6. A Strategy for Living For Christ In a Hostile World

Because, as Christians, we are “elect exiles” as we saw in the first verse of this book, and “sojourners and exiles,” we are, as Jesus put it, “in this world, but not of this world.” It sets us up with a tension that we will have until the Lord comes again.

This phrase is found in Gen. 23 where Abraham describes himself to the Hittites: “I am a resident alien [paroikos] and a visiting stranger [parepidēmos] among you. Therefore, sell me property for a burial site.”

As Christians, Peter is saying, we need to reorient our understanding of who and what we are with respect to the society in which we live.

The terms Peter uses to describe them basically mean that as Christians they are citizens first of God’s holy nation and therefore not primarily citizens (i.e., aliens and foreigners) of the society in which they live, to whatever extent the two conflict. (Jobes)

We’re reminded of this fact in Philippians 3:20:

Philippians 3:20 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

The “elect exiles” (1:1) in Asia Minor to whom Peter writes felt these tensions. They were misunderstood and despised by their culture on account of their identification with Jesus. In his applications that flow on from our verses today Peter focuses on the most socially vulnerable Christians and the grueling circumstances they might face because of their faith. Peter’s not interested in [a photo-shopped, kinder, gentler] portrait of the Christian life. He applies this new status in Christ to the verbally bullied, the socially and politically disenfranchised, the physically and emotionally weary, the lonely, the vulnerable, and the reviled. (Willson)

Some of us may be in situations that feel utterly desperate. Because of our Christian convictions, people whom we love misunderstand us. Because we don’t endorse certain cultural values, society calls us hypocritical and hateful people. And because year after year we may have wrestled with the same old sins and the same old brokenness, we feel beaten down. These situations can be truly dark. But the darkest, most complicated circumstance in your life can become the very platform upon which God most brilliantly displays his mighty strength.

We’re far from home, yes, but we’re not far from Him. It’s true that if you are in Christ you’re an alien and a stranger. It’s true that you may have to face betrayal or the loss of a loved one. You might lose your job or or be falsely accused. But you will never face the withdrawal of God’s love for you. Your permanent status is “beloved of God.” Your unchangeable identity is “beloved citizen of the city of God.”

So then, Christians are to live in exile as they cope with all the pressures of living amongst non-Christians. In order to have a beneficial effect and even draw people into God’s Kingdom we must turn from sin and seek to do what is truly good within society, trusting that this will have eternal results when Jesus Christ is revealed.

How we go about doing this will occupy, in two main parts, the remainder of the letter of 1 Peter.

In this section that begins with this morning’s passage, (2:11—3:12) Peter considers how Christians should live daily in the world. He says basically, “Though we Christians will have to respond to some hostile forces in an unbelieving world, we must live lives of a character that can be recognized for its quality even by non-Christians.”

In the second part (3:13—5:11) Peter will speak more directly of specific crises that might test the faith of believers; his instruction is very much concerned with what to do if you should suffer for what is right (3:13).

Peter gives us the principle of how to do this: first, a negative, and then a positive.

II. You must turn from sin, 11

1 Peter 2:11 ESV

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

The Christian Life is a Spiritual Warfare

After describing the our new identity as Christians in 2:4–10 that we saw last week, Peter now begins to explain how that identity is threatened and compromised. He introduces the concept of spiritual warfare, where human desires war against new life in Christ.

“Fleshly Desires/Lusts” are those appetites or desires we have by virtue of our fallen human nature. They are ... the desire to perform acts which are for self-gratification rather than for the glory of God. Carried out, these “lusts” result in sin (see 1 Peter 4:3). The “lusts” of which Peter speaks are “former lusts,” those which characterized his readers as unbelievers in a state of ignorance. They are also “lusts” which have an on-going appeal. When submitted to, these lusts shape (conform) us to them (1 Peter 1:14). (Deffinbuagh)

1 Peter 4:3 ESV

3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

1 Peter 1:14 ESV

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

Living as a Christian first requires the resolve to abstain from those inner desires stimulated and validated by ungodly values, which do violence to the Christian’s relationship with God.

