Outside Shows Inside

1 Peter 2:11–25

I. Internal Source of Holy Behavior (2:11, 12)

A. Notice that each of these admonitions comes in recognizing an antagonist: Fleshly lusts, “passions of the flesh” (11), “Gentiles” (12), and foolish men (15).

1. 1. Fleshly lusts are said to wage war against your soul. The biblical view of sins of the flesh is that they cannot be divided from spiritual issues. The philosophical atmosphere in which Christianity developed had a strong undercurrent of dualism—that is, the life of the body and the physical world had little, if any, impact on the spirit or the mind. What one does with the flesh does not affect the soul. Others who were purely materialistic did not believe in the continuation of any soul or spirit subsequent to death, so desires of the body constituted the basic motivation for chosen lifestyle. Peter, and the rest of the New Testament writers, see the person as a whole, the body and the soul/spirit are compositely the person. What one does in the body is without fail also a moral and spiritual action. Fallen desires that locate themselves particularly and most noticeably in the lust of the flesh both arise from the affections, not just the body isolated from moral affections, and impact the soul. So this is quite a radical statement of world-view that fleshly lusts wage war against the soul. Look carefully at Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 to see how insistent he is on not excluding the actions of the body from the spiritual realities of redemption.
   2. Peter speaks of the “Gentiles” as the arena before whom the holy life is to be lived, under God. He expands his statement on this in 4:3–6. As an apostle to the “circumcision,” it is possible that Peter is writing only to Jewish believers. It seems, however, from chapter 4, that Gentiles whose Christian conversion had separated them from their normal Gentile companions, were among these Christians of the dispersion also. Peter is urging that their lifestyle should be so distinct from the pleasure-seeking commitments of the Gentile world-view, that the difference would be striking. They are to live in a way that is “honorable,” that is, manifesting in their conduct those things that are intrinsically excellent.
   3. Those that live apart from the revelation of God [15), are willfully ignorant of much that they could know about God [cf Romans1:19–22 and note the relation between affections alienated from God and the function of the mind—e.g. “they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools.”). Peter indicates that their ignorance is inexcusable and that their foolishness is equal to refusal to understand. They are without understanding [aphronon] having refused, because of selfish desire, to exercise their understanding for the purpose of grasping those things that are honorable.

B. Consider your identity – “Aliens [paroicous] and strangers” [parepidemous, sojourner].

Peter initially addressed them as “elect exiles of the dispersion” combining their spiritual status with the literal earthly condition. He now uses their earthly detachment from a stable living condition as a means to solidify in their hearts that their true citizenship is in heaven [cf Philippians 3:20 and context] and they do not, therefore, connect themselves to the values and practices that define this world.

1. 1. Consider the spoils of the battle – your soul. The soul in this context connotes the whole person as it will be constituted after the resurrection but emphasizing that the destiny of the whole person depends on the condition of the affections and the understanding—those peculiar qualities of rational morality possessed by those made in the image of God. A true belief of the gospel arises from the changed heart that has “tasted that the Lord is good” and therefore, loses its relish for the passing pleasures of this present order and the spiritually corrupt mental outlook that invents and promotes them.
   2. With the passing of conscience and the dimming of any concept of future consequences connected to present action, the world pursues a more bacchanalian lifestyle seeking to press immediate pleasure into every moment. The Christian has been restored to both sanity and to the source of true and lasting joy and godly pleasure. The glory of God is his driving force for present life, and he embraces the prize won for him by Christ of an imperishable inheritance filled with joy inexpressible full of glory (1:8,9), the salvation of your souls.

II. External Demonstration by Excellent Behavior

A. Live lives of intrinsic excellence and goodness (12).

These things, such as Paul describes in Philippians 4:8, 9. Jesus Christ alone is excellent in his expression of perfect worship and obedience in his human nature and those that follow him must emulate his love (Ephesians 5:1, 2).

B. For those very things you will be accounted as evildoers and slandered.

1. 1. Haters of mankind for stances on abortion, infanticide, and homosexuality – In the Roman world of the first three centuries, Christian morality made them despised by the libertine element of the population. Even common conventions and rights claimed by Roman citizens were seen as antithetical to Christian conduct. Christians sought to rescue exposed infants, opposed abortion, criticized the brutality of the spectator events. For this they were considered as opposed to the rights and values of the Empire.
   2. Atheists for not being idolatrous – It became obvious that Christians did not buy or do any kind of reverence to the images that commonly dotted the market-place of cities, nor did they buy incense or food to offer to household deities. Note how novel Paul’s understanding of God seemed to be to the Athenians in Acts 17:24, 25.
   3. Unpatriotic for being exclusivists – The Christians would not syncretize their faith with the gods of Rome. They maintained the exclusivity of Christ as the way of salvation. This was seen as unpatriotic and as an insult to the Emperor. Radical claims of the deity of the Roman emperor were not endorsed by Christians, and their refusal to consent sometimes led to their execution.

