1 Peter 1:1-9

Big Idea - As we come to the end of the Book of Job, we come to understand that the book is not about helping find comfort in the midst of suffering. In fact, the book offers no help or comfort for those who are suffering. Instead, the book is really about helping us understand and evaluate our motives in doing what is good and right. Are we trying to be a good person? If so, what is our motive in being a good person and doing good deeds? But even more significantly, the book examines why God does good. Why does God bless people with good things? Why does He take care of creation? Why does He take care of us? These are both extremely important questions because our answers to these questions frame the nature of our relationship with God. That is, it defines the kind of relationship God seeks with human beings. Is the God of the Bible a god like the ancient gods who didn't really know what they wanted but were dependent on people to give them what they wanted once they figured it out? If people did the bidding of the gods, the gods would return the favor. This merit-based system of karma, or getting what you deserve, has survived to this very day and is evident in some form or another in most religions. But is Yahweh like that? Does that characterize the kind of relationship He wants to have with us? Of course, the answer is no. That is not at all what He is like. So how does the Book of Job paint a different picture? How does God want to relate to us? Does that define the kind of relationship we have with Him?

The first question the book deals with is why we do the right thing. Job illustrates that we should not do the right thing as a means to an end. That is, to manipulate God into giving us what we want. Job had the right understanding that righteousness was an objective standard you could know, and it was important and right to do good for its own sake. Our motive for doing good is that it is the right thing to do. But is that our motivation? Or are we more like Job's friends who are trying to manipulate God, earn His favor, or the favor and respect of others? It is sometimes hard to evaluate our own motives, but sometimes our motives get tested when we suffer. If we get angry at God because we are not getting what we deserve, it indicates that we are doing good for the wrong reasons.

The more important question is, why does God do good? Why does He bless us at all? In His final speech to Job, God reveals that His motive is to care for His creation, not to give everyone what they deserve. God cannot be controlled or manipulated. He also does not do good to manipulate us nor as a response to being manipulated by us! God is just, but His relationship with creation and with us is not based on giving everyone exactly what they deserve moment by moment. Instead, He cares for all that He has made by providing, protecting, and sustaining the world and all that is in it. God's protection and care are needed in a world that is not perfectly ordered. In a world where the disorder of progressive creation and of sin, this protection and care is not always guaranteed. Instead, it is a general principle of how God works. When bad things happen, it results from living in a world where disorder exists. Where good things happen, it is a sign of God's loving care in the midst of the disorder and chaos. His care is a matter of His goodness, not a matter of getting what we deserve (that is reserved for the Day of Judgement). In the end, Job's fortune is restored. This is not supposed to erase all his suffering somehow, but to show that God will not change how He works in the world. He is a God who loves to bless people! But, we now understand that it comes from a God who cares about Job and seeks to show Him favor far beyond the cold and impersonal response of giving him exactly what he deserves. God wants us to know Him - as He really is. In the end, Job's eyes are opened, and He comes to really know what God is like!

Finally, we see that God's goodness extends even further in that He often gives people what they don't deserve. That is, He extends grace to those who deserve punishment. God is angry with Job's friends and finds them guilty of speaking falsely about God. But, instead of punishing them, He makes a way for them to be forgiven. This grace, ironically, comes through the priestly mediation of Job. Job, who is suffering as if he were being punished, prays for those who deserve punishment but escape it because of the sacrifice given in their place and the prayers of a mediator who is suffering the punishment they deserve. What an amazing picture of Jesus and the cross! God wants us to know Him and relate to Him based on grace, not works. Because of what He has done for us, even in suffering, not because of what we have done for Him!

Big Idea - Job thought he understood how the world worked. In his understanding, the world operated based on the merit system - you were either blessed or cursed as a result of getting what you deserve. His logic was that God created the world and God is just, therefore, everything that happens to you must be according to the principle of justice. The only problem with this view is that Job was not getting what he deserved. He knew he was righteous, but he suffered great loss, and pain. He was not getting what he deserved, in fact, he was getting a life he was certain he did not deserve. His only explanation is that God has made a mistake, and as a result, God must not really be just after all.

