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Honorable Exiles (1 Peter 2:11–12) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. So I want you to imagine waking
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up tomorrow morning and like everything about your normal
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routine, has suddenly become a massive legal liability.
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Oh man, yeah, that is a terrifying thought.
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Right. You walk out your front door and
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your neighbors are just looking at you with this intense
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suspicion. Yeah.
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And then you get to your workplace and your boss
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basically tells you that to keep your jaw, you know, to just keep
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feeding your family, you have to participate in a civic ritual
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that you find absolutely horrifying.
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And if you refuse, you don't just get fired.
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I mean, you get reported to the state as a political traitor.
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Which is just wild to think. About it is And to make matters
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worse, there are rumors circulating that people who
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share your specific beliefs are going to be blamed for a massive
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crisis in the capital city. Yeah.
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And the punishment for that is going to be a public execution.
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So we are taking a deep dive into First Peter today,
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specifically chapter 2, verses 11 and 12.
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That's right. And we are going to look
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straight into the mechanics of what it actually means to be a
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Christian living in a world that has turned totally hostile.
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And it's a heavy topic. It really is.
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So I want to set the tone right out of the gate here.
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We are not doing like a soft therapeutic self improvement
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chat today. Definitely not.
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You are not going to get life hacks for a smoother Tuesday,
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you know. This is a serious, yet
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incredibly hopeful summons to spiritual warfare and public
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integrity. That framing sets up the stakes
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perfectly, honestly, because when you read the historical
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records in the theological analysis of this specific text,
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it becomes immediately apparent that the apostle Peter is
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dealing with a life and death reality.
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Yeah, absolutely. The text places the Christian
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life under a really bright, searching light.
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The people he is writing to are loved by God, but they are
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totally displaced in the world. Right, they don't fit in
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anywhere. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. They are assaulted from within
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by their own temptations, they're watched from the outside
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by critics waiting for them to fail, and they are waiting for
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God to vindicate them in the end.
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Which is a lot to handle all at once.
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It's massive, and Peter does not flatter the early church with
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worldly dreams of ease. He does not promise them that
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their good behavior will make them admired by their Pagan
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neighbors. No, he really doesn't.
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He gives them a holy summons, you know.
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Remember who you are, resist the things that would destroy you,
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and live so visibly upright that hostile eyes are forced to
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reckon with your life. And this passage speaks with
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such massive force to modern Christians, I think, because we
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are often pulled in two opposing directions today.
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Oh, for sure. On one side, you have
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assimilation, where the culture demands you silence your
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convictions and just blend in. Just keep your head down.
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Right. And then on the other side, you
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have resentment where the temptation is to answer slander
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with bitter political retaliation.
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Yeah, fighting fire with fire. And Peter cuts right through
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both of those errors. He allows neither surrender nor
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spite. He really doesn't.
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So before we get into the actual instructions Peter gives, we
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really need to spend some time in the dirt and the grime of the
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1st century. Yeah, we have to establish the
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specific world his original audience inhabited.
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Because that explains why these commands were so urgent.
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So Peter is writing from Rome, but he cryptically refers to it
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as Babylon. Which is a huge signal, right?
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There it is. By calling Rome Babylon, he is
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identifying it as the supreme seat of Pagan hostility.
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Right. He is drawing a Direct Line back
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to the empire that destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the
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Israelites centuries. Early and he is writing to
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believers scattered across the rugged northern provinces of
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Asia Minor, places like Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and
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Bithynia. Really isolated, rugged areas,
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yeah. And the time frame is crucial
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here we are looking at roughly AD 62 to 64.
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So this is right on the edge of the neuronium persecutions.
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Well, yes, precisely. The great fire of Rome is
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looming on the horizon and event the Emperor Nero will soon use
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to scapegoat Christians. Yeah, leading to just horrific
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public tortures. So these people are sitting on a
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historical tinderbox. They're not living in a post
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Christian society, they're living in a pre persecution
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society that is rapidly turning lethal.
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And the social pressure they faced was just staggering.
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It is hard for a modern mind to grasp just how encompassing it
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was. Right, because we think of
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religion so differently now. We really do.
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In the Greco Roman world, religion was not, you know, a
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private weekend activity that you just kept to yourself.
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It was the cement of all civic life.
