A Note on the Parameters for Part One<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nI 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\u2019s letters) likely ends in 1:13 with the second occurrence of the phrase \u201cat the revelation of Jesus Christ\u201d (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 \u201ctherefore\u201d 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\u2019s body.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo, following that line of argument, I could have ended part one at 1:13\u2014and, 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 \u201cborn again\u201d (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 \u201cobedient children\u201d (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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The Time between the Revelations<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nFirst 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\u2019s 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 (\u201cthough you have not seen him, you love him\u201d) and they are still waiting for the second revelation (\u201cthough you do not see him now, you trust him\u201d), just like audiences who hear 1 Peter today. This time between the revelations is marked by \u201cvarious trials\u201d (1:6) which the audience must endure, but God does not leave them alone during this liminal time.\u00a0 They are guarded by God\u2019s power through faith as they wait with confident hope for the revelation of Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSome 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 \u201cgrow up into salvation\u201d (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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Being Sober-Minded<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nAt three different points in 1 Peter, the author exhorts his audience to \u201cbe sober-minded\u201d (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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn my performance, I use a specific gesture when I say \u201csober-minded\u201d (a gesture that I\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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\u2019s victory and his coming revelation. Take a breath, refocus, and rest on the firm ground of God\u2019s promises. Yes, they need to \u201cprepare their minds of action\u201d (literally, \u201cgird up the loins of your mind\u201d), but any action should be rooted in the assurance of \u201cthe grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
An Unintentional and Unfortunate Slip<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nIn the very last sentence of this section, I made a significant mistake. When Peter encourages his audience to \u201clong for pure spiritual milk,\u201d I finished the line with \u201cso that by it you may grow up into maturity<\/em>.\u201d The mistake is understandable because \u201cmaturity\u201d 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 \u201csalvation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis use of the word \u201csalvation\u201d fits with Peter\u2019s understanding of the audience living between the revelations of Christ. In one sense, they have already been saved. They have already been \u201cborn again\u201d (1:3, 23), just as they have already been brought out of darkness and have already received God\u2019s 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\u2019s children and set expectations for future growth. The time between salvations is not static. Some Christian traditions focus almost exclusively on the first \u201csalvation,\u201d the initiation into the Christian community through baptism. Peter reminds us there\u2019s more. One\u2019s salvation doesn\u2019t jump from baptism to heaven. The time between those moments\u2014the time in which we live our lives\u2014is important. It\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Performance Notes:\u00a0 As part of Summit 2022 at Abilene Christian University, I performed all of 1 Peter in a session titled \u201cReading and Hearing 1 Peter.\u201d 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8023,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[198181,198157],"tags":[198162],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-peter","category-performances","tag-cliff-barbarick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8023"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}