A Renewal Yet to Be Revealed

Posted on November 11, 2026 by Pete

What a rollercoaster ride! As an old friend of mine used to say when asked how he was doing, “Up and down like a toilet seat.” That’s what you sign up for when you try and track with Job’s verbal processing as he replies to his so-called friends’ pontifications. Case in point, Job 14.

God, says Job, man’s days are few and full of trouble. They are like a flower that withers, a shadow that flees. So why bother with him? Why bring him, aka me, into judgment? Let him enjoy the few days he has to live. What purpose could You have in attending to him? It’s not like he’s a tree that after it is cut down can sprout again, send out shoots, bud, and put out branches. Nope, when man lies down “he rises not again.” So, “look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy his day” (Job 14:1-12). Heavy sigh.

And Job finishes this portion of his response just as he started it — despairing. Just as even mountains eventually fall, he says, and rocks are removed, and waters erode stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so God destroys the hope of man. Man’s suffering proves God is against him and not for him and, in the end, God just sends him away. And so, as Job’s lived experience was reminding him daily, man “feels only the pain of his body, and he mourns only for himself.” Double heavy sigh! (Job 14:18-22)

But wait. There’s something in the middle. A high amidst these lows. An exhilarating “what if” between these valleys of despair brought on by “what is.” For a moment, Job entertains the thought, “What if death ain’t the final deal?”

Job says to God, if there were something after death . . . if You were to “appoint me a set time” and “remember me” . . . if a man were to die and then should live again . . .

All the days of my service I would wait,
       till my renewal should come.
You would call, and I would answer You;
       You would long for the work of Your hands.
For then You would number my steps;
       You would not keep watch over my sin;
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
       and You would cover over my iniquity.

(Job 14:14b-17 ESV)

If this life weren’t the first and last chapter of my story, Job thinks, but only the prologue, then “through these difficult days I would keep hoping, waiting for the final change — for resurrection!” (MSG).

Through the suffering, I’d anticipate the call because You would long for the work of Your hands . . . aka Your creation . . . aka me! And though You numbered each step of my suffering, You would also determine to deal with my sin. You would find a way to not keep watch over my sin, but to seal it up and cover it over. As far as the east is from the west, You would remove my transgressions from me (Ps. 103:12). If there was renewal, if there were resurrection, then the suffering of this life would have some context. There would be future hope amidst present sorrow.

If there was a renewal yet to be revealed, then all the days of my service I would wait.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

(Romans 8:18 ESV)

A bit of rollercoaster ride? Yeah, that’s what you sign up for when you buckle up next to Job. But the highs are worth it. And the best is yet to come.

Because of God’s grace. Only for God’s glory.

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He Will Do It!

Posted on November 10, 2026 by Pete

Reading in Ezekiel 36 and 37 this morning. And a whole lotta orange colored-pencil going down on the page. Because a whole lotta promises being made by the Holy One of Israel for the sake of His holy name.

Though His people had suffered the reproach of the nations around them, God promises they will be rescued from exile. Not only rescued but relocated and returned to the land of promise. And the land will not only receive them, but it will be replenished about them, becoming again like the garden of Eden. Not only will they be a rescued and returned people to a restored and replenished land, but they will also be a revived people. Not just mildly revved up, but miraculously raised up, as in resurrected. Revived as in dead, dry, scattered bones regathered, reconnected, and re-lifed through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

“And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.”

(Ezekiel 37:14a ESV)

Like I said, a whole lotta promising going on. Incredible promises. Almost unbelievable promises. Promises not because of Israel’s past performance, but in spite of it. Promises not dependent on Israel’s future performance, but assured on the basis of who God has always been and on what He has always purposed.

“Then you shall know that I am the LORD.”

(Ezekiel 37:14b ESV)

And here’s the twice repeated phrase in this morning’s reading that makes the promises unimpeachable.

“I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

(Ezekiel 37:14c ESV)

I will do it . . . Chew on that for a bit.

Pick a promise of God, any promise of God . . . and know, child of God, He will do it!

The promise you need answered . . . the promise that is yet to be realized . . . that’s the promise that the LORD says afresh this morning, “I am the LORD. I have spoken. I will do it!”

And when we hear the Father whisper again those words through His Spirit, knowing they are already fulfilled in His Son, every promise again becomes the promise which “gives strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

For great is Your name, O LORD!

