God created us through regeneration and this is not of our doing. He has made us new beings and gathered us together in Messiah Jesus—to be to His glory.  He has called us into His marvelous light to be what He has made us.  

 In his first epistle, Peter reminds citizens of  the kingdom of their/our calling.  He wrote to citizens of the kingdom of God who were living under the tyranny and persecution of the kingdom of Rome. The government considered those who followed Messiah Jesus to be troublemakers and treated them accordingly. This attitude was picked up and spread through the populous. Pagans in the world today have a similar attitude toward us.

Eventually, they were used for entertainment as gladiators and savaged by lions in the arena. In 64 A.D., Nero had Paul executed. He blamed the huge fire in Rome on the Messianic Jews, ordered their persecution and eventually had them deported.  

Peter addressed this letter to believers who came to Jesus through the gospel of the kingdom Paul had proclaimed to them.  Paul planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6). Peter encouraged these saints. 

• To the chosen people living scattered as strangers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia, chosen long ago by God the Father to be made holy by the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: God give you more and more grace and peace!  1 Peter 1:1-2 AAT 

He called them people living as strangers; urged them to live reverently as strangers here (1 Peter 1:17), and consider themselves aliens and strangers in this world (1 Peter 2:11).

Aliens have a home country other than the one were they live. We, too, are aliens in this world; like Abraham, we look for the world to come as our eternal home.  “For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10 RSV). “But according to His promise we expect new heavens and a new earth where righteousness lives” (2 Peter 3:13).  

Next, Peter blessed God. Jews didn’t stop at “Bless God” and “We bless You Lord.” They always explained what for.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5 AAT 

Those few words sum up our new creature identity and future in Messiah Jesus.   Peter explains how this encourages us to live; to be what God has made us.  God has birthed us into His kingdom. The inheritance stored up for us is His kingdom that is to come, God with us on the new earth. Hope for life in the world to come gives us courage and endurance when our faith is tested with suffering.   

Rejoice while suffering. We rejoice over God’s current and future blessings even while suffering so the genuineness of our faith is shown to be more precious than gold. This is how we will have praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ when He returns to earth at the regeneration.  Focusing attention on God’s kingdom to come, Peter writes,

• This delights you, although now for a little while you may have had to suffer various trials. Gold is tested by fire, and your faith, when it is tested, should be found to be much more precious than gold, which perishes. This is how you will have praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ appears again.
• You never saw Him, but you love Him. You don’t see Him now, but you believe in Him. And a joy, unspeakable and wonderful, fills you with delight as you get what by faith you’re looking for—your salvation.
• The prophets, who long ago wrote about what God’s grace would do for you, made a thorough search to learn all about this salvation. They tried to find out whom and what time the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing out when He exactly predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. God told them they were not serving themselves but you in these things. And now the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, had men, telling you the good news, announce to you these things the angels long to look into. 1 Peter 1:6-12 AAT

Living for the Lord often brings suffering. Some of the saints in the world today endure tyranny, persecution and death for following Messiah Jesus.  One of these observed that God rescues some from continuous suffering at the hands of others through death.  

In our Western Culture, persecution is not yet unto death. It is a covert, subtle, politically correct, insidious, ongoing form of persecution by pagans. In the 20th Century, they succeeded in establishing paganism as the Western world view. Howard Lindsell called the alarm in The New Paganism, 1987. He was the editor of Christianity Today magazine 1969-1978 and lived from 1913-1998. His book documents the fact that Western culture today is dominated by paganism. He attributes the success of paganism to the Enlightenment and traces its influence from the 18th century.  

“The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals, and a strong belief in rationality and science” (Wikipedia). In other words, man elevated his own reason above God and the Bible. Jesus brought grace and truth. The Enlightenment brought values, the return to paganism. Pagans determine what is right in their own eyes. The enlightened are as hostile to followers of Messiah Jesus as the pagans of the first century.  

Be holy. Peter didn’t linger on the hostility and persecution. Rather, he urged, “Be holy.” In view of our salvation, we are to live on this earth being perfectly sure of God’s blessing of life in the world to come.  We are to be holy in all our ways and live reverently because we are freed from legalism by the precious blood of Christ.  Through Him we believe God, who resurrected and glorified Him. So our faith and hope are in God. We are to love one another, recognizing we have been born again by God’s ever-living Word.  

