1 Peter: How to Live as Faithful Exiles (1:1-12)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel-centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

Our second lesson this morning is taken from the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Capadacea, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

This is the word of the Lord.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

And we pray, Lord, that by grace, by your Holy Spirit, by your word implanted in our hearts, we would grow to love you more and more.

That we would behold your truth, your goodness, your beauty with fresh eyes.

And Lord, that you would sustain us every day of this pilgrimage into your everlasting kingdom.

Speak to us now, Lord, by your word.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

How does a Christian relate to the world?

How does a Christian relate herself or himself to the world we live in?

It's a complicated question, isn't it?

I mean, on the one hand, we might have an answer jump to mind.

But just as quickly as an answer might jump to mind, we might think, well, a Christian ought to retreat from the world, because the world is full of all sorts of immorality and ungodliness and unrighteousness.

And we can list a number of Bible verses that would certainly support that.

And we should retreat from the world.

We should be God's people gathered together in contrast to the world around us.

And just as quickly as one Christian might answer that, another would say, well, we should love the world, shouldn't we?

God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son.

Should our hearts not reflect the love of God for this world that he's created and for those who live in it?

There's a tension there, isn't there?

Because it's a bit of a both and and not an either-or.

To be a Christian and to live in the world is full of a sort of tension.

Another way we could frame this question is how does Christ relate to culture?

We could say, how does a Christian relate to the world?

How does Christ relate to culture?

And it's this question that inspires one of the great classic works of theology in the last century or so, Christ and Culture, by a theologian named Reinhold Nieber.

Now, Niebuber identifies at least five ways Christ can relate to the culture that we live in.

Either Christ is in opposition to culture, either Christ is in agreement with culture, or some kind of combination of the two, either Christ is the fulfillment of the culture we live in, and its hopes and its dreams and its anticipations.

Or there's going to be an ongoing tension between Christ and culture.

We just can't resolve this relationship.

Or there's some sense in which Jesus, as he encounters culture, converts culture into a sort of kingdom culture.

Now, Niebu's point is not that there is one single answer necessarily, but that there's a plurality of answers, aren't there?

And here we live in this somewhat tense but beautiful relationship as Christians with the world that God has created.

A world that has fallen away into sin.

We write about that in Genesis 2 and 3 this morning.

But nevertheless, a world that God seeks to redeem and draw back to Himself and renew and restore.

What is a Christian?

And how do we relate to this world around us?

In a real way, that's the question that drives this letter we call 1 Peter.

This is the first of two letters we have in the New Testament written by the Apostle Peter.

We know Peter from the gospel stories, right?

We know Peter is the one who confessed Jesus as the Messiah, right?

The Son of the living God.

He's the one Jesus affirms when he says, On this rock I will build my church, which is a whole other sermon in itself, by the way.

But I take that expression of Jesus to mean not Peter's person, not necessarily Peter's office, but the confession that Peter has just made.

Peter has confessed Christ as the Messiah, right?

The one who's been promised, the one who will be the savior of the world on this confession, Christ's church is founded.

And here we are confessing the same today.

Of course, this Peter who makes that same confession is the same Peter in Jesus' greatest hour of need, who, you know, just dodges as best as he can, sandbags hides, gets himself as far as he can and denies Jesus.

And yet it's this Peter who's restored to ministry, isn't he?

Restored in forgiveness with Christ.

And it's this Peter on the day of Pentecost, after Jesus' ascension, after the sending of the Holy Spirit, who is filled by the Holy Spirit and can proclaim to thousands the significance of what has just happened on this day of Pentecost.

That God is fulfilling his promises, that he is calling all people to repent and to be baptized and to come and claim these promises of salvation for themselves.

What bold proclamation Peter can make by way of the Holy Spirit.

It's this Peter who's writing this letter that we're reading from this morning.

He writes it probably in the early 60s A.D., so we're talking no later than, let's say, 30-ish years after Christ's death and resurrection.

Peter's likely writing from Rome, but he's writing to Christians living in what's basically modern-day Turkey, to living in the Roman Empire in this province we call Asia Minor.

And he's writing to Christians experiencing the trouble of living in tension with the world around them.

The first generation of Christians experienced a similar tension to us, which is a remarkable thought.

How do we live in the world, but not of the world, but for the world?

This is the tension that these Christians are experiencing.

