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1 PETER 2:11-25 Christian faith can never be merely a private matter- we have to go public with it. In 2:11 Peter starts a new section of his letter, and talks about the public life of Christians, about how we relate to the pagan, often anti-Christian world around us. And he singles out three things that should characterize our public lives as Christians- three things that we should do. They are struggle, submission, and suffering. Struggle – v11-12 We are to Struggle as strangers – v11a. Peter first of all reminds us of what he said in 1:1- we are “strangers and exiles”, or “resident aliens”. We used to be part of the pagan, non-Christian world around us, but God has called us out of that darkness into his light, to be a holy people. So now we are outsiders, we don’t belong to this present world, and we don’t fit into the culture around us, we stand out. We are like exiles or refugees, who have had to leave their homeland and go and live in a foreign country, where the language and way of live are strange. Of course, foreigners and refugees in a strange country often face suspicion and hostility in that country. It will be like that for Christians- because we don’t fit in, people will be suspicious of us, they will be hostile to us, and that will lead to suffering, as Peter will show in v21-25. But- and I think this is his point- we mustn’t be hostile to the world. Strangers and refugees, who face hostility, can very easily fall into a “them and us” mentality, where they see those around them as the enemy. Christians mustn’t do that! However much hostility we face, we mustn’t see our pagan neighbours as the enemy. Our struggle is not against them. In the past 50 years, Christians have thought a lot about how we should engage with politics and society. Some have said that we must fight a culture war. Others have said that we must struggle for social justice. There is a place for both of those- but they are not where the real battle takes place. Instead, our Struggle against the enemy within – v11b. Peter says that the enemy is not out there- it is in here. The real enemy is the fifth column in our hearts, the desires in our hearts and souls that are waging war against us. Those desires would of course include the desires for sex and money that have devastated the witness of so many Christians. But they would also include ambition, the desire for power and influence, or the desire to be popular and well liked, or the desire for ease and a quiet life. They struggle and fight against us, and the warfare is deadly- no holds barred and no quarter given. Left unchecked, those sinful desires, which are still there after we are born again, will destroy our souls- they will lay waste our interior lives, and drive us to everlasting destruction. So this is where we have to fight and struggle. In other words, our public life begins with our private life- we can’t separate the two. Fighting a culture war, or struggling for social justice don’t give us a license to lead an immoral life in private, even if it is only in the privacy of our thoughts. So we struggle against our desires- but what do we struggle for? We Struggle to do good – v12a. Peter says that we struggle against our inner, private desires so that our outer, public behaviour is honourable- good and beautiful and attractive. Then, when people slander us and lie about us- when they call us homophobes and misogynists, when they say that we are a danger to society and to the state- the lies will fall flat because people will see the visible, public goodness of our lives. When we think about Christian engagement with public life, especially with politics and social action, we often think of high-level engagement. So we might of campaign to get the person we want elected as President or Prime Minister, or we might go on a protest march to right some injustice. It’s big, and dramatic, and glamorous, and it makes us feel good about ourselves, we feel like we are making a difference. But that feeling might be the voice of our inner desires- of our vanity. If we take the Bible seriously, I believe that we need to think in much more humble and less dramatic terms, of engaging on a local level. So Christians have become school governors and local councillors. They have founded hospitals, schools, and businesses to give employment to the poor. They have fostered troubled children and cared for teenage mothers who might otherwise have killed their unborn child. They have taken meals to sick neighbours and befriended the lonely. Dear friends that is the public Christian politics and social action for which we must struggle. But why do we struggle for this? We Struggle to the glory of God – v12b What I think Peter means is that by our public lives of goodness, we soften people up for the Gospel. We remove their suspicions, so that when God drops the seed of his word, the Good News of Christ, into their lives, it doesn’t fall onto hard rock; it drops into yielding soil, into hearts that have been made soft for the Gospel. Then on the day God visits- that is, on the day Christ returns- they will be among those praising him and giving him glory. This is about evangelism- about bringing people to praise and glorify Christ as Lord- and it seems to me to very clear that the New Testament regards evangelism as more important than culture war or struggling for social justice. So this is Peter’s evangelistic strategy that he is giving to this and to every church. We find it hard to share Christ with our family and friends, don’t we? We find it hard to start conversations about Christ. But if we do what Peter says, and life beautiful public lives, conversations will start naturally, as people ask us about the hope that makes us different. And people will be brought to Christ by our behaviour. And this strategy works: the first Christians didn’t seek power or try to change the social structures. But they cared for the poor and the sick, they cared for unwanted babies, they treated slaves and women with dignity and respect, and by their goodness they conquered the Roman Empire. That is our struggle- the first thing that should characterize our public lives. And the second thing is…