Sometimes you meet a person who changes your life forever. You don’t realize it at the time; you usually get it only much later and in retrospect. You remember how that person was just like everyone else, and yet they were different. There was something special about them. It wasn’t their big personality. It really wasn’t the way you saw them, but the way they saw you. These people have a way of being themselves without being about themselves. Their presence conveys a capacity for seeing people, an almost limitless spaciousness for others.
This is who Jesus is and what he’s like to be around. Don’t believe me? Just ask Peter. His is a story of being seen—and being transformed as a result.
Peter, author of the letter we’ll be reading through, was an “unschooled, ordinary” fisherman (Acts 4:13) content to cast his nets on the Sea of Galilee until his brother Andrew introduced him to Jesus. Andrew said to him, “‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus” (John 1:41–42).
Pay close attention to what happens next. “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter)” (John 1:42).
Jesus must have recognized that, while Peter wasn’t smart, he was brilliant. He had a heart and mind somehow postured to receive revelation.
Brilliance is another order of intelligence entirely. Brilliance comes from being with Jesus. Brilliance comes from swimming in the stream of divine revelation. Brilliant people are the ones who walk on water. These folks know their utter ordinariness and embrace it. They know they don’t need to try to prove anything to anyone or try to be something they are not. They know who they are because they know in the deepest way they belong to Jesus.
This should encourage us because we have a front-row seat on Peter’s journey. We know he started out pretty insecure and needy, masquerading as an authority who had it all together. We saw his self-aggrandizing behavior at the Last Supper. And like a train wreck in slow motion, we watched his prodigious collapse on Good Friday. We witnessed his breathtaking restoration by Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And now we hold in our hands one of the most significant documents in the history of the world, penned by the hand of an uneducated fisherman.
We are all in the midst of some version of Peter’s same journey, struggling to leave behavior management behind and step into the beholding and becoming way of life. Peter was transformed when he met Jesus. He let Jesus become the defining reality of his life. And we can do the same.
When we let Jesus become the defining reality of our lives, our presence will take on his likeness in a way only we can express.
Helping people find transformation in Christ is Peter’s goal in writing this letter. Peter wants us to understand who we are, where we are, and what we are doing here. He is orienting us. He’s giving us a game plan. He’s offering us a vision of the church Jesus is building. He’s calling us to wake up, to rise up, to step into the resurrection life Jesus alone offers. He’s calling us to become disciples transformed by Jesus into his likeness, ready to transform the world.
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This is an excerpt from 1 Peter: Surprised by the Church Is Building by J. D. Walt. Originally a Wake-Up Call series in 2022, this inaugural title in the brand new Daily Seeds book series can be used for individual devotion or by groups studying books of the Bible. Get your copy from our store here.
Daily Seeds 1 Peter includes:
- 48 daily readings from 1 Peter
- Substantive insights from 1 Peter and a deeper reflection on its meaning
- Prayers to deepen the influence of Scripture in your life
- Questions that encourage action in the world