Skip to main content

To Silas, Mark and She Who Is In Babylon


With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. (I Peter 5:12-14)
         I wonder what sort of help Silas gave Peter. Quite probably, he acted as a secretary but I can imagine him interjecting, "Peter, back to the subject." In this passage Peter mentions his son, Mark. Zondervan's study notes say that strong early tradition suggest that this is John Mark, who recorded Peter's experiences with Jesus in what we know as the Gospel of Mark. He also mentions "she who is in Babylon." There are a couple possibilities for this, but generally, this is believed to be a church with which Peter was acquainted. In other words, more people. Of course, since Peter was Peter, and since Peter was an apostle, people either loved him or hated him.
           Today's passage has me thinking about friends and the roles they play in our lives. I have been blessed with good friends, and I have had friends who for one reason or another are not my friends any more. I've tried to be a good friend, but I can't say I've succeeded as often as I should have. For Peter, his friends may well have been providing food and shelter. They may have been participating in his ministry. It's possible that their own social standing might have been damaged by association with Peter. In fact, Peter may have chosen not to name his friends to protect them from the Roman government. If his letter had been seized, it might have been used as evidence against them.
           I don't tend to think that I'm a very good friend. I live too much inside my own head. I'm far too opinionated. In spite of this (and because of it) there are people who have prayed for me, stuck by me, helped me in ways that astound me, tolerated  my obsessions, and so much more. In short, they have been great friends. May God bless you and repay your kindness to me tenfold.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more