My second year Greek class started translating through 1 Peter last week. But when I began working on it Wednesday morning I couldn’t get past verse one. I got stuck not because of odd vocabulary or grammar, but because of thinking about one word, “sojourners.” I sat marinating in thoughts on that word for 20 or 25 minutes and wrote two pages of freshly squeezed scribble. The devotional goodness came by considering that in identifying his readers as “sojourners” (exiles, strangers, pligrims, aliens) Peter immediately identifies the cause of their current discomfort: they were not home.
“Exile” is a word that describes people in a place where they don’t belong. Strangers don’t fit in — they’re not supposed to. A “sojourner” in particular is one who is on a journey; on their way to a specific destination. But a sojourner has not yet arrived. A pilgrim needs to make progress.
By calling his readers sojourners Peter is not referring to the fact that his Jewish readers weren’t home in Israel, but that his readers weren’t to their heavenly home yet. So even while it is true that they were physically scattered or dispersed throughout the various regions mentioned and away from their national home, the sojourn Peter has in mind is a spiritual one.
Two reasons from context stand out:
So Peter’s readers — and by way of application, all Christians — are sojourners in this present world. We do not belong here, and our temporary residence is by design of the One who chose us. This world is not our home — we’re just passing through.
But oh how we do try to make ourselves comfortable. We do try to fit in. We learn the language and the customs of the natives. We try to identify with them by looking like them and acting like them. And we are surprised when our values or priorities conflict. We wonder that we do not get along better.
Yet there should be no surprise because our citizenship is in heaven. The truth of this identification should impact our daily ponderings and pursuits because there’s no place like home.
3 Comments
Sean,
Thanks for the post. It is funny that you posted on this subject because I recently began studying 1 Peter and was questioning what kind of “sojourner” Peter had in mind in verse 1. Just beginning studying the book you find yourself stuck in verses 1-2 looking at the great work of salvation by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I haven’t talked to you in awhile and hope everything is going well.
Man, almost like providence or something! I’ll be down in your neck of the woods for the Shepherds’ Conference next week, so hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy some face-to-face fellowship.
Man, SK.. what a great post. I mean, I know you preached on it yesterday but its good for me to have it in writing, at least for myself. How often I try and fit in with this world, decieving myself by thinking that maybe if I act just a little bit like them, they’ll come to Christ, and Therefore thinking that their salvation is up to me. And how often do I get comfortable with this place.
It makes me think of a song by Caedmon’s Call called “This World.”
“This World has nothing for me But This World has everything All that I could want But nothing that I need.”