1 PETER 2:17 Part 3: Fear God

HONOR ALL MEN.  LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD.  FEAR GOD.  HONOR THE KING. -KJV

This blog is blog number 3 of 4.  If you haven’t yet, please go find and read parts one and two, “Honor All Men” and “Love The Brotherhood”.  In these four blogs, I am unpacking the four commands listed in 1 Peter 2:17.  This blog will focus on the third command from this verse, …

FEAR GOD.

In keeping with the structure of the previous blogs, I want to define the sentence.  And it’s really hard to define “Fear God” without scripture.  Why would we want to, anyways?  So, let’s dive in.

• Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.  Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”
• Job 28:28 “And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
• Proverbs 14:27 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, all those who practice it have a good understanding.  His praise endures forever!”
• Ecclesiastes 12:13 ”The end of the matter; all has been heard.  Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

I could keep going, but I think these four give us a good understanding.  There are a lot more verses than this about fearing God.  What I believe it boils down to is this: a healthy, respectful fear.  Knowing that He made us and has the full ability and authority to decide our eternal destiny.  But it’s more than just being afraid of our eternity.

According to Proverbs 8:13, Job 28:28, and so many more, we are called to hate and turn away from evil. Proverbs 8:13 takes it a step further and mentions pride, arrogance, and perverted speech along with evil.  These are all things that I believe many believers are bad at and struggle with on a regular basis.  Getting rid of pride and arrogance is extremely challenging.  Breaking habits like perverted speech takes time.  But the bible says to do it.  And that it goes along with fearing God.

Job 28:28 and Proverbs 14:27 both mention the fear of the Lord being the beginning of Wisdom.  Both also mention having understanding.  We all wanna be wise, right?  We all wanna have understanding, right?  Who doesn’t want to be wise and have understanding?  Fear God.  That will get you on the right track.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 in the same six words lumps fearing God and keeping his commandments together.  So what are His commandments?  That’s a whole different blog series in and of itself.  But, if you don’t know His commandments, or want to study further into them, I’d go check out Matthew 22:36-40.  After that, look up Exodus 20:1-17.  These two passages will get you on the right track for the Lord’s commandments.

So, the fear of the Lord.  What does that mean?  Hating evil, keeping His commandments, and remembering that He is all powerful.  These things will bring us the beginning of wisdom and understanding.  So, get to fearing.

1 PETER 2:17 Part 2: Love The Brotherhood

HONOR ALL MEN.  LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD.  FEAR GOD.  HONOR THE KING. -KJV

This blog is blog number 2 of 4.  If you haven’t yet, please go find and read part one, “Honor All Men”.  In these four blogs, I am unpacking the four commands listed in 1 Peter 2:17.  This blog will focus on the second command from this verse, “Love the brotherhood.”  This will piggy back a little on the first one in the series.

LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD.

I want to structure this blog the same as the last.  Start with defining the sentence.  Then see what other scriptures have to say that might help us better understand what this one is saying.  What’s a brotherhood and how do we love it?  Let’s find out.

• Brotherhood:  per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, brotherhood may be defined as “1. The quality or state of being brothers, 2. Fellowship, or alliance, 3. An association (such as a labor union or monastic society) for a particular purpose, 4. The whole body of persons engaged in a business or profession.”

That sounds a lot like a group of people all with the same goals or overall purpose.  Kinda like the Church?  Not a specific church, not a specific denomination, but the body of believers that profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

If I may go on a little tangent for a second, I believe denominations are tearing the “brotherhood” of believers apart.  We are called to be united.  We are called to all worship the same God and serve the same purpose: bring Him glory.  Why do we let the “gray areas” of Christianity divide us in such a way that one denomination believes all others that don’t believe the same way they do are going to hell?  Why do we rival with fellow believers about who has the better version of Christianity?  Why do we think we can play God and decide this person is going to hell and that person is going to Heaven?  Show me in the Bible where Jesus said only certain denominations get into Heaven, and I’ll show you where He says all we have to do is confess our sins and profess our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and follow Him.  Maybe this wasn’t a tangent at all.  Maybe this has EVERYTHING to do with this portion of the verse.

Love.  The.  Brotherhood.

