This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.^{* 2} God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. (NLT)

Introduction: Have you ever relied on the expression “I’m not from around here?” It’s something I’ve said quite often when someone stops me wanting information or directions when I am visiting another city, state, or country. They understand and are quite comfortable “moving on” to find someone who can help them.

Our subject is the pilgrim life (sojourners/exiles) – the fact that we are just passing through this life, journeying toward heaven. It refers to people who live outside of their homeland, whether by force or by preference.

Paul uses the same idea in Philippians 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven.”

The idea that Christians are citizens of heaven and live as foreigners on the earth is an important concept that Peter will build upon.

We are on this earth only for a short while and we should feel as settled in this world as we would feel if we were traveling in Mongolia. It may be a fascinating place to visit, but you aren’t planning to sink down roots there.

Being a pilgrim isn’t the dominant model of the Christian life for our times. Our view of Christianity is often geared to the here and now:

What will it do for my marriage? How will it help me raise my kids? Will it help me succeed in my career? Will it help me overcome personal problems?  Will it help me feel fulfilled as a person?

For some, heaven is thrown in as a nice benefit at the end of the ride. But heaven is not our focus.

We want to enjoy life now and cling to it as long as we’re able. We don’t view death as the gateway to everything we’ve been living for. We see it as something to be postponed and avoided at all costs.

There’s nothing wrong and everything right about enjoying God and the blessings He freely bestows on us in this life.

But if we don’t hold the things of this life loosely and aren’t focused on God Himself and on being in heaven with Him as our goal, we might be holding on to a “shallow form of Christianity.”

If we’re just living for the good life that being a Christian gives now, we won’t last very long under persecution. We wouldn’t endure much suffering.

Nor would we withstand the many temptations to indulge in fleshly desires.

After an extensive tour of the United States some years ago, the late, German theologian Helmut Thielicke was asked what he saw as the greatest defect among American Christians. He replied, “They have an inadequate view of suffering.”

I think his observation still holds true. If it were not so, how could American Christians even give a moment’s credence to the ridiculous idea that it is “always God’s will for believers to be healthy and wealthy? “ (the major theme of many believers today).

But an inadequate view of suffering is not just a problem for those who think that it’s always God’s will to give us a trouble-free life.

I find it to be a problem among many Christians undergoing trials. Some face debilitating illness, but instead of submitting to God, they grow bitter and complain, “Why me?”

Some put up with intolerable marriages for a while, but then bail out with the excuse, “Don’t I have a right to some happiness?”

Others look back on a childhood in which they were abused and angrily complain, “Where was God when I needed Him? What kind of God would allow an innocent child to suffer like I did?”

All these people share an inadequate view of suffering. Because of their bitterness toward God, they are not in submission to Him. They are vulnerable to temptation and sin.

Others who suffer may submit to God, but it’s more like glum resignation than grateful trust. They’re depressed because of their problems, perhaps even to the point of suicide. They’ve lost hope.

The apostle wrote this letter to Christians scattered throughout what today is northern Turkey. Three of them—Pontus, Cappadocia, and Asia—are listed in Acts 2:9 as the homelands of some of those who heard Peter preach on the day of Pentecost.

He wrote to encourage believers who would likely face trials and persecution under Emperor Nero. But the pressure was already on many who held to this new belief in Jesus as God in human flesh, who died on a Roman cross and was raised from the dead.

Peter points them to Christ, our great example, who endured unjust suffering from a hostile world, but who maintained both hope and holiness by submitting Himself to the Father’s sovereign purpose.

We all need this practical message because, in one form or another, we all face trials. Peter holds out no promise that following Jesus will exempt a believer from hardship. Far from it!

He says that we should not be surprised at fiery ordeals, as if they were abnormal (4:12). But he points us to Christ and to the glory promised us in heaven.

During most of the first century, Christians were not hunted down and killed throughout the Roman Empire. They could, however, expect social and economic persecution from three main sources: the Romans, the Jews, and their own families.

All Christians would very likely be misunderstood; some would be harassed; a few would be tortured and even put to death.

Two-thirds of believers around our world live under governments more repressive than the Roman Empire of the first century. Christians everywhere face misunderstanding, ridicule, and even harassment by unbelieving friends, employers, teachers, and family members.

In some countries, converting to Christianity is punishable by death. No one is exempt from catastrophe, pain, illness, and death—trials that, like persecution, make us lean heavily on God.