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It was everywhere. Everywhere, every aspect of
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society, from local markets to the public feasts and especially
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the trade guilds, was interwoven with idolatry and the imperial
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cult. So like the local unions
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basically. Yeah.
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Basically, if you were a blacksmith or a tent maker or a
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merchant, you belong to a collegium, a trade Guild.
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And those guilds had patron deities.
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Oh, wow. Yeah.
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Their meetings involved offering sacrifices to those gods and
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eating meat that have been offered on those altars.
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And that was usually followed by intense drunkenness and
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immorality. So if you are in that
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environment, you cannot participate in the Guild
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meetings you. Cannot you have to opt out?
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But refusing to participate in these things was not viewed as a
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private religious choice, right, or a matter of personal
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conscience. Not at all.
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The Romans did not have a category for the separation of
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church and state. Refusing to honor the gods of
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the city, or refusing to burn a pinch of incense to honor the
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divine genius of the emperor was viewed as political subversion.
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Wow. It was high treason.
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The Romans believed that the peace of the empire, the Pax
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Romana, depended on keeping the gods happy.
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Right. So if you don't do the ritual,
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you're endangering everyone, that is.
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Precisely how they saw it. If the gods got angry, you might
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get an earthquake or a plague or a famine.
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So when Christians refused to participate in the civic
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religion, they were branded as haters of the human race, Which.
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Is such a crazy accusation I. Know but they were seen as an
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actual physical threat to the safety of the city and.
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The rumors about them were wild, too, because they spoke of
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loving their brothers and sisters.
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They were accused of incest, Yeah.
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The pagans just totally misunderstood the concept of
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Christian love and. Because they observed the Lord's
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Supper and spoke of eating the body and drinking the blood of
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Christ, they were literally accused of cannibalism.
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Which makes them sound like some kind of terrifying death cult to
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an outsider. Right.
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So they were marginalized, economically vulnerable and
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legally exposed. Oh.
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Absolutely so. I have to ask you this, if these
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early believers were already facing severe social
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ostracization and total economic ruin just for skipping the local
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temple feasts, wasn't there a massive, terrifying temptation
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to just fake it? Oh man, I mean to just blend in.
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Why not just pinch the incense, mumble something under your
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breath, and keep your business running so your kids do not
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starve that? Tension was the defining
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struggle of their daily lives. The Church faced 2 very
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distinct, very deadly temptations.
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The first was indeed assimilation.
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Just. Go in with the flow, yeah.
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The temptation was to silence the offense of their faith, to
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redefine their convictions so they could fit comfortably into
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the Roman economy, basically training their holy calling for
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social safety and. You can imagine the
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rationalizations, right? Well.
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Completely. People probably thought, well,
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God knows my heart. He knows I don't really mean it
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when I run the incense. I need to do this to provide for
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my family. The second temptation was the
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exact opposite, which is resentment when you were
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constantly slandered. When your livelihood is
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threatened by people who are lying about you, the natural
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human reaction is to lash out you.
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Want to fight back you? Do you want to answer slander
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with bitter angry retaliation? Or alternatively, you withdraw
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entirely into a cynical separatist sect and just hate
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the outside world and. Peter just shuts both of those
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down. He does.
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Peter's letter is a masterful Apostolic strike against both of
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those natural reactions. He tells them they cannot
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assimilate because they belong to a holy Kingdom, but they also
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cannot retaliate because they follow a crucified king who did
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not revile when he was reviled. Wow.
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They had to find a third way, a way of radical, visible holiness
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lived right in the middle of a hostile empire.
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Let's. Talk about the architecture of
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how Peter builds his argument, because the structure of this
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letter is fascinating it. Really is beautifully put
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together, yeah. Understanding the immense
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pressure these believers faced explains why Peter completely
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refuses to start with behavioral rules.
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Right. He doesn't just give him A to do
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list, no. He does not open the letter with
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a list of things to do first. Peter is divided into two
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massive sections. You have the first section
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spanning from chapter 1 through chapter 2 verse 10, which is all
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about what God has done it. Is entirely statements of fact
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about their salvation. Right then, starting in verse
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11, you get the commands. Verses 11 and 12 act as the
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thesis for the entire rest of the book.
