A Great Gospel Calls for a Changed Life

Acts 2:9-11                     1 Peter 1:1-13                        Matthew 5:17-20

A Great Gospel Calls for a Changed Life

When reading someone else’s mail, especially an ancient letter that was written in a different cultural setting, we have to do a bit of homework before trying to unpack what we read. This is equally true of early Christian documents like 1 Peter. So we approach the letter asking a number of questions. Who wrote it, to whom, from where, and finally what was written and why.

So, let’s start with the most obvious…well, obvious at least to those who hold to the canonical text as received. This letter begins by telling us who wrote it. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ or Peter, the one sent by Jesus Christ, depending on how you translate the Greek word “apostle” which can indicate a title or a purpose. 

Also, Early Church documents and traditions tell us that it was Peter who wrote this letter, so we will go with Peter as the answer to our first question. 

Now, it is important to know who wrote the letter because once we know who wrote it we can understand a lot more about the author of the letter and that will help us understand more about what he says and why he says what he does. 

However, as with most ancient documents, our answer here tends to be a little more complex. Some scholars have objected to the authorship of Peter because, they say, the Greek prose is too sophisticated for what they believe would be a level too high for a Galilean fisherman and they cite Acts 4:13 where Peter and John are referred to as “uneducated, common men”. 

No, my answer to this objection is a) the evaluation of their education in Acts 4 was made by men who considered everyone who had not studied as they did as uneducated and, b) didn’t Jesus say that the Holy Spirit would give us the words to speak when we needed them? (Matthew 10:19) And we believe that the Holy Spirit inpired these words, do we not? (1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; see also Mark 12:36)

However, there is an even more simple answer to this objection. At the end of his letter, Peter tells us that “by Silvanus (a man whom most scholars believe is Paul’s missionary companion Silas)…I have written briefly to you”…indicating that Peter, like Paul, used a scribe to write what he dictated. 

So, I think we can safely move forward to the second most obvious question and that is, to whom was this letter written. Well, the text says it was written, “to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythynia.” The places mentioned here are all located in what is today northern Turkey. 

Historically, the term "of the Dispersion" (or of the Diaspora) referred exclusively to the Jewish people who were forcibly scattered across the globe for various reasons, primarily the invasions of foreign nations such as Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and in Peter’s time, Rome. But before we look at the ethnic identity of the receipients of Peter’s letter, let’s first see if Scripture tells us anything about people from this area. 

There are only two places in Scripture where we find these areas mentioned together…the one is obviously here in 1 Peter 1:2…and the other is in Acts 2:9-11 where we are told that devout Jews and proselytes (Gentiles who had converted to Judasim) who were residents from (amongst other places) “Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Bithynia, and Pamphylia (which prior to AD 74 was part of the province of Galatia) were present in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. 

Early Church tradition holds that the Pentecost converts who had heard Peter preach in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and had accepted the Christian Faith, and who were perhaps initially discipled by Peter and the other Jerusalem Church Leaders, returned to their home provinces in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and established the very churches Peter later wrote to and, I will argue, the very churches he visited on his way to and from Rome.

So it is possible that this word “dispersion” may indicate that the people Peter was writing to were Jewish believers that had been scattered across the globe prior to their conversion to Christianity and who had subsequently returned to their places of residency after Pentecost and had started house churches in their homes.

However, some scholars think that the word “dispersion” may include those Jews who were scattered, not by the past invasions of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, or Rome, but by the present persecution of Jewish believers by Jewish unbelievers. We must remember that the Early Christians were first persecuted by those in Jerusalem long before they were persecuted by those in Rome. 

Now, we know of at least two references to persecution in Jerusalem that may have led to the scattering of Jewish believers. The first is the great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem that arose on the day Stephen was stoned to death as recorded in Acts 8:1 and Acts 11:19. This persecution ended with the conversion of Saul, the main instigator of hatred against believers. 

The second is the short-lived persecution of the Church by Herod as recorded in Acts 12. However, we do know from Scripture and the writings of the First Century historian, Flavius Josephus, that unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem and elsewhere constantly persecuted believers throughout the Early Church period, at least up until the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

So, it is possible that the recipients of Peter’s letter were Jewish believers that had been displaced by both invasion and persecution. 

