The First Letter of Peter- 11

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 3

1 Peter 2:21-25. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 1, 2026.

In his instructions to household slaves leading up to this passage, Peter makes this point.  If you suffer for doing what is right and patiently endure it, there is favor with God.  He now points them (us) to Jesus as a great example of what he is talking about.  Jesus suffered for doing what was right, and he righteously endured it.

Jesus is not just an example to household slaves.  He is also an example to all of us in our situations that may have differences but are essentially the same dynamic spiritually.  We are going to see through the rest of the letter that Peter continually points us back to this example he lays out here.

No matter what relationship may bring us suffering, God’s purpose is to create millions of examples (exhibits) of those who suffered for doing what was right, and yet, patiently endured it.

Let’s look at our passage.

Christ is our example (v. 21-25)

Verse 21 adds the phrase “leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Think of all the steps that Jesus made in which he could have turned back, but he kept going forward. 

Peter is doing this when he asks to step out of the boat.  Peter made a choice to ask, and then he chose to step out of the boat.  Notice that there is a point at which the results of our decision carry us along, for good or for bad.  It is not that there are no more choices to be made, but that there are tidal forces carrying us.  We tend to warn about the power of consequences, but we should also see that there is a good in it.  The choice to step out of the boat created a scenario in which there was no going back.  He would either walk or sink.  There is a certain good in this.  When we steel our courage and follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we find ourselves in scary places, yes.  But we also find ourselves in places where God shows up to help us through it.  Just that first step to follow his example is often the opening of a whole river of God’s help.

Jesus chose to care the burden of the cross for us, and so we ought to carry our cross for him.  Praise God that He is working in us to help us do this very thing!

Theological liberals love to say that Jesus is only an example of love, i.e., he was not actually paying a price for our sins.  This is an error and contradictory to Scripture.  However, it is also an error to downplay the reality of the example that Jesus has given us.  Of course, this example of trusting the will of God would do us no good if Jesus had not truly atoned for our sin.  But he has made peace between us and God.  He has supplied the Holy Spirit within us to help us do this!

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53:9, “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.”  This is a passage describing God’s work through His perfect servant, the Messiah.  Israel had failed to rightly serve God’s purposes.  However, God would bring forth a perfect servant, a suffering servant, who would save Israel and the Gentiles by his righteousness and suffering.

This Old Testament verse uses a word that is generally translated as “violence.”  The word involves doing wrong to someone in a harsh way.  This can be a physically violent act, or metaphorically violent in the sense of brazen and bold wrongs done to another.

When translated into Greek, the translators chose a word that means lawlessness.  Only a lawless person would sin against others in such a bold and harsh way.  The quote in 1 Peter says, “who committed no sin.”  Peter expands the “lawless” translation of the earlier Greek manuscripts to the more general “sin.”  Definitely Christ was revealed to them as not being a violent, lawless man.  However, Jesus was more than this.  He was without sin.  We see Jesus challenging his opponents in John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”  Of course, the only “sin” they could pin on him was that he a man made himself one with God, which is no sin if it was true.  Hebrews 4:15; 7:26, 1 John 3:5, among many other New Testament verses, agree with this statement of Peter.  The Messiah was a sinless man.  The apostles came to see that Jesus was the only perfect imager of God the Father who had ever lived on this planet.

The second part of this Old Testament quote from Isaiah 53 says that he was free of deceit, or treachery.  There is nothing like suffering to bring out the worst in us.  It is often in our desire to avoid difficulty that we choose a path of misleading people or hiding the truth.

Jesus positively did good things to people, but he also refrained from doing wrong to others.  This is the example that we are called to follow, not because it saves us, but because we have been saved.  I can’t follow Jesus perfect enough to save myself, but I can follow Jesus out of perfect thankfulness for his saving grace.

This leads us into the next descriptions of the character and actions of Jesus.  These emphasize what he didn’t do.

Jesus did not respond with reviling to those who reviled him.  To revile someone is about verbal abuse.  It can be translated to rail against someone.  Any time you see someone spitting mad yelling obscenities and accusations at another person, you are seeing this in action.  In fact, this is a perfect example of the metaphorical violence that Isaiah 53:9 references.  How easy it is to become so angry with such people to begin shouting back at them and responding to them in kind.

Jesus was accused of many things in very unkind manners.  During his trial, he is even pictured as being blindfolded, punched, and in a mocking manner, told to prophesy who hit him.  This was both verbally abusive and physically abusive.  Yet, Jesus did not yell back and say hateful things against them.  When we are squeezed by life, the stuff that is deep within us is generally brought to the surface.  You and I have a history of failing in this area when we are in the pressure cooker of suffering.  Yet Jesus went through it without sin.

If you remember the night of his betrayal and arrest, you will also remember that Jesus showed the disciples how they could follow him.  It would require more than a spirit that was willing.  A willing spirit must deal with its weak flesh through prayer, wrestling with God over His purpose in our life and yielding to Him.

1 Peter 2:23 also mentions that he uttered no threats.  Sometimes threats are empty because we have no way of backing them up.  We may be powerless, but Jesus is not.  Jesus has great power and thus shows great restraint.

Of course, don’t get Peter wrong.  There is a great threat looming over those who reject Jesus.  How you treat him will determine your eternity.  However, Jesus doesn’t threaten people.  He only points out the truth.  During his trial, he found it best to generally not respond to their accusations, taunts, and lies.  Yet this doesn’t change the fact that there is a day of judgment for each of us and for this world as a whole.  God will hold us accountable for choosing our sin over the top of the righteousness of Jesus.