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They. Set the stage for everything,
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yeah? Every single command that
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follows, whether Peter's talking about submitting to Pagan
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governors or servants, enduring harsh masters, or how husbands
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and wives should treat each other, it all flows directly out
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of these two verses. And it starts with a very
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specific Greek word, agapatoy, Yes.
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Agapatoy translates to beloved, and that single word is the
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theological bedrock of everything that follows beloved.
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That's so good it. Is Peters does not begin with a
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demand to perform he begins with a declaration of their identity.
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Beloved, this establishes the absolute rule that Christian
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obedience grows exclusively from covenant mercy.
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It's a. Response not a prerequisite.
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Precisely. The believers in Asia Minor are
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not commanded to obey so that they can eventually become a
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holy nation. If you read the preceding
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verses, God has already made them a holy nation through
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sovereign grace. He.
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Already did the work. He did.
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The logic of the text completely refutes moralism.
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If you reverse the order and put the commands before the grace,
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you destroy the gospel entirely. The commands of Scripture are
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always rooted in the facts of redemption, which is.
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So countercultural. Oh, completely.
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The world tells people to create their own identity through their
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actions, through their career, through their success.
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But Peter declares that God has already handed his people their
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identity in Christ, and their actions are simply the fruit of
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that reality. I.
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Think about it like building a skyscraper.
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OK, I like that. You know you cannot put up the
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walls, the ethical commands, the strict rules for living until
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you report a massive concrete base of identity and grace you
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need. The foundation, right?
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If you reverse the order, if you try to hang heavy ethical
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demands on people who do not know they are securely loved by
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God, the entire building collapses.
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It just crumbles. People will either become
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crushed by guilt because they cannot keep the rules and they
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will despair, or they will become arrogant Pharisees
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because they think they are succeeding on their own strength
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and they will look down on everyone else.
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Yeah, that is a really helpful analogy.
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You need that concrete base of beloved before you can bear the
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weight of the commands. Because the commands are heavy.
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They are very heavy. The structural reality of the
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text demands that sequence. Detaching the rules of verses 11
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and 12 from the grace outlined in verses 9 and 10 turns the
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Christian life into a harsh, man made religious treadmill.
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Just constantly running and getting nowhere, right?
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If you read the commands to live honorably and fight sin without
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the preceding declaration that you are a chosen race and a
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royal priesthood, you will view God as a cruel taskmaster.
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Oh. Wow.
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Yeah, but. Because Peter calls them
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beloved. The call to holiness is not the
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lash of a master over condemned criminal, it is the voice of a
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father calling his cherished children to live in a way that
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matches the mercy they have received.
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That changes everything. It does.
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Grace is not opposed to effort. People often get that confused.
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Grace is entirely opposed to earning the effort Peter is
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about to demand is the strenuous effort of people who are already
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safely held by the mercy of God. So.
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Having established that identity comes before behavior, Peter
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gives them two specific identity markers.
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He calls them Sojourners and Exiles.
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Yes. Strangers in the world.
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And these are not just nice poetic metaphors for feeling a
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little out of place at a dinner party, you know?
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No, not. At All the Greek.
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Words used here are highly specific.
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We are looking at Proikoi, which means resident aliens without
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civil franchise, and perepitomoi, which means
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temporary visitors passing through a foreign land those.
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Terms described the actual brutal socio legal vulnerability
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of the believers they were. Real legal categories they.
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Were a paraikos in the Roman Empire, lived in a city but
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possessed no political rights. They could not vote, they could
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be exploited, and they had very little recourse under the law.
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So they were. Totally unprotected, basically.
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Yes, Peter intentionally chooses these words to describe the
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spiritual reality of the Church. This connects directly to Old
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Testament history like. Abraham yes.
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Abraham lived in tents as a stranger in the Land of Promise.
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Israel was exiled in Babylon. Now Peter applies this exact
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Pilgrim identity to the Church. He is telling them that their
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earthly homelessness is the direct, logical result of their
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heavenly citizenship. That makes a lot.
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Of sense they are. Aliens spiritually and
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ethically, because their allegiance belongs to another
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king, they do not draw their values, their hopes, or their
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ultimate security from the Roman Empire.
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Therefore, they will always be strangers to it.
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OK, stop. There 'cause I need to push back
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on this a bit. Sure, go ahead.