Now, when did Peter write this letter to these believers and from where? Well I believe…and I stress, I believe because most scholars believe this letter was written later…I believe the letter was written fairly early, perhaps even before Paul’s first missionary journey. Why do I say that? 

Well, firstly because the content of the letter appears to be what would be written to new believers. It is pretty basic Christianity 101 that could be likened to material for a disciple making group or a confirmation class. This doesn’t sound like something Peter would write to a long established mature church. 

My second reason reason is that  Ancient church traditions, often preserved by early writers such as Hippolytus of Rome and recorded by the Church historian Eusebius, claim that Peter first spent time in Antioch, then journeyed through Asia Minor. It may be his first journey took place before what is recorded about Antioch in Acts 11:19 and following because it is strange that there is no mention of Peter in this passage even though he is front and centre before it and after it. 

Remember it is Barnabas who is sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to investigate the explosive multi-ethnic growth in that city, not Peter, as one might have expected. Or it could be that Peter visited (or revisited) these areas after he had fled Jerusalem following his miraculous escape from prison in Acts 12. 

Either way, according to these traditions, Peter ministered throughout these regions before eventually heading to Rome.

This leads us to our final question. Did Peter write the letter from Rome or from Jerusalem? Does the letter say anything about the geographical location of Peter at the time of writing? 

Well, there is only one cryptic reference to location and that is found in 1 Peter 13. “She who is in Babylon, who is likewise chosen, send you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.” Now, most scholars think that the name “Babylon” here refers to Rome because Rome was the great persecutor and oppressor of the Christian Church. 

However, as I said earlier, persecution from Rome came much later. In fact Acts seems to indicate that the Roman State was more interested in keeping the peace than in persecuting anyone. 

Secondly, in this letter, Peter seems to have a favourable view of the Roman government and of its emperor. In 1 Peter 2:13 and following Peter instructs these believers to “be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good”. In fact he tells them to “honour the emperor”! 

Add to this the fact that the earliest extant Jewish text that clearly uses “Babylon” as a symbolic name for Rome, is the Sibylline Oracles, Book V, generally dated to roughly 80-125 AD, long after Peter’s lifetime. “Wretched city,” that author writes, “Latin land… Babylon, you alone shall fall…”

This is generally regarded as the earliest Jewish work in which the identification of Rome as Babylon is explicit.  Prior to that, 70 AD and earlier, Jewish texts overwhelmingly identified Rome with Edom/Esau, Kittim, or the fourth kingdom of Daniel, but never Babylon.

This has caused some scholars to connect the name “Babylon” not to Rome but to Jerusalem because, as we have already seen in Acts, Jerusalem and the unbelieveing Jews are the main source of oppression and persecution of Jewish believers. Also, John in Revelation 11:8 identifies the “Great City”, that he later calls Babylon, as the place “where (our) Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:8) and the place where “the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth” was  found, which is a direct quotation of Jesus’ prophecy about Jerusalem in Matthew 23:34-35. “Therefore,” Jesus said, “I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.”

So, personally, I think the Idea that Peter was writing from Jerusalem and not from Rome fits better with the time frame if we believe that Peter wrote this letter prior to the Great persecution of Nero that resulted in his martyrdom in the mid AD 60’s.

However, you will be grateful to know that the geographical location for the writing of this letter does not change what we can learn from the text…so I think we can safely move on to the text itself.

But before we do, I want you to imagine being forced to leave your home and your country because following Jesus had made you unwelcome. Some of your family, friends, and neighbours no longer trusted you. Some even regarded you as a traitor. You could no longer conduct business in the marketplace because no one would buy or trade with you. And then, suddenly, you were told that you either had to deny Jesus or you would be impisoned and put to death.  Where would you look for hope?

As we’ve already seen, Peter is writing to Jewish Christians scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. They lived in these areas either because of past invasions or present persecutions and so Peter's point is unmistakable: God's people now live as exiles in a hostile world.