We do face the triple threat of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We tend to concentrate on the world and the devil. But as the American comic strip Pogo put it many years ago, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

We have met the enemy, and he is us!

Our battle is not primarily against the unbelieving people of the world; they are our mission field. It is against our own natural, sinful desires—and no amount of insulation from the world "out there” will leave behind our desires “in here.”

Our fight is against sin and temptation, worldliness and the devil—and that is a fight that takes place primarily within us, not around us. So we need to ask ourselves: Am I actually warring against my own sin as I seek to love the world, those who are still lost in darkness; or do I actually indulge my sin while looking down on or remaining aloof from the world? (Sanchez)

In addition to the bodily passions, these desires may include the desire to be accepted by society more than to please God … and to participate in social customs and practices that are abhorrent in God’s sight.

The world has seen enough of inconsistent, nominal Christianity, of all show and hypocrisy, to have a pretty sour taste in its mouth. Yes, we are works in progress. But are we progressing in holiness? in dying to sin and self? Living for Christ?

Fight!

Peter here doesn’t say anything more than that we should fight, that we should manfully resist the attacks made upon our faith, our purity, our holiness, our faithfulness to God.

Very often this is the Bible’s way. It simply tells us to fight. … We must simply, plainly say “No” to this and “Yes” to that. We are plainly to do what is pleasing to God. (Rayburn)

Perhaps the danger for many of us is that we have several compartments to our lives. Among our Christian friends we have particular standards, but in the world of work or sport we adapt to our surrounding environment. Peter’s challenge is that there should be a consistency in our lives which results in non-Christians observing our good behaviour and being provoked or challenged to think about what it might signify. (MacLeay)

The 17th century Puritan theologian John Owen put things this way:

“Kill Sin, or it will be killing you.” - John Owen

Do not flatter yourselves that you shall hold out; there are secret lusts that lie lurking in your hearts, which perhaps now stir not, which, as soon as any temptation befalls you, will rise, tumultuate, cry, disquiet, reduce, and never give over until they are either killed or satisfied. (Owen)

Peter’s strategy (turn from sin and do good) amounts to no more than daily repentance. Each day the believer is to turn from sin towards following Christ and leading a good life which glorifies God.

That is not, of course, to say that the Bible does not furnish us with strategies and tactics by which to resist the sinful desires that wage war against our souls, to put down the risings of sinful desire in our hearts — lust, greed, selfishness, anger, pride, laziness, indifference to God and others, and so on. But, even then, the strategies and tactics are almost always put in a general form so that, once again, the issue resolves itself into a test of the will. Will I or will I not do what I fully know is the will of God or will I do what sinful desires incline me to do?

Some of us must confess that we been far too little at war against those passions of the flesh. How weak and how useless we have become to the kingdom of God. Others of us are in the cauldron of such battles for our soul and, weary as we may be, are glad that at present we are fighting the Lord’s battles. Others of us, have just begun to fight. We are young or new Christians just now learning that holiness must be fought for, that Christians have adversaries and that the most deadly of them reside in our own heart. We are just discovering what an endless struggle it will require of us to give our hearts and bodies to Christ day after day. (Rayburn)

Live the Christian life in all its parts with a vengeance; it is the best way to ride roughshod over your sins. We are back to the fundamental issue. Will you say “No” or “Yes” when God calls you to say it and mean it? That is where the spiritual warfare is joined and your answer is more important than any tactic or strategy.

III. Good conduct, and its results, 12

1 Peter 2:12

1 Peter 2:12 ESV

12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

A lie has run half-way around the world while the truth is still lacing up its boots — Mark Twain

In Peter’s day, and the years following, Christians were accused of such things as incest, cannibalism (the Lord’s Supper), treason, and hatred of mankind. How useless it would have been to mount a defense item by item. Better to live in love and pray that God will enlighten those whose opinions stem from malice and prejudice. In time those who watch your good deeds may come to realize that your conduct is upright. This will result in their giving glory to God. (Mounce)

The Christian life is a life to be lived with a view to its effect on others. (Rayburn)

The word the ESV translates as honourable also has the meaning of excellent.

