The pro-life ethic is possible. It is not something laid out by Jesus and just left in the text of Matthew’s gospel. Peter picks it up (as do the other New Testament writers) and calls on the reader to understand the need for change.

We do NOT have to live in the grip of this world.

We do not need to respond to life with anger or anxiety.

Change IS possible.

We need to see the calling. We need to see the possibility. We need to believe the possibility. We then need to obey the king and walk in that possibility.

1 Peter 1:1-11 is in today’s Advent reading and it is so timely as I think about this pro-life ethic and the soul of the American church. We are lost as a people. We don’t need to be this day.

We are called to be partakers of the divine nature (v. 4).

But it takes effort (v. 5).

Dwell on this passage today and understand change is possible. We CAN indeed be different! We don’t need to accept the violence of this culture or the rugged individualism anymore. We don’t need to be lost in the consumerism or controlled by the gods of this age. Not any more.

Live in power. You can indeed change.