Most of us have travelled for a holiday over the summer. The great thing about travelling is the new experiences. You see new places, meet new people, try new things, eat different food. But the thing about holiday destinations is that they’re not home. You probably don’t speak the local language. You don’t always understand the local etiquette and customs. The place is not familiar to you. You miss your own bed and familiar comforts. You don’t feel like you completely belong.
The apostle Peter describes Christians as “exiles, scattered”. Although he’s writing to people who are native to their cities, born and bred there, those places are no longer their permanent homes. Something has happened that’s made them different to their neighbours. They now have different values and priorities, different lifestyles, a different hope. They’ve become followers of Jesus, and that has completely changed their identity. They are now different people, strangers in the world. This world is no longer their home.
we need to learn how to stand for our faith in Jesus
Over the next few months, our sermon series will be in 1 Peter. The apostle wrote to Christians in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) who were experiencing the beginnings of serious persecution. Peter’s encouragement to these marginalised and suffering people is to remind them of both their current and future privileges. They already have the privilege of being God’s children and they can look forward to glory. They are to respond to suffering by embracing the pattern of Jesus who went through suffering to glory, knowing that Jesus will bring the ultimate victory.
For Peter’s audience, such a mindset gave a radically different attitude towards the world they lived in. They had an immeasurably richer hope beyond anything that this world could offer them. This hope shaped how they conducted themselves in the present, enabling them to live different lives modelled on their Saviour. They knew they shouldn’t completely assimilate to their surroundings because they were “exiles”. This world was not their true home because they were just passing through.
Studying 1 Peter gets us to ask profound questions like, “What’s my identity? Where do I really place my hope? Are my priorities and conduct any different to the people around me who don’t know Jesus?” Whilst we might not be called to suffer as much for our faith as Peter’s original audience, we need to learn how to stand for our faith in Jesus in a world where it is unwelcome. Perhaps we have grown too used to the belief that we can be simultaneously comfortable and culturally acceptable in our world, and still faithfully Christian.
Peter points us to our new identity in Jesus and the beauty of living for him, “testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it” (1 Peter 5:12).
