For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household. (1 Peter 4:17a, NIV)
You probably don’t need me to tell you to replace your divots.
You don’t need to hear from me about repairing your ball marks.
And I’d definitely make little impression by insisting you rake the bunker.
What would be the purpose in all this when you’ve been around the game for so long? These are meager basics. Beginner’s stuff. We all know this, so if I told you, I’d only be “preaching to the choir.”
So what, then, does the choir need? Had you not read our verse for the day, you might be surprised to hear me say judgment.
As Peter moved toward the culmination of his first letter to the believers scattered throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire that surrounded him, he turned his attention to persecution. He did not need to turn his readers’ attention. They were experiencing it firsthand. Peter went so far as to call their persecution “the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you.”
If we think we can drown out his instruction because our hymnals are open and our voices are raised, we’re probably not really reading the words!
The Christian life in those days was a life of suffering. I don’t mean a-winter-storm-knocks-out-your-internet suffering or you-mean-we-have-to-wear-masks-again suffering. This was true curse-Jesus-or-die suffering. Persecution for believing. It was to these brothers and sisters that Peter wrote, “If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name” (verse 16).
But lest they were tempted to think that the governmental authorities were the source of all their troubles, Peter then told them, “Judgment must begin with God’s household.” Now when it comes to preaching to the choir, we’re really talking! God had a plan in all this torment—and those who called themselves by his name were supposed to see what that plan was.
We’ve been talking in the past tense here, but the question transfers to us. Here. Now. We may call ourselves believers and point to our distinguished pedigree or our deepened experience in the body of Christ, and we may think of ourselves as “meat” Christians, not “milk” Christians. But God’s chastening is never done. His crucible of refining is still burning up the dross in us. If we think we can drown out his instruction because our hymnals are open and our voices are raised, we’re probably not really reading the words!
What the choir needs is the same thing everyone needs: grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy, hope upon hope, purpose upon purpose. What the choir needs is Jesus. We don’t wave and pass him by. We fall in step, more like a band than a choir, it turns out, but directed by the Director.
By God, we are judged—told what we’re doing wrong and shown how to do it right. We may go through suffering in order for this to happen, but it’s suffering that produces a song, as we praise God that we bear Christ’s name.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 2, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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