SERIES: Faith Under Fire
Cultural Advice for Aliens
Whenever you go to a foreign country it is wise to read up on its customs and culture. A number of years ago I took a trip to Russia, unwisely in January! I discovered some very interesting things about Russian culture–some before I went and others after I arrived. Russians always remove their shoes when they come into a house or an apartment. Usually there is a basket of slippers to choose from; if not, you just walk around in your socks and hope there are no holes in them.
Russians wear their wedding rings on their right hands, not their left hands.
Russians don’t drink cold drinks –they think it’s bad for their throats (even though they can stand for hours in the snow at 10 below zero and think nothing of it).
Russian believers always stand for prayer, whether in church or in a small group or at the dinner table. (In fact, they stand for prayer to bless the food, and then after the meal they stand again to thank the Lord for what they just ate). Considering Russian food, I would say they are incredibly grateful people.
Russian teachers always stand when teaching, even if they are teaching three or four hours in a row. They wouldn’t think of sitting on the desk or on a stool. I know. I got some rather shocked looks when I just leaned against the desk.
Russian believers greet one another with a holy kiss–man to man and woman to woman. But a Russian man would not even think of hugging a Russian woman at church.
Russians do not ask “why?” They will stand in line at a government office for hours for a document, without ever asking why it has to be that way. It’s like they don’t expect anything to go right and so there’s no reason to complain when it doesn’t.
Now if you’re going to survive as an ex-patriot in Russia, you have to learn the culture and, to a certain extent, adapt to it. I kind of liked the no-shoes rule; I can handle standing for prayer, and even standing to teach wasn’t too bad because I am used to standing for three hours every Sunday. For myself I’d much rather hug women at church than kiss men, but I could do it if it meant not offending my congregation. My point is, you simply can’t go over there and act like an American.
But I think it would be a serious mistake to become a Russian. There are lots of reasons, but just to mention one, I could never quit asking “Why?” That’s deeply ingrained in my psyche, and frankly, I think it’s the reason why America works (sort of) and Russia doesn’t (at all). One of the reasons they spent 70 years under one of history’s most brutal dictatorships (enduring with relatively little protest the execution of 20-60 million of their compatriots) is because they don’t ask “why?” They don’t ask, “Why should life be like it is, and why can’t it be better?”
Now there’s a point to this lengthy monologue, and it relates to 1 Peter. I was an American ex-patriot living in Russia on a visa for three weeks. But according to 1 Peter, I am also a Christian ex-patriot living on earth on a visa that will last until my death (or until Jesus comes). I started out just as a citizen of earth, but when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I became a citizen of heaven. I am now an ex-patriot (alien, extraterrestrial) here, and in order to survive I have to adapt to this temporary home.
I really do not have the option of isolating myself from the world by withdrawing, as comfortable as that may be at times. Many have tried sanctification by isolation, but that is clearly not God’s purpose for us. Jesus prayed regarding His disciples in John 17:14‑15, “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. {15} My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” I like the way Swindoll explains that verse: “He has left us in the world on purpose and for His purpose. In a world where the majority are going the wrong way, we are left as lights–stoplights, directional lights, illuminating lights–as living examples, as strong testimonies of the right way. We are spiritual salmon swimming upstream.”[i] But while we are actively adapting as ex-patriots on earth, we must resist becoming too comfortable. There is a mind-set here that is poisonous, and if we buy into it, it could be fatal.
In today’s passage the Apostle addresses the practical consequences of our redeemed status. He talks about the distinctive pattern of behavior, the distinctive mind-set for believing ex-pats. He suggests three spheres in which we must refuse to adapt to the culture we live in:
The vertical sphere, having to do with our behavior toward God,
The horizontal sphere, having to do with our behavior toward one another,
The personal sphere, dealing with our internal standards and attitudes.
Look for those spheres as we read beginning in 1:13:
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
First, Peter addresses …
The vertical sphere: our behavior towards God (1:13-21)
There are four aspects of our vertical relationship with God that are addressed: right thinking, obedience, holiness, and godly fear.
