How Can You Be Christian When Everyone Thinks You Are An Evildoer?

1 Peter 1:12

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.

It would appear that the followers of Jesus are experiencing, if not outright persecution, at least deep suspicion from the Gentile community that surrounds them.  Remember that, at this time, the followers of Jesus are Jews, the movement is only slowly making its way into the Gentile community.  In fact, in the book of Acts, Paul is taking the lead in this shift.  Peter, by contrasting the followers of Jesus with the Gentile community, seems to indicate it is not happening as quickly here.

It appears that there is a deliberate distancing going on between the Jewish community and the followers of Jesus.  There seems to be a deliberate campaign to make the followers of Jesus into the bad guys.  Here Peter is advising them on how to act.

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles,--This is the wider community among whom the followers of Jesus must live.

so that, though they malign you as evildoers, --Someone is setting them up as the bad guys, probably elements of the Jewish leadership seeking to expel the ‘malignancy’ of Jesus from ‘pure’ Jewish doctrine.

they may see your honorable deeds and –Peter is not advocating a counter-campaign of ‘the goodness of the Jesus followers’, rather, by an exemplary lifestyle, by proper actions, not simply words, he hopes for a different way.

glorify God when he comes to judge. –Notice how Peter is not interested in having the followers of Jesus have a good opinion among their neighbors, but rather in front of God. 

Are We Divided as Humans? Is the Soul Better than the Flesh?

1 Peter 2:11

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

There is an implied division in the human, between the soul and the flesh.  All have fallen into sin because of Adam.  Jesus’ salvation has begun with the soul.  This is to recognize the fact that people who believe in Jesus, have accepted him as Lord and Savior, they are still sinning.  Belief did not come with automatic perfection.  How does one account for that?

One possible explanation is to divide the human into soul and flesh.  The soul is “Godly”, the flesh is…”fleshly”.  Thus we shed the one to achieve the divine soul.  But that runs into the problem that God created the flesh in the beginning.  Thus, flesh is not inherently bad, because God does not create inherently bad things.  Genesis is clear on this, God looked at His creation, did not pronounce it bad, nor indifferent, but good. 

It needed to score ‘good’ before He took His vacation Sabbath.  The idea seems to be that there is the evolution of goodness within us.  Over time, as we abstain from desires of the flesh, as we ‘put to death the sinful nature’, to borrow from Paul, we gain a more glorified aspect, we move deeper into the glory of God that is extended to us through Jesus.

But in the meantime, until it is all done, we need to be working at and struggling with changing those behaviors that are not conducive to the Christian life.  It is not simply from the point of view of the Gentiles, looking in at the community of believers, that Peter is writing from.  He is also writing to them of the transformative work of Christ in their lives.

Sex-How Does The Bible Inform A Parent's Conversation With Their Child?

1 Peter 2:11

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

 ‘Abstain’, cannot let that word pass.  What can Christian parents and their children do about sex??? 

This passage is used as one of many to support a 'Christian' point of view that the only valid method of birth control, the only valid personal sexual choice pre-marriage, is abstinence.  Abstain from the desires of the flesh.  Where I have a hard time is when it gets taken out of context.  Interpretation becomes a law unto itself, one that defines and controls behavior, one that causes families to split because of absolutist attitudes.  Peter was never absolute in this application. 

“I urge you…to abstain…”  He knows the struggles, he’s had them himself.  But when a relationship fractures because this verse is used as the defining tone of that relationship, a very serious conversation needs to be had.  The ground rules of the relationship need to be gone over once again, very carefully.  Sacrificing the child to enforce the rule is not Peter’s intent. 

So what is his intention?  Unsafe, random sex?  Certainly not.  It is assumed that adults have the right to make their own choices concerning their behavior.  Peter’s urging is to abstain from select behaviors.  Minors are generally assumed to be property and controlled from above when it comes to questions of sexuality. 

Sexuality should be an open topic of discussion and progression in Christian households today.  The notion that “Christians don’t talk about that” is plain wrong, because Peter is talking about ‘that’.  If we, as Christians, choose not to talk about sex and sexuality, we have fallen down on the vows we took at the baptism of our children to teach them of our faith.  God created people, God created sex, God gave us sex as a gift. 

The joy is that it is never too late to start the conversation.  It may be uncomfortable, sex talk being taboo and forbidden and surrounded by some weird mystical anti-discussion energy field, but it can happen.

And it needs to.  Our children need to know Christ’s message of sex because they are certainly getting the world’s message of sex every day.

Peter's Call To Behave in Public...

1 Peter 2:11

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

Don’t do fleshly desiring things.  Is this a comment about sexuality or more widely applicable to the ‘flesh’?  That depends on how you interpret the key word 'flesh'..  I am under the impression that it is the human body, fallen after sin, and that this is a call to abstain from any sinful behavior, maybe drinking, maybe things of a sexual nature, whatever.  More detail is not provided.  Some context is provided however.

