Faithful Exiles: Finding Hope in a Hostile WorldExemplo

Peter’s first epistle, as an exhortation to exiles, encourages believers to set their hope on God’s future grace (1:13). Our desire is to give Christians hope in a hostile world.

There’s no disputing that Christian beliefs, values, and ethics are in precipitous decline in the West. As many of us now inhabit a post-Christian society, we’re learning for the first time what exile feels like. Yet this experience is nothing new for many believers and churches in the majority world. They continue to occupy spaces that overtly oppose their witness. As Peter wrote in the first century, such suffering is no surprise (4:12).

By labeling our experience as exile, we’re not implying the church is powerless. Nor are Christians exempt from social, cultural, or political engagement. Instead, we believe the gospel calls exiles to active involvement for the good of society while also directing us to gentleness and respect for all (3:15).

Is now the time for Christians to surrender to the culture or retreat in isolation? Should we stand up and take back what’s been lost? Rather than limiting our options to fight or flight, we believe the gospel gives rise to hope (1:3, 13, 21)—and that hope should color our actions and responses in every sphere of life.

To shade in that image of hope, we’ll look at the lives of exiles throughout Scripture. Some of them were literal sojourners, foreigners, and refugees. Others simply lived as expats of heaven while strangers on earth. We’ll consider their example as a model for how to live as those patiently striving for holiness while waiting for home (1:14–16). This is, in essence, the message of another letter in the New Testament: Hebrews.

Hebrews was written to encourage endurance in those tempted to succumb to social pressures. It was written so believers in a hostile environment might imitate “those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12). To that end, the author of Hebrews famously recounted the stories of God’s people in history who, in the words of C. S. Lewis, “did most for the present world” because they “thought most of the next.” Their story is our story.

This is the story of faithful exiles.