Right thinking. Look at verse 13 again: “Therefore, (because of this awesome salvation God has provided, a salvation which the Old Testament prophets couldn’t figure out and the angels long to understand), prepare your minds for action….” This is no time to kick back or to be passive. We have to straighten up, get serious, take our jacket off, roll up our sleeves, and prepare for battle. In the KJV verse 13 begins, “Therefore, gird up the loins of your minds.” Ancient men wore long robes, and if they were to get ready for strenuous action they had to scoop up the bottom of their robe and tuck it into their belt so they could run without getting tangled up in their clothes. We need to recognize we are in a battle for our minds; we must decide to look at life from a relentlessly biblical world view. We must never be content with a flabby and unexamined faith.
A number of years ago Professor Mark Noll of Wheaton College wrote a probing book entitled, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, the opening line of which is this: “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” I was quite offended by that statement, but then I read further:
An extraordinary range of virtues is found among the sprawling throngs of evangelical Protestants in North America, including great sacrifice in spreading the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, open-hearted generosity to the needy, heroic personal exertion on behalf of troubled individuals, and the unheralded sustenance of countless church and parachurch communities. Notwithstanding all their other virtues, however, American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been so for several generations.
Despite dynamic success at a popular level, modern American evangelicals have failed notably in sustaining serious intellectual life. They have nourished millions of believers in the simple verities of the gospel but have largely abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture. Even in its more progressive and culturally upscale subgroups, evangelicalism has little intellectual muscle.[ii]
He goes on to criticize us for “an oversimplification of issues and the substitution of inspiration and zeal for critical analysis and serious reflection.”[iii] Now certainly there is more than a little over-generalization here, but even if Noll is only half correct, he has put his finger on a serious problem, and one that Peter would agree is a scandal. “Prepare your minds for action.” He then goes on to tell us to be sober, or self-controlled, i.e. get rid of those influences that limit our ability to think clearly. Further, he urges us to focus our hope fully on the grace of God, which though present, is also future. I think he’s telling us to remember where our citizenship lies, to remember where home is.
The second aspect of our vertical relationship is …
Obedience. In verse 14 Peter continues: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.” The grammar here is a bit ambiguous, and I don’t know whether Peter is complimenting them here, calling them obedient children, or exhorting them, saying in effect, “act like obedient children.” But either way, it is clear that obedience matters to God. And Peter here describes it in the negative: “Do not be conformed to the evil desires you used to exhibit.”
The world Peter lived in was a world dominated by evil desires, no less than ours. Barclay writes,
There was desperate poverty at the lower end of the social scale; but at the top we read of banquets which cost thousands of pounds, where peacocks’ brains and nightingales’ tongues were served and where the Emperor Vitellius set on the table at one banquet two thousand fish and seven thousand birds. Chastity was forgotten. Martial speaks of a woman who had reached her tenth husband; Juvenal of a woman who had eight husbands in five years; and Jerome tells us that in Rome there was one woman who was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself being his twenty-first wife. Both in Greece and in Rome homosexual practices were so common that they had come to be looked on as natural. (Imagine it!) It was a world mastered by desire, whose aim was to find newer and wilder ways of gratifying its lusts.[iv]
Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? When people joined our church in St. Louis the elders used to ask them to share the answers to three questions:
(1) What was your life like before you met Christ?
(2) How and when did you meet Him?
(3) How has your life changed since?
It’s a helpful way to share one’s faith story, but the first and third questions are ones I think everybeliever should periodically ask himself. We should on occasion remind ourselves of the darkness we came from (“the pit from which we were digged,” as one OT prophet put it, Isaiah 51:1, KJV), and we should regularly evaluate how far we have come. We should ask ourselves, “To what extent has my life possibly reverted to habits and desires I had before I even met Christ?”
But I think God is looking for more than evidence that we haven’t backslidden. He’s looking for holiness. That takes us to a whole new level.
Holiness. You know, a person can be obedient without being holy, but he can’t be holy without being obedient. Obedience is gauged by conformity to a standard, like the Law of Moses. But holiness is gauged by comparison to a person. Look at verse 15: “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Not “be holy as I am holy.”) Who is the standard for holiness? It’s God Himself. He is characterized by absolute moral integrity.
We are going through a gut-wrenching period of American history in which it seems to me we have corporately made official what many have been saying unofficially for many years, namely“morality is not absolute, but relative.”
Lying is wrong, except . . .
Character is important, but . . .
Adultery is serious, however . . .
Friends, God has a very simple answer to all this rationalizing, “Be holy in all you do.”
Be holy in your marriage.
Be holy at work.
Be holy at school.
Be holy when you pay your taxes.