The last thing that Peter points out about how Jesus endured suffering is that he entrusted “himself to Him who judges righteously.”  Persecution doesn’t only affect how we treat others.  It can also affect our relationship with God the Father.  Jesus entrusted himself to God the Father even in the face of death by wicked men.  He could do this because His relationship with the Father only knew Him as trustworthy.  Jesus stepped out of the boat of mortality and put himself into the hands of the Father.  “Do with me what you will, Father!”  God could powerfully stop his persecutors or not.  Regardless, Jesus both knew and trusted the decision of the Father.  May God help us to have such a relationship of trust in Him.

Remember that God is never “on the side of sinners.”  If it looks like they are getting ahead and that it pays to be wicked, don’t believe it.  They will eventually stand before God and despise themselves in His presence.  However, God is on the side of sinners in the sense that He is trying to break through their spiritual blindness.  Our righteous suffering may be the only thing that pricks the heart of the wicked and turns them back from sin.  Can I do that for Jesus?  He promises to reward our service for His purposes, but we have to trust Him with our life.  Yes, they may reject the witness we give, but at least God sees me.  He doesn’t like what is being done to me.  However, if I do this rightly, I can have His favor.  I can remain in the place of His favor.

This suffering of Jesus is more than an example of love and trust.  Verse 24 shows us that Jesus was a sacrifice that provides spiritual healing for us.  In Jesus, God is providing a way for sinners to find spiritual healing. 

We sometimes act like we don’t know what God is doing through us, but we do know in general.  He is showing Himself to the world through us.  We don’t have to perfectly understand all the ways that He is doing that in order to say, yes, to Him.  This is what faith (trust) is all about.

In trusting God, Jesus did something for God that needed to be done if any humans were to dwell with God in eternity.  Without Jesus even the best of humans would be stuck in the grave, unable to enter into His presence.  We may be clueless to what God is doing specifically, but we do know that it has to do with showing others who Jesus is.  Jesus provided for our spiritual healing, but then he uses you and me to bring that spiritual healing into the minds and lives of the lost.  We provide opportunities for them to know His spiritual healing.  Verse 24 explains how his sacrifice does this.

“He himself carried our sins in his body on the tree.”  If you approach this from an Old Testament mindset, you will recognize the importance of this word, “tree.”  This whole thing with sin started with some trees in Genesis three.  The Tree of Life was counterposed to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They chose (we choose) to go after the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than the Tree of Life.  There is something about trees in the word of God that is important.  We see this in Psalm 1.  The perfect Israelite (there was ever only one) would be a Tree of Life that would bring forth fruit rather than chaff.  This ultimate fruitful Israelite would only be the Messiah who is presented in the next psalm.  Blessed are those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:12). 

Scripture doesn’t describe the Tree of Life, but the New Testament presents Jesus as the ultimate Psalm One Blessed Man.  Yet the tree on which he provided life for us did not look desirable.  It was a cross.  Everything in our flesh wants to continue to flee to the other tree, but God calls us to embrace this tree of suffering in Jesus.

Jesus took your sins, my sins, in his body (a representative of whomever would believe in him) to the cross.  God’s punishment upon our sin came upon Jesus who was sinless.  Is this fair?  Of course, it is not!  However, it is love.  In Jesus, our sin has been nailed to the cross and punished.

Notice the contrast between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of this age.  Jesus embraces our death upon himself.  He sacrifices his mortal self in the name of God’s purpose in humanity.  The spirit of this age will sacrifice any number (the more the better) of humans for the sake of humanity.  Those who make the decision of just whom will be sacrificed will never be caught making sacrifices themselves.  Which of these hearts will you choose?

Peter than describes that this was “so we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”  Our sins and the guilt that comes with them have been dealt with by God.  He simply asks me to admit my fault, yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put my faith in him.  If we do this, our sin and guilt will be completely removed.  The flesh will still battle us, but it cannot change what Jesus has done, once and for all.  By faith, we can die to the sin that we so easily want to do and come alive to the righteousness that He wants to work in us and work through us.  If we claim that His love is working in us, then we will see it working through us to others.

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53 again (verse 5).  It is the wounding of Christ that provides for our healing.  This is important because Peter is pointing us to this as an example.  Because of Jesus, our suffering and wounds can do some good, both in our lives and in the lives of others.  My wounds and suffering can point others to Jesus and his salvation.

Spiritual healing does involve the removal of the external guilt of our sin that hangs over us.  However, it is the internal guilt of sin that is harder to heal.  We have to let the forgiveness of Christ and the love of God teach us the better way, the way of Christ!

Peter then ends with emphasizing our spiritual condition in verse 25. He breaks this up into two different stages.  Before Jesus, we were continually straying like sheep.  Notice that this is an allusion to Isaiah 53:6. Led by our fears, ignorance, and desires, we stray away from the Good Shepherd and the grace of God.  “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.”  This was true of Israel, and it was true of the Gentile nations.  It was true of me, and it was true of you.  This is our helpless state before Jesus came and before we came to know about him.

But now, after coming to Jesus, we are something different.  We are now sheep who are returning, coming back, to the Good Shepherd who is also the Overseer of our souls.  Both shepherd and overseer correspond with what later became role titles in the church: pastors and bishops respectively.  I don’t think Peter is giving any sense of religious title here.  Jesus is the good shepherd in every way that a shepherd is good for sheep.  He is the great overseer watching out against our enemies and for our good.

Doesn’t it seem odd that Peter (one of the sheep) is exhorting the rest of the sheep to be more like the Good Shepherd!  May God help us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the help of His Holy Spirit!

Witness 3 audio

The First Letter of Peter-10

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 2

1 Peter 2:16-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 25, 2026.

We continue in this first letter of Peter.  He is focused on how we follow Jesus, and how that affects the world around us.  God wants those who are following Christ to be a witness and a testimony to the world.

