the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
1 Peter 3:13-22
Christ suffered on the cross, the Just for us the unjust (v. 18). In return we are given to suffer a little for Him (Philippians 1:29). By doing good we can suffer with Him, as He suffered (v. 14). Finally the Lord sympathises with us in all our troubles (v. 12).
V. 14 declares that if you suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are you (read also Matthew 5:10). May God protect us from any fear of man and give us His fear, together with meekness, so that we may bear witness at any time of the hope which is in us . . . — but is this hope in each of our readers?
However, if we behave badly towards men, then when we speak to them of the Lord their scorn, which we deserve, reflects on Him. May the Spirit of Christ use us to warn our fellow-men as it used Noah, during that time when he built the ark, to preach to the unbelievers of his day (vv. 19, 20). The flood is a picture of the judgment which is about to fall on the world. It speaks to us of death, the wages of sin. Figuratively speaking believers go through the flood in baptism and shelter in the ark, which is Christ. He suffered death in their place and they rise with Him in newness of life (vv. 21, 22).
