The big idea today is about loving each other.  Look at the very first verse in this chapter: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander”.  Notice that these are sins that are committed against one another...we do these to each other.  These aren’t private sins, but public ones.  So, Peter is saying, “stop hurting each other”, there is enough struggle in this world apart from all of that!  Then he goes on to reiterate the salvation story of Jesus, emphasizing the suffering Jesus endured as a motivation to these Christians who were being oppressed.

He tells us to put away the passions of the flesh, that we should own our bodies and have our bodies work in service to the Lord rather than being controlled by them.

My favorite verse though, is the second part of verse 8, “...They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

The reason I like this verse is that it reminds me that we are all human...we all fall, we are all tempted, we all fall into this trap of slandering each other and we do exactly what we are supposed to avoid back up in verse 1.

The encouragement though is that we can press on, and we can turn the page on a new day and we can be united with God at any moment...God is there waiting.  We are God’s people, we are a tribe.  We are united in our struggles and united in our victory in Jesus.  Peter is giving them the community encouragement.  It is refreshing to me.

And then he tackles the topic of authority, with a clear command that we should honor the authorities that we have in place in our lives.  Now, you could take this too far and assume that he is saying we should just rollover and never challenge authority of any kind, and you could take it too far in the other direction and say that we should only accept authority from leaders in which we agree - both of those miss the point.  What God ultimately wants from us is our trust.  And, this authority idea plays into that.  If we trust that God loves us and God is with us and that God has authority over this world, then submitting to our leaders and to each other is not such a huge deal.  In fact, think about this...if I am not submitting to you as a leader, I essentially am shutting down your ability to influence change and to create community.  It is through submission that community can be created.

And there are a lot of subtle ways that we can see this idea playing out...practical ways.  For instance, I didn’t vote for Joe Biden for president.  I differ in my opinions of how I think a government should be run and in how I think an economy should be stimulated and maintained.  But I don’t have a problem with Joe Biden the person.  I don’t have negative emotions about him being president.  I don’t think of him as the enemy.  I don’t agree with some of the things Congress is pursuing at this point either, for that matter...but I am part of a country, a community, and the worst thing I can do is to rebel everything he is doing and sow seeds of discord in my community.  That’s not going to help anyone?  And how can I feel confident that I am be peaceful in my political dealings and beliefs?  Simple...because God shows us in God’s word that God is in control and has been in control for quite a while now, and I can guarantee you that you can find far worse.