Procedure*

We will memorize 1 or 2 verses each week throughout the summer over a ten-week period beginning July 7th and ending on September 1st.

There are also questions to answer each week.  The questions are connected with the verse(s) to be memorized for that week.  It would be profitable for you, as appropriate to the question, to find your own cross references in addition to those provided (some of the cross references provided are longer passages, so try to give yourself time to read through them before answering the questions!)

The key to Scripture memory is review, review, review.  So, while you are memorizing a new verse for a given week, also be reviewing all the verses memorized up to that point.

In place of our regular Sunday School, we will gather at 10:00 AM to say our verses and discuss the questions which you answered during the week.

The first and last weeks we will all meet together. During weeks 2–8, we will divide into three groups so that more of us get the opportunity to ask our questions and share our insights about the passage. Please “respect” the assigned groups and stick where you’re assigned throughout the summer so that we can make sure each group has enough participants.

That said, please feel free to talk to brother Jack if you have any questions or suggestions about the groups. (Please direct guests to the group that meets in the main room on the first floor, unless they’ve come with you—in which case they are welcome to join your group!)

To get the most out of the Summer Sunday School, please prepare your lessons ahead of time.  Study the parallel texts in each question so that when we meet, we can have an informed discussion.

*These instructions are taken, with slight modification, from Bob Hall’s booklets for previous summers.

Combined Session: Introduction to Summer Sunday School and Overview of 1 Peter
Memorize 1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

“Therefore” grounds what follows in all that Peter has written so far…
Q 1. What connections do you see between the things Peter talks about in 1 Peter 1:1–12 and this summer’s passage, 1 Peter 1:13–2:3?

“The revelation of Jesus Christ” most likely refers to the second coming of Christ…
Q 2. Based on other passages in 1 Peter (including 1:3–12), what is involved in the grace believers will receive on that day? (See also 1 Peter 5:10; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Cor 13:12; Rom 8:23; 1 Cor 15:50–57; etc.)

Peter’s first readers were scattered (1:1; 2:11) and experiencing persecution and suffering (1:6; 2:12, 20, 21; 3:6, 9–17; 4:1–2, 12–19; 5:9–10)…
Q 3. How would Peter’s command in v. 13 (“set your hope…”) have been difficult to embrace? How might it have been encouraging? In what ways is it difficult or encouraging in our own context?

The phrase “preparing…for action” literally translated is “girding up the loins of your minds,” which in Greek was a way of saying, “Get ready to run!” (or work, etc.)…
Q 4. Why do we have to “prepare our minds for action” and “be sober-minded” in order to set our hope on Christ’s return? What are some ways of doing this? (See 4:7; 5:8 and surrounding verses.)

Week 2: Memorize 1 Peter 1:14–16
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Peter’s use of the word “children” is picking up on a theme hinted at in verses 1–9…
Q 1. How does this comparison to “obedient children” inform how and why we are to pursue holiness?

Being called God’s children includes our calling to be holy…
Q 2. What might it look like if we saw them as unrelated?

Peter tells us not to be “conformed to the passions of our former ignorance” but instead to be like God. “The passions of our former ignorance” contrast with the affections described in 1 Peter 1:8…
Q 3. How does knowledge of the Father’s grace change our relationship to our own sinful desires? (See also 1 Peter 4:1–6; 1 Thes 4:1–8; Eph 4:17–24; Titus 3:3–5.)

Q 4. How have you seen this played out in your own or another’s life?

Week 3: Memorize 1 Peter 1:17
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
Peter is assuming that his readers do call on God as their Father…

Q 1. In what ways is it right to fear God even if he’s your Father? In what ways should we not fear him? See for examples Genesis 22:15; Genesis 26:24; Exodus 20:20; Psalm 34:9; Proverbs 2:7; Matt 10:28–33; 1 John 4:16–18.

Q 2. What could be troubling about this verse to some people? What Scriptures might help you respond to someone who is troubled by the idea of God as an impartial judge or a just father?

Q 3. In what ways will God still evaluate and respond to his children’s deeds in a just way? Are there ways you’ve seen his Fatherly impartiality displayed in your life or the lives of others?

Q 4. Why does Peter view his readers as being in exile? (See 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11–12; see also Jeremiah 29:1–14.) How might viewing your own life circumstances as an “exile” change our approach to your conduct, goals, and attitudes?

The language of “ransom” in Peter’s day referred to buying the freedom of a slave. Here it also brings up imagery of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and
their return from Babylonian captivity (Deut 7:8; Isa 52:3)…
Q 1. How did “the blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” serve as a ransom? (See Hebrews 9:11–14, 26–28; Exodus 12:21–23; Isaiah 53:4–12.) What makes it hard to see this as more precious than what gold and silver can do?

This is the second time Peter has described gold as “perishable” (1:7), and in 1:3–9 he contrasts perishable things with imperishable things connected to salvation…
Q 2. How is being ransomed by the blood of Christ connected to things that will never end (imperishable realities)? See, for a start, 1 Peter 1:20–21; Hebrews 9:12; 10:19–25; Revelation 7:14; 22:12–14.

