BEAUTIFUL WISHES

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Silvanus helped me write this short letter, and I consider him a faithful follower of the Lord. I wanted to encourage you and tell you how kind God really is, so you will keep on having faith in Him.

Greetings from the Lord's followers in Babylon. They are God's chosen ones.

Mark, who is like a son to me, sends his greetings too.

Give each other a warm greeting. I pray that God will give peace to everyone who belongs to Christ.

1 Peter 5:12-14 CEV

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today we finish our look at 1 Peter with the closing verses of chapter 5, verses that not only comprise a farewell but some beautiful wishes for those he was writing to, “God’s elect” who were “exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1). Let’s look again at verses 12 through 14.

Silvanus helped me write this short letter, and I consider him a faithful follower of the Lord. I wanted to encourage you and tell you how kind God really is, so you will keep on having faith in Him.

Greetings from the Lord's followers in Babylon. They are God's chosen ones.

Mark, who is like a son to me, sends his greetings too.

Give each other a warm greeting. I pray that God will give peace to everyone who belongs to Christ.

Here we learn that Peter had help in composing this letter, aided by Silvanus, the Greek name that also translates as Silas, a name we should be very familiar with because he was a close companion and fellow Gospel missionary with Paul during his second missionary journey (Acts 15 through 18).

We don’t know how Silas connected with Peter in Babylon where this letter was written from but nonetheless he was there and was an aide in the letter’s composition. It’s believed that Silas actually delivered this letter for Peter.

Peter also extended greetings from others to encourage his readers, the Lord’s readers in Babylon as well as Mark who he describes as “like a son” to him. We know that Peter’s target audience was suffering persecution for their Christian belief and this letter had to lift their spirits, letting them know they weren’t forgotten but in the thoughts of fellow believers.

We see that Peter also encouraged his brothers and sisters in Christ by wishing them three important, beautiful things.

First, he wished to “encourage” them by expressing the goodness of God, the God who loved and cared for them, a God they could rely on if they would only keep “having faith in Him”.    

The second thing we find Peter wishing for his readers was kind fellowship with one another. He encouraged them to be joined together in the unity of their common belief in Jesus and the sure salvation found in and through Him. Peter hoped they would give one another warm greetings as they interacted with one another.

Finally, we find Peter expressing a desire through prayer that the Christian believers exiled in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia would experience the peace of God in their lives, individually and collectively.

Friends, as we finish this study of 1 Peter, we are left with a wonderful example to follow. For as we correspond with other Jesus believers ourselves, we too can hope they would realize the goodness of God in their lives, share in warm fellowship through a unity in Christ Jesus, and tangibly feel the blessed peace of God, fully knowing He is their very present help (Psalm 46:1).

My prayer is that you will join me in following Peter’s lead.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.