1* ¶ Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2* , an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5* who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6* ¶ In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7* so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8* and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9* obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
Peters’ purpose in writing this letter seems to be based on clearly making it known to his readers about the heavenly inheritance. He also follows Christ’s example, if we would reflect back to the Sermon on the Mount and other passages where Jesus guarantees persecution for the believer, to give consolation to the persecuted, and to prepare them for a greater approaching ordeal. Peter exhorts all by letter’s end – husbands, wives, servants, elders, and people to live as good citizens wherever they are, so as to give no reason for the enemy to reproach Christianity or the Gospel of Christ. Rather he would hope that they would win them to it, reminding them that they are established in the faith and others can be as well:
1Pt.5:12 Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!
1 Pet.5:12 refers to Peter’s exhortations throughout the Epistle grounded on testimony which he bears to the Gospel truth, already well known to his readers by the teaching of Paul in those churches. They were already introduced “into” (so the Greek, 1Pe 5:12) this grace of God as their safe standing-ground. Paul writes in 1Co 15:1, “I declare unto you the Gospel “wherein ye stand.” As we stand in the Gospel we stand in Christ for we are placed in Him and He is the good news, He is the living Word.
Therefore Peter does not, in this Epistle, set forth a complete statement of this Gospel doctrine of grace, but falls back on it as already known by those he is writing to.
Those to who he is writing understand the doctrines of grace: total depravity, unconditional election, particular atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. As they stand in this grace they are considered to be aliens.
Vs.1 who reside as aliens
All Christians, if they rightly consider their calling, must never settle themselves here in this temporal place and kingdom, but see themselves as travelers, sojourners and as pilgrims waiting for the consummation of Christ’s kingdom to come in His person unto the praise of His glorious grace. Jesus taught us “My kingdom is not of this world”. Yes we are members of His kingdom, but it is not of this present world or its system. The kingdom of God is within us and where ever we are there exists the kingdom of God, in small tracts as it were, as we gather as bodies of believers throughout this world. We should live as aliens and many times brethren we are made to be aliens in many lands and many places. We are not wanted. However we are God’s chosen.
Vs.1 who are chosen
We are the chosen, the elect (KJV, NKJV, ESV) of God if we are standing in the grace of the gospel. The word chosen comes from -eklektos –to elect, to show favor, to select out from, which is synonymous with being the blessed of the Sermon on the Mount. We are the favored of God if we have genuinely repented and believed in Christ and have the promise of the kingdom of heaven as our own. “Many are called but few are chosen”, said Jesus. And we are chosen,
Vs. 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
There is great misunderstanding of this word among many Christians. Inherent in this knowledge of God is a loving of the object of His knowledge.
Foreknowledge here signifies the free favor and good will of God, which is the fountain from whence the decree of election proceeds; and then we are to take elect in the sense, and so elect according to the foreknowledge of God, as being eternally designed unto eternal life, according to, or out of, that free grace and love which God did from eternity bear towards them, which was the only motive he had for his choosing them.
The father had an intimate relationship with the Son,
1Pe 1:20* For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.
Now this election is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Vs.2. by( in or through) the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
The “election” of God is realized and manifested “IN” their sanctification. Believers are “sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). “Thou must believe and know that thou art holy; not, however, through thine own piety, but through the blood of Christ”, Martin Luther
So we must determine what is sanctification?
Sanctification is the Spirit’s setting apart of the saint as consecrated to God. It is the execution of God’s choice (Gal. 1:4). God the Father gives us salvation by gratuitous election; the Son earns it by His blood-shedding; the Holy Spirit applies the merit of the Son to the soul by the Gospel word as Jesus meant when He said “you are washed by the Word”. We must hear the gospel and respond with repentance and faith to show we have been regenerated and washed by the word. We are sanctified
(this is not all of what sanctification is but it is the germaine idea in this context)
Vs.2 , to obey Jesus Christ
There is no other reason to be set apart by God for God’s purposes.
Paul wrote that we are saved to do the works God has ordained for us.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, NAS95).
Heaven is not our good works it is a benefit of being the elect unto God’s glory.
We are not saved to go to heaven, although we are going to be in the kingdom forever. We go to heaven because we are saved.
So much of our preaching the gospel is result oriented rather than Christ centered.
The purpose of the gospel is for God to call His elect from the corners of the world for His purposes.
And that is revealed in that we are called
unto obedience-the result or end aimed at by God as respects us, is the obedience which consists in faith, and that which flows from faith; as Peter writes “obeying the truth through the Spirit” (1Pe 1:22); as Paul writes, Ro 1:5, “obedience to the faith,” We must show the fruit of faith in our obedience. We are aliens. The language and values and customs and expectations of this world feel foreign to us. Something really radical has happened to us. Peter says in verse 3: God has caused us to be born again to a living hope—for another world, another, greater kind of existence. Paul put it this way: “You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). Jesus called us to live like aliens—to fix our minds on radically different priorities than the nations:
Mt. 5:31 “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ 32 “For all these things the nations eagerly seek (that’s the way people live whose citizenship is here in this world); for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
God will supply your needs in the foreign land of the world if you orient your life on the kingdom of God and his values and purposes and righteousness.
We are aliens. And living like aliens is utterly necessary. O, what a tragedy when an alien falls in love with the world. In Colossians and Philemon Paul called Demas his fellow worker along with Luke and Mark. But in the last letter 2 Timothy, he wrote these terrible words, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” This is a great tragedy when a professing believer throws away his faith and hope in the future world, renounces his citizenship there, and lives for “this present world.”
When professing Christian aliens are absorbed into the world and give up walking by the constitution of the kingdom and give up loving the King and give up pursuing the cravings of the kingdom, then they have no warrant for thinking that they will inherit the kingdom. “They went out from us,” John said (1 John 2:19), “but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” to be cont’d.
