“Live in this way”
Posted Jan 15, 2021
Daily Scripture
1 Peter 1:18 – 2:3
18 Live in this way, knowing that you were not liberated by perishable things like silver or gold from the empty lifestyle you inherited from your ancestors. 19 Instead, you were liberated by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a flawless, spotless lamb. 20 Christ was chosen before the creation of the world, but was only revealed at the end of time. This was done for you, 21 who through Christ are faithful to the God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So now, your faith and hope should rest in God.
22 As you set yourselves apart by your obedience to the truth so that you might have genuine affection for your fellow believers, love each other deeply and earnestly. 23 Do this because you have been given new birth—not from the type of seed that decays but from seed that doesn’t. This seed is God’s life-giving and enduring word. 24 Thus,
All human life on the earth is like grass,
and all human glory is like a flower in a field.
The grass dries up and its flower falls off,
25 but the Lord’s word endures forever [Isaiah 40:6-8].
This is the word that was proclaimed to you as good news.
2 1 Therefore, get rid of all ill will and all deceit, pretense, envy, and slander. 2 Instead, like a newborn baby, desire the pure milk of the word. Nourished by it, you will grow into salvation, 3 since you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Reflection Questions
1 Peter gave a beautiful picture of the kind of authentic life to which God calls all Christ-followers. (Many scholars believe the letter held the content of a message given to new converts in the early Christian church.) It shows what happens deep inside when Christians get it right: they love deeply, sincerely, from the heart. They “get rid of all ill will and all deceit, pretense, envy, and slander.” Any time they find hypocrisy (and they will), they ask God to help them move beyond it.
- Peter referred in 1:23 (as well as earlier in 1 Peter 1:3) to Christians having been born again. Too often today “born again” has come for many people to identify people with unloving, judgmental or exclusive attitudes. In contrast, what qualities did Peter say characterize a person who has been born again by God’s power?
- Peter told his readers (and us) that hypocrisy (which can include deceit, envy and unkind speech) make up a worthless, empty way of life. How can you sense that God has made your life better by replacing those negative qualities with a divinely given capacity to love? In what areas of life do you want God to help you grow by filling you more fully during 2021?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I want your love and goodness to fill me all the time. But I’m not there yet, and when I’m tempted to fake it, that can get ugly. Keep me growing in expressing your love authentically. Amen.
Looking for GPS Insights? Scroll to the top of this page and click the GPS Insights tab!
Ginger Rothhaas
Ginger is the creator of CompassionFix.com and is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology. She is currently teaching “Truth to Trust: Instructions from the Psalms” for Resurrection’s Women’s Ministry. She serves as a Care Minister at Resurrection Downtown and co-hosted the What Matters? podcast. She loves writing, teaching, conversations over coffee, and time with her husband and two children.
My beloved readers, with a sentimental sadness, I want to let you know that this is my last entry for the GPS insights.
I have pictured you as I write twice a month for the last five years. I image you reading my words on Friday mornings with the hopes that together we grow closer to God. This spiritual practice has been a blessing to me and I hope my words are sometimes also a blessing to you.
Darrell Holtz invited me to write for the Insights when I was in seminary. Darrell is a Fuller Seminary trained theologian, which means he knows his stuff. At first, I was intimidated to have him read my words and felt unworthy to contribute my two-cent thoughts. But Darrell saw something in me I could not see. And for that, I will always be deeply grateful to him. He helped me find a writer inside that had been buried away in the body of a business woman and he welcomed me as a seminary student who was searching for answers to her big questions.
Darrell gently edited my posts at first and then offered that he didn’t need to pre-read them if I wanted to just post them myself. I told him I still wanted him to read each one to make sure I was theologically in-step and grammatically sound. This led to some fun email exchanges as we would continue to share thoughts on various Scriptures and interpretations. Today, I think of Darrell as a treasured mentor to me. He writes the GPS each week for you. It is full of deep thought and faith because he is a man of deep thought and faith.
Darrell got me started in writing and I will keep writing. I have started writing books that deserve to be finished. I am reducing my outside obligations to honor God nudging me toward some new things. It is hard to end something when it is going well, but I feel like an ending must come for a beginning to occur.
I would love to connect with you on Facebook and Instagram so we can continue to journey together. You can always find me at www.CompassionFix.com. I have a spiritual coaching practice if you feel you want to talk. And, when we can gather safely, I will be offering more workshops and classes.
The writers that Darrell has invited to share with you are brilliant. They pour their heart and souls into the words you read. It is a vulnerable task to post something and not be able to sense a response. If you like what you read, let them know it. Writers generously open their souls and knowing it touched you is the greatest gift.
Remember that God is love, you are love, and your calling is to be the love in the room. You are a child of God. You are worthy of love and the world is worthy of your love. Keep the faith.
I never like to leave a party, so let’s stay in contact. Ginger@CompassionFix.com
I love you,
Ginger
(Note from Darrell: My name is in this post too many times for my comfort. But it is Ginger's farewell post, at least for now, so I've chosen to let her say what she wanted to say. I think you'll agree that I made a good call in inviting her to write five years ago!)