C. In the day of visitation (12) those very things become the source of their praise.

It becomes a part of the necessary recognition of Jesus as Lord, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord. Then, too, will the excellent virtues so maligned in this world be seen as the truly good, for they reflect the unchangeable goodness of God.

III. Orderly Living by Lawful Behavior (13–17)

A. Human institutions are for the order of society and are built on remnants of the imago dei that expresses itself in corporate structures.

Even pagan structures have to recognize some kind of order, symmetry, designation of authority and submission to perform certain needed tasks. The perfect community of the Trinity forms the very nature of reality and humans made in the divine image cannot function apart from observing, to some degree, those aspect of community that are eternally present in God. Sin makes us abuse this, keeps us from reflecting it perfectly, and fills our attempts at order with graft and corruption and selfish grasps for power. All government, nevertheless, helps keep the nations from becoming a perfect conflagration of human destruction. Note how Peter lists the different levels of administering the justice that should be at the center of governmental concerns (14). Our submission to these human institutions is for the Lord’s sake.

B. Punishment of evil and reward of good is a basic function of government (cf. Romans 13:1–7).

The distinction between good and evil as discernible realities is necessary to the proper governing of any society. Nations and the variety of classes within them might not hold to precisely identical codes of right and wrong and may, therefore, at times disagree on whether some laws are just or unjust. When this happens, governments should have provision that the people may remonstrate for change. But that there is a difference between evil, deserving punishment, and good, deserving liberty and an unmolested peace of mind in pursuit of personal prosperity (however conceived), and that the function of government is to enforce these distinctions for the well-being of the entire population is largely undisputed. This is because government is ordained by God Himself in accord with the creation realities of both authority and submission.

C. Our position as aliens and sojourners does not mean that we establish lawless societies, that our “freedom” in Christ might become a cloak for disobedience to law (16).

While our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), we live in this world as salt and light demonstrating that the principles of honor and love are fundamental to reconciliation in all personal relations.

D. The only exception is an order that requires disobedience to Christ (cf. Acts 4:15–22).

In this case, their preaching was not yet illegal, but simply offensive to the Jewish leadership. Neither the significance nor the safety of a Christian’s life is bound up in the perfection of the political system under which he or she lives, but in reverent fear of God as manifest in belief of the gospel. The Christian may, therefore, honor the emperor (17) as a testimony to his ultimate fear of and trust in God and as a witness to others that appropriate respect of order and authority is a moral commitment of the Christian.

IV.  Peter’s address to servants (18–20)

In this passage, Peter continues his admonitions to Christians to live submissively within the sphere of their present calling. A call to submission does not mean, necessarily, that the sphere of labor or relationship is ideal, or even just, but that a Christian can live with godly integrity and can conduct himself as a follower of Christ under stress as well as in happy situations. This idea becomes especially poignant when we realize that the example given is that of Christ’s patience and submission in the most unjust action ever done in human history.

A. Does Peter’s address to slaves give warrant to slavery as a human institution?

Passages such as these were frequently used in defenses of slavery. The assumption was that the regulation of an existing institution was tantamount to God’s approval of the institution. He regulated slavery, and did not issue a mandate against it; the institution of slavery, therefore, is ordained of God and we must not insist on its abolition but only seek to remove any abuses from it. Though arguments on this issue from a biblical standpoint can be complicated at times, the general principle of Scripture is that personal freedom is superior to slavery, thus if a slave could obtain his freedom, he was urged to do so (1 Corinthians 7:21) The foundation of slavery, man-stealing, is strictly seen as a violation of divine law (1 Timothy 1:10), and Christian Masters were to be aware that they themselves had a Master in heaven and that they should consider their Christian slave as Brothers (Paul even states in the case of Onesimus and Philemon “No longer as a slave but as a beloved brother.”) Over and above the importance of this particular ethical issue, Peter is concerned that all Christians conduct themselves with integrity, personal purity, and loving deference in the inequities of a fallen world.

B. Unjust suffering borne patiently is pleasing to God (19, 20).

Peter looks at the condition from the standpoint of the dominance of sin in all human relationships. In a pagan society the regard that a Master would have for his slave would normally involve a peculiarly egregious violation of the second Great commandment, “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.”

