Untitled Sermon
Evangelistic Christians, whether of Jewish or of Gentile origin, could be accused of violating all three points of Claudius’s policy on religious tolerance: disturbing the public peace, possibly by their street preaching (as Paul seemed to do wherever he went); offending accepted morals (biblical morals being so different from those accepted by pagan society); and engaging in converting native Romans (which was the hallmark of first-century Christianity, as attested by the explosion of the church in those early decades)
Peter is concerned to present the nature of God’s true grace as it relates to the experience of his original readers, and is eager to see them standing fast in it. Peter’s stated concern implies that the situation of his readers was causing them doubt or confusion about God’s work and presence in their lives and that the temptation to abandon, or at least waver in, the Christian faith was a real and present possibility.
Wendland (2000: 66) sees Peter’s letter addressing seven distinct problems in the Christian communities, problems resulting from various responses to social pressure: (1) physical and psychological pressure, (2) social ostracism and exclusion, (3) potential pull from the former pagan way of life, (4) a surrounding, seductive non-Christian worldview, (5) tensions and inconsistent behavior within the fellowship, (6) spiritual doubts about the reliability of God’s promises and the future, and (7) Satan’s constant, deadly temptations and trials. When identified in these terms, the problems Peter addresses are just as real in the churches around the world today as they were in first-century Asia Minor.
Put in sociological terms, Peter is concerned both with the social cohesion of Christian groups and with the social adaptation of those groups to their cultural setting, both of which are necessary for the survival of the church (Talbert 1986: 148). Peter’s teaching is therefore intended to establish both group identity and cohesion in a new setting that is far from the geographical centers of apostolic teaching.
Christian ethics must be grounded in a rightly conceived eschatology, for what one believes about the future will largely shape how one will live today. Two reference points frame Peter’s eschatology: the new birth based on Christ’s resurrection is the alpha point; the final judgment and the glory that follows is the omega point. In between, the new life that Christians are called to live is a quality of life that is authentically and fully human as God, the Creator and Judge of humanity, has defined it. Such a life is characterized, to borrow a thought from Selwyn (1958: 64), by freedom and responsibility that “are exercised within a cosmic order which has God for its source, its sphere, and its end.” The life lived in sin is a subhuman life, deformed by the powers of darkness and failing to achieve its full human potential. The fully human Jesus Christ lived the life that authenticated the relationship of a human being to God at its best. Peter therefore calls Christians to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, even though living such a life will no doubt attract the scorn and rejection of those who do not live so, just as Jesus’ life did.