The “futile ways inherited from your forefathers” refers not just to “bad” things, but to the whole mindset and way of life those without Christ inherit and
embrace—even ways of living that seem good to most people…
Q 3. What are the most common “futile” or “empty” approaches to life we have been ransomed from or want to see others ransomed from?

People may tend to think of freedom as absolute, but Peter says when we are ransomed by God, we become his possession (see, for example, 1 Peter 2:9, 16; 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; Titus 2:14)…
Q 4. In what ways is this a challenge to us? In what ways can it be an encouragement?

Week 5: Memorize 1 Peter 1:20–21
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

This is a new sentence in English, but in the original language it simply continues the sentence describing Christ, whose precious blood ransomed God’s people from futile, empty lives. Now the scope widens. Peter says that the ransom Christ paid for us was part of God’s eternal plan, which also included God
raising and glorifying Christ for the sake of believers, to give them faith and hope in God…
Q 1. How does this contribute to Peter’s main point in v. 17 that we should conduct ourselves with fear throughout our exile?

If Christ was “foreknown before the foundation of the world,” and was raised and given glory, for our sake, this provides further motivation to believe and
hope in God…
Q 2. What could it look like to have these truths about Christ strengthen our faith and hope in daily life? (See 1:2; 5:20.)

Q 3. What does Peter seem to mean by “the last times” (consider the following verses in context: Hebrews 1:2; 2 Peter 3:1–10; 4:7; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Revelations 22:10–12)?

Q 4. How does Peter’s understanding of what it means to be in “the last times” compare or contrast with ideas about “the last times” you’ve come across?

Week 6: Memorize 1 Peter 1:22–23
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

Q 1. What might Peter mean when he says his readers have purified their souls by their obedience to the truth? (See for one option 1 Peter 2:6–8; 3:1; 4:17.)

Peter moves from a general call to holiness to a more specific call to love (see also Leviticus 19:2, 18)…
Q 2. What connections does this passage show between pure souls, holiness, and loving “one another”? What leads to all three of them?

Q 3. Peter sees believing the truth and seeking to love Christians as inseparable. Can we be in danger of valuing one over the other? Why?

Look at the other uses of “imperishable” up to this point in Peter. Peter says that a reason believers should love one another earnestly, from a pure heart, is that we’ve been born again from imperishable seed (i.e., from an imperishable source and kind of life)…
Q 4. Why might Peter keep bringing up this idea of “imperishable” things? In what ways is God’s word “living” and “abiding”?

Q 5. Why does being born again by the word of God entail loving each other earnestly from a pure heart?

Week 7: Memorize 1 Peter 1:24–25
for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this
word is the good news that was preached to you.

Peter quotes here from Isaiah 40. Take some time to read the entire chapter…
Q 1. What are some other parts of Isaiah 40 that “fit” the situation of Peter’s original readers?

These verses in Peter continue the thought begun by the command to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” This seems to be part of the holy conduct Peter says believers are called to (see 1 Peter 4:1–11)…
Q 2. How do these truths from Isaiah 40 motivate brotherly love in a hostile culture?

It doesn’t come naturally to see people (“all flesh”) and their power and prestige (“its glory”) as fleeting and unimpressive in light of God’s purposes,
God’s power, and God’s loving promises…
Q 3. What things are people in our day tempted to forget are merely fleeting and unimpressive?

Q 4. List some of the good things Peter has mentioned so far that have been preached to (and believed by) his hearers—divide them into past, present, and future. Which of these is most exciting to you? Most confusing?

Q 5. What are the implications of vv. 22–24 for how we think and feel about our faith in Christ? What about for evangelism?

Week 8: Memorize 1 Peter 2:1–3
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Verse 1 might seem more related to the previous section, but it is actually grammatically dependent on verses 2 and 3…
Q 1. In what ways do the vices listed in v. 1 get in the way of desiring and tasting the goodness of God?

Q 2. Why might Peter be singling out these particular vices, given what comes before (1:22–23) and what comes after (2:4–12)?

The repetition of the word “all” here stands out. Peter sees the new birth and the power and glory of God’s word in the previous verses as leading to a radical change in the Christian  community.
Q 3. How can this be a challenge for us? How can we help each other obey Peter’s command?

Peter repeatedly talks about salvation as something that has already begun for believers but that is not yet complete (see for example 1:5, 9, 13; 4:13; 5:10; 2 Peter 1:3–11). He assumes that true Christians want to grow in their enjoyment of God…
Q 4. What is surprising or instructive about the picture Peter uses here of longing for God’s goodness like babies long for milk?

The phrase “tasted that the Lord is good” is from Psalm 34:8. The whole psalm is about the saving kindness and power of God to his distressed people…
Q 5. What other connections do you see between Psalm 34 and 1 Peter up to this point? Recount some particular ways in which you have tasted the goodness of God through Christ.

Week 9: Review, Response and Prayer
(Combined Session)
Q 1. In what ways have you been encouraged by this passage?
Q 2. In what ways have you been challenged by this passage?
Q 3. What can we do to help each other apply the truths/commands given in this passage?
Q 4. How can we be helping each other embrace the truths and promises this passage is built upon?