1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the gentiles that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Review
A Holy Nation
According to 1 Peter 2:9, the Church is a holy nation and a chosen race. That is a strange thing to say. The word race refers to a group of people with a common ethnic origin or ancestry. That is a very unusual way to refer to the Church, because unlike the people of Israel, the Church is not something you are born into through physical birth. In the Old Testament, being the people of God was a matter of birth, but now it has nothing to do with ethnicity. The people of God now are made up of individuals from every tribe and nation and tongue and people group, and nobody is in the kingdom of God by physical birth. My oldest daughter was literally born on Saturday and in church on Sunday – one day old and she was already in church. Talk about growing up in church! And she was raised in a Christian home, with Christian parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins – but she was not a Christian until she got to be old enough to understand and believe the gospel. I was saved at such a young age I don’t even remember it. And sometimes people like me will say, “Oh, I’ve been a Christian all my life.” But that is not technically true. I have been a Christian every since I can remember, but no one is born a Christian. Every person must be born again in order to be saved.
So in what sense are we a race? We do not have a common ethnic origin, we do not have a country – no borders, no common language, no common physical characteristics – nothing that would designate us as a distinct race or people group. So how can Peter call us a race? We can be called a race because skin color and common ancestry and common language and borders – those are small things. What binds us together are much, much bigger things than that. We do not have a common physical ancestry, but we do have a common spiritual ancestry.
Galatians 3:7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
Everyone who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a descendent of Abraham. So we all have the same spiritual ancestry, we all have our faith in the same object – the Cornerstone, and we have all been chosen by God. And while we do not share physical characteristics, we do share spiritual ones. You cannot tell we are Christians by our skin color or the shape of our eyes or anything like that. But you can tell that we are Christians by looking. You can tell by the way we love one another (Jn.13:35). We do not have the same physical traits, but we all have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
So we are a very odd kind of nation. No homeland, no borders, no earthly government. In a nation like that, with no homeland, where do all the people live? In other countries. This letter was written to those scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And today we are scattered throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and in every country in the world. And we just live side-by-side with the people in these other nations.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers…
The word alien refers to someone who lives in a place but who has no ethnic or social ties. He is not a citizen there, he is not part of that people, but for now he is living among them. The word stranger refers to someone who is passing through. He is on his way somewhere else, but for now he is here. That is what we are in the United States. This is not our home, it is not our country, we do not fit in here, but for now this is where we are living. God has His people infiltrating the whole world.
For the Purpose of Praise
So we are a nation, but we are a scattered nation – infiltrating every other nation. And we became citizens of this scattered nation not by being born in a certain place, but by being called.
9 …[He] called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
That is how we became citizens of this nation. Darkness refers to the realm of ignorance about God, moral evil, sin, spiritual blindness, and spiritual deadness. Every human being is born into darkness, and the only way out is if God calls you out. And that is what He did for us. He called us into His wonderful light – the place of enlightenment and moral purity and spiritual life. And then He exalted us to the high, privileged, elevated status of Israel. He chose us, set us apart, made us His holy nation and His treasured possession, and His dwelling place and His family and His royal priesthood. Why did He do all that?
9 you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, in order that you may declare the excellencies of him who called you
We exist to reveal the excellencies of God so that His glory can be clearly seen and delighted in. And we do that not just by disseminating information about God, but by showcasing them in such a way that people see them and love them and praise God for them. Our reason for existence is to increase His praise in the world. That is why our slogan is “Spreading and Deepening Delight in God”. We want more and more people, far and wide, to delight in God. And that happens when they see His glory and love it and praise Him for it. And we also want to take people deeper and deeper and deeper into the wonders of His excellencies, so that their praises might get louder and louder and louder. You do not exist in this world to make yourself comfortable, or to climb the corporate ladder, or to get married or to have kids or earn a living or even to make a difference in society. You exist to love God and to increase others’ love for God by unveiling His excellencies.
Separation and Nearness
So how do you do that? It is tricky because it requires a certain amount of separation from the world, and a certain amount of nearness and engagement with the world.
The word “holy” means separated. There cannot be too much separation. If we all become monks and disappear into the mountains somewhere, how are we going to show the world the excellencies of God? We have to be engaged with the world and interact with them or we have no testimony at all. Look at verse 12.
12 Live such good lives among the gentiles that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
If we isolate ourselves from the world then they will never see the excellencies of God in our good deeds, and they will never glorify God. We have to be in among them for this to work.
So we are holy, different, set apart, separated; and yet we are infiltrating, intermingling, and involved with them. Or to use Jesus’ words, we are in the world but not of the world.
