“Prone to Leave the God I Love”
What you are about to hear in this PODCAST is Peter’s most powerful appeal. One born in Peter’s greatest failure.
It is true that our most powerful life-message comes not out of our spectacular successes, but rather out of our epic failures.
So be encouraged.
Here is Peter’s appeal:
13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
Now, of these words, there is one that unlocks the entire passage: obedient.
The most simple, succinct way to describe a Christ-follower is just that – one who is obedient to Jesus. Obedience to God goes back to the beginning and continues through today as the hallmark of a Christian’s life.
For example, here is what the Bible says about Daniel’s decision to follow God’s will in his life:
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; (Daniel 1:8)
By doing this, by deliberately disobeying the edict of the king, Daniel literally put his life on the line in order to remain obedient to God.
And, like Daniel, we need to pursue – to propose in our heart, to commit ourselves – to follow God’s will in our lives.
Peter relates to all of us so well in how he describes what a life of disobedience looks like, and how quickly and easily it is to stray away from Jesus. As Peter was writing his own letter, I’m certain that he was vividly recalling his own failure, as recorded by his buddy, John:
Peter followed Jesus, as did another of the disciples. That other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, so he was allowed to enter the high priest’s courtyard with Jesus. 16 Peter had to stay outside the gate. Then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let Peter in. 17 The woman asked Peter, “You’re not one of that man’s disciples, are you?”
“No,” he said, “I am not.” (John 18:15-17)
Poor, poor Peter… he could not have answered the woman any more correctly than he did at that moment.
What I don’t understand are people who choose not to follow God’s will for their lives, and yet still answer in the opposite of Peter – they claim to be a follower of Jesus yet they don’t purpose in their hearts to actually live like it.
Consider the words of John the Baptizer:
8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. (Matthew 3:8)
In other words, don’t just tell me that you have repented, show me by the way that you live through your obedience. When the crowd asked John how they can prove this, he answered:
11 John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”
12 Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?”
13 He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.”
14 “What should we do?” asked some soldiers.
John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:11-14)
In other words… obey.
Next, let’s look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. After what we now know as three chapters of preaching, Jesus reaches His conclusion… His application, if you will:
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ (Matthew 7:23)
It’s not about words. It’s about lives and lifestyles.
Jesus continues and dives even deeper:
26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:26-27)
That’s the perfect metaphor of a person’s life who lives disobediently to God’s will… their life will collapse with a mighty crash!
To put a further exclamation point on the importance of obedience, let’s look at what we call “The Great Commission”:
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Jesus doesn’t instruct his disciples – and us – to merely invite people to church and allow them to live disobediently. No, he commands us to make new disciples who obey all of Jesus’ commands.
Now, let me be clear… we are not talking about “perfect obedience”. Not a single one of us can ever be perfect. But, obedience should be the pursuit of our lives.
To be more succinct, if we were to look at Jesus’ words in the Gospels, here is the most direct sentence that I have found regarding obedience:
“If you love me, obey my commandments. (John 14:15)
Now, this commitment to obedience is not a sprint. It’s much more akin to a marathon. Therefore, we have the propensity to become distracted or weary. As the hymn-writer perfectly penned:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
(Robert Robinson, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”)
As I see it, there are two sets of life circumstances during which we are particularly prone to wander:
- When we experience a season of prolonged prosperity. When life is good and we have what we need and want, we convince ourselves that we are doing just great… on our own. In times like these, it’s so easy to become distracted because when the good times roll, we convince ourselves that we don’t need God very much. And that’s when we become tempted to compromise.
- When we find ourselves experiencing seasons of prolonged pain. This is where Peter’s initial readers likely found themselves when he wrote what we refer to today as 1 Peter. When everything is going wrong, our prayers seem to remain unanswered, and life keeps dealing us a bad hand… when God seems utterly absent, we are too often overcome with despair.
You see, Peter knew the despair that came along with disobeying Jesus and walking away from Him. So, when Peter wrote his letter, he wanted, with all his heart, to spare his readers from the pain and anguish that comes along with disobedience.
In other words, do not give up. Do not quit. Do not wander and leave the God we love!
Remain obedient and live holy lives!
(This podcast is by Dewey Bertolini. discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)