Living in exile

My reading this week is First Peter. An epistle I’m drawn to. Often. 

Perhaps because it addresses those living in exile. Aliens. Temporary residents in foreign lands. 

These are pockets of believers living out the gospel away from their passport country. 

Away from large gatherings of the Body of Christ.

Living as exiles

I’ve never been displaced or dispersed but I’ve lived in the temporary place. A stranger in a foreign land. Carrying my American passport but residing as a guest in another country.

As followers of Christ, this is us. We are living out the gospel in a world that is not our home. It’s a temporary stay in light of eternity.

At times it’s a lonely place. 

But Peter uses a word that anchors and comforts us in our sojourn. Chosen. 

We are chosen 

“To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad…chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:1-2 CSB).

His greeting covers the work of the Trinity in bringing us salvation. God the Father choosing us long before we were conceived. The Spirit’s ongoing work of sanctifying the chosen ones. The blood shed by Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, calling us to obedience. 

Peter

Peter writes this theological greeting. 

Peter, the ordinary fisherman. Uneducated and untrained. The one who didn’t always think before he spoke. But got it right when he said, ever so plainly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” (Matthew 16:16 ESV). 

Peter, who failed and denied the Lord, then encountered his Master as the risen Christ. And at Pentecost was transformed and empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Chosen.

He surprised the Jewish leaders when they heard him speak after his arrest in Acts 4. Acts 4:13 says, “When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize that they had been with Jesus.”

This Peter boldly and powerfully communicates the gospel in speech and letter.

Salvation and suffering

I’m drawn to Peter’s descriptions of salvation in this epistle. Of living out who we are in Christ. 

And his words about suffering.

This was a month of hearing stories of persecution from across the world. Some broadcast in press releases and news reports. Others quietly told, away from media fanfare. About those suffering rejection and loss and death threats because of their faith. 

Brothers and sisters in the Lord. Temporary residents in this world. 

Draw near to Christ

And it is good, as we hear about and pray for these chosen ones in their suffering, to draw near to Christ and keep our eyes on His truth. 

Truth spoken through His word in 1 Peter.

“Dear friends,” Peter writes, “don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when His glory is revealed. If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:12-14 CSB).

Do not be surprised, friends. This is not unusual.

Therefore, living in exile, walking in the temporary, we pray and rejoice. And anticipate the revealing of His glory. Someday.

Alleluia.

Related post: Temporary nest ; Tents and altars