Dear friends,

I urge you as strangers and exiles

to abstain from sinful desires

that wage war against the soul.

1 Peter 2:11 CSB

Dear friends. 

Peter is not talking down to us, not lecturing or telling us off, but is alongside, with an arm around us. Dear friends is the word  "agapetos" which means "beloved".

Pete is writing to people he loves.

We are being written to as beloved.

And as strangers and exiles in the place we live. Scattered, isolated, far from the support systems and people we need. 

Far perhaps from accountability.

Where is the battle that Pete describes?

It's not "out there", but within.

Envy is not about what you have, but what I want - see where the battle is - it's in my heart 

And we all have them.

Different flavours. But they're there.

Often they're good things that we look for in the wrong places.

Acceptance 

Belonging

Pete is writing to us, wanting us to commune together, and to commune with God, and to walk in His light, in the hope that one day all will be made new, and we will no longer be exiles, we'll truly be home.

#walkingeachotherhome

#beloved

#onedayallwillbemadenew

#inthistogether

#childrenofGod