First Peter, Part 2: Foreigner — Being a Contagious Christian

Being a Contagious Christian - 1 Peter 2:18-25

1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”

What makes the Church relevant is that we are different. When we quit being different, we cease being relevant. The Scripture calls us “foreigners” and “strangers”—we are in the world but not of the world.

1 Peter 2:12, “having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

Contagious Christianity is when people might hate what we say, they still love what they see. It’s having the right “position” with the right “disposition.”

Contagious Christianity is found in humility and submission in an age of “rights” and rebellion. Peter specifically says we are to be different in our attitude toward civil authority and workplace authority. (See 1 Peter 2:13-14, 18-20)

1 Peter 2:18-20, Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

Your vocation is your place of mission; it might also be a place of persecution.

Christ suffered, and as Christians, we are called to suffer like Christ. 1 Peter 2:21, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.”

1)   Be willing to suffer in innocence. 1 Peter 2:22, “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.”

2)  Be willing to suffer in silence. 1 Peter 2:23, “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.”

Isaiah 53:7, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

3)  Be willing to suffer for others. 1 Peter 2:24-25, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

You can bear the pain of others’ sin because Jesus bore the pain of yours.