Devotions
Hopeful Foundation (1 Peter 1:13–25)
If you have ever tried holding an ethical discussion with someone who complete rejects the Christian faith, you know how frustrating it can be. Humans have an innate sense of ethical direction but, apart from the gospel, it is completely unmoored from any stable...
Hopeful Love (1 Peter 1:22–25)
Peter has consistently rooted his exhortations in this opening chapter in the gospel, and he does so once again as he exhorts his readers to Christian love (1:22–24). Because they had “purified [their] souls by [their] obedience to the truth,” they should “love one...
Hopeful Fear (1 Peter 1:17–21)
One of the most frequent exhortations in the Bible is for people to fear God. It is also one of the most frequently misunderstood exhortations. Perhaps this is because the Bible envisions two types of fear. On the one hand, Scripture recognises the reality of dreadful...
Hopeful Holiness (1 Peter 1:13–16)
Christians sometimes have the tendency to make their faith little more than a list of dos and don’ts. When this happens, Christianity becomes nothing more than a moralistic way of life. We aim for behaviour without getting to the heart of the matter. The apostles did...
Hopeful Suffering (1 Peter 1:3–12)
Christians in the Western-influenced world tend to trivialise suffering. We know that everyone who lives a godly life is supposed to suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12) and, since we don’t often experience the same kind of suffering that the first-century Christians...
Hopeful Greeting (1 Peter 1:1–2)
As we use them, greetings are frequently nothing more than a formality. We greet friends and family, tellers and petrol attendants, and beggars at our gate. We greet without thinking. We do so with little more motivation than politeness. Christian greetings should be...