Great is Your power!

Great is Your faithfulness!

By Your grace. For Your glory.

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The Active Agency of Abiding (2016 Remix)

Posted on November 6, 2026 by Pete

In John 15 Jesus said it was the secret sauce of prayer. He said it was also the key to bearing fruit. In fact, He said, do it and you’ll bear much fruit. Don’t do it and you won’t be able to do much of anything at all for the kingdom. So, what’s the “it”? It is abiding.

But sometimes knowing what to do doesn’t mean that I know how to do it. I can order furniture that needs assembly and know what needs to be done–it needs to be assembled. But how to do it? I’ll need some directions for that . . . preferably IKEA type of directions. So while I might know that I need to abide in Christ, it may not be intuitive as to how. My reading in 1 John this morning helped with the “how.”

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

(1John 2:24 ESV)

I’m not the brightest bulb in the box so I like IF/THEN statements. IF this, THEN that. IF you do thing “A”, THEN you will realize “THING B”.

IF what you heard from the beginning abides in you, THEN you will abide in Him.

So the gospel, that which I heard in the beginning, is key to abiding in Christ. The imperishable seed by which I was born again, the living and abiding word of God (1Peter 1:23), is the catalyst for communion. If I want to hang out with the living Christ, then I need to be hovering over His living word (Heb. 4:12).

And John goes on to explain why this works the way it does.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. . .

. . . the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything–and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you–abide in Him.

(1John 2:20, 27 ESV)

You have been anointed by the Holy One . . .

We’ve been creamed. Smeared is the literal term. Smeared by the Holy Spirit.

Think of Mary breaking open her flask of expensive perfume and pouring it over the head of Jesus (John 12:3) and now imagine the Holy Spirit being poured upon us when we first believed. And just as it was the ointment’s interaction with the air that spread an aroma through the house, it is the Spirit’s interaction with the word of God that creates the active agency of abiding.

His anointing teaches you . . .

We read, He illuminates. We wonder, He enlightens. We have questions, He provides answers. We don’t understand, He teaches. We meditate, He invades our thinking.

Let’s not dumb down the holy habit of reading our Bibles. Let’s not think that, like some good luck charm, reading our bible is just about reading a few words at the beginning of the day so that the rest of the day will go well. Rather, we can (and should) have an expectation that our daily reading will daily prime the pump so that rivers of living water, aka the Holy Spirit, will daily flow from our hearts (John 7:38-39).

You want to interact with God, interact with God’s word. You want to know how to abide, activate His anointing by abiding in His word.

If the Spirit we’ve been anointed with is driven to glorify the Son by leading us into truth (John 14:13-14), then when we open the word of truth, we can be confident that He’ll kick into gear. And if we are interacting with the Third Person of the Trinity then you can bet we are abiding in the Second Person of the Trinity and . . . get this! . . . communing with the First Person of the Trinity! (Kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it?)

“Abide in Me”, Jesus beckons (John 15:4).

And we abide in Him when we abide in His word (John 8:31). We know real relationship with the risen Son of God when we know the active agency of the indwelling Spirit of God leading us into all truth.

Word of God speak!

All because of God’s grace. All for God’s glory.

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It Matters What You Love

Posted on November 5, 2026 by Pete

All you need is love! . . . bum ba bum ba ba . . . All you need is love! . . . bum ba bum ba ba . . . All you need is love, love! . . . Love is all you need!

Okay . . . I’m counting on at least the boomers having a song stuck in their heads about now. (Have no clue what I’m talking about? Check this out: The Beatles – All You Need Is Love (Official Music Video) – YouTube.)

Love is kind of a main theme of John’s first letter. But, contrary to what John (Lennon, not the apostle), Paul, George, and Ringo proclaimed, it isn’t all you need. Love, in and of itself, is not the answer. It matters what you love.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, . . .

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

(1John 10a, 15b ESV)

Do not love the world . . . that’s what I’m chewing on.

NOT as in forbidding being in wonder and awe of creation. NOT as in prohibiting love for people, fellow image-bearers of God. But don’t love, don’t embrace, don’t set your affections on that which is inconsistent, incompatible, and even in conflict with God. Do not love the world.

