I entitled this message “The War Against Your Soul” because Peter uses a similar phrase in verse 11 of our text. It is no secret that I am a fighter. Most people who know me well know that I do not retreat, surrender or give up without a good reason. When I am under pressure, I can be slow to listen, quick to speak and quick to anger (just the opposite of James 1:19 – 20). This happens when I feel unwanted, cast aside or helpless and it’s an indicator of the war against my soul.
1 PETER 2:11 – 12
11Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12Keep 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.
What do you naturally do when you feel unwanted, cast aside or helpless? What do you do when those feelings and desires begin to wage war against your soul? Peter knows that his audience is struggling with these very things; they’re struggling with a war that being waged against their very souls. They are struggling with the hurt of being unwanted. The world around them treated them like outcasts. He knows that his brothers and sisters are facing the pain and the fear of suffering for their faith. He knows that they long for the good old days when they influenced from the center of society.
He knows that they will be tempted to fight for acceptance. He knows that they will be tempted to fight to regain some level of comfort. He knows that they will be tempted to lobby for positions of power in the culture. He knows that a war being waged against their souls and like the good pastor that Peter is, he reminds his audience that as a family of loved, alienated outcasts they are to choose their battles carefully and maintain honorable lifestyles so that their enemies have a reason to glorify God. This is why Peter begins by calling his listeners “a family of loved alienated outcasts.”
#1: WE ARE A FAMILY OF LOVED, ALIENATED OUTCASTS (V. 11)
Think about what it means to be a family of loved alienated outcasts. When Peter says “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles” (v. 11) he is identifying with them in their hurt, their pain and their fear but he’s also identifying with them in their identity in Christ. He doesn’t gloss things over, but he also doesn’t give them permission to sulk in their shame. To be a sojourner is to be a stranger and an alien who doesn’t feel at home in this world; to be an exile is to be an outcast who doesn’t fit in because our King is not of this world.2
From the beginning of time the human race has struggled with kings and kingdoms. The Garden of Eden was the very first kingdom with a King and the family rejected the King for a new king who offered up a tasty treat (Gen. 3). From that point forward the battle between two kings and two kingdoms has been waged with humans vacillating back and forth between the two. The reality is that there has been a war being waged against the souls of mankind since the beginning.
And Peter wants to remind us that as we live in this fallen kingdom as aliens and outcasts, we are deeply loved by the King of kings and the Lord of lords. In the midst of the war that is being waged against our souls, we need to remember that this earthly kingdom is not our home. All of the earthly kings are not our kings. There is only one kingdom that will last and only one King who will reign; His name is Jesus, and he sits at the right of the Father God Almighty as the crucified, risen and returning Savior. In the midst of the war that is being waged against our souls we need to remember that King Jesus won the only war that will ever matter at the cross and the empty tomb.
How does this apply to us in America? One author did a great job of explaining just how much we in America struggle with laying our desires for acceptance, comfort and control at the feet of our King when he said, “After a disappointing election result, Americans utter empty threats about moving to Canada or Tahiti. But no, we are not moving to Canada, because Canada is no better than the United States. And we are certainly not going to Fiji, Tahiti, or any other island in French Polynesia. The islands are too far away, the climate is too hot, and (most importantly) even if the pollutions there are different, they are no lighter. [The reality of this text is that] Peter advocates neither despair nor flight in this war.”3
Have you experienced this war against your soul? Have you experienced the kind of pain, fear and helplessness that Peter is addressing here? How often have you caught yourself lamenting over the broken kings and the broken kingdoms of this world? How often does your sense of “not fitting in” need to be transformed from a fight or flight mentality into a hope-filled resiliency? Be encouraged my friends, in the midst of this war against our souls we can find hope in the truth that we are a family of beloved, alienated outcasts and we get the privilege of bringing attention to the God who has saved us as we live our lives in honorable ways and pick fights that actually matter so that the watching world has a reason to glorify God.
#2: WE NEED TO CHOOSE OUR BATTLES CAREFULLY (V. 11)
As I said earlier, I am a fighter and when I was younger, I picked some of the stupidest fights for some of the stupidest reasons. On the surface some of the fights I picked appeared to be worthwhile. If you disrespected me, I would pick a fight under the banner of standing for the value of mutual respect. If you betrayed me, I would pick a fight under the banner of standing for the value of faithfulness. I would pick these kinds of fights while there were obvious glaring areas in my own life where I was not living out those values of respect and faithfulness. Can you see the hypocrisy?
