“Suffering is mentioned more times in 1 Peter than in any other book. He [Peter] is writing about the suffering of Jesus Christ, and suffering in Christ’s name.”
“We have a temptation to think that all suffering is redemptive, or to put it in simple language to think that it’s good for you. It makes you a better person. But all of us know from pastoral work that that is not the case.”
Peter challenges that statement and says that when we equate all suffering with Christ’s suffering we blur the issue of what Christian suffering is and we can even find that we advocate staying in abusive situations.
Suffering if we allow it only to be redemptive can become an excuse not to do anything about injustice or wrong. But people told to bear abuse to be saved, brings us right back to Tuesday’s conversation [Week 3 – Resistance and Resilience] about power and the misuse of power… how easy it is to be complicit in the misuse the abuse of power.
Peter was writing to a small group of Christians, a minority in their own culture who lived in a hostile empire which was increasingly nervous about their beliefs and viewed them with deep suspicion. In this context Peter was writing about the suffering we endure in the name of Christ something immensely familiar to many here. He’s pointing to persecution.
“In some parts of the world persecution takes the form of being mocked, or ridiculed would be true in schools and universities, very often in this country. In other places it involves the daily threat of physical violence, suppression, oppression, and death. ”
“We should not claim the language of persecution before we listen to and acknowledge the depth and reality of suffering for the Name of Christ in our world. And we must be aware of how suffering is understood in different ways across our communities and context.”
The Greek word of hospitality is φιλοξενία philoxenia which is literally love for the stranger, love for alien and exile. A call to love the stranger, the alien and exile, is being made by alien and exile, Peter, to aliens and exiles, those to whom he is writing. Because they share the same alienation from the world they must offer a welcoming home to one another. Those who are aliens and exiles have been given and identity as God’s chosen people. So, hospitality changes the identity of those who offer it and those who receive it. They are no longer strangers.
“Hospitality involves risk. It makes us vulnerable. ”
Peter makes clear that we cannot do this by our own strength. Christ and the grace of God remain absolutely central, remember that the theme in much of this letter is that without Christ we can do nothing, we are lost in our sins, we are simply aliens and strangers. Aliens and strangers from God not just from the world.
“Peter calls all to hospitality and support for fellow Christians who face suffering and persecution for their faith, to be drawn together not pulled apart in our diverse and shared sufferings. ”
“Peter tells us to be hospitable to suffering. to import suffering. That means sacrifice, whether it’s money or power. It means the powerful willingly becoming less comfortable in order to lift the weight of suffering for others. ”
So the question has to be, how do we maintain love and offer hospitality. How do we campaign for the displaced and the stranger. How do we share with each other when we see suffering. How do we offer Christ hospitality and imitate Christ in our hospitality.
These are only a few of the quotes about suffering and hospitality from 1 Peter 4: Suffering in Christ.
The 1 Peter Bible Study is now ‘soul-ly’ on Zoom Wednesdays! 😊 The next and last session is August 9 from 6–8pm.
To access this worldwide Bible study, email Bonnie Bivins at blbivins@verizon.net to get the Zoom link and study materials!
Watch the 1 Peter 4 Video Here:
Ways to participate:
Come Wednesdays from 6–8pm and participate LIVE.
View the current week’s video and come Wednesday at 7pm to reflect on the questions LIVE.
View the previous week’s video and find a friend, family member, or Trinity Church member to pair with, and discuss the study material.
Come and listen to Archbishop of Canterbury Welby leading next week’s Bible text with global contextual reflections.
Week 5: Authority in Christ, August 9, 1 Peter 5:1-14.
If you want a digital copy to access the links and Bible study materials, send me an email to my address above and I will happily send you a digital copy! 😊