But before Peter tells them what they must do and how they must live, he reminds them not only of what God has already done, but also who they are because of what God has already done. Everything begins with identity. In verses 1-2 Peter describes the recipients of this letter as the elect, as exiles, and as those who have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 

So, firstly, their indentity is founded upon God's initiative. He elected them and he chose them. We must never lose sight of the basic fact that Christianity begins with grace. They are the elect of God.

Secondly he calls them exiles. Now it may be that Peter was not just referring to their physical displacement, but also to the fact that as citizens of Heaven we should always consider ourselves as a people who belong somewhere else. Not that we are homeless or abandoned, but rather that we are living temporarily in a foreign culture…we are in the world, but we are not of it. We are exiles.

Thirdly, Peter said that they had been sanctified by the Holy Spirit for obedience to Jesus. I do want you to notice the Trinitarian formula used here by Peter. They had been chosen by the Father, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, for obedience to Jesus as they had been sprinkled with His blood. 

This imagery of blood sprinkling no doubt comes from Exodus 24 where Moses sprinkles the people with the blood of the sacrifice after they had promised to obey God. The blood of the sacrifice sealed the Old Covenant then and likewise the sacrificial blood of Jesus seals the New Covenant now.

Which tells us that salvation is not merely about forgiveness, but it includes obedient allegiance. We belong to King Jesus and identity comes before behaviour. Peter never says, "Behave like Christians so that God will choose you." Rather he says, "Because God chose you, you belong to him therefore live accordingly."

Then in verses 3-12 Peter reminds them of what God has given them. These verses are one long explosion of praise. Peter piles blessing upon blessing. Perhaps we can organise what he says around seven things that God gives to his children.

First, he gives us a living hope that is grounded on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Because Jesus lives... hope lives. Not wishful thinking. 

Second, God gives us a secure inheritance, which is unlike anything the world can give. Our inheritance cannot perish, cannot spoil, and it cannot fade. And I think it is important for us to take note of the possible contrast here. 

Those whom Peter is writing to have lost homes, their livelihood, and perhaps even family members and friends. What comfort then to hear that God has given them something nothing and no one can ever take away.

Third, God gives us an assurance of his protecting power. Not only has he given us an inheritance that is kept safe. We are kept safe. We are guarded through faith for salvation by God’s power. That is a wonderful statement of reassurance, don’t you think?

Fourth, God grants us joy in suffering. Note that, Peter does not minimise suffering. He acknowledges grief. “You have been grieved,” he says, “by various trials”. Yet neither trials nor grief have the final word. Through these trials their faith has been refined like gold and in that they can rejoice with a joy that Peter describes as inexpressible and filled with glory. And through that faith – faith in one they have not seen and yet one in whom they have believed – they are assured of the salvation of their souls. 

And finally, Peter reminds them of the privilege that is theirs of living in the time after Jesus’ earthly ministry. Before the incarnation the prophets searched and longed to know what has now been made known to us. They predicted the things we now see as fulfilled…things that even the angels who live in the presence of God longed to comprehend. 

So, in summary, in these first twelve verses of his letter, Peter has reminded his recipients of what God has done. Only now, does he give the first command.

Therefore…because of what God has done for you, set you hope fully on grace. Verse 13 serves as a hinge on which the passage turns. 

“Therefore, (because of what God has done for you and) preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In other words, you have been born to a livng hope, now live in that hope…live out your calling…live out your identity.

But it is important to note that in order to be able to do this, we must prepare our minds (or gird up the loins of our minds) and be sober minded (or be self-disciplined). In the context I believe this means that we must be careful to base our lives, our thoughts and our words and our behaviour, on the revelation we have received through the Gospel. 

This calls for a diligent study of the Scriptures…to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them…if we are to live as people that have received grace upon grace.

In Matthew 5 Jesus repeatedly said, "You have heard that it was said..." Note that he didn’t say “you have read that it was written”, but rather “you have heard that it was said”, no doubt a referrence to Jewish scholarly commentary on the Scriptural texts, in other words what the Scribes and Phariesses were teaching the people. “You have heard that it was said, but,” Jesus added, “but I say..." In other words, do not follow their teaching…follow mine. Or in Paul’s words, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is…his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

All visible sin is simply a manifestation of internal sin. Murder begins with anger. Adultery begins with lust. And therefore obedient living must begin in a changed heart and Christian holiness must begin with a prepared or a renewed mind.

