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1 Peter 5:6-14 - Yes, You Can Pray for Your Dog · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
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Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Howdy and good morning,
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Speaker 1: friends and faithful listeners, and welcome to The Bible Explained podcast.
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Speaker 1: And this is just a lovely, lovely day to share
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Speaker 1: a delicious cup of coffee as we read the Bible together.
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Speaker 1: And we're going to be finishing up 1 Peter 5.
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Speaker 1: And I've been loving the book of 1 Peter. And
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie. I kind of loved it
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Speaker 1: more than I thought I would. I mean, every single
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Speaker 1: book that I cover, I feel a lot of conviction
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Speaker 1: and I learn a lot through it more than I
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Speaker 1: ever thought I would. But 1 Peter kind of took
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Speaker 1: that to a whole new level for me. So this
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Speaker 1: book was just so, so enjoyable for me to discuss.
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Speaker 1: And I'm definitely looking forward to diving into 2 Peter
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Speaker 1: on Thursday with all of you guys as well. But
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Speaker 1: before I get ahead of myself, we got to finish
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Speaker 1: out 1 Peter 5 and talk about this humility and
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Speaker 1: love and prayer that we're supposed to have for our
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Speaker 1: fellow brothers and sisters. And also how we resist and
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Speaker 1: stand against Satan when he tries to devour us like
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Speaker 1: a lion. We'll get into all of that. So grab
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Speaker 1: your Bible, your cup of coffee, and also answer this question.
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Speaker 1: I haven't had you guys answer a question in a while.
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Speaker 1: Let me know what color of coffee you guys like
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Speaker 1: to drink. Or if you're a tea drinker, Contact me
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Speaker 1: and tell me what your favorite tea is. I'd like
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Speaker 1: to hear about all of that. But after this quick advertisement,
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Speaker 1: we'll dive into 1 Peter 5, 6 through the end
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Speaker 1: of the chapter. All right, before we dive in, I
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Speaker 1: apologize if you can hear my husband mowing the lawn.
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Speaker 1: I really don't think he knows that he can be
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Speaker 1: heard through the microphone in his defense. And I don't
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Speaker 1: record these episodes live. So even though you're potentially listening
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Speaker 1: to this at six in the morning, I am actually
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Speaker 1: recording this at 6 p.m. yesterday for all of you guys.
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Speaker 1: So I don't record the episodes live. But yeah, that's
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Speaker 1: why my husband is currently mowing the lawn right now.
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Speaker 1: It is a beautiful day to do that. But it's
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Speaker 1: also a beautiful day to relax with the Bible. So
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Speaker 1: let's read 1 Peter 5, 6 through 14. I'll be
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Speaker 1: reading as usual from the W.E.B., Humble yourselves, therefore, under
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Speaker 1: the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
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Speaker 1: in due time, casting all your worries on him because
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Speaker 1: he cares for you. Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful.
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Speaker 1: Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion,
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Speaker 1: seeking whom he may devour. Withstand him steadfast in your faith,
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Speaker 1: knowing that your brothers who are in the world are
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Speaker 1: undergoing the same sufferings. But may the God of all grace,
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Speaker 1: who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
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Speaker 1: after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen,
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Speaker 1: and settle you. To him be the glory and the
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Speaker 1: power forever and ever. Amen. Through Silvanus, our faithful brother,
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Speaker 1: as I consider him, I have written to you briefly,
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Speaker 1: exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of
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Speaker 1: God in which you stand. She who is in Babylon,
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Speaker 1: chosen together with you, greets you. So does Mark, my son.
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Speaker 1: Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be
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Speaker 1: to all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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Speaker 1: This is a really beautiful conclusion to the book of
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Speaker 1: 1 Peter. In verse 6, he says, humble yourselves, therefore,
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Speaker 1: under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt
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Speaker 1: you in due time, casting all your worries on him
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Speaker 1: because he cares for you. Now, on Thursday, when my
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Speaker 1: husband was on the podcast, we actually did talk about
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Speaker 1: these two verses, but I wanted to include them in
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Speaker 1: this end portion because it's kind of all one point.
