EXPLORE THE TEXT

Our Good Works (1 Peter 2:11-12)

Application Point:

Believers bring glory to God by living holy and honorable lives.

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires
that wage war against the soul.
12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles,
so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

Key Phrase

Strangers and exiles:

The phrase strangers and exiles is yet another Old Testament allusion to Abraham’s reference to himself
as just such things (Gen. 23:4).
Just as Abraham had no home to bury his wife Sarah, Christians have no permanent home on earth.
In addition, Psalm 90:10 alludes to life’s brevity on this earth,
making us resident aliens in it.

10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.

This, too, is an appropriate theme for Peter’s audience to ruminate on:
they were like Abraham, and their circumstances would not last for eternity.

Prepare:

Under What Would Jesus Do? on the board, create two columns:
Direct Commands and Worldly Reactions.

Ask:

• What was the significance of Peter’s reference to the persecuted Christians as “strangers and exiles?”

Discuss:

identify Peter’s two commands and list them on the chart.

11) Abstain from sinful desires:

12) Conduct yourselves honorably:

He enjoined believers to live honorably, to pursue virtue. The Greek wording (kalen) suggests beauty and goodness. But the apostle was not referring to outward, physical beauty. Instead, he was challenging his readers to embrace a noble character and a clean conscience.

In the second column, list the reactions of the world.

12) Observe:

Peter assumed that Christians would be persecuted for their faith.
He noted that the world would slander them, a word that in Greek implies evil intent.
It suggests derision and hostility, and Peter had told the believers in Asia Minor to eliminate it from their own lives so they could grow in Christ (1 Pet. 2:1).

Instead, when they were accused, Peter wanted their lives to reflect Jesus.
This is what the culture would observe, and that would bring glory to God.

Ask:

• How should an understanding of a believer’s true home influence his or her actions? (PSG, p. 40)

Transition:

Peter shifted to focus on the primary source of the persecution for his readers:
human authority, especially the government.