• Now, then, get mentally ready for action, keep a clear head, and feel perfectly sure of what God’s love will give you when Jesus Christ appears. Being children who know how to obey, don’t live according to your lusts as you once did when you didn’t know any better. But get to be holy in all your ways, like the Holy One who called you. It is written: Be holy, because I am holy. And if you call on Him as your Father, who judges each one according to what he has done, without preferring one to another, live reverently as long as you are strangers here, knowing you were freed from the worthless life you inherited from your fathers (the performance based Scribes and Pharisees), not by a payment of silver or gold, which perish, but by the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without a fault or a spot. Appointed before the world was made, He was revealed in the last period of time to help you. And through Him you believe God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory; and so your faith and hope rest in God.
•  Now that by obeying the truth you purified yourselves to love sincerely as brothers, love one another with a pure heart and intensely. You were born again, not by a seed that perishes but one that cannot perish, God’s ever-living Word. 
  • All people are like grass,
  • and all their glory like the flower in the grass.
  • The grass withers,
  • and the flower drops off,
  • but the Lord’s Word lives forever.
•    This Word is the good news you have been told. 1 Peter 1:13-25 AAT

Be holy priests. Peter continues to build on the theme of being what God has made us and the kingdom He has in store for us on the new earth.  God gives us the perspective of eternity, the kingdom worldview.  “You were born again, not by a seed that perishes but one that cannot perish, God’s ever-living Word.”   

• Then get rid of every kind of wickedness and deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander, and like newborn babies, thirst for the pure milk of the Word so that you’ll grow till you’re saved. Surely you have tasted that the Lord is good. 
• Come to Him. He is the living Stone whom men rejected but God selected as precious. And let yourselves be built as living stones into a spiritual temple, to be holy priests who bring spiritual sacrifices that God gladly accepts through Jesus Christ.
• The Bible says: I am laying in Zion a Cornerstone, chosen and precious, and if you believe in Him, you’ll never be disappointed. He is precious to you who believe, but to those who do not believe He is the Stone which, rejected by the builders, has become the Cornerstone, a Stone they stumble over and a Rock they fall over. When they disobey the Word, they stumble over it: that’s the end appointed for them. 1 Peter 2:1-9 AAT 

Let’s consider this a piece at a time. “Then get rid of every kind of wickedness and deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander, and like newborn babies, thirst for the pure milk of the Word so that you’ll grow till you’re saved. Surely you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  

We live in a world where pagan values are big enough to accommodate wickedness and deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander. As God’s people we rid ourselves of such things.  

“Thirst for the pure milk of the Word so that you’ll grow till you’re saved.” Yes, we are saved the moment we turn to Jesus as our Savior. God our Father, “rescued us from the tyranny of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, who paid the ransom to fogive our sins and set us free” (Colossians 1:13). But we will be saved. When Jesus returns and brings forth the regeneration of all things, we will be given a glorified eternal body and live with God and the Lamb in the New Jerusalem on the new earth. “He will wipe every tear form their eyes. There will be no more death, and there will be no more grief or crying or pain, because the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).  

We have tasted that the Lord is good so we come to Him. “Come to Him. He is the living Stone whom men rejected but God selected as precious. And let yourselves be built as living stones into a spiritual temple, to be holy priests who bring spiritual sacrifices that God gladly accepts through Jesus Christ.”  

We come to Him. He builds us as living stones into a spiritual temple, to be holy priests in the kingdom. “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ ” (Ephesians 4:13-15 RSV).  

God calls us to let ourselves be built as living stones into a spiritual temple, to be holy priests. He does not call us to build ourselves. God is the builder (Hebrews 3:4; 8:2). He builds us, “to be holy priests who bring spiritual sacrifices that God gladly accepts through Jesus Christ.”  Jesus is our High Priest. He is our example of new covenant priesthood and sacrifice. He sacrificed Himself.

• Here is the High Priest we need—holy, innocent, spotless, separated from sinners, and risen higher than the heavens, who doesn’t need to bring sacrifices every day like those high priests, first for His own sins, then for the sins of the people. He did this only once when He sacrificed Himself. The Law appointed weak men to be high priests, but when God speaks with an oath later than the Law, He appoints the Son, who was made perfect forever.
• Now, this is my main point. We have such a High Priest and He sat down at the right of the throne of the Majesty in heaven to serve as priest in the holy place and in the real tabernacle set up by the Lord and not by men. As every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, this One too had to bring some sacrifice.
• If He were on earth, He wouldn’t even be a priest, because there are priests who offer the gifts demanded by the Law. They serve a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven, as God told Moses when he was going to make the tabernacle: “Be careful to make all of it like the pattern you were shown on the mountain.”
• …
• But Christ came as a High Priest of the good things that have come: He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands (that is, not a part of our created world). And He didn’t use the blood of goats and calves but through His own blood He entered only once into the Holy of Holies and paid a price that frees us forever. Now, sprinkling the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a calf on unclean people makes them outwardly holy and clean. How much more will the blood of Christ, who by His everlasting spirit offered Himself without a spot to God, wash our consciences clean from dead works to serve the living God?
• And He is the Mediator of a new covenant. By dying He paid the ransom to free people from the sins under the first covenant, and those who are called are to get the everlasting inheritance promised them. Hebrews 7:26-8:5; 9:11-15. 

