We've all had the experience of ticking 'Yes I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions' as we install new software, take out some insurance or sign up for a new social media platform. Sometimes we are even forced to scroll through the small print before we can click 'Yes' - but do we ever actually read the text?
I did once, when agreeing to a cash-back offer that came with a new phone - I wanted to know exactly when I needed to send the company copies of my bill. It was a hassle, but worth it for the savings.
Do we sometimes treat obedience to Jesus as part of the small print of Christianity? 'Here is salvation and forgiveness' we proclaim loudly and boldly, hoping that people will join our churches and soon learn to stomach the small print of 'Oh, by the way, we need to repent and obey Christ'.
Might our attitude be saying, even if subtly, 'Getting out of hell is a really good offer. The obeying stuff will be inconvenient but it is a small price to pay for the free salvation that we offered.'
'Being chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ is being chosen for the good, meaningful and beautiful life.'
For Peter, obedience to Jesus Christ is the offer! He writes to those who have been 'chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood' (1 Peter 1:2).
Being chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ is being chosen for the good, meaningful and beautiful life. Peter tells us that, through the precious blood of Christ, we have been redeemed from 'the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors' (1:18-19).
Obedience to the world?
Outside of Jesus, the way of life offered by our world is empty, futile, worthless. Oh, it will claim to be exciting, meaningful, enjoyable. The recipients of Peter’s letter had grown up doing what pagans choose to do: debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and idolatry (4:3). These appeal to the flesh but are empty and end in judgement.
Do you feel the emptiness of life outside of obedience to Jesus Christ? Or does your heart think that Jesus’ commands are like spinach: good for you but less attractive than the other options?
Perhaps we need to think more deeply about the goodness of Christ’s ways. If you teach the counter-cultural commands of the Saviour, be sensitive but do not apologise for His words: show that they are so much better than the emptiness of the alternatives.
Maybe our world is feeling the emptiness of life in a new way. Yes, some people will criticise us for our rejection of the activities listed by Peter, but others have walked those paths, have been hurt and hollowed-out by the experience, and are longing for something better.
When we call our neighbours to obedience to Jesus Christ, some will hear that for the good news it actually is: a call to a life of meaning and purpose. Those who have felt the futility of the world’s ways will find that Jesus’ commands are not small print, or the Ts and Cs lurking behind a good offer, but a vision of life that is water to the weary soul.
