To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father . . .”

My daughter purchased one of those Ancestry DNA kits for my parents recently.  She wanted to know where her ancestors on my side of the family originated. The results told us that they came, for the most part, from various European countries: England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Norway.  So, given that background, how in the world did they (and I) end up here in central Pennsylvania?  Of course, one answer to that is that somewhere along the line our ancestors emigrated from Europe perhaps for religious freedom or new opportunities in the “New World.”  Whatever the case, there is another reason. It was the foreknowledge of God.

The word “foreknowledge” means forethought or prearrangement.  We see this as we look at the opening words of the apostle Peter’s first epistle. He is writing to Christians who were scattered throughout Asia Minor.  How they ended up there is hard to say. Some probably fled there from somewhere else as the result of persecution.  Others may have been in their native land by birth, but now as the citizens of heaven (Hebrews 11:16), they were, in a sense, living as exiles in a foreign land.  Whatever the cause, they were where they were by the foreknowledge of God. He planned it all.  And although this letter was written to these specific individuals, it also has relevance to you and me.  We see this in Paul’s message to the philosophers in ancient Greece when he said, “And he (i.e., God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:26). 

You see, one of the reasons that you and I are living when we are living and where we are living is so that under our specific circumstances, we would seek God.  But for those who have believed, we are where we are as “ambassadors for Christ” and our primary message to those around us should be “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). 

So, is that what you’re about? Do you see yourself as an “elect exile,” i.e., one chosen by the foreknowledge of God to believe, and not only that, elect by the foreknowledge of God to the tremendous privilege and opportunity to be a messenger of the gospel to others in your family, neighborhood, workplace, and in whatever other places in life that God has placed you?  You see, every believer could say with Paul, as recorded in Philippians 1:23-24, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Paul was writing this from a Roman prison.  It was a miserable circumstance. But he knew that he was there, rather than in heaven, for a reason.  And so Paul said about both himself and any other believer who is still on earth, “to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account,” i.e., on account of those God would have us to yet minister on His behalf. 

So is that what your life is about?  If you are a believer, it surely should be.