We live in a world of displaced people—just think of the millions of refugees fleeing violence. We also live in a world of spiritual refugees where people of faith may feel exiled by modern culture. Many Christians live in their own diaspora, alienated, sorrowful, and feeling homeless.

In these times, we can be tempted to bitterness or despair, but on a deeper level we yearn for a home we have never truly known. And sometimes we just want to fit in. The letters 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude can offer us encouragement as we grapple with these feelings.

Peter's first letter was written to a group he refers to as ‘the elect exiles of the dispersion’ living throughout Asia Minor. While they may not have been literal exiles, as they grew closer to Jesus they moved further away from their culture and its values.

This led them to feel like strangers in their own homeland. They were not alone in this feeling of spiritual exile. Peter felt it too, and expressed it by referring to his location as Babylon.

But he didn’t mean literal Babylon, the ancient city to which God’s people had been exiled from their Promised Land about 600 years prior. Instead, he was writing from a spiritual Babylon, which was likely a code name for the city of Rome.

Peter’s readers too, felt like they were in a spiritual Babylon. They had become like foreigners in their own country, longing for the only place they would truly feel at home. This feeling of being different had led Peter's readers into the temptation to return to their

old lifestyle before Christ. They desperately
wanted to fit in again and perhaps also find comfort in old habits. Plus, their neighbors added
pressure of their own, feeling that any resistance to local customs, especially religious ones,
was a threat to the stability of the community.

Because Christians acted differently, they
stood out, and were held in suspicion, which led to false accusations of
wrongdoing, slander, and insults. To these Christian refugees and cultural exiles,
Peter offers a word of comfort and
hope, the letter known as 1 Peter.

Their brothers and sisters around the world were
facing the same kinds of difficulties they were. Yes, the devil was trying to devour them,
but the greater truth was that God really did care for them. And one day he would bring
them safely to the home they longed for,

not a city on this earth, but to the eternal glory
he had prepared for them in his heavenly kingdom. Not wanting them to make life harder than it had
to be, Peter also gave them practical advice: "Honor everyone. Love the family of
believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor."

He urged them to conduct themselves honorably,
accepting the authority of local governors and abiding by laws not in conflict with their
faith in Christ. Instead of responding to unfriendly neighbors with insults of their own,
he encouraged them to continue doing good and

to be prepared to respectfully explain
the reason their lives looked different. By the time Peter wrote his second letter, the
external cultural resistance he addressed in his first letter seems to have diminished.
Instead, the churches faced a new threat.

Teachers arose from within their midst who were twisting Scriptures to fit their own desires. Peter feared that these teachers would exploit the believers in Asia Minor for their own benefit, and that their destructive opinions would draw them away from Christ. So, knowing that he was

about to die, Peter wrote 2 Peter as a stirring reminder. In it, he urged readers to use the Spirit’s divine power to continue to put godly qualities into practice, even when it was hard, and not to be enticed away by the destructive opinions of false teachers with sinful lifestyles.

To write his second letter, Peter was partly inspired by a short, but powerful letter Jude had written earlier to a group of Jewish Christians. Jude, like James, was a brother of Jesus, who only came to believe Jesus was the Jewish Messiah after the resurrection. Like Peter, Paul,

and the other apostles, Jude labored to share the good news about Jesus around the Roman empire. Jude’s readers were primarily Jews who had received the gospel directly from the apostles. So, he used popular Jewish writings to illustrate his message.

It’s these stories from non-Scriptural texts which can make the letter of Jude feel unusual to us today. However, like Paul cited pagan poets, Jude also was comfortable using stories that were not divinely inspired yet were well-known to his readers. He used them to

illustrate the necessity for believers to boldly defend the faith that God had entrusted them. When we feel displaced, like strangers in our own homes, we may be tempted to try to fit in by compromising our faith in Jesus.

This temptation can come from the outside, from
culture casting insults and accusations of evil.  Or it can come from the inside, from false
teachers promising an easier way to be a disciple.  When we apply the truths of these three books,
we stand firm in godliness and wait with patient

hope for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Day when he will finally bring us home.

1 Peter, 2 Peter & Jude Historical Background

The Bible Effect

정신적 유배와 고향에 대한 그리움

수백만 명의 난민이 폭력을 피해 피난을 떠났고, 많은 기독교인이 현대 문화에서 소외되고 추방당했다고 느낍니다.

베드로전서, 베드로후서, 유다서는 이러한 감정으로 힘들어하는 사람들에게 용기를 줍니다.

베드로전서는 고국에서 이방인처럼 느껴지는 소아시아의 기독교인들을 위해 쓰여졌습니다.

베드로는 '바빌론'을 사용하여 그들의 영적 유배를 묘사하는데, 아마도 로마를 가리키는 것으로 보입니다.

남들과 다르다는 느낌은 예전 생활방식으로 돌아가고 싶은 유혹과 순응해야 한다는 압박으로 이어졌습니다.

초기 기독교인들이 직면한 도전

기독교인들은 다른 생활 방식 때문에 의심과 거짓 비난, 비방과 모욕에 직면했습니다.

베드로는 하나님의 돌보심을 확신하고 하늘나라에서 영원한 영광을 약속합니다.

베드로는 모든 사람을 공경하고, 동료 신자들을 사랑하고, 하나님을 두려워하고, 황제를 공경하라는 실용적인 조언을 합니다.

명예로운 행동, 법률 준수, 신앙에 대한 정중한 설명을 장려합니다.

베드로후서에서 교회는 자신의 욕망을 위해 성경을 왜곡하는 거짓 교사라는 새로운 위협에 직면했습니다.

베드로는 독자들에게 성령의 능력을 사용하여 경건한 성품을 실천하고 거짓 교사들을 대적하라고 촉구합니다.

유다의 편지는 유대인의 유명한 글을 인용하여 비슷한 고민을 다루며 자신의 메시지를 설명합니다.

유다는 비성경적인 이야기를 사용하여 신앙 수호의 필요성을 강조합니다.

유혹을 극복하고 신념을 지키기

신앙을 타협하게 만드는 유혹은 외부 문화와 내부의 거짓 교사로부터 비롯됩니다.

베드로전서, 베드로후서, 유다서의 진리를 적용하면 신자들이 굳건히 서서 그리스도의 재림을 기다리는 데 도움이 됩니다.

궁극적인 소망은 예수 그리스도의 재림과 우리의 영원한 본향에 도착하는 것입니다.