Your Daily Bible

1 Peter 1:13-16 NLT

So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

Support the show

1 Peter 1:10-12 NLT

10This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. 12They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

Support the show

6 So be truly glad.[a] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

Support the show

The Christian Story in a Nutshell

Every good story needs a beginning, middle, and an end. In just a few rich verses, Peter tells the story of his audience’s life of faith.

They were living in the middle of the story, going about life with various hats on: citizens, slaves, family members. Their pre-Christian lives were not characterized by hope, especially if they were slaves. But now they were God’s people, every situation, task, person, and setback could be viewed through the glasses the lens of ‘living hope’ (1:3).

This living hope has a beginning: ‘the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1:3). The hope that Christians have does not float on clouds of wishful thinking. No, it springs from a tomb that once held the body of our crucified Lord, but that tomb is now empty. Jesus dealt death a fatal blow. It really happened! And if God has raised Christ from the dead, what can’t he do? Is it so impossible for him to set us free from the things that once bound us, and breathe new life into our lives.

Support the show

Living by a New Story

Tortoise believed life rewards the dedicated, and ended up crossing the finish line before the arrogant Hare. Chicken Little believed the sky was falling down, and ended up in a fox’s belly. Nothing will shape your life more than the story you believe yourself to be part of. Our view of life’s ultimate story will shape what we think is good and bad, how we spend our time and money, how we view ourselves and others – it influences everything.

Peter is writing to Gentiles across an area we today call Turkey. He locates them within a story, a story very different to the story they had once lived by.

Support the show

God who is compassionate

The passage reveals God’s compassion not just toward Nineveh but also toward Jonah. God patiently deals with His prophet who is angry because God decided to relent from judging Nineveh. 

Jonah’s compassion toward the plant is out of selfish reasons. His compassion is masked by his underlying comfort and he gets angry when the plant dies because it inconveniences him. We often behave like Jonah. Even our best intentions are tainted by sin and selfishness. 

Jonah’s love is misplaced. Jonah’s love is for himself and anything that comes in-between faces his extreme displeasure. His love for himself even blinds him to God’s tremendous act of grace towards Nineveh. 

Support the show

Man who is angry 

Jonah was angry because God’s forgiveness toward the people of Nineveh displeased him greatly. Why was that? Why would God’s forgiveness and grace toward this city make Jonah angry enough to want to die? 

Jonah loved his own people. And Jonah hated the people of Nineveh. This was the reason why he ran when God called him to go and preach to Nineveh. He did not want to warn them about the judgment of God. He would rather see Nineveh routed and punished for their crimes against his own people. And God’s grace toward Nineveh revealed his own prejudice. 

Support the show

Prophet who obeys 

When Jonah obeys God’s command to preach the message to Nineveh, we get a glimpse of what happens when one man decides to obey God. How does God make you into a change agent, one who changes your city, one who changes this world? Through simple obedience. 

When God calls, we obey. God’s call on our lives will cost us our time, resources, our comfort and we may need to make sacrifices and even take risks. But when we decide to obey God because of who He is, then we experience a great God at work. 

Support the show

Jonah cries out to God from inside the fish. In his distress he prays. From the deep he calls out to God for help. And what did God do? He listens to him. We see Jonah in this chapter repenting of his sin. 

He doesn’t make excuses for his sin he just honest about his failure. True repentance is turning from our sin and turning toward God to save us. It is to change the way we think about our sin and look at it for what it is in God’s eyes. 

Support the show

God who pursues 

 When Jonah runs from God out of disobedience, God pursues him. The reason God pursues Jonah is not to pay him back for his disobedience but to bring Jonah back to Him. 

God, the creator and sustainer of all things, uses nature to intervene in Jonah’s life. He uses a great storm to create fear among the sailors who decide to throw Jonah into the sea in order to calm the storm. 

Support the show