Exiles: A Study in 1 PeterSample

There’s one thing we need to understand about this passage and it should jump out in the very first verse. Peter uses the phrase, “arm yourselves,” which is very important. Right off the bat, Peter is acknowledging the fact that Christianity is a battleground and not a playground. There is in fact a battle for your heart. And as you can see in verse 3, the world wants to pull you into everything it has to offer. All of it. And the truth is, the world expects that stuff to draw you in, they expect you to participate. The reality is that in the moment, some of those things seem fun, but truthfully all of that sin, is simply that… sin. It separates us from God and ultimately it’s not what is His best for us. And we get it, temptation is very challenging. But that is the exact reason that Peter reminds you to arm yourselves with a specific way of thinking. Ultimately if you are a true Christ follower, in this world you will face some hard times and quite possibly even persecution. In the days in which this piece of scripture was written, Christians faced physical persecution. But we must understand that there is a fight for our souls, the enemy wants to draw us away from God. Peter is urging us to get to a point where we can say no to sin and say yes to God.