WEDNESDAY
Today we move ahead to verses 6 and 7.
1 Peter 1:3–12 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
The “in this” is referring to all of verses 3-5, that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope and eternal inheritance, and believers are guarded by God till the end. This is cause for joy! We can’t see it in English, but in Greek this is all one long sentence and here we come to our first verb. When you’re looking for the main idea of a passage, the primary verb is the place to start and here we have it. So Peter’s main idea here is to rejoice in that God has caused us to be born again even though they are suffering various trials.
These trials are only for a little while—nothing compared to the eternality of our salvation, inheritance and living hope. These trials are “if necessary.” The form in the Greek is to assume that they are, and we will see why in a minute.
The various trials is a vague term which likely includes more than just persecution. Remember, his audience is facing not just persecution but conflict with the culture. He encourages them to think of these as trials. Trial here refers to an attempt to learn the true nature or character of something. So think of it as a stress test. In a stress test you run on a treadmill with a device monitoring your cardiovascular and your respiratory system. The idea is to stress those systems to see “what they are made of.” The test will reveal whether or not you’re in good shape.
Peter is next going to elaborate that this is what trials do in the Christian life—they prove the tested genuineness of your faith. He uses the example of refining gold. Gold is refined by melting it down. The impurities will either burn up or rise to the top to be scraped off. The end result of the process is a more pure gold sample. Similarly, trials reveal the sin and idolatries that need to be removed from our lives. Trials are quite good at this and often reveal sins in our lives that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. This then, in the Christian perspective, is cause to rejoice. Our faith is being refined.
Gold is valuable, but remember Peter’s perspective is eternal. What good is gold when you’re dead. If your hope is in gold (wealth) it dies with you. Your faith however is much more valuable. Not only is your faith eternal but a faith purified through trials will result in “praise, glory and honor” when Jesus returns. The question is, does this process result in more praise, glory and honor given to God on the part of the believer or are these given to the believer whose faith has been purified? Either translation is fine and attested to elsewhere in Scripture, but I think it’s best to take it as the second here. So the idea, then, is the believer’s refined faith through trials will result in praise. This word can also be translated approval—”Well done good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23). It will also result in glory for the believer (see also Rom. 2:7, 10; 8:18, 21, 30; 2 Cor. 3:18). The believer will also receive honor (see also 1 Cor. 12:24; 1 Tim. 5:17; Ps. 8, quoted in Heb. 2:7).
Peter has no qualms about holding out these rewards for the Christian whose faith has been refined through the crucible of suffering. We shouldn’t either! It is because of the hope of this reward that we can not only persevere through suffering but we can rejoice in the midst of it. This is a resilient faith.
When we suffer we often wonder what the purpose is. Tim Keller has said, “Just because we can’t think of a purpose doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.” Peter is getting at a universal purpose to trials. He does a great job of balancing this purpose without glamorizing it. This isn’t the way it should be. Our salvation is still waiting to be fully revealed. Yet, we have to deal with the reality of it. From Peter’s story, which we talked about last week, it’s clear that his trials have produced a more genuine faith. He went from a coward to courageous. He learned to be vigilant in prayer. He learned to surrender to God’s will in suffering. He became the rock on which Christ built his church.
Reflection
How have the various trials you’ve faced in your life refined your faith? Can you rejoice in that which is so valuable?
*This is difficult to say because the trials are not good in and of themselves. The suffering is not good. But with this perspective we can persevere through them and even find joy in the midst of them.