Seeds for 05/08/2024 - 1 Peter 2:18, part 1
Scripture:
Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
Observation:
This is quite obviously a difficult passage to read faithfully today. We need not pretend that we can get to a definitive intrepretation without much deeper study. Still, we can make well-grounded observations and see what we learn.
Let me be upfront. Today, we’re going to think about how to approach a difficult passage such as this. Tomorrow we’ll get back to the text itself with these principles in mind.
One principle of well-grounded scripture reading is to work under the assumption that the text spoke relevantly to its first recipients. It is important to note that advice and instructions to the letter’s immediate audience spoke faithfully to their situation.
A second related principle of sound scripture reading is that the biblical text is written for us, but not to us. That’s a concise way of saying that the commands, instructions, and exhortations of a NT letter, for example, speak directly to the context and culture of that letter’s first recipients. It is to them. Key moral commands will speak broadly across cultures, while more situational advice will be tailored to a particular context. That being said, there is great wisdom to be found by reading that advice with the audience’s situation and context in mind because it is scripture written for us, even though it may not speak directly to us, that is, to our particular cultural context. That’s not a license to ignore or set aside parts of scripture that make us uncomfortable, but rather an invitation to engage all of scripture with all the intelligence and reverence we can muster, with the help of the Holy Spirit and within the community of the Church. The Bible may be inspired and infallible but our interpretations are not—they must be tested and held with a confidence that is tempered by appropriate humility.
Those two principles are obviously connected. All biblical instruction is relevant to its first recipients, which is another way of saying it is written to them. And, scripture is written for us, so we may become wise unto salvation and trained in righteousness. The Bible was written for every Christian, but to the people who first read/heard it in their historical and cultural context.
With that in mind, tomorrow we’ll begin to explore what wisdom we can gain from observing and reflecting on this passage about how Christians in Peter’s audience who are slaves ought to live with others.
Application:
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, guide me by your Spirit and ground me in Christian community, so that I may engage your Word faithfully and be shaped by its wisdom for me. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™