Who are you?
What would you say if someone prompted you with this question? Would you tell them what you do for work? Perhaps you’d tell them about your family. Perhaps you’d sit in silence, disturbed by the question and your inability to answer it.
We all identify ourselves some way. In the Bible, especially in the apostle Peter’s first letter, we find an answer to this question. If you have put your faith in Jesus, you’re an “exile” or a pilgrim, someone passing through this life on earth, on a journey towards your heavenly home.
Now, if you’re at all like me, identity might be difficult to wrap your head around. What do you mean, this isn’t my home? I own a home! I’m a citizen of the United States! I live in Texas. Of course, this is my home!
According to 1 Peter, Christians are “elect exiles” (1 Peter 1:2 ESV) and he writes to encourage followers of Jesus how to live “throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter 1:17 ESV). To be an exile means that you live in a land that’s not your own—you’re a stranger to that place. Though Peter addresses exiles who have been physically displaced, his letter speaks to every Christian. For we are exiles also. This world is not our home.
Peter’s letter helps followers of Jesus learn how to live out this “pilgrim” identity. We may want to live with a total disregard for the world around us. We may want to give up our identity when it means suffering and difficulty. Peter counsels against both of these temptations.
Peter’s letter instructs Christians on how to live honorable pilgrim lives for the good of a world that persecutes them. This was important counsel for his original audience—a persecuted church. Peter wrote to those who were suffering unjustly for their faith in Christ.
Peter clarifies our perspective on the Christian life. To be exiles in this world means that we don’t belong to it. Instead, we belong to the unseen kingdom of our Heavenly Father as his children (1 Peter 2:17). Peter reminds us that “You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials” (1 Peter 1:5-6 CSB). As God’s children we are kept by God, made safe in his love for us, guarded and preserved through the hardships in our life. We look forward to eternal life with God, the resurrection of our bodies, and the end of all evil, pain, and suffering (1 Peter 1:3-9), because of what Jesus has accomplished for us through his death and resurrection. Christian hope so far outweighs any suffering we will face, that we can rejoice even in the worst circumstances.
Christian hope so far outweighs any suffering we will face, that we can rejoice even in the worst circumstances.
Adopting this perspective frees us from bitterness, anger, and hostility to a world that persecutes us for our faith in Jesus. Peter tells us how to conduct ourselves in the world, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12 ESV). God’s Word doesn’t say to wage war against this world—he says to fight against the sinful desires in us that would lead us to angrily lash out at the world around us. In Peter’s letter, God calls us to act honorably so that those who persecute us would glorify God!
Followers of Jesus understand that they are passing through this life to the next, living as exiles. But this doesn’t mean we hate those around us or revile them for treating us poorly. Instead, according to Peter, as exiles we testify to our hope in God (1 Peter 3:15) and invite those in the world to join us and travel home with us.
Are you a citizen of this world, whose hopes, and dreams end in this life? Have you heard about the hope offered to you in Jesus? If not, open the book of 1 Peter and discover what God promises to all those who love him.
May God transfer you into his kingdom, the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:14), and may you joyfully accept the identity of an exile in this life, who puts their hope in the indestructible, imperishable, eternal promises of God for the next.