1 Peter: Living Faithfully in a Hostile World

The Context of 1 Peter

Thirty years after Jesus's crucifixion, Rome was in chaos due to a fire that destroyed 10 of 14 districts.
Emperor Nero, facing social pressure, blamed Christians for the fire.
Tacitus, a Roman historian, described the severe persecution of Christians: being killed by dogs, nailed to crosses, set aflame, and used as nighttime lamps in Nero's gardens.
Peter wrote 1 Peter from Rome to followers of Jesus in modern Turkey, who were experiencing hostility and feared the persecution in Rome would reach them.

Responding to Hostility and Emptiness

The audience questioned how to respond to persecution: withdraw into isolation, renounce faith, or embrace violent resistance.
Although modern America isn't under the same persecution level, there's a growing negative or post-Christian culture.
Examples of this hostility include mockery of faith by coworkers, uncomfortable college environments, and negative media portrayals.
The world is seen as fundamentally broken, with people pursuing empty things for purpose and meaning.
Peter refers to this as an "empty life inherited from your ancestors," which can be translated as useless or without purpose.
Examples of this emptiness include wild Roman parties, debauchery, sexual exploitation, and the pursuit of status and wealth at any cost. Current-day examples are careerism, materialism, prioritizing careers over family, pursuits in sexuality, placing all of our hope in politics, or pleasure chasing.
This is compounded by rising levels of depression related to a lack of community, with the US surgeon general calling it a loneliness epidemic in 2023.
Followers of Jesus have been set free into the life of freedom, hope, and healing that the world is in desperate search of.
Persecution offers a beautiful opportunity for our light to shine and point to the beauty found in life with Jesus.
There's a temptation to compromise, to avoid being seen as weird, or to retreat into Christian bubbles, or to engage in angry resistance.
1 Peter invites us to consider the most faithful way to respond and how to live faithfully in the tension of an empty culture growing increasingly hostile towards the faith.

Identity Shaping Behavior

It would be tempting to seek a list of "do's and don'ts," but mere obedience is a poor shaper of heart and identity.
Peter starts by reminding them of their identity as chosen exiles with hope and an inheritance in Jesus and eternity.
$99.9\%$ of the time, behavior flows out of identity—how we live and our daily habits flow from how we see ourselves and the world.
Bob Russell said, "A person cannot consistently live in a manner that is inconsistent with how they perceive themselves."
Kyle Idleman says, "If you know who you are, you'll know what to do."
Instilling identity is vital, teaching children what it means to belong (e.g., being a Cook means loving Jesus and people like Jesus).

Living as God's Obedient Children

Peter gives insight into faithful living by providing identity starting in 1 Peter 1:13.
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action." The original Greek conveys the image of someone tucking their robes into their belt to run faster or work more efficiently. Peter's saying to get ready to live faithfully.
Peter is going to take a different approach in describing our calling, he says to "live as God's obedient children". (1 Peter 1:14)
These are people rejected by their families, waking up every day with the fear of being arrested due to their faith being reminded that they are God's sons and daughters.
Peter reminds them of a deeper reality in the love and connection to their heavenly father that cannot be touched by fire, Nero, or anything worldly.
God claimed them as his own and adopted them into his family through Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.
God wants to restore his family, which was created in the beginning but rejected then. Now, through Jesus, he's bringing the family back together.
Some may have reduced life with Jesus to a list of do's and don'ts; however, we are brought into a family.
We encourage each other and lean on each other while being molded by the Holy Spirit to be who God created us to be.
For some, grasping God as our father is a challenge due to experiences of abuse, neglect, abandonment, or disappointment.
This pain is valid, and God sees and cares. Peter invites us to see God as our father: the ultimate standard of fatherhood defined by unfailing love and consistent presence, who leaves the 99 to chase after one, who protects them and welcomes the prodigal home.
We are God’s sons and daughters. It is a challenge to begin recognizing more and more what it means to call God our father.
God wants a relationship with you and wants to sit with you and hear about your day. He cries alongside you when you are crying.
Families begin to resemble each other; the fullness of life comes from being formed as part of God's family.

Modeling Life in God's Family

Peter will show us, as we are molded by the Holy Spirit, three ways in which we model life in the family of God to a hostile and empty world: Tell the family story, model the family character, and living with a family heart.

