A reflection on 1 Peter 1:17–21
“Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:17–21)
A Father without favorites
Peter begins by reminding us that we call on a Father who judges impartially. God does not play favorites. He is not a tribalist. Our race, our nationality and our political affiliations carry no weight in how He sees us. The only thing that matters is the fruit we bear in Christ.
That is both humbling and freeing. Humbling, because none of the labels we lean on to feel secure count for anything before Him. Freeing, because no label can shut anyone out of His family either.
What it means to live as a foreigner
Peter tells us to live out our time here “as foreigners.” What does that look like?
It means living as people in a culture but not of it. Our family knows something of this. We are Americans living in Italy. We still think and live, in many ways, as Americans do, while surrounded by an Italian culture that thinks and lives quite differently. We participate in daily life here, love our neighbors here and learn the language here, but we carry another way of seeing the world with us.
In the same way, followers of Jesus are citizens of another kingdom. We must think and live as people who come from the culture of the kingdom of God. We live fully within the culture of this world, but with the mindset of the kingdom. Our values, our priorities and our hope come from somewhere else.
The most precious thing in the universe
Peter then reminds us what it cost to bring us into that kingdom. We were not redeemed with silver or gold, things that rust, fade and run out. We were redeemed with the most precious thing in the universe: the blood of Christ.
Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, truly without blemish or defect. It was the life coursing through Him, poured out for us, that paid for our redemption from the empty way of life we inherited.
And this was no afterthought. Jesus existed before the creation of the world and was chosen even then to be the lamb for our sake. Before there was a single sunrise, God had already considered us, knowing that we would fall away from Him, and had already provided the remedy.
One God, one way
Finally, Peter says that through Christ we believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him. Our faith and hope rest in God because of what He has done in Jesus.
This means we can only truly know God if we know Christ. There is one God and one gospel. There are not several roads that lead to Him; there is one way, through Jesus Christ. This is the message we have been given to speak, not with arrogance, but with the urgency of people who know what it cost.
It is in His love, His mercy, His sacrifice and His victory over death that Jesus is glorified, and in His glory, the Father is glorified.
Our role
So what does this mean for us? Our role is to live as people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We are called to be fruitful for the sake of God’s glory, so that all may see and know Him because of Christ and through Christ: the only way, the only truth and the only life. There is no other.
We live as foreigners here, not because we have withdrawn from the world, but because we belong to a kingdom that is coming, and we want everyone around us to belong to it too.
A prayer
Thank you, Lord, that you saw and anticipated all of our needs. We needed to be redeemed, and you have provided everything that was needed. May you be lifted up. May you be known among all people everywhere, and may you use me to make you known. Amen.