LESSON 11 • God's Chosen
(Or, "The One for All, all for The One")
1 Peter 2:4-12

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Daniel is the Old Testament’s “holy stranger” par excellance. Taken from his homeland as a youth, he finds himself serving at the pleasure of an enemy king, one without much respect for the “god” of his conquered enemy. Summing up the stories of Daniel can be done pretty easily, and they are meant to teach us a short set of three lessons. First, when God’s people are faithful to him, they look weird to the people around them. Secondly, being faithful is more important than being ‘normal.’ Third, being faithful eventually pays off, not only with God (though that’s the most important part), but also with the Babylonians. 
The first letter of Peter works towards those same lessons, but with a few twists. We’ll check those out as they come to us, but it might be helpful to read the letter as if we imagine that Peter is writing to some Christian “Daniels.” The similarities and differences will help us understand this section a little easier, at least. 



To get into this section, let’s note a few dissimilarities between Peter’s audience and the situation of Daniel and his amigos. First of all, Daniel was a Jew living among Gentiles, but Peter is writing to a group of Gentile Christians living among Gentile pagans. Secondly, there is another example available to Peter of someone who seemed like an outsider, but whose faithfulness was rewarded in the end, namely, Jesus. Third, while the Jews who were exiled had gotten used to knowing themselves as God’s chosen people for centuries before they found themselves in exile, Peter’s audience enters into exile and people-hood at the same time. If the exile challenged Israel’s notions of whether God had elected them or not, the persecution faced by Peter’s audience certainly had a similar discouraging effect. 

The major similarity is that Peter is trying to encourage them to live faithfully in sight of the challenges and persecutions. He faces two major obstacles in the letter, namely the hardship of the persecution (compared with the allure of sin), and his readers’ doubts and confusion about their identity. In the section at hand he is dealing more specifically with the latter, but it can be noted here how closely the two are entwined. After all, it seems that their doubts about their identity are brought about by the hardship of persecution. So while Peter is here attacking the issue of identity, the persecution theme is going to be present as well. 

Analysis

The section here deals with the challenges presented by those difficulties in the following fashion:

2:4-5 An invitation to understand identity.
2:6-8 Christ is an example of one rejected, but chosen. 
2:9-10 Identity—chosen, with purpose. 
2:11-12 Live out your identity! 

Contextual Overview

It fits into the context of the letter easily enough, as Peter moves between the three themes of identity, persecution, and faithfulness pretty fluidly throughout the whole thing. Specifically, the sections immediately prior to this one and following it are concerned with the particulars of living faithfully. Here he is making a more intense plea for them to understand the identity out of which such faithful living flows. This helps us see that Peter’s concern with identity here is practical. He is not concerned with an abstract theological point as much as he intends to bring about a particular lifestyle.

Exegesis 

In the first pair of verses Peter admonishes them to come to Christ, described throughout this section as a stone. Whereas Peter was named rock by Christ, a central part of his identity, he is now in the business of calling everybody stones. Christ is the chief rock, but we’re all living rocks, part of a giant stone temple. Now this is not just for the sake of a poetic understanding, it is more than pretty language (even if it is that, too). What Peter is trying to do is help people who live disconnected, lonely lives in Christ understand that they are part of something much bigger than themselves. This section is intended to encourage—to fill the reader with courage, specifically, the courage needed to live faithfully. Peter tells them first in this section that they are not alone, but are part of something bigger than themselves. 

He then goes into a section of quotations in verses 6-8, the point of which is relatively simple. It might be good though to caution against a particular way of misreading the text which we’re open to here. From our perspective, we might see these texts as arguing for the proper place of Christ, as a sort of apologetic, offering proof that even though Christ was rejected, he is in fact God’s Messiah. In other words, we might tend to read it like some of the speeches in Acts, like Pentecost for instance. The argument there is directed towards people who assume Christ’s rejection by people, and need to hear that he is, regardless of that rejection, still the Messiah of God. Here though, the argument works backwards, since Peter’s readers already are Christians, they already acknowledge Christ as Lord. What Peter is working to get them to acknowledge is the rejection that comes to them as Christians. Here Peter is saying, “Hey, if this is the guy you acknowledge as leader, and he was persecuted, then don’t be surprised if you too experience rejection.” In other words, the persecution or rejection his readers face is not evidence counter to their identity as Christ’s followers, but is inherently tied to that identity. 

After that example, in verses 9-10 Peter mentions that some are destined to be the rejecters, the ones who do the rejecting that was part of Christ’s mission. It is those people that Peter’s audience is contrasted against. They once were part of the rejecters, but now they have been assembled into a people. They once were fragments of other nations, with many different identities, but now they are united into one entity. Here the theme is the same as the first part, but the emphasis is now on transformation. He earlier mentioned their unity, but now it is clear that the unity is a change, it is a new gift that they have been given. All this is at the hand of God, who has done the choosing. This set of verses has a lot to say to us about God’s election, and its relationship to our identity. 

The final section, verses 11-12, brings all this theology back to the point of change, the call to live faithfully. Here Peter urges them to live out that identity as God’s people in the middle of opposing forces. Indeed, they are in the midst of war. This living is done in the midst of people who are adamantly opposed to the church, in the middle of its enemies. Peter notes that even among such people, faithful followers of God can have an effect. It is important to note that Peter doesn’t here call the people to faithfulness because they will have a reward. He calls them to faithfulness because, ultimately, it will result in God receiving even greater glory, perhaps some from those who now are enemies of the church. The honor of the church will be a witness to the world. 

Discussion

1. What are some specific ways that you might live differently if you: 
a. consider yourself alone in your faith, a lone warrior; or 
b. Consider yourself a part of a greater movement?

2. What are some places in your life that you were surprised by the world’s attitude towards your faith? Are there any places where you wish they were a little more surprised by your faith and the way it changes you?

3. List the top ten things that describe your true identity:

4. Is the world a Christian place?

5. Is America a Christian nation?

6. To what extent can we expect the world to think, feel, and act like us?

7. Which will have to change in order for us to feel more like exiles:
a. The world will have to become more evil.
b. We will have to become more holy. 

8. What does the church of today define itself against? How does what we are “not” help us understand what we “are”? 





Steven Hovater has been involved with God’s ministry to teenagers at Pleasant Valley since the night in 1999 when the Denver Broncos defeated the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII. When he wrote this he was engaged to be married to the woman he loves, Kelly Scheppegrell. They should be hitched now, and forever. He also loves Jesus, books, and movies.