Chosen & Hope-Filled Exiles
1 Peter 1:1-5
Rev. James Lima
The first time I traveled overseas was in high school with a choir. I remember landing at the London Heathrow airport and being greeted by this older British lady as we were going to get on the busses that would take us to our hotel. Her greeting caught me a bit off guard: “Hello, my lovely little sausages!” The words stuck in my memory because, well, to my high school Wisconsinite mind, they were an odd way to address a group of people. Now, perhaps that way of addressing people is just as odd in London as it is in Wisconsin, but either way, one of the interesting parts of traveling cross-culturally is that many things that we consider “weird” are “normal” elsewhere and many things we consider “normal” are “weird” elsewhere. Everything sticks out to you (food, architecture, language) in a way that it doesn’t when you are simply swimming in your home waters.
But on the flipside, you are also far more conspicuous (noticeable) because of your differences. As fun as temporarily dwelling cross-culturally is, it can also be exhausting! Whenever I travel, I always hit a point where I’m just ready to be home. I long to sleep in my own bed, to see my friends and family. I believe humans have a God-given desire for home. For a place where we belong – a place of security – a place we know and love among people we know and love. Being away from home is hard. Some of you know that from present experience, whether as a college student living away from home for the first time or as someone who grew up in another state or country that still holds the place of home in your heart. Living in a place that isn’t home is hard.
This challenge of dwelling in a place that isn’t your home can be compounded when the things that make you different bring animosity and suspicion. Such, sadly is often the reality of the lives of sojourners. The apostle Peter wrote 1 Peter as a letter to Christians scattered across a region of what is modern-day Turkey who faced ridicule, hatred, suspicion, and suffering as sojourners and exiles. This letter is of perpetual relevance to Christians. It is an honest assessment of the reality of the Christian life being the life of a sojourner and exile. But it is also a letter of powerful hope, reminding us that though we may have no place to truly call home in this life, that we can properly be called sojourners and exiles precisely because we do have a true home where we will one day dwell in security and bliss with the God who calls us to be his own.
First Peter can be summed up quite simply with the major themes of these first few verses: 1 Peter is about living with hope as elect exiles. These three major words: elect, exiles, and hope, provide the themes and structure of the whole book, so we will be diving into them deeply as we go through 1 Peter this fall and winter, but I want to give a broad framing of them from the introduction to this letter. So, as we look at living with hope as elect exiles, we’re going to zoom in briefly on each of the three main topics and how these opening verses introduce them to us.
Living as Exiles
We’ll begin with living as exiles. Peter addresses the letter in verse 1, “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” “Exiles” simply means “temporary residents” but when you view the term from the perspective of the larger context of the Bible, it takes on deeper significance. God’s people through the Old Testament are often themselves sojourners and exiles with an emphasis on God then providing his people with a home, a promised land to dwell in. The Israelites were exiles and sojourners in Egypt and wanderers in the wilderness before being brought into the promised land. Even after entering the promised land, both Israel and Judah became exiles in Assyria and Babylon before Judah returned home. But the theme of exile and promised land in the Old Testament was always meant to teach us about a bigger, more significant reality of exile and home—it was ultimately never about the physical promised land. Hebrews 11 speaks of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah in this way, saying that they
“…all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out (the promised land), they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
Abraham was a sojourner, and his descendants were sojourners, looking beyond even the physical earthly promised land by longing for and seeking a better homeland. You can really summarize the whole Bible by saying that God created mankind and gave them a place, people, and his presence in the garden, but these things were lost as they were banished because of their sinful rebellion against him. But God in his grace acts to restore fallen men and women to true home – a heavenly city with God’s people and God present to bless. But in this age, though we have so many of the benefits of God’s grace and salvation, we are still in the “in-between.” We are still those longing and looking forward to a home that is yet to come. So, a significant part of what it means to be one of God’s people is that you are an exile—you are a pilgrim seeking a celestial city.
And Peter picks up on this theme and applies it to his audience. He uses words often used to describe the Jews as they were exiled and scattered among the nations—words like “exile” and “dispersion” He even refers to Rome as “Babylon” at the end of the letter, clearly calling to mind the Babylonian exile. But he uses these terms even though his audience was almost certainly primarily Gentile (non-Jewish). We know that they were primarily Gentile and not Jewish from the way Peter refers to them later in the letter. In chapter 1 verse 18, Peter says that they “were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.” Peter would not have referred to the ways inherited from the Jewish forefathers as futile, but he would refer to Gentile forefathers this way. Even more clearly, in chapter 2 verse 10, he says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.” This is language from Hosea also quoted in Romans 9 as a reference to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God.
