A Purchased, Holy People

Introduction

Since 1 Pet. 1:13, we have seen Peter emphasize to his audience that they should understand themselves as part of God’s plan.

He has emphasized their conduct.

Peter has based his explanations upon the Scriptures:

Most recently, he has relied upon Isaiah and Psalms.

Recently, he has explained that, according to the Scriptures, there are two distinct types of people in the world.

The dividing line between these two peoples is “the stone,” i.e. the Lord.

One group shares God’s view of the stone, and the other rejects.

Peter, now, will move forward with what that means.

Different beliefs are not the only distinctions.

There are different behaviors.

How are those who share God’s view of Jesus different?

Scriptural Definition

Peter brings the discussion back to his intended audience.

Note ὑμεῖς.

What follows is a list of descriptors used by God three months after the exodus from Egypt.

Exodus 19:1-6.

These are not aspirations.

This is what the reality of the matter.

Again, how we conduct ourselves in the world was always part of God’s intention or plan in redemption (liberation).

The structure of the characteristics:

Peter introduces them with a reference from Is. 43:20, and he ends it with Is. 43:21.

In between, he takes up specific language from Ex. 19:1-6, partly because that language is also suggested in Isaiah 43.

Believers are these things for a purpose, namely, to explain or proclaim the virtues of the one who called us.

As believers, our lives, then, have transcendent meaning around the virtues of God.

Our lives are to be, on the one hand, a testament to what God has done by providing salvation.

It is in the behaviors, or the conduct, then, that God’s virtues are seen.

Those virtues that are to define our conduct are his excellences.

Isaiah 9 may also be important here.

Introduction (Part 2)

We see intentional echoes of both Abraham and the Exodus.

God is the one who called us from darkness into light (Is. 9).

Our purpose is to declare his virtues, his characteristics.

In part 2, we will see more important ideas related to being a people.

We are present, but this world is not our home.

We are strangers in a real sense because we’ve become a different people.

Those Who Belong to God

Peter continues to frame their understanding in light of the teaching of Scripture.

Now relevant becomes Hosea 2:23.

Our lives are to be a testimony, a witness to God’s transformative power.

Through our conduct should come the evidence that God has taken a people who did not belong to Him and made them His own.

A Shift to Encouragement

Peter addresses his readers as “loved ones,” and this signals the parenetic section now.

He refers to them as temporary residents/foreigners, and he reuses the descriptor he used in the introduction (1 Pet. 1:1).

The encouragement is to abstain from from fleshly desires.

1 Peter 4:1–2 “Χριστοῦ οὖν παθόντος σαρκὶ καὶ ὑμεῖς τὴν αὐτὴν ἔννοιαν ὁπλίσασθε, ὅτι ὁ παθὼν σαρκὶ πέπαυται ἁμαρτίας εἰς τὸ μηκέτι ἀνθρώπων ἐπιθυμίαις ἀλλὰ θελήματι θεοῦ τὸν ἐπίλοιπον ἐν σαρκὶ βιῶσαι χρόνον.”

Fleshly desires war against the soul.

There is conflict, and it is clear that Peter entertains the possibility that they can be embraced rather than avoided. They remain a potential problem.

Alongside abstaining from fleshly desires, or perhaps bringing the meaning of that phrase into clearer view, Peter wants them to practice a good lifestyle.

Those who are not believers may slander (note 1 Pet. 2:1-2 for this term) them as criminals.

Yet, the lifestyle they lead should be good and within the law so that upon investigation/observation in judgment what might otherwise happen is God’s glorification by their accusers.