“PETER'S EPISTALATORY GOSPEL 4”
1 Peter 4
Lent Midweek 4: 23 March Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
In your Lenten trek; in your sojourn in this desert of dying world, damning sin, and demonic enemies, Saint Peter the Prince of The Apostles, the rock ambassador of The Rock of Ages, has Words, words from God.
Your Lord Jesus has suffered for you—for you all. You think you have it bad? Well, yes, maybe you do; okay, some of you do. But Christ knows this. He has himself taken all your pain, sickness, mental anguish and suffered for you in the flesh!
You must fight; not to win salvation, but to be about The Lord’s work He gives you. You are to love God and you are to love your neighbor. You do these things, IN CHRIST, when you fight for daily sanctification—being what He has made you to be!
You were [PAST TENSE] pagan gentiles. Before you were born-again in the waters + of Life, you did walk in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless (abominable: AV) idolatry. That is simply what old-Adam does. And if not drinking and using drugs, if not sexual perversions, then always some form of idolatry—of worshipping the creature (yourself to be sure) rather than The Creator!
Saint Peter is also correct in saying that as you practice your Christian faith, there will be those, yes, your former friends, associates, and even family members who will attack you, entice you, and try and lure you back into the ways of spiritual darkness. And your “past-life” comrades will speak evil of you. Resist! Arm yourself with the “same mind (Christ) for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” You are dead—your old nature is dead and buried in Baptism. Your new creation is risen in Christ. You are free. What do you want to use this glorious liberty for?
Your Lord Jesus is The Judge of the living and the dead. At the end of time all will rise with bodies (flesh and blood) to join those then currently living for the final judgment. We don’t preach and evangelize those who have died and have been buried. They are beyond The Gospel’s saving power. We do preach to those “dead” in faith who are still breathing sulfur and brimstone of unbelief so that The Spirit would bring them the new breath of Christ Jesus. When Jesus “descended into hell” as The Creed states, well, we will leave it up to Jesus as to what He said, to whom He said it, and how long He spoke it.
During Lent pastors, Pastor St. Peter too, talk about discipline, striving, self-abnegation (denial) all for the purpose of having you focus all the more intently on The Cross—on the Atonement—on The Body and Blood of your God given and shed for you! But also, to toughen you up. Being a soldier of the cross is not easy—there is real hardship, strife, and pain. Thus, Peter exhorts you to not think it strange or unusual, or “not fair” concerning the fiery trial you endure. Nothing strange is happening to you that did not happen to all the Saints before you; except maybe you won’t actually be martyred in flame or by lions in the arena.
The Holy Spirit does give you the power, the gift, the charisma to rejoice as you partake in Christ’s sufferings. You will like Saint Peter, who according to tradition tried to leave Rome before things got deadly. On the way The Lord, supposedly, met him and said “Quo Vadis,” “where are you going, Peter? If you leave, then I will have to go to Rome to be crucified again.” Peter caught himself up short, girded his loins like a man and marched back to Rome to be crucified—upside down—thus joining his Lord in Glory. Whether it happened that way or not is left to eternity: “when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad [with Peter] also with exceeding joy.”
Yes, the end of Lent is near, but more so “the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer…have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover the multitude of sins.” You love because Christ loved you first. His love, His Body, His Blood, His Word of Peace covers you and permits you to forgive and “cover” others.
“Happy are you, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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