For Gentiles to become a part of God’s people means that they join in the long line of God’s people as exiles. To become a Christian means to become an exile! As Gentiles, Peter’s audience weren’t exiles because they were physically dwelling in a foreign land like the Jews who had been scattered. As Peter writes to exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (all part of modern-day Turkey), it is very likely that many of his readers were born and raised in Pontious, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia! And yet, because of their faith in God they have become citizens of a new heavenly country and are therefore exiles in their own native land. Peter would want us to know even if we are born and raised Americans, Wisconsinites, or even Pointers, that we are sojourners and exiles because this earth is not our home! The Christian life is a pilgrim life!
Do you feel that as you walk through this life? Do you sense that you are a sojourner? Do you ever long for a better country, a heavenly one? Or are you perfectly happy and content in your present land? Peter tells us that we won’t be comfortable as exiles. As sojourners and exiles, it is simply a reality that God’s people will be reviled, disliked, and often mistreated. Suffering specifically for being a Christian is one of the main themes of 1 Peter.
And Peter isn’t writing about some abnormally severe suffering, but the ordinary suffering and hardship that should be expected by all Christians. He even says later in chapter 5 that the kinds of suffering that his readers are experiencing are also experienced by their brotherhood throughout the world. It is common Christian suffering. Peter was writing this letter in the early 60s AD from Rome under the reign of a man named Nero. You may have heard of him and his wicked persecution and murder of many Christians after blaming them for the burning of Rome. But when Peter was writing this letter, the large scale, systematic persecution of Christians under Nero wouldn’t take place for at least a couple more years when Peter himself would be put to death under Nero in Rome in the year 64 AD. The kind of suffering that these Christians faced when Peter wrote this letter though was common Christian suffering, not the exceptional brutality that we often hear about. The suffering that these Christians faced is again, in many ways, the suffering that all Christians are called to face. Far too often Christians are often caught by surprise and panic or think something is wrong when we suffer because we somehow forget that we are exiles on the earth. What did you expect!? To be a Christian is to be an exile!
Are we willing to listen? Are we willing to suffer? Are we willing to walk the pilgrim road of faith? Or do we think that we can turn our present world into our eternal home? Do we think that we can transform our present world to the point that Peter’s words become a relic of the past instead of powerful words for our present? Until Christ returns and the heavenly Jerusalem descends, and the people of God inhabit a new heavens and a new earth we will continue to be strangers and exiles on this earth. Guess what!? If you don’t feel totally at home in this world, it is because you’re not supposed to!
But being a stranger and exile does not mean that Christians are called to complain all day about how hard it is, or revile in return those who revile us, or sit on our hands, do nothing, and wait for heaven. As we read in Jeremiah 29, even the Jewish exiles in Babylon in the Old Testament were called to be active—to build houses, to plant gardens, to marry and multiply, and to seek the welfare of the city even though they were only temporary residents. First Peter also is full of calls not to passive inaction but to active lives of holiness, humility, obedience, and witness. This active life as exiles is rooted in the second major theme in 1 Peter, living as the elect.
Living as the Elect
It is so wonderful that the word “exile” is immediately preceded by the word “elect” in verse 1. Elect simply means “chosen”. This is a sweet truth to the souls of exiles. It reminds us that the Christian who is rejected by the world is rooted in the confidence that they have been chosen by God. This election or choosing is a choosing “out of” the world making us exiles, but it is also a choosing “into” a relationship with God! We no longer belong to the world; we belong to God!
This election is described in further detail in verse 2. The words “according to” refer back to the word “elect.” Peter says that these Christians were elect… “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.”
Notice the trinitarian shape of this election! These Christians were elect “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” This foreknowledge is a word used in the Bible to refer to more than God simply knowing information beforehand. This kind of “knowledge” is a more intimate kind of knowledge. It describes God setting his saving love upon his chosen people even before time began. Again this is a sweet truth to the souls of exiles. We need to remember during the temporal challenges of this life that God’s love was set upon us before this life began – before time began! Geerhardus Vos once wrote, “The reason God will never stop loving you is that he never began,” meaning that God’s love has no beginning! It is eternal. A love that has always been will never cease to be. If you are God’s, that means that he set his love on you before you ever existed!