Peter wants them to act ‘honorably’ among the Gentiles.  Apparently, they are being branded as evildoers, but Peter does not want to provide any ammunition for these charges.  In other words, the followers of Jesus might be branded as one thing, but their behavior is going to provide evidence to the contrary.  They are going to be on their best behavior.

But here is where there is an odd mixing of focal points.  Peter’s context is the wider Gentile community, but his focus is on ‘desires of the flesh’, personal stuff, sinful to be sure, but not widely threatening as individual behaviors.  It would seem that the context of the charges being brought against them is that the followers of Jesus engage in such ‘desires of the flesh’, that this is the basis of the religion of Jesus.

It kind of fits with one set of early charges leveled against Christianity.  The Lord’s Supper was branded as cannibalism, eating flesh, drinking blood.  There was a certain validity to the uninformed assumptions about the Eucharist.

But as he concludes this sentence, a theological focus is also brought into view.

Aliens and Exiles-Christians Were Outsiders in the Culture. Should That Be Us Too?

1 Peter 2:11

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

There is a turning in this part of Peter's letter.  It is entitled in one bible version “Live as Servants of God”.  Two levels of existence are being discussed here.  From the grander view of the mercy of the Lord, Peter is speaking now of how to exist as members of God’s Kingdom in the wider world.  As the followers of Christ were beginning to separate from the Synagogue, their place in the world was coming into question. 

Remember that Paul began as a persecutor of the followers of Christ.  It was not organized as the persecutions would become, but already, Peter gives advice on how to life for Christ.

But secondly, Peter is laying out how Jesus has saved us, yet the union with Christ is not complete, our persons are not yet fully perfected in Christ, sinfulness still exists within us.  How must we respond to that?

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles—they are outsiders, outsiders to the Gentile populations that surround them and outsiders to the Jewish faith from which they have emerged.  The focus of the mission has changed.  Jesus did his work within the Jewish community, but it has been moving beyond that community.  Which is why even the Jewish adherents to Christ are being pushed out.

to abstain from the desires of the flesh—a dichotomy within the human being is being discussed.  “Flesh” is a convenient label for the sinfulness of humanity.  “Desires” provide a convenient description of sinful behaviors, ‘infecting’ the flesh.   

that wage war against the soul.—this is the other side of the dichotomy, the ‘soul’, that which is redeemed within the human.  The bible speaks elsewhere of a renewed fleshly body, we will be created anew.  But in the meantime, how does one speak of the battle that goes on inside each of us?  Trying to live more as Christ, but still subject to the weaknesses of the flesh?

Mercy, not Punishment...Love, not Judgment

Once you were not a people,
   but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
   but now you have received mercy.

“This is that of which I speak”, which is my annoying rendition of “That’s what I’m talking about!”  Mercy, thank you Lord for Your mercy.  It is mercy that is all too often forgotten about in today’s world of the people of God.  Ignorance begets mercy.  Uncertainty begets mercy.  Fence sitting begets mercy.  “Begets”, that is one of those King James words that means ‘give birth to’. 

There is a line in the movie “Casablanca” where Ingrid Bergman is so confuzzled (confused and puzzled) by all that is happening around her that she cannot even think straight any longer.  That is where Humphrey Bogart steps in and says that he will do the thinking for the both of them.  That is the relationship we have with God when we are confuzzled. 

I do not like preachers who claim that if you do not know Jesus well enough-on some subjective scale, your soul is in danger of eternal hell. Those preachers are trespassing on the foundations of judgment and the bible is very clear about judgment.  God handed that over to Jesus to dispense.  It does not come with a Seminary degree, it does not come with ordination, it does not come with the soapbox when someone feels the urge to jump up and talk about Jesus.

The idea is that the human being is responsible for being ‘sure enough’ about their faith in Christ to arrive at a state of grace.  There is a theological expression for that.  It is called “works righteousness”.  That teaches that our salvation comes through the works that we do in our own lives, that we can somehow balance the scales at the end of our existences.  It defies what Paul taught, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and it cheapens the grace that Jesus bought for us in his death and resurrection.  Why should Jesus be obedient even to death on the cross when salvation depends on our work?  If that were so, we should be the ones called upon to be obedient to death, even on the cross.

The fact is salvation is not like homework.  It would be far quicker for our kids if we, the parents, did their homework for them (that assumes we CAN do their homework).  It is cheating.  Salvation is not like that.  It is a free gift put on the table for everyone to take hold of.  You do not have to understand all the nuances to receive it.  You do not have to earn it.  You do not have to learn lessons to receive the bounty it offers.  God gives it to us.

And for anyone who thinks that God is a fool, because people will take advantage, I can only pause and blink my eyes repeatedly to hold my tongue and keep something from coming out that I will have to confess later.  Because it is GOD and no one puts something over on God.  God made us, God loves us, God saves us, by His mercy, even from our own ignorance.

Thus is the way of God.