This witness will save some.  We will be a witness that they receive.  However, others will not receive our witness.  The things we share and do are then evidence against them.  Of course, this is not our goal.  Our goal is to help them see Jesus.

In many cases, it may seem unfair that God expects us to be a witness for Him to people who do not deserve it.  The rub here is that we are the ones determining who doesn’t deserve it.  No one “deserves” the Gospel, but the grace of God has chosen to make it available to all.  We either agree with that and help, or we disagree and ignore the commands of Christ.

It is common that Christians end up suffering for their active witnessing to the world.  This too may seem unfair.  Why should we suffer so that they can be forgiven?  The answer is Jesus.  He suffered death for you and them so that forgiveness could be possible.  If we believe in him, then we can agree that his purposes are worthy of the greatest of sacrifices.

Let’s look at our passage.

Submit to every human institution of authority (v. 16-17)

We had to stop in the middle of this section last week.  The main point comes from verse 13. We are to do this for the Lord’s sake (not ours), without respect to the level of authority, and in order to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

There are going to be people who reject God no matter what His decision is.  It is God’s will that we submit ourselves to the governing authorities in order to shut the mouths of those who would ignorantly accuse Christians of rebellion.

Of course, it is a spiritual rebellion.  We will not serve the devil and his angels.  However, our goal is not to fight the governments of this world.  It is to silence their mouths through righteousness.

Verse 16 then adds the instruction that we should use our freedom to be slaves of God.  Now, some of them are free people and others are slaves.  There is even a spectrum of from the least freedom to the most freedom.  It would start with those who were slaves and move up to those who are simply servants.  We then would come to those who are free but have no Roman Citizenship (the Apostle Peter) and move to someone like the Apostle Paul who had both freedom and Roman Citizenship. 

However, Peter is not talking about our natural freedom.  He is talking about the spiritual freedom that we have in Christ.  All Christians have been spiritually set free from the guilt of their sins and the rebellion of humanity.  We have been also set free from any claim that the devil may have on us.  Those who were Jews were set free from the Law of Moses.  This doesn’t mean that Christians are lawless.  Instead, we are under the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

Many Christians make the mistake of using their situation as an indication of what they truly are in Christ.  If my circumstances are bad, then I am a loser in Christ, a failure.  If my circumstances are good, then God loves me, and I am a blessed winner.  Isn’t our Lord Jesus a rebuke to this kind of thinking?  Of course, he is!  There is no more victorious person who has ever lived than the Lord Jesus.  Yet his circumstances were so bad that “we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4 NIV). 

Peter warns against using our freedom as a “covering for evil.”  We can sweep a lot of things under the carpet of freedom that are not in character with the freedom that God has given us.  Another way to describe this is to use grace as a license for immorality.  Did Jesus free us so that we can continue to sin, or God forbid, do even more sinful things?  Of course, he didn’t.

Those who protest the loudest that they are free from being judged are in bondage to the vices and lusts of their heart.  In fact, all of us have recognized how particular sins can get a hold on us.  We want to be free from it, but it seems to have powerful control over us.

This brings up the issue of political freedom.  What good does political freedom do for those who are in bondage to sin?  Only people who are spiritually free can remain politically free.  Those who are not will find their political freedom disintegrating before their eyes.  How much political freedom are we going to lose before we repent?  I don’t know.  God will let us lose it all, if we don’t do so.  It is up to us how far we will fall.

God will goad us along the way, trying to get our attention.  He doesn’t want us to be destroyed, but He may let it happen. 

So, Peter started this passage calling believers to abstain from fleshly lusts (v. 11).  Now he has described that further as not using your freedom in Christ as a covering for evil.

Peter then gives a quick list of the kinds of things we can do as free people who are serving God in verse 17. 

The first is to honor all people.  Honor is something that is nobler than submission.  At its root is the idea of value.  It can be a person who has value, or it can be a person who is in a valuable position of authority.  Of course, a high position is not needed for a person to have great honor (value).

A person who has no honor is a person who has become worthless.  Many worthless people end up in positions of honor.  This can be a difficult and oppressive thing to endure.

To honor someone who has honor requires me to see beyond myself.  It really should be easy to do.  Yet a person of honor who is in a position of honor should see the value of the people for whom they are responsible.  Shouldn’t a king see the value of the people he serves, even the peasants?

Ultimately, value comes from God.  It is He who has made us and not we ourselves.  It is a common occurrence that we do not live up to the value that God has given us.  Peter challenges us to see the value in all people and give the honor that God wants you to do.  We must use our freedom to honor all people appropriately.

The second thing in verse 17 is to love the brotherhood.  Brotherhood here contemplates the family of God as a band of brothers, which includes both men and women.  The devil loves to tempt Christians into the path of hating one another, or at least not caring to love one another.

We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us.  This is not a fake honor and not a fake love.  We should not love sparingly or begrudgingly.  We are to use our freedom to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Love always begs the question, “What does it mean to love now?”  I know a man whose son ended up in prison for a period of time.  When the son was released, the dad tried to help the son get back on his feet by giving him a place to stay and a job in his shop.  It is clear that the dad loved his son when he could have written the son off.  I’m sure the dad wrestled with what the love of Jesus would have him do.  After some time of working in his dad’s shop, the son began to dip into the till.  At some point the dad suspected it and eventually caught his son’s sin.  What can the dad do now?  He is faced with the hard question.  What does love do now? Yes, you want to help your son, but his problem is clearly far deeper than just needing a helping hand.  What would you do in that situation?  Loving people is difficult, but it is what Jesus calls us to do.  Love doesn’t always do the same thing.  Sometimes love has to say no more.  Sometimes it has to tell someone to leave before they can be received back in repentance. 

