THE PRICE OF PRIVILEGE

I Peter 2:11-12

  1. a loving request - 2:11 [dearly beloved, I beseech]
    1. "beloved" is the word for divine love
      1. Peter is speaking to them as one that loves them as God loves them
      2. Peter has their best interest at heart, just like God always does
    2. "beseech" means to invite, exhort, or desire
      1. this is not a command, because God does not make us do His will
      2. we either do His will because we love Him, or we refuse to do it
      3. the Bible divides Christians into two categories: spiritual and carnal
        1. the spiritual Christians are those who love Jesus Christ and are motivated by that love to serve Him every day, and are willing to implement His will in their life
        2. carnal Christians are those who take Him as Savior, but do not let Him rule in their life
  2. we must accept our status - 2:11 [strangers and pilgrims]
    1. there is a difference between a citizen and an alien
    2. if we are a member of the people of God, then we are a stranger to the rest of society
    3. part of the price, for the privilege of being a people of God, is that we are aliens to the rest of the world
    4. we must accept this status, and make a declaration of difference
  3. another part of the price of privilege is that we must "abstain from fleshly lust" - 2:11
    1. we should not give into the wickedness of the country through which we pass
    2. we are soldiers involved in a spiritual battle [which war against the soul]
      1. all of us are subject to temptation from without, to which we readily respond because of the sinful desires within us
      2. if we drop our guard, we will be vulnerable to the things which war against our soul
      3. when we give way to sinful desires, it will do as much damage as a tank driving through a flower bed
    3. our real battle is not with the people around us, but with the passions within us
      1. the word "war" carries the idea of a military campaign
      2. we do not win one battle, and the war is over
      3. it is a constant warfare, and we must be on our guard
    4. do we sometimes wonder why God seems so distant; prayer and worship are boring
      1. it is because somewhere, somehow, under some circumstance that we succumbed to the sinful desires within us
      2. the sinful desires warred against our soul, and instead of the sweetness of the spiritual life there is the barrenness of the battlefield
      3. the price of privilege is to abstain in the power of the Holy Spirit from those things that war against the soul
    5. how to abstain from an unholy indulgence
      1. practice self restraint
      2. choose death (a living sacrifice)
      3. walk in the Spirit
  4. the price of privilege also means that we must absorb slander - 12 [they speak against you as evildoers]
    1. early Christians were subject to all kinds of abuse and slander
    2. a clean, just, and good conversation may not stop their mouths, but it may bring some to salvation
    3. the meaning of "honest
      1. it means more than telling the truth and doing what is right
      2. it also has the idea of beautiful, admirable, and honorable
    4. there should not be anything in our conversation that would give the unsaved a reason to attack Christ
    5. we are to define the moral values of this world
    6. the world has no moral standard, so by example we must set the standard