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Study Description
The first letter of Peter addresses a group of Christians who bear the world's unwelcome, having become as strangers and exiles in their homelands, oddballs and outcasts in their communities, disrespected and despised by their neighbors. Peter reminds them that such is the call of those who follow of Jesus: to live as strangers in the world.
Today, nearly two millennia later, we Christians still find ourselves unwelcome in our own cultures, and yet Peter's letter still speaks to encourage us, if we listen closely.
Details
- Length: 5 sessions
- Teachers: The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Bailes
- Leader's Guide: Discussion questions are available for small group leaders.
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1. Resident Aliens
Christians are strange. Early believers tended to stick out, regarded by their neighbors as people who lived by odd values and morals. Yet according to Peter, Christians should expect such regard, because we are sojourners and exiles: resident aliens of our communities who know our citizenship lies elsewhere.
2. The Christian Revolution
The Romans, like us, longed for the respect, honor, and admiration of those around them. This made the message to submit to and serve one another very difficult, and yet, this is precisely what Peter told them to do: a strange, even revolutionary message, implied by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
3. Unrevolutionary Implications?
In 1 Peter 3, Peter discusses the gospel in concrete terms. His revolutionary message seems disappointingly mundane. Yet it is through mundane things, the everyday ways we treat one another, that Christians bear witness to the hope that defines them.
4. What Was, What Is, What Is To Come
What sort of tale have we fallen into? That oft-quoted question Sam Gamgee poses in The Lord of the Rings is also the question Peter answers in the fourth chapter of his letter. Christians cannot conduct themselves properly in the world without first knowing the grand story in which we take part.
5. The Way of the Cross
1 Peter began with the idea that Christians are aliens and strangers in their own hometowns, and now, at the end, it explains why this is the case. Our way of life is patterned after that of a crucified Messiah. We Christians are called to follow the way of the cross.
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