Read 1 Peter 1:1-9

Questions:

How would you explain the idea of ‘identity’? How is the idea of identity relevant to what the author is discussing in 1 Peter 1:1-2?

We often get confused by discussions about election. What reason would Peter have for introducing the subject here? What effect might this have on his readers?

Peter calls these Christians ‘exiles’ …

• What does this term convey, and what has brought this exile about?
• How does the church you are part of embody the characteristics of being ‘in exile’?

New Testament commentator Tom Wright says “This is God’s purpose: to set people aside from other uses so that they can be signposts to this new reality, this new world. … They are therefore to be ‘holy’, both in the technical sense that God has set them apart for this purpose and in the practical sense that their actual lives have been transformed. The way they behave  now reflects God’s desire for his human creatures. That—however daunting and unlikely it seems—is who we are as Christians.”^[1]

• How does this compare with what we normally think about holiness?
• What does the sentence “The way they behave now reflects God’s desire for his human creatures” say about you?

How has this passage influenced how you see 1) yourself 2) God’s work in Jesus?

^[1] Wright, T. (2011). Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John and Judah (p. 50). London; Louisville, KY: SPCK; Westminster John Knox Press.