What's more, Job began to develop his theology, his understanding of God, based on his bad experiences. The more he did this, the smaller God was, and the more he brought God down to his level. This is certainly one of the great dangers when we suffer. We know that if God is truly all-powerful then He could end our suffering or prevent it from ever happening in the first place. When God does not relieve our suffering, we can start to form wrong ideas about God and His character. God, in His kindness and grace, speaks to Job to straighten out his thinking. God's purpose is not to make Job feel worse or to condemn him and justify himself - that is Job's strategy! Instead, God's purpose is to show Job that the problem is not with God's character but with his own flawed worldview and misunderstandings about the greatness of God! Correcting Job's worldview and theology will not necessarily remove him from suffering, but it does give him a new and better way to think about himself, his suffering, and, most importantly, how he thinks about God. So, how does God's rebuke change Job's worldview and theology? How can it help us face suffering in our own life with greater courage and faith?

God's rebuke first shows Job that his view of God is far too small and simplistic. He has reduced God to a being who exists on the same level as he does. God's questions are intended to help Job see the incredible wisdom and greatness of God in creation, both in how he set up the universe and in how He cares for even its most wild creatures. We have a very different understanding of how the universe works, but it should only cause us to be more in awe of the greatness of God, not less! Second, God's questions are intended to show Job that whatever he may understand about how the universe works, he cannot control any of it. At many points, the universe is quite ordered, but at some points, it is on the verge of chaos or can even be seen as chaotic. But God is even working in the chaos, even there, God is caring for and controlling nature. Thirdly, God asks Job if he knows how to run the universe so that everyone and everything gets what they deserve. Specifically, that the wicked are punished. If Job can establish the laws of nature to bring about perfect order and justice, then Job is "saved," that is, it will prove that his worldview is correct. But a brief glance at the way the laws of nature operate easily demonstrates that this is not possible. That understanding of nature is far too simplistic. It becomes quickly clear that nature is not at all concerned about us or with making sure we get what we deserve!

How does this help Job in his suffering? How does it help us when we suffer? First, it helps us remember that suffering is not about getting what we deserve but is a consequence of living in a world that is not completely ordered. The ancients understood creation as God bringing order out of chaos, but the universe is a work in progress. Chaos still exists. It is God's grace and wisdom that He made the universe the way He did, and we may not understand it all. In addition, humanity added to the chaos by bringing sin, the ultimate chaos, into the world. Suffering is an inherent risk of living in a world where chaos still lurks. Therefore, suffering may have no reason or explanation other than the fact that the world is a dangerous place! Second, this doesn't mean God is no longer Sovereign and that He created a world He can no longer control! But how God controls the universe and how he works out His purpose is extremely complicated, and it is not something we can figure out. God can control things directly, but that is not how he normally works. He gives people free will, and He chooses not to control our every move. But, He is still Sovereign because our free will and the chaos of the universe do not prevent Him from doing His will and working out His purpose and plan. He is big enough to accomplish everything according to His purpose without micro-managing everything. Thirdly, the bigger God gets in our vision of Him, the smaller we become when we see ourselves next to Him. But this is a good thing. The bigger God is and the smaller we are, the easier it is to trust Him more because we see His greatness and wisdom, and we understand that we need help! In the end, the most important thing in life is not or comfort or even our safety, but it is our faith. Our faith and trust in God will never be any bigger than our view of Him! Great faith requires that we see Him as a great God!

Big Idea - The second act of the drama opens with Job looking back at his life before disaster struck and comparing it with his current life. We see that Job's suffering not only impacted his personal life but it destroyed his standing in the community. It caused him to lose face on a grand scale. He concludes with a final speech where he makes an oath that if he has committed any kind of wrong against anyone, then He calls on God to bring the appropriate judgment on him. If God does not judge, then he is not guilty. A new character, Elihu, then comes on the scene—the voice of youthful idealism. Unlike Job's other friends, Elihu has a much higher view of God and much better theology. Elihu's main point is that Job must uphold God as just and righteous. Job is trying to defend his reputation at the expense of God's reputation, and that cannot be. This is true, and Elihu seems to be a voice of wisdom. But, we see that his argument in the end also falls short. We know that Job's suffering is not God's judgment or punishment, but Elihu cannot escape the conclusion that suffering must be God's judgment upon sin. In fact, Elihu goes so far as to say that everything that happens to us is ultimately an act of judgment - either blessing on the good or punishment on the wicked. We know this cannot be true, but it still leaves the question, "How can God be a just and righteous God if bad things happen to good people?"

