God's truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever!
Posted : 22 Jun, 2012 02:11 AM
Bible Reading:
1 Peter 3:18�22
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient , when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing , wherein few, that is , eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God;
angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Devotional:
This is a notoriously difficult Bible passage. Usually we say it deals with Jesus' descent into hell. If so, then "hell" should be understood as the place where dead people go (Hades) rather than the place where wicked people are punished (Gehenna).
What is especially shocking and puzzling to us is the fact that this letter was originally written to uneducated slaves who had just become Christians. Apparently they understood the meaning of this passage better than the theologians who have been squabbling over it for centuries.
Peter tells these slaves that when they suffer for doing right, they are in good company. If you are beaten, Peter says, remember this: Jesus' battered body sagged on the cross, but that was not the end of him or of his work. He rose in the might of the Spirit. After that he was no longer limited to a certain time and place. He preached his victory in all corners of the universe and emerged at the highest rank�at God's right hand.
All servants of the Lord who are ill-treated in this world should remember that he who became the slave of all is now sovereign over all. Therefore, in the words of Martin Luther:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
the body they may kill: God's truth abideth still;