Peter also tells us to use our freedom to fear God.  This may sound like a contradiction, but God has not set us free so that we can live a life of not having proper respect for who He is, and what He has done.  He is our Father, but He is also our Judge.  He will not pervert truth in order to make you feel good.  He loves you too much to do that.

We are told in the Bible that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Yes, you are free to be a moron, but that is not what God had in mind when He gave you freedom.  We will all give an accounting to God one day.  There will be consequences for the way we have lived our lives.  However, there is more to the Fear of the Lord than just being afraid of hell.
Moses, when confronted with the idea that God might not go with along the way to the Promised Land, feared not having relationship with God.  God, You must come with us.  Otherwise, people will not know that Your favor is upon us.  Can you imagine eternity without Him Who is the greatest good?  Lack of relationship with God should be a far more fearful thought than eternity in a Lake of Fire.

Peter also tells us to honor the king.  This is clearly added to deal with the obvious question that would follow the earlier command to honor all people.  Should we honor even a wicked man like Nero?  We are to treat the king with respect and the honor that is due to his position and authority.  Again, that is in order to shut the mouths of foolish and ignorant people.

Household servants are to submit to their masters (18-20)

This word for servants has the idea of a household servant of various types.  Some may have greater freedom, but some may be actual slaves.  This is similar to the previous category under the king, or civil authority.  Even free people are under some authority in life.  Yet slaves and servants would have an extra layer of authority over them.

Peter calls slaves to use their freedom to submit to their earthly masters.  They are to choose to take their proper place under the master’s authority.  It may not be proper in the sense that God made them to be that way.  However, under the laws of the society, they are under a master.

Now there were some Christians who had slaves.  The letter of Philemon is written to a master asking him to receive a run-away slave back and treat him as a brother.  However, most Christians were not masters.  In fact, quite a few were slaves themselves.  You could understand that a slave might hear the Gospel and rightly think to themselves, “Christ has set me free!  No man can own me.”  Of course, God did not make any person to be the chattel property of another.  Yet this is not a perfect world.  In this imperfect world, God does not ask us to kill the masters with a slave revolt.  Instead, He calls the slaves to show the masters Jesus by giving them respect.  In fact, Peter calls them to show “all respect” in the way they submit to their masters. 

This term can mean something like terror.  However, the emphasis is on being very careful in your submission.  What if the masters are not respectable?  We are to respect them for Christ’s sake.  It is the respect of Christ that overshadows the whole issue.  I do it because I respect Christ who asks me to do it.

Jesus will not force us to submit to our master with all respect.  But He will work on our hearts by His Spirit.  He will call you to this and challenge you in it. 

The average American is no longer dealing with actual slavery.  Yes, there is some underground illegal slavery happening, but this is not what is being talked about here.  This best maps over to our relationship with an employer in this life.  Do you have a “good and gentle” boss?  It does happen!  The same thing was true of slaves in the first century.  Some of them had good situations and were happy to work for their master.  Even if they were told they were free, they might choose to stay.  However, many slaves had bad situations, even oppressive situations under masters who were evil men.  These slaves didn’t have a choice about their master.  He was who he was.  Peter challenges them to submit especially to the unreasonable masters.

It would be easier to serve someone who is good and gentle.  Anyone in the position of a lord over another person should have the qualities of being good and gentle because these are the qualities of Christ.

However, when a master is unreasonable, it seems unreasonable to expect a slave to submit to them.  The word unreasonable has the sense of being crooked, perverse, or wicked.  How can God expect us to serve a wicked master?

Many people in our society rail against the Bible and the God of the Bible.  Yet they are often using their political freedom as a license of sin, and a cover for evil things.

Freedom is a puzzle that is much more complex than we would like to admit.  Being politically free is one thing, but being spiritually free is quite another.  God is concerned about bigger issues than rather we are politically free or not.  Yes, He did not make us to be under tyrants and dictators.  However, the only way to break through to hard hearts is to remove their freedom and put them under the heavy hand of another sinner.  God is speaking to our hearts in these times, calling us to turn back to Him.  This is why nations rise and nations fall.  It is something that this rising nation should take to heart.  We have only risen because God has allowed it.  Yet He may cause us to fall as well.

God can help us through oppressive things, like a master who is unreasonable, if we will ask Him.  Rather than complaining, we can choose to trust God and submit to trusting Him.

Peter explains that a slave who endures the unreasonable actions of an evil master will find the favor of God.  Just like Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of the Lord, we are called to be people who put their trust in God’s way and not our own.

To put a finer point on this, imagine a slave being able to choose between two doors.  Behind one is political and economic freedom and behind the other is favor with God.  Which would you choose?  In truth, it would be suicide to choose freedom over against the favor of God.  What good does freedom do for a person who has drawn the ire of God?  It does none whatsoever.

Verse 19 is somewhat choppy in English, but let’s work through it.  The point is not just suffering unjustly but also enduring under the suffering.  A person will only do so for one of two reasons.  They either have no hope and have been beaten into submission, or they have hope in God.  This latter reason is the testimony of slaves throughout history, even those in America.  They had faith in God and were able to endure great suffering.

African American slave culture had developed great faith in God.  It is the wellspring of the Negro Spirituals that surfaced in that era.  If you read the words to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the “Black National Anthem,” you will be surprised at the level of faith and prophetic warning to America and black people themselves.

In the time of suffering, they learned something about God that was invaluable.  Yet they also knew that it could be lost.  This is a challenge for all people of all races.    God is found in times of suffering if we will put our trust in Him.  However, we can lose Him in the comfortable times that follow.

