“Now if you invoke as Father, him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.”
This is quite a declaration. But I’m not going to dig into all parts of it. When Peter wrote this, he was expressing some very powerful and important theological points.
The very first words “if you invoke as Father” may be referring to the Lord’s prayer itself. The our Father was typically prayed at least three times a day by the early Christians, according to a book called the Didache, which some very early Christians thought should be part of the Bible. How often do you pray the Our Father per day? So this section of Peter’s letter is first of all trying to get us to pray, and then drawing us to action. Invoking the Father is prayer. But the second part, where Peter says “who judges impartially according to each one’s works” deals with our actions before God and the …read more
Source:: Fr. Frank Jindra’s Homily Podcasts