“In Greek there are two words for good. There is agathos, which simply means good in quality; and there is kalos, which means not only good but also lovely—fine, attractive, winsome. That is what honestus means in Latin. So what Peter is saying is that the Christian must make his whole way of life so lovely and so good to look upon that the slanders of his heathen enemies may be demonstrated to be false.” (Deffinbaugh)

The unbelieving world may still regard you as evildoers, they may still refuse to admit the superiority of your principles and your behavior, but already their consciences will approve you, as it were against their will, and on the Great Day, or perhaps before, they will be forced to reckon with the fact that you lived as human beings should live. (Rayburn)

The Christian is to live to glorify God, in gratitude and love, but also to act out of the desire to see his life produce a spiritual effect in the hearts of others.

Now there is a question about Peter’s meaning here. When will the pagans see our good deeds and glorify God? And how will they glorify God? Will it be, as some have thought, that at the Day of Judgment they will be forced to confess that the Christian life was, after all, the true human life, the life they should have lived? That is, they will be forced to admit that what they called evil was really good and what they thought good was really evil; even more they will be forced to admit that the Christians were right after all.

Or, ought we to take “the day of visitation” not as a reference to the Second Coming, but rather to a day of the Lord’s drawing near in salvation. Then the reference would be to the salvation of some of those who at one time despised the Christians. Persuaded, at least in part, by the attractiveness of the Christians’ lives, they will be compelled to form a more favorable opinion of the Christian faith and, finally, by the grace and power of God, to become believers themselves. (Rayburn)

There are reasons to choose both interpretations. The statement is general enough to permit either or both interpretations. It appears likely that Peter is recollecting the Lord’s own words in Matt. 5:16, and the Lord’s statement is more easily taken to refer to effects that a godly life has on unbelievers here and now. We know that it does have such an effect. (Rayburn) I heard a testimony of this recently, when the neighbour of a Christian, after a month or two of looking over the back fence and seeing how the believer’s lived, said to her neighbour — “I want what you have!”

We are to think about the effect of our lives on unbelievers around us. We are to live so as to make them sit up and take notice of the kind of life that we live – whether in marriage and family, or neighborhood, or at work or school, or at play.

Do you think of this? Do you treat your spouse with patience, love, grace, forgiveness; do you treat your children with affection, with consideration; do you treat your parents, and do you treat your friends in that way that will make unbelievers notice, because it is so different from what they ordinarily see, observe? Even in a way that will make them envy you?

It ought to be obvious to non-Christians that you live in a happy way that they do not. Peter will later tell you to stand ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you, which suggests that people will recognize that your life has hope and will wonder where that hope comes from. And where does the love come from and where the kindness and the generosity and the honesty and integrity? (Rayburn)

Works Cited or Consulted

Deffinbaugh, Robert L. 10. True Spirituality (1 Peter 2:11-12) or “Getting Down to Earth About Our Hope of Heaven”. https://bible.org/seriespage/true-spirituality-1-peter-211-12-or-“getting-down-earth-about-our-hope-heaven”. Accessed 06 June 2019.

Jobes, Karen H. 1 Peter. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.

MacLeay, Angus. Teaching 1 Peter: Unlocking 1 Peter for the Bible Teacher. Edited by David Jackman and Robin Sydserff. Teach the Bible. London, England; Ross-shire, Scotland: PT Media; Christian Focus, 2008.

Mounce, Robert H. A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005.

Owen, John. The Works of John Owen. Edited by William H. Goold. Vol. 6. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.

Willson, Mary. “Following Jesus Far from Home (1 Peter 2:11–3:12).” In Resurrection Life in a World of Suffering: 1 Peter, edited by D. A. Carson and Kathleen B. Nielson, 103–104. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.

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