And so Peter is writing to them to answer questions that are probably questions we've asked ourselves, namely, what is a Christian?

And how do we live as Christians in this world, especially in a world in which we experience this ongoing tension?

And Peter, I think, has a way of framing this question in a way that I think is so helpful to us to consider.

He calls us to live as elect exiles.

Really, he reminds us that that's who we are.

Did you notice that in verse 1?

He identifies himself Peter, an apostle, a sent one of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles in this Roman province, we can summarize as Asia Minor.

Elect exiles is what Peter calls Christians.

To be a Christian is to be an elect exile.

What does that mean?

To be elect is to be chosen by God.

To be an exile is to be something of a stranger in a strange land.

To be a pilgrim, not having arrived at our destination, but on our way there.

And yes, the doctrine of election raises all sorts of questions in our minds, but before we get to those questions, which again is a whole other sermon, we should remember that we should remember the comfort it is to know that God has chosen us.

God has seen fit, he has known us.

And by no merit of our own, but simply by his pure grace and favor towards us, God has chosen us for himself.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

We should remember the comfort before we get to any other questions that election very rightly raises for us.

But we are chosen by God and we are exiles in this world.

Some commentators suggest that Peter is writing to those who are literally exiles by way of their ethnicity.

They're living in a culture that's not their own.

And maybe there's some truth to that, but I agree with most commentators that would say we are exiles as a necessary, by because we are elect.

Let me put it this way, because we're elect, we are necessarily exiles in the world we live in.

To be a Christian is to be in the world, but not quite of the world.

So naturally we experience this tension.

This tension of the world that we live in.

Here we are, elect exiles, pilgrims.

And here's Peter's answer to the question: what is a Christian?

How do we live?

Here's what I want to suggest.

To live as a Christian is to live as a faithful exile.

To live as a Christian is to live as a faithful exile, both in the first century in Asia Minor and in the 21st century here in Canada.

We are called to live as faithful exiles in the world, not of the world, but for the world.

And what does that all mean?

What does that look like?

Peter wants to introduce us to the major themes that he's going to develop in this letter.

What does it mean to live as a faithful exile?

It's going to mean at least three things.

It means that we Christians, we faithful exiles, are born again.

Number one.

We faithful exiles, we Christians, will experience refining trials.

We are born again.

We have refining trials.

And finally, we faithful exiles, we Christians, have an unshakable biblical confidence.

We have a biblical confidence, a confidence founded upon God's word.

Born again, refined by trial, with biblical confidence.

This is who we are.

This is who we are called to be, New Song.

In Port Perry, for Port Perry.

This might challenge the way we measure our reputation or our success in the world, but this can also be the source of our greatest confidence in Christ if we let it.

So that was an extended introduction.

Let's get into it.

If you want to open up your Bibles to page 953, let's have a look at the rest of this passage of Scripture and discover what it means to live as faithful exiles, to live as Christians in the world, not of the world, but for the world.

To live as a Christian is to live as a faithful exile, and that means that we, you and I, are born again.

Verse 3.

Peter's celebrating.

This is a celebratory open to his letter.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, not our great works, his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is unshakable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

What's the first thing Peter has to say about what it means to be a Christian?

Well, to be a Christian is to be, by God's mercy, born again.

To be born again, to be made new, to be renewed, to be regenerated by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe we're reminded of John chapter 3 in Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus by night, where Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3 · chapter mention

To be born again is to be made new by the working of the Lord's Holy Spirit.

To become a new creature, behold, the new is come and the old is gone.

This is God's work in our lives.

This is, I think, one of the first mistakes we can make about this phrase born again, because I recognize that's a loaded phrase, especially politically these days.

What does the Bible mean by that phrase?

Well, we're not talking about any of our moral commitments, or certainly not talking about any our political allegiances.

We're talking about the work of the Lord's Holy Spirit in our lives, making us new by grace.

Not because of our hard work, but by the Lord's simple love and favor and grace towards us.

We're being made new.

We are made new.

This is who we are, born again.

And not just born again, but born again, Peter says, to a living hope.

A living hope.

Not a stale hope, but a living one.

What is it?

Well, here's where I want to suggest that the living hope, the medium is the message.

What is our living hope?

We're born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That living hope is a resurrection hope.

It's knowing that the outcome of history is as secure as Jesus is raised from the dead.

