1 Peter 1:7-177That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 10Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 17And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: (1 Peter 1:7‑17).
“That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” There is faith on earth, and God tries it. He never gives faith that He does not prove it; and this brings forth the fruit that will appear by and bye, when everything is made manifest, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
I believe the trying “by fire,” spoken of in this verse, is a beautiful allusion to the three Hebrew servants who were tried by fire, whom, as you remember, Nebuchadnezzar cast into the fern ace. What was the effect of the fire in their case? It only burnt off their bonds, and they were free. The Lord lets us get into the fire oftentimes, and the effect of it is to burn off the cords that bound us, —in our case often self-imposed cords—and we come out free. But what have we had in the fire? A sense of the presence and company of the Lord, as we never had it before. So with the Hebrew servants, one walked with them in the furnace, and the form of that one was “like unto the Son of God.”
“Whom having not seen ye love.” There cannot be a saint of God, who does not love the Lord. You do not love Him as you would like to do, nor as He deserves to be loved. Quite true; nor do I; but when God writes to His people, He says, I know you love my Son. To me there is a lovely connection between this verse, “Whom having not seen ye love,” and the fourth verse of Revelation 22, “They shall see His face.” There is nothing so touches my heart and softens my spirit as this, I shall see His face. Oh beloved, do you not long to see His face, to gaze on Jesus, your Lord, to be in His own very presence, to see Him with these very eyes, and to be in the intimate enjoyment of His love for evermore? To see His face! That face once was “marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men,” for He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and it was for our sakes that face was marred What will it be to gaze on that face?
“Believing ye rejoice,” &c. Your trials and troubles will all turn to praise and honor, he says, at the Lord’s appearing, and meantime faith is in exercise, and you rejoice with joy unspeakable. I should like this to be more true of us, beloved. I do not think there is among us this daily rejoicing and exulting, of which this Scripture speaks. It is in a person they joy and exult, not in what He has done for them—that comes next.
“Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” Believing in Him what have you received? Not salvation in the full sense of Peter’s epistle, but the salvation of the soul. In the fifth verse you are kept “through faith unto salvation,” a thing you have not got yet, but will get through faith. In the ninth verse salvation is the salvation of our souls, which we have got now. You have not seen the Lord yet, but the moment you are resting on Him by faith, you get your soul saved.
Now three things come out in the following verses the testimony of the prophets; the preaching of the Holy Ghost; and the coming of the Lord—His appearing.
When the prophets had written their prophecies, they read them, and though there was the tale of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glories that should follow, God revealed to them, it was not for themselves but for us Christians they wrote.
“Which things the angels desire to look into.” Though we are so negligent about the study of Scripture, though there is so little desire in our hearts to penetrate into its hidden depths of meaning, the angels desire to look into them. Angels never knew God, or saw God till they saw the babe in Bethlehem; there was no revelation of God till then. Angels beheld God for the first time when they saw that wonderful babe. At His birth there is a movement of the heavenly host. A multitude comes with the angel that announces His birth, and they sing praises to God. All heaven is occupied with what is taking place on earth, for the Son of God is in this world of ours. Angels minister to Him when “he was an hungered” in the wilderness, after dismissing Satan; and in the garden in His agony, angels come and minister to Him and strengthen Him. Angels have a wonderful interest in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, “which thing the angels desire to look into,” and yet He did not come for angels. They sang at His birth, but we do not hear of them singing at His resurrection. Why? “Oh,” they seemed to say, “here we stand aside and leave the note of praise for those whom it most nearly concerns;” they leave it for you and me. We are the ones for whom He died. Angels say, We love to trace his pathway in this world; love to look into His tomb; but we have no fitting note to suit this occasion, for He did not die for us.
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” This is a figure that would be well known in the East; there they wore the flowing robe, and it would need to be girded up for a man to make any great progress. The loins are the secret of strength. There must be the steady application of your soul constantly to these things, Peter says; and Paul says, “Set your mind on things above:” not set your affections. People often say they must have something for their minds. Paul says, I will give you something for your minds, but in heaven.
“Hope to the end,” &c. You have in this chapter faith in the Lord, love towards Him, and then this hope. You will find ten times in New Testament Scripture faith, hope, and love going together. You have faith in a person, you love a person, and you hope for a person. It is all bound up in a person— “the person of the Christ.”
“For the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” What grace is this? The grace of being taken straight into His presence, to be with the Lord, and like Him, forever. Jude says, “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and what mercy could be greater than for the Lord just to come, and lift us up out of this scene of sorrow, and trial, and distress, and weeping and death, and to be in His own bright presence forever and ever? What Jude calls mercy, Peter calls grace, and what could be greater grace?
Then having taken us on to the end, Peter brings us back again, and says this is how you are to walk meanwhile, “as obedient children.” Not doing what you like, but what your Father tells you and He looks for practical holiness from you.
“And if ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (vs. 17). This is not the judgment-seat of Christ, but this is the Father keeping His eye on each child every day, watching what we do: and as we sow so we reap. The obedient child says: I should like that there be nothing in my path day by day that my Father would not be pleased to see. He is looking on, is coming in, too, in restraining, and in chastening likewise, oftentimes. That is how the Father judgeth, and that judgment is good and wholesome for our souls.
It is a great mistake to suppose that because the testimony of God in the present day, in the light of Christianity, is different from a former day under Judaism, that therefore the principles of the moral government of God have in anywise changed.
The moral government of God over His people is exactly the same today as in bye-gone days, and you or I can no more traverse the word or ways of God without suffering for it, though we are under grace, than those who were distinctly under law. Hence the exhortation.
“Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” This is not at all the fear that genders bondage; not fear as to redemption, or acceptance, or relationship, because the next thing we read is, “Forasmuch as ye know,” &c. Why am I to fear? Because I know certain things. The knowledge of redemption and the enjoyment of the blessed place God’s grace gives me in Christianity are to make my pathway characterized by fear, and there would be far less sorrow, far less dealing of the Lord in our day if we had more of this fear. The moment we cease to have this fear is the moment we fall; so long as we fear we are preserved and kept; the hour we cease to fear is the time we fall.
This verse speaks of the daily government of God over His children; not the judgment of the great white throne, nor the judgment-seat of Christ for the saints, but the fact that my Father has His eye on me today, and He will deal with me today or tomorrow according to what His eye has seen. “The Father judgeth according to every man’s work.”