Who are you?
When you meet someone new, how do you identify yourself? Maybe it's nationality, or places you've lived, or job, or relationships..... If you are an expat, the question of identity becomes particularly important. In every new place, you have to start again, build an identity, struggle for significance in a new situation. So it really struck me, reading how Peter begins his first letter, that he chose to name his hearers as 'exiles'. That was their reality- they were expats, forced to flee their homeland by religious persecution, and now scattered all over the Mediterranean. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia... 1 Peter 1: 1 The whole way through his letter, Peter is aware of the way these people are seen by the world they live in...and maybe also how they feel about themselves. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles..... 1 Peter 2:11 It's tempting to "spiritualize" theses ...