We do not get the full answer until God speaks in the next scene, but we can draw one important conclusion here. The problem in the thinking of Elihu, Job, and all his friends is that they are trying to define God's justice in terms of every life event that happens to them. God is just, but does that mean that every event in life is an act of God's judgment? The answer must clearly be no. God's justice cannot be explained in terms of the merit system. Everything that happens to us cannot be viewed in the light of God's blessing or judgment. To put it another way, is everything in life a matter of getting what we deserve, or is it a matter of simply dealing with what we get? There are many problems with this idea that everything in life is a matter of getting what we deserve. The first is that it sets up a social hierarchy that is in itself extremely unjust! Job experiences the social isolation that this thinking creates when we assume anyone in bad circumstances is a bad person and should be cast out of society. Second, it assumes judgment is immediate, but the Bible views God's judgment made at the end of the race, not each step along the way. God is slow to anger, and He is patient with sinners. He gives every opportunity for repentance and is full of forgiveness toward all who turn back to Him.

Third, God loves his enemies, and He blesses those who curse Him. He even sent His Son to die, not for the righteous, but for His enemies. So, God sends rain on the good and the evil. That explains why God does not always judge the wicked, but why does he allow suffering on the good? Elihu is the only one who tries to tackle this problem. He argues that God can use suffering to speak to and teach us. Ultimately, his answer breaks down because he connects all suffering to God's judgment. But there is still some truth in what he says. God can use bad things to bring about good things. This is not so much an explanation of why God allows suffering in the world, but it points to the truth that even the worst things in our life can bring about the best things in the end. Suffering is probably not God's judgment, but it can always be God's tool to help us grow.

Big Idea - When we suffer, struggle, and meet with trials and difficulties, when bad things happen, it is very natural to ask why? What is the reason for our suffering? We have this sense that there must be some cause for our suffering, and we want an explanation. Like Job's friends, the first reason that comes to mind is that we must have done something wrong and are being punished. We want to know why because we believe that if we know the cause, then we can know how to fix it, how to make the suffering stop, and how to avoid suffering in the future. The Book of Job is dealing with this very question. How are we to make sense of the suffering and hardships we encounter in life? How are we to think about all the suffering we see around us in the world? We need is wisdom and understanding, but where can wisdom be found?

Chapter 28 is a break in the action that divides the book into two may sections or acts. Job and his friends exit the stage, and the narrator comes on stage to give us some things to ponder as we reflect on act one. Act one brings us to see that both Job and his friends cannot explain the events of Job's life. The retribution principle does not adequately explain why people suffer - it is overly simplistic. It does not reflect the reality that the wicked often prosper, and in the case of Job, a truly good man is suffering. What Job and his friends need is wisdom, which an ancient reader would expect to be introduced at some point, as this is in a category known as wisdom literature. First, the narrator paints a vivid picture of man's ingenuity and determination to explore the depths, literally, and bring to light that which is hidden. Unlike the birds and beasts, we have a real talent for exploration and discovery. But, our ingenuity and technology fail us in the search for wisdom. The problem is that we don't even know where to look for it. It cannot be found by exploring the depths of the earth or the sea or searching the expanse of the universe. In short, wisdom is beyond the reach of human intellect, technology, and ingenuity. The question is not where can wisdom be found, but where does it come from? The source of wisdom is God himself. We cannot discover it on our own because it is beyond both space and time. The wisdom we are searching for to explain suffering came from God and was woven into the very fabric of the universe at creation. This is a major point in the book. The world does not operate by the merit system or by the retribution principle. And if we think about it, we can see that the laws of the universe would turn into chaos if the world ran like a vending machine. Instead, the world operates on the basis of God's wisdom. We can define what wisdom is - it is the ability to know what course of action to take in order to achieve the best and highest good. But we cannot understand how that wisdom works in the way God created the universe. God created the wind and the rain, as well as all the other forces of nature. They operate according to the wisdom of God, that is, for the ultimate good. God made the world good, and wisdom is what keeps it pointed in that direction. But, the forces of nature have the potential for both benefit and great harm. Gravity keeps us from drifting off into space, which is a good thing, but it is a destructive force if you fall off a cliff. The wisdom that makes sense of all this is beyond us. Like the infant that is outraged when her mom takes away the razor they discovered and feels they have been dealt a great injustice, cannot understand that there is higher wisdom at work they do not know. This is frustrating news for us. We want answers and explanations, not because we are curious, but because we want control. Job's friends hold on fiercely to their worldview because they are certain it gives them control over the world and God. We want the same thing, a measure of control, even over God. We want the world to operate on the basis of justice, even if a flawed justice so that we can make demands on God.