So, because of what God has done for you you must learn to think Christianly. Fill your mind with truth. Reject lies. You must be sober-minded, self-controlled, and spiritually alert. Not intoxicated by the world's values. And you must set your hope fully on grace. Christian hope is not optimism…it is confidence in God's promised future based squarely on what God has done in the past and what he is doing in the present.

The world often thinks Christianity is mainly about rules, but Peter says otherwise. He spends twelve verses talking about God and what he has done before saying a single thing about what we must do.

He reminds us that we are chosen, that we are born again to a living hope. That we are recipients of an eternal inheritance that is guarded by God's power.

He tells us that lasting joy comes through suffering. That our salvation was foretold by prophets and admired by angelic beings.

And only then does he say, "Therefore..."

The Christian life is never an attempt to earn God's favour. It is a grateful response to grace already given. The greater our appreciation of the gospel, the greater our desire to obey. Peter tells us that obedience begins internally…he says it begins in the renewed mind…the same humble mind of Jesus. (Philippians 2:5)

This means that if we would live differently, we must first learn to think differently.

So every morning we need to remind ourselves who we are. We are God's chosen people. We also need to remember what he has done for us. He has given us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. And then, because of that great and grace-filled gospel, we must prepare our minds for action, because a great and grace-filled gospel will always produce a changed life.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2026

His Workmanship – A Sonnet

His Workmanship – A Sonnet

Commentary on Ephesians 2:10

May I become what only I can be,

so that my days may ripple with a rhyme

that flows along to where my heart is free

to cultivate an echo that is mine.

My leanest years were seldom born of need,

but of the masks I only wore for show.

I starved my soul each time I failed to heed

the truth I had already come to know.

So I’ll not choose a path for vain applause,

but search his will to find where I might breathe

and bud and bloom beside his certain cause

where I may learn to live what I believe

about the person I was born to be,

the only one who truly can be me.

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2026

Jesus – our Source and our Goal: Part One

Psalm 24                           2 Chronicles 7:13-14                         1 Corinthians 10:1–11:1                 

Jesus – our Source and our Goal: Part One

There is a little village on the Isle of Lewis called Barvas. It is a place of windswept moors, stone cottages, and long winters. In 1949, the church had become quiet and sleepy. The pews were filled with memories rather than expectation. If you had visited a church in Barvas at that time, you would probably have concluded that it was simply another congregation slowly fading into history.

Yet in one small cottage, two elderly sisters refused to accept that verdict.

Christine Smith was eighty-four years old and blind. Her sister Peggy was eighty-two, bent almost double with arthritis. Neither of them possessed influence or position. They could not organise events. They could not preach. They could not visit homes across the island. Their usefulness, many might have assumed, had long since passed.

But they could still pray.

One evening, as Pete Greig recounts in his book Dirty Glory, these two sisters sat by the peat fire burdened by the spiritual condition of their village. But their grief was not for themselves…it was for the absence of a generation. They longed to see young people filling the church once again. As they prayed, one of the sisters received a vision of the church crowded with young people. The next morning they summoned the minister.

"Revival is coming," they told him.

"What should I do?" the minister asked.

Peggy's reply has become famous. "What should you do? You should pray, man!"

They proposed an agreement. If the minister and the council members would gather twice a week in a barn on the opposite end of town to pray, they would spend those same nights praying in their cottage on their side of town from ten o'clock until three in the morning.

And so they began. Week after week. Month after month. Five hours at a time.

But nothing happened. No crowds of young people…in fact, no crowds at all. No conversions. No excitement. 

Only prayer. 

Now, we'll come back to that story later, because I suspect Paul would have understood those long months of apparent silence far better than we might imagine.

Last week, as we concluded chapter nine, Paul left us standing beside an athletic track. We watched runners straining every muscle toward the finish line. We watched boxers disciplining their bodies through relentless training. Their eyes were fixed on a wreath that would fade in time, and yet they willingly denied themselves every unnecessary indulgence because the prize mattered more than their comfort.

Then Paul said something extraordinary. "I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." Those words ought to stop every one of us in our tracks.

