TUESDAY October 17th
1 Peter 4:17–18
‘For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”’
To understand these verses before us today, we need to look at the verses that have run before them, which I considered a week or so ago under the subject of suffering, which say ‘Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.’
If we go back to the first chapter and verses 6-7 we read ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’
Peter would seem to be indicating that the trials etc that we go through are the way in which God can judge or perhaps for want of a better word, determine the genuineness of our faith. See it is possible that we can make a ‘commitment’ to the Lord Jesus Christ, but in reality we are just doing so for the sake of seeing it as our ticket to heaven, but the claim of the gospel on a person’s life is far more than that, in that after the initial commitment we need to grow, mature and become more Christlike and live with desires that are according to the desires of the new nature rather than that of the old. And it is the trials that test us, if we have really, genuinely committed our lives to Christ then we shall come through as more precious than gold, our lives will be seen to result in the praise, glory and honour of Christ. If the ‘commitment’ has been just to get a ticket to heaven then we run the risk of falling, failing when the trials come.
May God helps us all to stand firm when these kinds of trials come upon us, but the seriousness of it all is seen in the sentence that says, ‘what will become of the ungodly and sinner?’
It is far better to go through the fiery trails of testing in the here and now and come through as more precious than gold than to fail through the testing trials that come and eternally end up in the fire that will burn for eternity.