"God is Patient, We Should Be Too" - 1 Peter 3:18-20

18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

     Christ died to demolish sin; all sin.  He lived a perfect life and thus, He was perfectly justified in the sight of God.  And yet, He sacrificed that perfect life for all of us sinners.  He did it because He loves us and God wanted to bring us back to Himself.  He had to die to pay for sin, and so His body was destroyed.  His spirit however is eternal, just like each of our spirits.  This is where this passage gets a little hard to parse.  Verse 19 and 20 in particular are hard to interpret but let's see if we can take a stab at it.
     One might be tempted to conclude that verse 19 is talking about Christ dying and going to Hell to preach to the spirits in prison.  This interpretation however is contrary to the rest of scripture.  This verse and a few others have been misinterpreted even by very respected sources.  The line, "He descended into hell" even appears in the Apostles Creed, but I still insist that that is inaccurate.  (I am not going to spend this post going into all the reasoning behind my argument, as I could spend hours and hours writing a paper on the topic, and that is not really the purpose of this blog.)  For one thing, Peter mentioning Christ going to Hell seems way off topic and a needless, confusing aside that would detract from his main point here, and so I don't think that is what he is saying at all.  Furthermore, there would be several reasons why Christ preaching in Hell would be fruitless.
     The first is that if He did preach in Hell to those already in prison, He would basically be just rubbing their eternal damnation in their faces since they are already in Hell and missed their chance to avoid it.  That does not sound like something Jesus would do-  It would serve no righteous purpose.
     Secondly, from all the study I have done of scripture, it is my firm belief that there is no one currently in Hell... yet.  Hell is very real, and was created for Satan and his demons as the ultimate punishment- eternal separation from the presence of God.  But Satan is not down in Hell right now, He is active on the Earth.  It is Satan's goal to take as many of us with him as possible.   Peter speaks of it later in Chapter 5.  But one day, Satan and all those who reject God will be cast into the lake of fire (Hell) after the final judgement of God spoken of in Revelation 20.  But what about all the verses that talk about people dying and going to hell now?  If you look at the original language, you will see that the word for hell (lake of fire) is not used, the word "Hades" (grk) or "Sheol" (heb) are used for both righteous and wicked people, and it just means, "out of sight, the place of the dead."  This place of the dead is described in Luke 16, and existed as a holding place for both the damned and the faithful- the damned because none are in hell until judgement, and the faithful because they cannot enter the presence of God until sin is paid for by Christ.
     Thirdly, Jesus tells us with His own mouth where He went when He died.  This can be found in Jesus' reply to the believing thief on the cross, "Today, you will be with Me in paradise."  That word paradise literally means "garden," but figuratively refers to a place like the garden of eden before the fall, untouched by sin, and is referenced two other times in Scripture.  Once in Revelation, speaking of where the Tree of Life is.  And once in 2 Corinthians, as the place Paul was caught up to but allowed to return from, as long as He did not speak of it.  This cannot be Hell, whether or not it is Heaven or not i'm not sure.  I think it could be Abraham's bosom, as described in Luke 16, or it could be heaven since with Christ's death, sin was also put to death, so then the faithful would be justified and allowed into the presence of God, but again, that might not happen until final judgement either.  So "paradise" may just refer to the side of Sheol where the righteous go, where Lazarus was.
     So now that we've talked at length about what Peter does not mean, let's talk about what he does mean.  We need to think about how this fits into the chapter we just read.  He was just talking about the attitude we are to have towards others, how we are supposed to have a strong quiet patience in the face of unbelief.  Think of his command to wives, and how they are to behave with their unbelieving husbands.  I think he is drawing a parallel back to Noah and how people did not believe him and yet he persevered and was justified by God when the flood came.  Noah preached to the world around him that if they did not change their evil ways they would be destroyed and they continued to do whatever they wanted to, yet he continued to be faithful and build the ark and preach until the day it began to rain.  Peter is a jew, and he is writing mainly to jews that acknowledge Christ as Lord, so he frequently draws parallels to prominent Old Testament figures.  Here is my best paraphrase of verses 19 and 20 above - I also simplified verse 18 to keep the context:

 18 Jesus died for sins so that He might bring us to God, His body was put to death, but He continued to live in the Spirit.  19 In the same way, alive in the spirit,  He (who is eternal and existed from the beginning before He ever took on a body) preached to the sinners in the days of before the flood through Noah (those who are now dead and in prison.)  20 Those who were disobedient are now dead, even though God was very patient, giving them 120 years of Grace from when Noah began to build the ark and preach until the great flood, but only 8 people were brought to safety through the flood in the ark. 

