Cloaked in camouflage, rattling up deer with horns in the Hill Country near Austin, I saw a magnificent ten-point buck walking toward me. I needed to change my position on the ground to get a good shot, but I did not want to spook the two younger bucks who were with him. So I leaned to my right, lined up the shot in the fork of a tree, and shot. My music minister, who was also my hunting buddy said, “You got him.” My view suddenly turned red, I said, “I got myself.” Getting the gun off my shoulder to make the shot, I experienced a “scope bite.” A plastic surgeon sewed my eyebrow back together. The wound was self-inflicted.
Peter wrote to scattered strangers who were beginning to suffer in the first-century church. Persecution for their faith loomed large as the government cracked down on Christians. Peter has much to say about suffering for Jesus. He also warns the early believers to make sure their suffering does not come as the result of their own poor choices.
We may rightly fear the return of persecution in our context. Still, Peter’s words ring true two thousand years after he wrote. We must avoid self-inflicted wounds. When we turned to Christ, we turned away from the world’s distorted views of sensuality. The original readers of Peter’s letter lived in a pornographic world where everyone did what they felt. God will judge sin. His judgment will begin with the household of faith. If we suffer, let’s make sure it is not through the consequences of our own immoral choices. The danger of temptation is real. God’s power is greater still.