John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
18 I have sent them into the world.
So we must always be in, but never of. Paul said…
1 Corinthians 9:20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. … 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law … so as to win those not having the law. 22 … I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
That is being in the world, and that is a good thing. But John said…
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
That is being of the world, and that is bad.
Jesus taught that the way to bring glory to God is by being salt and light in the world.
Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
If we have too much separation, we lose our influence because they cannot see our light or taste our salt. So we must remain among them. But if we have too much closeness to them and we become like them, then we become worldly and again – we lose our influence because we lose our saltiness.
Right from the very first verse of the book, Peter has been telling us that we are aliens, we are strangers, we are holy, we are set apart. We have to be separate and different from the world because if we are just like the world, what testimony do we have? If we are trying to tell them about this holy, righteous, pure God who redeems and transforms sinners, but our character is just like theirs, why should they listen to us? You do not buy soap from a dirty man, right? You do not buy diet pills from someone who is obese. And you do not buy religion from someone who is unholy and ungodly. One of the most important ways we publish the attributes of God is by living them out in front of people. That is how we showcase them. And so we have to come out from among them and be separate. And if we do not, we become salt with no flavor – which is not salt. Light that is just like the darkness is not light. So how do we strike that balance?
2 Corinthians 6:17 Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations
How do you come out from among them and be separate, and at the same time go into all the world and make disciples? We have got the theory, but now in practice, how do you interact with your boss or coworkers or unsaved family members or neighbors?
Peter is going to spend most of the rest of the book answering that question. He is going to show us exactly what our interactions with the world should look like in order to accomplish our purpose. But in these two verses today he gives us the basic principle. And this principle is so important to understand at the outset, because if we err on one side we become legalists. And if we err on the other side we become worldly. So let’s take a look at what Peter is teaching us here in verses 11-12.
Abstain from Fleshy Desires
The best rule of thumb you will ever find for how to balance separation from the world with engagement in the world is those six words at the beginning of verse 12.
12 live … good lives among the gentiles
Your Bible might say, “among the pagans,” but the word is gentiles, or nations. In this age we are playing the role of Israel, and unbelievers; all unbelievers (including Jewish unbelievers), are playing the role of gentiles. So our method is to live good lives among the unbelievers. That is how we will showcase the glory of God. We are among them (that is the “in”), but we live good lives (that is the “not of”). We are not separated from them geographically. We are not even separated culturally. We are separated morally. We are geographically and culturally engaged, but morally separated by living good lives.
Moral Separation Is Internal
And what constitutes a good life? That is where verse 11 comes in. And this is so important. Living a good life – a life that will be a good testimony and that will showcase the glory of God, starts with your desires.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from fleshy desires
So often Christians make the mistake of thinking that worldliness is mainly a matter of where you go and what you do. It is worldly to go to movies or drink beer or smoke cigarettes or whatever. But the issue with worldliness is first and foremost an issue of desires. Two Christians can walk into a bar and one can be completely worldly and the other not one bit worldly. If you go into a bar and you see all that goes on in there and it is enticing to you – it is a lifestyle that is appealing to you – that is worldly. If you walk in there and hate what you see – you hate that lifestyle and want nothing to do with it – that is holiness. So Peter begins at the level of our desires.
Meaning of Fleshy Desires
The NIV says “sinful desires” but the word is actually “fleshy.” I think the best definition for “fleshy desires” is probably impulses. There are different kinds of desires – some long-term and others more immediate. And very often they are in conflict with each other. I might have a long term desire to get in shape and lose weight, and an immediate impulse to watch TV and eat a whole bag of potato chips. My long term desire and my short term desire are in conflict. The short term impulse does not care about my future. It does not care if I end up unhealthy, uncomfortable, unfit, sick, or dead – it just wants some chips. And that is the kind of desire this phrase is talking about – an impulse that does not take the big picture into consideration.
Another way to look at it is this – fleshy desires are the reason why we need self-control. When you have lots of self-control, the things you are now able to say no to – those are fleshy desires. They are the kind of desires that say, “This will feel good for the next ten minutes – beyond that I don’t care.”
Maturity
Self-control is a mark of maturity. The more a person matures, the more they can take the long term view and defer gratification. A one-year-old has zero concept of deferred gratification. Show that kid a piece of candy, and say, “Would you rather have this one piece right now, or wait five minutes and have 1000 pieces of candy – he will take the one piece right now. When they get a little older, they start to learn how to take a longer term view. A ten-year-old might actually say no to something today in order to get something better next week. A teenager might make some decisions that do not pay off for several years. And eventually you get to the point where you say no to something you want to purchase so that you can put that money toward retirement - forty years from now.
