Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:6 & 7

1Pe 1:6-7  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  (7)  so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Remember the “exiles” thing?  Well here it is again in another way.

Notice Peter starts by acknowledging the effect what he has just written would have on his readers.  The word rejoice refers to singing, dancing (Oh?), etc.  There’s a subtly here.  It is “in this” – what Peter has just shared – that we find something to rejoice about.  It is “in Jesus” we have the reason to rejoice.

though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

Well, exiles can expect that.  We’re not “home” yet. 

We are grieved both by being here and by not yet being there.  We experience sadness and sorrow.  “Put on a happy face,” is not found in the Bible.  Neither is “Grin and bear it.”  Sorrow and sadness are not inappropriate for the believer!

Paul wrote:

2Co 1:8  For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Yet he followed it with:

2Co 1:9  Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Note the end of verse 9.  There was a reason.  Peter expresses the same thing in this passage:

so that the tested genuineness of your faith—

more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—

may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ

The ‘tested genuineness of your faith,” really causes some believers a lot of worry.  They read that and have a sense that they have to prove their faith to God.  First, that’s impossible.  Second, that’s not the point.  Third, that’s exactly what the devil wants us to think.

God knows our faith – mustard seedy as it is.  We don’t need to prove anything to Him.  Remember – He made us His – He guards us.

What Peter is saying to you and I is that through various trials God proves He is faithful.  It’s His trustworthiness that is proven – His faithfulness to us as His children.

The, praise and glory and honor Peter writes of is what we will explode into when that glorious day comes when we are “home” with Him.