Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Peter 2:11 - 2:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Specific Admonitions Concerning the Station of the Christians.
General requirements:
v. 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
v. 12. having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Having pointed out the inestimable blessings and privileges which the Christians enjoy, the apostle now makes a specific application of these truths in showing what obligations their possession implies: Beloved, as sojourners and strangers I admonish you to abstain from the lusts of the flesh, which battle against the soul. The intimate form of address, which is but rarely used by Peter, is intended to convey to the readers the force of the admonition. Because the Christians are but sojourners, strangers, pilgrims in this world, and are looking forward to their real home above, therefore they will certainly not endanger their hope of salvation by yielding to their fleshly lusts. The children of this world, the unbelievers, are governed and ruled by their evil desires; they perform the will of the flesh, and that gladly. But the Christians, instead of permitting their flesh, their old sinful nature, to rule them and to lead them into various sins, will wage an incessant war against these lusts of their flesh. For they know that these evil, godless desires battle against the soul, about whose salvation they are so earnestly concerned. If the lusts of the flesh gain the ascendancy in the heart of a Christian, then his soul, his true life in and with God, is lost. Under no circumstances, therefore, dare Christians heed the tempting voice of the charmers whose aim is to represent the sins of the flesh as a harmless gratification of natural inclinations. The attitude of the Christians must be that of an altogether uncompromising stand against every form of sin.
The distinction between believers and unbelievers must always be marked: Having your conduct in the midst of the heathen as an excellent one, so that, in the matter in which they now speak against you as evil-doers, they may, being spectators of your good works, glorify God in the day of visitation. The conduct of the Christians will, as a matter of course, always be in conformity with the will of God, with the denial and suppression of the lusts of the flesh, and therefore good, excellent in the sight of God. The corresponding impression upon men will then also not fail. For the very men that were now looking upon the Christians as bad or suspicious characters, as enemies of the government and as addicted to immoral practices, were still open to conviction. The Christians, therefore, should so conduct themselves in all their dealings before men, should so live in the very midst of the heathen, that their life would be a testimony for them, in favor of the Gospel. The good works of the Christians, their meekness under the severest provocations, their cheerful readiness to be of service at all times, their self-evident observance of all precepts of God's holy will—all these were bound to make an impression, in spite of all opposition. Many an unbeliever that originally considered Christianity a huge fraud has been led to reconsider his first impression by the conduct of the confessing believers. Exact observation, closer acquaintance, showed him the injustice of his position. And when the grace of God was then proclaimed to him, when God visited him with the gracious Word of the Gospel, his heart was changed in favor of the Christian religion, he accepted its truths, he glorified God, whom he now recognized also as his Father for the sake of Jesus.