An Exposition Of 1 Peter, Part 12: A Holy Conversation

An Exposition of 1 Peter, Part 11: A Good Conversation

1 Peter 2:11-12

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 homeland. 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.