ANGELS LONG TO LOOK (7 OF 52)
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6-10, 1 Peter 1:12-16
This content is part of a series.
Angels Long to Look (7 of 52)
Series: Discipleship Part 3
Christopher B. Harbin
1 Peter 1:6-16
Our society is more apt to believe in ghosts than in God. People have a greater attachment to the idea of angels than they do of God. We hear talk of angels among well-meaning Christians that often is in direct opposition to what the Bible tells us. The languages it was written in did not really have words that referred specifically to angels. Rather, it tends to use words that simply mean messenger. Sometimes our translations get confused on that point. Is the messenger mentioned human, animal, or something else? After all, our own word, angel, is borrowed from Greek. We use it as angel though the Greek simply means messenger. Demystifying the text can often make it both more meaningful and clearer.
Peter's epistles are not much at all like Paul's. Paul wrote to specific churches. Peter was addressing the disciples throughout the Dispersion. These were mainly Jewish believers who had fled Palestine upon the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70. Paul addressed specific issues within a church in a given city. Peter was addressing the larger body of the Jewish believers. He wrote to help them deal with more general issues of being followers of Jesus in exile in a world in which Judaism as they had known it no longer existed.
Judaism required a Tabernacle or Temple. With Jerusalem wiped off the map, neither existed. It was a hard pill to swallow for all of Judaism. The believers to whom Peter wrote were just as much Jews as they were followers of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. They did not see themselves as adherents of a new and different religion. They were Jews, and the central fixture in all of Judaism was no more. It left them with a profound sense of loss.
It is true that there was more to Judaism than just the Temple. The problem is Judaism had come to rely upon the Temple to such an extent that it could not be imagined that Judaism might exis ...
Series: Discipleship Part 3
Christopher B. Harbin
1 Peter 1:6-16
Our society is more apt to believe in ghosts than in God. People have a greater attachment to the idea of angels than they do of God. We hear talk of angels among well-meaning Christians that often is in direct opposition to what the Bible tells us. The languages it was written in did not really have words that referred specifically to angels. Rather, it tends to use words that simply mean messenger. Sometimes our translations get confused on that point. Is the messenger mentioned human, animal, or something else? After all, our own word, angel, is borrowed from Greek. We use it as angel though the Greek simply means messenger. Demystifying the text can often make it both more meaningful and clearer.
Peter's epistles are not much at all like Paul's. Paul wrote to specific churches. Peter was addressing the disciples throughout the Dispersion. These were mainly Jewish believers who had fled Palestine upon the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70. Paul addressed specific issues within a church in a given city. Peter was addressing the larger body of the Jewish believers. He wrote to help them deal with more general issues of being followers of Jesus in exile in a world in which Judaism as they had known it no longer existed.
Judaism required a Tabernacle or Temple. With Jerusalem wiped off the map, neither existed. It was a hard pill to swallow for all of Judaism. The believers to whom Peter wrote were just as much Jews as they were followers of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. They did not see themselves as adherents of a new and different religion. They were Jews, and the central fixture in all of Judaism was no more. It left them with a profound sense of loss.
It is true that there was more to Judaism than just the Temple. The problem is Judaism had come to rely upon the Temple to such an extent that it could not be imagined that Judaism might exis ...
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