The most basic requirement of this passage is that Christians should abstain from all physical lusts. What does Peter really mean? This is a problem that we should study carefully. In modern language, phrases such as "physical sin" and "physical desire" have narrow meanings. For us, this refers to sexual crimes; But the New Testament has a broader meaning. In Galatians 5: 19-2 1, Paul listed the crimes of the flesh as follows: "adultery, filth, immorality, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, competition, jealousy, anger, factional strife, disputes, heresy, jealousy, drunkenness, famine and so on." Including many crimes that are obviously not committed by the body.
In the sense of the New Testament, the body not only refers to human nature, but also refers to human nature far from God. Refers to unsaved human nature; It refers to a life without Christ as a standard and help, without the grace and influence of Christ. Therefore,' the sin of the flesh' and' the lust of the flesh' not only include all kinds of filthy sins, but also refer to the characteristics of human nature, which Christians must prohibit. Peter said there were two reasons for the ban.
(1) because Christians are paroikos and parepidemos. Both are very common Greek characters, especially those who live far from home. In the Old Testament, the patriarch wandered around, so he was often called a stranger. Abraham, in particular, didn't know his destination when he was far away from home. He wanted to seek a city built by God (Lai 1 1: 9, 13). This sentence is also used to describe the situation that the Israelites were slaves and sojourners in Egypt before entering the land of Canaan (Acts 7: 6).
This leads to two facts:
Christians are strangers in the world; So he can't accept the principles, customs and standards of this world. Others may accept this, but Christians, as people in heaven, should abide by the laws of heaven. His life on earth should be law-abiding, but he is a citizen of heaven and should be based on the laws of heaven.
(2) Christians are just strangers in the world, and they are heading for their eternal hometown. Therefore, he should not be bothered by anything, and strive to move forward and reach the final destination. He should not be addicted to world music; He should not defile himself and stand before the holy God.
Jing Bo's Defense (II 1 1- 12) (continued)
(2) Peter also put forward another reason why Christians should abstain from the lusts of the flesh. The early church made enemies on all sides, and there were countless false accusations against Christians; The only effective rebuttal is to live a good life, so that the false accusation will be broken.
For modern people, the king's royal translation seems a bit biased, because its translation is:' You should be honest among foreigners.' This seems to mean that Christians should tell the truth, but the Greek word translated into the word anastrophe means a person's whole behavior, not just his words. However, the meaning of words, in the seventeenth century, did include the words and deeds of the whole person. The honest Greek is Carlos. In Greek, there are two words to describe goodness and kindness. One is agathos, which means good quality; The other is kalos, which means not only good, but also beautiful-charming, pleasing to the eye and lovely. This is the Latin meaning of honesty. Therefore, Peter's original intention is that the whole life of Christians should be attractive and full of beautiful temperament, so that the accusations of foreigners who attack them can be turned into false rumors.
This brings out an eternal truth, whether you like it or not, Christians are the best medium in Christianity; His life can make people accept or reject Christianity. Christian life is an excellent medium to preach the gospel.
In the early church, it was absolutely necessary to praise the wonderful life of Christ, because pagans accused the church of being heartless. These unreasonable complaints can be roughly divided into the following categories.
From the beginning, Christianity has a close relationship with Jews. As far as race is concerned, Jesus is Jewish; Paul is a Jew, and Christianity was born from Judaism. Anti-Semitism is nothing new. In his masterpiece Life and Etiquette in Rome in the Early Empire, Frilander made the following comments on the rumors of attacking Jews:' According to Tacitus, they (that is, Jews) taught believers who converted to Judaism to hate gods, give up their motherland and deny their six relatives. According to Youvinaris, Moses taught Jews not to give directions or take thirsty travelers to the spring unless they were Jews. Apion claimed that during the period of Ocuss Epiphane in Antioch, Jews would solemnly offer a tied Greek as a sacrifice in a forest on a certain day every year, and eat its internal organs, and vowed never to hate Greece. "Greeks also believe that Jews are really so cruel. Naturally, Christians suffer together and suffer innocently.
(2) In addition to false accusations against Jews, Christians are directly trapped by rumors. They are called cannibals. This absurd accusation stems from the misunderstanding of some sentences in the Eucharist; It is' this is my body' and' this cup is the new Covenant made with my blood'. Christians are accused of eating babies' meat at banquets.
They were even accused of immoral behavior and incest. This is because Christians call their party a love feast, so pagans spread rumors everywhere that the Christian love feast is really debauchery and shameless.
Christians are even accused of undermining commercial profits, which is accused by the local silversmith in Ephesus (Acts 19: 2 1-4 1).
They were accused of "destroying family relations" because there are believers and non-believers in the family, and friction is inevitable, so they provoked this false accusation.
They are accused of encouraging slaves to rebel against their masters, which is inevitable, because Christianity has indeed given every believer brand-new value and dignity. They are accused of "hating the world" because Christians are so explicit that they put the world and the church in a hostile position. The most serious thing is that they are accused of disloyalty to Caesar, because no Christian will bow down to the image of the emperor and burn incense in front of it, claiming that Caesar is the Lord; Because for Christians, only Jesus Christ is the only Lord.
These accusations are directed at Christians. For Peter, the only way to refute these accusations is to break these false rumors with a good Christian life. When Pareto was falsely accused by others, he said,' I will take my life as evidence so that people will not believe their rumors.' Peter's solution coincides with Pareto's.
Jesus himself once said this-there is no doubt that this sentence is deeply engraved in Peter's heart:' So let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give glory to your father in heaven.' (Mt. 5: 16) Jews all know this concept. In a book between the two covenants, there is such a sentence:' My son, if you do well, mortals and angels will appreciate you; God will be glorified among the Gentiles because of you, and the devil will be far away from you. "(Naphtali 8:4 Naphtali's Test)
It is a historical fact that the good life of Christians has indeed broken the rumors of pagans. At the beginning of the third century, Celsus made a series of fierce attacks on Christianity, accusing Christians of ignorance, stupidity and superstition, but not accusing them of immoral behavior. At the beginning of the 4th century, Eusebius, a famous church historian, once said, "The glory of the universal church, the only true church, is enduring, and it has a growing trend. Its pious, poor, free, humble and holy life and philosophy have great influence on Greeks and foreigners. At the same time, countless rumors and false accusations that want to slander the church have gradually broken down, and only our religious beliefs are still fighting alone. Not only that, its superb temperament, transcendental holiness and philosophical teaching are all well-known facts. Therefore, no one wants to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors and vilify our beliefs for no reason. " (History of the Church 4, 7, 15) Of course, this does not mean that the persecution is over, because Christians will never recognize Caesar as the Lord; But there is an undeniable fact, that is, the good life of Christians makes those who slander the church speechless.
This is our challenge and message: Christians should preach Christ to unbelievers with their beautiful words and deeds.