Strangers in the World

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.

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.

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.

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.