I will use this post to explain the big picture of Peter’s emerging strategy, for in 1 Peter 2:11-12 Peter gives his strategy. It is here that Peter devises a strategy for how the communites of faith in Asia Minor can make an impact on their society. These two verses are then applied in 2:13–3:12. I will give the big picture today and then develop each next week.
Peter begins with the social condition of his readers: they are resident aliens and temporary residents. At the end of these verses he provides the telos or goal of his strategy: they are to glorify God on the day of visitation. The strategy that will get his readers and their society to that is two-fold: they are to avoid sin and they are to be good citizens.
This isn’t all that clever; it isn’t all that complicated. But it is pure gold. Christians are to avoid sin and to be good. This is why I have called 1 Peter an emerging Petrine gospel: the way to impact society is to embody, incarnate, and make the proclamation credible by being a local performance of the gospel itself. (This is the heart of chp. 1 of Embracing Grace.)
I’ll begin next week with a point-by-point explanation and then show how Peter worked this out in an emerging way for each of the groups he addresses.