Putting Off the Tent

Some people would happily spend a week’s vacation sleeping outside in a tent; others would rather take a beating. But probably all would agree that you don’t want to live in a tent. They can be fun in short increments, but tents are also fragile, unstable, and not terribly comfortable. No, at some point, you want to exchange a tent for a permanent house.

That’s what Peter is talking about in 1:13. In the ESV translation, Peter says that “the putting off of my body will be soon.” The actual word that he uses for “body” is “tent.” Peter is now between the ages of 50–60, relatively old for the time. This strong, vigorous body that fished all night, hauled in heavy nets, and raced to the tomb is getting weak and tired. It’s been a good tent, but it is beginning to wear out. He will soon exchange it for that permanent house Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 5:1–5.

But it’s not just Peter’s fading eyesight and creaking joints that tell him his time is short; Jesus told him so. Maybe you remember that morning on the beach—I think Peter must have replayed the scene every day. The risen Jesus looked at Peter across that charcoal fire and asked him three times if Peter loved him. The Lord’s words cut deep, because they confronted Peter with his three denials of Jesus around another fire the night of Jesus’ arrest. But as Peter re-affirmed his love for Jesus, the Lord restored him from this failure and re-commissioned him for service, telling him to “feed my sheep.” That’s when Jesus spoke those sober words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21:18–19).

One day, Peter would die in service to Jesus. Imagine living daily with that knowledge! Yet as heavy as it sounds, Jesus’ prophecy probably comforted Peter, too. It reassured him that he would not ultimately fail. He would serve Jesus all the way to the end, until he glorified God in his death. What greater honor could a servant want?

Peter brings all this up here so that we will understand his urgency as he writes this letter. He knows he does not have much time left. The grains of sand in the hour glass are trickling out. He is not fearful for himself—he is ready to upgrade this tent—but he is concerned for this church. They have relied on him from the start of their Christian lives; this is now the last letter they will ever get from him. Peter feels like the old English Puritan pastor Richard Baxter, who said, “I preach’d as never sure to preach again, as a dying man to dying men.”

Peter uses his last words, as we saw yesterday, to remind them of what they already know: “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me (1:13–14).” That tells us something about how we ought to approach life in these tents: since this is a temporary arrangement, let’s make it count. Let’s not live for ourselves, but invest in ministry to people. Let’s point them again and again to those eternal truths about Jesus. Let’s stir them up by our words and our lives, by reminding them of the gospel. That’s how you exchange your tent without regret.

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church