And it's remarkable to think that Peter, an eyewitness to Jesus' crucifixion, an eyewitness to his resurrection, is here telling us within decades that our whole hope as Christians, our whole identity is wrapped up in the resurrection of Jesus.

And if you hear nothing else this morning, I hope you hear that.

That who you are before God is wrapped up in the resurrection reality.

God is making all things new.

And the resurrection is the stamp of that, it's the guarantee of that.

It is our living hope that just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too will we share in his resurrection on the last day.

Death will not have the final answer over us.

That's our living hope.

We're born again, born again to a living hope, a resurrection hope, and we are born again, Peter says, to an inheritance, and not just any inheritance, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for you and for me.

This word inheritance is a very loaded word.

If we're students of the Old Testament, just like Peter's first readers would have been, this word inheritance will spring to our mind the inheritance promised to God's old covenant people Israel, as they wandered as exiles through the wilderness for decades, promised an inheritance in this land to come.

It was the hope of their inheritance, this promised land, that kept God's people moving forward in their pilgrimage in the Old Testament.

So too is the hope of our inheritance, our heavenly inheritance, our hope that keeps us moving forward in mission as God's people.

We ought always to have our inheritance in mind because it is the outcome of God's work in our lives.

And whereas God's people Israel's their inheritance was a promised land, ours is a heavenly inheritance, an imperishable inheritance.

It cannot die, it can't be defiled, it's pure, it's unfading, it will not go away, and it's kept in heaven for us, guarded by God Himself, guaranteed by God Himself.

Friends, this is our hope.

This is our guarantee.

This is Christ's pledge to us, a resurrection hope, a heavenly inheritance.

How can we not say with Peter, Blessed be God, and blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, what amazing gifts he has given us.

By no work of our own, but simply by his grace.

What generous heart God has towards us.

To be an elect exile, to be a Christian, is to live as those who are born again, made new, with a resurrection hope in Christ, and with a heavenly inheritance that awaits us.

And friends, it's this experience of an inheritance to come that can transform our experience of tension with the world we live in presently.

Because we know history's outcome, and because we live with hope.

What do we do with all this?

Well, Peter knows.

Verse 6 in this, you rejoice.

Now we're going to get to the rest of this verse.

But before we get to the rest of this verse, let's notice this first clause.

In this, Peter recognizes you, Christians, rejoice.

Christians are those who rejoice.

We are rejoicing people.

I want to point out that rejoicing does not mean it's not the same thing as happiness.

Christians aren't necessarily always happy, clappy people.

Though sometimes I hope in life we are made happy and we experience happiness as a means to rejoice.

But in Peter's mind, I think rejoicing as Christians has far more to do, far less to do with our happiness and far more to do with our hopefulness.

Because we know no matter what our present circumstance is, no matter what we are experiencing today, we have an inheritance that is guaranteed.

We are born again by God's grace.

And so therefore we can rejoice under any circumstance in life.

Because we know that these circumstances will give way to a greater glory to come.

What an amazing thing.

What a wonderful thing it is to be a Christian.

To always have reason to rejoice, no matter what life circumstance might be.

Here we are, elect exiles, Christians who live as those who are born again, rejoicing.

Rejoicing with the hope in the resurrection of Jesus.

To live as a faithful exile is to live as one who is born again.

But not just that, it's to live as one who has refining trials.

Let's continue on in verse six.

In this, in this hope, you rejoice, Peter recognizes, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That is to say, on the last day when Christ appears and he is fully made known to us.

You have been grieved by various trials, Peter writes to these Christians.

I was weirdly heartened to learn about these trials this week, because there's something in my mind, maybe at Sunday school or something like that, when I read various trials, I'm thinking Roman persecutions of the fiercest kind.

And you know what?

That is true for a lot of the New Testament.

But in Peter's context and in Peter's day, the kind of trials that these Christians were experiencing was less like being burned at the stake and more like experiencing discrimination and unpopularity and slander and verbal insults and being excluded and being rejected because they claim Christ as Lord.

And I found that weirdly heartening because, in a strange way, I feel like we can recognize that.

In a strange way, I've never experienced physical persecution, although there are brothers and sisters of ours who today live in threat and gather in threat of that.

But what have we experienced as Christians living in Canada?

Probably it's more akin to the sort of Christians that Peter is writing to.

It's those who've experienced discrimination or abuse or insult because we claim Jesus Christ is Lord.

