An Exposition of 1 Peter, part 12: A Holy Conversation

1 Peter 2:11-12

1 Peter 2:11–12 NKJV

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Introduction

Royalty has its privileges. We can think of England’s royal family, for instance. They possess great wealth and influence. They live a lifestyle which is the envy of many people. How many people have dreamed that they might be a prince or princess? We learned in the last passage that we are a “royal priesthood.” Revelation 1:6 calls us a “kingdom of priests.” We are royalty in a kingdom far greater than that of Great Britain. Our King is far more majestic than Queen Elizabeth. We belong to the ultimate royal family. We have been granted great privilege and true wealth. But royalty has its responsibilities as well. This is what we will study in this week’s text.

Exposition of the Text

Beloved, I exhort you as strangers and pilgrims — Peter addressed the believers as strangers at the very beginning of this epistle (1 Peter 1:1). He now repeats these words here. There he pairs the word for “stranger” with the Greek word “diaspora”, which we discussed as either as a technical term used to describe the dispersion of Jews throughout the Empire to various cities. Or it could simply mean “scattered.” The first idea would refer to Christians as being away from their home land. When it is understood that way, it would agree with the word “paroikos” which Peter uses here. The Christians are those who are away from their homeland and in another country. They are resident aliens. We learned that these Christians were once residents of the same country in which they now live as aliens.The Christian is now a citizen of another country, a heavenly one. They have been called out. they have been transformed by the Gospel.

When these Christians believed, they were not immediately taken out of the country in which they lived to their new homeland. Even though they were a royal priesthood, they did not immediately come into the prerogatives of wealth. In fact, their status became even more difficult. We think of Israel in the Old Testament Book of Exodus and think of how God removed them from Egypt into the wilderness to prepare them to enter their inheritance in Canaan land. But if we think again about this, neither did Israel just come out of Egypt when Moses returned from meeting Yahweh at the burning bush. Even though Moses commanded Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go, they did not leave at that time. In fact, their suffering got worse. Their release took time. Yahweh had to show His mighty works to Pharaoh and Egypt, It was only after ten plagues that Pharaoh relented. They had to remain as slaves and aliens in Egypt for some time before deliverance came.

To abstain from fleshly lusts — When we look at Israel in Egypt, we noticed that their freedom was entirely due to the mighty works of Yahweh. The LORD did the work. He demonstrated His power, a power which witnessed to both Israel and the Egyptians. What did Israel do in response to the LORD’s might acts? How did they witness to the Egyptians? The answer to this is we don’t really know other than they grumbled even more under hard bondage.

But here, Peter directs the response of the Christians to the persecutions they were suffering. The first thing he mentions here is that they abstain from worldly lusts. We have been rescued from sin by the mighty work of salvation in the cross of Christ. We contributed nothing to our salvation. It was entirely the grace of God. But we are to respond to this in the obedience of faith. We are to abstain from earthly pleasures.

Which war against the soul— The desires of the flesh war against the soul, Paul describes this warfare vividly in the seventh chapter of Romans. We fight an internal battle against our old nature which drags us down. We must take some time here to ask the question” Are all fleshly desires evil? Hermits and monks tended to think so. Some “saints” lived on pillars above the ground trying to have as little contact with earth as possible. Others like St. Anthony fled into the wilderness and lived in a cave. But the monks and hermits found out that wherever they fled to escape the world, they could not escape the temptations of the devil. They could not flee from themselves.

We must remember that God created the earth as well as heaven. He blessed the material universe. He blessed Adam and Eve. God created the man and woman to desire each other. By this means, the earth was filled according to the ordinance of God. Men and women should desire to be good parents of children. So even though the same Greek word is used for healthy desires and unhealthy lusts, we must be careful to differentiate. Evil lusts are often the result of abuse of good desires, There is no sin in desiring good food, but eating too much is unhealthy. Instead of bringing nourishment and health to the body, it brings sickness and death. So the war we wage against desires must be limited to the realm of abuse and not to desires in general. We should remember that we can abuse our bodies and souls by deprivation as much as by overindulgence. We are to use the gifts of God for the maintenance of our bodies rightly and with thanksgiving.

Let your conversation being good among the Gentiles — Elsewhere, I have translated the Greek word “anastrophe” with the word “conduct.” Here I am using the Old English word “conversation.” Usually, we today limit “conversation” to human speech. But what needs to be brought out here is that the way we live among the Gentiles speaks to them. They see the way Christians live, and this starts them thinking about the Christian faith. They have a conversation within themselves. Peter will later tells us that this might prompt a spoken conversation when they ask you for the reason of your hope. (1 Peter 3:15) Our conduct reinforces the words of the Gospel which is preached.