1. 1. Disobedience to the commandments rules in the hearts of all men, so a Christian should not be surprised when the world, especially someone in a place of power, shows no regard for God or man.. Peter gives the admonition to slaves with the assumption that their true Christian character will shine most brilliantly when they are called on to respond to injustice. Responding positively to the benevolent and gentle does not draw upon the reserves of grace but is no more than natural men would do. If we love those that love us, how does that let grace prove itself. Even the unbelievers would show respect to those that treated them with favor. (cf. Matthew 5:43–48)
   2. In addition, patience under just suffering, a warranted punishment, is not a distinct demonstration of Christian character but an expected attitude thoroughly consistent with a deserved chastening. To receive punishment with resignation and patience when it is due for disobedience shows no extraordinary strength of character; to resist it and resent it, in fact, would only aggravate one’s guilt.
   3. The manifestation of grace for the Christian slave occurs when he/she does all that the Master requires (which according to Christ should not raise the spirit of expectation in the slave for gratitude from the master (Luke 17:10)) and yet on pure whim or from arrogant malice receives rough, ill treatment from the Master. This shows that one, no matter what his earthly condition is or who is his earthly authority, views the Lord as his true master. Such submission is “a gracious thing,” that is a manifestation of grace. The Christian has focus on the love, mercy, faithfulness, and grace of God and desires to please Him, knowing that whatever we do we do “as unto the Lord.” We should implant in our hearts and test our actions each day by Paul’s question to the Galatians, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please Man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

C. This gives rise to the servant theme of Isaiah 52:13ff.

What more powerful impulse to bear with patience unjust suffering than the events that constitute our eternal freedom from a deserved wrath of unimaginable proportions. Seeing that the Christian’s status of favor with God was purchased by the death of the spotless, innocent Lamb of God, he concludes that to just such treatment we are called. “For to this you have been called.”

V. Christ’s example of suffering from his immediate tormentors

A. This kind of suffering is our example (21).

If we look for some model as to how one that is pure-minded and desires to honor God with his conduct should respond when falsely ridiculed, dishonored, abused, maligned, and condemned we look to Christ. One of the immediate applications of our knowledge that Christ died for us is the willingness to receive false accusations and unjust treatment so that we might manifest the life of Christ in this world [cf. Matthew 5:11, 12; Luke 6:22, 23]. We are not left to guess in this matter; Christ has both instructed us and exemplified the God-honoring response.

B. His example is not for our redemption but as a demonstration of trust in the Father in the present providence as well as for the demonstration of future justice and glory.

This is a pertinent application of the suffering of Christ but is not the explanation of the reason that the just one suffered unjustly at the hands of men.

C. He did not retaliate in kind (22, 23).

Peter invokes the language of Isaiah 53:7–9 to show the infinite patience of our sinless Lord under the malicious hands of sinful men. This was God in the hands of angry sinners, when as a matter of pure justice untempered by mercy we should have seen sinners in the hands of an angry God.

D. He had ultimate trust in the justice of God: He did this in two ways.

1. 1. cf. Romans 12:17–21. The Christian lives in this life with the knowledge that he is not responsible for the avenging of wrongs done to him. God is the perfect judge of all wrongs, and He will render to every man his just treatment in eternity for it is His alone to judge and to take vengeance.
   2. Christ knew also that his treatment was a part of the exact justice that his Father was inflicting on Him as the substitute and representative of the people that the Father had given Him in eternity past. Though it was not just as coming from the hands of men, this passion event was perfectly consistent with justice as it came from the eternal purpose and the immediate hand of his Father. He knew that at the level of eternity, his suffering would indeed accomplish justice, and he would not suffer beyond what was exactly just for the redemption of the people. He would pay the utmost farthing, endure the wages of sin, and buy us with his precious blood.

VI. His substitutionary suffering is the ultimate example of injustice serving the cause of justice

A. The Event

1. 1. Bore our sins – the true cause of his suffering – Isaiah 53:4—Peter used an intensive pronoun to show that Christ Himself and no other shouldered the full burden of sin and He himself and no other paid the full price of our pardon. The idea of bearing our sins means that he undertook before God to absorb the debt of the full account of wrath due for the sins of those that he shouldered. He bore “our griefs” and carried “our sorrows” and was “wounded for our transgressions” and the chastisement that came upon him was designed to give us peace.
   2. In his own body – This was a more severe trial to his body than the buffeting of the soldiers. One would be villainous ever to underestimate the exquisite amount of pain that racked the body of Christ when the inventive cruelty of malicious and power-hungry sinners trained to be brutal and merciless exhibited their sinister skill of torture on a body doomed soon to expire. It was truly unimaginable. The true pain, however, and that that brought forth the cry of the Lord’s mouth was the wrath of the sword of divine justice that pierced his heart in full payment for those sins that his elect had committed or ever will commit. The soldier’s spear entered a heart already burst open through the intense experience of infinite wrath. Body and soul suffered at the hand of God more than it could ever have suffered from the puny attempts of men to exhibit their wrath. It is nothing when placed beside the anger of the self-existent infinitely mighty, infinitely holy God. Look at Luke 12:4–7.
   3. On the tree – everything preliminary, as trying and traumatic as it was nothing compared to the time on the cross in full contact with the unsparing retributive justice of God for our sins. We do not discern the various ways in which the sin of the world troubled the soul of Jesus. In Luke 12:49, 50 he said, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” In Gethsemane Jesus told his disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38). His probing the possibility of the cup passing from him indicates that he was already in the foretaste of the deep anguish looming before him, soon to be accomplished on the “tree.” Jesus was in the throes of an increasing perception in his humanity of the depths and heights and width and breadth of the wrath of God, and it is not impossible that certain elements of divine wrath already were accompanying these physical and mental struggles leading up to the cross. But none can fathom the wrath unleashed during the hours of darkness on the cursed tree. “Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty Maker died for man, the creature’s, sin.” (Watts)