We know that tension that Peter is writing about, the unpopularity, perhaps, of being a Christian, because if we are faithful to the Lord's word, then we will in some way be in conflict with the claims of this world.

And why is it necessary?

That we experience these trials?

Why is it necessary that Christians are experiencing various trials of various kinds?

I wonder if it's exactly that.

I wonder if living in submission to God's will and God's world will necessarily result in attention with the word and the claims of this world.

Not all the time.

I don't think we should live reactive or defensive as if the world makes a claim and we just instinctively go, well, that's rubbish or something like that.

We should be thoughtful with how we interact with the world, with how we interact with our non-Christian friends.

We should recognize truth where we see it, but we should also recognize that our highest allegiance is owed to God and to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And so therefore it's his word that trumps all other words.

And in some way or another, that's going to be cause for tension with a world that doesn't recognize the authority of the word of Christ.

So we are grieved by various trials when we live in this tension.

But there is a divine purpose behind all of it.

So let's not despair.

What's the divine purpose?

Here's the purpose.

So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

What is the divine purpose?

We are being made purified.

We are being made new.

We are being refined as by the fires of these trials.

Gold is purified in a furnace, and when it's being heated up, all the impurities rise to the surface and they're being scraped away.

And friends, don't the fiery trials of life have a way of bubbling up all the competing affections we have in our hearts?

Right?

All of the desires for success and acceptance and reputation and all these things that might compete with our principal allegiance to Jesus have a way of bubbling up to the surface, and we become hyper-aware of them, don't we?

And it's a very uncomfortable experience.

But God is using these fiery trials to expose those parts of our hearts, perhaps, which we would not otherwise want to be confronted with, so that he can graciously scrape them away.

And we can share in a greater glory and a greater honor and a greater splendor than we would otherwise with Christ.

It is a painful process, friends, but it is a purifying process.

And it is God's severe mercy in our hearts that he does this.

Elect Christians will live with refining trials.

But it's these refining trials that will solidify, that will purify our affection for our Lord Jesus, who loves us more than anything.

Who loves us to the cross and back.

And we our affection for him is likewise being purified.

So that we can reciprocate in kind.

So, friends, what do we do in the midst of these trials?

Verses 8 and 9, Peter again, with a very heartening thought, though you have not seen him, you love him.

Friends, here's a way we can identify with the audience.

I'm suspecting no one here has seen the Lord Jesus.

I have not seen the Lord Jesus with my eyes, though we have beheld the Lord Jesus by the eyes of our hearts, right, by faith.

But we long for that day where we will lay our eyes on our Lord Jesus, don't we?

Nevertheless, having not seen Jesus, we love him.

Our affections are set on him.

We prize him, we cherish him, we delight in him.

Friends, for a Christian, Jesus is the sweetest word we could utter.

He is the sweetest thought we could have.

He is the greatest love and affection of our hearts, though our hearts are so often fickle and wayward.

One of my favorite uh historians who deals in the history of Christianity and its influence on the Western world recently went on record to say he is a Christian.

And what was very interesting is a very uh committed Christian interviewer wanted to politely press him on that a little bit.

Are we Christians simply by our commitment to Christian moral values and ethics and the way that Christianity has influenced the world?

If I could have a if I could have a coffee, let's put it that way.

If I could have a coffee with this uh historian that I love so much, I would love to ask him about this verse in particular.

Are we Christians simply by our moral commitments, or are we Christians by way of our love for the Lord Jesus?

Do our hearts bubble over with affection for the one whose heart bubbles over for us?

And if if it doesn't, if you haven't experienced that yet, I hope you don't despair.

It means the gospel is still working on our hearts.

Because the gospel, the Holy Spirit, works that way, slowly bending our hearts out of ourselves and towards Him who loves us and gave Himself for us.

So we press into the gospel, and as we do, we will find that affection of our hearts bubbling up more and more and more.

We will have refining trials as elect exiles, as Christians, but those refining trials will purify us, and it will purify our affection for our Lord Jesus, who alone can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

We are born again, we will have refining trials.

But here's our final uh thought.

What does it mean to be an elect exile, a Christian?

We live with biblical confidence.

Let's look at verses 10 to 12 briefly here.

This is a bit of an uh an aside, I think Peter's making, but it's related to our main point.

