Or, Getting Faith Where It Needs to Be1 Peter 1:1-9September 19, 2021 Evening Service Sean Higgins

Introduction

One question that we’ve thrown around recently is if our church is prepared for more suffering. There are different kinds of suffering, and who’s to say what kinds may or may not be around the corner (even as was true for Peter’s readers). The Lord knows, the Lord wills. There is a sense in which you never really know if you’re prepared until you’re in the midst of the trouble and, according to the Bible, some troubles are the means to increasing our ability to handle them. But whether or not we are prepared, 1 Peter is written with an expectation that you can do some things to get ready.

1 Peter is about suffering, as a Christian and even for doing good as a Christian. It is less about personal suffering, as in, from sickness or injury or depression, though it has application for all kinds of griefs (see verse 6). It is more about relational suffering, we could call it social suffering, with insults (4:14) and slander (4:4) from others. It is about suffering that might happen when a woman is married to a disobedient husband (3:1-6), suffering under a crooked boss (2:18-25), suffering under ignorant (if not malicious) government (2:13-17), and suffering in a culture that is non-Christian (2:11; 4:3-4). 1 Peter was written to Christians in such a hostile environment, and it has application for much of what we see around us now.

The three main themes of 1 Peter are suffering, submission, and salvation, but in the reverse order. Peter thought there were things Christians could do to prepare for suffering, and he thought so directly and by argument. That’s why the first chapter and a half are about our salvation, because when we understand what our God-given faith is for, we will be less surprised at the fiery trial that’s upon us (4:12). Faith is given by God, and in another way it is made by fire.

The Peter who wrote the letter is the apostle Peter. He watched his Lord suffer, up close. He tried to avoid suffering one memorable time by denying that he knew the Lord. By the time he wrote this letter he had already spent time in prison for preaching.

He wrote to the elect exiles throughout a dispersion, perhaps better not capitalized as a proper noun. These were “scattered” Christians in the area of modern day Turkey. Though he was the apostle entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (Galatians 2:7-8), the description of his readers in 1 Peter seem to be more Gentile, even if mixed.

That Peter refers to “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” (1:18) indicated that most of his readers were Gentiles. They had once not been a people, but are now God’s people (2:10).

The provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were diverse demographically, though all of them were part of the Roman Empire at this point. The order in which the areas are listed probably designates the order in which the courier (Silvanus, see 5:12) would carry the letter to the readers.

Evidence is lacking for an official government policy against Christians. Though Nero’s persecution around A.D. 64 was clearly targeted at Christians, it’s not clear that martyrdom was expected by Christians before that, even if the culture was unfavorable or belligerent against Christians.

So Peter calls them exiles, not because they weren’t living at home. It is more than a geographical condition, it is a spiritual one. We’re living away from our native country; our citizenship is dual-nature (earth and heaven per Philippians 3:20), resident aliens.

This world is not the Christian’s home. We are “aliens and strangers” (1 Peter 2:11: NASB), “foreigners” (NIV), “pilgrims” (KJV). I do think that this is true, and it does not have to make a man a dualist if he also pays attention to his responsibilities as an exile, w[...]