This post, by Andrea Seale, is a reflection on the “How We Live, Matters” sermon as part of the “Living the Hope” sermon series.
While reading along, when the 1 Peter passage was read by Elaine today, including a section above verse 19, I was struck by verse 16. I was reading a different translation (the New Living Translation) than that which Elaine was reading (the New Revised Standard Version) and in this case the difference between the translations was striking. I found the NLT to be another anchor for my interpretation of what followed and even for the whole of 1 Peter 2.
I am not usually one who looks at various translations for comparison when I read my Bible, but today I read this verse in several translations. Here is what I read:
New Living Translation (NLT)
For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.
New International Version (NIV)
Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.
New King James Version (NKJV)
…as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
The whole of 1 Peter 2 is about me as an individual, as a Christian, and how I should act. What struck me as important was that Peter is saying, regardless of your freedom, you are still a slave. If we, as Christians, are God’s slaves, then how we live as slaves matters. I am to follow our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am to live through His Spirit, being of service to Him as a servant – a slave.
This is a wonderful reminder: My actual state of affairs does not matter. As a slave, I am free; as a free person, I am a slave. I am, as are all Christians, one and the same through Christ. I should mirror Jesus’ life and the love He shows, anchored by this knowledge.