Not some of the brotherhood.  Not the part of the brotherhood that believes exactly the same as you.  The whole freaking thing.  Love the fact that there is a body of believers all serving the same God and thanking the same Jesus for taking all of our sins away. 

Now.  Let’s see how the Bible says we are to love.

• Romans 12:10 “Love one another with brotherly affection.  Out do one another in showing honor.”

I talked about what “showing honor” means in the preceding blog to this one, so I won’t repeat that information.  But don’t just show honor.  Out do the people around you in showing honor.

1 Corinthians 13 is a great chapter to read regarding love.  It explains what love is and isn’t, how it should be shown, and how important it is.  I won’t post the whole thing here because I am trying to keep these posts as short as possible.  But please read it.  Love is so important that at the end of the chapter, Paul mentions that of faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love.

Love.  I believe it’s so important, I’ve got it permanently written on my forearm as a reminder to me that I should constantly be spreading love.  Genuine, caring about everyone, type of love.  Unfailing, unconditional love. 

This is the kinda love we should have for all people, and the kinda love that we should express towards the fact that there is a body of believers serving the same savior as you and me.

Go love the brotherhood.

1 PETER 2:17 Part 1: Honor All Men

 HONOR ALL MEN.  LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD.  FEAR GOD.  HONOR THE KING. 

-1 Peter 2:17 KJV

This is a really awesome verse.  In eleven words, Peter gave us four strong commands.  Kept all four commands short, sweet, and to the point.  This is a very easy verse to read once, go “Oh ok cool.  Yeah, treat everyone right and love God.  Got it, next.”  But what does it look like to really dive into this verse?  What does it look like to truly live out these commands?  Over the next four blogs, I’m going to break these commands down and dive into what it would look like to really live this verse out.  First, “Honor all men…”

HONOR ALL MEN.

Before anything else, I like to begin a study by figuring out the definitions.  You can’t apply something to your life without knowing exactly what it means.  So, let’s figure out what it means.

• Honor:  Honor can be used as a verb or a noun.  In either case, it basically means the same thing.  But here it is used as a verb; to be applied to something (or someone).  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines honor as “to regard or treat (someone) with admiration and respect : to regard or treat with honor”.

Regard.  Admiration.  Respect.  These all sound like terms we would give to those in high authority.  When I hear such a string of words, I think royalty, or the wealthiest of the wealthy.  People that are so influential, they have an entire entourage that travels around with them getting all their doors and chairs, carrying everything for them so they never have to lift a thing, and keeping the peasant blue collar workers such as myself away.  They walk tall, with a well-earned confidence.  They know how important they are.  No one dares to speak a harsh word to someone who is to receive regard, admiration, and respect.  The person who chooses to do anything but honor such a high authority figure must be out of their mind.

• All Men:  Other translations of the Bible say “everyone”

…

Wait.  No.  That can’t be right.  You can’t possibly show that kind of affection for everyone.  It’s not humanly possible.  Not everyone deserves that kind of attention.  Some people deserve to be treated poorly.

What about the people that have wronged me?  What about the ones that owe me something?  My crazy ex?  My horrible neighbor?  That psycho that doesn’t know how to drive and almost killed us both in traffic today?  My bully from school?  My bully from work? (Yes, that exists.  Coworkers can suck more than school bullies sometimes.)  I can’t regard, honor, and respect these kinds of people that much.

There’s a few other Bible verses about this to visit before really coming to a conclusion.

• Philippians 2:3 – “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
• Matthew 5:43-48 -  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ok, so now we have a few more commands, all dealing with how we treat people.  Philippians 2:3 says to count other people as more important than yourself.  Matthew 5:43-44 tells you to love and pray for the worst kinda people.  Matthew 5:45-48 tells you why to do such a stupid thing.  Because it’s actually not stupid at all.

God calls us to treat people right.  All people.  Not just the ones you like.  He calls us to be perfect.  To follow the model that Christ set for us.  To love and honor all people.

Lord, show me how to love like you.  How to be a better servant, and honor people like you would honor them.  Thank you for setting the example for me and challenging me to treat people how they should be treated.  Like royalty.  We love you, Lord.  In Jesus’ name, amen.