Letters of Love (2020 Edition) E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passion Translation
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 176

Beschreibung

Letter of Love is a compilation of letters written by the apostles Peter, John, and Jude. Their collective message is to defend and contend for our faith and to rely on the God of glory, who strengthens us in all things.   Peter's letters offer an abundance of hope, grace, and triumph, setting us free and inspiring our hearts to soar. The truth of John's letters is a tapestry of love, woven into our lives as we yield to God, reminding us that only perfect love has the power to cast out fear. Jude's brief but powerful message concludes this collection of epistles, warning us of false, harmful teachings and instructing us to remain faithful in days of increasing darkness.   With these letters we are emboldened to persevere, empowered to overcome, and encouraged to remain faithful to Christ.   Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him. 1 John 4:7  

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The Passion Translation®

1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude: Letters of Love

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978-1-4245-6336-4 (paperback)

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Printed in the United States of America

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Information

A Note to Readers

1 Peter

2 Peter

1 John

2 John

3 John

Jude (Judah)

Your Personal Invitation to Follow Jesus

About the Translator

A NOTE TO READERS

It would be impossible to calculate how many lives have been changed forever by the power of the Bible, the living Word of God! My own life was transformed because I believed the message contained in Scripture about Jesus, the Savior.

To hold the Bible dear to your heart is the sacred obsession of every true follower of Jesus. Yet to go even further and truly understand the Bible is how we gain light and truth to live by. Did you catch the word understand? People everywhere say the same thing: “I want to understand God’s Word, not just read it.”

Thankfully, as English speakers, we have a plethora of Bible translations, commentaries, study guides, devotionals, churches, and Bible teachers to assist us. Our hearts crave to know God—to not just know about him, but to know him as intimately as we possibly can in this life. This is what makes Bible translations so valuable, because each one will hopefully lead us into new discoveries of God’s character. I believe God is committed to giving us truth in a package we can understand and apply, so I thank God for every translation of God’s Word that we have.

God’s Word does not change, but over time languages definitely do, thus the need for updated and revised translations of the Bible. Translations give us the words God spoke through his servants, but words can be poor containers for revelation because they leak! Meaning is influenced by culture, background, and many other details. Just imagine how differently the Hebrew authors of the Old Testament saw the world three thousand years ago from the way we see it today!

Even within one language and culture, meanings of words change from one generation to the next. For example, many contemporary Bible readers would be quite surprised to find unicorns are mentioned nine times in the King James Version (KJV). Here’s one instance in Isaiah 34:7: “And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” This isn’t a result of poor translation, but rather an example of how our culture, language, and understanding of the world has shifted over the past few centuries. So, it is important that we have a modern English text of the Bible that releases revelation and truth into our hearts. The Passion Translation (TPT) is committed to bringing forth the potency of God’s Word in relevant, contemporary vocabulary that doesn’t distract from its meaning or distort it in any way. So many people have told us that they are falling in love with the Bible again as they read TPT.

We often hear the statement, “I just want a word-for-word translation that doesn’t mess it up or insert a bias.” That’s a noble desire. But a word-for-word translation would be nearly unreadable. It is simply impossible to translate one Hebrew word for one English word. Hebrew is built from triliteral consonant roots. Biblical Hebrew had no vowels or punctuation. And Koine Greek, although wonderfully articulate, cannot always be conveyed in English by a word-for-word translation. For example, a literal word-for-word translation of the Greek in Matthew 1:18 would be something like this: “Of the but Jesus Christ the birth thus was. Being betrothed the mother of him, Mary, to Joseph, before or to come together them she was found in belly having from Spirit Holy.”

Even the KJV, which many believe to be a very literal translation, renders this verse: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”

This comparison makes the KJV look like a paraphrase next to a strictly literal translation! To some degree, every Bible translator is forced to move words around in a sentence to convey with meaning the thought of the verse. There is no such thing as a truly literal translation of the Bible, for there is not an equivalent language that perfectly conveys the meaning of the biblical text. Is it really possible to have a highly accurate and highly readable English Bible? We certainly hope so! It is so important that God’s Word is living in our hearts, ringing in our ears, and burning in our souls. Transferring God’s revelation from Hebrew and Greek into English is an art, not merely a linguistic science. Thus, we need all the accurate translations we can find. If a verse or passage in one translation seems confusing, it is good to do a side-by-side comparison with another version.

It is difficult to say which translation is the “best.” “Best” is often in the eyes of the reader and is determined by how important differing factors are to different people. However, the “best” translation, in my thinking, is the one that makes the Word of God clear and accurate, no matter how many words it takes to express it.

That’s the aim of The Passion Translation: to bring God’s eternal truth into a highly readable heart-level expression that causes truth and love to jump out of the text and lodge inside our hearts. A desire to remain accurate to the text and a desire to communicate God’s heart of passion for his people are the two driving forces behind TPT. So for those new to Bible reading, we hope TPT will excite and illuminate. For scholars and Bible students, we hope TPT will bring the joys of new discoveries from the text and prompt deeper consideration of what God has spoken to his people. We all have so much more to learn and discover about God in his holy Word!

