Hold On

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Today’s focus scripture from 1 Peter 5:7 contains a beautiful invitation and a powerful promise rooted in the steadfast goodness of God. Give your cares over to your creator, for God is trustworthy and faithful. As the psalmist sings in Psalm 68, “God, you led your people through the wilderness. You are a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. You set the lonely in families, and you, God, refreshed your people and provided for the poor.” As we sing responsively in our time, “God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.”

There’s no doubt that there’s truth and power in these praise sentences. They offer hope to the hopeless and peace to the anxious. Yet, if we’re not careful with these words, they can easily become empty Christian cliches. Or, as I call them, Throw Pillow Theology, statements stitched on a couch pillow with little intentionality or ability to transform the people who proudly display them.

You know the ones. Let go and let God. Lay your worries at Jesus’ feet. Worry less, pray more. After all, God won’t give you more than you can handle, right?

While sentimental statements such as these may be rooted in scriptures like 1 Peter 5:7, they often lack the complexity and compassion with which the author initially wrote them. Sadly, sometimes they can even harm the already hurting heart of a Christian struggling to keep their faith alive in the face of mounting pressures and loss.

As Peter the Apostle wrote his final words to the Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, he knew what was at stake for this community of believers – their faith. In chapters 4 and 5 of this letter, Peter describes an epic struggle between good and evil unfolding before their very eyes. This community of Christ-followers had persevered in their faith through many harsh trials, but it was getting more and more difficult by the day to remain faithful. The world was trying to pull them back into an empty way of living, to get them to turn away from God and turn on each other. And the devil was on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for souls to devour.

Today we have attached notes of tenderness and sweetness to 1 Peter 5:7. "God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way", as we sing in the famous hymn. We know these words to be true. However, as Peter conveys this truth to his audience, he bookends it on each side with an unwelcome but not unfamiliar warning. You are going to suffer for Christ. You will come under attack because of your faith.

In 1 Peter 4:12, Peter writes, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” Following his famous words in verse 7, the Apostle adds in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

That’s a far cry from “Lay your worries at Jesus’ feet.” These scriptures provide little incentive to “Let go and let God.” Instead, Peter seems to be saying, “It’s going to be a bumpy ride, so hold on. Hold on to the hope you have in Jesus Christ. And, church, hold on to each other.”

The point we often miss with this letter and others like it is that their contents were never intended to be instructions for the individual believer. Our faith was never meant to be experienced in isolation. Rather, the New Testament letters were designed to guide Christian communities and strengthen their resolve as they boldly lived out their faith together in a foreign and often hostile world.

The church, as Peter envisioned it, should be a loving community where people care for each other deeply and walk with one another through the struggles of their faith. The church is a place where we suffer together, share the weight of each other’s burdens together, and ultimately find joy together. It should never be a place where one is judged or cast aside for questioning what has been. Instead, the church should be an environment where all can cast their anxieties, fears, doubts, and shortcomings on God and dream together about what could be if we were truly one in Jesus Christ.

What if we looked at today’s text through that lens? What if we approached our faith on a daily basis with that perspective in mind? What difference might that caring and gracious attitude make in the life of the church? What impact might it have on the rest of the world as God’s people are unified in Christ and live out our faith as boldly as these early Christians did? I think those are questions worth exploring and a unity in Christ worth pursuing.

As I’ve mentioned before, the suffering Peter describes in this letter, the fiery ordeal as he calls it in verse 12, was probably not the organized state persecution of Christians. And as loud as domineering politicians, 24-hour news networks, and social media blowhards in our time can be, neither is ours. In this country, because of the sacrifice of many, we enjoy incredible freedoms that countless others around the world do not.

Although 1 Peter 5:7 is often applied to the problems that dictate our daily lives, Peter doesn’t seem to be addressing those issues either. This fiery ordeal was not simply a general suffering from disease or disadvantage that, sadly, many of us know all too well. In reality, this suffering wasn’t even misfortune caused by the beliefs that these Christians held dearly in their hearts.