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If you. Tell a group of people who are
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already suffering that they are exiles and that this world is
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not their home. Doesn't they give a perfect
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excuse to just check out of society entirely?
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I see where you're going with this, right?
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Like. If I'm a resident alien and
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Babylon is going to burn anyway, why should I care about my city?
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Why not sell my belongings, build a compound in the woods,
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and completely ignore the world around me?
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It's a fair. Question.
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And historically, many groups have chosen the bunker
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mentality, but Peter's theology fiercely guards against that
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kind of separatist despair. OK, how so?
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Well, they are aliens spiritually, yes, but they are
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explicitly commanded to live among the nations.
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They are not instructed to abandon their civic duties, quit
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their jobs, or shun their unbelieving neighbors.
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So they have to. Stay engaged, they do.
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Instead, their identity as exiles functions as a strategic
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deployment. They're stationed on an outpost
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in enemy territory. They are told to maintain
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honorable conduct right in the middle of the Pagan society.
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Wow. An outpost, Yeah.
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They are passing through, but they're passing through as
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ambassadors. Their distinctiveness is meant
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to be visible, not hidden. If they build a bunker, they
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robbed the world of the witness God intended them to be.
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You cannot be a light to the nation's if you hide in a cave
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that. Brings us to a really intense
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point. Because believers are aliens
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walking through a foreign land, they face this intense, violent
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clash. It is a collision between the
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culture of their true home and the corruption that still
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resides within them. It's a 2.
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Front war it really. Is and this brings us to the
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internal battlefield. Peter gives a negative command,
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abstain from fleshly desires. The verb here is a pichestai,
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yes, and it does not mean a one time decision it means a
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continuous lifelong habit of holding oneself back.
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And the reason Peter gives for this constant abstinence is that
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these desires wage war against the soul.
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The. Vocabulary Peter uses here is
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utterly uncompromising. He uses the military verb
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stratuhantai, which is a heavy. Word it is.
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In ancient Greek and Roman histories, this specific word
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was used to describe a disciplined Roman legion
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marching out to conquer territory.
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It implies organization, strategy, and lethal intent.
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So it's. Not a casual skirmish, not at
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all. Peter personifies fleshly
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desires, things like pride, greed, envy, lust, deceit and
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bitterness. As hostile military forces.
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They are not passive, neutral impulses waiting to be
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channeled. Great.
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They are an organized, highly trained army laying siege to the
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believer's communion with God. They aim to destroy a person's
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spiritual peace, their usefulness to the Kingdom, and
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their assurance of salvation. You know this.
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View of sin is so yarring when you compare it to how we talk
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about our flaws today. It really.
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Is night and day because. Modern therapeutic trends have
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completely softened the concept of sin.
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We use words like brokenness or immaturity or blind spots.
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Yeah, we make it. Sound harmless?
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We. Do those concepts might describe
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parts of the human experience, but they are far too weak for
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what Peter is describing here. This text demands the active
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daily mortification of sin. It absolutely.
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Does it totally. Refutes this passive mysticism
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where you just sit back and hope God eventually removes your bad
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habit. The contrast.
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Is massive. A culture that tells people to
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simply obey their desires or to express their authentic selves
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without restraint is preaching spiritual suicide.
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Peter unmasks the enemy. If sin is an invading army, you
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do not negotiate with it, you do not try to moderate it.
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You put it to death. You have to.
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Be ruthless, you do. The believer must refuse what
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kills the soul. Sanctification is a painful,
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rigorous process of saying no to the desires of the flesh, day in
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and day out, fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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You cannot tame the flesh, you can only starve it.
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I always think about this like a sniper.
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Oh, that's. A good picture we.
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Tend to view our temptations as random annoying mosquitoes
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buzzing around our heads. We swat at them when they get
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too close, but we don't really view them as a lethal threat
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right they're. Just an annoyance, but Peter.
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Saying this is a coordinated siege.
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You wouldn't invite an enemy sniper into your living room,
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offer him coffee, and ask him to make himself comfortable on your
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couch. No, you would.
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Call the police or run. Exactly.
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So why do we pet and coddle our own sins?
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Why do we entertain pride or nurse a grudge, treating them
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like harmless houseguests when their stated goal is to
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assassinate our souls? Coddling.