You will notice at times we’ve italicized certain words or phrases. These portions are not in the original Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic manuscripts but are implied from the context. We’ve made these implications explicit for the sake of narrative clarity and to better convey the meaning of God’s Word. This is a common practice by mainstream translations.

We’ve also chosen to translate certain names in their original Hebrew or Greek forms to better convey their cultural meaning and significance. For instance, some translations of the Bible have substituted James for Jacob and Jude for Judah. Both Greek and Aramaic manuscripts leave these Hebrew names in their original forms. Therefore, this translation uses those cultural names.

The purpose of The Passion Translation is to reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.

We pray this version of God’s Word will kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.

Please visit ThePassionTranslation.com for more information.

Brian Simmons and the translation team

1 PETER

(return to table of contents)

Introduction • One • Two • Three • Four • Five

1 PETER

Introduction

AT A GLANCE

Author: The apostle Peter

Audience: Churches in northwestern Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey

Date: AD 62–65

Type of Literature: A letter

Major Themes: God’s nature, salvation, the church, the Christian life, and suffering

Outline:

Letter Opening — 1:1–2

Identity as God’s Chosen People and Foreigners — 1:3–2:10

Living Honorably as Foreigners — 2:11–3:12

Responding to Hostility as Foreigners — 3:13–4:6

Living in Christian Solidarity as Foreigners — 4:7–19

Suffering Together as Foreigners — 5:1–11

Letter Closing — 5:12–14

ABOUT 1 PETER

Everyone needs grace to overcome life’s hurdles. For some, they need to overcome a difficult marriage, or the frustration of children who have wandered away. For others it may be their limitations and hardships. First Peter is the book of strengthening grace and triumphant hope. There is an abundance of hopeful grace found within the verses of this book to set you free. You are a victorious overcomer, and God’s grace is our fuel to empower our hearts to soar!

Peter was the first preacher to bring the gospel of Christ to the Jews in Jerusalem. At Pentecost he stood fearlessly and told the thousands gathered around him that they had denied the Holy One of God and crucified their Messiah. Yet just fifty days earlier, the apostle Peter, while Jesus was being tried by Pilate, denied that he even knew Jesus. Three times he succumbed to the weakness of his flesh. But Jesus had prophesied all this beforehand and gave him both a promise and a commission:

“I have prayed for you, Peter, that you would stay faithful to me no matter what comes. Remember this: after you have turned back to me and have been restored, make it your life mission to strengthen the faith of your brothers.” (Luke 22:32)

Jesus told Peter that his life mission after his resurrection would be to strengthen the faith of believers worldwide. So you will discover that there is an unusual grace upon Peter’s letters (known as part of the General Epistles) to strengthen you in your faith. Don’t be surprised if after reading these letters you become emboldened to persevere, empowered to overcome, and encouraged to remain faithful to Christ. For the grace that restored Peter after his fall is also on Peter’s letters to restore every believer and impart to them overcoming grace.

The Roman historian Eusebius informs us that Peter was crucified in Rome by Nero. The church tradition records that when Peter was being crucified, he pleaded with them to turn the cross upside down, stating that he was not worthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus. Because of their respect for the godly Peter, the soldiers complied with his request. Peter turned the world upside down with the gospel power he carried, then he died on an upside-down cross. Peter experienced the triumph of grace. Our prayer for you is that the truth you read in the following pages will release within you this same amazing grace and triumphant hope!

PURPOSE

There is rich teaching found in 1 Peter, showing us that the community of Christ is a holy nation made up of kings and priests and lovers of God. And Peter teaches us the ways of purity and righteousness, and how to remain faithful to God all the days of our lives as members of a kingdom that chafes against the values of the world. He wrote this letter to Christians undergoing persecution for living in a way that was different from their unbelieving neighbors. His letter was meant to encourage them in their suffering and give it purpose as a vital aspect of Christian living.

This is a letter about God and living for him—no matter what the costs. Some of the themes of 1 Peter include holiness and being faithful in the midst of persecution. When others turn away from us, the presence of Christ grows stronger in our lives. It pushes our souls deeper into God’s overcoming grace. No matter what you face and no matter what you may be passing through in your life today, there is a power from on high to make you into an overcomer. Let Peter’s letter show you the way!

AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE

Written about AD 62 from “Babylon” (a cryptic term for Rome), Peter longed to encourage and strengthen the faith of those who were being persecuted for following Christ. Although Aramaic was his first language, the fisherman Peter’s refined use of Greek has caused some scholars to even doubt that he wrote this first epistle. We do know however that every good writer has a brilliant editor. Peter’s editor for this letter was Silvanus (5:12), who no doubt helped Peter with the more elegant Greek words (much like the vocabulary of Paul), which are found in these five chapters.

