Christians sometimes debate politics. Some reason that if a nation has a majority of Christians, then we might speak of a Christian Nation with particular Christian laws and habits. Others hope for a new political order ushered in by Christ on earth that revives the laws of the old covenant for today.
Given the landscape of these debates, I wonder why few discussions highlight Peter’s political theology as expressed in 1 Peter? There, he provides not only political categories to identify us as Christians but also specific ways in which we act out this identity politically, economically, and socially as well as what it looks like when political powers use force against Christians.
While Peter does not aim to answer every question (and we should not press this one letter to do so), the apostle gives us categories for political identity and action. As Peter argues, we should see ourselves as resident aliens who do not belong to this world because we are born again as a holy nation and royal priesthood whose political orientation focuses on proclaiming God’s excellencies and holiness of action.
Resident Aliens
Peter opens the letter by calling Christians “elect exiles” in a diaspora (1 Pet 1:1). The reason why Christians are exiles in this world is because they are a new people: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Pet 2:10). Peter here draws on Hosea just as Paul does in Romans to indicate that Jews and Gentiles together are one new people of God (Hos 1:6, 9, 10; 2:23; Rom 9:25, 26; 10:19).
In the language of the anonymous letter to Diognetus, written in the early 100s, Christians are a “third race” (Letter §1). In Paul’s wording, Christ has created “in himself one new [human being] in place of the two,” that is, Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:15).
As newly born again (1 Pet 1:3, 23; 2:2), Christians become a new human being, distinct from Jew and Gentile—the other two biblical categories for people groups. We are in the analogy of Peter “living stones” that make up “a spiritual house” (1 Pet 2:5). As living stones in this spiritual temple, we become a “royal priesthood” and a “holy nation” whose vocation is to offer “spiritual sacrifices” (1 Pet 2:9, 5).
Because we no longer belong to this world and our inheritance lies in heaven (1 Pet 1:4), we have become a people for God’s own possession (1 Pet 2:9). We are sojourners and exiles, explains Peter (1 Pet 2:11). In other words, we are akin to the modern category of resident aliens, which is what the Greek word for sojourner means.[1]
As Craig Keener explains, “As members of a new people (1 Pet. 2:9–10), Christ-followers are aliens on earth (1:1, 17; 2:11), but they should behave honorably in human societies, just as societies expected of other resident aliens (2:12–14) (1 Peter, 147).”
The biblical analogies of Israel in exile as they resided in Babylon, willing the good of the city of there, apply today (Jer 29:7). Hence, Peter even says he is writing from the city of Babylon in the letter’s closing (1 Pet 5:13).
And even further back, Abraham teaches us what it means to be called out of the land in which we were first born to seek the city of God. Keener again explains, “Abraham is a “foreigner” and “resident alien” among long-term residents of Canaan (Gen. 23:4), and the psalmist, echoing Abraham’s experience, is a “foreigner” and “resident alien” before God, like his ancestors (Ps. 38:13 [ET 39:12])” (1 Peter, 148).
“I am a sojourner and foreigner among you,” says Abraham (Gen 23:4). And so he was because he was not seeking a city built with human hands but one whose maker and founder was God.
The spiritual house of God, full of living stones (us) who serve the cornerstone (Christ), live their lives as a holy nation among the nations. We are like resident aliens—long-term residents of a city or world that is not our own. For we are seeking a better city “that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb 11:10).
Put more directly, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb 13:14).
A Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation
As long-term residents of the city of man, how do we live our lives here below as we seek the city that is to come? Here is where the primary conflict between political theologies becomes acute. Some reason that if we have a majority of Christians in a nation, then we ought to form a Christian Nation with particularly Christian ends.
I grant the reasonableness of this assertion. If most people are Christians, then politicians and leaders will mostly be believers. That means they would act and legislate in ways that honour divine revelation. We might call this political arrangement a Christian Commonwealth, rather than a Christian Nation.
I have exactly zero problems with Christians acting as Christians as police officers, politicians, farmers, plumbers, and educators. Christian magistrates would share an understanding of justice and mercy according to nature and Scripture that I would appreciate. After all, Paul says God appoints magistrates and grants them authority (Rom 13:2–3). And he calls magistrates “ministers of God” (Rom 13:6), using a word that speaks of priestly activity for their ministry.
With all that said, the Bible does not speak of the “spiritual house,” “body of Christ,” or “church” (synonyms) as a society of political power here below (e.g. Phil 3:20). Rather, it defines us as a spiritual society:
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices … as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul (1 Pet 2:5, 11).
Peter does not here advocate for a strict dualism between flesh and soul/spirit. Rather, like Paul, Peter knows that the passions and desires of fallen flesh wage war against us.
We must renew our minds to overcome the desires of the flesh (Rom 7; Rom 12:1–2). This mind or soul renewal happens by the Spirit. Hence, Paul after speaking of the fruit of the Spirit concludes: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24).
Salvation begins from the inside out. We are born again according to the Spirit. Our mind, soul, or inner man renews day by day while our flesh or outer man decays until death and the resurrection. As Paul says, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:6).
Hence, as we await the resurrection, we live as sojourners with renewed minds and souls while we wage war against the passions of the flesh. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1).
Were we to use the political binary of friend-enemy, we might say that our true political enemies are the passions within us and the devil. But we cannot without careful consideration speak of other human beings as enemies since our main political vocation as a “holy nation” is to be a “royal priesthood” who “proclaim[s] the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9).[2] We serve God and other people, even those who perceive us to be their enemies.
Few would deny that Christians have natural vocations as resident aliens in this world, but such vocations serve the greater vocation for us to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession whose vocation is both proclamation and “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).
Conclusion
Peter will apply his political theology to how we live in the world with unjust emperors, unbelieving spouses, as slaves, and as those mistreated by the powers that be. But in each case, we must act honourably, Peter tells us, because we have a spiritual vocation as priests with a spiritual vocation in this world.
As Peter says, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Pet 2:12).
Much more could be said, but here I only wanted to lay out a few particulars of Peter’s political theology that I notice seem mostly bypassed in the Christian Nationalism discussion. I do not expect this short article will make a massive impact, and I am aware that I have not answered every question.
We might ask how Peter would have written this letter if the Roman Empire was a majority-Christian empire. I have a suspicion he would have said much the same about our priestly and royal vocation, and I think he would have told us:
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. (1 Pet 4:7–9)
The end of all things is at hand. Peter knew the danger of Roman oppression. He would die at the hands of Rome. Yet even here, when the stakes were this high—as they are today—Peter emphasized self-control and love.
In an age where we submit to the passions and desires of the flesh, Peter calls us to the courage of self-control, the call to love another earnestly, and thereby cover a multitude of sins. And after all, as priests, we not only worship God but serve one another (1 Pet 4:10–11).
And maybe that is the call of the hour. The end is here! So with self-control, love one another. The stakes are too high not too. So put away the passions and desires of the flesh that teach us to war with one other. Declare war on your sin. Love each other. And be that veiled political society that we call the church whose identity centres on its priestly vocation to worship God and love one another.
[1] This is what the Greek word πάροικος means, namely, “one who lives in a place that is not one’s home” (BDAG, 779).
[2] I grant that people will make us their enemies and that sometimes we will have real opposition and enemies. My point is that in our in priestly duty to other human beings, we serve them so that they can know the living God. We love our enemies, as Jesus taught (Matt 5:43–48).
