5. Pilgrimage to Paradise: Called to Obedience

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To understand what the divine design is for the pilgrimage that God has set before all believers we need to go back briefly to the very beginning of Peter's letter. We need to look at what we are called to be. He writes, in part: "To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered…who have been chosen…for obedience to Jesus Christ…" 

There is a lot to unpack in Peter's introduction but we want to look at this last phrase:

Obedience to Jesus Christ. 

Mark it down because what follows in the letter describes what that obedience looks like, beginning with 1 Peter 1:13-16. That love, that faith, that joy that Peter commends his readers for, that he urges them to continue in despite the circumstances, exhibits itself as these pilgrims travel along the journey of life like this:

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.''' 

Obedience begins in the mind and results in action. The thought in this phrase, "prepare your minds for action" is similar to that in Hebrews 12:1, "…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." We must divest ourselves of everything and anything that might get in the way of obedience to Christ.

As Paul writes: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above , where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:1, 2) and "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2)

Think destination, Who will be there to greet you, and what gifts will you want to bring to Him when you arrive. These gifts are the product of the obedience you and I have been called to as followers of Jesus Christ.

The Zondervan Study Bible notes, with reference to I Peter 1:13, "Because that which people believe about the future determines how they live in the present, Peter exhorts his readers to set their mind on the grace that is yet to come…to live holy lives…" 

As redeemed and adopted members of the family, we are to bear a family resemblance to our Father: God.

One of the definitions for holy in my dictionary is "morally and spiritually excellent." It's a tall order, but not one that would be asked of us if it were not possible. Obviously it is not something we can do on our own. Peter knows this and in his second letter he writes: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." (2 Peter 1:3, 4)

The more intimacy we have with Jesus, the closer we come to being like Jesus and resembling our Father.

How does this help us in realizing what Psalm 84:5-7 tells us about our pilgrimage?

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength till each appears before the God of Zion."

As Peter writes, the strength to imitate our Father in all things comes from Him. This world proudly proclaims its accomplishments, its values, its truths without seeing the arid, desolate valley of death that it is. The believer, imitating his Father through the strength given to him by His Father, sheds light in the dark, brings hope to what seems hopeless, offers redemption to that which is irredeemable otherwise, reveals THE Truth in the midst of lies disguised under the banner of MY truth. Living water flows through the valley of death.

To this we are called, for this we were chosen.