1 Peter 1:17—The impartial Judge, your Father

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth… 1 Peter 1:17

If you address as Father…

Father. What a glorious privilege to call God, the Creator of the universe, our Father! It was extremely rare prior to Jesus’ life for anyone to call God Father; in the Old Testament, only about a half dozen Scriptures refer to Him as Father. In these cases, the references spoke of His relationship to all of Israel, not to individual people.

But Jesus changed that paradigm. He came for this very purpose—to forge the way for you and me to be sons and daughters of God. His selfless act of redemption on the cross resulted in this: You have the right to call God your Father through faith in Jesus Christ.

I may be mistaken, but I’ve never heard a Muslim call Allah Father. I’ve never heard Buddhists or Hindus or other non-Christian faiths call their deities Father. But you and I? We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. He is our Father.

… the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work…

Remember, this impartial Judge is our Father…and He has our best interests at heart.

And because you have trusted in His Son for salvation, as you stand before the impartial Judge, He will view you through the shed blood of Jesus—cleansed, whole, and justified.

But despite the wonderful, redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ, your Father and Judge will also look at your work…all that you have done in your time on the earth. And according to Peter, that is what He will judge—without partiality.

What will He consider when He judges your work? The Greek word for “work” is ergon, and according to Strong’s it means:

• your business
• your employment
• that by which you are occupied
• that which you undertake to do
• your enterprise
• your undertakings
• any product whatever that you produce
• anything accomplished by your hands
• your art
• your industry
• the activity of your mind
• any act you do
• any deed you do
• anything you do

The Father will actually judge all that you and I do or try to do.

… conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

Because everything you and I do, attempt to do, or leave undone will be judged impartially by our Father on that Day, Peter adjured all of us to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth. In other words, live your life on purpose, with one primary goal in mind—to know God, to make Him known, and to live for His purposes and good pleasure by faith in Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Shockingly, the Greek word for “fear” in this verse is phobos, from which we derive our words phobia and phobic. Why would Peter charge believers to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth when other Scriptures penned by the apostle Paul declare boldly, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). Both men use the word phobos to express their thoughts. What gives here?

To me, it is clear. You are compelled to face life fearlessly as you pursue the upward call of God in Christ Jesus—no matter what life throws your way. You need not fear these things because you belong to the God of the universe!

But your fearlessness in the Lord does not negate the truth that Peter reveals: You are called to take hold of one fear—the fear that will effectively prevent you from living merely for yourself and not the Lord; the fear that will help to keep you from letting go of the Word of God to drift downstream along with the rest of the world.

You are not called to become paranoid that you will drift away from the Lord; no—the fear by which you are to conduct your life is a sober recognition of the adverse consequences that inevitably catch up with the Christian who loses interest in living for Jesus as His disciple.

This is a sober thought, indeed. Tomorrow, I will share two verses which have brought me great hope and comfort in light of all this as I prepare myself to face Him on that Day. I believe these Scriptures will bless you, too.

Dorothy

Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.  1 Corinthians 9:26-27

© 2015, Dorothy Frick