Concerning this salvation, verse 10, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you, though, or pardon me, through those who preached the gospel news to you, the good news, pardon me, to you, by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Peter's dealing with the nature of the Old Testament, right?

And the bless you.

What is the Old Testament's importance?

Here's what Peter has to say.

The Old Testament is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

We just confessed that in the Nicene Creed, didn't we?

That the Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets.

When we come to read the scriptures, all of the scriptures and the Old Testament, we are reading the work of the principal author who is God Himself, speaking His Word, capital W, through the words of biblical, human biblical authors.

But we should bear in mind it is the Holy Spirit principally who is speaking his word.

The Holy Spirit is working through the word, but the Old Testament anticipates Christ.

The Old Testament looks forward to that day when God's promises will be completely fulfilled, and all of God's promises find their yes in Christ.

So Augustine of Hippo has this great phrase.

He says, the New Testament is in the Old concealed, and the Old Testament is in the new revealed.

I love that because it just suggests such a unity to our scriptures, and so often we set one against the other, as if God was just nothing but a God of wrath in the Old Testament.

We'd do better without that, and God was nothing but a God of love in the New Testament.

Instead, we recognize that the Old Testament as the New is God's word to his people, to us.

And it concerns the things that concern us, namely Christ, who the Old Testament anticipates.

So if that's the Old Testament's import um importance, relevance to Christ, then what's the Old Testament's relevance, importance to us?

Well, if the prophets were anticipating the sufferings and glories of Christ, verse 12, it was revealed to them, the prophets, that they were serving themselves, pardon me, not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you.

Peter imagines the prophets praying to God and asking for a sense of when are these things going to take place, when are they going to be fulfilled?

And God's answers to them was in my time and in my way.

And here we are.

In a way that the prophets look forward to Christ, we look back on Christ and we remember God's promises fulfilled.

Strangely, I've heard pastors or preachers get up to the pulpit and say two contradictory things at different times.

I've heard faithful pastors say, the Bible is about us as Christians, and it is our book, and we find ourselves in it.

And I have heard preachers say, the Bible's really not about us.

It's not about Christians.

And both are true in their different ways.

And here I wonder if Peter's getting at that tension.

The Bible's not about us as if we are the heroes of the story, but it is our story, it's our family heritage.

It is about God who is acting in Christ to redeem us.

And if we see Christ as the center of Scripture, as the center of the story, we will understand how we relate to Christ, and therefore we will recognize ourselves in exactly what the Bible is telling us.

It's the benefit of deep Bible study, isn't it, friends?

Because we'll come to know who we are by way of knowing who He is.

And so, as we read the prophets, Peter is saying, we will recognize that, yes, they anticipate Christ, and that they were serving not themselves.

The prophets weren't writing this for their own benefit, but they've announced what benefits us because we recognize the fulfillment of what they've written in who Christ is.

So when we read Scripture and all of Scripture, friends, we recognize this great benefit that God has given us in Christ.

Exactly who we are, as his faithful exiles, as his redeemed people, saved in Christ.

See, we have a biblical confidence, don't we?

That God fulfills his promises.

That his answer to us is yes in Christ, and therefore we hold fast to Christ as we find him in the scriptures, and we cling to his promises, knowing that he will surely bring them to pass.

We set our hope fully on Christ, is what Peter says in verse 13.

So to live as a Christian is to live as a faithful exile, isn't it?

To live as one born again to a living hope, as one who experiences refining trials that purify our affections and set our hearts on Christ, and to live with a biblical confidence, knowing that when we open up the words of the scriptures, we see God's promises to us being fulfilled in Christ.

And as surely as Christ has suffered, and as surely as he was raised, so too in our sufferings will God raise us to a greater glory.

Perhaps that means we have to repent of the value we've placed on our reputations, on our successes in the world, of how we regarded ourselves in the world.

And perhaps it means turning our hearts in a foundational and fundamental way to Christ, who has overcome the world.

And yet it does not mean we retreat from this world or despise this world or think little of this world that God has seen fit to redeem in Christ.

Instead, it is to look at the world through the lens of the resurrection and rest assured that we have a hope, a hope that God in Christ makes us new and calls us to be his witnesses in a world that he is calling back to himself and remaking and renewing.

We, friends, are called to announce this good news right here in Port Perry, that God is redeeming all things, and that according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

So, friends, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's Word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

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If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.