Sermon Cloud

I Peter 2:11, 12

Our text today deals with some practical implications of what it means to be God’s people in a hostile world. Peter begins by reminding us of our identity in Christ [His chosen, His own special people, (vv. 9, 10)] and the fact that we are His “Beloved” (v. 11); God’s “dear friends” who are bound together by Christ’s love. Next he exhorts them as “sojourners and pilgrims”, rich titles dating all the way back to Abraham (Gen. 23:4). Christians are only in the world, not of it, for our true destiny in the renewed and redeemed earth in which the righteous will dwell. Therefore, we are not to derive our values from what is transitory but to embrace those values which are eternal. So Peter warns us of the “passions” (sinful desires) that “war against the soul” and divert us from living God’s way. Instead, Christians are to live a noble lifestyle in this hostile world drawing unbelievers to take notice of the “good works” and “glorifying God” and ultimately come to repentance.