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Speaker 1: Peter says we have to humble ourselves under the mighty
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Speaker 1: hand of God. Now, whenever we see the mighty hand
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Speaker 1: of God in the Old Testament, it usually refers to
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Speaker 1: two different things. Firstly, punishment and also deliverance. For example,
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Speaker 1: you know, we're going through the book of Job right now.
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Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with that book. And so I'm going to
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Speaker 1: refer to it every five seconds, I decided. And in
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Speaker 1: Job 30, verse 21, Job talks about God's mighty hand.
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Speaker 1: He says, you've turned to be cruel to me. With
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Speaker 1: the might of your hand, you've persecuted me. Whereas the
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Speaker 1: deliverance aspect of God's hand is found in Deuteronomy 9.26
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Speaker 1: that says, I prayed to Yahweh and I said, Lord Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: don't destroy your people and your inheritance that you've redeemed
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Speaker 1: through your greatness that you've brought out of Egypt with
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Speaker 1: a mighty hand. So essentially, no matter where we find
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Speaker 1: ourselves in life, whether we're going through Periods of suffering
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Speaker 1: or trials or periods of glory, I suppose, where God
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Speaker 1: is like really revealing himself to us. We're essentially supposed
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Speaker 1: to humble ourselves to God's will, no matter what it
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Speaker 1: might be. And that's very difficult. Hence why it is
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Speaker 1: a command in scripture. You know, these things aren't commanded
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Speaker 1: to us because they're easy to do. They're commanded to
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Speaker 1: us because they are difficult to do. It might be
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Speaker 1: a lot more easy for us to submit to God
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Speaker 1: when things are going well for us. Who doesn't want
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Speaker 1: to submit to that? You know, if God is giving
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Speaker 1: us more money, we're going to be like, yeah, I
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Speaker 1: submit to that. Come on, God, let's take more. Give
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Speaker 1: me all the money you can give me or whatever
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Speaker 1: else it might be. But during the times of depression
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Speaker 1: and anxiety and trials and persecutions, that's when we don't
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Speaker 1: really want to submit to God. We want to do
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Speaker 1: whatever we want to do in those moments, thinking that
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Speaker 1: he has abandoned us. Kind of like what Job was saying,
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Speaker 1: how God is using the mighty hand to persecute him, right?
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Speaker 1: That's what we have a tendency as humans to think.
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Speaker 1: But Peter encourages us that even if we are going
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Speaker 1: through times of struggle, that God cares deeply for us,
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Speaker 1: which is what he says in verse seven here, casting
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Speaker 1: all your worries on him because he cares for you.
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Speaker 1: God is not ignorant of suffering. He understands the pain
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Speaker 1: and the trauma of suffering because he suffered himself in
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Speaker 1: order to bring us closer to him, in order to
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Speaker 1: give us eternal life. But unfortunately, sometimes suffering is where
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Speaker 1: God calls us to be. Because in the end, God
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Speaker 1: is going to use it for some kind of good.
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Speaker 1: Even if it is not good to us in the moment,
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Speaker 1: even if we can never understand it, God has a
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Speaker 1: better picture of eternity. That's why scripture says that God
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Speaker 1: is going to use everything. you know, for the good
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Speaker 1: of those who love him. God works all things out
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Speaker 1: for good, even the suffering that we have to go through.
