Talk about “an embarrassment of riches.” In just the first two verses of this epistle there’s enough material to fill several semesters in a good seminary: “Peter, an apostle,” “elect exiles of the Dispersion,” “the foreknowledge of God the Father,” “the sanctification of the Spirit,” “obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling of his blood.” But I’m going to focus on just one word in verse 6 of this chapter – rejoice. As I’m sure you know, the root word for rejoice is joy.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary the first definition given for joy is: The emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.
If you received a letter from an attorney’s office telling you that a great-uncle you didn’t know you had has died and left you as the beneficiary of his estate. . . and that estate was valued at a bazillion dollars . . . do you think you would feel JOY? Uh, YEAH! The money is not in your hands or in your account – yet – but I’m pretty sure you would already be feeling the joy. The “prospect of possessing what one desires” is right there in black and white, on letterhead stationery from an attorney. (And, yes, you checked with the State Bar Association and the lawyer is legit.)
In this portion of Scripture, Peter the Apostle (it doesn’t get any more legit than that!) is writing to a group of converted pagans and Jews living across a wide area of what is today north central Turkey. At this time in history (around 62 – 63 AD), Christians are not the most popular people in the Roman Empire. They are subject to verbal and often physical abuse, likely to be disowned by their relatives, shunned by their neighbors, discriminated against in the job market and housing, and widely ridiculed for putting their faith in a Jewish carpenter who was crucified by Roman soldiers thirty years earlier. Oh, and they are considered atheists because they won’t worship the local god’s that ‘insure’ prosperity for the town they live in.
And, if that all wasn’t bad enough, state sanctioned persecution including prison, flogging, being fed to starving lions as public entertainment, dipped in tar and lit on fire to be used as street lamps in the city of Rome, and, yes, crucifixion itself is going to begin in just a few years and last for another hundred years or so, across the whole Roman Empire. And you think somebody giving you the “stink eye” because you pray over your lunch at school or work is tough?
Peter is telling them that these “various trials” have a God ordained purpose, “ . . . so that the 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.”
If Peter will excuse me, I’m going to invite the unnamed author of Hebrews into the discussion: “ . . . let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There’s that word “joy” again. So is the Christian life simply a matter of gutting it out until we die? Not at all. That joy is meant to be a present reality as the definition of joy describes. The key is “what one desires.” If your chief desire is the American way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that joy will escape you. Wealth, status and comfort is a house built on sand (Matthew 7:26-27). But if our chief desire is Jesus Himself – the founder and perfecter of our faith – that joy can be a present reality as well as a future one. When Jesus reveals himself to you as your Savior, then joy – along with love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23) – become realities regardless of the circumstances of your life. That’s why Hebrews 12:2 says, “looking to Jesus.” If Jesus is the prize, and not just the means to some other desire, then you can have Jesus right here and right now, as well as the full, unfiltered version for eternity.
Getting back to that letter of inheritance you’ve received, when you show up at the attorney’s office you will be asked to show some proof of identity. On that first Easter morning when the risen Jesus began appearing to Peter, Mary Magdalene, and the other disciples, they literally could not believe their eyes. The convincing proof was the scars on His hands and feet. When we appear before the Throne of Christ, I suspect the proof of our identity in Christ might very well be the scars we bear for being His disciples.