1 Peter 1:1-5

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise to God for a Living Hope

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.



Dig Deeper

When I was a young teenager, I took tae kwon doe lessons for a while with a couple of friends of mine. When we started the classes, we were all at the white belt level and knew that we had to work our way up the ranks in order to attain belts of a higher level. The top level, of course, is the black belt, and that is what we all aspired to eventually. Our teacher constantly kept us motivated by telling us that there were black belts waiting for each one of us in his office. He would constantly motivate us, telling us that the black belts were ours, they were just being stored in there until the time was right and we were ready for the belts. We talked and dreamed of that day often, but no one ever imagined that what our teacher meant was that we would eventually have to go into his office, receive our belts and then stay there, enjoying our belts in the confines of his office.

That seems a bit obvious, yet many people, without much scriptural foundation, assume that this is what Peter is referring to as he offers words of encouragement and motivation to the young Christians on the receiving end of his letter. Peter says that there is a great inheritance, the realization of the great Christian hope being stored in heaven for the saints, but his real point is not that that is where it is to be fully enjoyed or realized. Throughout his letter, Peter encourages the Christian communities to understand what their great hope is and to start anticipating that future now. He is not telling them that they must wait until they go to heaven or that heaven is the final hope of the Christian at all (although it is in some respects). In fact, in Peter’s mind, heaven is more like the office of our instructor than it is the black belt itself.

Peter begins his letter with a simple and normal (for first century letters) introduction of himself. Paul’s apostleship was often under dispute which may have played a role in him usually adding that he was an apostle by the will of God or that he was sent by Jesus Christ. Peter, though, had no such credibility issue and needs a simple mention that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Peter addresses the letter to the Christians of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, with very telling terms. At several points throughout his letter, not the least of those in his introduction, Peter uses terms which make it clear that the collection of those in Christ, the Church, are the new Israel, the new people of God. He calls them the elect, which was a long-standing title for the people of Israel (rendered "chosen ones" in the NIV in passages such as 1 Chron. 16:13 and Ps. 105:6), demonstrating that they had been marked out as God’s people because of His will and love for them rather than their own merit. These Christians had been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father to be in Christ. Paul discusses this concept in the opening verses of Ephesians when he explained that God had predestined, before the foundations of the earth were laid, that he would have a people that had entered into the life of Christ (Eph. 1:3-14).

They were in Christ through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that is given to each believer at the time when they die to themselves and enter into the life of Christ (Acts 2:38), and who is responsible for the process of giving life to each believer (Rom. 8:10-11) and restoring them to the image of God (Col. 3:10). Some feel that sanctification is a one-time post-conversion event in the life of the believer that renders them unable to willfully sin, but in actuality, it refers to three features of the new life: the initial freedom from sin (Acts 20:32; 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:2, 30; 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13); continued growing in the life of Christ (Rom. 8:13; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 12:10, 14); and the time when he completes that work at the second coming (Eph. 5:25-27). It is our status in Christ and the power of the Spirit that enables Christians to be obedient to Jesus Christ, or in other words, to be able to put off our old lives and live consistently with the new life in Christ (Eph.4:1, 22-24). That each person in Christ has been sprinkled with his blood is a reference to the blood of sacrificed animals that was sprinkled in the Temple for purposes of cleansing. The death of Christ has made the cleansing of a new life available to all those who would enter in.

In addressing the letter, Peter also uses the term "exiles scattered throughout," which further connects them with Old Covenant Israel. The question is, what exactly does Peter mean by using this term? If he meant to use it metaphorically, then he is referencing their temporary residence in the present age, waiting the onset of the age to come. If he meant it to be understood literally, the literal use of that term referred to people in low social conditions, which would seem to fit with the overall tenor of the remainder of this letter. It seems likely that Peter may have had both aspects in mind when he wrote this letter. Certainly he was writing Christians who were of the age to come, sojourning in the present age, but he was also writing to groups of churches that were likely comprised almost entirely of slaves, disenfranchised, and those from the lower social classes.

God deserves our constant praise, as Peter reminds his readers, because through His foreknowledge and plan, he made available the new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They didn’t need to worry about their identity based on social perceptions and their status in the eyes of the societies in which they lived because they had entered into the life of Christ. When Peter says this, he is, of course, referring to the announcement of the gospel. The fact that Jesus, the Son of God, had suffered death, should have been a devastating blow to his followers that annihilated any following he may have had. Yet, it was the stunning moment of his resurrection that had changed everything. The early Christian community believed that the resurrection of Christ proved that God had done what he said he would all along. He had dealt with evil and reconciled men to himself. Those who had faith in the life of Christ could die to themselves and enter into Christ’s life (Rom. 6:3-4), enter into the new creation and be reconciled to God through this new birth (2 Cor. 5:16-21).

By entering into Christ, believers join the new family that Christ created around himself and His word, and being part of the family in the Jewish culture meant sharing in the inheritance. The inheritance for the Christian, though, was not a piece of land, or money that would be of no value when we die, but is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. It is the promise of resurrection and the age to come. The new creation, the time when God renews all things (Matt. 19:28), had been inaugurated at the resurrection and is now being stored in God’s presence waiting for the time when heaven and earth are united (Rev. 21:1-5) once-and-for-all. Despite our modern tendency to talk of going to heaven, as though it were some permanent tangible location separate from earth, to live forever after death, the early church put their hope in the promise of resurrection on a restored earth, living in the presence of God for eternity. Or, as the grand old hymn, This is My Father’s World, says, "This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done: Jesus Who died shall be satisfied, and earth and Heav’n be one."."

Those who die, of course, go into heaven, the realm of God’s presence, but that is just the first stage. The final hope for Christians is that time when the final salvation, the reconciliation of all creation, is revealed. Peter refers to this time as the coming of the salvation, when the dead in Christ and those still alive will be resurrected to greet the coming Messiah and escort him to earth to reign and rule forever (1 Thess. 4:13-17; Rev. 21:1-5).



Devotional Thought

Peter says that those who have faith in the life of Christ will be shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation, the full onset of the age to come. Do you have the kind of faith in Christ’s life that Peter was talking about or do you constantly turn to other things for your comfort, identity, security, or direction in life?