“…to the strangers scattered throughout…” (1 Peter 1:1).
I once lost a friend. I realized later that I lost a few other friends because I lost that first friend. Then I lost some other friends because I moved. I found some new friends in the new place. I wasn’t upset with my old friends, nor they with me. They were just far away and not as easy to connect with.
We all know that friends and relationships can come and go. We know this happens sometimes because personalities clash, and other times simply because of a change in location. But Peter has in mind a separation caused by differences in faith and belief.
This separation could happen socially and economically while still living in your home town. It could happen on a continental scale, as it did with my ancestors who were forced to move from place to place across Europe and eventually to the new world because of their beliefs.
At some point, whether sooner or later, your decision to follow Jesus Christ will put you in conflict with those around you. The issue will not be what you do, what you say or who you hang out with. It will be Jesus. And the pressure will be to choose between Him and those in your family, in your neighborhood, in your class, at your job or even your government.
Peter sees these pressures mounting for some believers of his day that lived in an area that we now call northern Turkey. His letter to them is filled with encouragement and exhortation, as we shall see in the coming weeks.
(c)2018 David J. Cooley