1 Peter 1:6-9 Testing…
Good morning, we are back in 1 Peter chapter 1 today, page 1014 in the pew Bibles. Not that it really matters, but I’m not sure how you’re going to feel about this. I hope, in the end, you’ll be encouraged, but it’s going to take a little work, I think, to get there. We’re going to have to wade through the pricker bushes to get there.
Last week we looked at the first few verses of this paragraph in 1 Peter 1, and this week I’m hoping to get through the rest of it. So let’s read that entire text just to refresh our memories together.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Let’s pray
So our text here this morning is a little bit like an Oreo cookie, it’s a little sandwich with tasty cookies on the outside but in the middle instead of creamy filling it’s more like liver and onions… Blech!
But we need the first cookie to get us through the liver and onions to the cookie on the other side. Last week we looked at the first cookie, verses 3-5…
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We can be encouraged by the worship of God, the reminder of His mercy towards us in our rebirth, rebirth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the living hope of an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance kept in heaven for us. We can be encouraged by the promise that God Himself guards and shields us through faith and He will continue to do so until the return of Christ and the inauguration of His heavenly, eternal kingdom.
These are very encouraging words and thoughts, but the warm fuzzies is not the point. We need to be able to lean on these encouraging thoughts because of the liver and onions on the horizon of our text.
We need verses 3-5 to make it through verses to make it through verse 6-7 to verses 8-9, and that’s exactly how verse 6 starts…
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials
In our living hope of our heavenly inheritance through faith in Jesus, in our living hope of being guarded by God the Father, we rejoice.
This rejoicing is not a theoretical joy either. The word Peter used means to be extremely joyful, often involving verbal expression and appropriate body movement, to exult and be glad! Our living hope should fill us with exceeding joy so that we can face the various trials that we are or will be grieved with.
Though the idea of being grieved by various trials is troubling, the words that Peter uses here, if properly understood, should bring us joy as well. (even though they may taste like liver and onions.)
The main idea is the church being grieved by various trials.
The word translated, “to be grieved,” literally means to cause someone to be distressed, sorrowful or sad.
There is a beauty in this though, I think. The beauty is in the idea that though we rejoice in our living hope, that doesn’t mean that we cannot be distressed or sad when times are tough and when things that we perceive are bad happen to us or those we love. To grin and bear it is lost in this thought. Nowhere in Scripture are we instructed to smile despite the pain, you don’t want to look sad because the Lord doesn’t like frowny faces. There is no faking it, being what the old song calls, “happy plastic people, under shiny plastic steeples.”
Peter is describing the reality of the effects of various trials upon us: grief, sadness, and distress, but yet we still rejoice.
We rejoice, not only in the promise of our living hope, but also in how Peter describes the various trials. Notice the two things that he says about our being grieved by various trials: “for a little while,” and “If necessary.”
The phrase, “For a little while,” should give us hope because we can confidently expect the trials to be temporary. There is no more explaining to do here, the Greek doesn’t hold any secrets here, our trials, no matter how severe, are temporary.
Perhaps our ideas about what is temporary need some adjustment though.
Let me ask you this, because we are all experts at experiencing trials in our lives, if a trial lasts your whole life, is it still temporary? If you’ve dealt with a birth defect or degenerative condition, or some other health challenge that won’t ever just go away, is that trial temporary?
If you have a living hope of a heavenly inheritance and protection by God through faith in Jesus Christ, the simple answer is: yes, that trial is temporary, the trial itself will not follow you into your eternal, heavenly inheritance.
What will follow you into eternity are the effects of the trial, how that trial shaped you.
The second phrase Peter uses to describe the various trials builds on that thought, the phrase, “if necessary.”
The scholars say that the phrase, “if necessary,” supposes that the trials are temporary as well, and that their lengths and severity have been declared by God. They won’t last one minute more than is necessary.
The phrase, “if necessary,” also points to one major idea, that, if we think about it, we all probably hate: Our trials are necessary. But there is also comfort in that thought, that our trials serve a purpose.
Water, if left alone, will lie perfectly still, but the slightest tremor disturbs the surface. And when a stream flows, every rock or branch in the water directs the path that it flows. Trials function in the same way, sometimes, we experience trials to alter our path.
Growing up, I remember that my Pastor, George Waterman used to say, problems are guidelines not stop signs. This is the same idea, sometimes our trials are necessary. Though they can be difficult, there is still comfort available to us in that idea.
So, being encouraged by our living hope of an eternal, heavenly inheritance, and that God the Father is shielding us, knowing that our trials are temporary, and from time to time necessary, I think it’s time we talked about what Peter meant by, “trials.”
When I think of what a trial is, I immediately think of some random problem or thing that goes sideways that appears just to make my life more difficult and irritate me, like having your hands full and your keys are in the wrong pocket, then catching your pocket on a doorknob when you’re already irritated about your keys, just to walk into your house to find that the cat threw up, and you knocked the stupid empty egg cartons off the shelf as you walked in for the thousandth time…
Well, that might qualify, but the word Peter used that is translated, “trial,” doesn’t mean, just some random difficulty or minor irritation. In fact, in my opinion, the word, “trial,” is a poor translation considering what the Greek word actually means, especially in the light of the purpose of them described in verse 7.
The word should really be: tests.
The words, “various trials,” literally mean, diverse attempts to learn the nature or character of someone or something by submitting such to thorough and extensive testing.
James uses the same word in James chapter one, verses two and three, when he says, “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials [tests] of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
Even there, the word, “dokimion,” is translated both “trial” and “testing.”
In the Old Testament, Job, who was the king of enduring trials said in Job 23:10, But [God] knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
So the difficulties that we face are not just random occurrences of things that we think are bad, but they actually have purpose.
James says that they produce steadfastness, the ability to stand firm in hard times, Hebrews 12:11 says that trials and testing are for our discipline and produce fruit, 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
We’ve sung the song over the last few weeks, “Refiner’s Fire.” Purify my heart, let me be as gold, and precious silver, purify my heart, let me as gold, pure gold.
As gold is refined by fire, so is our faith. The heat of the fire separates the dross and alloys from gold, all the impurities rise to the top to be removed. The heat of testing exposes and separates from us the impurities of pride, self-reliance, and worldly wisdom, among a host of other impurities within our hearts.
Our trials, our tests, tend to discourage us because we don’t see the purpose, and perhaps we never will, but if we can recognize that God is in the process of refining our faith we can rejoice in the face of trials like James said, we can rejoice in the face of discipline like Hebrews said because our testing will produce the fruit of righteousness and steadfastness, our precious faith will be refined as gold.
6 In [your heavenly, eternal inheritance] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Amen
