New Testament Lesson 43: "A Chosen Generation"

INTRODUCTION

Some of you may remember the print and televised Dodge commercials from several years ago –the ones that always ended with the word different’?  I have a couple of the printed ones in my files.  One shows four rows of four birds each—15 are identical black crows.  But the 16th bird–the last one in the last row, is a red and brightly colored parrot.  Another shows five rows of four nuts. Fifteen are chromed metallic pieces threaded in the center for use on bolts.  But the final nut in the final row is a red pistachio.  Under the parrot and the pistachio is this caption:

DODGE     DIFFERENT

Peter might have designed ads much like these for church members. He said in 1 Peter 2:9:

This sounds like the instruction of Moses at Mt. Sinai.  Moses charged the House of Israel in this way:

The thing that makes us peculiar is that we are Segulah:

The word Segulah is used eight times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Six of those times, it refers to Israel (Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6, 14:2, 26:18; Ps. 135:4; Mal. 3:17). It is translated in various Bible versions as peculiar treasure, special treasure, or treasured possession. One commentator defined it as “property in the special sense of a private possession that one personally acquired and carefully preserves.” Rabbi Sheldon Marder, on MyJewishLearning.com, gives Rabbi Hirsch’s definition (19th-century) as an “exclusive possession to which no one else except its owner is entitled and which has no relationship to anyone except its owner.”

In ancient times, it referred to the special treasure that a conquering king chose for himself among all the spoils of war. This is implied in Ecclesiastes 2:8, where King Solomon records, “I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces…”. David also used segulah to describe the gold and silver that he gave to build the Temple (1 Chron. 29:3).

I have found this word to be elevating.  We are God’s peculiar treasures—his Segulah.  We ought to be different!

As we have studied the New Testament, we have read repeatedly of the expectation of the Lord and his prophets that we not be like the world, that our conduct and our conversation be above reproach.  We have been directed to love our neighbors and our enemies, to feed those who have no hope of returning the favor, to forgive seventy times seven times, to be in the world but not of the world.  We are commanded to be different.  And in fact, if we live our religion and keep our covenants, in the world’s eyes we will be peculiar indeed.

No New Testament author emphasized the peculiar nature of saints, and the ways in which they differ from the world, with more clarity and beauty than Peter.  Joseph Smith said of him, “Peter penned the most sublime language of any of the apostles” (May 17, 1843, DHC 5:392.)  I hope you enjoy it.

I. LIVE IN FAITH AND HOLINESS AS A CHOSEN GENERATION
(1 Peter 1; 2:1-10)

We are aware of things, we understand and believe things, of which the world is entirely unaware.  Even the finest and purest of Christians from other faiths, lacking prophets, revelation, and modern scripture, do not understand much of the meaning of Peter’s description of saints:

Peter says of us that because of the “abundant mercy” of Christ, we are

We are begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection
We are begotten . . . to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
We are kept by the power of God through faith
We can therefore rejoice
In spite of “heaviness through manifold temptations.”       

Notice that the footnote  for ”Manifold temptations” uses the words trials and afflictions as synonyms.  This is important because of the content of verses 7-9:

Why is our faith more precious that gold?  Peter suggests some reasons here:

gold perishes
gold melts in a fire that will hardly toast the edges of faith
trials increase our ability to praise and honor the Savior.
trials increase our love for him without the need to see him
we are thereby enabled to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory”
and then, because of this faith, we receive the blessing in which we have had faith—the “salvation of [our] souls.”

So Peter charges us:  “gird up the loins of your mind . . .” (1 Peter 1:13)  This is again wonderful imagery.  I watched lithe and powerful Egyptian workers return from a lunch break when I was in Cairo many years ago.  They were working on scaffolding many stories high at the side of a tall brick building.  The only way up was to grasp pipes of the scaffolding and climb, but they were, one and all, wearing thick, full-length caftans.  They visited for a moment at the bottom of the wall, and then almost as if the movement had been choreographed, they stooped, grasped the bottom of their beautiful robes, wrapped them between their legs and around their waists, and tucked them in, and began to climb.  They were “girding up their loins!”  

But Peter tells us to gird up the loins of the mind.  I think he means that we cannot wear our membership like a frock coat and a top hat.  We must get ready, mentally, to go to work.  We must prepare for action.  Discipleship in a world of iniquity is not easy.  We are not invited to be pretty good, nor to be better than the “natural men” we meet every moment of our lives.  No.  We are commanded, “be ye holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16) 

And this is not a passive resistance to evil and iniquity.  This kind of holiness will require work and we will of necessity have to gird up the loins of our mind, because “. . . the Father, . . . without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work . . .” (1 Peter 1:17)

We are not going to be redeemed by our wealth, nor by our conversations about it, nor by the traditions we received from our fathers.  We are going to be redeemed by the “precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot . . .” (1 Peter 1: 18,19) or we are not going to be redeemed at all.  Nothing else merits our best efforts.  Not fame, not fortune, not praise nor power from the world.  “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away . . .” (1 Peter 1:24)

II. FOLLOW THE SAVIOR’S EXAMPLE IN ENDURING TRIALS AND PERSECUTION (1 Peter 2:19-24; 3:13-17; 4:12-19)

The recurrent New Testament theme of suffering which we found at the beginning of James reappears here with an interesting insight from the chief apostle.

We must expect that life will turn out to be a test.  As  Sterling W. Sill said (sorry I do not have the reference here)  “You were not sent into the vineyard to eat the grapes.”  The message of the Lord to Abraham is a message for all of us.

Part of that proving–that testing is to see what we will do about our covenants when they are hard to keep.  How will we respond, what will we say and do when we are required to suffer for our righteousness?  Satan seems to be of the opinion that pain and adversity will turn
all of us into apostates.  At least that is what he suggested to the Lord in the book of Job. 