This is why Peter instructs his listeners to “abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (v. 11). Peter knows that the easiest thing to do when our souls feel attacked, when we feel alone, when we feel abandoned, when we feel hated and helpless, is to lose sight of the battle that matters the most which is the battle for personal holiness.
This is what it means to choose your battles carefully when your soul is under attack. You can fight all of the religious, social and political battles you want to, but without the battle for personal holiness those other battles will render very little fruit. When Peter reminds his listeners that “the passions of the flesh… wage war against your soul” he is echoing a smorgasbord of biblical teaching regarding the battles we choose to fight when we are under attack.
What fights do you pick when you feel alone, abandoned, cast aside or helpless? James encourages us to maintain an active faith that matches our behavior to our profession of faith (Js. 1:19 – 27). Galatians instructs us to use our freedom in Christ to wage war against the desires of the flesh deep within us as we walk by the power of the Spirit (Gal. 5).
Ephesians directs us to remain firmly seated in our identity in Christ so that we can walk in accordance with the gospel as we stand against the attacks of the enemy. Colossians tells us to put on the new behavioral clothing of the Christian as we put off the old behavioral clothing of sinfulness (Col. 3). This is just a taste of the biblical teaching on warfare.
But all of the biblical context we have just briefly reviewed does not negate the fact that Christians must be about the business of transforming the culture. We can’t escape the culture, but we also can’t wage war against the culture. We must be about the business of transforming the culture when our souls are under attack by choosing our battles carefully as we maintain a faithful presence in it by abstaining from the passions of the flesh which wage war against our souls; this is about the battle for personal holiness instead of making war on the culture.4
We must remember that, in the midst of this war against our souls we can find hope in the truth that we are a family of beloved, alienated outcasts and we get the privilege of bringing attention to the God who has saved us as we live our lives in honorable ways and pick fights that actually matter so that the watching world has a reason to glorify God.
#3: WE NEED TO MAINTAIN AN HONORABLE LIFESTYLE (V. 12)
When Pater instructs his listeners to “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable” (v. 12) he is simply saying that they need to maintain a lifestyle that honors God in the midst of the war against their souls. The hard part of interpreting this part of the text is understanding what kind of conduct is actually honoring to God. Christians and Pagans alike love to make the immediate jump to moralistic instructions, especially the kind of moralism that makes great arguments out of petty grey areas like food consumption, smoking, drinking and swearing rather than concrete arguments from God’s Word like I already mentioned in the previous point such as sexual sin, gossip, greed, hatred, division, envy, strife; sins that are all too alive in the body of Christ today.
It seems to me that in all of the grey areas, everyone has an opinion without rock solid biblical support. But Peter must have some specific things in mind, right? He has to have something specific in mind when he tells his audience to maintain an honorable lifestyle right? Could it be that Peter believes that Christians can maintain an honorable lifestyle through their submission to evil human governments (1 Pet. 2:13 – 17)?
Maybe Peter has it in his mind that his listeners would even live obediently to unjust and cruel employers (1 Pet. 2:18 – 20). Could it be that Peter actually believes that this is the way that we could emulate Jesus the most (1 Pet. 2:21 – 25)? I think that if we were to ask Peter what he means when he says that we are to maintain an honorable lifestyle, he would ask “Did you read the next few paragraphs?”
But then our natural question is “why?” Why are you instructing us to live this way? Why should we submit to an evil government? Why should we obey cruel employers? Why should we emulate Christ’s activity at the cross? I think his answer would be: “In the midst of this war against your souls you can find hope in the truth that we are a family of beloved, alienated outcasts and we get the privilege of bringing attention to the God who has saved us as we live our lives in honorable ways and pick fights that actually matter so that the watching world has a reason to glorify God.” Makes sense, right? Makes sense, since the chief purpose of a man or a woman’s life is to glorify God right?
