1 Peter 1 | What to Do When Following Jesus Costs You Something

There is a tension most Christians feel but rarely talk about out loud. You come to faith, your heart changes, and instead of everything getting easier, it gets harder. Relationships shift. Convictions surface in places they didn't used to. The courage you expected doesn't always show up when you need it. At Redemption Gilbert, we're walking through 1 Peter together, and this week Pastor Brian opened a passage that speaks directly to that feeling.

The More You Press In, the More You Feel the Friction

Peter wrote this letter to people who were losing. Not losing in a small way. Losing jobs. Losing standing in their communities. Being pushed to the margins because they believed that Jesus Christ is Lord and were actually trying to live like it.

That's the audience. And the pressure Peter describes isn't just ancient history. It shows up when you won't close a deal the way you used to. When your convictions about money create tension at home. When you stop laughing at things your friend group still finds funny, and suddenly there's distance where there used to be closeness.

The further you press into a whole-life faith, the more friction you can expect to feel.

Peter knows this from the inside. He was the disciple who said he'd die before he'd deny Jesus, and then denied him three times to a servant girl. Coward. And yet Acts 2 shows the same man standing in front of thousands, filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching the gospel without flinching.

What changed? He saw a resurrected rabbi. That changes your confidence about everything.

Praise First. Not as a Performance, But as a Foundation.

The first thing Peter says to people who are suffering loss? Praise God. Not as a spiritual trick. Not to bypass grief. As an anchor.

He points them in two directions at once. Look back at mercy. Look forward to the inheritance.

Looking back: you were dead. No desire for God, no capacity to fix yourself. And at your absolute worst, because of his great love, he moved toward you. That's mercy. Rich, irresistible, not-based-on-your-performance mercy. The same mercy Jesus showed every time he stopped for the person no one else stopped for.

That mercy doesn't run out when you sin again. When the accuser says you've gone too far, Peter says: remember mercy. That's the foundation.

Looking forward: there is an inheritance coming that cannot perish, spoil, or fade. It is kept for you. Nothing can rob it. And you are being shielded through faith, not through your own track record, but through the power of God himself, all the way to the finish line.

A Taste Now, the Whole Thing Later

Pastor Brian put it this way: we're living pink-spoon lives right now. The little sample spoon at Baskin-Robbins. Just a taste of what's coming.

What's coming is hard to describe. Peter and John both reach for the most vivid language they have. Christ returning not on a donkey but in a victorious procession. Resurrection bodies. A renewed creation that groans and waits for the moment everything is made right. A holy city. A wedding. The dwelling place of God with man, face to face, no more pain, no more tears.

It's that. That's what's under the sheet. And he says: live your whole life in light of that.

Suffering Refines. But We're Allowed to Grieve.

Peter reframes the trials, but he doesn't dismiss them. He says these sufferings come to prove your faith and refine it, the way heat refines gold. And your faith, he says, is worth more than any gold. Pointing someone toward hope is not the same as dismissing their pain. We are supposed to weep with those who weep. We come alongside. We walk with people through the real grief of real loss.

Tim Keller, when he learned his cancer was terminal, said he and his wife would cry themselves to sleep. And then they would say: if the resurrection really happened, everything's going to be okay.

That's the rhythm Peter is calling us into. Lament and hope together. Not one instead of the other.

Personal Reflection

Where is following Jesus currently costing you something, even something small? A friendship, a professional decision, a conversation you've been avoiding?

And when you feel that friction, where does your mind go first? Toward the pressure, or toward the inheritance?

One practice this week: When you feel the friction of living against the grain, pause and pray one sentence before you react: "Lord, remind me what's true." Let that become a reflex that orients you back toward mercy and inheritance instead of pressure and loss.

Go Deeper

There is a lot more in this passage than one post can hold. You can watch the full sermon in the Redemption Gilbert Sermon Library or on YouTube.

If you want to walk through 1 Peter with others, community groups are one of the best places to do that. Reach out to us to find one near you.