Continuing my series on 1 Peter, let us examine The New Life and Our Duty in a Hostile World from 1 Peter 1:13-25 and 1 Peter 2:13-3:12.

Holiness: The New Way of Life

In 1 Peter 1:13-21, Peter commends to his readers that their future inheritance should be an incentive to holiness.  He exhorts his readers to godly living (1:13-2:3), commending them towards moral and spiritual actions that constitute a life of loyalty to Christ. The inheritance promised to followers of Christ (1:13-16) should motivate them to set their hope entirely on their future reward.  More than that, Christians are called to live in fear of the God who redeemed them at the cost of his own son (1:17-21).

Respect: The Christian’s Duty in a Hostile World

Henceforth, those who hope in the grace of Christ’s revelation and fear God’s discipline and fatherly displeasure will consequently glorify God by behaving respectfully in the world they live. Through the familiar paraenesis of New Testament epistles, Peter now turns to a list of dutiful commands for Christians (2:11-3:12).  His instructions primarily address how we must relate to others – how we as believers should live as exiles in the midst of a world that rejects our message.  We are to bear witness to the gospel when we live in a way that pleases God, testifying to the Gospel in the way we order ourselves in society.

Peter exhorts Christians to goodness as citizens (2:13-17), slaves (2:18-25), wives (3:1-6), and husbands (3:7). The section is summed up in 1 Peter 3:8-12: those who imitate Christ and pursue goodness will receive an eternal reward.

After a long break, I continue my series on the Epistle of 1 Peter with a discussion on 1 Peter 2:11-4:11 concerning to the Responsibilities of God’s People through Sin and Suffering.

The Responsibilities of God’s People

The second half of 1 Peter includes a paraenesis – a list moral virtues and vices, or collections of moral commands to practice specific virtues and avoid specific vices.  Peter gives specific moral instruction and exhortation for the believers’ relationship with the surrounding culture, the state, and fellow believers.  Appropriately gospel-centered, Peter grounds his exhortations in believer’s identity in Christ (2:4–10) – namely, that they are an elect people who have been markedly saved and set apart for gospel praise and proclamation (1 Pet 2:5, 9).  Henceforth, this gospel is the motivation for fulfilling our duties and roles as believers.

Role of Believers to the World

Toward the surrounding unbelieving culture (2:11–12).  In this section, Peter calls his readers to live a righteous life as exiles (cf. 1:1, 17) in a hostile world that rejects their message.  In order to bear witness to the gospel whey they live in a way that pleases God, they must abstain from fleshly lusts.  In order to have any impact in the world for God, believers should be disciplined in their private, inward lives by avoiding the desires of their depraved and fallen natures (cf. Gal 5:19-21).  The pleasures of the world are tempting and enticing, hence there is a great internal struggle and powerful spiritual warfare against such desires. Believers must abstain from sinful passions, for they wage war against your soul: holding on to sinful desires brings spiritual harm.  The notion here has a connotation of a military campaign in which fleshly lusts are personified as if they were an army of rebels or guerrillas who incessantly search out and try to destroy the Christian’s joy, peace, and usefulness (cf. 4:2, 3).

There are those who clutch to resentment like it were a treasure of great worth. This is foolishness. The question to be asked is not how badly we were wronged, but what are we profited by our unforgiveness?

–Richard Paul Evans, “The Locket”

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

–Colossians 3:12-15

It’s amazing how quickly things can change, but what’s equally amazing is how some things have never really changed at all. The truth is some things are probably never going to happen; and there are things that will always stay the same.

Nevertheless, we wonder: are there things in our world that can change?–things in our experience that can be altered? Are there things within the sovereign will of God that we have been given the ability to control? Are there aspects of our lives that we have been given the freedom to choose, that we must deal with personally so as to give glory to God and show the world that Christ is supreme?

The answer, of course, is yes–there is! From what Paul has said to the Philippians in chapter 1 verses 12-20 of his letter to them, the apostle himself exhorts us that we can change a number of important things in our lives. In these verses, I have found that God, through Paul, calls us even in this postmodern day to intentionally change that which can be changed–things we have control over–namely our mindset, motive, and methodology. In these 3 areas, let us examine and evaluate ourselves, and to check and change that which needs to be changed.

