On December 21, 1620, the voyaging Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Bay, with Captain Christopher Jones at her helm. It had been a grueling voyage, taking the one-hundred-twenty-ton-capacity ship sixty-six days to make the perilous crossing. There had been disease, anxiety, and childbirth among the 102 courageous passengers. Furthermore, they arrived on the bleak New England shore during a hard winter which ultimately claimed half of their number. However, when spring came and the captain of the Mayflower offered free passage to anyone desiring to return, not a single person accepted.

The fidelity of the forty-one men, who while still aboard the Mayflower had signed the famous Compact beginning with the words, “In ye name of God Amen,” was taking on visible meaning. These chivalrous souls had dedicated themselves to the total causes of freedom. They had come to a wilderness to carve out a better way of life. Faith prompted the voyage; faith sustained the Pilgrims and their religious convictions constrained them to raise their voices in praise. Their hardships, sacrifice, devotion, concept of government, and vigorous religion all remind us of those who sought a country.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. He had been raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. But while there, he parted ways with the church, though not forever. Here is what he said:

“During my second week on campus, I went to Mass for the first and last time at Holy Cross. I don’t know why I bothered—probably habit, or guilt—but whatever the reasons, I got up and walked out midway through the homily. It was all about Church dogma, not the social problems with which I was obsessed, and seemed to me hopelessly irrelevant.”

The issue at hand is, because of the Resurrection, we should be living a different life than the world that does not believe in Jesus. It should affect everything relevant in this world that affects our lives.

We are aliens in the world, do we live like it?

Living out the Resurrection Life

1 Peter 1:13–2:

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

In the first twelve verses of his epistle, Peter unfolds for his readers a picture of their glorious inheritance. It is an inheritance secured in the finished work of Christ, who acted at the will of the Father, through the power of the Spirit. It is kept safe for them. Though now they endure difficulty of all kinds on account of their faith, these trials are fleeting. They can because of the Resurrection, and future longing to see Jesus:

Have a full hope

Have a holy life

Have the correct fear of God the Father

Have an sincere love for others

Although they do not now see Christ in the flesh, Peter, the eyewitness to his life and ministry encourages them to persevere for the refining of their faith and the joy of their salvation. Everyone Peter encourages them to be is exactly the same for us today.

We Can Have a Full Hope

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being soberminded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1:13

How exactly does a person set his or her hope on something? We could translate that, prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled. Gird up the loins of your mind.

In the ancient world, many people had long robes, and if they were going to engage in

The point is, Get ready to think hard. Be self-controlled, Set your hope fully on the grace that is to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

strengthening our hoping function. “I will hope harder. I will hope harder. I will hope harder.” That’s not the way it works.

Christian hope is improved by fastening attention on the object, by thinking about the object of our hope.

Like the kid who starts thinking about the birthday party.

The chief point in this section as a whole connects this hope with holiness.

Hope (what we eagerly anticipate) and behavior are connected. If that is what dominates your thinking, your priorities, and your choices, then other things will be trimmed off so you can press in that sort of direction.

Objectively, we are moving toward climactic holiness in the new heaven and the new earth, so align your conduct, then, with this ultimate Christian hope and set your hope on the grace to be revealed when Jesus comes.

” Why “set our hope fully on grace?” Because it is possible, and indeed common, for the believer to function as one with a hope placed partially on grace and partially elsewhere

We are people of divided allegiances, divided hopes. We hedge our bets.

We are to live a Holy life.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”14–16

If we want to set our hope fully on grace, we must deal with our sin at the source.

Temptation presents itself to the mind as a reasonable choice. Paul admonishes us to seek transformation not through the renewing of our actions or our desires, but through the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2).

“Be holy, because I am holy,” comes from Leviticus 11, and 19:2

Almost every dimension of life in the OT under the old covenant was constrained: what you wore, what you ate, almost all of the public functions.

God has the sole right to make the distinctions , and he alone establishes the sole means by which people may become clean.

Christians are moving toward the holiness that will be ours in the new heaven and the new earth. To claim we have had our sins forgiven and we are pressing on toward this climactic hope when Jesus is revealed, and yet, deep down to cherish sin is extremely inconsistent, so grotesque, so revolting that, at the end of the day, sooner or later it puts a question mark over all of our pretensions.

Peter also notes that setting our hope fully on Christ requires a second type of mental preparedness: sober-mindedness.
The call to be holy is a call to be set apart, to live as the aliens and strangers a life lived in devoted obedience to God

V17: “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.”

In our world today, the father figure is as good as gone.

Our family connection with our Heavenly Father means we belong elsewhere. We don’t quite belong here.

In this sense, we are extraterrestrials or, we might even say we are “neo-terrestrials” waiting for the new heaven and the new earth.

God is a compassionate Father commanding, demanding judgment which completely fills us in a certain sense with anticipation and in another sense with fear.

Jesus redeemed us, We are redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to us from our forefathers.

“Be holy, for I am holy,” he is not telling us to be God. He is telling us to be so much bound up with God, so much reserved for him, so much connected with all that brings honor and praise to him, so much in line with all that he is in his character and being that we are rightly said to be holy.

We are to have the Correct Fear of God our Father

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, your time on this earth.

Both the ideas of obedience and fear of God don’t find much favor in many Christian circles. He is often celebrated as loving Father, but rarely as just judge.

Peter alludes to the Passover at this point in his letter (1:19). On that night, the Israelites understood God as both Father and judge, witnessing the angel of death spare them from the judgment that fell on the Egyptians.

We can have a sincere Love for others.

Peter says in light of our inheritance is that we love one another earnestly. He links obedience to purity of heart, working itself out practically in the form of brotherly love.

This is not a simple command for the modern listener to follow, and it was not a simple command for Peter’s original audience. Persecution from outsiders would have placed strain on the relationships of insiders. Those who are enduring trials often lash out at the very people with whom they should share the deepest affection.

Will we exiles have comfort in this life?

We are to desire the Word of God for survival.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (2:1–3)

This is a powerful image, familiar to any woman who has nursed a child. Hungry newborns are inconsolable, even frantic, until they latch on to nurse. Newborns are designed to need a mother’s milk to survive and thrive.

The Incongruous Exile

Peter prescribes a way of living that we as exiles should be living that is completely incongruous with the wisdom of the world.

Imagine how alien and strange our lives would look if we lived as those who hope fully in Christ. What if our hope were no longer placed on a parent, spouse, child, career, or bank statement?

Imagine how alien and strange our lives would look if we lived as those who strive to be holy as God is holy.
We would be the spiritual exiles Peter envisions,