Devin Patrick Kelley open fired on a group of people worshiping last Lord’s Day and killed nearly three dozen. Kelley was discharged from the Air Force in 2014 for bad conduct, after being court-martialed in 2012 for assault on his wife and child.
I read an article on the internet last Monday by a Thomas Gallatin and Mr. Gallatin concluded his article by writing: “Yet this atrocity should once again remind everyone that evil is real and no law can rid it from the hearts and minds of people.” Mr. Gallatin is not entirely correct.
“No law of man can rid evil from the hearts and minds of people.” Only one law can – the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, otherwise known as the Gospel.
I do not want to suggest that we are all in danger of our lives when we assemble to worship. I think we all know and recognize that the greater threat we have in our lives as Christians is the daily negative talk, slander, evil speaking that we endure from our family and friends.
But, in the face of this type of anti-Christian behavior, what should our response as individual Christians and our response as a body, a family, of Christians, be?
Let us draw strength from Peter’s words in 2:1-10 as he points out how we need to respond to persecution…
LONG FOR THE PURE MILK OF THE WORD – vs 2 (1-3):
We need to “long” for the “pure milk” of the word after setting aside “all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” These are vices that destroy a sense of community in any community – our families, our church, or our country.
We need to “long” for the “pure milk” of the word “like newborn babies.”
We need to “long” for the “pure milk” of the word so that we can grow to salvation.
We will “long” for the “pure milk” of the word since we have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
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YOU ARE BUILT UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE – vs 5 (4-8):
The main idea in this brief paragraph is that Christians are built up as a spiritual house. But before we get to that main idea, we see in verse 4 that it is after we come to Christ that we are a spiritual house: “after coming to Him,” that is, the “Lord” mentioned in verse 3.
Peter is going to return to a discussion of Jesus in verses 6-8 but it is important for the Christians in Peter’s day, as well as for us, to understand that Jesus did not live an easy life. He did not live in a “rose garden.” So, we should not look at our lives through rose-tinted glasses.
Now, in order to support his case, Peter quotes a few passages from Isaiah (28:16; 8:14) and Psalms (118:22) which have one theme running through them: the word “stone.”
SO THAT YOU MAY PROCLAIM HIS VIRTUES – vs 9-10:
But you – Christians! Peter reminds Christians of who we are and what we are supposed to be doing…
“So that” we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” How do we respond? We preach the Gospel. We keep teaching the Gospel. If it leads to our mockery, we keep living and teaching the Gospel. If it brings about our martyrdom, we keep preaching and living the Gospel.
Christ has called us out of darkness. Yet, we live in world engulfed in darkness. We are in that world of darkness but we are to live above that world of darkness. We are “sons of light” as Paul says. We are to “proclaim” the excellencies or the “virtues” of Jesus Christ to others. We are to live the life of Christ before others: His conviction in the truth, His love for all people, and His humility in willing to serve others, even those who did not like Him.
In the face of threats and persecution, we need to proclaim Christ’s virtues to an ungodly world – in our lifestyles and our teaching.
–Paul Holland
