Beginning in verse three of chapter one, Peter says God has given us new birth through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and an inheritance in heaven, which is shielded by God, on the basis of our continued faith in Him. I have thought much about how simple this plan of God's is, and yet how far-reaching and
profound are its consequences for the creature to whom He has given life. However, if you think about it, you will realize that if He had made a great,
grandiose and complicated process, it would be limited to those who could grasp intellectual depth, and interpret abstract and obscure concepts. As
it is, He has made it available to the most simple and naive of us. The condition is childlike faith in Him. You don't have to understand Him, nor figure out His system. Complicated organizations and religious rituals are inventions of men. God's way is easy to understand, but it takes personal desire to accept it. All of us have that ability, but not all have the will.
It is also interesting that Peter says it is our "inheritance". An inheritance is something you are given. You don't work for it, nor earn it. It is given by the one who chose to give it to you. God's reason for choosing to give it to us is on the basis of our faith in Him, and that faith means a loving trust of Him as the author of all that is good and right for our lives. Any other kind of faith is dead, as James says. Neither modern social acceptance, nor pious religious gurus determine what is righteous. The only acceptable standard, for those who would inherit, is the will of God.
But doing the will of God, in a world which is most often antithetic to everything God wants, is not always possible for weak mankind. So, He offers a simple solution. Place your faith in Jesus Christ. Accept Him as the answer to your human failure, and believe that God loves you because He sent Him. Again, it turns on childlike faith and adoring acceptance of a loving Father, rather than legal maneuvers and getting the organization right. That is your choice.
Here Peter recognizes the pain and suffering that life in this world entails. This is especially true for one who wants righteousness in a world of evil. But Peter implies that that is our very reason for being here. The world is not a place of ease and comfort, if your desire is a spiritual relationship with the Father. Those preachers who teach that God wants you to be rich and happy in this world never get the point of Peter's remarks in this passage. The very suffering you have in a pagan world increases the need you have for placing your faith in God. That is what He put you here to do. Choose Him instead of self. Choose self, as Adam did, and no inheritance in heaven is promised. Desire a loving relationship with Him, and all eternity is yours.