     Peter is talking about how Christ was speaking through Noah.  It makes sense to me in context because He has already made reference to Christ speaking through people in the old testament back in 1 Peter 1. It also makes sense to me that Peter would bring attention to God's patience in giving man 120 years to get their act together.  In Genesis, God decides that the people of the earth have gotten so bad that they need to be destroyed and He can only find one family, Noah's, that live righteously.  Stay with me-  Many years before that, a man named Methuselah is born, and God prophesied this coming flood through Him.  Not through his mouth, but through His name.  The name Methuselah means. "His death shall bring judgement."  You may recognize that name, because Methuselah is the oldest recorded person to ever live according to the Bible; he lived for 969 years.  And, the year He died was the year of the Great Flood.  God displays his mercy by prolonging Methuselah's life longer than any other man lived to hold off judgement as long as possible to give people time to repent!  God's patience and grace is what we should model to those around us, even those who disagree with us or even hurt us.
     This passage is one of the more difficult that I have ever had to dig in but I really seek to understand what is being communicated in a given passage and not just what It appears to say on the surface.  You may disagree with me, and that's fine, but I think this interpretation is the most consistent with the rest of scripture as far as I can tell.  For more on this, I recommend this succinct article by Pastor John Piper.  Thanks for reading!
   

"Suffer For Good" - 1 Peter 3:13-17

"13 Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 17 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong." - 1 Peter 3:13-17 NASB

     It can be a frightening thing to answer evil with good; to allow ourselves to be taken advantage of; to not seek our own safety...  God wants us to trust Him more than we fear suffering, and more than we fear evil.  We must trust that we are His and that because of that, we cannot be destroyed.  Even though we may suffer in this life, it is temporary compared to the blessing we receive in eternity with Him.  No power of Hell or Earth, no evil can ever snatch us out of His hand.  And so we have freedom in placing our trust in Him.
     If we have truly surrendered completely to Christ as Lord of our hearts, then we will be ready to respond in love.  "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks," Christ says in Luke 6.  If our heart is filled with Christ, then Christ-like words will come out of our mouth.  Our attitude towards even our persecutors will be Christ-like.  And even more, responding to them with gentleness and respect will be like a slap in the face.  If they are looking to get a rise out of you, you will rob them of that.  Or, they may just not know what to do with your love.  Not that we should be motivated by trying to stick it to our enemies, but it's a nice little bonus to doing what is right in this instance.  I kid, but really, showing Christ's love in this way can cause them to think... It can seriously affect people!
     If anything is a guarantee in this life, it's that we will endure some amount of suffering.  Some of us will suffer more than others, but all of us can choose to handle it well.  Peter ends by saying that if God should will it that you suffer (and you almost certainly will, Jesus said so,) it's better to suffer for doing what's right, than to suffer for doing what is wrong and get what you deserve.

"Do Right, Even When You Are Wronged" - 1 Peter 3:8-12

8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; 9 not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. 11 “He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it. 12 “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” - 1 Peter 3:8-12 NASB