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A specific sin because it feels natural or comforting is
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practically identical to harboring an assassin That's a.
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Scary, thought it. Should be the believer who makes
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peace with his lusts or his greed is feeding soldiers sent
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to burn his own city. The inward warfare is non
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negotiable because winning that internal war is the absolute
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prerequisite for the outward mission.
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The 2. Are connected deeply.
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Connected. You cannot have public integrity
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if you are privately surrendering to the enemy.
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This leads directly into the second-half of Peter's
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instruction. The private warfare exists so
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that the public witness can be unassailable, which brings.
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Us to the public apologetic. Yeah, Peter transitions to the
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positive command, keeping your conduct honorable among the
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nations. He makes it clear that the
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pagans are watching. There is a Greek participle used
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here at Papdoentes which doesn't just mean a casual glance as
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someone walks by, no. It implies scrutiny, right it?
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Means to inspect closely and critically over a long period of
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time. The people in the Roman Empire
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who hated these Christians were watching their every move,
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waiting for them to slip up. It is a.
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Fascinating linguistic choice. In Greek, there are two distinct
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words for good. OK, let's.
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Look at that there. Is Agathos, which refers to a
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hidden intrinsic moral goodness. And then there's Kalos, which
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refers to a goodness that is visually compelling, attractive,
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and undeniable in its beauty. And Peter?
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Uses Kalos he. Deliberately uses Kalos.
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The hostile Pagan world is completely blind to the hidden
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spiritual goodness of a believer's heart.
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They cannot see your private prayer life or your Orthodox
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theology. They don't care.
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About your quiet time, they do. Not care at all, but they are
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absolutely forced to observe the outward, undeniable beauty of
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your conduct. They see how a Christian works
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diligently, how they honor their marriage vows, how they refuse
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to cheat their customers, and how they handle suffering
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without lashing out. I hear.
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What you're saying, but what does this actually mean for
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dealing with unfair accusations today that.
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Is the big question because we. Live in the time where believers
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are frequently slandered as bigots or evil doers just for
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holding to historic Christian ethics.
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When those accusations fly, are we supposed to just take it
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quietly and hope they eventually notice we are nice people?
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It's. Frustrating, I know it is.
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Because just being polite does not seem to stop anyone from
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trying to destroy your reputation.
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Well, it. Is not about being nice.
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Politeness is often just a social convention used to avoid
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friction. Peter is calling for moral
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unassailability. Unassailability.
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That's a strong word, it is. The Christian response to
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slander is not APR campaign. It is not an angry political
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retaliation where we try to out shout our opponents on social
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media. It is an unshakable pattern of
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honesty at work. Sacrificial love at home and
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quiet dignity in the face of insults, which is.
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Incredibly hard to do. It's the.
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Hardest thing in the world when the pagans slandered the early
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Christians as evil doers. The believers didn't hire
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lawyers to sue the Roman Empire. They lived lives of such
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stunning moral beauty that the slander was proven objectively
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false to anyone who was paying attention.
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The conduct of the church is meant to be a living, breathing
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apologetic that leaves the critic entirely without
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legitimate ammunition. If they are going to beat you,
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make sure they have to invent lies to do do it because your
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actual life gives them nothing to use living.
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That way, maintaining that kind of visually compelling goodness
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while people are lying about you and trying to ruin your life
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requires massive motivation. It takes.
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Superhuman strength. Honestly, it does.
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And that brings us to the absolute goal, the why behind
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this exhausting way of life. Peter gives a purpose clause so
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that they may see your good works and glorify God in the
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day. Visitation yes, the end goal of
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Christian ethics isn't just to have a smooth society or a good
22:01
reputation. It is aimed entirely at making
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God look glorious. The term.
22:06
Day of Visitation, which translates the Old Testament
22:09
concept of pakuta, is incredibly heavy with meaning Let's.
22:13
Unpack that it carries. Two historical meanings, and
22:15
Peter likely has both in mind here, given his focus on the end
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of all things. First, God drawing near and
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saving grace. This means that a Pagan neighbor
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watches a Christian endure suffering with grace, is cut to
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the heart, hears the gospel, and is converted.
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That former slanderer now glorifies God.
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That is an. Amazing thought it is.