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Speaker 1: But we remember at that time when we are suffering
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Speaker 1: that God cares very deeply about us. And that's why
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Speaker 1: scripture actually commands us right here to cast all our
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Speaker 1: worries on him because he cares for us. Now, the
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Speaker 1: idea of casting something is to literally throw it like
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Speaker 1: very hard. So the idea is that we throw these
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Speaker 1: worries onto God. knowing that he cares about them. And
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Speaker 1: this is all worries, not just the big ones, but everything,
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Speaker 1: even the little ones. You know, I was just talking
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Speaker 1: about this with a friend of mine recently, and we
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Speaker 1: were kind of laughing about how we've known some pastors
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Speaker 1: in our time that have disliked prayer chains because people
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Speaker 1: write in or call about a dog dying. And I'm
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Speaker 1: not joking. These two pastors, though they're decades apart in
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Speaker 1: the time that I've known them, they both used that
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Speaker 1: same example. Oh, people just call about their dogs or
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Speaker 1: their cats all the time. And you know, we don't
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Speaker 1: want to waste our time praying for somebody's cat. That
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Speaker 1: is both crazy to me. And also I believe anti-biblical
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Speaker 1: because scripture says right here to cast all your worries
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Speaker 1: on God. That includes your pets. You know, to some people,
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Speaker 1: that's not a small thing. If their pet is going
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Speaker 1: through a surgery, it's not for us to decide, what
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Speaker 1: is worth praying for and what is not worth praying for. Everything,
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Speaker 1: in my estimation, is worth praying for. And speaking of that,
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Speaker 1: if any of you ever have a prayer request that
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Speaker 1: you think is too small, but you want to write
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Speaker 1: to me about it anyway, don't hesitate to reach out.
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Speaker 1: I will absolutely pray for whatever prayer request that you have. Unless,
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Speaker 1: of course, your prayer request is like directly going against God.
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to pray about that. But if you
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Speaker 1: have a concern in your life Don't think it's too small.
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Speaker 1: You can absolutely reach out and I will write you
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Speaker 1: down and I will pray for you throughout the week.
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Speaker 1: You are to cast all your worries on God. That
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Speaker 1: is a command right here in scripture. So knowing that
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Speaker 1: God cares very deeply for us, but sometimes he has
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Speaker 1: us going through persecution. Peter says right here that one
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Speaker 1: of the ways we can suffer well and not collapse
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Speaker 1: under this trial is by verse eight, being sober and
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Speaker 1: self-controlled and being watchful. because your adversary, the devil, walks
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Speaker 1: around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
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Speaker 1: So we've definitely talked about the idea of being sober
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Speaker 1: and self-controlled before. I would say this is definitely including
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Speaker 1: the idea of being drunk. You know, scripture says very
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Speaker 1: clearly that Christians are not to be drunk because it
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Speaker 1: alters the way you think. And I would say this
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Speaker 1: includes any kind of recreational drug, not just drinking, but
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Speaker 1: smoking pot or drinking doing pills or anything else that
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Speaker 1: may alter your frame of mind. These things are not
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Speaker 1: right because us Christians are to be in control of
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Speaker 1: ourselves all the time. But if we start taking mind-altering drugs,
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Speaker 1: then something else is in control of us. So we
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Speaker 1: want to be very careful with that kind of stuff. Now,
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Speaker 1: you might be like, well, Jen, what about medication that
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Speaker 1: might alter brain chemistry but is very necessary in order
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Speaker 1: to survive and function in life? What do we do
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Speaker 1: in that kind of case? Well, I would say for that,
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Speaker 1: that's up to every individual person's own conviction. For me,
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Speaker 1: I believe that there is a level of necessity there.
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Speaker 1: to certain medications, and some people truly do need them
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Speaker 1: to survive. And there is a verse in scripture that says,
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Speaker 1: God desires mercy and not sacrifice. So I think as Christians,
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Speaker 1: we need to be really careful not to look at
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Speaker 1: that kind of thing unmerciful and force people to go
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Speaker 1: through sacrifice. God desires mercy over sacrifice. So I think
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Speaker 1: it's important for Christians not to be unmerciful in that
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Speaker 1: kind of situation. Now, when it comes to medications, though,
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Speaker 1: the problem comes in is that people sometimes use them
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Speaker 1: and abuse them in order to achieve a sort of
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Speaker 1: drunkenness and not being sober and self-controlled in this situation.