Life in Christ & the Motif of Priesthood in Our Character and Function from 1 Peter 1-2:10

In 1 Peter 2:4, we find that we are made into living stones, from and by him who is a living stone – the living stone, Jesus Christ. This transition from the previous imperative section (1:13-2:3) now leads into an indicative section that affirms God’s gracious work in Christ. From this we see that all of Peters commands to Christians are rooted in and dependent upon God’s grace. We are not alive for no good reason, but for a very specific purpose. When we are made alive to God and dead to sin, God’s purpose is for us is to be a “holy priesthood” (2:5,9). Just as they are living stones, as a spiritual house, God is thus building believers so that they are now a spiritual house and a holy priesthood (2:5). As God’s priests who are animated by the Holy Spirit, they are enabled to offer sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The “spiritual house” alludes back to the temple, which is often called a “house” in the Old Testament (cf. 2 Sam 7:13; 1 King 3; Matt 21:13; John 2:16-17). It is a “spiritual” house specifically because it is animated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit – both communally and its individual members. Henceforth, Peter indentifies the church as God’s new temple here. Since the physical temple of the Old Testament pointed forward to and anticipated God’s new temple, the old is thus now superfluous and unnecessary, for the new temple has arrived through Christ in the church.

Like the Old Testament priests, the New Testament Christians as the “holy priesthood” share a number of characteristics. First, the priesthood is a privilege of the elect (Ex 28:1; John 15:16); second, priests are cleansed of sins (Lev 8:6-36; Titus 2:14); third, priests are clothed for service (1 Pet 5:5; Ex 28:42); fourth, they are anointed for service (Lev 8:12, 30; 1 John 2:20, 27); fifth, they are prepared for service (Lev 8:33; Gal 1:16); sixth, priests are ordained to obedience (1 Pet 2:4; Lev 10:1ff); seventh, they are to honor God’s word (1 Pet 1:2); eighth, they are to walk with God (Mal 2:6; Gal 5:16,25); ninth, they are to impact sinners (Mal 2:6; Gal 6:1); and last but not least, priests are to be messengers of God (Mal 2:7; Matt 28:19, 20).

In this manner, those who have been united with Christ by faith in regeneration are both the temple and the priests that minister in that temple. Such may seem contradictory at first, but since Peter does not call believers the literal, physical temple and priests but a spiritual one, this should not cause too much theological insecurities. As the faithful in Christ, we are God’s dwelling place by the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16-17) and his new priesthood.

Sacrifices can only be acceptable to God through Christ, who is our Mediator. For our sacrifices and offerings can never be acceptable to God due to our radically inability (total depravity) in and of ourselves. Christ was the High Priest who was the only one able to offer a sacrifice that was perfectly acceptable God – once for all – the sacrifice of Jesus himself on the cross in our place for our sins. Spiritual sacrifices entail God-honoring works done because of Christ under the direction of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Word of God. While the Levitical sacrifices of the Old Testament cultus is certainly no longer necessary, Peter’s call to “spiritual sacrifices” entail sacrifices offered by virtue of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Such spiritual sacrifices generally include offering the strength of one’s body to God (Rom 12:1, 2); praising God (Heb 13:15; 1 Pet 2:9); doing good (Heb 13:16); sharing one’s resources (Heb 13:16); bringing people to Christ (Rom 15:16); sacrificing one’s desires for the good of others (Eph 5:2); as well as praying (Rev 8:3). Specifically, Peter affirms to us in 2:9 that the purpose of this new people of God is to proclaim his praises and wonders. All these things considered, Peter spoke generally and comprehensively of all that the believers do by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The concept of royal or kingly priesthood from 1 Peter 2:9 finds its root in Exodus 19:6. Israel temporarily forfeited this privilege because of its apostasy and because its wicked leaders executed the Messiah. At the present time, the church is a royal priesthood united with the royal priest, Jesus Christ. A royal priesthood is not only a priesthood that belongs to and serves the king, but is also a priesthood that exercises rulership and kingly reign. This will ultimately be fulfilled in Christ’s future kingdom (1 Cor 6:1-4; Rev 5:10; 20:6). Both Israel as a whole and the church of Jesus Christ are identified as a “royal priesthood” (cf. Rev 1:6) – a priesthood that is corporate in nature yet with individuals who serve priestly functions.

The reference here in 2:9 harkens back to the offering of spiritual sacrifices in 2:4. Peter commends that this royal priesthood is to proclaim – that is, to tell forth, to tell something not otherwise known – namely, the praises (Isa 43:7), excellencies, virtues and eminent qualities of Jesus Christ who has redeemed, ransomed and delivered us from darkness into his marvelous light (cf. Acts 26:18; Eph 5:8; Col 1:13). This is certainly a description of the Petrine audience’s conversion, utilizing language from Genesis 1:3-5. What did the Son of God do, except the greatest and most excellent and praiseworthy thing ever accomplished by a man: he called us out of darkness into his marvelous light; he redeemed us from being enslaved to our flesh, to its sinful desires and temptations, and through his atoning sacrifice on the cross Jesus has thus freed us from that very darkness and brought us into the light of righteousness (2 Cor 4:6). Having said this, we must understand the calling of God that effects conversion as effectual (effectual calling) – the Word of God that creates light is the very Word that effectively creates faith. Since the phrase “as you come to him” can be seen as conversion, so also we see God’s work in the past in calling (“called”) his people as effective – for those whom God calls he also justifies. (Rom 8:30).