If we cannot understand why we suffer, and the wisdom to make sense of it all is beyond us, this seems quite unfair and hopeless! But God does not leave us in the dark. We cannot find wisdom on our own, but God can and will give us wisdom. He promises to grant wisdom to those who fear Him and who turn away from evil. Fear in the Bible can mean many things, but when it is used to describe the fear of the Lord, it means to take God very seriously, to be in awe of God's might, power, and awesome character in all its fullness. Ultimately, it means to worship God and consider Him worthy of our trust and devotion. We turn away from evil because we turn to God and His goodness. Will this answer our question about why we suffer? No, certainly not. But, it is the path to growing in wisdom, the understanding that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We may have doubts about the goodness and wisdom of God. How do we overcome these doubts, especially if the problem of pain and suffering makes it hard for us to believe that God is good? First, we can look at creation itself and see that it is extraordinary, complex, mysterious, beautiful, and good. Second, we must look at God's revelation about Himself and the world in the Bible. God created the universe good, but sin came into the world and has brought evil and destruction to all God made. This was not God's doing but ours, and it is the cause of much of our suffering. Thirdly, we should never lose sight of what God has done to redeem and restore the broken world. He entered fully and completely into the brokenness and suffering of the world. He took on human flesh to experience fully all the pain and suffering we experience, and He endured that suffering to an extreme farther than any of us. He is a good and loving God, and we find His glorious wisdom supremely in the cross, which is foolishness to the world but salvation to those who believe and take God seriously!

Big Idea - In chapters 22-27, we find the last cycle of speeches between Job and his friends. It is laid out in debate format, and in the end, Job soundly defeats the logic and arguments of his friends. He holds firmly to his integrity and righteousness. His friends have not convinced him his suffering is a result of any great sin or wickedness he has committed. But winning the debate does not solve anything. If their goal was to encourage Job, they have failed terribly. In fact, the debate format has only made them all enemies and pushed each further into their own corners. In the end, the friends and Job have not moved closer to a healthy understanding of what is going on in Job's life or in a better understanding of God. Instead, the debate has pushed each side farther away from God. The friends have a wrong understanding of God based on a wrong understanding of how God works in the world. Job has the wrong idea of God based on his personal experience. The only right understanding of God can come from revelation. As the first half of the book draws to an end, things have only gotten worse - Job is not only suffering from a great tragedy, but he feels attacked and condemned by his "best friends" and even more alienated from God. His friends, despite Job's superior answers and logic, feel more arrogant and smug in their bad theology. It is a disaster! But the sad truth is that all too often, we can do the same thing to our friends! Even the most well-meaning friends can end up dragging down those who are hurting into even lower realms of discouragement but our misguided efforts to "help." So, what can we learn from Job's failed counselors about helping those who are hurting?

Job's friends come with good intentions, desiring to help, but they illustrate how the best of intentions cannot overcome bad advice! We see in their approach three errors we must avoid if we want to really help those who are hurting. First, they think they speak for God, but they do not. Second, their goal is to fix Job, not comfort him. Third, they are so focused on what they have to say they never really listen to Job's complaints. Fourth, when Job doesn't take their great advice, they become adversarial instead of supportive. What does Job really need? 1) A friend who points him to God rather than giving answers. 2) A friend who will really listen. 3) A friend who will understand, even if they don't fully agree. 4) A friend who will point him toward God and let God speak for Himself. That is, knowing God based on what He has revealed about Himself, in creation, the Word, Jesus, and the Cross.