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Speaker 1: So if you're somebody who has a personal conviction about that,
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Speaker 1: then it might be wise for you, even if you
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Speaker 1: need that medication in order to live a comfortable life,
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Speaker 1: maybe start praying about it and talk to God about
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Speaker 1: your addiction. Maybe see if you can find another medication
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Speaker 1: that doesn't have the same kind of brain altering effects
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Speaker 1: that can still benefit you in the day to day.
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Speaker 1: And I know that there are medications that are very
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Speaker 1: helpful and necessary in life to that people have to take.
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Speaker 1: But if you do find yourself having a conviction over
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Speaker 1: this because you found yourself becoming addicted to the medications
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Speaker 1: that you were prescribed and maybe taking too many of
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Speaker 1: them or abusing them over time, honestly, this all comes
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Speaker 1: back down to verse six, humbling yourselves under the mighty
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Speaker 1: hand of God that he will exalt you in due time.
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Speaker 1: You know, just trusting that God has a plan for
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Speaker 1: your life, essentially, and getting to the root cause and
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Speaker 1: the bottom of what you're trying to escape from. But
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Speaker 1: continuing in verse 8, not only should we be sober
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Speaker 1: and self-controlled, but we also need to be watchful for
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Speaker 1: our adversary, the devil, who walks around like a roaring
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Speaker 1: lion seeking whom he may devour. Now, the word devil
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Speaker 1: is just the same word as Satan, by the way.
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Speaker 1: It's just the word devil is Greek for Satan. It
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Speaker 1: means the same thing. The adversary, the accuser, the slanderer.
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Speaker 1: He's always trying to accuse us. And he's walking around.
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Speaker 1: It says, like a roaring lion seeking someone who he
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Speaker 1: can devour. And notice that word devour. He doesn't just
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Speaker 1: want to, you know, take a little chomp out of you.
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Speaker 1: He wants to completely destroy you. That is how much
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Speaker 1: Satan hates you. We've talked a little bit about this
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Speaker 1: in the book of Job. Job 1, 6 and 7
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Speaker 1: says this. Now on the day when God's sons came
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Speaker 1: to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them.
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Speaker 1: And Yahweh said to Satan, where have you come from?
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Speaker 1: Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, from going back and
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Speaker 1: forth in the earth and from walking up and down
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Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, Satan walks around like a roaring lion
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Speaker 1: seeking someone who he can devour. You know, it's also
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Speaker 1: said in 2 Corinthians 11, 12 through 15, that Satan
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Speaker 1: disguises himself as this beautiful angel of light. Here's what
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Speaker 1: this says. What do I do that I will continue
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Speaker 1: to do that I may cut off opportunity from those
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Speaker 1: who desire an opportunity, then which they boast they may
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Speaker 1: be recognized just like us? For such men are false prophets,
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Speaker 1: deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ's apostles. And no wonder, for
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Speaker 1: even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. It is
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Speaker 1: no great thing, therefore, if his servants also masquerade as
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Speaker 1: servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
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Speaker 1: So Satan walks around. He disguises himself as an angel
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Speaker 1: of light. Hence why Peter says to be watchful. In
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Speaker 1: that passage from 2 Corinthians 11 that we just read,
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Speaker 1: not only does Satan walk around like an angel of light,
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Speaker 1: so do his followers. They pretend to be apostles of
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Speaker 1: Christ is what it says. They masquerade as servants of righteousness,
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Speaker 1: as Christ's apostles. And they're doing all this because they
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Speaker 1: follow Satan. And Satan is the father of lies. And
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Speaker 1: he's a very, very good liar. He hides who he is.
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Speaker 1: And his followers also hide who they are because they
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Speaker 1: seem kind. They seem nice. They seem like they are
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Speaker 1: doing something in God's will. They call themselves Christians. They
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Speaker 1: call themselves apostles. They call themselves anything that is righteous.
