The Asian and Turkish Churches Had/Have Autonomy ... (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9-10) au·ton·o·my : the state of existing or acting separately from others : the power or right of a country, group, etc., to govern itself ******* When the apostle Peter sent a letter to a foreign nation, their leaders may have thought he was trying to empire build, to branch out or make them a subdivision of his religion and faith, but not so. Peter made it very clear that they were not subject to him. Many have erroneously given Peter too much credit because of the meaning of his nickname, The Rock, and because of what Jesus said to him after he correctly answered a question posed [Jesus said, Upon this rock Ill build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus did not mean that he was building his church on Peter. He meant he was building his church upon the truth or the words that Peter spoke which the Holy Ghost revealed unto him. Peters words were Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.]. In Peters epistle to the strangers and foreigners in Asia and Turkey, he emphatically and repeatedly stated that they were to be accountable to the Lord God and not to the Jerusalem Council or to a pastor or the Jews or to any other organization. Peter referred to them as lively stones in 1 Peter 2:5. As living stones, they were built up a spiritual house. They were being built a holy priesthood. They were to be autonomous. They were not to send tithes to Jerusalem. It would be unnecessary for them to send their prayer requests to him or anyone else either. God was building a spiritual house onsite per se and he would use them as building blocks. A silly moment just came over me so Ill let it out. Silly moment: Can you imagine a virtual house of prayer and worship being built in the mighty USA by God and everything from the bags of concrete to the wood to the insulation or what not having a label with the words Made in China or Made in Thailand attached thereon. God forbid. According to Peter, God the Father would build his spiritual house and he would use them, and not foreigners or outsiders as his building stones. In other words, they didnt need to make Peter nor Paul [the Godsent evangelist to the Gentiles] a king, pope or potentate. The one and only chief cornerstone of their building was to be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ ...
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:49:33 +0000
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