After our Lord ascended to Heaven and gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to His disciples, He gave tremendous spiritual authority to His apostle Peter. And that gives great weight to Peter’s teachings and epistles. He wrote his first epistle to all Jewish and non-Jewish disciples of the Messiah. So he was writing to us too. If we ponder his words, we’ll gain great insight into our God-given, New Covenant identity and status.
Military or Civilian?
Since we’ve been called to abide with our Lord as His disciples, let’s notice what Peter said about what we are and why God deploys and stations us all across this fallen, broken, grief-filled world. We must have no doubt in our minds and hearts about the part we are to play in our generation. Notice especially the name Peter gives us in the introduction of his first letter:
1 Peter 1:1-9
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” (Emphasis added.)
Peter calls us, ‘aliens’, scattered across the globe…chosen to obey the risen Word of God, set apart by the Blood of His Redemption, to abide with Him as His personal co-heirs and priestly attendants on Earth. So…we have been separated from the rest. We are not part of the crowd. We differ profoundly from the rest of men because we are no longer ‘Head-less’. We are spiritually regenerated by God and filled with His Holy Spirit and set apart to render personal service to God’s living Word who delegates His authority to us so we can serve as His co-administrators, embodying Him as He continues to overcome demonic evil with His infinite, Heavenly ‘Good’ as He installs and develops the Kingdom of God and His Kingship, all across the earth.
To the ‘Head-less’ people that remain entrapped by the Serpent, we are naturally going to be incomprehensible. So we will be continually misunderstood and looked upon as strange and alien. But in this context, we can thank God that we are in that situation. We’re aliens because the King of the Kingdom of Heaven is OUR King. And that makes us a part of HIS Kingdom. We’re Heavenly ‘insiders’ and citizens, no longer connected in any way to the fallen world which is like the sinking ‘Titanic’. We’re not going down with that doomed hulk. We have been separated from it by following and obeying God’s living Word. So, the Word of God is our ‘Head’. And wherever He is, we are; whatever happens to Him, happens to us. From now on, we share His Destiny!
So we are no longer counted among those that are, ‘Head-less’. Now we’re free to taste and enjoy an awesome oneness with God and His Holy Spirit, through our spiritual union with His Word. Now that the Word has taken over, we are free of the former demonic domination and share in God’s eternal Well Being. We are spiritually equipped to know our Lord intimately and share His eternal Life and His Spirit-given anointing, power and authority. We can enjoy and embody the transforming effects of the rescue, reconciliation, regeneration, redemption and restoration that He is to His own…and demonstrate and share His supernatural abilities and qualities as He reveals them through us. Thus working as one with Him, we prove to the world around us, even those that view us with skepticism, that our Master lives…is risen from the dead…and truly reigns as everlasting King of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then they can realize that He is here in our midst, to take back from the clutches of the powers of Darkness, everything that is His, which is – Everything!
Disciples are united, Spirit to spirit, with the risen Lord. Therefore, we must train ourselves, mentally and emotionally, to live and operate ‘as one’ (‘echad’) with Him. Being one with Him, makes us alien to those that are separated from Him. But what should we look like in contrast to the rest? We need to understand what ‘echad’ means so we can be better equipped to demonstrate by our lives, the effects of our Master’s world-transforming presence, power and authority. Our job is to embody the awesome transformation His perfect Lordly presence causes in us. The decapitated world around us really needs to see the tremendous difference He makes. If that difference is obvious in us, the Lord can reach out to those that remain separated from Him. He is here to rescue and lead them out of demonic Darkness. That’s why we must be able to radiate His Light. The difference between the two groups has to be clearly discernable. Perhaps the following imaginary scenario will help us grasp an essential aspect of that difference between those that are true disciples of God’s living and written Word, and those that are not:
A military general surveys a vast crowd that has gathered at the base he commands. The public was invited to visit the base and view a parade, and also see the unveiling and demonstration of some highly publicized, new military equipment.
The parade has just ended. The general notices that the demonstration areas have become messy and unsightly due to all the litter left by the crowd. So before he gives the word for the demonstration of the new equipment to begin, the general goes to the public address system, takes the microphone, and says:
“Attention all personnel: This is your commanding general speaking. I order all personnel under my command to clean the litter from the viewing area immediately. That is all.”
As soon as he gives the order, every man and woman under his command begins to obey…while the civilians, who were responsible for causing the mess, casually mingle around watching the military people go about the duty of cleaning their base.
