Are We Living in a Time of Exile?

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

What is the time of our exile?  Considering when Peter is speaking.  It is the first generation after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  Jesus' return is considered to be imminent, quite literally any day.  There seems to be an expectation that this return is somehow hinged to how the message of Jesus will be spread, that, when it hits ‘everyone’, this is a trigger for Jesus’ return.  It is implicit to the message.

The idea of ‘exile’ is central to the mentality of the Jewish faith.  For seventy years, the Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon.  That was the end of Israelite independence.  Under the Roman occupation, to use this word is a deliberate buzz word by Peter to think back to an unpleasant time.

Peter is assuming his readers know that they are in an unpleasant time (his immediate readers, not so much us).  In his theological introduction (through verse 12), there is this immediate sense, that the gifts of Jesus were coming at the end of time, and that end of time was not far away.  Thus, the time until then, Peter’s present, was an exile, not yet arrived at the time of perfection, but looking forward to it.

We have lived in this exile now for two thousand years.  We have learned now not only to survive, but to thrive in this exile.  I am of a mind that the gifts of God, given through Jesus, outlined by Peter, are given to be fulfilled in our lifetimes. 

Sometimes Fear is in Awe, Sometimes It Is Being Scared

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

Oh, I like this one.  Living in reverent fear.  Who are we to be afraid of?  This is the part of the sentence that seems to me to turn the whole thing into fear of God’s judgment, impartial or not.  Reverence, completely understandable, one does not wish to mock on God the Father Almighty.  But fear?  That does not seem to make for a very joyous relationship.

We might need to turn this on its ear, assume that this reverent fear is along the lines of “the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  But I am not sure that is a fair reading of the text.  Because bringing the fear and reverence does not seem to be happening in a happy time.

The reverent fear is supposed to occur during the time of our exile.  Notice how I am slopping together the readers of Peter in his time and we, the readers of today?  One big happy family, with two thousand years of readers tucked in between us. 

We will speak more of the exile language tomorrow, that ties back into statements that Peter has already made.  But what if living in reverent fear is not concerning our relationship to God?  What if this reverent fear is a question of the believers living in relationship to their current neighbors?

We know from Acts that persecutions were already going on. Paul, when he was still Saul, was a great persecutor of Christians.  But even in his own missionary journeys, Paul found himself the target of persecution in his turn.  Peter himself is recorded as having been arrested and, while chained between two soldiers, an angel came to him, freed him from the chains, and walked him out of the prison (Acts 12).

Against a persecuting background, reverent fear begins to make more sense.  Be reverent, doing according to the things of the Lord.  The idea of the invocation of the Father as judge, that seems to carry with it an implied threat from those who may not appreciate what the readers are doing. 

We know that Peter is preaching to the Jews.  They may be reacting badly to his adding Jesus into the power and might of God the Father.  Adding ‘another god’ to God is a bad thing in monotheistic religions.  The fear may, in fact, be justified.  This time, I think the fear is just being scared.

Are Your Deeds Worthy of the Father?

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

Most often, in my experience, when we are talking about somebody’s deeds, in relationship to God, we are talking about their bad deeds, their naughty deeds, their sinful deeds.  These are the deeds that bring down judgment upon us because we are sinners.  It dates back to Adam and Eve, they sinned, it’s in the DNA or something.

But our deeds are not all bad (thank the Lord!).  Some of the most amazing people I know, when it comes to deeds, are not even of the faith, at least by word.  However, they most certainly look like they are of the faith if you measure them by their deeds. 

I would like to think that an impartial judgment of my deeds would bring me out somewhere in the middle.  I’ve done my share of sinning, not Ten Commandment sinning…well, taking the Lord’s name in vain…but I do not murder, or commit adultery, and I am not always sure if coveting is simply jealousy of someone else’s stuff, or an active desire to steal it.

The Father is going to judge us impartially according to our deeds.  The real deal here, as with anything in our faith, is Jesus.  Coming to him, believing in him, molding our life after him, that is the transformation of our deeds.  It is the transformation of our whole person. 

Peter is calling his readers to be active in carrying forward the word of God.  Now he challenges them to invoke the Father who judges their deeds.  In Jesus, that is a non-issue.  Judgment has already been rendered, and the verdict is mercy.  It was never about balancing the good and the evil. 

