I have to admit that I’m always up for a good analogy…or even a bad one. Throw in a little imagery, and I’m hooked. So, needlessness to say, I was excited as Kasey read the passage in First Peter 2, which describes believers as “a chosen people… who have been called out of darkness into His wonderful light.” Kasey went on to describe how darkness is the image of sin, but light is that which overtakes sin (the darkness). After all, when you walk into a dark room, it doesn’t take a spotlight to overcome the darkness; simply light a match and the darkness will be gone. One of my favorite analogies about light and darkness is that of the sun and the moon. After all, we see the moon in its various phases each month, but how often do we think that the moon itself is not emitting any light of its own? What we see of the moon is simply a reflection of the sun’s light. As the analogy continues, as believers, we must attempt not emit our own light, but we must reflect the Son’s light.
I recently heard author Bob Sjogren speak about the premise of his book Cat and Dog Theology. The theology is based on the old joke about how differently cats and dogs see their owners.
- A dog says, ‘You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, you must be God.’
- A cat says, ‘You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, I must be God.’
Bob’s point in bringing up the joke is to challenge us in our view of God. Many of us have the perspective that our relationship with God is about how He can serve us. After all, if He feeds us, clothes us, and loves us, and offers us eternal life, we must me God, right? Maybe our thinking isn’t that overt, but maybe our focus of “what’s in it for me?” is a bit incomplete. Bob encouraged us to look at our relationship with God through with the dog’s theology of how do we reflect or reveal glory to God in any given circumstance.
So with that new lens, I read to the end of the passage and saw 1 Peter 2:12, “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
So, honestly, I felt a little bit cheated as Kasey wrapped up the message with only a couple of comments about the last verse of this passage. See if our new lens requires that we not try to answer “what is in it for us?”, but instead “how does this glorify God?”, we must focus on the first part of verse 12 “live such good lives.”
Honestly, I believe that “living the good life” (of following Jesus’ teaching) can be selfish because the good life will be rewarded. But, we must not miss the point that living the good life should bring glory to God.