Peter tells us that there is no credit before God when we endure harsh treatment due to our own sin.  As free people, we may not have to suffer an evil master punishing us for our sins.  But we can suffer evil men due to our sins.  If I want God’s favor in such a situation, then I need to repent of my sin.

But, if we suffer for doing what is right and patiently endure it, there is favor with God.  Do you remember the Beatitudes of Matthew chapter five?  Jesus listed things that make us feel like we are not favored with God and told the people that they were blessed if they fit into those not so blessed categories.  Why are those who mourn blessed?  They are blessed because they have a Heavenly Father who has determined a time of comfort for them, at least if they will hang on in faith, continuing to draw His favor.

These unreasonable masters (and unreasonable, evil men) will stand before their Master one day.  They will be judged with a stricter judgment because they were in a position of power and authority.  They abused their power and will thus be treated with their own harsh treatment.

This is not an instruction that makes our flesh feel good.  It is an instruction that delivers our soul from our own sinful tendencies.  You can either be concerned with what you are getting out of life, or you can freely serve God and His purposes.  One thing is certain, you can’t do both!

Our Witness 2 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 9

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 1

1 Peter 2:11-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 18, 2026.

In some ways, we can continue to see this passage as Peter talking about all the ways that this new spiritual people are to live out their faith.  However, Peter begins to emphasize the way that our life of faith affects the unbelieving world around us.  This is why I have subtitled this part of the series, “Our Witness before the World.”  This major section of Peter’s letter goes from 1 Peter 2:11-4:11.

Let’s look at our passage.

Abstain from fleshly lusts (v. 11-12)

This small section connects back to an earlier command but also serves to transition into this issue of the world around us.  In chapter 1 verse 14, Peter had challenged them not to be conformed to the former lusts that they had in their ignorance, i.e., before they believed in Jesus.  They had been living for themselves like everyone else in their society.  Now, they are following Jesus and learning to be holy as he is holy.

God’s plan to fix humanity’s sin problem is for us to put our faith in Jesus, live a mortal life fighting sin by faith, and then He will finish the work by Resurrecting us with glorified, heavenly bodies.  Of course, the world is feverishly trying to come up with a different plan.  Ultimately, it is taking us down a path of trying to overcome every obstacle of creation in order to perfect ourselves.  At the root of the human problem is the idea that God cannot be trusted.  His creation cannot be trusted.  We must do it for ourselves!  Instead of accepting the grace of God’s help, we choose to try and make “god” ourselves.  This will not end well.  Imagine the hubris of thinking that fallen mortals can make a perfect immortal.

Chapter 1 ended with the metaphor of an imperishable seed.  Humans are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow.  However, the Word of the Lord endures forever.  We have entered into this mortal grass-existence.  However, by faith in Jesus, we can participate in the immortal and imperishable existence of Jesus, the Word of God.

This led to the beginning of chapter two where Peter tells us to lay aside things like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.  These are specific lusts.

This brings us back to verse 11.  Lusts are strong, heated desires that have their source in our body.  We cannot let these strong desires rule over us.  Thus, Peter tells us to abstain from them.  In English, the idea of abstaining is often seen in voting.  A person can vote “yea,” or “nay,” or they can refuse to vote, abstain from voting.  This can be out of protest, or it can be out of protecting future opportunities. 

Regardless, the Greek word that it is used to translate literally means to have these lust away from yourself.  It ties in with the idea of taking off the deeds of the flesh and putting on the character of Christ.  In fact, Paul gives quite the list in Galatians 5:19-21.  He tells us that they are obvious.

Notice that Peter urges them to do this.  The New King James Version says “I beg you…”  Peter feels strongly about this.  The word pictures one who calls you to their side in order to exhort you strongly about something.

He also tells them to abstain from fleshly lusts like foreigners and exiles.  This image was used earlier as well.  He is not just using this image of the Jews among them.  He is also speaking to the Gentiles.  You may be in your homeland but to put your faith in Jesus is to choose to be a part of the exiles of Christ.  We become strangers in a land that is familiar to us.

This is one of the classic tests of character.  A person who is in a place where no one knows them can be tempted to do as the Romans (when in Rome…).  This is a common way for a spouse to take their first step of unfaithfulness.

We recognize that all of humanity is in exile from God.  But in Jesus, we become exiles with a promise of a promised land.  God is in the business of bringing people out of exile into His Promised Land.

We can be blind to all the ways that our culture is pulling us away from Christ, so Peter has focused on fleshly lusts.

Peter also describes these fleshly lusts as waging war against our soul.  This is a war of possession.  Your flesh wants control of you.  It will be all about the pursuit of satisfying its urges.  However, Jesus has called us to take a stand against it. He stated in Luke 21:19, “By your perseverance, take possession of your souls.”  If you let your flesh and its strong desires win, then you will find yourself in bondage to it.  The longer this goes on the harder it will be to break this bondage.  Yet, all things are possible with God!

The lusts of our flesh can wear us down.  We can grow weary of denying them and casting them aside.  On top of this, the world around us cajoles us, even badgers us, towards living a life of satisfying our lusts.

This internal battle will have an outward effect, which he turns to next.

“Keep your behavior excellent among the nations.”  The inner battle leads to external behavior, or conduct.  This is seen and even experienced by the world, the nations, in which we live.  This is really the same command with parallel language.

What is excellent behavior?  Peter clearly means excellent by God’s definition and not by the definition of the world around you.  This word excellent has the idea of good as well as a moral good.  It is connected to beauty.  Can we live in a way that is beautiful and morally good to God?  Jesus is the pattern and the help for us to do so.