Peter was the first missionary to go to the gentiles. After a divine trance he experienced on the rooftop in Joppa, Peter took the keys of the kingdom and opened the door of faith for the gentiles. He broke the religious limitation that the gospel was only meant for the Jews. Peter found his way to the house of Cornelius, a Roman gentile, and he and all his family became followers of Jesus. He continued this mission by writing to Christians living in the Roman regions of northeastern Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), to encourage them in their suffering, provoke holy living and growth in God, and explain their new birth through Christ’s blood. We all have a debt of love to the apostle Peter. Enjoy his letter as you read it with an open and thankful heart.

MAJOR THEMES

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Who God is and what God is like is front and center in Peter’s letter, because all of the teachings relate to him in some way. He’s referred to as “Father God” or “God the Father,” which should tell us something about how we encounter him: as a Father! He’s also described as the mighty and powerful Creator and Judge, but also as our merciful and gracious Redeemer.

Of course as Redeemer, the Son of God is also featured prominently in this letter. One of the most important names Peter uses for Jesus is “Anointed One.” This is a deeply Hebrew idea for the Messiah, the One whom God the Father destined “before the foundation of the earth was laid” (1:20) to be sacrificed for us “like a spotless, unblemished lamb” (1:19). It is this suffering that forms the basis for his saving work; our salvation was achieved through his crucifixion! While Jesus was fully revealed while he was on earth, he will be ultimately revealed on the last day, bringing with him the full revelation of our salvation and God’s grace.

Then there is the Holy Spirit, who is vital for our ongoing Christian life, for a number of reasons: he’s the One who has set us apart to be God’s holy ones in the first place; he is the source of the gospel revelation, which goes out from us and draws people into God’s family; and he lives in us to help us obey God as his chosen ones. Peter unveils before us the revelation-truth that he is our power as we live in this world as resident aliens and foreigners, awaiting Christ’s return when he comes to make all things new.

The Nature of Our Salvation. Peter uses a number of images and words to convey to his readers the breadth and depth of their salvation in Jesus Christ. Followers of Christ have been “gloriously sprinkled with his blood” (1:2), have been redeemed once and for all through the precious blood of Christ (1:18–19), have been purified through obedience (1:22), have tasted “of the goodness of Yahweh and have experienced his kindness” (2:3), have been brought near to God (3:18).

This language reflects two ways in which believers have been changed: through Christ’s sacrifice, and being born again. First, Peter uses sacrificial metaphors to explain what’s happened to us. These are drawn from the ancient temple cultic practices of blood-shedding and purification. Second, Peter explains that our salvation is to be reborn into a new family, and we’ve inherited all of the benefits of that royal birth. So when we say we’ve been “born again,” we are reflecting the language that Peter himself used to talk about what’s happened to us!

Life in God’s Family as a Spiritual “Nation.” The inevitable outgrowth of our salvation and new birth in Christ is a new way of living and in concert with our new family and a spiritual “nation.” We are to practice hope and holiness, fear of God, and growth in the knowledge of God. The reason why we devote ourselves to these pursuits is because we’ve been bought by the blood of Jesus. Without this new birth, there is no reason to obey; without the hope of salvation the Christian life is pointless.

What’s interesting about Peter’s letter is that he doesn’t envision this kind of life as a solitary endeavor. Life in God’s family is just that—a family affair! First, those in God’s family are described as being “chosen” and “elect” (see the first footnote at 1:1), which recalls the story of ancient Israel. This is intentional, as the church is the continuation and culmination of Israel as the new, true people of God. This idea of family frames the whole letter, appearing in the first verse and the last. They are the ones who’ve received God’s grace and favor. It also frames how we are to live: we are to live as “obedient children” (1:14); we are to be holy as the Father is holy; we are to live within a new familial structure, accepting the authority of elders; and we are to love one another as siblings, wrapping ourselves with “the apron of a humble servant” (5:5).

Suffering and Persecution. Inevitably, when we live as obedient children of God, and the believing community takes seriously its role as “priests who are kings, a spiritual ‘nation’ set apart as God’s devoted ones” (2:9), there’s going to be conflict with the surrounding world. But Peter wants believers, who are “resident aliens and foreigners in this world” (2:11), to take heart: “the grief of many trials . . . reveal the sterling core of your faith” (1:6–7). Persecution is a refiner’s fire that unfolds the brilliance of authentic faith. And when we do suffer for Christ, Jesus is praised, glorified, and honored. Ultimately, persecution is a privilege, for we “carry the Anointed One’s name!” (4:16). God will never fail those who suffer for him!

1 PETER

Triumphant Hope

Our Living Hope

1From Peter, an apostle of Jesus the Anointed One, to the chosen onesa who have been scattered like “seed” into the nations living as refugeesb in Pontus,c Galatia, Cappadocia,d and throughout the Roman provinces of Asia and Bithynia.e2You are not forgotten, for you have been chosen and destined by Father God. The Holy Spirit has set you apart to be God’s holy ones, obedient followers of Jesus Christ who have been gloriously sprinkled with his blood. May God’s delightful grace and peace cascade over you many times over!f

3Celebrate with praises the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has shown us his extravagant mercy. For his fountain of mercy has given us a new life—we are reborng to experience a living, energetic hopeh