So, Peter wants us to know that there's a great spiritual war, and that war is fought in us and around us every day. Maybe this sounds like bad news. But this isn't peace time; peace time is coming. You're guaranteed to live in peace and righteousness forever and ever. But this isn't peace time, and you can't live with a peace time mentality, or you'll get yourself in trouble.
You know, when the world's not at war, what do we do? We build bigger houses, we eat better meals, we binge on Netflix; we're not in peace time right now, this is war. And that battle is fought on three fronts: the inward front, the outward front, and the upward front. Life is war.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
So, this is very similar to themes we've looked at before, but it's organized, I think, in a helpful way. What's the inward front? The inward front is just keep reminding yourself of who you are; you're a sojourner and an exile-this is not your home! The goal now is not to see how comfortable you can be, how pleasurable life can be, how many people love and accept you. If you pursue all of those things, you will erode away your relationship with God. You have to understand there are ways in which you're not supposed to fit because this is not your home. If this home feels uncomfortable to you, it is because you were designed for another home. If this culture feels weird and uncomfortable to you, and you feel more and more an alien, that's because you were designed for something else. And part of that inward thing is again, to not give way to passions to take you somewhere else. This is the third time Peter has discussed passions in a little over a chapter. That's how much he knows that there's a war going on inside of us. That's the inward front.
There's the outward front-live honorably, live in a way that silences accusers because they have to stand back and ultimately say, "This is a good person. This is a good, loving, kind person." What do you give yourself to? Do you give yourself to what is holy in the eyes of God, not just what would satisfy your pleasure or satisfy somebody else? Are you committed to live an exemplary life, a life of honor, a life that's good?
Are you aware the world is watching? And what you do and say, no matter where you are, means something, it's important! Life has value, your choices have value, they're important. And you're called to be an honorable representative of the One who is perfectly good and perfectly wise and perfectly holy. Your life is meant to point to Him. This is important stuff.
And then the upward front. What do you do? Why you do all of this? No, not so people like you, not just so you'll be successful, have lots of praise and applause! No! It's so that God will get glory, ultimately, God will receive praise. So, there's a battle going on.
There's an inward battle-that tendency to forget who I am and be caught up in the culture of the world. There's an outward battle between what I find pleasurable, and what's honorable to God, and being committed to live in a way that's honorable and silences the accuser. And then there's upward battle, whose glory will I live for? Now, I want to say, "There's grace, glorious grace for these battles!"
