Warfare & Witness: The Godly Christian Life Series

1 Peter 2:11-12

Warfare & Witness: The Godly Christian Life

INTRO

One of my favorite documents from early Church history is called “The Epistle to Diognetus.” The letter was written in the early 100’s AD, probably around 130. That puts its writing not even a century after the death of Christ, and a generation or two after the writing of much of the New Testament as we have it.

The document is a letter written by an anonymous person, who says that he is a “disciple of the Apostles,” written to a man named Diognetus. Hardly anything is known of this Diognetus, but it is expected that he was the tutor to Marcus Aurelius, who would later become the Emperor to Rome. Nevertheless, we know that this Diognetus had heard of this new movement known as Christianity, and was trying to find out what it was all about.

The letter starts out:

To His Excellency, Diognetus: I understand, sir, that you are really interested in learning about the religion of the Christians, and that you are making an accurate and careful investigation of the subject. You want to know, for instance, what God they believe in and how they worship him, while at the same time they disregard the world and look down on death…

The writer of the letter goes on and lays out many of the distinctives of Christianity, including doctrine and practices. But in the fifth chapter of the letter, he starts to discuss the conduct of these early Christians, and what separated them from the rest of the world. He says:

Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. 2They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life. 3This doctrine of theirs has not been discovered by the ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do. 4Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth…

TRANSITION

That is what we are going to talk about this morning. What does it look like to live as a Christian? As that letter said of these early Christians, what does it look like to live according to “an extraordinary constitution of our own commonwealth?”

Turn with me to 1 Peter 2:11-12, as we look at 2 aspects of the godly Christian life.

READ TEXT

Now before we get into the specifics of our text this morning, it is important to note that this text is addressed to Christians.

After discussing “A Tale of Two Peoples” last week, where we looked at the first group, the church, who comes to Christ, and a second group who rejects him, now in this text, Peter enters us into a new section in the book…a section that examines what it looks like for Christians to live life as sojourners, or visitors, in this world.

And he starts the section with this title, Beloved. By using this word, Peter is clearly talking to believers. So if you are not a believer here this morning…I invite you to listen carefully, listen to what Christianity is all about. Forget your preconceived notions, your bad experiences…and let the Word of God inform you what Christianity is all about. But it is only by coming to Christ for salvation that these words of 1 Peter 2:11-12 can apply to your life.

So what are these two aspects to the Godly Christian Life?

#! THE CHRISTIAN LIFE INVOLVES WARFARE (v.11)

So, after addressing them as Beloved, Peter says, “I urge you as sojourners and exiles

Let’s stop there for just a minute and note a couple things about his address.

A. First, he says, I urge you.

This is strong language. What he’s about to tell them isn’t something he’s encouraging them toward, or something he’s telling them, “Hey guys, this is a good idea…” No, he says I URGE YOU!

This word could be translated a variety of ways. “Urge,” “Entreat,” “Implore,” “Urge strongly,” etc.

The word is often used when the Apostles would urge people to respond to the Gospel.

The point here, then, is that what Peter’s telling these beloved Christians that he’s writing to is: “Listen up! This is important. I’m urging you strongly to heed what I’m about to say!”

B. Second, before he gets to what he’s urging them to do, he refers to them as sojourners and exiles (or if you’re using the NASB, aliens and strangers)