If any believer could be considered spiritually secure, surely it was the Apostle Paul. If anyone possessed theological knowledge, missionary experience, spiritual gifts, and sacrificial devotion, surely it was Paul. Yet he refuses to presume upon God's grace. He refuses to believe that yesterday's faithfulness guarantees tomorrow's perseverance.

As we have seen so far in our series on 1 Corinthians, Paul has one central argument running from 8:1 all the way to 11:1, and it is remarkably simple. The greatest threat to the church is not doctrinal ignorance, but self-centred confidence. 

In Chapter 8, he tells us that while knowledge puffs up, other-person-centred love builds up. In Chapter 9 he said that he would willingly give up anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Jesus…that he became all things to all people so that he might save some…and that his focus in running the spiritual race was disciplined and determined so that he might himself not be disqualified. 

But this closing statement leaves us with an obvious question. What does Paul mean by being disqualified? Well, I think Paul seeks to answer this question in chapter 10. 

Now, I find it interesting that Paul does not answer with a definition, but rather he answers with a story and not just any story. The story. The Exodus. Because if we want to understand the danger of spiritual complacency, Paul says the best biblical example we can find is one that takes place during Israel's wilderness wanderings.

In Chapter 10 he recounts the story of post-Exodus Israel…a people that had every privilege imaginable and yet who still failed to obtain the promised prize.

But it is also here in Chapter 10 that Paul delivers his climactic clincher as he reveals the source of unity in diversity…the one single focus that helps us run the race together as one team despite our many differences…and that one focus is Jesus. 

“You are one body,” he says, “because you all have the same thoughts on the mode of baptism or the way Jesus is present during Holy Communion.” No, wait, that’s not what he says. “You are one body because you all hold to the exact same millennial view.” No…Paul says, “You are one body because you share in one bread." That’s what makes us one body…we share in one bread. And because our participation in Jesus makes us one, we should never seek our own good but always seek the good of the others in that one body. 

And then in Chapter 11:1 Paul wraps up his discourse by providing us with the method of how we should live as one body despite our many differences and that is each participant’s personal perseverance in their own pursuit of imitating Jesus. 

If each one concerns themselves with their own quest to be more like Jesus…to be conformed to his image…to have his humble mind in themselves…then together, as members of the same team, united in the one loaf that is Jesus, we will cross the finish line and win the imperishable crown of life in him.

So, Paul begins. "I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters...that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink."

Now, did you notice that there is one word that echoes through these opening verses like the steady beat of a drum.

All.

All were under the cloud.

All passed through the sea.

All were baptised into Moses.

All ate the same spiritual food.

All drank the same spiritual drink.

Paul repeats it deliberately because he wants the Corinthians to understand something before he warns them of anything. Every single person who left Egypt stood on exactly the same footing before God.

Men. Women. Children. The elderly. The young. The strong. The weak. Even the mixed multitude that had joined Israel when they left Egypt.

Not one person was excluded from God's miraculous deliverance. The cloud shadowed them all. The sea opened before them all. The manna fed them all. The water sustained them all. Grace made no distinctions even though there were many differences among them.

And that is where Paul begins. With grace…and what a magnificent grace it was.

Imagine standing on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Behind you lies slavery. Before you lies a new life of freedom. The sea that moments before seemed to be a barrier to freedom has now become the boundary between your old life and your new one. Egypt can no longer reach you. You are free.

I think this is what Paul wants to impress upon us when he says that they were "baptised into Moses”.

Well, just as our Christian baptism symbolically marks our passing from the kingdom of darkness and slavery to sin and Satan into the kingdom of light and freedom to serve Jesus…so too their baptism in the Sea marked their passing from the kingdom of Egypt and slavery into the kingdom of God and freedom to serve him. 

And just as our Christian baptism marks our union with Jesus and our inclusion as members of his covenant people, placing us squarely under his leadership and his sovereignty, so passing through the sea united Israel under the leadership of Moses and the sovereignty of God. They emerged not merely as escaped slaves but as one covenant community, one redeemed people, journeying together under God's appointed servant.

Now notice that Paul does not focus on individuals here. He focuses on a people. Divine salvation created a community. Divine deliverance created unity. God did not redeem isolated believers. He redeemed a people for himself.