I look back on my early days and realize how much we had reduced “loving the world” to participation in certain activities. If you didn’t go to that place, if you didn’t listen to that music, if you didn’t engage in that thing, then you weren’t loving the world. Some truth and some profit in that line of thinking. But not enough truth and not enough profit, I think.

For the world John is speaking about goes deeper than just sinful activities. It’s about sinful attitudes.

For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world.

(1John 2:16 ESV)

Peterson summarizes it as “wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important.” Philips says the “whole world system” is based on “men’s desires, their greedy ambitions and the glamour of all that they think splendid.” And for Wuest, in his literal translation, it’s “the passionate desire of the flesh, and the passionate desire of the eyes, and the insolent and empty assurance which trusts in the things that serve the creature life.”

Not just about what we do, but about what we want. Not just about where we go, but about what we hope to get. Not just about exercising our freedom, but about being honest with our feelings.

It matters what we love. It matters why we love. And we can only love as we should as Christ loves through us.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

(Philippians 1:9-11 ESV)

That your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment . . .

Oh, in a world that increasingly loves darkness more than light; in a world that increasingly loves expressing self more than serving others; in a world that increasingly loves tribalism over tenderness, that loves being hostile; would the love of God abound more and more through the people of God as it comes through Jesus Christ.

Only by the abundant grace of God.

Only for the everlasting glory and praise of God.

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Another Thing to Know (2016 Remix)

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Pete

Yesterday, reading John’s gospel, I was reminded that, while there are many things I don’t know when it comes to the things of God, one thing I do know is that “though I was blind, now I see” (Jn. 9:25). But reading in John’s first epistle this morning the question posed is, “Yeah, but how do you know you see?”

If blind from birth, then how do you even know what seeing is? You could still be blind yet have someone tell you that everyone walks in darkness and that’s what seeing really is. Or you could hit your head, rattle the optic nerve or the part of the brain that processes the optic nerve, and start perceiving shades of gray, shimmers of light, and movement of shadows. Would that be seeing? A seemingly authoritative voice might try to convince you so. So how do you know you once were blind but now you see? Here’s John’s simple litmus test:

And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him, but whoever keeps His word, in Him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.

(1John 2:3-6 ESV)

Not to be overly simplistic, not to deny that figuring out the Christian walk can be messy, not saying that the process of sanctification isn’t nuanced at times, but when it comes to knowing that our spiritual blindness has really given way to true spiritual sight, obedience — keeping His commandments — seems to be a pretty good indicator.

Not talking perfection, John’s dealt with that — “if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (2:1b). But we are talking visible practice. We are talking verifiable persistence. We are talking about evidence that the love of God is perfected in those who keep His word.

. . . we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments . . .

Obedience is how we know that we know Him. Not that we should boast in our righteousness, but that we would marvel in the outward manifestation of having been clothed in His righteousness (Php. 3:9). Walking as Jesus walked. Not to brag how much we are like Jesus, but to be amazed at the tangible reality that we really have been crucified with Christ and that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so. I love Jesus this I know, for my obedience tells me so.

Again, not talking perfection. More trip ups, slip ups, and mess ups than I care to admit — though, praise God, all of which I can confess and be cleansed of because of the cross (1Jn. 1:8-9). But, if I’m picking up what John’s laying down, a heartfelt desire to follow Jesus and a holy determination to walk like Jesus are pretty good indicators that I am no longer blind but now I see.

That’s another thing to know.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

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Easier Said Than Done

Posted on November 3, 2026 by Pete

“Seek God,” he said, “Plead with the Almighty for mercy” (Job 8:5). Such was the encouragement of Job’s friend. Go, do it, man! “If you are a pure and upright surely then He will rouse Himself for you” (Job 8:6a).

Job’s response? “Truly I know that it is so” (Job 9:2a). Job’s other response? Easier said than done.

If one wished to contend with Him,
       one could not answer Him once in a thousand times.

(Job 9:3 ESV)

Go talk to God. We say it all the time. But that’s because we are at peace with God (Rom. 5:1). But what if God seems against you? What if rousing God felt more like riling God? That’s sure how it seemed to Job. Then, to “contend with Him” would surely be to have the tables turned and to be tongued tied as He contends with you.

