“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exilesdispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” (1 Peter 1:1–2, CSB)
There is something that happens at my house I wonder if you can relate to. When we get back from grocery shopping, we will unload the groceries where they need to go, and then my wife will point at something in the fridge (usually something like bacon, or some other meat product that goes well with breakfast) and say, “Please don’t use this; it is for one of the meals I have planned for this week.” This is a routine we have developed because when we first got married, we would put groceries away, and I would cheerily use items in the fridge that I didn’t know were already marked for a specific purpose.
Set Apart for a Divine Purpose
If you compare the opening of Peter’s letter, which is shown at the beginning of this article, to many of the other New Testament letter openings/greetings, you will notice that it is a bit more drawn out than most. (Galatians, Romans, and 1 Corinthians are among the letters that have lengthy opening sections too, but the rest are much briefer.) In this greeting, Peter seems to be making an emphasis on reminding his audience who they are. He says that they are chosen according to the foreknowledge of the Father, which recalls scriptures like Deuteronomy 7:6. He says that they have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the set apartness of God’s people. Finally, he says that their chosenness and set-apartness are for them to be obedient and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, using covenant language and imagery from Exodus 24.
Peter is writing during a time when being a follower of Jesus was becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous. Here is how Dr. John Whittaker puts it on his Listener’s Commentary site:
“The Christians in the provinces throughout Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) were experiencing all sorts of harassment, ridicule, social suffering, and hardships because of their faith in Jesus. Peter writes to them to help them know how to honor Jesus under such circumstances. How should they relate to their neighbors and business partners? How should they act in and around town? How should they treat the unbelievers who treat them so badly?”
“He says that they have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the set apartness of God’s people.”
Peter, as he is writing to instruct them on how to live in a Jesus-honoring way, uses those opening descriptors (chosen, sanctified, and sprinkled by the blood of Jesus) to remind the Church of their identity. He is reminding them who they are and, more specifically, whose they are. During circumstances that make compromise tempting, Peter is connecting their identity to God’s purpose.
While being exiles and being chosen are two clear descriptors, sanctified seems to carry most of the weight as the theme of this letter. Peter continues to use this theme of holiness throughout this letter. The common definition of holiness is to be set apart, or more simply, to be different. It is important to note this theme because Peter’s goal is to instill within his readers an understanding of their divine purpose as people filled with God’s Holy Spirit, navigating a world that is influenced by the opposition of Satan. He is saying that, much like those groceries that are reserved for a specific meal, we are sanctified, set apart, or made different by the Holy Spirit for the purposes of God.
This point is further made when he states this in chapter 2, verses 9-10:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10, CSB)
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Here, Peter clarifies this idea of divine purpose by using the same language that God used for Israel in Exodus 19 to emphasize that the same is expected of God’s Church. We are to be God’s representatives, ministers, and missionaries to our world that is watching and longing for the goodness that only God can bring.
This is especially important because it means that God doesn’t save us just to send us back to living out our days as if nothing has changed, except we have become a little nicer. When we surrender ourselves to Jesus and are sanctified by the Spirit, then that changes everything because we are tasked with a divine purpose to bring the hope and life we have received wherever we go.
As pastors, it can sometimes be hard to communicate this vision. It seems like it is easy for someone who is paid to preach and teach Scripture to say that all of their life is sanctified for the purposes of God—but what about the person who is making lattes at Starbucks? What about the middle school teacher? What about the stay-at-home mom? How are they able to live out their lives with divine purpose?
A Renewed Perspective of Our Role
I think the answer can be broken down into two parts. First, it is by reframing our perspective. This comes from a regular habit of being in Scripture and in prayer. Just before the royal priesthood text, Peter has encouraged the Church to continually engage in faithful obedience to God’s Word so that they can “taste and see that the Lord is good.” It is when we are regularly refreshed and reminded of the truth found from God that we are able to have a fresh vision for how we go about our day-to-day living.
