Chapter 1: What does 1 Peter 3:15 teach us about sharing our faith?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 353, once again, a palindrome day. I don't know why I have to point that out every time, but we are reading the second half of 1 Peter 3, 4, and 5. We're also starting St. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians chapters 1, 2, and 3.
So six chapters today, including Proverbs chapter 30, verses 15 and 16. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
You can also subscribe to this podcast in these last couple weeks. Receive daily episodes and daily updates, and you won't have to go hunting and pecking for each episode every single day. You know, because today is day 353, and we're reading 1 Peter 3, 4, and 5, 1 Thessalonians 1, 2, and 3, as well as Proverbs 30, verses 15 and 16. The first letter of Peter, chapter 3, Wives and Husbands.
Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives when they see irreverent and chaste behavior.
let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of robes, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you. Likewise, you husbands, Live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered. Suffering for doing right.
Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not return evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing. For he that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile.
Let him turn away from evil and do right. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil. Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? But even if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
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Chapter 2: How does St. Paul express his affection for the Thessalonians?
For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful creator. Chapter 5.
Tending the Flock of Christ So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed, tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint, but willingly, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd is manifested, you will obtain the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you that are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you.
Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Final greeting and benediction. By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.
Stand fast in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with the kiss of love.
Peace to all of you that are in Christ. The first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter one, salutation.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. The Thessalonians, faith and example. We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brethren, beloved by God, that he has chosen you. For our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
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Chapter 3: What does it mean to share not only the gospel but also our very selves?
Timothy's good report. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you. For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord.
For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, for all the joy which we feel for your sake before our God, praying earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men as we do to you, so that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
The book of Proverbs chapter 30 verses 15 and 16.
The leech has two daughters. Give, give, they cry. Three things are never satisfied. Four never say enough. Sheol, the barren womb, the earth ever thirsty for water, and the fire which never says enough.
Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you so much.
Thank you for Peter once again today. Thank you for Paul. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that has reached out to us and continues to speak to us through your word that you have given to us for so many years. Lord God, we ask you to please continue to shape our hearts, continue to change our hearts, make them more like you.
Help us to imitate Jesus Christ, whose spirit you have given to us to give us wisdom, to give us strength, to give us courage. And in this moment right now, Lord, to give us hope, especially in the midst of suffering. for doing what's right also, Lord God.
We know that many of us not only suffer for doing what's right, we also, many of us suffer because of the consequences of our own actions that we've chosen wrong in our day. We've chosen wrong at some points in our lives and now we're experiencing the burden of that choice. We're experiencing the reality of that choice and we ask you, Lord God, come and meet us in our need.
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Chapter 4: How can we prepare to give a reason for our hope in Christ?
I want to be able to study philosophy. I want to know. I want to be able to give a reason for why I believe what I believe. It was, as I said, it was the guiding principle, the guiding scripture. for so much of my life. And I'm so grateful to the Lord that he has allowed me to proclaim that word today. And I'm so grateful to the Lord that he's allowed us all to hear that word today.
Always be ready, always prepared to give a reason for the faith that's within you. But also I like how Peter says it. He says, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.
You do it with gentleness and reverence, not with a sledgehammer, not with any power tools, not with just this kind of club that you want to beat people over the head with, but do it with gentleness and reverence and keep your conscience clear so that when you're abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. That's so important.
Now, next is in the same chapter three, just a couple lines down, Peter talks about the days of Noah, right? And how God saved the people of Noah, eight people in all, through water. In verse 21, he says, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you. And this is one of the places where we get the doctrine that baptism does something. Baptism actually saves us.
It's not simply a sign of a preexisting condition. It actually does something. In fact, all the sacraments we believe All the sacraments do something. And here is Peter making it absolutely clear that baptism saves you. That isn't just a kind of a sign of your salvation, but it actually does save you. Just like living in an ark in the middle of a flood isn't a sign of your salvation.