It’s one thing to go talk to our “Our Father in heaven” (Mt. 6:9), it’s another thing to approach Almighty God. It’s another thing to enter the presence of the One who Job says can pick up Mt. Everest in His anger and make it disappear, or shake the earth out of it’s place, or keep the sun from rising, or cover up the stars in the sky (Job 9:5-7). How do you walk up to Him who “does things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number” (9:10)? How do you have a face-to-face conversation with someone you cannot see (9:11)?

Go ask for mercy, you say? Easier said than done.

Before this chapter’s done, as he considers the possibility of an audience with God, Job is going to realize he needs an arbiter, one “who might lay his hand on us both” (Job 9:32-33).

Guess what? We have an Arbiter. Praise God we know the Arbiter. We know the One who brings God to man and man to God — who lays His hand us both. The Son of God . . . God incarnate . . . fully God and fully man . . . Jesus.

Ask for mercy? You bet. For we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16) because “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1Jn. 2:1). We can draw near in our sin, our sorrow, and our suffering. We can draw near when we understand the cause-and-effect of our circumstance and when we don’t. We can draw near, asking for mercy, because we have an Intercessor who “always lives to make intercession” for us (Heb. 7:25).

Oh, what a Savior!

Oh, hallelujah!

Easier done than we can say as we pause to remember and reflect on the full implications of His finished work on the cross and His forever work at the Father’s right hand.

Only because of His overflowing, abundant grace. Only for His all-deserving, forever glory.

Amen?

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So That Our Joy May Be Complete

Posted on November 2, 2026 by Pete

John writes not just to defend a body of knowledge but to contend for a body of believers. While he wants to protect the faith, he’s equally motivated by wanting to preserve the fellowship. How come? So that our joy may be complete.

Started in on John’s first letter. Only four verses this morning, as laid out in my reading plan. But man! What a four verses! There’s a grandeur here. A stirring which is similar to reading the opening verses of his gospel, or the opening verses of Hebrews. There’s something about being reminded that Jesus is God incarnate that has a way of evoking something deep within the soul of the believer.

Here, John talks about “that which was from the beginning”, the “Word of life”, the “eternal life”, the life “which was with Father.” But also, the life that was “manifest” to them, the life they had “heard”, the life they had “seen”, the life they “looked upon”, the life they had “touched” — literally! Fully God, fully man. King of heaven. Come to earth. The Son of God. The promised Christ. Jesus of Nazareth.

So, why’s John writing about the life? Well, it won’t be until the next chapter of John’s letter that we find there’d been a split in the church, that there had been a group who “went out from us” (2:19). It wasn’t a church split over the color of the carpet in the sanctuary, but a split over the character of Christ and His deity. It wasn’t just about unfortunate division but about insidious denial and deception. And so, while John seeks to state the truth, it is because he is also wanting to secure the fellowship.

That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

(1John 1:3-4 ESV)

Fellowship with us . . . so that our joy may be complete . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

John was contending for joy. What kind of joy? Complete joy. Full joy. Literally, a joy so abounding that it’s bursting at the seams, like a net crammed to overflowing capacity with fish. That level of joy.

And where was that joy to be experienced? Fellowship with us . . . . Noodle on that for a bit.

In our consumeristic, church-on-every-corner culture, how easy it is to see the church as something we decide to add to our schedules rather than to regard it as the body of Christ which God has purposed to add us to as one of its members (1Cor. 12:18). Easy to think of a local gathering of believers as a commodity to be shopped for based on our preferences rather than to see it as a community to be earnestly sought after, provided by the Head of the church so that our joy may be complete.

I know there are many of us who have a bad experience with the church. More church trauma to go around than I’d want to admit (or remember). Too many saints bearing the scars of dysfunction within the family of God. But to believe that there can truly be fellowship which is not only founded on “the life” that was manifest but can actually be fueled by “the life” we have heard, seen, and touched by faith . . . and then to experience it! Oh, what joy! What full, full joy!

If it’s God’s design (and it is), then it’s what we should desire. A fellowship overflowing with grace because of the good news of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. A fellowship that deeply loves one another because of the deep, deep love of Jesus. Not a perfect fellowship, but a fellowship gathered to, and gathered around, a perfect Savior in their midst.

So that our joy may be complete.

By His grace. For His glory.