They are to do this in the face of slander.  Early Christians were slandered a lot, whether ignorantly or maliciously.  Some of the slanders were as follows:

1. Communion was often described as a ritual of eating the flesh and drinking the flesh of babies.
2. Their times of communion involved a meal called the love feast.  It was common to claim that these were nothing more than orgies (gluttony on food and sexual immorality). 
3. Christians were accused of being antisocial because they didn’t participate in the entertainments of the culture.
4. They were also accused of being atheists because they didn’t worship all of the gods.

Such slanders are done because they tend to be effective upon weak people.  It can affect some by causing them to be angry and respond in an unchristian way.  It affects others by stirring fear in their heart.  The fleshly lust of being accepted, approved by others, can lead us away from Christ and into the world.

Christians should not be quick to believe statements about others that we have not personally observed.  Of course, we shouldn’t overly defend people that we do not know either.  Have you noticed that we are a society that is pushed to and fro by slanders and libels galore?  This is a part of the sinful culture in which we live.  Can I continue to abstain from fleshly lusts when others around me deploy them against me?

No matter how the world describes our actions, we are to live out the excellent behavior that Christ leads us to do.  Like the good Samaritan, we do the right thing whether others do or not. 

Again, they may malign us, but here is the main thing.  Peter says that they will observe our good deeds.  Have you ever thought that God gives us sacrificial things to do in order to get the attention of the world and to be a witness to it?  They need to see us doing Christ-like things!  They may be perplexed at why you don’t do what they do, and they may even be angry that you are not like them.  Yet, they will see us doing the righteousness of Christ nonetheless.

Peter then says that they will glorify God in the day of visitation.  This visible evidence of the work of God’s Spirit within us will have an effect one way or another.

The day of visitation mentioned here simply means a day when God shows up, whether for good or bad.  This can be contemplated in the ultimate sense when all the wicked are brought before Jesus for judgment.  How will they glorify God then?  They will recognize in the moment that they were wrong and that we were right.  As they declare that Jesus is Lord, they are also declaring that His work in us was true.

It is also possible to see the day of visitation in regard to the times that the Spirit of God touches a person’s heart and mind.  This visitation of grace begs the question.  What will you do with this Jesus?  When we demonstrate the goodness of Christ to a sinful world, some of them may glorify God by putting their faith in Jesus at a later date.  This is the best revenge upon enemies.  Show them Jesus and give them the opportunity to become a part of the new spiritual people of God, a brother!

Submit to every human institution (v. 13-15)

Peter now focuses particularly upon human authority structures in our lives.  These people were not under the authority of these United States of America.  They were under the Roman Empire and the Roman Emperor, Caesar.  This was a dictatorship with local governors and magistrates serving the purposes of Caesar.

We have talked about this word “submit” in the past.  It refers to taking your proper place under a particular authority.  It does not mean to obey every command.  This is exampled by Peter and the apostles in Acts 5.  They were told by the authorities to stop teaching about Jesus.  Peter stated, “We must obey God rather than men.”  How did they take their proper place under authority?  They did not obey the command that was contrary to God, but they did submit to the arrests and beatings.  They did not use the arrogance of these human authorities as a justification for fighting back with weapons.  In fact, we saw this during the arrest of Jesus.  Jesus had done exactly what God had commanded him to do.  However, he submitted to their arrest.

We are not going to fix the authorities of this world through revolution, swords, and guns.  Christians are not called to be purposefully rebelling against authorities.  However, we are not called to blind obedience to them either.  We are called to be like Christ, to share his Gospel.  We image the good Character of Christ.  What they do with us between them and Christ.

The Roman Empire no longer exists today.  That is the judgment of Jesus Christ!  And, if we are not careful, the judgment of Jesus Christ may cause the United States of America to no longer exist. 

The only thing that can fix the authorities is for enough of this Republic to repent, trust the Word of God in Jesus, and to live out that faith boldly.  In truth, to submit to the human authorities is to submit to the authority of Jesus.

In all of this, we must be led by the Holy Spirit.  Men like Jeremiah were accused of not submitting to the government because they didn’t like what he was saying.  Jeremiah did what he did for the Lord.  This is what Peter means when he says for us to submit “for the Lord’s sake.”  We can be led by God to be a rebuke to authorities all the while staying in proper submission to the authority they have.

We may not feel like doing this, but we do it for Jesus.  Jesus is King over Ceasar, over the POTUS, over any leader of a nation today.  We may ask why God let’s some of them do wicked things.  It is because He gives people time to see the error of their ways, to see His people living righteously in spite of their evil.  Yet, in the end, Jesus does judge these nations.  Do you not realize that most nations today are less than 200 years old?  As these United States of America approach 250 years since our formation, we should do so with great humility and repentance.

Regardless of the level of the authority, we respect the command of Christ.  These authorities are responsible for punishing evildoers and praising those who do right.  They may do a horrible job at this.  They may even have totally corrupted the processes that were set up to ensure this.  Yet, God will have the final word.

We are not under the Roman Empire.  The average American does not understand how authority works in this Republic.  We tend to believe that the citizens have the least authority, then the cities and counties, then the States, and finally, the Federal government is the top authority.  Those who crafted the wording of the Constitution would be perplexed at how ignorant we are in these matters.

If you think of authority as a sphere of operation, then we can recognize that a man and woman would have authority over their home and what happens in it.  This is a sphere in which the State and the federal government had no authority.  These other groups may have more power than you and can abuse that power, but in the end, they have no authority over your home.

They did not see the federal government as above or below the State governments.  Some of the powers invested in the States were delegated to the federal government.  It was a delegated authority.  The federal government is the highest authority only in those enumerated spheres that we stipulate in the Constitution.  Anything outside of that is an abuse of power without proper authority.

