Year 6, Day 218: 1 Peter 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

I have to confess that I really wanted to write on obedience again today.  Peter really hits the same note that he has hit all along in his writing within this chapter.  However, I wanted to force myself to come at it from a slightly different perspective.  Therefore, much of what I have to say today is really rooted in the concept of obedience.  But I want it to be heard through the lens of identity.

In many ways, though, this goes back to what I said yesterday.  When Peter talks about obedience, he isn’t doing it from the perspective of lesser beings commanded by someone greater, more intelligent, or more powerful.  When Peter talks about obedience, he isn’t talking about a resigned subservient behavior.  Peter talks about obedience that looks ahead towards the rest of the people with whom they will come into contact.  That’s why I want to focus on obedience through the lens of identity.  In order to get obedience right, we need to get identity right as well.

When we read Peter, as with all of the rest of the Biblical authors, we read the words of a person who is trying to see through the eyes of God.  As Peter looks through the eyes of God, he doesn’t focus on the here and now.  Rather, Peter focuses on the future to which we are always being pulled, always being called.  It is that future, and most importantly the people who are within that future, that has the focus of God and thus the focus of Peter.  That’s the identity that Peter is getting from God.  Because Peter is looking ahead, he can focus so well on identity and preparing himself to live out in community the very witness that God has placed within him.

This is why Peter can tell wives to submit to their husbands.  When they submit, they are more likely to be able to show God’s love to them if they do not already know God.  This is why Peter can talk about doing good in the midst of being mistreated and misaligned.  When we do good, people will see us for who we are and they will see the love of God shining through, especially against the darker context of being mistreated and maligned.  As I said yesterday, for Peter, obedience is really the groundwork for witness.  He can see it this way because his identity is in the Lord.  When he looks at the world through the eyes of God and not through his own eyes, he can see the opportunity for ministry all around.  His identity from God allows him to deeply understand why obedience is so important for being able to witness about the grace, love, and mercy of God.

<><