So the more you mature, the more you take future wellbeing into consideration. But for the Christian it does not stop at retirement. If all you are doing is planning for retirement, but you are not preparing for eternity, that is still childish immaturity. Eternity is all that matters. And so as Christians we will say no to some pleasure or comfort for our entire earthly life so that we can have something better in the next life.
So when you think about fleshy desires, do not just think about bodily cravings, like sexual sin or gluttony or drinking or drugs. All that would be included, but when Paul gives a list of the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, he also includes things like envy, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, and hatred. Someone hurts you and you have a desire to get some revenge, or you have an impulse to focus on something someone else has that you want – tempted with envy, or jealousy. Or you are tempted with selfish ambition. Those are short-term, short-sighted fleshy desires that do not take eternity into consideration.
Reasons to Obey
And the command here is that we say no to those desires. And Peter is going to give us two reasons. He has actually already given us multiple reasons previously in the book. This word for desires is the same word we saw back in 1:14.
14 As obedient children, do not conform to the desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in fear.
So we should abstain from those desires because they are the desires of ignorance about God, and because Christ died to make us holy, and because we will stand before God as Judge someday. So Peter has already given us some compelling reasons to abstain from fleshy desires, but now he is going to give us a couple more.
And that is such a gracious gift from God – for Him to give us reasons. You know when you tell one of your kids to do something, and they say, “Why?” and you give them that ever-so-helpful and informative answer that parents love to give – “Because I said so,” and your child says, “Ohhhh – that clears it up. Thank you!”? No. More likely they are thinking, “I know you said so – I’m just wondering why you said so.”
Now, is the mere fact that you said so a good reason for them to obey? Yes! Absolutely. The very fact that you said to do it means Jesus Christ wants them to do it, and that is plenty reason to gladly and enthusiastically obey. And if their reason for asking why is just to stall for time, or delay obedience, or to challenge your authority, or to suggest that if your reason is not good enough then they should not have to do it, or they want to argue – if any of that is going on then the answer, “Because I said so,” is just the answer they need.
And quite often God gives us that answer.
Every time you see a command in the Bible and there is no reason attached to it, that is a big, divine, “Because I said so.” However, in His infinite mercy and kindness, many, many times in Scripture God does give us reasons. Whenever knowing the reasons will be helpful to enable us to obey, God gives us reasons. And this is one of those times.
Because They Destroy Your Soul
Peter gives us a big reason and small reason.
11 …abstain from fleshy desires, which war against your soul.
There is a good reason to steer clear of them. Those desires are like soldiers. And what does a soldier do? He tries to kill the enemy – which in this case is your soul. Keep your distance from those desires because they are lethal. They will destroy your soul.
The Worst Kind of Malfunction
Entertaining or feeding fleshy, short-term desires has a devastating effect on your inner man. The worst malfunction you can ever have on the inside is for your desires to go wrong. If the part of you that wants things gets so messed up that you want bad things and do not want good things, how can you recover from that? You won’t seek hard after God in prayer, because you won’t want to. You won’t seek the grace that comes through Scripture or fellowship, because your longings and cravings and desires and passions will be for entertainment over edification; relaxation over renewal; comfort over Christ-likeness; physical pleasures over spiritual pleasures; the world over the Word; temporal things over eternal things; self over God.
If your actions go wrong but you still have some good desires intact, you can recover. But once you lose the battle with desires, you are done. When the desires of the flesh gain control in your life, there will be no stopping the deeds of the flesh.
Guard Your Heart!
We live in a world where people are fanatical about protecting themselves from every kind of danger. We lock all our doors to keep out burglars; we are all about air bags, seat belts, helmets, safety warnings – safety, safety, safety. We do not touch anything that might have germs and we get inoculated and vaccinated and everything else to avoid sickness. We do not want to suffer any kind of harm. And yet the worst kind of harm there is – harm to the soul – so often we leave ourselves totally exposed. Our culture cares nothing about guarding the soul. There is no column in the newspaper, there is no public service announcement on the radio, there is no class about it in school, there is no government agency or pamphlet that counsels us how to protect our souls. We are told how to protect ourselves against AIDS; against sunburn; against mosquitoes; against drunk driving and pollen and depression and rape and fire and theft and cholesterol. But our world cares nothing about the one thing that is eternal – the soul. They are fools.
Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
If you guard anything – if you lock anything up, protect anything in your possession; let it be your heart. That is the most valuable thing you have. It is capable of glorifying God! It is capable of angering God. It can make decisions that determine your eternal destiny. Nothing worse could happen to you than for your soul to be destroyed. Jesus said…
Matthew 16:26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?