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An Unclear Question

Posted on October 27, 2026 by Pete

That it’s a rhetorical question seems clear. It’s intent? Not as clear.

Hovering over Job 4 this morning. It’s round 1 with the “let’s comfort Job by condemning Job” tag-team triplet of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, EB&Z (has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?) And it’s a question asked by E that I’m unclear about.

After Job’s “curse the day of my birth” outburst in chapter 3, E says to him, “Whoa, that’s a little over the top, don’t you think?” Well, he doesn’t say that exactly. What he says is, “Will you be impatient?” (4:2).

Really? Impatient? Job’s been emotionally decimated by the loss of all his wealth and the soul-crushing news that 10 of 10 kids and their families are dead (Job 1). He has been physically assaulted with “loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” which are constantly irritated by the ashes he sits in as he mourns the loss of his family (2:7-8). And if that isn’t enough, he has to deal with a wife who questions him for continuing to worship his God (2:9). And “in all this Job did not sin with his lips” (2:10b). And he remains in suffering silence for seven days and seven nights (2:13). Impatient? Give your head a shake, E!

And then, E asks the question I’m questioning.

“Is not your fear of God your confidence,
       and the integrity of your ways your hope?”

(Job 4:6 ESV)

Was it meant to encourage him? Is the implied answer, “Yes”? Job, come on man, you fear God . . . that’s your strength. You’ve walked in integrity your whole life (God would say “amen” to that, check out Job 1:8 and Job 2:3), that’s got to count for something, cheer up!

Or was it meant to judge him? Hey buddy, what’s happened to you doesn’t happen to those who fear God — a little boastful weren’t you? You wouldn’t be sitting in this current rubble if you were really walking in the right way. “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap? Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?” (4:7 MSG).

Encourage or judge? Build up or tear down? Comfort or . . . not so much? Hmm . . .

But as I chew on it, I’m forming my own answer to E’s question. While a fear of God is a needful thing, and while walking in integrity is a good thing, ultimately, they are not where my confidence lies or my hope is fueled. Though I seek to live in reverent awe of God as I should and walk straight paths as they are revealed, my surety and my security are not in what I do but in what Another has done.

When what’s precious is stripped away, when life’s twists and turns discombobulate, when it’s hard to see clearly through the cloud of ashes, my confidence has to lie in something outside of me and my circumstance and my ability to step up and work through it. My hope needs to be found in more than my piety and my perseverance.

The Son of God is my confidence. Period. Full stop.

And my union with Him is my hope.

As Billy G. wrote it so well 45 years ago, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow!”

And that’s clear.

O’ that it would remain clear through all sorrow, suffering, and trials.

Only by His grace. Always for His glory.

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He Asked For It

Posted on October 26, 2026 by Pete

Started in on Job a couple of days ago. This morning, I’m hovering over chapter 3.

I know what’s coming over the next several chapters. Some pretty cringe-worthy debate between Job and his friends. But he asked for it.

Upon realizing the depths of his loss and seeing the physical effects of his affliction, when his friends arrived they were speechless. They mourned for him and they cried for him but, at least at first, they didn’t have anything to say to him, “for they saw that his suffering was very great” (2:13). Job might have done well to leave well enough alone.

But Job broke the awkward silence. Though he did not charge God with wrong over his great loss (1:22); though in all his physical pain he rebuked the counsel of his wife to “curse God and die” (2:9) and “did not sin with his lips” (2:10b); yet he did let loose his tongue to curse the day of his birth (3:1). And in his outpouring of confusion and cursing, six times he utters a “Why?” question.

Verse 11, why did I not die at birth? Verse 12, why did knees receive me and why were there breasts to feed me? Verse 16, why was I not stillborn?

And then, from the personal, his “Why?” shifts to the philosophical?

“Why is light given to him who is in misery,
       and life to the bitter in soul . . .

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
       whom God has hedged in? . . .

I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
       I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

(Job 3:20, 23, 26 ESV)

But trouble comes . . .

Yes it will, Job. Trouble in the form of three friends who are ready to answer your “Why?” questions. Like I said, he asked for it?

Not judging Job. Just saying that he opened the door for the debate. And Job gets baited by the debate into saying and demanding things he really shouldn’t say or demand. Nor do I want to in any way make light of his suffering and searching. I’ve known a bit sorrow and suffering myself — nothing that compares with Job’s — but enough to get why someone would ask the “Why?” question.