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Speaker 1: In fact, they might even use a lot of Christianese,
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Speaker 1: but they are masquerading as angels of light. And so
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Speaker 1: we are to beware of Satan and all of his
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Speaker 1: deception and his followers as well, which is why Peter says,
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Speaker 1: be watchful. He's not going to come in our lives
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Speaker 1: and be like, hey, look, here I am. I'm Satan
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Speaker 1: coming to destroy you, coming to devour you whole. He's
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Speaker 1: not going to do that. He is going to masquerade
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Speaker 1: as an angel of light. So we got to be aware.
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Speaker 1: We have to discern every single spirit that comes our way.
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Speaker 1: And oh my gosh, did we not just talk about
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Speaker 1: that yesterday on the podcast, Job chapter four, that one
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Speaker 1: of Job's friends was seeing this spirit, but couldn't discern
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Speaker 1: what it was. And it came to him in secret,
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Speaker 1: telling him all of these mysteries of God or whatever.
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Speaker 1: And he couldn't discern what this thing really was. So
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Speaker 1: Peter is telling us we got to be discerning and
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Speaker 1: watchful from everything that comes in our lives because Satan
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Speaker 1: wants to devour us whole. He wants to destroy your
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Speaker 1: life and he'll do it in many ways. He'll convince
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Speaker 1: you that things are good that actually are really evil
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Speaker 1: that end up destroying your life. I'm reading an old classic,
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Speaker 1: The Picture of Dorian Gray, and it's pretty interesting because
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Speaker 1: that's exactly what the story is about. You know, this
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Speaker 1: man falls into hedonism and sin and corruption and thinking
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Speaker 1: that is good and it's fun in his early stages
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Speaker 1: of life, but then it ends up just totally destroying
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Speaker 1: him in the end. Not to give the entire plot away.
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Speaker 1: Sorry about that. But most of you probably know the
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Speaker 1: story by now anyway. Satan's entire goal is to get
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Speaker 1: you further and further away from Christ because he understands
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Speaker 1: that being far away from God is destruction for your soul.
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Speaker 1: We were created in the Garden of Eden to have
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Speaker 1: fellowship with Christ. And if we don't have that fellowship
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Speaker 1: with Christ, then we are not going to be truly fulfilled.
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Speaker 1: So this is what we're supposed to do in order
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Speaker 1: to advance against Satan. It says in verse 9, So firstly,
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Speaker 1: we are to withstand him steadfast in the faith. This
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Speaker 1: is the idea that that we don't back down because
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Speaker 1: that is what he wants us to do. He wants
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Speaker 1: us to back down from our relationship with Christ or
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Speaker 1: back down from being effective for Christ. So he'll target
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Speaker 1: us and try to get us to stop doing whatever
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Speaker 1: we're doing, especially if we're effective. And you know, some
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Speaker 1: of the things that I've been going through for the
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Speaker 1: past couple months, I'm not one to blame Satan for
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Speaker 1: every little thing, but sometimes I wonder, you know, this
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Speaker 1: health stuff I'm going through, I wonder if it's not
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Speaker 1: necessarily a coincidence that And maybe some of it is
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Speaker 1: actually spiritual. And I'm sure some of you have experienced
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Speaker 1: stuff like that as well. So what do we do
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Speaker 1: in those situations? Well, Satan obviously wants us to give up.
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Speaker 1: But that's the last thing we should do is what
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Speaker 1: Peter says. He says, don't give up. Instead, withstand him
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Speaker 1: steadfast in your faith. So we are supposed to stand
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Speaker 1: up against him. And one of the best ways we
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Speaker 1: can do this is going back to verse seven, which
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Speaker 1: is casting all of your worries onto Christ because he
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Speaker 1: cares for you. God is more powerful than Satan ever
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Speaker 1: will be. And he's with us. So we stand steadfast
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Speaker 1: in our faith. And that's one of the ways that
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Speaker 1: Satan will flee from us. But another way is by
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Speaker 1: remembering that our brothers and sisters who are in the
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Speaker 1: world are undergoing similar sufferings from Satan. And why is
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Speaker 1: this important? Well, firstly, because we know who to pray for.
