1 Peter and Thanksgiving

“Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8

What a beautiful passage for Thanksgiving week. There is a lot to talk about in 1 Peter but because it’s near Thanksgiving, I thought I could do double duty and make sure that this post does not stray far from the spirit of the holiday.

It’s troubling for us to read stories of persecution of early Christians. Perhaps it’s also troubling to see how persecution has taken on a rather domesticated quality in the United States amongst followers of Christ. Do we suffer the same level of persecution as these early Christians did, who were struggling to build a new community, a new faith, and spread the gospel into new regions? I would say no. So perhaps persecution is not the word that I will use when I talk about the kinds of suffering we encounter as Christians in 21st century America.

But our author is also exhorting Christian brothers and sisters to love, serve, and share the grace of God with one another. This can involve a special kind of pain or suffering during the holiday season. My bible’s heading for 1 Peter 4 reads, “Good Stewards of God’s Grace” and at verse 12, “Suffering as a Christian.” Read together, I see a pattern in chapter 4: allowing oneself to “speak” and “serve” with “the strength God supplies” (v. 11) can inevitably lead suffering,

Family life is at it’s most difficult during the holiday season. Starting with Thanksgiving, our lives can become revolving doors for family and friends that string along both the good (and the bad) reminders of our past. What does Peter say when life together becomes difficult? “Maintain constant love for one another.” Eugene Peterson’s, The Message paraphrases, “Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help.” Thanksgiving is a blessed opportunity to remember God’s grace in your life and extend his abundance to friends and family who might also be the root of our holiday angst (it’s not always a Norman Rockwell painting!).

To what end? To be the kind of people who glorify God. Being a Christian is thankfully not a life and death proposition in the United States but it is a challenging call to love one another in a new and especially difficult form: love accompanied by sacrifice. You may not be reviled by your family for invoking the name of Christ (or maybe you are) but when I read 1 Peter 4, I am reminded of the opportunity to be a servant and witness to God’s power that bearing with one another in love presents.

Are we being good stewards of God’s grace? If we are, life is probably not always easy. As Thanksgiving passes and Christmas approaches, I hope that I can share the graces of my life in Christ with family, friends, and even strangers. It’s a powerful testimony when we reflect and share in Christ’s sufferings, even when the character of that suffering has changed since the writing of 1 Peter.

Chris Unseth