If you do not take precautions around power tools and you lose an arm, or an eye – you can survive that. But if something happens to your soul, you are in eternal trouble. So above all else, guard your soul.
Fighting Yourself
But from what? Who is this enemy that is threatening to destroy your soul? Most of the time people think of spiritual warfare as a war with us on one side and Satan and demons on the other side. But here the opponent is not the devil. It is not demons. It is not people. It is … you! It is your own desires. It is like cancer. When you fight against cancer you are fighting against your own cells. Cancer is when a part of your own body goes out of control and starts taking over. And fleshy desires are the same way. Every day they are there, just waiting for you to give them a chance, and if you do – they take over.
Because They Destroy Your Mission
So we need to keep our distance from fleshy desires because of the damage they do to our soul. That is the little reason. Now the big reason. And this one will give us insight into how the entire book of 1 Peter fits together.
The Old Life
The small reason for abstaining from fleshy desires is that they will destroy your soul, the big reason for abstaining from those desires is they will destroy your mission. They will destroy your life’s work. What is our mission? To increase praise. We exist to showcase the holiness and goodness of God so that more people praise Him with more and more enthusiasm. And giving in to these desires will torpedo that mission.
Remember, in 1:14, Peter said these desires are what characterize our old life. And God called us out of that and made us holy so that we could carry out this task. So if we return to unholiness, we disable our ability to do the task. Those desires drag us in the direction of everything we have been saved from and everything we are fighting against, and everything that decreases, rather than increases, the praise of God in the world. When we are unholy, instead of people seeing our good deeds and glorifying God, they see our sin and use it as an occasion to blaspheme God.
Romans 2:24 As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
Contextualization Vs. Compromise
Contextualization
So that is the balance between separation and engagement. Do we become all things to all men culturally so that they won’t be needlessly offended when we present the gospel? Yes! Was it a good thing for Hudson Taylor to wear Chinese clothes and have a ponytail when he went to reach China with the gospel? Yes! Let’s mix in with the world culturally so we can present the gospel in a context they can understand.
Compromise
But when we do that we must never cross the line into moral compromise. When a church plays secular music to attract unbelievers to their worship service – that is moral compromise. Isaiah 29:13 is clear that any worship that does not have God as its focus is detestable to God. When pastors use coarse language in their sermons to make unbelievers feel at home, or when Christians talk that way at work in order to fit in, that is immoral.
Ephesians 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
Use of alcohol that approximates the way the world sins with alcohol to win their favor – that is compromise (Jer.15:17). Excessive involvement in entertainment, especially in its impure forms is compromise (Ps.101:3). Does the salt need to mix in with the food in order to have its effect? Absolutely. But it must never lose its saltiness in the process.
PR Campaign
Peter is instructing us to launch a major PR campaign. But we do it not through advertising. We do it through personal holiness. We do it by saying no to any impulse or desire that does not take eternity into consideration. We do it by living good lives among the gentiles that starts at the level of our desires. If you try to appear good to them, but you are not actually good on the inside, they will smell you coming a mile away. You will not fool anyone.
Don’t Hide Evil – Repent of It
And the solution to that is not to hide your evil – it is to repent of it. Every once in a while I hear someone say, “I would never put a fish on my car. I have such a temper when I drive, I don’t want anyone to know I’m a Christian because it would dishonor Christ.” If your life is such that your behavior dishonors Christ, the solution is not to hide the fact that you are a Christian. That does not do anything to increase His praise in the world. That is the opposite of our calling. We are to be a city set on a hill, not a lamp hidden under a bowl.
For the Glory of God
We need to let them see our light. Why?
12 Live such good lives among the gentiles that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
(The glory of God is a huge theme in Peter. This book has more references to the glory of God per chapter than any other book in the New Testament.) Literally it says they will glorify God by means of your good conduct. Your deeds in this life become the tool that will be used to glorify God. As of now they might be making all kinds of false accusations against us. But if we are faithful in living holy lives in their midst, many of them will eventually repent, turn to Christ, and then when that Day arrives when God visits us (I believe that is a reference to the Second Coming), those people who once slandered us will be among the voices praising God.
Witness
Will holiness alone win people to Christ? No, we have to also tell them the gospel. No one is so holy that you can just walk into a room and people drop to their knees in repentance. We need to proclaim the gospel, but for that proclamation to have power it must be backed up by a holy life.
