How To Be Here

The people of God live between two worlds or realities. As God’s people, we belong to a new kingdom and way of life. We await with confidence the fullness and consummation of God’s rule that will one day be our reality. At the same time, because that day has not yet dawned, we live as strangers…exiles…far from home. We have a promised inheritance, but it has not yet been passed on to us. Given the mission Jesus gave the church: “you will be my witnesses”, God does not want us to withdraw and separate from society while we wait for His return and establishment of His kingdom, but rather we are to stand firmly, pointing to the possibility of a different way of life.

But waiting far from home brings challenges. We are to live in this world, yet model through our lives something entirely different. From our ethics to our interactions, to even how we handle opposition and persecution, we are to be a people who follow the example of Jesus who “entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly.” This ten-week series on the book of 1 Peter seeks to answer the questions, “How are Christians to live in our world? How are we to interact with society? Where are we to be different? Where are we to adopt the norms and cultures of society, so that we may gain a hearing in an increasingly hostile world? What will we need along the way in order to be successful in this?”

The series seeks to give us the mindset and tools of what it means to live as God’s elect exiles, far from home, but true to Jesus’ example in a way that becomes a compelling and alluring witness to the world of the goodness and mercy and grace of God. We may feel we are in a new place as a church with an increasingly hostile culture. But we have been here before. This little book can help us find our way again.