Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19
While gold is the highest prize and greatest honor that the games can offer, it is not the most valuable currency in the universe. It has been a pleasure to see many Olympic athletes openly express their faith in Christ in Rio. These dear brothers and sisters in Christ understand the temporal (temporary) value of Gold in contrast to the eternal (forever) value of the precious blood of Christ.
KNOWING THAT GOLD HAS NO ETERNAL VALUE – Peter is writing to believers to challenge them to live a life that reflects the holiness of God. It is knowing that the currency of our redemption was not what the world values, but a currency that God values. The concept of gold being perishable was likely as strange to the earliest Christians as it seems to us today. Brokers of precious metals tell us that gold is recession proof – if you have enough of it. But if you had all of the gold in the world, what could you NOT buy?
Gold cannot buy life (Job 2:4)
Gold cannot buy wisdom (Job 28:15 and Proverbs 16:16)
Gold cannot buy peace (Isaiah 13:17)
Gold’s value cannot be compared to the Word of God (Psalm 119:127)
And though I could not find Scripture to support it, I believe the Beatles were correct that money cannot buy love. To that the poets have added, a baby’s smile, a sunrise, and a dozen or so other common pleasures.
KNOWING WHAT GOD VALUES ABOVE GOLD – Peter stirs us to action and to motivate us to set our priorities beyond the temporal and reach for the eternal. The debt of our sin was beyond the price of gold or silver It was the blood of God’s only begotten Son that paid our debt. The just for the unjust. The innocent for the guilty. The righteous for the unrighteous. He became sin for us (the one who never knew sin) that we could become the righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:21). All of this value, and God offers it to us freely! That is the most amazing thing of all.
BECAUSE IF KNOW – Peter’s point is that our debt to God is so great that we could never repay Him, so we should thing live for Him. We are to become mirrors, reflecting the brightness of His holiness into a dark world.
As the old hymn so succinctly says,
With eternity’s values in view, Lord.
With eternity’s values in view;
May I do each day’s work for Jesus
With eternity’s values in view.
With Eternity’s Values In View
Words and Music by Alfred B. Smith
© 1941, renewal 1969 by Singspiration/ASCAP.