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The best case scenario, but the second meaning is God drawing
22:38
near in final judgement on the last day.
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The hospital enemy who refused to repent will be forced to look
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at the undeniable good works of the believers they persecuted
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and acknowledge that God is just so.
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Either way, God gets the glory. Exactly.
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Either way, through salvation or through judgement, God receives
22:58
the glory. But.
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You know, it sounds like Peter is asking them to play a very
23:02
long game. The.
23:02
Longest game, isn't it? Incredibly difficult to tell
23:05
someone who is currently losing their livelihood or being
23:09
alienated from their family or having their reputation shredded
23:11
over their faith to just wait for the day of visitation.
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Oh, it's. Agonizing that feels.
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Like asking someone to hold their breath for a lifetime.
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It is. An agonizing reality, the text
23:20
does not minimize the intense difficulty of suffering unjustly
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however, this absolute certainty that God will balance the scales
23:28
and reveal the truth in the end is the only anchor that actually
23:32
holds in a storm because. If you demand vindication right
23:35
now, right? If you demand it in the present
23:37
age, you will become bitter, compromised or exhausted.
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You will start using the weapons of the world to fight your
23:44
battles, which. Defeats the whole purpose it
23:47
does. Knowing that the day of
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visitation is coming frees you from desperation.
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You do not have to win every earthly argument today.
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You do not have to clear your name in the court of public
23:56
opinion. You can just.
23:57
Rest you can. Rest knowing that God has the
24:00
final word, it gives the believer the stamina to endorse
24:03
suffering without reaching for the weapons of the flesh and.
24:06
Playing this long game is only possible because someone else
24:10
already played it perfectly. The entire text hinges on the
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person of Christ. Everything.
24:15
Points to him Christ. Perfectly fulfills this Pilgrim
24:19
identity we've been talking about.
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He left the heights of heaven to enter a completely hostile
24:24
world, living as a true exile with no place to lay his head.
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The ultimate. Sojourner, Yeah.
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And he is the supreme, flawless example of honorable conduct.
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Amid horrific slander, he was called a glutton, A drunkard, A
24:38
blasphemer, and a rebel. Yet his life was an absolute
24:41
visual masterpiece of holiness. This.
24:44
Is the theological core of the whole matter.
24:47
If we view Christ simply as our example, we are left in absolute
24:50
despair. Because we can't match it,
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right? None.
24:53
Of us can perfectly replicate his life.
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We fail at the internal warfare. We fail at the public conduct.
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But Christ isn't just an example, He is a substitute that
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changes. The whole picture it really.
25:05
Does later in the exact same chapter in first Peter 224,
25:10
Peter writes that Christ bore our sins in His body on the
25:13
tree. Christ bore the wrath of God for
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our unfaithfulness as pilgrims. He paid the penalty for every
25:20
time we yielded to the fleshly desires that wage war against
25:23
our souls. And through our union with
25:25
Christ, His Spirit empowers the believer to actually put sin to
25:29
death. We do not fight in our own
25:31
strength. We fight with the life giving
25:32
grace of the risen Lord operating within us.
25:35
If this. Text was just A to do list, you
25:37
know. Abstain from this act perfectly
25:39
here. Endure slander there.
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It would be crushing. It would be.
25:42
Impossible, but. Because of Christ, this isn't a
25:45
ladder we desperately try to climb to reach God.
25:47
It is the viable fruit of God already reaching down to us.
25:51
The. Doctrine of imputed
25:53
righteousness, The reality that Christ's perfect record is
25:57
credited to us by faith is the supreme safeguard for the church
26:02
it protects. Us on both sides it.
26:03
Does it guards against the pride of legalism, where we think we
26:07
are earning our salvation through our honorable conduct,
26:10
but it equally guards against the laziness of using grace as a
26:13
license to indulge our fleshly desires because.
26:17
He died for those desires, yes. Because we are united to the
26:21
Savior who died for sin, we must die to sin.
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The gospel provides both the pardon for our failures and the
26:26
strength for our ongoing warfare.
26:29
You are forgiven completely, which gives you the courage to
26:31
wake up and fight the battle again tomorrow.
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Bringing. This ancient Roman context
26:35
squarely into the modern era. It is amazing how Peter's
26:38
military summons completely collides with a lot of modern
26:41
church models. It really.
