7. A Powerful Message
The theme of power – God's power – is an important one in the epistles of Peter. The apostle knew a thing or two about that power, of course. He had witnessed the power of many of Christ's miracles, and he was there when Jesus was revealed in all power in the transfiguration to a select group of disciples (Mark 9:1-3; 2 Peter 1:16). Peter had also witnessed the power of the resurrection first-hand, and he was there when Christ told his disciples the power of God would come on them, too (Acts 1:8).
So it is perhaps not surprising that the book of Acts records numerous instances of Peter using the power of God in dramatic healings and other works (Acts 3-9), and that his own letters place a particular emphasis on that power. In fact, we find two Greek words for power in Peter's epistles: dunamis ("active power" – from which we get the English words "dynamic" and "dynamite") and exousia ("authoritative power"). These are the same two words that are used in the Gospels when we are told that Jesus sent out the disciples and gave them "power and authority" (Luke 9:1).
However, Peter mainly uses the word dunamis – the word that most implies power in the sense of the ability to do something. We see this meaning of the word in Jesus' Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30), for example, where the servants are given wealth based on their dunamis or their "ability" to handle it. Peter refers to this powerful ability that we are given by God to use in two areas of life in particular, and we can see this by looking at two key verses in his letters – one in each of his epistles.
In 1 Peter the apostle speaks of our use of God's power in serving others – doing the work God has given us to do:
… If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength [dunamis] God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ… (1 Peter 4:11).
In 2 Peter the apostle speaks of our use of the power of God in living our own lives – in living according to God's will:
His divine power has given us everything that we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3). These two uses of God's power are themes that run through Peter's letters – serving by God's power, living by God's power – and it can be a useful study to read his epistles from this perspective in order to see the promise of the great power that can be placed within us. But it is easy to read these verses, to be encouraged by them, yet still to miss an important part of their meaning – the "message beneath the message" in what Peter is telling us.
We tend to read these verses out of context – in terms of God's powerful help being available to us under normal circumstances. Doubtless they do apply in that broader way, but Peter was not speaking about normal everyday circumstances. He was writing about God's helping power in a time of persecution – as we know historically and from what the apostle himself says. That is why Peter wrote of persecuted Christians: who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:5). Although Peter stresses the power of God's protection here, he also confirms – in the very next verse – that even with that protection Christians will often still suffer:
… though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials (1 Peter 1:6). Peter knew that God has the power to completely protect Christians from suffering whenever he deems it necessary, but his message about God's power does not offer false expectations or guarantees – it stresses that God's power often shields us in rather than from persecution.
And when we read, as we did above, the apostle's statements that we can serve by God's power (1 Peter 4:11) and live by God's power (2 Peter 1:3), we should remember that Peter is primarily talking about serving and living within a time of persecution, not peace. When we keep this context in mind we see how powerful his message is. It is all too human to want to "lie low" or "go off the radar" in times of persecution or even of social rejection of Christianity. Peter's message reminds us that the God of all power promises us the ability to continue to live his way and to serve him and others with the power he provides, no matter what the circumstances.
That is why Peter could preach about the power of God so confidently to those enduring opposition and oppression, and why he could confirm that:
… the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 5:10-11).