{"id":528,"date":"2008-12-03T22:01:12","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=528"},"modified":"2008-12-03T22:01:12","modified_gmt":"2008-12-04T04:01:12","slug":"1-peter-211-holy-pilgrims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/1-peter-211-holy-pilgrims\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 2:11 – Holy Pilgrims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 Peter 2:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beloved, I beg<\/span> you<\/span><\/em> as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We are to live like citizens of heaven, not like earth dwellers.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word \u201cbeg\u201d is an interesting one. It is the Greek word, parakale\u014d<\/span><\/em> which is the verb form of a name given to the Holy Spirit, paraclete (translated \u201ccomforter\u201d). It is a compound of para<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201calongside or near\u201d and kale\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto call.\u201d Hence, the Holy Spirit is the One who is \u201ccalled alongside\u201d with the idea of being the One who walks alongside us on a journey to keep us company and to counsel us. In the verb form, as used in today\u2019s verse, it carries the idea of a coach calling an athlete to him in order to give words of encouragement and support.<\/p>\n

Peter then uses two similar words for \u201csojourners\u201d and \u201cpilgrims.\u201d These words are paroikos<\/span><\/em> and parepid\u0113mos<\/span><\/em>. They are also compound words that start with the word for \u201cnear or alongside\u201d (para<\/span><\/em>, shortened to par<\/span><\/em>). The first of these words, paroikos<\/span><\/em>, means \u201cone who has a home in a place nearby, but not here in this place.\u201d The second word, parepid\u0113mos<\/span><\/em>, means a \u201cforeigner\u201d or an \u201calien (not of the local race of people) who has temporarily settled locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cabstain\u201d is apechomai<\/span><\/em>, a compound word of apo<\/span><\/em> (shortened to ap<\/span><\/em>), meaning \u201cfrom\u201d or \u201caway from\u201d and echo<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto have.\u201d Hence, it means \u201cto have away from\u201d or \u201cto keep away from.\u201d It is expressed here in the middle voice, indicating action that is done by the subject to the subject. Therefore it means, \u201ckeep yourself away from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the metaphors used throughout the Bible is that of being on a journey, walking through life. Peter is picking up on that metaphor here as he coaches us as people who don\u2019t live here (on this earth) and who are not local residents (we are heavenly residents who are temporarily wandering through this land). The coach\u2019s message is to abstain from, that is to actively resist and keep oneself away from, the lusts of the flesh that make war against our soul.<\/p>\n

You may remember from a previous verse that the world system is made up of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16<\/span><\/strong>). These things are not of God but of the world, and since we are not of this world (but sojourners and pilgrims here) we need to resist the local customs and keep ourselves pure like our Father.<\/p>\n

There is a fine line between the desires that are a necessary part of us as human beings, and lusts, or overly strong desires, that control us if we do not control them. Peter is coaching us to resist these lusts even as we are daily bombarded by the customs (advertisements) and attitudes of the local residents.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us stand fast and resist, keeping ourselves holy because our Heavenly Father is holy and we want to reflect the family image. Let us be lights in the midst of darkness. Let us be witnesses, not by using condemning words, but by showing our kindness to others and by demonstrating our abstinence from the lusts of the flesh.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2008 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

All of our daily verse studies are available on the Ministry of Grace Church blog at http:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test<\/a><\/p>\n

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1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, Truth to Learn We are to live like citizens of heaven, not like earth dwellers. Behind the Words The word \u201cbeg\u201d is an interesting one. It is the Greek word, parakale\u014d which is the verb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-8w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}