There’s quite a difference between those two groups, isn’t there? Those in uniform are obviously under the general’s command. But the uniform they wear is not what makes the difference. The telling factor is that, to them, he is not just ‘the general’; he is THEIR general! They live under his ‘headship’. They obey their ‘head’ and their obedience transforms them into the head’s complex, disciplined, synchronized body. Each member of that body respects, acknowledges and carries out the head’s commands. He is their central authority source and they unquestioningly obey his commands.
They work as one man, quickly restoring the base to his liking and specifications: one head, one task, one body…one command…one activity…one result. In fifteen minutes the job is done. This is what it means to, ‘live as one’. The obedience of the troops embodies and fulfills the mind, heart and will of their commander. This is the unique core meaning of the Biblical term, ‘faith’. It is belief leading to obedience. And it also exemplifies what the phrase, ‘image and likeness’ is meant to convey.
James. 2:18-23
“But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ and he was called the friend of God.” (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 12:46-50
“While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.’ But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever DOES the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’” (Emphasis added.)
The mindset and resulting behavior of the visitors differed greatly from that of the troops. The visitors also heard and understood the general. But they identified themselves as ‘exempt civilians’. They do not live with the general and this is not their base; they have no commander; they do as they please. So they ignore the general’s order and remain detached from his authority. Since he isn’t their ‘head’, they’re not about to serve as his extended body. So in relation to the general, they are ‘decapitated’. They go around doing whatever they want…ambling around aimlessly throughout the base…scattering even more litter as they go. So as far as the base is concerned, their presence accomplishes nothing of real consequence. They are not an asset; they merely cause problems for the others.
The civilians disregard the obligations the uniform imposes on those that wear it. In relation to the soldiers around them, they are only ‘laymen’, uninvolved outsiders. They not only do not ‘march to a different drummer’, they don’t march at all!
Obviously, should their country be overtaken by deadly warfare, those in uniform would be the ones that would be sent rushing toward the combat zones…to face and engage the enemy as soon as possible. But the ‘exempt civilians’ would instinctively flee from any danger, scattering in opposite directions…a panic-stricken, totally disorganized rabble. Their only concern would be to save their own skins! But of course, they would be totally untrained, unequipped, and without the needed skills to be of any value whatsoever to the war effort, or even to themselves. In fact, their useless ineptitude would better serve the purposes of the enemy than they would those of their own nation!
The military personnel on the other hand, have no option but to obey orders and fight to the death. There is no other possibility on their menu of options. The moment they enlisted, their ‘exempt civilian life’ died! From that moment onward, their commander became their head and they became his body. Regardless of the situation or the cost or the consequences, they will always do as he commands; and thankfully, they are trained and equipped to do the job.
This is the disciplined mindset we’ll have to develop if we decide to obey the Lord when He says to us, “Follow Me!” We will decide to follow Him IF we know who He really is. We will recognize and acknowledge His Supreme Authority over all of Creation, including us, and will be predisposed to do whatever He says. But those that do not know Him, and those that reject Him as Commander, will ignore his call and continue to follow their own desires, urges and agendas. In that case, they prove that they are ‘Head-less’.
Most of the human race is tragically deluded in their understanding of ‘Jesus Christ’. They assume the right to decide whether or not His claims are true. They operate on the assumption that if they agree with Him, He is what He claims to be. But if they disagree, He is nothing.
But His Truth and Reality and Authority do not depend on, or rise or fall, with anyone’s opinions or personal preferences. He is the absolute Lord of all Creation, whether we like it or not. According to the revelation of the Bible, the living Word of God has all authority in Heaven and on Earth (Mt. 28:18). Actually, He is everyone’s Commander. So in relation to the living Word of God and His Kingdom, there really is no such thing as an, ‘exempt civilian’. The human race is caught up in the deadliest of wars. No one can escape it; everyone is involved…we are on one side or the other. If we don’t wear the ‘uniform’ of God’s living Word, we’re wearing the ‘uniform’ of The Serpent…even if we do not have a clue about what we’re really doing!
Matthew 12:30
“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”
Luke 23:33-35
“When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” (Emphasis added.)
Therefore it follows: those that do not obediently follow God’s living Word, and abide under His absolute Authority, are guilty of treason against the King of the Kingdom of Heaven! They are thus to be classified as war time ‘deserters’, or at best, as…‘absent without leave’ while they aid and abet the war efforts of the enemy!