There, God’s Word shows the animal sacrifices of the old covenant are dead works. Those sacrifices made people outwardly clean and holy. But, they still had a guilty conscience so the sacrifices went on and on.  

Messiah Jesus made one perfect everlasting sacrifice. “And He didn’t use the blood of goats and calves but through His own blood He entered only once into the Holy of Holies and paid a price that frees us forever.” …  

“How much more will the blood of Christ, who by His everlasting spirit offered Himself without a spot to God, wash our consciences clean from dead works to serve the living God?”   

Holy priests “bring spiritual sacrifices that God gladly accepts through Jesus Christ.”  The primary spiritual sacrifice we bring is our living bodies, our being. 

• O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  
• For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 
• Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
• For of him, and through him, and to him, [are] all things: to whom [be] glory for ever. Amen.I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Romans 11:33-35-12:2 KJV
• The high priest brings the blood of animals into the holy place for sin, but the bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus suffered outside the gate to make the people holy by His own blood. Then let us go out to join Him outside the camp and bear the abuse He suffered. You see, we don’t have a permanent city here but look for the one that’s coming. Through Jesus let us always bring to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, praising His name. And don’t forget to do good and to share, such sacrifices please God. Hebrews 13:11-16 AAT 

Be noble people, priests of a King. God has called us to be what He has made us by living a noble life among the people of the world. Peter affirms what God has made us and how God wants us to see ourselves. This is what God has made us to be.

• But you are a chosen people, priests of a King, a holy nation, a people saved to be His own and to tell of the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were no people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had received no mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• Dear friends, I urge you, as guests and strangers in this world: Refuse to do what the body wants, because its appetites fight against the soul. Live a noble life among the people of the world, that instead of accusing you of doing wrong, they may see the good you do and glorify God when He visits them. 1 Peter 2:9-12 AAT

God has saved us to be His own precious possession and to tell of His wonderful deeds. In other translations, “Tell of” is put: show forth, proclaim and declare. We do that in several ways. The first way that comes to mind is verbally telling, proclaiming, or declaring in speech and song with one another and to pagans. But, primarily, we collectively show forth God’s wonderful deeds by being what He has made us: a elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. God our Father has made us a noble people in His kingdom by making us His children, sons and heirs. He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Peter tells us “as guests and strangers in this world: Refuse to do what the body wants” (1 Peter 2:11). 

Earlier we saw how God’s plan to tear down the wall of enmity and gather Jews and Gentiles together in the Messiah Jesus as one new man shows forth His wisdom to principalities and powers, including angels and brings glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2 & 3).  

Here Peter urges us to show forth His wonderful deeds by living a noble life among the people of the world, that “they may see the good you do and glorify God when He visits them.”

Embracing the kingdom worldview

With that encouraging introduction of the kingdom worldview, Peter transitions to practical application in day-to-day living.  Walking as an heir worthy of God’s calling is a lifestyle, a way of being.  Adopting and living this lifestyle is the primary way we do good deeds that show forth God’s wonderful deeds; to His glory. 

Submit to human authority as free men. Here in America, we have a quandary. Our human government is for the people and by the people. We are a free people. Our authorities and employers supposedly serve us, yet they are over us. Political and workplace turmoil abounds.  

I worked this out in this way. Peter urged the believers suffering harsh Roman rule to honor the emperor. Our laws are for our protection and we should obey them. We are to honor our elected and appointed leaders. Even when our leaders or employers exhibit “every kind of wickedness and deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander” we are to submit and do right. If we reciprocate in kind with anger, we succumb to worldly ways and do wrong.  God calls us to rid ourselves of worldly ways. If we suffer for doing right, we are to take it patiently. 

• Submit to every human authority to please the Lord: to the emperor as one who is over you, or to governors as men whom he sent to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. God wants you to silence ignorant and foolish people by doing right. Act as free men, and don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do wrong, but be God’s slaves. Honor everyone, love your brethren. Fear God: honor the emperor.
• Servants, submit to your masters, showing every respect, not only when they’re good and kind but also when they’re unfair. 1 Peter 2:13-18 AAT 

   Suffer patiently. Live for righteousness. Jesus is our example for living a noble life. He is the Shepherd who takes care of us.

