In my last blog, we noticed that the first chapter of 1Peter oozed with salvation-experience concepts. The question for us now is “Why does Peter saturate his first chapter with those concepts? What is he trying to communicate to his readers? What message is it that he definitely doesn’t want them to miss? And are we able to determine an answer to any of those questions?
We might be able to propose that perhaps Peter’s audience is composed of fairly new believers and he is attempting to establish for them the value of their salvation by using an abundance of references to the salvation experience. Perhaps Peter proposes to his readers A Salvation Worth Writing About.
There is evidence to support this proposal. Notice Peter’s references to “faith having greater worth than gold”, "the precious blood of Jesus,” “an imperishable inheritance,” “inheritance protected by God,” and “great mercy.” Each of these statements is a value statement. Words such as “worth,” “gold,” “precious,” “imperishable,” “protected by God,” and “great” are all words that indicate value. It may be possible that Peter uses these references to help his readers understand the value of what they are “receiving as the end result of their faith, the salvation of their souls.” (1:9)
Since Peter tell his readers that the outcome of their faith is the salvation of their souls, perhaps Peter's readers have not yet discovered the full value of their faith. Like the Kingdom parable of the man who discovers the value of the land only after he uncovers the treasure buried on that land (Mt 13:35ff,) in the same way, perhaps Peter’s readers seem not to understand the value of their faith until Peter uncovers the value of their salvation buried in their faith. Perhaps his purpose is to help his readers discover and uncover the value of their salvation, so they would buy into his purpose of living worthily, equal to the value of that salvation.
It seems that Peter’s purpose is to help his readers understand the value of the outcome of their new faith and then to help them understand that the value of their lifestyle should match the value of their new faith. He indicates this by letting them know that before their new faith, they were like dead people or drunk people (1:13), unable to clearly make decisions in their lives.
But now since they have been “born again,” and have ”purified themselves,” and have “obeyed the truth,” Peter now encourages them to think clearly and connect the value of their salvation to the value of the lifestyle.
“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set you hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming,” and “as obedient children, not to conform any longer to the evil desires they had when they lived in ignorance.” (1:13)
Bottom line, Peter encourages his readers to realize that the value of God’s salvation is “holiness,” therefore God encourages his family to live holy as well.
“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1:16)
Similar to Paul’s urging of his Colossian readers to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Col 4:1), Peter is doing the same here in his letter. Notice the word’s “live,” “worthy,” and “calling” that Paul uses in his urge to the Colossians. And Paul goes on to help his readers understand that he was referring to their lifestyle. We see in Colossians 4:2 Paul encourage his readers to “be completely humble and gentle; patient, bearing with one another in love.”
The readers of Paul’s letter were “called” to salvation which meant a holy and separate lifestyle apart from the lifestyle of their contemporaries just as Peter’s readers were “called” to salvation with the very same meaning of a holy and separate lifestyle apart from a lifestyle of their contemporaries (1Peter 1:1). And just as Paul’s readers are urged to live a worthy life, equal to the worth of their calling, so Peter urges his readers to do the same here.
Further indication of the probability that indeed Peter is writing to new believers and encouraging them to accurately value their salvation and lifestyle, is the way Peter begins his second chapter.
Having salvation-experience concepts ooze from the first chapter, Peter concludes his purpose statement in chapter 1 by beginning chapter 2 with an encouragement to,
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (2:1), again the idea of living a lifestyle set apart from a lifestyle of their contemporaries.
Peter is reminding his readers that they were "redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to them from your ancestors," (1:18) and now they must live lives, holy, equal to their salvation, as God is holy. He then goes on to further encourage them, as new believers, to…
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1:2)
Since these new believers are just beginning to live out their new Christian lives, Peter provides the needed push to help them, by again challenging them in this second chapter to recognize the value of their salvation.
Is it any wonder then, Peter again provides another 30+ salvation-experience-concept references to help his readers understand the value of their inheritance of salvation as believers in Jesus?
All of the following references are salvation-experience-concepts. Each has a connection to the salvation that is offered to them “by those who have preached the gospel to them by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” (1:12)…
“the living Stone, chosen by God, living stones, holy priesthood, spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, trust, never be put to shame, believe, the cornerstone, chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, called, the people of God; you have received mercy, foreigners and exiles, good deeds, Submit, God’s will, doing good, free people, live as God’s slaves, family of believers, doing good called, Christ suffered, he suffered, entrusted, He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, righteousness; by his wounds, you have been healed, Shepherd and Overseer of your souls,”
Just as Peter ties his introduction to the contents of his first chapter, so he does the same in the second. In the introduction, (1:1-2) Paul refers to his readers as “elect/chosen,” “exiles/foreigners,” “holy,” and “obedient.”
Then later in the chapter he connects his introduction with 1:14-17. In 1:14-17 Peter refers to his readers as “obedient,” “holy,” and “exiles/foreigners.”
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
In the same vein, in 2:8-11 Peter refers to the concept of “obedience,” “elect/chosen,” and “exiles/foreigners” and connects his introduction with thisi portion in his second chapter.
“They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. "But you are a chosen people….Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul."
Notice in both instances, in both chapter references, Peter’s use of these salvation-experience-concepts are used in the context of living out their lives in accordance with holiness, i.e., a reverent fear of a holy God. The context remains a consistent theme throughout… understanding the value of one’s salvation obligates one to live a life of value, i.e., in view of God’s holiness.
We have seen in chapter 2, as we saw in chapter 1, that Peter’s intent is to encourage his readers to realize the value of their salvation and the value of their lifestyle, by punctuating this point with a final powerful chapter ending concept…the most valuable salvation-concept about being “born again.” He tells his readers,
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Notice once more, (and this time, using the salvation-concept of greatest value -the body of Jesus on the cross for the sake of bearing our sins) Peter uses this concept in the context of “living for righteousness”: Once again tying the recognition of the value of salvation with lifestyle.
We have proposed that Peter is calling his readers to “live out their salvation with fear and trembling” in the presence of a holy God! His attempt to saturate the first two chapters with salvation-experience concepts is his emphatic way of getting his readers attention and helping them understand the value of their salvation and connect that value to their lifestyles.
In my next blog, we will explore how Peter helps his readers take the value of their salvation and make practical application to their lives so his readers realize that not only does Peter see A Salvation Worth Writing About, but they also have also inherited A Salvation Worth Living For.