     After giving instructions to servants, wives, and husbands, Peter now broadens his lens to every Christian.  He calls us to be harmonious, to work together with and partner with those around us in peace.  He calls us to be sympathetic, to understand and empathize with those around us, and to be conscious of their feelings.  He calls us to be brotherly, to treat those around us as if they are our own family.  He calls us to be kindhearted, ready to take care of the needs of others.  He calls us to be humble in spirit, not exalting ourselves above anyone else but viewing ourselves as less important than others.
     Verse 9 is again a restatement of Paul's writing in Romans, "do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good," which we referenced earlier in our study.  Our natural instinct is to seek what is "fair."  When someone wrongs us, we often wish the same wrong be inflicted on them, even though it does nothing to heal the original wrong that was committed against us.  God's call is higher than our natural instincts, and we are called to bless those that insult us.  We are called to seek the good of those who seek our destruction.  We do it because we trust God to be our righteous judge.  We allow ourselves to be taken advantage of because we know God will take care of us.
     Peter goes on to reference Psalm 34 as support.  This passage basically says that if you want to live a long life and be blessed, then you must seek peace.  You must keep yourself from evil, even in the midst of evil treatment.  God favors those who do right, and opposes those who do evil, so if you wish to prosper, do what is right.

"To Husbands..." - 1 Peter 3:7

"7 You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered." - 1 Peter 3:7 NASB

     Much of what Peter commands of wives and servants applies to husbands as well.  Again, he starts off with the words "in the same way" linking back to the previous verses.  Husbands are to adopt the same selfless, Christ-centered attitude towards their wives, but it plays out differently.  Men and women were created with distinct roles and differences.  That does not mean that one is inherently more or less valuable, in fact, they are both essential to God's design.  They are complementary.  This is evidenced in Genesis; the only thing God said was "not good" was Adam being alone, and he created Eve to bring balance and harmony.  He created man and women incomplete, so that they would always recognize their need for someone else.  It was a picture of our need for God, and we more fully reflect His nature in this way; He is three persons in one God, and when man and woman come together, they are two persons with one flesh.
     So I just said that men and women are equal but different, and then the next sentence of this verse says women are "weaker."  "But Weaker isn't equal," you might say.  Well, let's look a little deeper into what Peter is actually saying.  The phrase, "as with someone weaker" is better literally translated as "as the weaker vessel."  We are often referred to as vessel's by God, and it's done for a few reasons.  The first is to show purpose.  A vessel's chief purpose is to be filled.  We are created with a purpose and find fulfilment in being used by God.  A second reason is to show that we are empty, that we have a need for something other than ourselves to be complete.
     So why is woman referred to as a weaker vessel?  Well, first off, let's clarify something.  She is not even called a weaker vessel directly in this verse... Husbands are called to treat their wives as a weaker vessel.  This is much more a statement on how the Husband's attitude should be.  I'll come back to this in a second...  To understand what Peter is getting at, let's consider something for a second.  Say you have two vessels: a plastic paint bucket, and a teacup made of fine china.  The plastic paint bucket can be filled with heavy things, can be used to haul rocks to the backyard, or filled with soapy water to wash your car.  It's very utilitarian.  If you drop it on the ground, whatever is in it might spill, but the bucket probably won't break.  You'll be able to use it again.  It can take a beating.  Now the tea cup is different.  The teacup is beautiful.  The teacup was expensive.  You bring it out at your fanciest parties and you serve delicious hot tea to your guests.  It makes them feel comfortable.  Then you carefully wash the teacup and place it in the china cabin to display its beauty even when it's not being used.  If you dropped the tea cup it would likely shatter.  The teacup and the bucket are inherently different.  No one puts a bucket on display.  When not in use, it lives in the garage somewhere.  The teacup is not utilitarian, it is treasured.  God is calling Husbands to treat their wives as treasure.  To be careful with them, to keep them safe.  Just as the teacup is washed carefully and placed in the china cabinet in a place of honor, so are Husbands to treat their wives.  Does this mean women need to be dainty and can't be tough?  No-  Because like I said before, this is about the Husband's attitude towards his wife.  He needs to cherish his wife, and treat her with respect and sensitivity.  He needs to treasure her and do whatever he can to let no harm come to her.  That is a high order.  That takes being purposeful.  I never owned china before I got married, but with my wife came some very old china she inherited from her grandmother.  She loves to make tea and sit with one of those teacups in the morning.  When I am doing dishes, I don't just hastily was that cup and toss it in with the rest of the pots and pans.  I usually was it separately and place it alone to dry, somewhere where it won't get bumped by another dish, or fall to the floor.  I treat it with a special respect because it is a more delicate object.  I am purposeful about how I treat it.
     Moving on, there is even more embedded in the language here that indicates that men and women are equal in the sight of God.  The line "show her honor as a fellow heir" is huge.  We've already talked a little about what it means to be an heir back in chapter 1, but we'll revisit quickly.  In those days, the first born son was the rightful heir to his father's estate.  To the first born son was passed the land, livestock, money, and charge of the family.  Women received nothing.  In fact, if a woman didn't marry, she stayed at home with her parents and if her parents died she could even end up on the streets.  Contrary to the culture at the time, Peter says here that christian women are co-heirs.  They are equally deserving of all the inheritance of God and that they should be treated that way.  That is very much in contrast to the way that the culture at the time viewed woman.
    So Husbands are to cherish and protect their wives and treat them as of equal value in the sight of God.  And also, failure to do so might hinder their prayers...  What's that about?  Well, the answer comes in a few of the following verses, so i'll leave that to tackle for a future blog post.

"To Wives..." - 1 Peter 3:1-6

"In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 3 Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; 6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear." - 1 Peter 3:1-6 NASB

     This one took me several days to parse out.  There's a lot here.  I still don't know if I am completely satisfied with what I have written, but I don't want it to prevent me from further study so here goes...
     This passage follows right on the heels of what we talked about in the last post.  Peter's instructions to servants, and how they should be subject to masters both cruel and kind, are immediately followed by these instructions to wives, and then to husbands.  It is a continuation of the final thoughts of chapter 2.  The chapter and verse markers were not added until centuries later, so this should be read as connected to, and not separate from, the previous chapter.  You can see this clearly because this chapter begins with the words "in the same way" referring back to the instructions he just gave.  He's saying that wives are to adopt the same spirit of willful submission regardless of circumstances that he admonished servants to in the previous chapter.  Peter does not defend the wrongful treatment of women here by any means, but he does point out that the Christ-like way to live is to humbly submit and love no matter how we are treated.
     Peter is not commanding that wives be controlled, Peter is asking of wives the same thing He asked of servants in the last chapter: for submission out of a willing heart because God asks for it.  He calls wives to be long-suffering, submitting to both the loving husband who believes the Word, and the husband who does not.  This is definitely not an easy task. Peter comments on how if a wife adopts this attitude and is loving and subject to her husband in deed and attitude, there is power in that.
     This is the same way that Christ modeled submission to us.  We are called to emulate Him.  Christ while being crucified, did not open His mouth and deliver lengthy explanation after explanation of why He was innocent.  He had confidence in God's plan and knew where He stood with God.  He submitted Himself to those before Him and His attitude gave the Romans pause.  Instead of calling out "Can't you see that I am innocent?!" which would have been a very expected reaction to His accusations, Jesus' trial was unusual in that He was humble and silent.  Have you ever noticed in your own life that the minute someone begins to get defensive, the more guilty they sound?  I think the Romans were used to hearing all kinds of guilty men plead their innocence to avoid the torture of crucifixion, but when the Jews placed false accusations on Christ, He stood there quietly.  This was different and I think Pilate picked up on this.  Pilate could not find any fault with Him; He had not broken Roman law, and He was not convinced that He had broken Jewish law either.  But because Pilate was sure that the Jews demanding Christ's death would revolt, and not wanting to have a rebellion on his hands, He agreed to the Jews demands and put Christ to death unjustly.  And afterwards, Pilate washed his hands of the responsibility because he did not believe Jesus was guilty after having stood face to face with him.  Christ suffered because He allowed Himself to be subject to the Romans, but really, He was submitting to God and placing His life in God's hands.  His final words reflect this: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."  In the same way, Peter is calling wives to place themselves in a position of trusting God where they may encountering suffering because of their unbelieving husband.
     Let's explore the scenario Peter posits in the first few verses.   A woman becomes a Christian after she is already married, and her husband is not a Christian.  Peter says that a wife can minister to her unbelieving husband by her attitude and the way she acts towards him; by submitting to him.  If the wife is committed to emulating Christ, then the way she interacts with her husband changes. This change will be noticeable.  There is a reason why people say that actions speak louder than words.  I've been married for just over a year now and in this last year I have learned so many ways in which I am selfish on a daily basis.  Our first instinct is to do whatever it takes to get what we want.  Submission is laying this instinct down and viewing the other person's will and desires as more important than our own.  This is a message Christ teaches over and over again, not just to wives, but to all people, "love your neighbor as yourself."  This is just another iteration of that command, but brought into the specific focus of marriage.  And so, if a wife is living this way, continually laying herself down, being patient and kind to her husband, he should notice this.  Peter says it will speak to the man and show him Christ; that he could be won over to the faith by the testimony of the attitude of his wife.  That is pretty cool.
     Peter references how Sarah called Abraham lord, which was an honorific showing that she placed him above herself, and so she would follow his lead.  Abraham was a good man. Later in the same chapter referenced above, you can see a glimpse of his humility, but he was not a perfect man, and there were times when Sarah even followed his lead into bad situations.  Their foray into Egypt comes to mind.  Abraham told Sarah to tell everyone she was his sister and not his wife because she was pretty and he didn't want them to kill him and take her from him.  Pharaoh thought she was beautiful and invited her to live in the palace and almost ended up becoming pharaoh's wife, but then God bailed them out, but Sarah did not lose respect for Abraham, she did not call him a coward and leave him, she continued to support him.  Sarah could have gone against Abraham's wishes in the first place and not called herself his sister, but she didn't.  She followed Abraham even though He was wrong.  Do I think that means that women should not speak up in a marriage if they see their partner about to make a mistake?  No, but I do think that Christ wants the attitude of the heart to remain loving and forgiving when a mistake is made.  Maybe neither the husband nor the wife saw it coming, in that case, both parties should be quick to forgive, and if the man was at fault, the wife should still be willing to follow him in the future even though he messed up.  God's perfect intention for marriage is that both the wife and the husband are to be living as Christ, continually laying themselves down for the other, but unfortunately that does not always happen.  But when one half, either husband or wife is failing, that does not give the other half permission to throw in the towel and start acting in kind.  It comes back to our theme here; Christ calls us to live like Him despite how we are treated.
     Ok so we've talked about wives, we'll talk about husbands in the next post.  This is not a one-way street.

"Grace Under Pressure" - 1 Peter 2:18-25

18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.  21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, 22 who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; 23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

     This is a high order indeed.  Peter tells servants to be submissive to and respect their masters despite how they are treated.  That no matter what, across the board, you are to respond with humility and kindness; that the way you are to behave is not contingent on the way you are treated.  This is "turn the other cheek," this is allowing yourself to be taken advantage of, or perhaps even abused, suffering injustice, for the sake of God and for the sake of love.  This is a hard pill to swallow.  It is a complete denial of self.  When justice is on your side, when it is completely within your rights to not have to put up with something, but you do anyway, that is a surrender to something bigger than yourself.  That is imitating Christ, and it takes a deep security in knowing that no matter what happens to your earthly body, your forever is safe in Christ.
     When you do wrong, you suffer consequences.  It is not righteous to suffer these consequences because they were already due to you.  But, when you suffer anyway, even when you did nothing to deserve it, and you come through it with quiet grace under pressure, you emulate Christ who "was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth."  Christ bore every sin of ours, and he was innocent of them all.  He took the punishment for all of the rape, all of the murder, all of the adultery, all of the lies, for every single one of my sins, your sins, and the sins of every person who has ever walked this earth.  He silently took the blame and punishment for all of them, and gave himself up to bury them.  This is why we can endure unjust suffering, because Christ suffered the ultimate injustice and we were given the ultimate grace.  He replaced us.  Let us remember that while we undergo trials, that Christ suffered thousands, even millions, of times more injustice, and so much more pain, as He took our sin to the cross.  Our suffering is but momentary, so even when we do nothing to deserve it, we can accept it humbly and respond with love and patience.

"Submission: Because It's God's Will" - 1 Peter 2:13-17

"13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." - 1 Peter 2:13-17

     So after reminding the people of who they are - that they are heirs of God's Covenant with Abraham, that they are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, that they are exiles, and that they are to live differently than those around them - Peter follows up with these verses.  Were Peter of a different mind, this passage could very well be one of conflict; a call to incite rebellion.  "We are the Lord's chosen people!  We are free! We do not have to remain subject to the tyranny of Rome any longer!  God brought us out of Egypt, He brought us out of Babylon, stand up and fight my brothers!"  Many of the Jews already felt this way.  Even Peter himself at first believed that his master Jesus was there to overthrow the Romans and establish His earthly kingdom within Peter's lifetime.  But, Peter learned that that was not the Lord's plan.  He also observed Christ living peaceably with all, the righteous and the unrighteous, and stood nearby as Jesus taught lessons like, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's."
     And so Peter does not call for rebellion.  In fact, he calls for submission.  He models the Man he spent three years in ministry alongside, who once said, "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two."  And Peter calls for this submission during the beginnings of the persecution of the early church by Rome.  It's a very practical instruction to be sure.  The Romans would be quick to end any such rebellion by force.  But, Peter is not just cautioning against open and organized rebellion, he is calling for there to not even be a rebellion of the spirit (or the attitude.)  "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake," He says.  Do it because you love God, not because Rome is stronger than you are.  And He doesn't just specify submission to a good king but to, "every human institution," the righteous, and the downright evil even.  That definitely takes trust in God; trust that He is ultimately in control.  Furthermore, it ties back into verses 11 and 12 with verse 15, that people around you will notice.  If you are a good citizen, even when you don't agree with the government, and you live peaceably, your detractors have nothing to say against you.  We're not called to anarchy.  We're not called to antiestablishmentarianism.
     His next words are, "Act as free men."  I know what you're thinking, "Wait, He just said to submit to authority, and now he's saying act like you're free- Aren't those in conflict?"  I say no.  The key here is about responsibility.  It's about having a choice.  A bondservant or slave in those times had little to worry about as far as basic survival went.  Your master was responsible for clothing you, feeding you, providing you with shelter, in some cases providing a wife for you, and even clothing and feeding your children.  All you were responsible for was the work assigned to you.  If that was working the master's field, then the only thing you had to worry about was your hours of work in that field for the day.  Everything else was the master's responsibility.  But, as a free man, there was risk involved.  You had to provide everything for yourself.  You had to make choices, and take responsibility for the direction of your own life.  Here is what Peter is getting at.  Choose to submit.  Choose to live in peace with authority.  Not under compulsion, but because you love God.  It is all about having a willing heart to love those in power over you, because really, God is the only one with power over you, but in order to have peace, you allow those with earthly power to have their power.  You would be justified as an heir and son of God to throw off the shackles of earthly authority if it weren't for the fact that it is not God's will and not loving.
          The last verse in this section sets up a sort of hierarchy of submission.  Honor all people.  You could reword that as "respect all people, acknowledge all people."  Basically, the golden rule of don't be self absorbed and only care about yourself.  We are called to show basic human decency (and above that, real genuine God-given love) to all.  Then he says, "love the brotherhood," which is referring to other Christians, and the form of love used here is "Agape," the self-sacrificing, God-given love that makes this kind of submission possible.  "Fear God," is the source here; the motivator.  It places God at the top.  Yeah, it says "Honor the King," but it is a very different word than fear.  That word fear is not like a spooky fear, but more a reverence for something wherein you understand its potential for destructive power.  Like how one might handle a cooking fire, or a firearm.  You have a healthy respect for and knowledge of what it is capable of.  The verbiage used with king is at merely the respect and acknowledgement level, not the fear level of God.  With a king or emperor like Nero around killing Christians just for being Christians, one might want to attribute that kind of fear to the man, but Peter is saying follow the king not because you fear him but because you both love and fear God and God wants you to submit to the king.  So, because God wills it, live in love and submission to everyone.
     

"Hold Fast Against the Flood" - 1 Peter 2:11-12

"11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." - 1 Peter 2:11-12

     Here Peter admonishes his readers to fight their fleshly passions.  There is a sense of tension in the words he uses.  A sense that their is "something on the line," that there is something to lose.  The verb he uses which the NASB translates as "abstain" is "apecho."  There is more to this word than just not doing something.  He doesn't just say, "hey, don't do that bad stuff," he really wants to communicate, "he, don't lose your innocence, don't give up on what's right."  Apecho means, "to hold back, keep off, to have one thing by separating from (letting go of) another."  There is a sense that to give in to these fleshly lusts, there would be a sacrifice of something else, a trade off.  It is the same sense in which we use the term "losing one's virginity," you are losing by addition.  You didn't have sex before, but now that sex has been added to your life, virginity has also been taken away from your life.
     He uses this language because the whole point of these few verses is about being immersed in a culture that is doing nothing but chasing their own fleshly lusts.  Peter's audience here are Jews in exile, living among Gentiles, many of them Greek or Roman or some other form of Pagan.  These cultures were all about fulfilling every carnal nature.  We've all heard the saying, "Eat, Drink, for tomorrow we die," these were indeed the words that many lived by, and a large part of the popular culture at the time.  Orgies, drunkenness, gluttony... The vomitoriums of Rome come to mind: rooms dedicated to purging oneself after over-indulging at a feast for the purpose of gaining a second wind so that the revelry could resume.  (Ok, actually through a bit of googling I just found out that what I just said is a misinterpretation of the vomitorium, which was actually a large hallway or exit from the Colosseum which "vomited" out mass amounts of people at the end of an event.  But, the specific binge and purge practice of eating mass amounts at feast, and vomiting to continue to do so, was practiced by at least two Roman emperors according to documented sources.) Anyway, Peter is talking about living in a way that glorifies God even in the midst of a culture that seems to do everything in their power to do the opposite.  That sounds not at all different from today.
     And so, Peter calls for the abstaining from all these things; to live among these people but to not live like them.  This is a long haul thing.  Peter mentions Christ's return at the end of verse twelve, so the timetable here is basically, live like this - abstaining from the fleshly lusts you see everyone else around you doing - until Jesus comes back.  So he's talking about consistency.  That is the only way that verse twelve will come about.  If you keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, if there is a noticeable difference in the way you live, then these people, even those that slander and mistreat you, may catch on that there is something different about you.  You have something they don't have because you have abstained, because you have not traded it for the things that your flesh desires.  And Peter says that some will see this and acknowledge God because of it, and that will bring Him glory.  So hold fast against the flood around you.  Don't give in.  And if you do, remember God can and will restore you if you are humble and repentant.  God has left us in this world because we reflect Him to those who don't yet know Him, so with His help, resist the call of the flesh.

"A Chosen People" - 1 Peter 2:9-10

"9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." - 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NASB)

     In these few verses Peter  reminds his readers, exiled Jews, of who they are.  They are the descendants of Abraham and heirs to his Covenant with Jehovah.  This verse begins with "but" because He is contrasting those he spoke of in the few verses preceding who did not believe in Christ and thus stumbled and many of those who stumbled were Jews themselves.  The Jews in power, in positions of high regard, were the ones who gave Jesus over to be crucified.  But Peter is making a connection here.  Jesus is the fulfillment of that Covenant.  Not only did God promise Abraham that he would give him many descendants, make him into a great nation, and have his line give birth to kings, but He also promised that "in [Abraham's] seed, all nations of the Earth would be blessed."
     Peter also reminds them of the purpose behind their calling (and not only that, he calls all of them a "royal priesthood" not just the Levites.)  Their purpose is to bear witness to the glory of God; to proclaim to all the great and mighty things the Lord has done for them.  By highlighting the connection between Jesus and the Covenant, Peter is drawing a parallel between all that God has done for Israel before and what He has just now done through Christ.  As Christ-believing-Jews, not only are they able to speak to God's faithfulness in bringing their forefathers out of Egypt and countless other captivities, but also they can tell of what Christ has done for them in saving them from sin and death.