Be holy when you stand in line waiting (oops!).
Be holy in the way you drive. Yes, even that.
Exactly what does that mean? For many people the term “holy” conjures up notions of asceticism, flowing robes, long beards, solitude, haloes, etc. But stripped down to its essentials the term holy simply means “set apart.” We speak of holy communion, in which the bread and wine are set apart from common use and set aside to God. We speak of holy matrimony, in which a man and a woman are set apart to one another in an exclusive relationship. Holy living is recognizing that we belong to God and He calls the shots in our lives. He’s the one who defines what is right and wrong, not society’s mores, not political polls.
The fourth aspect of our vertical relationship is …
Godly fear. Verse 17 reads, “And if you call on him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” Fear is something I have often experienced when in a foreign country. I’m not talking about dread, but a certain apprehension that always goes away the moment I touch back down on American soil. In Mexico City it was the fear of pickpockets, in the jungles of Venezuela it was the fear that the witch doctor in the remote village we were sleeping in might really succeed in getting one of his demons to attack me, in East Germany it was the fear of the secret police. I never forgot that I was an ex-patriot in these countries; I never went out without my passport or without phone numbers to call in case of trouble. That kind of fear is probably healthy.
Peter says we are to live our lives as strangers here on earth in reverent fear of God. We don’t hear much about the fear of God today; the very term tends to offend the modern mind. But the real meaning is “reverence” or “awe,” and these are very appropriate responses toward the God of the Bible. He is an awesome God; He is a sovereign God; He is a just, righteous, and holy God. He will also be our Judge.
The fact that we call God “Father” might tempt us to presume that we will receive favorable treatment. But Peter tells us God is an impartial Judge. There will be no jury nullification in His court. At the Judgment Seat of Christ each believer will receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10). This is not a judgment to see whether we will get into heaven; for the true believer, that’s settled. Rather it’s a judgment of our works and ministries to determine what reward we will receive or what loss we will sustain.
So why is it important for us to remember that we are ex-patriots and to live in reverent fear? Do you see the answer there in verses 18-21?
“ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. “
In essence what Peter is saying is this: we should live our lives in godly fear because our salvation cost so much. It cost the Savior His life. We were trapped in a lifestyle characterized as empty slavery. The only way for us to be emancipated was to have someone buy us out of the marketplace of sin, and that’s what Jesus did. The whole life of Christ is summarized right there in verses 19-21: His pre-existence, His incarnation, His sinless nature, His death, His resurrection, and His glorification. But the focus is on the ransom He paid, not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood. He said, “Now you’re free to live for Me and serve Me.”
Sadly, a lot of people don’t realize how empty their life really is. The culture has done a number on them, propagandizing them into thinking they’re free when in fact they are slaves, much like the Communist Party convinced so many Russians they were living the good life when they were actually living in physical, moral and spiritual poverty. Listen to one writer as he describes the futile lifestyle of the lost–
“ … a lifestyle promising to satisfy, to bring happiness and pleasure and contentment. Yet it brings just the opposite. This lifestyle leads only to another hangover or another bout with guilt–if there is even enough conscience left for guilt. It’s one ‘happy hour’ (strange name!) after another. One high after another. One snort after another. One drug after another. One affair after another. One abortion after another. One partner after another. It’s life lived for the highs, which are nothing more than temporary breaks in the lows. It’s empty. It’s hollow. It’s miserable. It’s exactly as Peter describes it: a ‘futile way of life.’” (Swindoll, 36-37)[v]
I read a fascinating article in USA Today. It’s title was “Aha! Call it the revenge of the church ladies.” I want to share a few paragraphs:
Sigmund Freud said they suffer from an “obsessional neurosis” accompanied by guilt, suppressed emotions and repressed sexuality.
Former Saturday Night Live comedian Dana Carvey satirized them as uptight prudes who believe sex is downright dirty.
But several major research studies show that church ladies (and the men who sleep with them) are among the most sexually satisfied people on the face of the Earth.
Now isn’t that special?
Researchers at the University of Chicago seem to think so. Several years ago, when they released the results of the most “comprehensive and methodologically sound” sex survey ever conducted, they reported that religious women experience significantly higher levels of sexual satisfaction that non-religious women.