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Speaker 1: You know, we know that there are other people struggling
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Speaker 1: in similar ways or oftentimes even worse ways than how
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Speaker 1: we're struggling. So we can pray for these individuals. You're
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Speaker 1: showering other people in prayer. And these could be people
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Speaker 1: you might not even know. But if you just say
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Speaker 1: a prayer for them, that is God listening to your
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Speaker 1: pleading for these brothers and sisters in Christ. Always having
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Speaker 1: extra prayer is a good thing. And vice versa, you know,
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Speaker 1: their prayers are coming your way as well. People that
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Speaker 1: you might not even know could be praying for you
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Speaker 1: right now because the body of believers is called to
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Speaker 1: pray for those who are struggling. So that's another way
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Speaker 1: we can withstand the arrows from Satan, I suppose, is
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Speaker 1: by praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ and
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Speaker 1: they also praying for you, but also knowing that you're
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Speaker 1: not alone. Sometimes that's very important, right? You know, when
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Speaker 1: we think we're all alone or part of the minority,
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Speaker 1: it gets demoralizing really, really fast. But if we know
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Speaker 1: that there are other people standing up for the faith
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Speaker 1: and doing what they can to spread the gospel, that
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Speaker 1: helps us know that we're not alone, that there are
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Speaker 1: people right alongside us going through similar things that we
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Speaker 1: go through. This reminds me of, I believe it was
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Speaker 1: in 1 Kings. I can never remember the passage exactly,
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Speaker 1: but it's the story of Elijah. When he was up
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Speaker 1: against all of the Baal worshipers, remember, and he was
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Speaker 1: so demoralized because that was when Jezebel was the queen.
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Speaker 1: And Jezebel was a nasty, nasty woman who was targeting
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Speaker 1: and persecuting a lot of Yahweh followers, trying to kill them.
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Speaker 1: And Elijah felt that he was all alone. And God
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Speaker 1: reminded him multiple times. He's like, Elijah, you're not alone.
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Speaker 1: I know of hundreds of other men who have not
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Speaker 1: bowed the knee to Baal, and they will not bow
19:49
Speaker 1: the knee to Baal. So you are not alone in this.
19:52
Speaker 1: And that's important. And God purposely told Elijah about that,
19:57
Speaker 1: I think, to make sure that he was not demoralized,
20:00
Speaker 1: that he knew he was not alone in the world.
20:04
Speaker 1: So these are some ways that we can absolutely stand
20:07
Speaker 1: steadfast in our faith against Satan. And eventually he will
20:10
Speaker 1: give up targeting us. Eventually he'll just go away because
20:13
Speaker 1: he'll know that it's not working, that there's somebody else
20:16
Speaker 1: he can go out and try to devour. Satan hates
20:20
Speaker 1: us deeply. He wants to devour us, but he also
20:22
Speaker 1: wants worshipers as well. And he hates God. He does
20:25
Speaker 1: not want God to have the worshipers. So that's why
20:27
Speaker 1: Satan goes about the earth trying to completely destroy people.