#4: WE NEED TO GIVE OUR ENEMIES A REASON TO GLORIFY GOD (V. 12)
It seems crazy to me that Peter would be concerned about what our enemies are going to say about us but nevertheless he instructs his listeners to choose their battles carefully and to maintain honorable lifestyles “So that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (v. 12). In summary, Peter is saying that we need to live our lives in such a way that it gives our enemies a reason to glorify God in the midst of the war against our souls.
This comes across as a shocking statement to me. I can’t think of many instances when living rightly has caused my enemies (enemies of the cross) to glorify God. It seems more normal to experience extreme ridicule and slander when I do what is right. We do live in a world where good is called evil and evil is called good. So, what does Peter have in mind here?
It’s interesting because Peter doesn’t have the quick fix in mind or the immediate result in mind that we all long for. When our souls are under attack we long for quick relief. But Peter doesn’t offer quick relief. Peter acknowledges that enemies of Christ will speak against Christians and try to make us out to be evildoers. But his closing phrase “that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” brings clarity to the pain.
While enemies of Christ may slander you for doing good right now, there will be a day when they will be held accountable for the abuse that they have leveled against you and I, and on that day, the day of Christ’s return in glory, they will give God the glory because of your faithfulness. What Peter is saying here is that in the midst of this war against our souls we can find hope in the truth that we are a family of beloved, alienated outcasts and we get the privilege of bringing attention to the God who has saved us as we live our lives in honorable ways and pick fights that actually matter so that the watching world has a reason to glorify God.
CONCLUSION…
I told you earlier that I am a fighter. When I was younger my mouth would get me into trouble that my fists would have a hard time getting me out of. In those days my lifestyle was characterized by out-of-control appetites for anything I desired. It was easy to see that I craved sexual pleasure, medicated escape and violent conflict. But the thing that most people couldn’t see were the desires under those cravings. I wanted to be wanted, I wanted healing from the pain of a hard childhood, and I wanted to prove that I was not powerless or helpless. The gods I served were the gods of acceptance, comfort and power. Those gods waged war against my soul until I nearly died in the middle of the street.
I’m sure most of you can relate to the desire for acceptance, comfort and power. I doubt that many of you have ever thought much about how those desires are waging war against your souls at this very moment. If you have ever lived with a prolonged sense of inadequacy, pain or helplessness then you have likely come face to face with the gods of acceptance, comfort and power. Think back on your life for a moment. What are you prone to do when you feel unwanted, when you experience deep emotional pain or when you feel helpless? What fights do you pick? What lifestyle habits rise to the surface?
You can tell a lot about what is happening deep within the soul of a person (the gods/God they are serving) by observing the battles they fight and the lifestyle choices they make. Lest we begin to think about this only in terms of the filthy abhorrent things we struggle with (like sexual sin, ungodly relationships, substance abuse, etc.) we should also think about the category of quote unquote acceptable sins (like slander/gossip rooted in false concern, divisiveness dressed up in the cute dress of personal belief, argumentativeness rooted in a stubborn spirit or conflict avoidance rooted in fear).
The battles we choose and the lifestyles we live reflect the God (or the gods) we serve. Here’s the thing, when Jesus went to the cross for you and me, he went there to abolish the power of Satan, Sin and Death. Satan, Sin and Death are the only real enemies we have. These are the enemies that constantly whisper in our ears that we are unlovable, unwanted and powerless. These are the ancient enemies that have waged war against our souls since the beginning of time.
There’s no religious battle, social battle or political battle that will satisfy your desire for acceptance, comfort and power. The only place that these desires are satisfied is at the foot of a bloody cross where Jesus died in your place; it’s in the doorway of the empty tomb where Jesus rose from the dead; it’s in the promise of eternity where Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father in whose presence there is no more mourning, no sickness, no death, no decay, no sin, and no brokenness. In the presence of the crucified, risen and returning Savior is where the war against our souls dies an eternal death.
This is why Peter tells us that in the midst of this war against our souls we can find hope in the truth that we are a family of beloved, alienated outcasts and we get the privilege of bringing attention to the God who has saved us as we live our lives in honorable ways and pick fights that actually matter so that the watching world has a reason to glorify God. – Amen!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Daniel M. Doriani, 1 Peter (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing Company, 2014), 78 – 79.
3 Ibid., 79.
4 Ibid., 78.