When the Lord pointed out the righteousness of Job, Satan responded by saying, “Doth Job fear God for nought?

You understand what the adversary is suggesting:  Job is perfectly protected in his righteousness.  You have built a hedge–a wall-around him.  Everything he touches turns to gold.  If his name weren’t Job it would be Midas.  Of course he serves you.  His service is making him rich.  But . . .

As a matter of fact, Job’s wife does the very thing Lucifer expected.  When the loss of family and personal property and wealth was compounded by the disease of chapter 2, Job’s wife says to him, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity?  Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9)

Peter’s appeal, echoing through the ages to a time when the righteous still suffer unjustly is that we retain our integrity and bear patiently the trials that come.  We must be willing in the midst of undeserved suffering to say with Job, “Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.” (Job 27:5.,6)     

Pres. Hunter said:

III. PARTAKE OF THE DIVINE NATURE AND STRIVE TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE (2 Peter 1)

This divine nature is another quality of Christian disciples that sets them apart from the world.   But we must let this nature grow in our character.  We must add to the goodness that comes to us as members of his Church and kingdom.

Peter here identifies each of the characteristics mentioned in D&C 4, except humility and diligence.  These are critical qualitites,       

And so Peter tell us to

Calling and election mean the same thing.  We were “elect[ed] according to the foreknowledge of God.” (1 Peter 1:2)  Because of faith and good works in the pre-existence (see Alma 13), we were called or elected to certain privileges in this life, and to be the recipients of

Certain things were prophesied conditionally about us.  If we live by the Spirit and give diligence to acquiring the attributes of Godhood, then our calling and election are made sure.  That is, we receive the “more sure word of prophecy.” (2 Peter 1:19)   

D&C 131:5 tells us that

IV. RESIST FALSE TEACHERS AND THOSE WHO DENY THE SECOND COMING (2 Peter 2,3; Jude)

Both Peter and Jude send a warning to us across the centuries.  “There shall be false prophets among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)  Which of us has not seen them or felt their influence on ourselves or our loved ones or our friends.

My closest friend in high school is no longer a member of the church.
He invited me one day after years of separation to have dinner with him in a Salt Lake restaurant.  While we ate he told me of his newfound faith, that he had finally found the “fullness,” and that he was leaving this Church and his wife and five lovely children to embrace it  and to take another wife who understood the truth as he did. 

An Elder’s Quorum President from a ward on the East Coast called me and asked permission to come to my home and tell me what had happened to him.  I did not extend an invitation, but during our conversation on the phone, I learned that he believed that he was the one “mighty and strong” (D&C 85:7), called of God to be the truly inspired prophet of this dispensation. 

I told him that in the matter of being the “one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power” he had substantial competition.  I have personally known four men who have made this claim.  He was not discouraged.  He sent me a revelation calling me to the Quorum of the Twelve in his newly organized church. 

I am confident also that there are many “prophetic” voices calling to us that never pretend to wear the mantle of prophecy.  Prophets are primarily teachers.  You have listened to them enough to know this.  What do the voices of your television and your favorite music and movies teach you?  Are you the recipient of any false  messages?

All of this Peter foresaw.  He knew that we would have to contend with false prophets and false teachers, men and women “who privily shall bring in abominable heresies.” (2 Peter 2:1, JST)  These were people who would “with feigned words make merchandise of [us].” (2 Peter 2:3) And he knew that “many [would] follow their pernicious ways.” (2 Peter 2:2)

The resentment of Peter toward these apostates is startling.  They are, he says, “natural brute beasts . . .” (2 Peter 2:12); they are “spots and blemishes” (2 Peter 2:13) who have “gone astray, following the way of Balaam” (2 Peter 2:15).  “These are wells without water” (2 Peter 2:17), who speak “ great swelling words of vanity, [and] allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” (2 Peter 2:18)

Jude calls them “filthy dreamers” (Jude 1:8), “spots in your feasts of charity” and “clouds . . . without water” (Jude 1:12). Some translators of the New Testament have suggested that the word rendered as “spots” in this verse should actually be “reefs” or “blemishes”. Regardless of its accuracy, the thought of these “filthy dreamers” as reefs presents a powerful image of the damage they can do to unsuspecting voyagers on the seas of mortality. 

In the next verse (Jude 1:13), Jude refers to them as wandering stars. Ancient mariners used to traverse the vast expanse of the world’s oceans with the stars as guides—particularly the polar star because it does not move. In my scriptures I wrote in the margin above wandering stars this phrase: “rock stars, movie stars, sports stars.”

Those who elect to take their bearings for the journey through mortality from stars that move—from wandering stars—will surely find themselves wrecked on unexpected reefs. But there is the prophetic alternative. Jude speaks of it in verse 17: “Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles . . .”

Take a look at Facsimile #2 in the book of Abraham, pages 36 and 37.  Under Explanation, Fig. 5, we read that

I do not want to make more of this than is appropriate, but it is at least interesting that Kolob, the star nearest the residence of God (Fig. 1), governs fifteen fixed planets or stars. Whether the image is intentional or not, it is nevertheless true that we have fifteen fixed— not wandering—stars from which to take our bearings: the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. And they take their bearings from Christ, who ought to be, according to President Hinckley, like our “polar star.”

CONCLUSION

In 1 Peter 3:15 we are instructed: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

It is incumbent upon us as saints of the Most High to be willing at any moment (“at all times and all places, and in all things” --Mosiah 18:9) to testify of the truth and explain the love and devotion we have for the Savior and his work.  We cannot be so much like the world that we are unable to be distinguished by our conduct from the world.  What gladness we should feel when someone says to us, “What is it about you that makes you so different?”