgment begins from His own household and ends with the burning of the old heaven and old earth. That burning will be the last step of God’s judgment….By all these judgments the Lord God will clear up and purify the entire universe that He may have a new heaven and new earth for a new universe filled with His righteousness (2 Pet. 3:10) for His delight (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 1 Peter. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1982, Print).
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| Another view of Crater Lake in Winter |
I learned from reading the Life-Study of Genesis that when Satan rebelled and took 1/3 of the angels with him (2 Peter 2:4), he threw the universe into total chaos. Ezekiel tells us that God judged him by casting them to the earth (Ezek. 28:13-14). The Bible tells us in Genesis 3 that after God created Adam and Eve, Satan brought this chaos into them through his tricking Eve.
So In 2 Peter 2:5-9 we’re reminded that God judged people in the Old Testament times with things like the flood. Then in 1 Peter 1:17, 4:17, we learn that in the New Testament times God’s judgment begins from His house. And Peter makes it very clear that all the believers in God’s spiritual house are being purified daily by fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12). It touched me when I read that God is doing this so that He can finally have a testimony on this earth that defeats His enemy.
I could really see from this chapter that God's judgment on people and situations is not haphazard but with a definite goal. And it touched me when he said that by working on us first, we become the Lord's stepping stones so that He can establish His kingdom on this earth.
I like to listen to the Life-Study of the Bible with Witness Lee while I'm cooking or typing. You can listen to live excerpts of these messages that were given in 1982 along with the outstanding commentary.
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