1 Peter Lesson 10 The Shifting Reference Point
1-peter-lesson-10-shifting
A STUDY OF FIRST PETER: THE RHETORICAL UNIVERSE
BY J. MICHAEL STRAWN
ANALOG INTELLIGENCE AND THE SHIFTING REFERENCE POINT:
1 PETER 2:4-10
INTRODUCTION AND TERMINOLOGY:
The section of Scripture in 1 Peter 2:1-4 seems to produce a junction in the way that it does not immediately seem to be linked to the material that precedes it. However, a careful examination of the nature of the Kingdom of God reveals that the Kingdom itself provides a visible reference point for us. As the external world becomes increasingly transparent to the believer, the Kingdom becomes more obviously a reference. Later, in verse 10 of this chapter, Peter will show the results the shifting of reference points with revealing language: “once you were not. . .now you have received.”
In the shifting of reference points, analog intelligence recognizes that by eternal fiat, all of the reference points for a Christian undergo change. There are new, eternal parameters; new purpose and result of being able to declare His praises. Societal acceptance loses its luster. What we once considered to be significant social issues and what we thought we personally required for survival are all measured in relationship to eternal reference points. Paul showed this when he confessed that for him, to live was Christ, and to die was gain. He was mirroring the attitudes of Jesus Himself who declared that He didn’t do anything on His own but only those things which would further the Father’s agenda.
SCRIPTURE TEXT:
As you come to Him, the living Stone–rejected by men 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 though Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.
Now to you who do not believe:
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the capstone.
and,
A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
They stumble because they disobey the message–which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
–1 Peter 1:4-10
ELEMENTS OF THE THEMATIC:
The thematic illustrates the visual image portrayed by this passage. At the foundation of the structure is Jesus Christ. By means of outside action of God (the verb, “are being built” is a passive one), individual believers are placed into the structure that we call a Kingdom, fitting exactly as the Lord would have us, providing support and structure for those around us.
Once a believer is placed in this ordered structure, it surrounds the believer. Though it is invisible, the Kingdom provides a reference point for the believer that becomes increasingly more significant as the Christian realizes his role as stone, priest, sacrificer, chosen, possessed by God, a people who have received mercy.
GENERALIZATIONS DERIVED FROM THE THEMATIC AND FROM THE TEXT:
1) Analog intelligence brings with it the ability to recognize that by eternal fiat, the reference points have changed. On the one hand, temporal reference points such as suffering, persecution, etc. manifest the context, but they can never be regarded by the Christian as fixed in nature. (Temporal, after all, is temporary.) On the other hand, maintaining a reference point that is in the eternal can actually lead to persecution, as we will see in the last half of the 3rd chapter.
Seemingly concrete temporal reference points can cause us to say, “This hurts,” or “I don’t like this.” But operating on them exclusively will lead us to inaccurate conclusions because all temporal information is by definition fragmentary. Analog intelligence allows the believer to see the transparent nature of the temporal as we decide not to operate on human self-reference. After all, it is human desires and influence of the flesh that are the source of pain here, and the site where sin is compounded.
Nothing, therefore, is really decided nor determined by what exists on the temporal side of reality. Cultural standards, personal past events, human history in general–all are subsumed as a believer by an act of the will unites his understanding with God’s revelation which helps him to understand all those temporal elements.
A church with a shifted reference point wouldn’t concern itself exclusively with doctrine, ethics, and soteriology. They would recognize that the Bible isn’t just words on a page, but a symbolizing of an eternal, real reference point that is only understandable through revelation, which is key to making that shift.
Many so-called Christian books are not Christianity at all but rather theism or religiously-dressed-up moralism that doesn’t require of readers any shifting of worldly reference points.
In the Bible, the three young men who faced Nebuchadnezzar refused to shift their analogic reference points in favor of personal safety. They recognized that everything in their existence was relative to that fixed eternal reference point. Contrast that with the children of Israel who, while Moses was on the mountain for 40 days, played “fast and loose” with their reference points, finally concluding that a gold calf they’d made was the god who’d led them out of captivity.
Of course, God is the reference point par excellence. Revelation is an extension of Himself–we use the Text to get to that reference point, and its grammatical structure transfers us from other points to that One.
Temporal reference points such as persecution and uncertainty about the future don’t require the maintenance of faith–in fact, they militate against faith. Peter gives us precise, accurate information about what it means to operate on the permanent, unseen reference points.