Coming to Jesus in good faith, doing deeds according to love of God and love of Neighbor, this should be for us a joy that he judges, not a fear.  To answer the title of this post, yes, in Jesus, our deeds are worthy of the Father.

What is God’s Judgment Now?

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

This is our God, the one who judges all people impartially.  This too is what was passed on to Jesus, judging all people impartially.  And Peter is calling upon his readers to invoke this Father.  What if they screw up?  And, being human, they are going to screw up.  They will be judged, impartially, but judged. 

The readers are being told to gear up to serve the Lord, to proclaim Christ crucified, by whose death and resurrection mercy is granted to all, except apparently to these readers who are called to invoke the God of the impartial judgment.

Now, I am coming at this from a point of view that impartial judgment is bad for us because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Peter did not say that, Paul did.  But what if ‘impartial’ is not a bad thing?

‘The one who judges all people impartially’, what if that is judgment according to the mercy of the Lord?  Judgment was fundamentally changed with the resurrection of Jesus.  Forgiveness came through His sacrifice.  What if the mercy is the impartiality of the Lord?  Then there is not fear but love in the invocation of the Lord.  Might recast the entire verse.

If You Could Call God Down from Heaven, Would You Dare?

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

It is a dare.  It is a dare to invoke the Living God as the measure of their work and worship.  Peter has spoken of the power of Jesus.  He has called his readers to active service.  Now he is daring them to actually take on what it would mean to serve God.  

IF you invoke as Father…  If they dare to walk down this path of holiness that Peter calls them to live, he wants them to understand exactly what path it is that they are following.

If you invoke as Father…  It is a choice that they are dared to make, one they must make if they are going to heed Peter’s call to service in the name of Jesus Christ.  It is not a fool’s errand, it is what is necessary for them, and for us.

An invocation, that is part of the liturgy of the church, calling upon the name of the Lord.  It is used a little more graphically in horror moves when the devil, or Satan, is invoked.  It is not simply calling on the name of the devil, it is calling up the presence of Satan from hell itself to be there, present and at the beck and call of the one foolish enough to invoke his evil name.

To invoke as Father, it is to call down into your presence the Father, to reach up into heaven itself and demand the presence of the Father in the here and now of earth.  It is an arrogant call, but it one that Peter dares his readers to make.

It is a call they must make, if they truly seek to serve the Lord.  Is it a call we are prepared to take as seriously here and now?

There are consequences if we choose to serve the Lord.

1 Peter 1:17

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.

Peter continues in his call to action for his readers.  They have been called upon to discipline themselves, to be holy as their Father in heaven is holy.  Now Peter turns to what it will mean if they will seriously take upon themselves the responsibility of the Father who art in heaven…

If you invoke as Father-  This is the challenge they are called upon to take in order to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.  What does it mean if they dare to follow through?

the one who judges all people impartially-Herein we consider God as Judge.  What truly does that mean in the context of Jesus?

according to their deeds,-Such is the mode of our judgment.  Peter draws back to the earliest of Scripture to lay down who it is that we serve.

live in reverent fear-So then, this is the formula for living if we are willing to invoke God the Father.  Are we willing?

during the time of your exile.-This is a new consideration.  Peter has not yet spoken to us of the consequences of service to our God.  What does it mean to be in exile, in this context?

We have taken the next step here.  Peter opens his letter with a review of who Jesus is and the power contained in our Lord and Master.  Then he offers a call to serve to those to whom he has shared the gospel.  Now we get from him his sense of what it is going to mean for us to dare to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Is it something we are willing to do?

Putting It All Together

Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

It is a privilege that the one who calls us is holy.  It removes from us the pressure of perfection, because being called is not about being “God-like” or even “God-worthy”, it is about doing as God would have us do, the rest coming from him.  To be holy in all our conduct is not the challenge of perfection, it is rather putting all that we have and are under the leading of God.  It does not mean we will not fall on our faces, because we will, but the merciful God will be there to pick us up.  This point is not made lightly by Peter, for he appeals to the “Bible”, the “Holy Writ” as he has it for the authority of what he intends to pass along to us.  From the law of Moses, from Leviticus, we learn that our holiness shall come upon us because we follow in the footsteps of our Lord.  Such is not something we have to learn, it is something that God himself, through our Lord Jesus Christ, imparts upon us.

What a wonderful gift to receive for the New Year!