Big Idea -

Why is there suffering in this world? Why is life often so full of pain and hardship? How can a God who is all-loving and all-powerful allow evil in the world? These are tough questions, and for anyone who has really suffered, or who is in the midst of great trials and painful life circumstances, these are not just lofty philosophical questions. These become desperate cries from the heart about real-life hurt and injustice. Job is suffering from the loss of everything he had, including his own children, and he is in daily torment from a terrible skin disease with no relief (and no doctors to prescribe any number of modern-day treatments). Job's plight and his desperate question can be summed up in the well-known modern-day version that asks "Why do bad things happen to good people?" If God really is good, loving, and just it seems like a fair question. The Bible points toward the retribution principle - you reap what you sow. Do good get good, do bad get bad. But it doesn’t seem to work out that way. Is the principle wrong? When bad things happen to me, does it mean God is punishing me? When life gets really hard, or I have to suffer through painful things, it feels like God doesn't really love me, or that He doesn't really care. That is undoubtedly how Job felt. But is it true?

In Job 4-21, record two of the three speech cycles that make up the first half of the book. In each cycle, Job's friends each give one speech, and Job responds to each, one by one. The three friends probably represent different voices in society at the time - the traditionalist - we have always done it this way, the theologian - this is what the Bible says, and the practical guy - this is just how it works in life. They might be three different voices, but in the end, they are all three saying the same thing. They fully believe in the principle of sowing and reaping, and therefore, they see Job's suffering in this light. But, they have actually taken it one step further by affirming the opposite - if you are suffering, you must be wicked. It looks like Job is being punished. Therefore, he must have done something wrong. And given the extent of his suffering, it must have been really bad! We know this is not true because we got a peak behind the scenes, but from an earthly vantage point, it sure seems like Job is being punished for something. When bad things happen to us, we can meet with the same voices, either from our friends who think they are helping or from inside our own heads. Job's friends really do think they are helping. They want Job's suffering to stop. In their mind, the solution is simple - just admit your sin, make things right with God, and then God will restore your blessings. They represent the same charge the Challenger made - people only do what is right because God blesses them. But Job repeatedly responds that he is not guilty of any sin. What is more important, while his friends want to help Job by restoring his prosperity, Job is not interested in that. Instead, Job wants to be vindicated. That is, he wants to show that he is not guilty, and he does not care if he ever gets his fortune restored. He really does care only for righteousness for its own sake, and not for its benefits. So, Job proves that God is right and the Challenger is wrong - people can pursue righteousness for its own sake and not for personal gain. Job and his friends also differ on another point. They represent the accusation of the Challenger that God is subverting righteousness by the way He operates in the world. But, as Job holds on to his pure motives in doing what is right, he is forced to accuse God that He is not being truly just in the way He operates in the world. Because God is not treating Job according to the principle of sowing, God is being unjust. This comes much closer to the modern-day dilemma expressed in the phrase, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" It easily becomes an accusation that God is not just or fair in the way He runs the universe.

So, how are we to answer the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" How are we to respond when it feels like God is punishing us or doesn't care about us when bad things come into our lives? The speech cycles give us insight into the thinking of Job and his friends in order to point out serious flaws and errors in their thinking. The first error is that both Job and his friends ultimately see a world run by a system or policy rather than a person. The friends see the principle of sowing and reaping administered by justice alone. Job also wants this, but his own experience shows that is not how it works. His only conclusion is that God must not be just. But God does not run the world by policy alone. Any organization run by policy alone becomes inhuman. All become slaves to rules that never bend and cannot take into account individual human circumstances. It is heartless and empty. It is much better when a wise and loving person is leading. A person can bring wisdom, love, justice, and all the other good attributes of their character into play. God rules the universe, not by simplistic and narrow policy, but by bringing all his attributes to the table to wisely govern and rule for the ultimate good. We often do the same thing - seeking a system or policy that explains suffering and evil. Instead, we need to see that God is a person, and He rules over the world as a personal being with many attributes that work in harmony for His good and perfect purposes. Second, when we understand this, we see that God the principle of sowing and reaping is not a matter of God's justice but of grace. The problem was not with the sowing principle but that they turned into a merit system that completely removed God's grace and kindness. When it operates based on justice, everything turns into a commercial transaction - like buying groceries or a car. It is how the merit system works in Buddhism. Every deed or action must result in some kind of payoff of good or evil. In the triangle of tension, we must replace "justice" with grace. That means we God does bless us, but it is never based on earning it or having the right to His blessings. Rather, all is a gift of His grace and goodness. Third, When we replace "justice" with grace, it can appear that God works in the world in purely arbitrary and random ways. Some people randomly get good, others get evil. It can look like God is playing some kind of cosmic roulette. But we need to trust God and see that life and the problem of good and evil are far more complicated than we can imagine. Job and his friends made God too small and the problems far too simplistic. Job believed that both good and bad come from the hand of God, which is true at one level, but it is overly simplistic and leaves out many other important factors. So, we need to trust the wisdom of God that sees all, knows all, and comprehends the problem and the complex answers in ways that are far beyond our ability to grasp. The best example of this is how the justice and purpose of God were accomplished on the cross. The cross was both an incredible injustice and, at the same time, the most perfect justice in all of human history. All this means that in the end, when we suffer or when we reflect on the bad things that have come into our life, our response should be one of seeking God the person, growing to know Him more in all His attributes, and trusting in His grace and wisdom, rather than seeking justice, or logical explanations. Second, we can summarize this section by applying Matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Big Idea - Today, we celebrate the wonder of the resurrection. Jesus died a terrible death on the cruel cross laying down His life and shedding His own blood as the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and taking on Himself our guilt and punishment that we might have life through His blood! But death was not the end of the story. He rose again bodily. In the resurrection, we understand that His death was sufficient to reverse all the terrible effects of sin and to give us life in Him and the hope of the same resurrection. We have looked at all the wonderful effects of the blood of Christ leading up to today. One might think that once we move past Good Friday and the cross, and now we come to the day of resurrection, there is nothing left to say about the blood. That the blood has no place in the story of the resurrection or in the glorious realm of heaven where Jesus now resides and rules on high. But, we find that we are not done with the blood! What is the place of the blood of Christ in the resurrection and in the joy of heaven?

