Performance Notes:
As part of Summit 2022 at Abilene Christian University, I performed all of 1 Peter in a session titled “Reading and Hearing 1 Peter.” After that event, I recorded my performance of 1 Peter so that I could share it on the blog. Rather than share it all in a single post, however, I have decided to break it into four different parts. This is the video and commentary on the first part, 1 Peter 1:1–2:3.
A Note on the Parameters for Part One
I could have ended part one in several different places. For example, the opening blessing (which takes the place of the opening thanksgiving prayer we typically find in Paul’s letters) likely ends in 1:13 with the second occurrence of the phrase “at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (more on that in the next section). Admittedly, most English translations see 1:13 as the beginning of the body of the letter, rather than the end of the opening blessing. I take the “therefore” in 1:13 as a summary of the opening, however, rather than an introduction to the body; the call to non-conformity in 1:14 opens the main argument of the letter’s body.
So, following that line of argument, I could have ended part one at 1:13—and, indeed, I understand that to be the end of the first section of part one. I decided, however, to include the material through 2:3 because the whole section is tied together with references to new birth. The blessing opens with the reminder that God in his great mercy has caused us to be “born again” (1:3), and the section ends by exhorting us, as newborn infants, to crave pure, spiritual milk (2:2). Between these bookends, the author refers to the audience as “obedient children” (1:14) who call on God as Father (1:17) and who have been born again through the imperishable seed of the living and abiding word of God (1:23). The repeated imagery of new birth, therefore, ties together this material as a unified section.
The Time between the Revelations
First Peter describes the audience as living between two revelations of Jesus Christ. The first revelation was the incarnation; the second will be his return in glory at the end of this age. The church, meanwhile, lives in between. Interestingly, Peter’s audience, though they are much closer to the time of the first revelation, occupies a similar place as a present-day audience. They are not eyewitnesses of the first revelation (“though you have not seen him, you love him”) and they are still waiting for the second revelation (“though you do not see him now, you trust him”), just like audiences who hear 1 Peter today. This time between the revelations is marked by “various trials” (1:6) which the audience must endure, but God does not leave them alone during this liminal time. They are guarded by God’s power through faith as they wait with confident hope for the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Some forms of Christianity give little attention to this inbetween time. Someone is saved (through baptism as Peter describes in 3:21), and they go to heaven. But what about the many days and years that might separate those two moments of salvation? What happens in that time? How do we “grow up into salvation” (2:2) during that time? These are important questions, and 1 Peter addresses them with its focus on the time between the revelations of Jesus Christ.
Being Sober-Minded
At three different points in 1 Peter, the author exhorts his audience to “be sober-minded” (1:13; 4:7; 5:8). The word occurs only three other times in the whole of the New Testament (1 Thess 5:6, 8; 2 Tim 4:5), which makes its repetition in 1 Peter even more noticeable. But what does the author mean when he calls for sobriety? He might simply be advocating that they avoid drunkenness, but I believe he has something else in mind.
In my performance, I use a specific gesture when I say “sober-minded” (a gesture that I’ll repeat when the word recurs later in the letter). I intend for this gesture to communicate stability, clear-mindedness, and centeredness. In the midst of the maelstrom swirling around his audience, I think Peter encourages them to be anchored. Rather than being swept hither and thither by one’s passions or by the various trials assailing them (which would be like drunkness), he calls them to anchor themselves in the stable hope of Jesus’s victory and his coming revelation. Take a breath, refocus, and rest on the firm ground of God’s promises. Yes, they need to “prepare their minds of action” (literally, “gird up the loins of your mind”), but any action should be rooted in the assurance of “the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
An Unintentional and Unfortunate Slip
In the very last sentence of this section, I made a significant mistake. When Peter encourages his audience to “long for pure spiritual milk,” I finished the line with “so that by it you may grow up into maturity.” The mistake is understandable because “maturity” fits with the birth and growth metaphor that Peter has been using, but it misses the somewhat startling point that Peter makes. They are to long for spiritual milk, he says, because it will grow them into “salvation.”
This use of the word “salvation” fits with Peter’s understanding of the audience living between the revelations of Christ. In one sense, they have already been saved. They have already been “born again” (1:3, 23), just as they have already been brought out of darkness and have already received God’s mercy (2:10). But Peter also understands their salvation to be a future event. They are in the process of obtaining the salvation of their souls (1:9), and look forward to the time when God will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish them (5:10). So, just as they find themselves between two revelations, they find themselves between two salvations. This framework allows Peter to both affirm their status as God’s children and set expectations for future growth. The time between salvations is not static. Some Christian traditions focus almost exclusively on the first “salvation,” the initiation into the Christian community through baptism. Peter reminds us there’s more. One’s salvation doesn’t jump from baptism to heaven. The time between those moments—the time in which we live our lives—is important. It’s a time for ongoing growth and transformation; so, Peter tells us, during that time we must long for the spiritual milk that will grow us into salvation.