20:32
Speaker 1: But now to conclude, Peter gives this lovely doxology. Verse 10,
20:37
Speaker 1: may the God of all grace who called you to
20:39
Speaker 1: his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered
20:42
Speaker 1: a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. So
20:47
Speaker 1: we all have to go through suffering. This is something
20:49
Speaker 1: that is consistently laid out in scripture and everybody's suffering
20:53
Speaker 1: is going to look a little bit different. We all
20:56
Speaker 1: have to do it. But after a little while, Peter says,
20:59
Speaker 1: God will perfect us. He will establish us. He will
21:03
Speaker 1: strengthen us and he will settle us. He will settle
21:07
Speaker 1: our souls. He will give us peace and strength and perfection, essentially. Now,
21:13
Speaker 1: this might not happen here on earth. It could. Some
21:16
Speaker 1: people are delivered here on earth, but some people aren't
21:18
Speaker 1: delivered until they see Jesus face to face. Either way,
21:22
Speaker 1: we are going to be delivered. That is promised to
21:24
Speaker 1: every single person who believes in the name of Jesus.
21:28
Speaker 1: We will suffer on earth, but we will be delivered
21:31
Speaker 1: every single time. And now Peter says in verse 11,
21:35
Speaker 1: to him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
21:38
Speaker 1: Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I
21:41
Speaker 1: have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this
21:45
Speaker 1: is the true grace of God in which you stand.
21:47
Speaker 1: I like that, um, Paul mentions, this is probably Silas,
21:51
Speaker 1: by the way, the same Silas that traveled with Paul.
21:55
Speaker 1: I think it's funny that Paul qualifies that he considers
21:58
Speaker 1: him a faithful brother. He's like a faithful brother as
22:02
Speaker 1: I consider him. Because ultimately, only God knows the heart, right?
22:08
Speaker 1: And as we just talked about in 2 Corinthians 11,
22:11
Speaker 1: there are people that are very, very good fakers. Even
22:14
Speaker 1: Paul talked about some of them, people who were traveling
22:17
Speaker 1: along with Paul, but at the end, abandoned him because
22:21
Speaker 1: of fear and abandoned their faith, essentially. There's a lot
22:25
Speaker 1: of people that do this in life. We hear about
22:28
Speaker 1: pastors deconstructing their faith all the time, and deconstruction is
22:32
Speaker 1: is generally speaking another terminology for just abandoning the faith
22:36
Speaker 1: in today's lingo. But unfortunately, there are people like that.
22:39
Speaker 1: So Peter says he considers Silas a faithful brother. He says,
22:46
Speaker 1: Silas helped him write this letter, exhorting and testifying that
22:49
Speaker 1: this is the true grace of God in which you stand.
22:52
Speaker 1: She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you. Now,
22:56
Speaker 1: the terminology for Babylon is generally... negative. Babylon was always
23:02
Speaker 1: considered to be like the land of sin. So Peter
23:06
Speaker 1: is probably talking about Rome, where he is writing from.
23:11
Speaker 1: In ancient days, it was not uncommon for Rome to
23:15
Speaker 1: be considered sinful and hedonistic and essentially like Babylon. But
23:20
Speaker 1: even though Rome is that corrupt, there are still faithful
23:24
Speaker 1: people in Rome. The chosen together greets you. So does Mark,
23:29
Speaker 1: my son. There are Christians everywhere. We are not alone.
23:33
Speaker 1: Even if it feels like the world is super corrupt,
23:36
Speaker 1: our country is super corrupt, our state is super corrupt.
23:40
Speaker 1: Even if it feels like these things, we are not alone.
23:43
Speaker 1: There are chosen people all over the world worshiping Christ.
23:46
Speaker 1: We have to remember that. And so these people greet you.
23:50
Speaker 1: So does Mark, my son. And that's probably Mark, the
23:53
Speaker 1: same individual who wrote the book of Mark. And a
23:56
Speaker 1: lot of people think that, um, Mark got a lot
23:59
Speaker 1: of his information from Peter himself, but Mark was considered
24:02
Speaker 1: to be a faithful son of Peter and not a
24:06
Speaker 1: physical son, but like a spiritual son, if that makes sense.