The first verses of the first chapter show the perspective we should have in trials. We are chosen, but we must live as resident aliens. We know that we belong to the triune God rather than to this world.

Throughout the Roman Empire believers had been attacked and were being savagely persecuted—so much so that they had been forced to flee for their lives.

They had been forced to leave everything behind: homes, property, estates, businesses, jobs, money, church, friends, and fellow believers.

Believers had apparently taken their families and what belongings they could carry and fled for their lives. Peter is writing to five Roman provinces where most of the believers had apparently tried to hide and find safety.

Imagine the fear, uncertainty, and insecurity; the wandering about and the searching for a safe place and for a way to earn a living.

In some cases, the believers did not even know where their next meal would come from. The church and its dear believers were fleeing for their lives.

All the feelings that attack human emotions when a person is being hunted down for brutal slaughter were attacking these believers: fear, concern, restlessness, sleeplessness, anxiety, stress, uncertainty, insecurity, and a pounding heart at the slightest shadow or noise.

How can a person be secure through suffering and persecution? There is one way and only one way: he must know that he is saved and be absolutely sure that he is under the care and love of God.

The first thing to know about our salvation is this: know that you are the chosen of God.

Vs. 1: They are people who are only pilgrims or foreigners scattered over the earth.

Vs. 2: They are people elected, chosen by God.

Vs. 2: They are people sanctified—set apart to God—and covered by the blood of Christ.

Vs. 2: They are people who obey God.

Vs. 2: They are people who experience grace and peace.

Christians live in a hostile world.

As foreigners, we do not belong to this evil world. In Jesus’ words: John 17:13–16 (ESV)  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

We should not speak its language or follow its customs. Our behavior should be distinct from the residents of this world.

Have you ever traveled to a foreign country where you stood out obviously as a foreigner? In 2011, when we went to China, we spent an afternoon walking the back streets of Jingzhou, where we didn’t see any other Westerners.

People stared at us and we stared back. We found their customs interesting, but very different from our own. Instead of buying dead poultry and fish, shrink-wrapped in plastic, the Chinese women bought live chickens, ducks, spiders, eels, and fish.

The birds are squawking and the fish are gasping for their last breath as they carry them from the market. While their custom is no doubt more nutritious, I must confess that I was a foreigner, because I wouldn’t know what to do if my dinner was still alive when I brought it home!

As Christians our way of life, our conduct and behavior should stand out like a foreigner stands out in China.

We’re supposed to be different, as the King James translates 2:9, “a peculiar people.” (You’re probably thinking, “Yes, I’ve met many peculiar Christians!”)

But it doesn’t mean weird, but distinct. Christians should stand out as godly people in a corrupt, ungodly world.

Peter makes it clear, as Jesus did, that we are not to become hermits, cloistered from the world, but rather to live commendably in it:

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV) 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 2:15 (ESV) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

1 Peter 4:19 (ESV) Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Nor are we to live apart from the church, as individuals, but in community with other Christians as the people of God (1:22; 2:4-10; 3:8-9; 4:8-11, 17; 5:1-5, 9, 13-14).

As someone put it, “We are not to live in the world and go to church (worship), but to live in the church and go to the world.”

Sometimes people mock Christianity as a “pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die” religion. Clearly, it is! Paul says that if it’s not, “if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).

We live in a hostile world now, but we’re looking for that great day when our Savior returns from heaven for us!

Conclusion

Another key word in 1 Peter which relates to having both hope and holiness in this hostile world is the word “submit” (2:13, 18; 3:1, 5, 22).

It’s not a popular word in our day of “rights” and “assertiveness,” where everyone is trying to avoid pain and seek fulfillment at all costs. But it is a key to having a proper view of suffering.

When we face trials, we have a choice. We can assert ourselves and complain about how unfair things are and look for the easiest and quickest way out.

Or, we can submit to the sovereign hand of God, knowing that He has chosen us for salvation and saved us by His mighty power.

We can respond to trials like an egg or like a potato. An egg goes into boiling water soft, but comes out hard. A potato goes in hard and comes out soft.

I’d like you to ask yourself, “How am I responding to the trials God has sovereignly allowed into my life? Am I submitting to God or resisting Him?”

If we submit to Christ, He will soften our hearts and give us both hope and holiness as we live in this hostile world.

^* 1:1 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey.