The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 29

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-The tl.rrefold condition of a Ohristian. "To the strangers scattered [' sojourners of the dispersion,' Revised Version] throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithyn.ia." "The dispersion" was unquestionably the designation of Jewish residents in Gentile countries (John vii. 35; Jas. i. 1). "Strangers" means temporary residents in a foreign country. But the question whether this letter is really addi·essed to Jewish Christians is not necessarily answered in the affirmative hy this superscription. For it is quite possible that the Gentile Christians in the countries named may be intended by "the sojourners of the dispersion," the description properly belonging to the Jews being transferred to them as in a profounder sense true of them, just as many other terms applicable to them are transferred in other parts of the letter. -This possibility Feerus to be raised to a very high probability, at least by many expressions in it which appear to imply that the persons addressed were Gentiles. Such, for instance, as eh. i. 14, " the former lusts in you.r ignoranre; " eh. ii. 10, " in time past were not a people; '' eh. iv. 3, "The time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Grntiles." If, then, we may fairly take these words as addressed to all Christians, they bring before us the familiar but ever-neglected truth that, if Christians are faithful to their calling and to their true affinities, they will cherish a sense of belonging to another order of things than that with which they are outwardly connected. 'l'he word here rendered "stranger," or, as in the Revised Version, "sojou.rner," implies both residence in a foreign land, and temporary residence; and if we add to it the remaining word, we have a threefold view of the condition of a Christian, as an alien, a passing visitant, an isolated man. I. HE IS AN ALIEN. He does not belong to the polity, the order of things in which he lives. No people on earth should understand that metaphor better than Jews and Englishmen; both belonging to nations scattered over the whole world, and accustomed to cherish a keen, proud sense of belonging to another nationality than that under whose flag they may be Jiving. These Jews of the dispersion wandered all over the Roman worlrl; but wherever they went, among the cold storm-swept uplands of Cappadocia and Galatia, in the rude villages of Pontus, or the luxurious cities and busy seap?rts of Asia Minor, they felt the mystic tie which hound them to Jerusalem on her h1lls, and the temple gleaming on its rock. So Christians arc here. members of a~other nationality, and foreigners in time. St. Paul gives us the same idea under a slightly different metaphor wl1en he bids the Philippians Jive as citizens of heaven. Philippi was a Roman "colony," that is, it was regarded a piece of Rorue itself in Macedonia, governed by Roman law, not by provincial codes, having the names of its citizens enrolled among the Roman tribes. So we, if we are Christians, are colonists here; our mothtr-country is beyond the stars. Thie is an honour and a privilege. Peter does not on. 1. 1-26.] THE FIRS'r EPISTLE GENEJ1AL OF PE1'El1. 23