Here, Peter continues his epistle, urging us as sojourners and exiles. Actually, there are three designations for Christians here: Beloved, sojourners, and exiles. I had thought to focus today on abstinence from fleshly desires, and maybe we will get to that. But, first, we should probably explore what is behind these further distinctions Peter gives to Christians. Let’s start with Beloved.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:11-12
Peter’s previous designations
Remember that Peter has just finished writing to us a number of designations which apply to all Christians. He told his audience they were a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. He said they were previously not a people, but were now God’s people. They were formerly those who had not received mercy, but they were become those who received mercy. And, Peter wrote that these qualifications allowed them to show forth the praises of God, who had called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9-10).
Beloved
Beloved is perhaps the simplest of the three. After all, Christ commanded us as his followers to love one another (John 13:34). Peter, a Christian, writing to fellow Christians, calls them (and us) Beloved. The word in Greek is ἀγαπητός, which is transliterated, agapétos. This is perhaps the most familiar Greek word I have cited so far. At least the agape part of it. It is one of the four Greek “loves.”
The four loves
The four Greek verbs for “to love” are: φιλέω, phileó, στοργή, storgē, ἔρως, erōs, and ἀγάπη, agapé. Of them, only phileó and agapé are used regularly in various forms throughout the New Testament. Storgē is combined with phileó, in the form of philostorgos in a single verse, and used twice in a negative sense. Erōs does not appear in the New Testament. But, what about the rest?
What do they mean, anyway? In English, we use love for everything. But, to the Greek there were different sorts of love. They would not say that they loved their friends in the same way they loved gyros, as we do. In fact, looking at this selection of Greek loves, I am not sure which they would use to describe a love for gyros. Maybe, they would not credit a gyro with love. But, I digress, and become rather peckish. Anyway, here are some brief definitions, and a few citations of scripture. Where I can, I will lift definitions straight from Bible Hub’s online copy of Strong’s Greek Concordance.
phileó
φιλέω – phileó – (from 5384 /phílos, “affectionate friendship”) – properly, to show warm affection in intimate friendship, characterized by tender, heartfelt consideration and kinship.
- John 5:20 – For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
- John 11:34-36 – 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
- 1 Corinthians 16:22 – If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
- Titus 3:15 – All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
- Revelation 3:19 – Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
- Revelation 22:14-15 – 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
storgē
στοργή – storgē – No direct quotation in scripture. Let’s use φιλόστοργος, philostorgos – (from 5384 /phílos, “lover, friend” and storgē, “natural or family love”) – properly, a lover of family
- Romans 12:10 – Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
- ἄστοργος – astorgos – “without natural affection”. This is the use of storgē in the negative I mentioned above. Will cite it here under storgē, so as not to confuse people with a fifth term. Like I mentioned before, it is only used twice in this way.
- Romans 1:29-31 – 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
- 2 Timothy 3:1-5 – But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
erōs
ἔρως – erōs – love, desire (usually of a romantic/sexual nature) (often personified). (How frustrating to have to lean on Wikipedia! I will endeavor to get a proper Greek dictionary for future use.) As mentioned previously, this word is not found in the New Testament. “But, what about the Old Testament?” you ask. That, my beloved reader, was written in Hebrew.
agapé
ἀγάπη – agapé – “love, goodwill”
- Luke 11:42 – “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
- John 5:42 – But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
- John 13:35 – By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
- John 15:10 – If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
- Romans 8:37-39 – 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
agapétos – beloved
Still with me? Good! So, those are the four Greek “loves,” and we see, in spite of what you can find and read on the internet about “Eros in the Bible,” the word is not actually found there. But, what we are trying to get to today is Beloved. I mentioned before, the word used for Beloved is agapétos. I don’t know my Greek, but from my experience with other languages, this looks to be like “You all who are loved,” with the root agapé, and the plural you with tos. Maybe that is just a coincidence?
Regardless, beloved readers, let’s look at a couple other occurrences of agapétos in scripture. We see it used by the Father, in the Trinitarian scene accompanying Christ’s baptism, and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). (See also: Matthew 12:18, Matthew 17:5, Mark 1:11, Mark 9:7, Mark 12:6, Luke 3:22, Luke 20:13)
Also, we see it appear as a tender address following admonishment: I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children (1 Corinthians 4:14). (See also: Romans 12:19, Hebrews 6:9, 1 Corinthians 10:14, etc.)
Beloved – fellows, or disciples?
But, predominantly, we read beloved as an affectionate term referring to a fellow believer, or a congregation to which an epistle is addressed. Before I go listing more verses, I do want to pause and define further the notion of the beloved being a fellow believer. It occurs to me that these addresses are not simply a comrade in arms, as it were, referring to his fellow. These are always disciples. Fellow disciples of our Captain and King, of course! But, one would not very likely refer to Paul and Titus as equals.
Americans do not like hierarchy
I have covered this sort of thing before (Rejoice! The Quest: Day 22.0). I have not yet encountered the ire of the American public. But, that is of course because no one has read anything I’ve written! The fact is that Americans do not like hierarchy. What’s more, in the Christian Evangelical world, people tend to carry the idea that we are all “equal before the Lord.” If they mean by this that we are all equally deserving damnation, then they are correct. But, I am afraid that is not what they have in mind. Instead, they would assert that we are all equal in faith. If, by that, they mean that every Christian has only Christ’s righteousness as his own, they are also correct.
“I’m a Christian, same as the Apostle Paul.”
But, what about the Christian who says, “I am a Christian, the same as the Apostle Paul, or Peter, or John.”? Well, they may intend a something very true. If they mean they are each only Christians by the salvation brought about by God through the efficacy of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, they are correct. But, if they mean they are equally endowed with the Spirit, wisdom of God, and authority to interpret and pen scripture, then they are most assuredly wrong.
Masters and students
It is a curious thing, but if a Christian went to a dojo and signed up to take a martial arts class from a master, they would think nothing of the hierarchy involved. There is the master. He has the knowledge, training, and capabilities to which they aspire. They know they must train, even train a lifetime to attain the same status. For this reason they have no qualms acknowledging this, and even calling him master. But, when it comes to Christianity, laymen seem to chafe under the notion that elders or pastors, or even the apostles – Christ’s own disciples – might know a thing or two more than they do. They prefer to call them, Bob, or Doug, or Brian. Why should this be so, beloved?
The blessing of hierarchy
All of this to say, when we see Paul, or Peter, or the writer of Hebrews using the term beloved, it is true they are writing to, or of, fellow believers. But, it would be more true to say they are writing to or of their disciples. That is to say, they are writing to those whom they are instructing and leading in the Way. Put it clearer, the apostles are writing to those beneath them on the hierarchy of Christian faith. Here, are a few examples of that to which I am referring: Romans 16:5-12, Ephesians 6:21.
In case you are not convinced that beloved holds within it a sort of affectionate diminutive, coming from a master to his proteges in the faith, let’s close with the following example. See if you can force it to fit into a “we’re the same” cookie cutter.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13
In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter addresses us as Beloved. We are not the masters, we are the students. Let’s have hearts and minds prepared for training. In this way, we can be confident we will attain some shadow of their knowledge and capabilities after long years of study and practice.
