Part 2 - Overview of 1 Peter - Theology

This is second part of an overview of 1 Peter. It is based on notes created to aid preachers doing a sermon series. This is Part 2 of 3 (you can read part 1 here)

Section 1: The Church is saved and its future is secure

• 1 Peter 1:1-12 
• 1 Peter 5:6-11

SPOILER ALERT! Peter wants the Church to know how the story ends. Whenever I tell my Mum there's a good film she should watch, her only question is "Okay, well does it have a happy ending?" She'll only watch it if it has a happy ending! Peter's main theological point is that God's Church has a secure and certain happy ending.

Peter starts off and frames the whole letter with this long-view perspective. The Church, whilst in the midst of an uncertain present, has a very definite and positive future.We have a new life (“born again” v.3), an indestructible inheritance(v.4), and a sure salvation(v.9). There is no doubt that despite our troubles, the Church will win in the end (5:10 "After you have suffered a little while...")

Section 2: The Church is saved to be set apart

• 1 Peter 1:13-2:12

Whilst most definitely being an 'action' passage (13) this section is still steeped in theological construct. We are commanded to be Holy because God is Holy. And this command is given as a direct alternative to our ignorant passions/desires. What is being created here is a dichotomy between an old life lived by our own 'futile' opinions of what has value, and a new life lived in the light of God's opinion of what has value.

The old life values gold and silver (18b + 14), but our future salvation has been bought by faith in the eternally priceless blood of Jesus (19). We are to see Jesus's sacrifice as worth a lot more then anything we can gain in this life. The Church should give greatest value to that which will last forever (24-25).

And as the passage continues Peter adopts an array of traditional Jewish metaphors to describe how the Church grows and serves with God's values (temples, priests, nations). There is still, however, a constant reminder that our growth and service to God will always be misunderstood by the world, just as Christ is rejected and misunderstood (2:4,7,8) But as long as we identify ourselves as God's people doing His work, then the spiritual house will grow. And whilst our persecutors speak against our actions now, they will see the truth eventually (11-12)



Overall
The issue of Church v.s. the World is always a tricky one. Ever since the beginning of the Church there has been a raging debate about how involved the church should be with earthly affairs. How much should a community of believers integrate with society? How does the Church's status as God's nation, affect an individual's experience in their own physical/geographical/political nation?

Before Peter starts on practical advice to help this struggling persecuted community, he wants them first to recognise that God is the one who decides what has value and what is worthy. The Church might look battered and bruised and worthless, but if it is holding fast to God's word and trusting only in Christ's eternal blood, then Father God will accept it's worship. The church will grow, and will truly be God's Holy Nation.

Augustine dealt with similar issues in his 'City of God'. Can a believer truly enjoy life now?

"This heavenly city, then, while it sojourns on earth, calls citizens out of all nations, and gathers together a society of pilgrims of all languages, not scrupling about diversities in the manners, laws, and institutions whereby earthly peace is secured and maintained, but recognizing that, however various these are, they all tend to one and the same end of earthly peace...

... if any man uses this life with a reference to that other which he ardently loves and confidently hopes for [eternal life], he may well be called even now blessed, though not in reality so much as in hope. But the actual possession of the happiness of this life, without the hope of what is beyond, is but a false happiness and profound misery."