So, already, perhaps, we begin to see why Paul has brought the Corinthians to this point.

Their arguments about things that divided them…food, freedom, and rights…those things caused them to think almost entirely as individuals. But individualism leads to disunity because it focusses on what I think and what I want.

So Paul gently yet firmly reminds them that redemption has never been about isolated individuals. It has always been about forming one people who belong to one God.

But then Paul says something even more astonishing. "They all drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."

Those words have puzzled Christians for centuries. Was Christ really present in the wilderness? Now in my simplistic and perhaps naïve mind, I think Paul's answer is wonderfully simple. Yes.

You see, Jesus did not appear for the first time in Bethlehem. It is not as if God's Son suddenly entered history at Christmas. No, the eternal Son has been an active member of the Trinity since before time began…through him all things came into existence…he has always been the saviour of his people from eternity to eternity.

So, when Israel drank water from the rock in the wilderness, they experienced not merely a miracle but the gracious foreshadowing of the one who would provide spiritual water that will quench our thirst for eternity (John 4:10-14)…the one from whom God’s River of living water would flow (John 7:37-39)…and the one from whose pierced side blood and water flowed as he died for our salvation.

I think Paul is saying that the same one who feeds his Church today sustained Israel then. The same faithful Lord who invites us to his table today, journeyed with his people through the wilderness.

The Corinthians, therefore, cannot imagine themselves to possess privileges greater than Israel's. And nor can we.

We are all are baptised. We are all fed with bread from heaven. We all drink from the Rock that is Christ.  All of them…all of us. God was gracious in ages past…God is gracious still today…and God will be gracious into all eternity.

However, having repeated the word "all" five times, Paul suddenly changes direction with words that must have fallen upon the Corinthians like a thunderclap.

"Nevertheless..."

"Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness."

That sentence is almost unbearable. All received grace…and yet. All experienced God's mighty deliverance…and yet. All belonged to the covenant community…and yet…most never entered the Promised Land…in fact, only three members of the original adult company that left Egypt crossed over the River Jordan into the Promised Land.

How can that be? Well, that is precisely the question Paul wants the Corinthians (and us) to wrestle with.

Because if the astonishing privileges poured out on Israel did not make them immune from judgment, well then neither baptism, nor communion, nor years spent in church, nor theological knowledge, nor faithful service can ever become grounds for spiritual presumption.

Grace is never a licence for complacency. It is always an invitation to humble perseverance.

And perhaps, without yet realising it, we are beginning to understand why nothing happened for so many weeks in that little village of Barvas, for the greatest obstacle to the work of God is seldom a lack of activity.

It is far more often the quiet assumption that because we have known God's blessings, we no longer need God's searching.

As Pete Grieg says in his book, despite the fact that there “were no instant answers, no further visions, and certainly no teenagers miraculously turning up at church…the Smith sisters kept praying in their cottage and the (church council) kept praying in their barn for many weeks, until…until a particular night when one of the council members stood to read Psalm 24: 

“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (ESV) 

“Brethren,” (the council member) said, “it is just so much humbug to be waiting thus, night after night, month after month, if we ourselves are not right with God.” They nodded and he continued, “I must ask myself, ‘is my heart pure? Are my hands clean?” He lifted his head and emitted a strange cry, then he fell to his knees and crumpled to the floor. The barn was suddenly filled with the presence of God. It was a moment that would later be identified as ‘the catalyst that let loose a power that shook the Hebrides’.”

What Paul tells us about the Israelites serves as an example to us all. “These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” 

And so, I must ask myself, is my heart pure? I must ask myself, are my hands clean?

There is something deeply unsettling about what Paul says here about Israel in the wilderness.

Surely God would not rescue an entire nation from slavery, sustain them through the wilderness, reveal his glory in the pillar of cloud, feed them daily with bread from heaven, give them water from the rock and then say that he was "not pleased with most of them."

And yet that is exactly what Paul says.

But the tragedy was not that God had failed them. The tragedy was that, having received such extraordinary grace, they gradually lost sight of the God who had given it.

But isn't that the story of the human heart?

How easily we become more fascinated with God's gifts than with God himself.

How easily yesterday's miracle becomes today's expectation.

How quickly gratitude gives way to entitlement.

The wilderness generation did not wake up one morning and decide to abandon the Lord. Their downfall was far more subtle than that. It happened one small compromise at a time, one act of distrust at a time, one complaint at a time. Their hearts slowly drifted from the God who had redeemed them.

And that is precisely why Paul says, "These things happened as examples for us."

But we need to take notice of that word ‘example’. Paul is not inviting us to sit in judgment over Israel. He is inviting us to use Israel as a mirror.

The temptation when we read the Old Testament is always to think, How could they have been so blind? But Paul wants us to ask a far more uncomfortable question.

How much of Israel do I find in myself?

And the answer to that question changes everything, because now the wilderness is no longer ancient history…it has become a spiritual diagnostic tool.

Paul names four particular sins. Idolatry, sexual immorality, putting God to the test, and grumbling.

At first glance they seem unrelated, but beneath them lies one common root.

Each one is, in its own way, a refusal to trust that God is enough.

Think about them for a moment. Why do people turn to idols? Well, because they want a predictable god they can control.

Why does sexual immorality become so attractive? Because immediate gratification seems preferable to patient obedience.

Why do people test the Lord? Because they demand that God prove himself on their terms.

Why do people grumble? Because they quietly accuse God of failing to provide what is best.

All different sins yet one single disease.

The problem with Israel was that they were no longer satisfied with the God of Scripture. They wanted a god that was more like them.

That is why these stories matter. Paul is not giving the Corinthians a catalogue of ancient failures. He is exposing the anatomy of every temptation that is common to humanity, because sin begins long before the outward act. It begins when our confidence in God's goodness begins to erode.

So Paul’s advice to the Corinthians and to us is simple: "…if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall."

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find that warning intensely personal. It is as if Paul has stopped talking about Israel…that he has stopped talking about Corinth…that he is now he is talking to me.

You know, pride is astonishingly difficult to detect in ourselves. It can even disguise itself as spiritual maturity. That, after all, had been the problem in Corinth from the beginning.

But to return to the story we began with…for weeks those council members gathered in a barn. They prayed faithfully…earnestly…expectantly. And yet...nothing happened.

Until one evening a council member stood to read Psalm 24.

"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart..."

I believe that in this passage Paul quietly places a mirror before us all.

"If you think you are standing..."

Yet, and this is so characteristic of Paul, he refuses to leave us beneath the crushing weight of self-examination. If the passage ended there, we might despair, because who among us can honestly say, "My heart is completely pure." Or "My hands are entirely clean."

So, instead of leaving us in front of the mirror of post-Exodus Israel’s disqualification, Paul immediately lifts our eyes away from ourselves and fixes them once again upon God. "There is no temptation that has overtaken you except what is common to humanity." What a wonderfully realistic sentence. Paul demolishes one of Satan's oldest lies. The lie that whispers, "No one struggles like you." "No one understands." "No one has ever faced this temptation." “It is just nasty, icky, sticky little you.”

Paul says, "That simply isn't true." Every believer throughout history has discovered the same battlefield. While our temptations differ in form, they do not differ in essence. They are the common inheritance of fallen humanity. Which means none of us fights alone. None of us is uniquely broken. None of us is beyond God's help.

But then comes one of the most hope-filled declarations in Scripture.

"But God is faithful." And in this declaration, Paul has subtly reversed the emphasis. Yes, Israel was unfaithful. Yes, Corinth was becoming unfaithful. Yes, we are often unfaithful. But God's covenant faithfulness never wavers. Our perseverance ultimately rests not upon the strength of our grip on him, but upon the unwavering certainty of his grip on us.

Isn't that the pattern of the whole gospel? When we finally discover that we cannot save ourselves...God points us to his provision…ultimately, to Jesus himself. For every temptation that would draw us away from God finds its answer, not in greater willpower, but in a greater vision of Jesus.

When the council member asked those very personal questions in that barn in Barvas…when he stood before the mirror of God’s Word and was willing to let the Holy Spirit examine him…God was faithful to meet him in his honest questioning and revival was the result. 

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2026