Instead, the suffering of these believers came as they lived out their faith boldly. As they continued Jesus’ mission of caring for the poor by pushing back against social structures that took advantage of the weak, the early Christians drew the ire of those trying to hold onto power. As they refused to participate in the empty ways of their broken world, many faced social rejection and isolation. Their suffering came from living out their faith. Ironically, though, so, too, would their joy.

In 1 Peter 4:13, Peter wrote, “Rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” Instead of being surprised or hurt by the opposition to their faith being lived out loud, Peter called the believers to rejoice in it. Sure, the satisfaction of serving others took away some of the sting from their suffering for doing good. But the rejection and ridicule they faced for living out the call of the Gospel also provided an opportunity for them to participate in the sufferings of Christ, to be joined to Jesus. Perhaps this bold directive to rejoice in suffering is incompatible with modern thinking. Joy and suffering don’t typically go hand-in-hand. However, that tension is at the heart of the Christian life.

In Colossians 1:24, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Paul’s joy came not from his suffering but from being joined to Christ’s mission. Jesus was at the center of Paul’s joy, the center of his life. And Jesus’ ministry that joined the church together in one body calls us to put Jesus at the center of our lives, even if it causes us to suffer. But, how do we do that? How do we find that kind of strength? We hold on. We hold on to the hope we have in Jesus Christ, and we hold on to each other.

Throughout this letter, Peter’s repeated arguments to persevere in the faith have been grounded in one fundamental belief. In our faith, we have been joined to Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 2:4-5, Peter wrote, “As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

You are being built together into a spiritual house for the glory of God, and Jesus Christ himself is your cornerstone. Of course, to be joined to Jesus is to be affixed to something sacred. Therefore, Peter repeatedly calls believers to holy living in every situation. 1 Peter 1:15, “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” 1 Peter 2:12, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 3:13-14, Do good, for “who is going to harm you for doing good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.” So rejoice. Rejoice as you participate in the sufferings of Christ. The unspoken but undeniable truth behind each of these individual verses is this. Those who are joined to Jesus Christ will suffer as he suffered, but so, too, will they rise as he has risen.

Hold on to the hope you have in Jesus Christ.

Still, sometimes that hope is really hard to hold onto. At times, the directive to hold on to the ultimate hope we have in Jesus Christ, the fullness of our salvation and inheritance yet to be revealed, is no more comforting than the empty Christian cliches we’re quick to criticize. After all, as Peter says, threats to our faith are ever present. The devil is prowling like a lion. Satan is stealthily stalking us, looking for our weaknesses, ready to pounce, ready to devour.

Often we assume that the evil forces of this world will announce themselves in a way that is easy to reject, easy to resist. However, more frequently, it’s the subtle sins that threaten our faith the most. The anger that burns in our hearts against someone who did something wrong. The impulse to love someone less because they look or think differently than us. The temptation to behave like the world and to turn away from God and turn on each other. These are the threats to our faith that we must resist. How do we do that? We hold on to each other.

In 1 Peter 5:9, Peter writes, “Resist the devil, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” Just as we are joined to Jesus in his suffering, so, too, do we participate in the sufferings of our fellow believers. We are one body in Christ, and there is power and strength in that unity. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:25-26, “There should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

The church suffers together. The church rejoices together. The church stands firm in the faith together. Of course, that requires more than just words. It involves love, trust, humility, grace, patience, empathy, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, and selfless service to one another, not because we must, but because we have a willing spirit. That’s a tall order, but it’s possible because we’ve seen this before. We’ve seen it in Jesus Christ.

I genuinely believe that the beautiful, transformational, life-giving church Peter describes in this letter is possible in our time not because of us but because of the one to whom we have been joined. Jesus is our hope, and he is our example. With Christ at the center of our lives, might we find the strength to humble ourselves before God and one another? Might we willingly suffer with one another and gladly rejoice with one another? Together, might we find the courage to believe that though we may suffer for a little while, in due time, the God of all grace who has called us to eternal glory in Christ will lift us up together for the glory of God and the transformation of our world? Hold on. Hold on to the hope you have in Jesus Christ. And, church, hold on to each other. Amen.?