Our world does not need more clever men or more rich men but it certainly needs more godly men and women. This leader was not only clever but wise and not only rich but godly, and these characteristics are scarce commodities in the present days.
Read Peter's first letter and learn some significant and crucial lesson regarding leadership and being a leader in difficult times.
Peter had changed bosses and that is central to the whole second half of his life. He had been a business man in the fishing industry, but now he was catching a different type of catch. Everything about him was transformed and different.
When we came to Jesus Christ we changed bosses. We changed 'lords'. We no longer serve sin, but Jesus Christ.
Peter speaks about being holy and being different from others and what is involved in this and sometimes we do not like to be different or regarded as being different.
He Who called you is holy, so be holy in all that you do. What a challenge! This is a most unpopular sentence for many many people!
We are called to be like Father, or to be like our heavenly Dad. God is not like other people. He certainly is different, and Peter teaches us to aim to be like Him!
To be holy or godly in the highest sense, and not in some cartoonist fashion, but as God would make us and shape us, is one of life's most challenging tasks.
But verse 17 in the first Chapter of his letter will help us, because if we get the right kind of fear, and right kind of love, we will live the right kind of life.
On he goes to speak of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, with which we are redeemed and bought back from sin, and sinfulness. That rascal stole so much from mankind in the garden and Jesus paid the price on the cross to buy it back. That is the whole meaning of redeem.
Our holy God has called us and changed us and transformed us and forgiven us and filled us, and these are some of the reasons why this same holy loving God calls us to be holy.
Because He is a gracious Father Who judges our work and witness impartially, we are to live our lives here as strangers or aliens or misfits, and in reverent fear.
When we have the right kind of fear and the right kind of love then we will have no trouble being holy. That will follow.
Fear is a good thing. Fear of putting your hand in an open fire or fear of rushing across a busy road without looking, or fear of hurting someone you love. The fear of God is healthy, and in a leader it is a most valuable and precious quality.
Peter did not want these disciples of Jesus to disobey God, or disappoint God, and this is why he writes as he does.
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org/ entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.
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