The author goes on to say that there appear to be at least four factors responsible for the link between spiritual commitment and sexual fulfillment:
First, church ladies appear to benefit from their (relative) lack of sexual experience prior to marriage…. Second, churchgoers appear to benefit from a commitment to marital fidelity and marital permanence…. Third, church ladies typically enjoy far greater sexual freedom…. part of the reason (they) have more fun is that they don’t have to worry about many of the fears commonly associated with sexual promiscuity, such as the fear of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, fear of rejection, fear of out-of-wedlock pregnancy or fear of getting caught…. And church ladies seem to benefit from the belief that sexual pleasure is not the be-all and end-all of human existence, or even the key to a happy marriage. While sexual fulfillment certainly contributes to marital satisfaction, Mayo says that sexual enjoyment is more commonly a byproduct of a stable, happy union rather than the primary cause of it….
Finally, church ladies appear to benefit from the belief that God created sex… the controversial 1993 Janus Report on Sexual Behavior found the non-religious “have a tendency to focus on the more technical or physical performance aspects of sex, while the religious pay more attention to the mystic and symbolic dimensions of one’s sexuality.”
Put another way, churchgoers are apt to delight in the Edenesque pleasure of “being naked and not ashamed” of celebrating the “transcendent intimacy” found only in the marriage bed.
Interestingly, the Bible encourages such exultation (and the author proceeds to cite several passages).
Now you may be thinking, why spend so much time on an issue unrelated to 1 Peter? Well, in part, I thought this was a very insightful article and was looking for an excuse to share it somewhere. But this article is really not unrelated to 1 Peter. Remember what I was illustrating, namely Peter’s assertion that “it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ”?
There is a way out of the futility of postmodern thinking; there is an answer to the emptiness, the relativism, the sin, the addictions that plague so many lives, and it is through faith in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He came that we might have life, and that we might have it to the full (John 10:10).
So much for the Vertical. Peter secondly addresses the horizontal aspects of our lives, i.e. what should characterize our behavior towards one another. And here, of necessity I will be more brief.
The horizontal sphere: our behavior toward one another (1:22-25)
Verse 22: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” First, he gives the believers to whom he is writing a compliment. Apparently they had demonstrated a good measure of obedience resulting in sincere love.
Sincere brotherly love. What does he mean by “sincere love?” In firstm year Latin we learned the words sine cera, from which we get our English word sincere. The two Latin words mean, “without wax.” In ancient times dishes and vases were made out of pottery, often painted. Once in a while a vessel would crack while being fired. An unscrupulous potter might fill in the crack with wax, paint over it, and sell it as a good vessel. The only way to tell was to hold the pot up to the sun, and then the crack could be seen. Or poor hot soup in it, but then it was too late. Reliable vendors advertised their wares as “sine cera,” or “without wax.” Peter says our love for one another must be the same. Nothing hidden, no painted-over cracks, no hypocrisy, able to pass the test when held up to the sun (Son).
But then the Apostle says something strange. Having just complimented them for their sincere love, he challenges them to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” At least it seems strange untilwe recognize that he is using two different words for love in the original language. When he compliments them, he uses the Greek term, “philadephia,” which we have brought directly into the English language. We all know the city by that name is supposed to be the “city of brotherly love.” Brotherly love is important, and they are apparently doing well with that kind of love. But there is another kind that is even more important. And that is godly love, agape love. A form of agape is the term he uses when he exhorts them to “love one another deeply, from the heart.”
Godly love. Agape love is a higher form of love, a love that flows from the will, not the emotions. It is the love that says, “I will do what is best for you no matter how you respond.” It seems that what Peter is saying is that if these Christians would allow the human affection they already exhibit for one another to be enhanced with divine, self-giving love, then it would be transformed and elevated into a truly heavenly thing.
One of the most profound comments made regarding the early Christians came from the lips of a man named Aristides, sent by the Emperor Hadrian to spy out the strange sect that seemed to be cropping up everywhere in the Roman empire, namely the “Christians.” Having seen them in action, Aristides returned with a mixed report, but his immortal words to the emperor have echoed down through history: “Behold! How they love one another.” Is that what people are inclined to say when they observe Christians today? Or is it,
“Behold! How they judge one another!
Or, behold! How they criticize one another!