26:42
Clashes when you look at the. Landscape today you see so much
26:45
pragmatism. This text specifically rebukes
26:48
modern evangelical pragmatism like the seeker sensitive model,
26:51
which are so. Common.
26:52
Very. Common These are models that try
26:54
to win the world by looking, sounding, and acting as much
26:57
like the world as possible trying to.
26:58
Blend in exactly. And it also stands against the
27:01
prosperity gospel, which promises a comfortable earthly
27:04
Kingdom of health and wealth, directly contradicting the
27:08
biblical reality of exile and warfare.
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The underlying assumption of pragmatic church models is that
27:15
the world is won through relevance by erasing the
27:17
friction between the church and the culture, making it smooth.
27:20
Right. The thought process is well, if
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we just play the same music, use the same slang and adopt the
27:26
same social causes, people will like us and then they will
27:29
listen to our message. But Peter?
27:31
Says the opposite he does. Peter's entire argument rests on
27:35
the premise that the world is not won by relevance, it is won
27:38
by radical difference. Erasing the distinctiveness of
27:41
the church to avoid social friction destroys the very
27:45
witness Peter is commanding. Because if.
27:47
There's no difference. There's nothing to see.
27:49
Precisely if the Church looks, sounds, and desires the exact
27:53
same things the Pagan world desires, why would the Pagan
27:57
world ever look at the Church and glorify God in the day of
27:59
visitation? The beauty of the Christian
28:02
witness is its stark contrast to the darkness of the present age
28:06
we hear. So much chatter today about
28:08
changing the culture or reclaiming the culture.
28:11
People build massive campaigns around it.
28:13
Does Peter actually care about us taking over the culture or is
28:16
that a modern invention? Peter's.
28:19
Model is absolutely not cultural dominion in the present age, OK.
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Clarify that the church. Does not exist to domesticate
28:25
itself within a doomed world system, nor is it promised
28:28
cultural supremacy before the return of Christ.
28:31
The impact of vibrant, holy church has on a surrounding
28:33
culture is a secondary byproduct of radical holiness.
28:36
Not the primary goal. The goal?
28:38
Is faithfulness our? Goal is to glorify God and
28:41
maintain our Pilgrim identity. When we obsess over taking over
28:45
the culture, we often end up compromising our ethics to
28:48
achieve political or social victories which we see.
28:50
All the time. We really.
28:52
Do Peter calls us to be an outpost of the Kingdom of
28:55
heaven, shining brightly in the darkness, faithfully calling
28:58
individuals to repent and believe the gospel rather than
29:01
trying to seize the levers of cultural power.
29:04
The moment the church decides its main job is to run the
29:07
empire, it stops acting like an exile and starts acting like
29:11
Babylon that brings. Us to the core tension of
29:13
everything we have discussed today.
29:15
If you are listening to this, your identity is suspended in
29:19
this incredible reality. You are intensely loved by God,
29:23
yet permanently displaced in this world.
29:26
It's a. Paradox it is.
29:27
You are completely secure in grace, yet called to a bloody
29:31
daily internal war against sin. You are waiting for a homeland
29:34
you have not yet seen, while living honorably among people
29:37
who may misunderstand or even hate you.
29:39
And that. Tension is precisely where faith
29:41
becomes real. It is the place where the
29:43
abstract doctrines of grace meet the concrete realities of
29:46
suffering and temptation. It's where the.
29:48
Rubber meets the road for sure. To live as a beloved exile is to
29:52
walk a path that requires immense courage sustained by an
29:55
even greater hope. You cannot fake this kind of
29:58
life. It requires A genuine reliance
30:00
on the Spirit of God every single hour which leaves.
30:04
Us with the final thought to Mull over.
30:06
What if the friction you feel with the culture around you, the
30:09
discomfort, the misunderstandings, the sense
30:12
that you just do not fit in with the priorities of the present
30:15
age? What if that isn't a sign that
30:17
something has gone wrong in your life?
30:19
Wow. What if that friction is the
30:20
absolute ironclad proof that you belong to another Kingdom?
30:24
The next time you find yourself facing the hostility of the
30:26
world or the lethal sniper of your own sin, remember your true
30:30
citizenship. The war is real, the stakes are
30:33
high, but the victory of your king is already assured.