To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:17 “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”

One of the ways that God relates to us in His Word is through words that reflect relationships that we are very familiar with.  In the verse above from 1 Peter 1 we see the word “Father” with respect to God. And then in reference to this relationship we see the words “judges impartially,” and “fear.”  It’s pointing to the fact that like a good father here on earth, God deals with His children in an impartial manner.  Elsewhere we are told essentially the same thing but in a negative sense, i.e., God is a Father Who “shows no partiality” (Romans 2:11). He doesn’t play favorites. He doesn’t let some of his children get away with things that others don’t get away with. Unlike human fathers who, at times, can be left in the dark with what’s going on with their kids, God is never in such ignorance.  He acts intentionally in each person’s life, working in us, slowly and surely “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).  He acts with perfect judgment, so like a just judge He doesn’t treat wrongdoing severely in one case and then turn a blind eye to the same wrongdoing by another one of His children. No, “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises EVERY son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6). It’s like I heard one pastor say many years ago, “if you think you can call God your Father and live any old way you want, I dare you to try it!” 

Believe me, the Lord sees everything, even those things that are done behind closed doors and in the dark, and He will deal justly with the disobedience that was the ultimate reason that His most precious Son died on a cross.  And believe me, I can tell you from personal experience, that when God brings His discipline into our lives, we know it!  He knows exactly how to wake us up and turn us around. He knows where to touch us where it hurts if it’s necessary for Him to do so. He loves us too much for us to go along in some sinful way that He knows will only harm us in the end.  And so, we are told to “conduct (our)selves with fear throughout the time of our exile.” 

The “time of our exile” refers to the Christian’s time on earth, which is a place where we actually live as a kind of foreigner, for our true citizenship is in heaven. It’s like a child born to United States citizens while those citizens are living in some foreign land. Although that child may have never been to America, they are citizens of the United States just the same. And so, we are told that we should “fear,” i.e., highly respect, this Father just as a loving child respects his or her loving father here on earth and dreads doing or saying something that will grieve their father’s heart.  

So, is that how you see God? If you are a believer, is that how you think about this One Who has, incredibly, called Himself your Father?  May our heart’s cry be “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). May this not be something we say by rote as someone leads us in this prayer, but may it be the expression of a loving child for a loving Father, with the awareness that the apostle John (who called himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) expressed with the words: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1, NIV).

Praise His glorious name!