Everything in life can be defined by its relationship to one’s reference points. The goal of a preacher, thus, should be to help people see that there is an inherent conflict between what seems “natural” to us; that what the world would define as common sense, reasonableness, or “reality” are not God’s reference points. In fact, he should point out that even the language of temporal reference points can orient our attitudes and prevent us from seeing eternal reference points in our lives and in human history.
2) Verses 4-6 show that reliable reference points are all found within the revelation which is from God. We could never infer the reality of a Kingdom on our own, God had to reveal it to us. Furthermore, we see that the Kingdom is manifested in two ways: as a thing, and as an action. As an entity, it is formed by people who are banded together by God. As an action, it is seen in the building and formulating within the confines of human history.
Of course, the idea of fixed eternal reference points has a competitor. In 1 Peter, believers are shown that they must consciously counterpose the suffering that demands their attention to the promises God is making that He is formulating a Kingdom in the heart of time. This creation will be more powerful than anything they suffer.
The Rock, Jesus, will cause some to stumble, but for others He will be the only thing that keeps them from falling by sustaining them in this marvelous Kingdom structure. Anchored on Him, they will never be washed away by the storms of time.
With Peter’s believers as with us, the issue is how to shift to an eternal reference point, and to maintain it. Sometimes we simply don’t want to put forth the mental effort. Temptations put our faith under fire, and reveal our reference points: what we want, or the decree of God. Even something that seems as earth-bound as finances–say, a bankruptcy, for example–must be denied credibility as a reference point, since all worldly things must be dimensioned relative to God’s view of reality.
3) Revelation as the reference point for time, life, and history is a creation of the structure that overlaps the two dimensions. We have seen in the past that the two aspects of reality, the seen and the unseen, don’t have any inherent links to one another. Only by the initiating action of the Holy Spirit and the resultant elements of revelation, faith, and the manipulation of symbols are we able to link them together. Because that link is impervious to anything temporal, it is also more powerful and permanent than anything we will face on this side of reality.
It necessitates that we live as strangers here, showing by our good lives among the pagans that we have shifted our reference points from what they would see as natural to that which acknowledges our link to the eternal. This spiritual kingdom in which we reside has a temporal element and an eternal element and linking agents between the two: triadic structure. Unlike physical kingdoms which are impermanent, this spiritual Kingdom does not suffer any functional degeneracy as long as it maintains spiritual reference points.
It has never been the intention of God that the manifestation of that kingdom in the church decay or degenerate, but it happens when congregations are built upon temporal reference points. They are not able to function as they should. There are splits, splinters, collapses. Sometimes the temporal reference point that causes this destruction isn’t something cosmological–it’s very local. Sometimes it all boils down to what a few individuals with temporal reference points want. In 1 Thessalonians we see the result of such a sociological reference point when baptized into the church. Such temporal reference points give people no reason to stand up under persecution, or to endure suffering. But with an eternal reference point, God redefines us so that we can actually thrive in difficult situations.
4) Those who belong to this unique structure need a unique, hierarchical language which is shaped by eternal reference points. We call it hierarchical because it recognizes the supremacy of authority of God and His Word, something He shares with us. In verse 8 we see the result of rejecting this specialized language of the Kingdom: they stumble and fall because they come into conflict with the “message.” The hinge is seen in whether or not they believe.
Jesus predicted that all who would live by faith would suffer, and Paul and Peter certainly echoed that sentiment. Changing reference points often has consequences that are unpleasant from a temporal point of view. But the rewards it brings make it worth it all.
5) A shifting reference point requires acculturation, not socialization. Our culture tries to socialize individuals into the aggregate, and penalizes those who don’t “fit” into their definition of normalcy or functionality. But Peter shows us that we are to relate to others not as individual to an aggregate, but as living stone to living stone. The Capstone, Jesus, is our great example of how to do that.
Within that structure, we have to be careful not to give into such things as depression or discouragement that take our eyes off the eternal reference points in favor of looking at the situation, the feeling, or the critic. We must draw a mental line and refuse to cross back over into the realm of temporal reference points.
Temporal reference points can be illustrated by a trip to a mall. All around you are surrounded by a glittering wonderland of what you do not have and what the world wants to create desire in you for. The reference point is shifted from what you do have in heaven to what you don’t have here.
Peter keeps our attention on Jesus, the Capstone, the chosen One who is reference point for our behavior on earth. In the last half of the 3rd chapter we will see how Christ died and how we, through baptism, can come to a point of dying to this world as well.
God places us deliberately as selected stones into a structure that will never fail–nor fail us. Like the Israelites in the desert, we have the comforting reference point of His presence with us. And as the writer of Psalm 119 shows us, He is a presence on which we can utterly depend to the abandonment of our own competence and self-reference.
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