In those spheres that were not given to the federal government, the States would be the highest authority, but only if the people of those States had given them that sphere of authority in their State constitutions.

All authority is given by We the People through constitutions to our State and federal servants.  If a particular authority is not stipulated in a constitution, then it is retained by the people.

This brings up the question of sovereignty.  Jesus is the capital S Sovereign of these United States.  However, We the People are the little s sovereign of this land.  We need to always be asking who have We the People made to be the proper authority in this area?  We need to also ask, “What is God’s purpose?”

If we are willing to do anything in order to “fix” the government, then we will find it is easier said than done.  This is a spiritual problem not a political problem.  Many evildoers have pushed themselves into our authority structures.  In those structures, they have arrogated powers to themselves that were never properly given them.  Until We the People repent and call our elected servants to heel, corruption and wickedness will rule over the land.  This will only bring the judgment of Christ against this great Republic.

In the end, Peter states that God wants us to submit to the authorities in order to silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Many of these foolish men are not Christians, but some of them are.  Those who do not accept the truth of the authority of Jesus have a vested interest in maligning His Church.  On top of this, certain parts of the Church have not followed this admonition perfectly in the past.

God is teaching this world about righteousness and freedom.  We can work in harmony with that teaching, or we can be at odds with what God is doing through Jesus.

This is where controlling the fleshly lusts can help us.  Much of politics is about manipulating the fleshly lusts of the populace in order to gain power against an opponent.  We can be manipulated to work against our own best interests!  No politician and no political party can fix this land.  Only a repentant people surrendered to the authority of Jesus can be truly set free from the bondage into which they have fallen.  That will transform our society!

Our Witness 1 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 8

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 5

1 Peter 2:9-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 11, 2026.

This section will finish the description of this new spiritual people that Jesus is making out of Jews and non-Jews (those of all the nations).

It is not enough to know the content of these descriptions and commands that Peter has given in 1 Peter 1:13 to 2:10. We must believe them and trust God’s work in them.  We must grow in walking out a life of faith in Jesus as the Messiah of God who is leading us in glorifying God the Father.

We need to be the new spiritual people that God is making us to be.  We can complain that it’s to hard, and God can’t expect us to do this.  However, God doesn’t expect you to do it.  He expects you to do it with the Help of His Holy Spirit and by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Let’s look at our passage.

But you who believe are… (v. 9)

When Peter quotes Psalm 118:22 (the stone the builders rejected) in verse 7 and then quotes Isaiah 8:14 (a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense) in verse 8, he is giving us the Scriptural support for understanding this as always being God’s plan.  He ended verse 8 with the point that those who did not believe were disobedient to the Word, and this caused them to stumble over Jesus the Messiah.

However, God had appointed them to this stumbling.  This is not in the sense that they had no choice.  However, having become hard-hearted towards the prophecies about Messiah and his suffering, God sent Jesus at just the right time.  He would be rejected by those who were supposed to point the world towards the Messiah that would come.  God sent them a test that He knew they would fail.  Yet, their failure would lead to the salvation of anyone who would believe in this Messiah, even if they were involved in putting him to death!

In verse 9, Peter now turns to those who didn’t reject Jesus or, at least, didn’t continue in rejecting him.  “But you are…”  Both Jews and Gentiles ended up in this place of faith in Jesus by different ways.  Those Jews who believed the Scriptures embraced Jesus as Messiah when he was revealed.  Simeon and Anna are examples of this in Luke 2:25-38. Saul of Tarsus would be an example of someone who rejected Jesus at first but then changed his mind as God confronted him with his errors.

The Gentiles did not have the Scriptures unless they had interacted with some Jews.  They are hearing the Gospel without a foundation of the Scriptures.  Yet, some of them believed.  By the way, we should always recognize that though Gentiles were embracing Jesus as the Messiah, many of them were also rejecting the Messiah.  It was only a remnant of Israel and a remnant of the nations that were believing.

Peter is going to use language from Exodus 19:5-6 and Deuteronomy 7:6 to describe this new spiritual people in the same way that Israel had been described there.

The first one is that they are a Chosen Race.  The word translated as “race” in the NASB has the idea of offspring.  Thus, it can emphasize a family, or larger nation of people.  Using race is almost too specific since the Church is made up of people from every nation.  If anything, we are spiritually connected to Jesus not biologically.  We are offspring of the spiritual work that he has done.  I think that some better translations are Chosen People (NIV) or Chosen Generation (KJV/NKJV).

The key point of this phrase is that we are Chosen by God (and generated by His Spirit).  Lots of people are born again by the Spirit of God to join this chosen people.  This first phrase is not specifically used in Exodus 19, but it is there in concept.  This phrase is used of Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6.

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Of course, we see Israel using this of themselves in places like Psalm 105:6.  Yet, we must be careful of letting God’s choice of us go to our head.  For what are we chosen?  Why did God choose us?  It was not because we were better than anybody else.  Both Israel and the Church did not exist when God purposed to make them. 

We should also recognize that the Church is chosen because of its connection to Jesus who is the Chosen One of God.

Isaiah 42:1, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.

I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

This comes from the Servant passages of Isaiah in which God describes a perfect servant in contrast to the imperfect service of Israel as a nation.  Those who believe in the Chosen One are spiritually birthed into a new spiritual people who work with Christ for His Chosen purpose.  We become chosen ones.  Our purpose is to call all people to join this chosen people and live a life that demonstrates the love of Christ.

Second, Peter tells them that they are a Royal Priesthood.  In Israel, the kingship and the priesthood were to be kept separate which makes these two terms stick out.  Only Messiah could rightly be both king and high priest.  Yet, this idea is used in Exodus 19:5-6.