This is another reason why it is such a tragedy that there are so many false Christians. The easy-believism gospel, where you just invite Jesus into your heart and then go about your life living however you want, is one of the great masterpieces of Satan. Not only has it created a situation where you have millions of people who think they are on their way to heaven but who are not, but it has also done massive damage to our testimony to the world. When the world looks at us they should see lives that are unmistakably different. But instead they see mostly lives just like theirs (because most of the people who claim to be Christians are not truly born again).
How to Abstain
So how do we do this? How do you abstain from a desire? We can imagine abstaining from food, or abstaining from alcohol, or abstaining from a particular activity. But how do you abstain from a desire?
Keep Your Distance in the Thought Life
The word abstain means to keep your distance. In fact, sometimes that word is translated “distance.” And keeping your distance from a desire starts in your thought life.
Romans 13:14 clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Desires are like fires that are either stoked or doused by your thought life. Someone hurts you, you have a little desire to teach them a lesson. (You know what teaching a lesson is, right? That is the phrase we use to so we do not have to admit we are taking revenge. The word “revenge” sounds so childish, but teaching and instructing sound much more noble, so we hide all our revenge behind that phrase. But the reality is, it is just plain vengeance. We want the person to pay a price for hurting us.) So you are tempted with a little desire to teach the person a lesson.
So you ask yourself, “Does this desire I have (to teach them a lesson) care about my future? Does this desire take Judgment Day and eternity into consideration?” Answer: no. That means it is a fleshy desire. Now you can go one of two directions in your thoughts.
You could start thinking about the love of Christ, and how patient God has been with you, and how much you have been forgiven, and you think about how that person bears the image of God, and how he is a brother in Christ – so dearly loved by Jesus that He died for him, and you think about the smile on God’s face if you are patient and forgive, and that little glimmer of desire to teach him a lesson is snuffed out just as fast as it started.
Or you could go the other way in your thoughts – start imaging things you could say, things you could do that would make the person sorry he hurt you – and it is all just in your imagination, but you are enjoying it – the whole time you are thinking that way you are just stoking that fleshy desire. And then when it comes time to decide how you are going to act, that sinful, vengeful desire is a raging forest fire and it takes over your decision making.
It works that way for desires for physical pleasures, like alcohol or sex or food, and it works that way for desires connected with pride and selfishness. Desires increase or decrease based on what you do in your thought life to feed them or choke them out.
In 1 John 2:16, we learn that our desires come from one of two sources – God or the world.
1 John 2:16 the cravings of flesh, the lust of his eyes … comes not from the Father but from the world.
Your desires do not come from your hormones or your genes or your DNA. They come from one of two external sources – God or the world. When you have a desire, you have that desire because someone made you think that thing was a good source of joy. The world is constantly preaching to you to persuade you that its temporary pleasures are the greatest treasures and the best sources of the highest joy, and God is telling you that His river of delights is the greatest treasure and the best source of the highest joy. When you desire one or the other it is because you were convinced by the argument of one or the other. The unbelieving culture constantly preaches: Happiness will come from a car. Joy is a product of recreation. A relationship with some wonderful person of the opposite sex will satisfy the appetites of your soul. When you watch enough of their commercials, and listen to enough of their music, and immerse yourself deeply enough in their conversations, and read enough of their magazines or websites, or spend enough time window shopping in their malls – over time your soul will be persuaded by their message: Yes! Joy is to be found in temporal things in and of themselves.
Worldliness is not a matter of over-indulgence vs. moderation. Worldliness is when you are getting your desires from the world’s messages rather than from what God is saying. Always ask: “Did this desire come from listening to the world or from listening to God?” Anything that causes you to be attracted to temporal things above eternal things must be avoided at all costs.
You can Change Your Desires
Do you realize what great news it is that your desires are not an inborn part of you – they come from an outside source? That means you can change your desires! If you place yourself in a position of being influenced by the world’s preaching, your desires will be for the world. And if you place yourself in a position of being influenced by the truth of God, your desires will be for the things God says are most pleasing.
Keep your distance from short-term desires. Do it because those desires are suicide, and do it because we exist to spread and deepen delight in God by showcasing His excellencies, and it is worth it to say no to any earthly desire if it means increasing His glorious praise.
Benediction: Ephesians 2:4-10 because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions… 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus… 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
1:25 Questions
1. We are to be in the world and not of the world. Do you struggle more with too much “of” (being worldly) or not enough “in” (failure to intermingle with unbelievers)?
2. During the sermon, were there any particular fleshy desires that came to mind as particularly problematic for you? What desires do you have that do not care about your (eternal) future? Is there any lifestyle change that could put some distance between you and things that stimulate those desires?