B. The purpose

1. 1. That we might die to sin: consequences and corruption

• • • Sin holds its sway over us in that we are under its curse of condemnation. Jesus’ death was indeed the “Death of death.” “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
    • One of the immediate punitive aspects of Adam’s sin was the corruption of soul that separated him from his primordial love of God and subjected him to the deceit of Satan, the passions of the flesh that continually waged war against his soul. Now Christ’s death has brought forgiveness and consequently the indwelling of the Spirit to mortify the flesh, break the bonds of Satanic deceit, and produce real holiness. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22).

1. 2. Live to righteousness: by looking to Christ alone and by presenting your members as slaves to righteousness Romans 6:19

• • • The righteousness we formerly perceived was a self-righteousness, which was no righteousness at all. Now the believer that has been brought to the cross of Christ does not look to his own righteousness but only to the righteousness of Christ. He has become righteousness to us [2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Corinthians 1:30]. Like Paul, now we yearn for and relish to be found only in the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ [Philippians 3:9].
    • Now that we know true righteousness, we seek to pursue it and as formerly we were slaves to sin, now we are slaves to righteousness (“having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

1. 3. His wounds are effectual for this Isaiah 53:5 – “By his wounds, you have been healed”–This is, of course, literally true but also a literary irony. How can the wounds inflicted on one person heal another person? We are reminded of the great hymn by Charles Wesley, “Arise my soul arise,” in which Wesley poignantly observed,

Five bleeding wounds He bears; Received  on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

His wounds were not inadvertent, accidental, or without purpose, but, as Wesley reminds us, were effectual for the forgiveness of sins and constitute Christ as the great high priest who has offered the final sacrifice, once and for all rendering perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justly aroused wrath of God.

C. The restraining reason

1. 1. Straying – (Isaiah 53:6) Peter applies the prophecy of Isaiah 53 specifically to the Christians of the dispersion—sojourners, aliens and pilgrims; Their pilgrimage now is purposeful and will end in a home that is glorious and incorruptible. Their pilgrimage formerly was an aimless and dangerous journey, going astray like sheep into a bottomless gulf of divine retribution, but now having been brought back.
   2. Return – Their return was not of their own initiative or cunning or strength, but was initiated by the Good Shepherd who sought them and bought them with His redeeming blood. John 10:1–18

• • • As the Door of the sheepfold, none can enter except through Him. 7, 9
    • As Good shepherd He lays down His life; knows all the sheep, has purchased sheep that presently are in other folds and will without fail bring them also.

VII. Application

A. No amount of external obedience will aid in eternity without an internal change.

Thus the order is important. Ye must be born again. Excellence and virtue is the fruit of the Spirit. Remember, Peter is talking about all these issues in light of his assumption that “you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable.”

B. No amount of claiming to have had an internal change void of excellent and orderly external behavior will be convincing either here or hereafter.

C. The life changing reality of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ alone suffices for a life that will glorify God here and that will bring forth praise to God even from his enemies when Christ appears.

D. Suffering in this life may be the means by which our Father sanctifies us.

If the suffering is unjust, it is the opportunity we have to emulate our savior who bore our sins in his own body, and who showed infinite patience with the malefactors even praying for their forgiveness.

POEM on 1 Peter 2 13ff

No injustice can compare with Jesus’ death upon the cross.
Eyes of wicked men, their insults, saw pure gold as filth and dross.
They ridiculed, they spat on Him—irrational humiliation.
No rebuke fell from his lips, from Him no retaliation.

Though infinitely evil from the soul of his tormenters,
A greater justice, higher love, united as consenters.
He knew His Father judges justly with just weights and measures
Of wrath the payment even while he drew the Father’s pleasure.

This suffering servant by his wounds became shepherd of our souls.
So eschew the sin that slew him, as our love to him unfolds.
Think now, when you’re called to suffer that He suffered for our sake.
Give respect to every power and for ill no vengeance take.

Praise and fear the Lord of judgment for His reconciling grace.
On His Son He laid our burden, when in love He took our place.
In this world of sin and sorrow, hope and trust in God alone.
Let your goodness be your answer to blind minds and hearts of stone.