“5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

The Hebrew of this phrase is made of two nouns in a construction similar to “Kingdom Priests.”  When this was translated into Greek (c. 250 BC), they used a Greek phrase that is exactly what Peter uses in our passage.  In light of this, I am not sure why translators of the NASB chose “kingdom of priests” in Exodus 19 but chose “royal priesthood” in 1 Peter 2:9.  The testimony from at least two centuries before Christ is that this Greek phrase is the closest equivalent to the underlying Hebrew in the Old Testament.

All of that said, I believe the emphasis is that they are priests that belong to a particular King and His Kingdom.  For Christians, this King is Messiah and his kingdom. 

Even in the Old Testament, it is clear that God is not talking about the Levitical priesthood.  He is describing the whole nation of Israel as priests of God’s kingdom.  Israel could be a kingdom of priests in the sense that they would be the mediator between God and the other nations.  The other nations would know the word of God through them, and they would learn how to have sins covered by them.

The Church is in a similar position, although it is of global scope and the empowering of the Holy Spirit makes it a stronger work.  Peter is not talking about a particular priestly group within Christianity.  He is talking about all Christians together operating as mediators between God and lost humanity.  This is what the Protestant reformers meant by the priesthood of all believers.

We can even see this principle in a smaller scope.  Moms and dads are to be priests in their home for the sake of their children.  Churches are to be priests for the sake of their cities.   All of us together are to operate as priests between God and the lost of every nation.

Let me also just add that the royal part is not so much about us right now.  Jesus suffered in doing the will of God as the Great High Priest of all humanity.  He is now exalted into his kingly role seated at the right hand of the Father.  The Church that is on the earth right now is destined to reign with Jesus as kings, but we must first follow his lead.  We serve as priests to our God embracing the suffering that comes with pointing sinners to Christ.  Thus, the royal part is mainly about Jesus.  We are priests for the King of kings, and we will one day reign with him.  But, for now, we focus on being priests for the King.

Next, he calls us a Holy Nation.  Though the non-Jews are a part of the nations, they become a part of a spiritual nation made up of believers from all nations including Israel.  It is not about geography in the natural.  However, we are tied to the spiritual geography of Christ ruling from the heavens.  The followers of Christ are a new nation, or people, that God is using to speak to all the nations.  Thus, we are holy, set apart for His purpose.  We see this concept used of Israel in Exodus 19:6.

“6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

Finally, Peter calls them a People for God’s Own Possession.  The KJV has translated this as a “peculiar people.”   The word peculiar is generally used today to refer to something strange or odd.  However, its Latin origin only meant something that was “one’s own thing.”  A possession was peculiar to a particular person.  It belonged to a specific person.  We are a people peculiar to God.  We are His own special possession.

Of course, all the nations belong to God, the whole earth is His.  Yet, after the tower of Babel, God had disowned the nations, turning to make a nation out of the man Abraham.  The Church is not so much trying to take over the nations as it is making a people from out of all the nations into a possession that especially belongs to Him and for His holy purposes.

This is why 1 Peter 4:4 talks about the nations thinking it is strange that Christians do not run with them after the things of the flesh that are an excess of wickedness.  If you trust in Christ, then you will live a life that is contrary to the world around you.  You can’t hold on to the world and God.  It will eventually pull you apart spiritually.  You will eventually hate one and love the other.

We see this described in similar language in Exodus 19:5. “5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine…”

The Church just as Israel is not a special possession of God because we were smarter, richer, more powerful, etc.  We are His special possession because we have believed upon Jesus as His Savior for the world.

Before and After, Then and Now (v. 10)

Peter has two more descriptions that come from the book of Hosea.  It has a before and after (then versus now) aspect to it.  He essentially gives two parallel statements saying, “This is what you were before, but you are now this!”

The book of Hosea opens with God speaking to Hosea.  He is to marry a woman who will become an adulterer.  The children from these illicit affairs were to be given symbolic names.  Two in particular are Lo Ammi, which means “not my people,” and Lo Ruhamah, which means “no mercy” or “no compassion.”  In that book, God is telling Israel that they have been like an adulterous wife to God.  The generation of Hosea’s day were the offspring of this spiritual adultery.  God was going to unmake them as a people and show them no mercy.  Yet, the passage ends with a promise that God would reverse this condition.  “Where it was said of them ‘not my people,’ it shall be said of them ‘You are sons of the Living God!’” (Hosea 1:10).

Peter sees this as not only a restoration of Israel’s fortunes through the remnant, but also the reversal of the fortunes of a remnant of the Gentiles.  If God could reverse the spiritual adultery of Israel, then why not do so for the spiritual adultery of the Gentiles since the Tower of Babel?  Of course, this was God’s plan all along.  He has done it in such a way as to demonstrate the wisdom of His mercy.  The Church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who were cast off (not my people).  However, in Jesus, they are now His people again.

Peter then describes the same thing but focusing on the mercy, or compassion, of God.  You who had not received mercy have now received the mercy of God!  Mercy involves help from one who doesn’t owe it to another who needs it due to an affliction they suffer.

If there is no mercy from God, then it is because we keep choosing our sins and rejecting His Word to us.  Yet, in embracing Jesus, we step into a place of God’s help for our affliction under sin (ours and others).

You might ask how you can live up to those great statements?  You can’t by yourself. However, if you ask the Holy Spirit to help you, and you listen to God’s Word and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will find that God does these things through us.

The next time you think that you are not important in God’s purpose, just remember that you are a part of His special people.  You belong to Him.  He has mercy for you, and He has purpose for you!

New Spiritual People 5 audio