It's actually what's saving you. So that's kind of a kind of slightly important little piece there, both explaining the faith and be able to defend it in gentleness and reverence. as well as the fact that baptism saves us now. Peter is incredibly, incredibly eager to remind Christians that we have to, absolutely have to be on guard.
He talks about in chapter four, verse seven, he says, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, keep sane and sober for your prayers. Above all, hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another, As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God's very grace.
And then he goes on to talk about the different gifts people can have, whether they're speaking or having strength to serve or whatever it is, that do everything so that God may be glorified. But he does talk about how we have to be prepared. And he does make it absolutely clear that our battle is not with flesh and blood, just like St. Paul had said. He says, ah, this is so important.
Chapter five, verse six, humble yourselves. Therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time, he may exalt you. Verse seven, cast all your anxieties on him for he cares about you. Another translation is cast all your cares on him for he cares for you. I like that one too, because you know. Care and care. Verse eight, be sober, be watchful.
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Chapter 5: What does Peter say about suffering for doing what is right?
That's the conclusion of St. Peter's first letter. Tomorrow, we're going to be able to hear a second letter. And I'm just, I'm so grateful because it's, we're actually going to hear the entire second letter tomorrow. It's just three chapters, one through three. Today, we're also introduced to the Thessalonians and Paul. And one thing to know about the Thessalonians, Paul loves them.
If you're talking about someone's favorites, okay, I think the Thessalonians might be Paul's favorites. He's just talking about, I love you, I love you, you're great, you encourage me. In fact, with all the struggles he had with the Corinthians, I mean, gosh, think about that, or the Galatians, or even the Ephesians. The Thessalonians, he is just, I can't wait to see you. You're my favorites.
Why? Because you received God's word. You're saying yes to it. Now, I know so many of us, we might be God's favorites because we need his love more than anyone else does. We might be God's favorites because he pours his love on us because we need it more. But in this case, St. Paul, he is just so encouraged.
He is so encouraged by the faith of the Thessalonians that it just, you can't walk away from this reading without kind of a smile on your face. One of the pieces that marks St. Paul's letter here that we just heard is he says, you know, you know that when we came among you, we were not only willing to share with you the gospel of God, but also our very selves. This is chapter two, verse eight.
He says, so being affectionately desirous of you, we are ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our very selves. And that is, you know, we have missionaries on our campus. They're focused missionaries. It stands for Fellowship of Catholic University Students. And That is how they live. It is incredible. They not only run Bible studies, they don't just do like discipleship.
They don't just put on events. They truly get into the lives of our college students and they just, yeah, they share themselves. They don't just share the gospel. They share their very lives. and share their very selves. And this is the way in which every single missionary has to live. And the fact that if you're a baptized Christian, that means you're a missionary. You're a missionary disciple.
And we are called to follow Jesus and then to bring as many people to him as we possibly can, which means that the way we do that is the way that St. Paul describes how he was among the Thessalonians. Not just share the gospel of God, not just share the teaching, but also to share our very lives.
One of the things I've said and I will say again and again is I believe that the gospel in our culture, that Christ in our culture, the gospel will not be advanced from a stage or from necessarily a podcast or from anyone on any kind of screen or any kind of internet platform. but the gospel will be truly advanced through families and through friendships. I just, I'm so convinced of this.
The gospel will advance, yeah, in some other ways, because these tools are awesome. Like this podcast, I'm so grateful to be part of this community. But truly, the way in which this is spread is through families and through friendships. That's why so many of you, I know, When you listen to this podcast, you then talk about it with your family or you talk about it with your friends.
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Chapter 6: How does the concept of humility play a role in our faith?
And you get to share your lives with them too. And you do share that. And that's incredible. And I'm so grateful. And I'm so proud of you. And I'm so proud to belong to this community of people and this Bible in the air. And please, please know this. Please believe me. I am praying for you. And please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.