Or, behold! How they fight with one another!”[vi]
Some of you have come from churches where bashing other Christians was developed to a fine art. Sometimes evil attitudes of bigotry and prejudice and spiritual arrogance are justified under auspices of doctrinal purity, biblical orthodoxy, and a refusal to compromise. But I believe it’s possible to be uncompromising in one’s own allegiance to Scripture while at the same time treating Christians who differ with respect and love. That doesn’t mean we never openly rebuke someone. John MacArthur recently took Joel Osteen to task for his heresy of health/wealth theology, and I think that was right because Osteen’s influence is getting into our churches. I know one couple who have been part of this church for over 45 years and they regularly watch Joel Osteen and think he’s great! I have warned them. but he’s a slicker talker than I am, I guess.
Peter offers one more thought regarding our love for one another:
Love based upon the new birth and grounded in Scripture. I think the question he is addressing is this: How is it possible to love one another when some people in the Body are so weird and unlovable? Well, it’s only possible because of the new birth. “since you have been born again.” Agape love is impossible without the new birth, but since we have been given new life and all that goes with it, including the power of the indwelling Spirit, we can love one another as we ought.
But Peter goes even one step further, indicating that we have been born again “not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God,” the Word that, unlike the grass and the flowers, stands forever. “And this word is the good news,” says Peter “that was preached to you.” Peter is quoting Isaiah 40:6-8. Let’s read it.
A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said,[c] “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty[d] is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Peter is calling upon us to recognize that the horizontal dimension, our behavior toward one another, must be controlled by the timeless, absolute truth of God’s Holy Word, the Scriptures.
Now quickly I point out the final sphere which Peter alludes to, and that is
The personal sphere, dealing with our internal standards and attitudes (2:1-3)
The great salvation God has provided speaks not only of Godward change, and outward change, but also of inward change. Look at the first three verses of chapter 2, which should have been left with chapter 1: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” First Peter calls for the
Removal of sinful attitudes which stunt growth. The sins he enumerates in verse 1 are all basically sins of the heart and mind. Rid yourselves of these attitudes, he says. Take them off like smelly clothes and dispose of them. Instead he calls for …
Replacement with spiritual milk which promotes growth. Peter just spoke of the new birth in verse 23, but being born again is not the end-all of the Christian life; it’s the commencement. Newborns must grow. Our son Eddie was born craving food. He was born on March 23 and weighed 30 pounds by Christmas day 9 months later. That’s the kind of rapid growth God would like to see in our spiritual lives.
But I don’t think we should push Peter’s word picture too far and conclude that spiritual milk is the permanent diet of the believer. Certainly there comes a time when spiritual meat should replace spiritual milk. To see a six-month old baby sucking on a bottle is cute; if a 40-year-old man were to do it, it would be disgusting. Unfortunately, there are a lot of 40-year old Christians, and even some senior adults, still on the bottle, perhaps in more ways than one.
The goal God is after is for all of us to grow up. We have tasted that the Lord is good; otherwise we would never have started on the Christian life. But now it’s time to mature, to discover what elseGod has in store for us spiritually.
Conclusion: My lesson title today is “Cultural Advice for Ex-Patriots.” I have warned us against taking out citizenship papers here, becoming so acclimated to this world that we forget it is not our home. But there is another danger, and that is retreating into the Christian ghetto. Some read only Christian books, listen to Christian radio and TV, watch Christian videos, and have only Christian friends. They feel safe because we all speak the same language and have the same common reference points. But God does not allow the option of building Christian ghettos, because the church exists under a missionary command. We need to penetrate other cultures, adapting so we can reach the people in them with the truth. This church building, our church programs, our Sunday School classes and small groups all exist to equip us to reach out with the radical message of the Gospel to those who don’t know Jesus Christ. That is our calling. Let’s pray.
Prayer: Father, help us to grow up, first by getting things right with you vertically, then with one another horizontally, and finally by cleaning house and feasting our appetites on Your Word. Lord, help us as ex-patriots to know when to adapt to this world and when to make a clean break with it. Bring to our attention those things that will assist us in staying clean in a corrupt world. Give us an intense distaste for things that displease You and a renewed pleasure in the things that bring You honor. And help us never to forget where home is. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.
DATE: June 10, 2018
Tags:
Culture
Obedience
Holiness
Love
[i] Charles Swindoll, Hope Again, 28.
[ii] Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, 3.
[iii] Noll, 12.
[iv] William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter, 187.
[v] Swindoll, 36-37.
[vi] Swindoll, 45-46.