GOD'S EVERLASTING LOVE Peril is danger, risk, jeopardy, or hazard. It is associated with menace, threat, and even terror. When "peril" exists ones life is at risk. A person who is in peril, and knows it, is anything but casual and nonchalant. – Tomorrow:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39, NKJV)
There is a note of dubiousness in "peril," as the danger is not always seen. It rather lurks in the darkness of uncertainty, thus promoting fear in those who are in peril and know it. Peril involves very real danger, but the extent of it is not known. That is what makes it particularly conducive to fear and the rise of unbelief.
The surface student of Scripture might imagine where faith is dominant, peril cannot exist. Such a thought might appear to be justified by certain Divine affirmations. "He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of his anointed" (1 Sam 2:9-10). "For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Psa 91:11-12). "He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword" (Job 5:19-20).
Of course, deducing from such texts that "peril" cannot exist is wholly unjustified. God has given extensive accounts of men and women who endured peril. The impressive list includes such as Abel, Joseph, Moses, Israel in the wilderness, the Prophets, the Apostles, Stephen, and others. Paul spoke of being "in jeopardy every hour" (1 Cor 15:30), never able to put a great distance between himself and peril. He even declared the sentence of death had been passed upon them, so that it appeared as though they were open game for every opponent of the Gospel of Christ. He also declared WHY this condition was experienced. "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, THAT WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us" (2 Cor 1:9-10).
Paul once testified of the many perils to which he was subjected. "In journeyings often, in PERILS of waters, in PERILS of robbers, in PERILS by mine own countrymen, in PERILS by the heathen, in PERILS in the city, in PERILS in the wilderness, in PERILS in the sea, in PERILS among false brethren" (2 Cor 11:26). It ought to be noted that these "perils" were not the result of wandering away from the Lord, or being out of the will of God. They were all endured while he was faithfully serving the Lord, counting all competing interests but "dung," and pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
1 - PERILS OF WATERS. Dangers of floods, swollen streams, and other such hazards that impeded those who traveled on foot. His Divine commission brought him into such perils.
2 - PERILS OF ROBBERS. Many countries and regions through which Paul traveled were infested with robbers who preyed on those journeying through their territory. Although he was not a man of substance, yet his life was still threatened by lurking thieves who would kill a man for barely any reason. What Jesus called Paul to do led him through these perilous areas.
3 - PERILS OF MINE OWN COUNTRYMEN. These were the Jews, who constantly sought to kill Paul (Acts 9:23,24; 21:31; 23:15; 25:3; 26:21). All of this occurred during Paul's faithfulness to the Lord.
4 - PERILS BY THE HEATHEN. These were the Gentiles, who rose up against him when what he preached impinged on their careers. A classic example of such perils was found in Ephesus, where the idol makers were afraid their craft was going to be rendered obsolete by Paul's powerful preaching (Acts 19:23-41).
5 - PERILS IN THE CITY. Perils of this manner were experienced in Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Philippi, and Thessalonica – to name a few. These perils were experienced while Paul was fulfilling his calling.
6 - PERILS IN THE WILDERNESS. All of the details of these perils are not enumerated. They could well have included beasts, hunger and thirst, tempests and storms, and other dangers related to desolate places. Again, it was his labor for the Lord that led Paul through such places.
7 - PERILS IN THE SEA. The Apostle was involved in three separate shipwrecks, and spent a day and a night in the open sea as well, subject to its tempests and lurking fears (1 Cor 11:25). Again, it was his ministry that placed him in these perils.
8 - PERILS AMONG FALSE BRETHREN. These were people who pretended, or feigned, to be Christians. Some of them tried to force his converts to be circumcised after the manner of Moses (Gal 2:4-5; 5:11-12).
The Spirit also testified of the last days when "perilous times shall come," endangering the souls of believers (2 Tim 3:1). Indeed, the Lord can make His people "dwell in safety" (Psa 4:8), and "safety is of the Lord" (Prov 21:31). But let no soul imagine this means there is no peril, no danger, no jeopardy to which the saints are subjected. The question put before us is whether or not "peril" can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You through Jesus Christ that although perils do exist, they are all under Your control.