24:10
Speaker 1: And then in verse 14, to completely conclude, greet one
24:13
Speaker 1: another with a kiss of love. Peace be to all
24:16
Speaker 1: of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. So when
24:19
Speaker 1: you greet a fellow brother or sister in Christ, you
24:22
Speaker 1: are to greet them as you would a sibling with
24:24
Speaker 1: a kiss of love. Essentially treating your fellow brothers and
24:29
Speaker 1: sisters as if they are actually your family. This is
24:31
Speaker 1: something we've talked about before on the podcast, because we
24:33
Speaker 1: are all family. If you think about it, if you
24:36
Speaker 1: believe in the name of Jesus, you are an adopted
24:38
Speaker 1: son or daughter into God's family. And we're going to
24:41
Speaker 1: be someday considered to be brothers and sisters in Christ.
24:45
Speaker 1: You might as well start now here on earth. by
24:49
Speaker 1: treating each person as a brother or sister in Christ. Now,
24:52
Speaker 1: this doesn't mean we have to give them a big
24:54
Speaker 1: kiss on the lips. In fact, the church ended up
24:59
Speaker 1: completely rejecting the holy kiss because it became unholy very quickly.
25:02
Speaker 1: That's a funny little story about the holy kiss, if
25:07
Speaker 1: you want to look up that history. But regardless, Peter
25:11
Speaker 1: says to conclude, peace be to all of you who
25:14
Speaker 1: are in Christ Jesus. Amen. And I think that's a
25:18
Speaker 1: lovely conclusion to the book of 1 Peter. Now on Thursday,
25:21
Speaker 1: we will be in the book of 2 Peter. And
25:23
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to talking about that book as well.
25:26
Speaker 1: Peter has a unique writing style that is very different
25:29
Speaker 1: from the other apostles. In fact, I would argue that
25:32
Speaker 1: Peter's letters are so, they're just like dripping with humility
25:39
Speaker 1: and love. Whereas if you look at Peter in the
25:43
Speaker 1: first years of his ministry, he He was kind of
25:47
Speaker 1: the opposite of that. He was far less humble. He
25:50
Speaker 1: was far less loving, not wanting to go into the Romans' home.
25:54
Speaker 1: Do you remember that? Because they were Roman. But now
25:56
Speaker 1: as he writes this letter, he is potentially living in
25:59
Speaker 1: Rome among the Gentiles, showing them consideration and love and
26:05
Speaker 1: encouraging other people to show consideration and love as well
26:10
Speaker 1: and humility to each other. So that's why I enjoy
26:13
Speaker 1: the book of 1 and 2 Peter. So I'm looking
26:15
Speaker 1: forward to talking about 2 Peter on Thursday, and hopefully
26:19
Speaker 1: all of you guys tune in then. Now, of course,
26:21
Speaker 1: before I let you guys go with a happy listening
26:23
Speaker 1: and God bless, here is a sponsored ad. All right,
26:28
Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I am going to wrap this episode up
26:31
Speaker 1: by just encouraging you that if you have a prayer request,
26:34
Speaker 1: please don't hesitate to reach out and contact me. You're
26:36
Speaker 1: going to find my contact information listed in the description
26:39
Speaker 1: of this episode. As we know, prayer is very important.
26:42
Speaker 1: It's one of the ways that we can resist the devil.
26:45
Speaker 1: And praying for each other is a very important habit
26:48
Speaker 1: to take up. So if you email me and tell
26:50
Speaker 1: me what your prayer request is, I will write you
26:53
Speaker 1: down and I'll stick you on my monitor. I've got
26:55
Speaker 1: my little sticky notes here of all the people that
26:58
Speaker 1: write in for me to pray for. And I will
27:00
Speaker 1: pray for you for the week. Faithful listeners, hope you
27:03
Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. See
27:06
Speaker 1: you on Thursday. Happy listening and God bless. I just
27:15
Speaker 1: want to take a second to thank the team at
27:17
Speaker 1: Life Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible
27:19
Speaker 1: Explained podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll
27:23
Speaker 1: find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've
27:26
Speaker 1: got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.