• It is a fine thing if, moved by your conscience to please God, you suffer patiently when wronged. What credit is it to you if you sin and patiently take a beating for it? But if you suffer for doing good and take it patiently, God is pleased with you.
• This is what you were called for, seeing that Christ also suffered for you and left you an example so that you’ll follow in His steps. He never sinned or was found to be deceiving when He spoke. When others abused Him, He didn’t abuse them: when He suffered, He didn’t threaten but left it in the hands of Him who judges fairly. He carried our sins in His body to the cross so that we’ll die to sin and live for righteousness. His wounds have healed you. You were like lost sheep, but now you’ve come back to the Shepherd who takes care of you. 1 Peter 2:19-25 AAT 

Covenant marriage is meant to taste of, nurture, and reflect our love for the Lord. By pouring His love into our hearts, God enables us to lay down our life for our mate and so participate in the creation and sustenance of a home filled with His marvelous light. Covenant marriage love is mutually rewarding now and will be rewarded through eternity. Troubles do not quench such love. They develop godly character.  The fire of the Holy Spirit vaporizes our dross and replaces it with love that repents, forgives, and serves to the building of a home.  

Such love is painful at the times it shines bright light on inner darkness we vainly try to hide from God and our spouse.  But, it makes our relationship tingle with healthy transparency.  In the light, little things do not get a chance to escalate into distrust, resentment, hatred, jealousy, or other selfishness that fractures relationship.  Facing and resolving our problems together is the way we grow up in the Messiah in a bond of love.

We can walk in this light because God has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Our husband/wife marriage covenant relationship is congruent with our Messiah/church New Covenant relationship (Ephesians 5:25-33).Following the Messiah is the way to thrive Covenant Marriage. It does come with authority, submission and responsibility and it may require suffering. 

• Similarly, you married women, submit to your husbands. Then even if some of them refuse to listen to the Word, you will win them, without talking about it, by the way you wives live, when they see how you fear God and are pure in your lives.
• Your beauty should not be anything outward—braiding the hair, putting on gold ornaments and dresses—but the person you are in your heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit; this is very precious to God. And this is how long ago the holy women who trusted God used to make themselves beautiful: They submitted to their husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You are her daughters if you do good and let nothing terrify you.
• In the same way, you husbands live with your wives with understanding; they are weaker than you are. Honor them as sharing the gift of life with you—so that nothing will interfere with your prayers. 1 Peter 3:1-7 AAT 

Live in harmony. Do right. We do right because we are being what God has made us. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are eager for shalom and go after it. When we suffer because we are righteous, we know we will be blessed. The suffering does not cause us to fear those who tyrannize us. Christ is our example and our Savior. Baptism is the prophetic sign we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).   Messiah Jesus reigns.

• Finally, all of you have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.
• For “He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile; let him turn away from evil and do right; let him seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.”
• Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence;   and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.  For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.  
• For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him. 1 Peter 3:8-22 RSV 

Arm yourselves with Christ’s way of thinking. We are to walk as Jesus walked—in grace and truth, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  He had presence, the presence of the Holy Spirit.  He did not fear what man could do to Him. He walked among the tainted without becoming tainted. People instinctively knew He was a noble person.  Those who opposed Him feared Him. Those who were hurting knew He would help them.  Those who sought Him knew He loved them. Where He walked, He brought grace and truth. He always did His Fathers will.  Now, He leads us in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.

Now since Christ has suffered for us in His body, you, too, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, that if you have suffered in your body, you have given up sin and don’t follow human desirers anymore but do what God wants as long as you live in this world. You spent enough time in the past doing what the world likes to do, when you lived in unbridled immorality, lusts, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and the abominable worship of idols. They’re surprised now you don’t plunge into the same flood of wild living with them, and they slander you. They will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. The dead also once heard the good news, so that they will be judged as human beings in their earthly life, but then will live like God by the Spirit. 1 Peter 4:1-6 AAT

Love one another fervently. Here Peter reinforces how we should be in the communion of saints so that in every way we glorify God through Jesus Christ.

The end of everything is near. So be sensible and keep you heads clear for your prayers. Above all, continue to love one another fervently, because love covers many sins. Welcome one another as guest without grumbling. Serve one another, each with the gift he received, as good managers of the various gifts (charisma) of God. If you speak, say what God says. If you serve, do it with the strength God gives you so that in every way you glorify God through Jesus Christ. His is the glory and the power forever! Amen. 1 Peter 4:7-11 AAT

The Spirit of glory and our Creator.

• Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  
• But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?    
•  And “If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear?”  
• Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:12-19 RSV

Bill Bremer and his wife Judy have a website is devoted to providing kingdom insight and encouragement to believers around the world.   It is a ministry of the church that meets in our house. You can