Beyond trouble, however, the other thing that will be coming, or not coming, is that Job never gets an answer to the “Why?” Instead, he will receive a glorious, majestic glimpse of the Who who is over every “Why?” And when he is graciously allowed to see the glory, the “Why?” will be resolved through repentance and result in rest.

As was pointed out to me in some other reading I did this morning, there is a another “Why?” through which God has revealed His glory and goodness toward us.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” . . . And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

(Mark 15:34, 37-39 ESV)

Hanging on a Roman cross, Jesus asked the “Why?” question too. Like Job, asked from a place of intense suffering. Unlike Job, asked from a place of perfect submission. Not cursing the day of His birth but knowing that it was for “this purpose” He was born (John 18:37). His faultless, immaculate “Why?” uttered so that we might be fully and forever redeemed from sin and sorrow and suffering as, on that cross, He paid the price in full for the debt of sin we owed which we could never pay. His “Why?” revealing His glory — that truly this man was the Son of God.

Every “Why?” is in the hands of the One who “is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

By His grace. For His glory.

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Do We Need to Fight? (2021 Remix)

Posted on October 21, 2026 by Pete

Did a bit of rework on some thoughts from 5 years ago. The thoughts seem just as relevant today as they were then and the question still worth asking. While so much has changed, so much hasn’t. Hmm . . . .

It was a quick conversation. A passing comment / counter-comment chat in the restroom quickly conducted between washing and drying our hands. Used to be those were light chats about the weather or the local sports team. Now, seems every moment, even those side conversations, are preoccupied with the season we’re in, the signs of the times that are so apparent, and what we need to be doing when Jesus comes. And this brother said something to the effect, “We need to fight.”

Really? Is that what we need to do in the end times? Fight?

While I am tempted to ask that question with an air of incredulity, I’m hearing it so often from so many these days that I honestly need to consider I may be missing something. Is the right response to an increasing age of antichrist beliefs and behaviors to fight those who, dead in trespass and sin, are walking in the way of a world in rebellion so that we can reverse those beliefs and behaviors? Or, are we called to double down in being light amidst darkness? Or, is it both? Don’t know.

I recall that John talks about the spirit of antichrist in his letters. Had a quick look. Seems his exhortations are more to do with making sure we are abiding. “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1Jn. 2:18-24). That in the last days we need to remember that we have overcome the world, “for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” and double down on loving one another (1Jn. 4:3-7). That in the ends times we need to be extra diligent to “watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward” (2Jn. 1:7-8). And we do that not by fighting back against the world but standing fast with the whole armor of God, particularly the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (2Jn. 1:9, cf. Eph. 6:17).

That’s all in line with what’s hit me from my reading in 1Peter this morning.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

(1Peter 5:5b-7 ESV)

Peter’s writing to believers who feel like they’re in the end times (1Pet. 4:7). That’s why Peter refers so often to Christ’s second coming in the letter (1:7, 1:11, 1:13, 4:5, 4:13, 5:2, 5:4). And, as you read the letter, you don’t sense Peter thinks they should double down on fighting back against the world, but on loving, caring, and serving one another. The problem, I think, in adopting a fight attitude, is that you end up not just fighting the world but everyone else — even brothers and sisters in Christ — that doesn’t see things the way you do.

Not saying we all need to see things the same way. Christian unity is not uniformity nor is it unanimity. But, seems to me, it is a about a commitment to a transcendent community based on a transcendent calling for a transcendent cause — the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of heaven.

And, while I’m not bright enough to know for sure how to navigate all the differing views and divided opinions within the church, I don’t think fighting the world — and one another — is the right place to focus. Instead, I wonder if it starts with clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. I wonder if the tensions we’re feeling, as the pressure of antichrist seems to be more prominent, shouldn’t find their release in casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you rather than by turning on one another.

Do we need to fight? I don’t know, maybe sometimes. But I do know we need to stand fast always. And everything I’m picking up from what Peter seems to be laying down is that it is best done together, as we abide in Christ, His word abides in us, and we love one another.

As we humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. As we cast all of fears on Him. As we rest in His promised care for us.

By His grace. For His glory.

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