So even though we are all the property of our Creator, humans are divided into two groups. The largest group ignores, or even rejects Him outright. They are deluded into thinking they are free to govern themselves. Only a remnant is willing to acknowledge Him and live under His command. Peter was obviously not writing to ‘civilians’. He was only addressing those that were and are, ‘in uniform’ , ‘under orders’ and ‘on duty’.
Our Commander deploys His disciples all across the globe. We are ‘stationed’ in the world, but are most definitely not of the world. So Peter was urging and encouraging his fellow soldiers to man their posts, be faithful in their duty, and hold their ground at all costs. He was reminding them of the truth the Lord had once expressed in his hearing:
Matthew 7:13-14; 21-27
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it…
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Emphasis added.)
The military base scenario, and the general and the two groups of people help us see the difference between ‘the multitudes’ and ‘the disciples’ that are mentioned so often in the Gospels, and to understand what our Master meant when he spoke of lives that are build on ‘the rock’ and those that are build on ‘the sand’. It also helps us understand why the Lord acted so differently with the multitudes than He did with His disciples:
Mark 4:33-34
“With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they (the multitudes) were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”
Both groups showed interest in the Lord…but for different reasons. The multitudes followed Him around to see what they could get out of Him for themselves. The disciples were spiritually equipped by the Holy Spirit to recognize the Master. Gradually they came to realize that He is the eternal living Word of God who created the universe. It dawned on them that He was the one that Moses had written about in the Torah. He was the living Word of God that had created the universe and continually sustains it. They realized that it was He that had appeared to Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and to the entire nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. Then they grasped the awesome fact that He had been with God since before Creation and that He was God! Now He was was with them in human form…the very one that had appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and others!
So it was Authority Himself who told them to drop everything and follow Him and the Spirit of God equipped them to realize it. So what other choice did these faithful Israelites have? How could they have refused the Word of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? To obey God’s living Word is to build your life on solid granite! But to disobey is to commit suicide by cutting off your own Head! (See Deut. 28, 29)
Matthew 13:10-13
“And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ Jesus answered them, ‘To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see; and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand…’”
The people of ‘the multitudes’ were, for the most part, very religious. Most went to the temple services and attended synagogue functions regularly. They observed the rules in God’s written Word along with thousands of other regulations contained in their man-made traditions, thinking that by doing that, they could save themselves apart from Him. God’s Living Word was not their Commander at all times and in all things. His disciples trusted and revered Him as their Head because they knew who He really was. But the multitudes had their own ideas and agendas to pursue and what they knew of Yeshua did not really, fundamentally change them. They did not recognize Him or realize that He was their only Way to Salvation and that apart from the Creator who stood before them, they could not be or do anything!
In a spiritual sense, the multitudes were blind and deaf. They found Yeshua fascinating and entertaining, but they were not compelled to drop everything and come into His life and follow His agenda. The Lord said ‘whoever has, will be given more’. But these people ‘did not have’. So even what they had was taken from them. So to the majority of the people on Earth, the Lord’s true disciples are considered to be weird and ‘alien’. That’s why the Lord says to the multitudes:
John 8:23
“…You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.”
But to His disciples, He says:
John 15:9
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”
To the ‘exempt civilians’, Yeshua was an exceptional man, perhaps even a prophet…but only a man. They were curious to see how the tension between Him and their religious leaders and teachers was going to end up. But they had no idea He was God’s living Word…and that out of nothingness…He spoke the universe into existence.
John 3:5-15
“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’
“Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.’” (Emphasis added.)
Our Master is incomprehensible to ‘Head-less’ people. Their hearts are closed to the Holy Spirit. So God’s Truth can’t pierce, penetrate and impregnate their innermost being.
Luke 18:24-27
“…Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But He said, ‘The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.’”
Instinctively, self-adoring worldly people know that they can’t have it both ways. If the Lord says, ‘Follow Me’ to them, they must choose between living under Him, or, maintaining control of their independent lives. Some of them become very religious. But they can’t recognize their Creator and Sustainer when He calls them. Their hard hearts are closed off to the one that created them. They are not equipped to know Him because the Serpent has decapitated them and keeps them separate them from Him. That’s why Yeshua told Nicodemas, ‘You must be born again!’ (See Jn. 3)
To some of the decapitated multitudes, Yeshua was just a charlatan; others acknowledged Him to be a respected teacher. Many were fascinated and were anxious to receive blessings from Him. Others eyed Him continually, vainly trying to catch Him in some violation of the warnings Moses gave to Israel in Deuteronomy 13, concerning false teachers, prophets and messiahs.