Telling the Family Story

Peter gives snapshots and glimpses into the Old Testament, reminding his audience of the story of God's redemption through Israel.
He connects them to this story, especially the Gentile converts, stating that this story of redemption is now their story and they have been grafted into it.
Knowing our family story roots us in identity and informs us of our purpose, telling us where we've come from and where we're going, and reminding us that we're a part of something bigger.
Verses with examples of Old Testament connections:
- 1 Peter 1:13
- 1 Peter 1:15-16
- 1 Peter 1:17-21
- 1 Peter 1:18-19
- 1 Peter 1:20
Just like old family photos, God's story in a way speaks to us and reveals things about us.
As God’s children, Peter calls us to cling to our family story that started in the garden and culminated in Jesus.
Even if you feel like God does not know/understands your story, Peter says that you as God's sons and daughters does not have to be defined by the things of your past.
You through Jesus, are defined by the story of our God moving heaven and earth to rescue you and adopt you into his family.
We tell the family story by being honest about how God has changed your life, showing how he's provided peace, hope, healing, or forgiveness.

Modeling the Family Character

We must model the family character. Look at verses 14-16: he says don’t slip back into your old ways of living. They would be tempted to return to the simpler, pain-free old way of life.
Peter says, "Why in the world would you do that? You've been rescued from that old life."
Instead, be holy in everything you do and be set apart to reflect our father's character, which happens through relationship, not through rule books.
The word holy means to be set apart or distinct, not merely for the sake of being different, but because we are set apart for a purpose.
Mold us to resemble who we already are: the sons and daughters of God. It looks like someone putting others before themselves and celebrating others.
Also that in a pleasure-driven society, being patient and not driven by impulse. You are molded more and more in the family character of self control.
And it includes being known as consistently showing up, keeping promises, and speaking the truth in love, demonstrating the family character of faithfulness.
This distinctiveness sets us apart and prompts the world to ask, "What makes them different?"
Even in the face of persecution, this also creates the opportunity for the power for us to shine the light of a different/better life with Jesus
The kingdom of God can advance more forcefully when it is not also carrying the mantle of power, since it is hard to communicate core elements of the kingdom (loving, serving, grace, forgiveness, sacrifice, generosity) residing in places of power.
Being a Christian means that if all of a sudden the Christian somebody is torturing starts praying for them; they are singing hymns; someone chooses to uphold the subject of office gossip.
The call to holiness is about family resemblance and resembling more and more who we are as sons and daughters of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Living with the Family Heart

Peter provides a third way to model full life in God’s family with the family heart, with God-centered love for others.
It doesn't mean self-righteousness. The best is with reading verses 21-22 here and look at what's happening.
With the truth of who God is and who we are through him, the truth leads to our hearts being able to love with sincerity.
It all starts with truth, who God is and ultimately who we are through him, that truth leads this idea of cleansing. And that we have these hearts that are able to love with sincerity.
The it leads us to humble love that is expressed deeply, or this idea that with all of our hearts it is worth straining in intensity and it will cost comfort/preferences.
In an empty world, full life in God's family has to have something with a God-centered love for others. And it starts with love for each other in the church.
Finding ways to love the poor and the marginalized, take care of abandoned children, and even love those persecuting them.
This love breaks through divisions and crosses all socioeconomic and political barriers.
Emperor Julian wrote, "It’s the Christians benevolence to strangers that has done the most to increase… Christianity”.
And so how do we then live faithfully with tension and embody what it means to be family members in God’s family?
We love with the family heart. And loving with the family heart is about modeling the ways of life of the love of our God who sacrificed for the sake of his creation.

Putting Hope in Gracious Salvation

But doesn't mean that we compromise on the truth and that we love with grace and humility, not bitterness or retaliation or withdrawl.
Peter begins all his holiness and family talk with verse 13: "Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world."
The word revealed comes from the Greek word apocalypse. Apocalypse: a veil being pulled back so that we can see reality that was always there.
What is actually reality is now revealed for all to see; the heavens are going to be torn open, and every eye will see.
Remembering what is already there and one day we will know that the best news that we can ever get is that someone is Lord and we are invited to be children of this reality.
The heaven's are ultimately going to be torn open and every eye is going to see, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and King of the universe.
We live every day to point a broken world to that reality, they can’t see that because it is real and one day everyone will know.
Remember, God wants us to be a part of the family building process.
This week, consider:
- Telling the family story: Having a conversation about what God has done in your life.
- Modeling the family character: Assessing where your heart or actions are misaligned with Jesus and asking the Holy Spirit to work on it.
- Loving with the family heart: Being willing to do the harder thing, extending forgiveness, or reaching out to someone, even if it feels awkward.
If you're not a follower of Jesus, today could be the day to step from the emptiness into the fullness of life as a family member through Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.
The God of the universe loves you and is ready to adopt you into his family.