Second, we see the work of the Holy Spirit, “in the sanctification of the Spirit.” If the eternal plan and choice of salvation is attributed to the Father, the application of that salvation is attributed to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who sanctifies, meaning he “makes us holy.” He is the one who transforms the hearts of sinners to trust in Jesus for salvation. He is the one who then transforms us more and more through our lives into the image of Jesus.
Lastly, we see the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who sprinkles us with his blood. He is the one whose sinless blood was shed in the place of sinners so that we might be cleansed from our sin—washed and forgiven. The Father chooses, the Son accomplishes salvation for those given to him by the Father, the Spirit applies salvation to those for whom the Son died. So beautifully we see that our salvation is the work of our triune God! If anyone ever tries to convince you that the Trinity isn’t practical, tell them that the gospel is a trinitarian gospel! Our salvation is a trinitarian salvation! Apart from the united work of the Trinity, no one is saved! Salvation is of God. It is his plan and his work, the work of our one God, the Father, Son, and Spirit.
And notice that the purpose of this salvation is obedience! This helps us understand that foreknowledge a bit more. We’re not chosen because God looked into the future and foreknew that we would obey! No one is chosen because they are better than another! He didn’t choose us because of our obedience, but for obedience. Obedience is the result of his saving work, not the cause.
Understanding this helps us to see that living as the chosen ones of God doesn’t mean living as smug, proud, elitists, with our great superior theology. It means living a life of simple, humble obedience to God even if the world rejects us. Their election is what made them different and set apart! And instead of trying to hide that difference or obscuring it through living like the world around them, Peter called these Christians to press into that difference! Throughout this letter are calls to a distinct way of holy living that would reveal to the world the holiness of the triune God who chose and saved his people!
In 1 Peter, this is a source of incredible comfort. Where our standing as exiles in the world might initially cause pessimism, the reality of election is meant to cause great optimism because it means that our triune God will in fact accomplish his purposes of salvation! It means that the gospel will go forth! That God will save ALL his chosen people! That no hatred, persecution, or worldly schemes faced by Christian exiles can stop the triumphant progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people from every tribe, tongue, and nation! And so lastly, we see living with hope.
Living with Hope
Peter ends the opening two verses with a common greeting found throughout the letters of the New Testament—grace and peace. “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” This is really more than a greeting, it is a blessing. God’s intention is to bless his people by his grace (his undeserved favor) so that they would know his peace (the content of our salvation – reconciliation with God and one day “shalom” the setting right of all things). This is a hope-filled blessing that leads into a hope-filled beginning of the letter.
I’m not going to dive too deeply into verse 3-5 today, we will do that next week. But I do want to briefly highlight the major theme of these verses—living hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The theme of these verses is simple—because Jesus lives and we live in him, we have a living hope. We live – God has “caused us to be born again.” We live because Jesus lives – “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” And so our hope is a living hope. The hope of the Christian is no mere wish or fond desire. Living hope is not like hoping that we get our favorite toy for Christmas or hoping that tomorrow is less stressful than today. It is a hope that is as alive as Christ is alive! It is a sure and confident assurance. And the content of this hope is a heavenly inheritance that is preserved by the very power of God for us. We may have no lasting home in this life, but we have an unshakeable inheritance in heaven.
For all its language of suffering, exile, insults, and hardship, 1 Peter is a letter of hope! This book shows us that there is a sure and certain aim and outcome of the pilgrim life of following Christ. To follow the one who himself was betrayed, mistreated, beaten and who suffered and died, means that we should never be surprised by hardship as Christians. There should never be a panic or surprise as if something strange is happening. To follow Christ means suffering.
If you are here and you are not a Christian, I want to be clear with you that I long for you to become a Christian but that it’s not going to fix all your problems in this life. In fact, it may mean your life becomes far harder. I remember sharing the gospel with a young Muslim woman from Tunisia on a college campus and it really sinking in what it would mean if she became a Christian in her context. For her it would quite literally have meant losing her earthly home to gain a heavenly one. But the point is that that’s the call for all of us. It is a call to lose your life and lose what the world calls gain to find a hope and inheritance that is far more secure and satisfying than anything the world can offer. It is our longing for you to gain true, living hope through Jesus!
Because if his suffering means our suffering, even if his death means our death, his LIFE means our LIFE and an eternal inheritance. There will be a day when the earth of our sojourning is replaced by a new heavens and a new earth! First Peter tells us that in this life we will never find a home that is truly home and we shouldn’t expect to. But our days as exiles our numbered. That we really do have a home—a home that is truly “home”.
