We are Exiles
30 Days in 1st Peter - day 1
Today we begin a 30 day journey through 1st Peter. Peter wrote to real people at a particular moment in history. Yet the truths in this short letter are timeless. Some things never change.
When Peter penned these words he was writing to encourage Christians who were experiencing a difficult period of persecution. He writes to believers scattered by persecution throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia—Christians living as a minority in a hostile culture. He calls them “Pilgrims of the Dispersion.” Other translations use terms like aliens, strangers, sojourners, or exiles.
“Exiles” is the right word. It reaches back into the Old Testament story of Israel carried away from her homeland and brings that imagery forward into New Testament living. That idea is what informs and shapes everything else Peter writes in this letter. It becomes the “bookends” of the epistle. In the closing words Peter writes, “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chose, sends you greetings.” (5:13) Babylon was not just a place on a map. It was a symbol of life under a world system opposed to God.
Peter wasn’t in Babylon. He was in Rome. But theologically and thematically it fits for him to say that. He saw himself and all Christians as exiles. They were all people who were alien residents living in a foreign nation. They have settled, built homes and families and businesses there. They are doing all the things a citizen would do, but it still isn’t their home.
Neither is it ours. We may own property. We may vote. We may plant gardens and build businesses. But we are not home yet.
When life is comfortable and prosperous, we must remind ourselves that this world is not our home. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “Our Father refreshes us with a few pleasant inns on our journey, but He doesn’t want us to mistake them for home.”
When life is tough, it is encouraging to remember this isn’t home. We are pilgrims passing through. This is a temporary residence.
And so, everything else we will read and pray through in this letter is based on that understanding. Everything should be thought of as us being taught how a Christian lives in a world that isn’t his home.
Before Peter gives a single command, he reminds them who they are – chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. Exiles, yes. But not abandoned.
And to such people he says, “Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”
Over the next thirty days, we will learn what it means to live faithfully, courageously, and hopefully as exiles in this world.