As I was thinking of this, I couldn’t help but think of a clip of Jim Carrey at an awards gala. He was introduced as “2-Time Golden Globe Winner, Jim Carrey“ and when he took the stage, he said this,
“Hello, I am 2-time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey. You know, when I go to sleep, I’m not just some guy going to sleep. I am 2-time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey, getting some well-deserved shut eye….”
“It is when we are regularly refreshed and reminded of the truth found from God that we are able to have a fresh vision for how we go about our day-to-day living.”
Carrey continues to make a joke of the introductory title, saying that it is such a meaningless thing to measure one’s life by. While he might be right to not think highly of the title of Golden Globe winner, I think we can learn something from his joke. What if Christians went about their days practicing living out their lives with the following perspective?
“I’m not just a mechanic, I am a missionary of the Kingdom of Heaven providing help for the basic needs of people’s vehicles in a trustworthy manner.”
“I’m not just a secretary, I am a minister/servant of Christ for all, showing love and patience to all that I interact with.”
“I’m not just a business owner, I am a representative of Jesus in how I lead, manage, and work alongside my employees.”
Peter spends a lot of the first part of his letter casting a heavenly vision for the Church to live by as they try to navigate the challenges and hardships of following Jesus in a culture that is growing increasingly hostile to the way of Christ. The first answer to how Christians can live out their divine purpose is by living with a renewed perspective of their roles as priests, missionaries, or ambassadors, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:20.
Living Truth, Hope, and Love
This leads to the second part of the answer, which might seem overly simple. It is living by the truth, hope, and love they have encountered. Once they have this renewed perspective, this heavenly vision for life, then how to engage in their divine purpose is by living with truth, love, and integrity in whatever God has them doing. 
We see John the Baptist doing this in Luke 3:10-14 when the crowds ask John how they should live in light of the news of the coming King of the Kingdom of Heaven. I think it is fair to assume that these people have already responded to John’s call to be baptized and now want to know how this should impact their lives. John doesn’t tell them to proselytize; he tells them to share what they have with those who have nothing and to be honest in business dealings amid a culture of corruption and dishonesty. He tells those with power and authority not to use it against those they are over. John’s instruction on how to live in light of the Kingdom of Heaven is to live out life with integrity, love, and generosity in whatever we do.
“John’s instruction on how to live in light of the Kingdom of Heaven is to live out life with integrity, love, and generosity in whatever we do.”
This is actually Peter’s evangelism strategy. If you look at 1 Peter 3:15, Peter says that it is because of believers living their life out of their reverence for Jesus that the watching world wonders about the hope that they have. This doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to directly evangelize, but I think that Peter’s emphasis is that the entirety of the Christian life is meant to be a message of the goodness of God. This strategy is based on the premise that our goal is to show how Jesus would live if He had the jobs that we do, the budget that we do, the time that we do, or the relationships that we do. (No pressure, right?)
Questions to Ask
As pastors, church leaders, and disciple makers, I think the best way we can teach our churches about their divine purpose is by teaching them to reframe their perspective by being regularly influenced by the truth of Scripture and prayer, and by simply living out what we have encountered in our walk with Jesus.
Divine purpose isn’t about impromptu sermons and lights from heaven, but a renewed perspective on our identity in Christ and living out from that renewed perspective in a practically faithful way.
We have to help the believers we lead and teach find a vision for what it looks like for our lives to be ground taken by the Kingdom of heaven, starting with how we live from that vision.
Start by asking basic questions like these to help give a clear starting place for what our divine purpose looks like on a practical level:
- What does it look like to raise my kids and love my spouse as an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven?
- What does it look like for me to engage in conflict as a representative of Jesus?
- What does the budget of a citizen of Heaven look like?
This isn’t about perfection; it is about practical sanctification. It’s about engaging in the process of living a life dependent on the Holy Spirit as we follow the way of Jesus.
For more from Jacob, check out his blog Online Discipleship.