But His disciples lived wholeheartedly under His Authority. They followed and lived with Him day and night. They attended to His needs and obeyed Him, on His terms and shared His fate. They knew He was the Fulfillment of everything God promised Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Israel. So they listened and took to heart everything He said. And they are the ones He trained to reveal His indwelling Resurrection Presence when the time for that arrived.
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
God’s living Word is the Father’s Ultimate Disciple! He always does His Father’s will at all times…no more and no less. He is the living embodiment and fulfillment of all of the commandments and restrictions God inspired Moses to write. They were given by His living Word, and they are all fulfilled by His living Word…in and through the flesh and lives of His true, authentic, New Covenant disciples.
Deuteronomy 4:1-2
“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the Word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”
That was Yeshua’s lifestyle to a tee! He did only what His Father willed; He didn’t add or subtract anything. He is the fulfillment of everything Moses wrote! He lived among us as ‘The Son of Man’, the perfect human image and likeness of His Father who sent Him. He represents the rest of His human brothers and sisters…the ‘living dead’, the ‘decapitated offspring of Adam’. And in their name He fulfills God’s eternal Covenant, both on the part of God, and on the part of Man. And by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit that is given to His own, this is what He continues to do to them…in them…and through them!
The entire nation of Israel was commissioned to be God’s image and likeness at Mt. Sinai. But the poor, Sin-corrupted flesh of those people was not even close to being able to try to ‘be as God’ by their own efforts and in their own natural human strength. God Himself had to do it. He had always planned to be and do everything required of His fallen, Sin-corrupted image and likeness. He would do it…through His living Word…in their name. That is why our relationship with the living Word is of such paramount importance!
To His Father’s eternal Glory, God’s Word became flesh and served as the Covenant Representative…the heart and soul of God’s ‘Holy Nation’, Israel. He is the Ultimate High Priest of that ‘Priestly Nation’. He is their perfect, ‘Ultimate Passover Lamb’ and ‘Kinsman Redeemer’. He, in His infinite, eternal Perfect Obedience to His Father, serves as their living Torah, to make sure everything in the written Torah will be restored and regenerated and obeyed, fulfilled and redeemed to a level of human perfection that matches and reflects perfectly, the holy, perfect nature of God!
Like all other children of Adam, the Sin-corrupted men and women of Israel were ‘fallen flesh’. Like the rest of us, they could not obey God in a way that would meet His infinitely perfect standards perfectly. Regardless of how religiously ‘correct’ any of us may try to be, we will all, invariably, fall short of God’s infinite, eternal Perfection. So God sent His own perfect Word to become one of us, to serve as our perfect Representative. He is the Human Fulfillment of all that God commanded and requires of us all! The Word reveals and embodies God and His nature and His ways and His will. He is God’s perfect Image and Likeness for all the rest of us. And just as Yeshua did not add to or subtract from what His Father sent Him to be and do in our midst, so also so His disciples serve in a way that allows Him to be their indwelling Righteousness so that He can transform them into His own image and likeness:
1 John. 2:5-6
“…whoever keeps His Word (Yeshua); in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him (the Word): the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
So there’s a vast difference in nature, character, disposition, lifestyle and spiritual ‘Fruit’ between decapitated humans not under His Headship, and those that are one with Him, like living branches joined to their vine. Yeshua is…The Vine…sent to us from our Father in Heaven. So if you’re bonded and united with Him, don’t be surprised if you feel and look like a total ‘misfit’ in this world. The energy polarity of this decapitated earth-bound people is naturally always ‘horizontal’ in its polarity. The people that run and depend on the world’s system are ‘flesh-oriented’. They immerse themselves in the temporal, tangible, sensual worldly things around them. Worldly matters are all they are aware of or care about. But to Heavenly matters, they remain blind and deaf. That’s why they ignore God’s Truth and invent cheap counterfeit substitutes for themselves…false gods…false religions…false prophets and teachers. Others twist God’s Truth and distort it until it becomes something different entirely that will suit their own fallen, Sin-loving desires, opinions and agendas. But because they put their faith in created things, those things also become false gods that originate in the self-serving imaginations of fallen men:
Jeremiah 2:12-14
“‘Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,’ declares the Lord. ‘For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Is Israel a slave? Or is he a home born servant? Why has he become a prey?”
For these reasons…there’s an unbridgeable gap between the nature of true, Spirit-filled, Word-obeying disciples of God’s Word, and human beings that take it upon themselves to judge God…deciding for themselves whether or not He is worthy to be believed, trusted and obeyed according to His claims.
Luke 6:46
“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”