We need to look at the word “Gentiles” here. The word, properly translated is “nations.” It used to be the means by which the Jews separated themselves from the other nations. There was the Israelite nation and there were all other nations. It seems that Peter has redefined Israel and the nations to refer to the Church as a “holy nation” as separate from all other nations. Even unbelieving Jews are in this sense, Gentiles. This is indeed a bold statement, but it is in accord with Romans 11 where unbelieving Jews are cut off from the olive tree (Israel) and believing Gentiles grafted in. We, of course remember that upon repentance, the Jews can be restored all the easier. And Gentiles are warned that they stand by faith. they, too, can be cut off by unbelief.

In order that those who speak evil of you as evildoers — In English, using both “speak evil” and “evildoers” in one phrase would seem redundant. This tends to be true in Greek also. If we said “In order that those who call you evildoers,” that the idea of speaking evil is already implied and need not be stated. But in Hebrew, redundancy is used for emphasis. We see this tendency in a similar way when they would say “Rejoice with rejoicing.” These Hebraisms occur in Greek literal translation in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, as well as in the new. We should understand the emphasis here. The unbeliever speaks evil of the Christian by calling Christians evildoers.

The “in order that” links back to the call for the Christian to have good conduct. The call to conduct one’s self is put up front. The “in order that” gives us the reason why. It isn’t the only reason though. Peter has already admonished the recipients from the Old Testament where it says: “Be ye Holy, for I Am Holy.” That would be reason enough. We need to glorify God by our conduct.

When they observe your good works — Peter reminds us all that the Gentiles are watching everything we do. the world is fast to condemn us when we fail to live up to our holy calling. They take especial delight in the fall of Christians. The good works of the church are rarely commented on, especially today. The sin of one member stains the entire church. The problem is that we all too often sin. We need the grace of God in Jesus Christ. We need to confess our sin and seek forgiveness. God can even turn our failings to achieve His purpose. the Gentiles can see that God is gracious and willing to forgive. It is better that we glorify God by our obedience than by our disobedience. Good works are the gift of God. It is God who is working in us, both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) This provides an antidote to hypocrisy. The world needs to see God at work in us and His Church.

They might glorify God in the day of visitation — We earlier cited in this study of 1 Peter that the Westminster Confession says that the chief purpose of man is to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Only the christian will enjoy the presence of God forever. Scripture tells us that the unbeliever will be consigned to eternal punishment, separated from God. But everyone will glorify God at some point. Here Peter tells us about the Day of Visitation. If at no other time, all flesh will glorify God at the Last Judgment. As Paul who is quoting the Prophet Isaiah puts it: “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is LORD (Yahweh).” (Isaiah 45:23) (Philippians 2:10)

It is our calling that the Gentiles might believe the Gospel in that in the Day of Visitation that they might be found to be separated unto rather then from God for eternity. The word behind “visitation” is the Greek “episcope” which is similar to “episcopos” which is translated “overseer” or “bishop.” This latter term is used in 1 Peter 2:25) and applied to Jesus. A bishop is one who oversees. So Jesus will return and oversee the Final Judgment. But we can look at this term in another way as well. Peter tells us that it is God’s will than no one perish in the Day of Visitation. (2 Peter 3:9) Jesus comes to one when they repent and believe the Gospel.The new believer accepts Jesus as Lord (overseer). There is more joy in heaven over a sinner that repents (Luke 15:7) Here, Jesus leaves the comparison open. More joy than what? Anything! God is glorified every time a sinner repents, believes, and comes to Jesus.

Application

Seeing that it is God’s will that every person on earth glorify God by receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, we see how important the conversation of the believers are. It is indeed true that the Gospel must be preached with words. It is the spoken Word which brought Creation into existence. It is also by the Word of God preached that someone comes to believe and is born again. The one who believes is a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17). But how much more powerful are these spoken words when Christians live the Gospel. Christian love speaks volumes. It gets the unbelievers to ask and inquire and by this hear the saving word of the Gospel. So let us be diligent to show to them that the world speaks wrongly about the Christian so that the unbeliever has no excuse. Our conversation contradicts their words. Sooner or later, they shall all be awakened to this fact, hopefully in this life.