First, we see that the power that brought Jesus to life again from the dead is the very blood of the covenant. Death was the result of the curse or rightful punishment for sin. When Jesus took upon Himself a human body and on the cross took upon Himself the curse of sin, He brought on Himself all its consequences, the greatest of which is death. The only way He could escape the grave is if the curse was broken by paying the full price for sin. He is eternal Spirit and lived a life in the flesh of perfect obedience. This gave His sacrifice, His blood, the power to reverse the curse of sin. So, it was by His own blood that Jesus rose again from the dead.

Second, we see that the blood of Jesus is what gives us the right to stand before the throne of God in heaven, to receive all the glory and benefits of eternal life with Him, and what is even more, it is the ultimate source of our greatest joy for all eternity as we rejoice in our great salvation and the incredible sacrifice of the Lamb for us!

Big Idea - Today, we celebrate the wonder of the resurrection. Jesus died a terrible death on the cruel cross laying down His life and shedding His own blood as the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and taking on Himself our guilt and punishment that we might have life through His blood! But death was not the end of the story. He rose again bodily. In the resurrection, we understand that His death was sufficient to reverse all the terrible effects of sin and to give us life in Him and the hope of the same resurrection. We have looked at all the wonderful effects of the blood of Christ leading up to today. One might think that once we move past Good Friday and the cross, and now we come to the day of resurrection, there is nothing left to say about the blood. That the blood has no place in the story of the resurrection or in the glorious realm of heaven where Jesus now resides and rules on high. But, we find that we are not done with the blood! What is the place of the blood of Christ in the resurrection and in the joy of heaven?

First, we see that the power that brought Jesus to life again from the dead is the very blood of the covenant. Death was the result of the curse or rightful punishment for sin. When Jesus took upon Himself a human body and on the cross took upon Himself the curse of sin, He brought on Himself all its consequences, the greatest of which is death. The only way He could escape the grave is if the curse was broken by paying the full price for sin. He is eternal Spirit and lived a life in the flesh of perfect obedience. This gave His sacrifice, His blood, the power to reverse the curse of sin. So, it was by His own blood that Jesus rose again from the dead.

Second, we see that the blood of Jesus is what gives us the right to stand before the throne of God in heaven, to receive all the glory and benefits of eternal life with Him, and what is even more, it is the ultimate source of our greatest joy for all eternity as we rejoice in our great salvation and the incredible sacrifice of the Lamb for us!

(1) Peter, Apostle of Hope

(2) People with a living hope maintain an alert

and disciplined mind

(3) People with a living hope are called to

holiness

(4) People with a living hope possess a healthy

fear of God

(5) People with a living hope know they have

been bought with precious blood