8. Pilgrimage to Paradise: Citizens of a Different Kingdom
Pixabay The recent political brouhaha here in Canada swirling around honesty, integrity, hypocrisy among the leaders of the major party leaders highlights the importance of Peter's instructions to the pilgrims of his day. He writes: " Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind ". (1 Peter 2:1) Whenever we see a " therefore " in Scripture we know that something was said earlier that is important. The previous section of Peter's letter had to do with being holy as God is holy. This call to holiness is based on what Christ did in giving His life to provide salvation for these pilgrims, these exiles now scattered throughout the Roman world. They were to love one another deeply as Christ had loved them. And love, being more than "a warm fuzzy" has characteristics. Peter is about to describe what those are. If these pilgrims, and by extension, if we, want to live out our journey in k...