Page 47 - General Epistles (James through Jude) Textbook

This language is now applied to believers in Jesus since they are connected to the cornerstone, Christ,
and belong to the chosen people of God (1 Pet. 2:9–10). As a royal priesthood, all believers are set apart
as ministers of the new covenant to the world. Thus, Peter reminds his audience that their time living in
exile serves as an opportunity to mediate God’s blessing to the foreigners around them (see 1:1 and
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note).

Just like Peter’s audience, Christians today are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and
God’s special possession in order to declare the praises of God (vv9-10). To declare is to announce
public why God deserves praises. Peter reminded his audience to declare praises of God while
remembering who they were THEN. But their NOW status (which gave them great expectations [living
hope; cf. 1 Pet. 1:3, 13]) needed to be viewed as motivation not to sinfully boast but to announce
publicly the mighty virtues of God so that people may realize the need to surrender their lives to God so
that they too can be called a people of God, after having also received mercy from God. We are called by
God not to entertain people to get rich materially, but to entertain them with the mighty acts of God so
that they can get rich spiritually.

Living Godly Lives in Pagan Society (1 Pet. 2:11—3:7).

Abstinence from sinful desires (1 Pet. 2:11-12).
As foreigners and exiles who were also Peter’s friends, he urged them to abstain from sinful desires
which were waging war against their souls. It is possible to live in your country but still remain and feel
as a foreigner and an exiled person. In this way were Peter’s audience. They were foreigners and exiles
in that after surrendering their lives to Jesus Christ, they ceased to belong to their physical place of
residence and simultaneously started to belong to non-physical place of residence, namely; heaven
(where God is). Equally, they ceased to conform to the pattern of their then physical place of residence
and started conforming to the pattern of the already now but not yet non-physical place of residence,
heaven. Hence, it was imperative and timely for Peter to encourage them to abstain from evil desires
because their souls have already been renewed and ceased to belong to that which is destructible and
finite after having experienced new birth (cf. 1 Pet. 1:3). “Believers are to abstain from, (i.e., not indulge
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in) fleshly lusts, or those powerful desires (passions) that arise out of the flesh (sarx).” Now that they
have abstained, they would be able to live godly lives among the pagans. Likely, Peter’s audience were
living among those who had not yet surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ (or were not yet born again).
What was the purpose of living godly lives? The purpose was twofold: 1) they would be able to see their
good deeds and 2) glorify God on the day He would visit. So, the fact that pagans would be able to see
good deeds even after accusing Christians would prove their accusations as lies and thus illegitimate.

Submission to Every Human Authority, but for the Lord’s Sake (1 Pet. 2:13-17).
Peter’s audience (and Christians today) are encouraged to submit to every human authority. Now, God
has given responsibilities to those in authority to 1) punish those who do wrong and 2) to commend
those who do what is right. To what extent should Christians submit to every
human authority? The Lord’s sake. How does the Lord’s sake look like? “The
motive of obedience is for the Lord’s sake; either because Christ led no
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revolution or because such dutiful citizenship would give honor to His name.”
The word “submit.”. . is the normal term for social exhortation in the New
Testament (5:5; Rom. 13:1; 1 Cor. 14:34; 16:16; Eph. 5:21; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5)
and is used in all three here (2:13, 18; 3:1). It means to “place yourself under the
authority of” or “subordinate yourself to” another, but it has no hint of inferiority

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