“If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:17-19 NASB1995)

What does a futile way of life look like in the eyes of God? What futile ways of life have any of us inherited from our ancestors (forefathers)? For me, I was raised by a father who was an abuser physically, mentally, emotionally, and sexually. I did not follow in his footsteps, but what was done to me did have an impact on my life, and on my life choices, and on my perception of God. I saw God/Jesus Christ as my Savior, my Lord, and my comforter, but he did not rescue me from my abuser, and so I saw God as limited.

I believed in Jesus Christ at age 7, and I took God and his word seriously. I was not a perfect child, but I loved Jesus, and I loved the teachings of the Scriptures, and I followed the Lord with my life. I was so serious about obeying the Lord that I was often made fun of and thought to be an oddball. I wanted to serve him with my life, and I wanted to become a missionary one day. I loved sitting in the front pew in the “church” building and listening to the preacher preach from the Scriptures. I wanted to live like that.

I met a guy in college. We dated. Eventually we got married. I believed he was a Christian. We were in Christian ministry together from our dating years until mid-2006, with some gaps in-between. We have both shared our testimonies publicly several times. He confesses to being addicted to sexual sin from early in his life to the present. And for a short period of time he led me to join him in some of his sinful behaviors, which were then my sinful behaviors, too. Then God delivered me and brought me back to himself.

So, when I was joining my husband in sin, I was living the futile way of life inherited from my father, not as an abuser, but as one committing sexual sin against God. I was following the ways of the flesh, and not the ways of God, not constantly, but more in and out. And when I did try to come back to the right place with God I had other people knocking me down, treating me with disdain, not for any sin I committed, but because I was pursuing God and righteousness and getting my life back on track. Satan wanted me dead.

But Jesus Christ did not deliver me from sin and give me a new life in him to be lived for his glory so that eventually I would ignore him and his commands and so that I would do the unthinkable in direct opposition to his will and purpose for my life. And that is the subject that this passage of Scripture is addressing. We are not delivered from sin so that we will eventually go back to living in it. We are delivered from our sin so we will now serve God with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands.

And God is going to judge all of us in the same way when we stand before him on the day of judgment, not according to what we did in the past, but according to how we are living in the present. He will judge us by our works, whether we are serving him with our lives or if we are living in sin, doing what our flesh desires rather than obeying our Lord and his commands. So, we must conduct ourselves in the fear (honor, respect) of the Lord during our time on this earth or we will not have eternal life with God in heaven.

For, when Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross, it was to put our sins to death with him so that, by God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in him we will now die to sin and walk in obedience to his commands – all in the power of God, by his Spirit. So, if you have not denied self, died to sin, and followed Jesus in obedience, in lifestyle, by his grace, I pray you do so now. And if you have wandered from the faith and have fallen back into sin, I pray you will repent and obey God from this day forward, by his grace.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

God had a calling on my life from very early on in my life. I knew I was to be like a Jeremiah, not as a prophet, but as one taking the truths of the Scriptures to the people without fear of them. But I let fear of them distract me for a time from that calling. But when the Lord brought me back he made that calling even more clear to me than ever before. And for the past nearly 22 years I have been doing what he has called me to do, even when I get rejected, hated, mistreated, and cast aside, because He is with me!

The Spirit Calling

An Original Work / November 12, 2019
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Hear the Spirit calling.
He’ll keep you from falling.
Tenderly He’s calling,
“Come and follow Him.”

Walk with Jesus daily.
Don’t give in to lazy.
Folks may call you crazy.
Fellowship with Him.

Follow where He leads you.
Eat what Jesus feeds you.
His love will renew you
If you follow Him.

Do what Jesus tells you.
Don’t let your faith fail you.
His love will avail you
If you walk with Him.

Jesus, Lord and Savior,
Reigneth now forever.
He gave us His favor
So we’d live with Him.

Turning now from our sin,
Holy Spirit live-in.
Holiness we walk in,
Purified by Him.

A Futile Way of Life
An Original Work / April 24, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love