Commentary on First Peter (48)

Or, how about a Chinese Christian who departs from his family's Buddhist heritage, and who then renounces all idolatrous practices, including ancestor worship and other forbidden religious ceremonies? It depends on how much emphasis the family places on their traditions. In some cases, great shame may be heaped upon the believer. The family members might give him the "cold shoulder," or even outright hostile treatment. It is not inconceivable for the parents to remove from their will a child who has been converted to the Christian faith.

Parents might boast before friends and relatives that their children are doctors, bankers, and lawyers. They are not as proud if their children are janitors and taxi drivers, but for someone to become a pastor, why, that is just a waste of time and talent. Of course, this line of thinking also appears in Westerners in various forms and degrees, as they also think in terms of honor and shame, even if their mentality is not as saturated and influenced by these categories.

Peter accepts the honor-shame mentality, but he reverses its application. Unbelievers regard Christ with hatred and scorn, and so to them it is shameful to trust in him. But what does God think? He is the only correct standard by which all things are judged, and he has made Christ the cornerstone of all true faith and worship. Those who believe in him "will never be put to shame," but "the honor is for [them] who believe." As for "those who do not believe," it is this very stone that they have rejected that trips them up, and causes them to stumble and fall. To them is the shame and dishonor.

Therefore, the greatest honor that has come upon my family is that God has chosen me and converted me, and in addition to this, that he has separated me to serve him in the ministry. I am the greatest honor that God has ever attached to the Cheung family. Members of my family should not be ashamed of my faith as a Christian and my profession as a minister. But I cannot say the same about them, that is, those who do not believe – they are an embarrassment to me. I regard their unbelief with great disdain and shame.

Some Christians might feel strange and uncomfortable to hear me say this, perhaps for a similar reason that many translators select an inferior rendering for verse 7. And this is precisely why I must say it, because this is Peter's point, so that until a person can apply it this way to his own situation, he probably does not believe it at all. Once we renew our minds and adjust our thinking toward this direction, the benefits of this teaching to those enduring persecution from unbelievers becomes evident, and requires no elaboration.

The only thing to add is that when we speak in this manner about the honor of faith, we are not boasting in ourselves, since our faith did not arise from our own holiness or wisdom, but it came from God's sovereign grace. We believe because God has chosen us in his mercy and has caused us to believe by his power. So when we talk like this, we are boasting about what God has done through Christ. As it is written, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31). In fact, the Christian who never boasts this way – that is, from the perspective of what God has done in him, and to extol the works of God in his life – does not really understand or appreciate his salvation.