Exiles in 1 Peter

In the last 2 weeks we have found out my wife has breast cancer, We were shocked because her family has no history nor does she have a lifestyle that would contribute to this. As all of this happened, I have been reading 1 Peter and many thoughts in this book have been a comfort and a challenge to me. Among the themes in 1 Peter, there is the theme of the Christian being an exile in this world. This theme begins and ends this book in 1.1 and 5.13. In 1.1 the Christians are called exiles and in 5.13 Peter sends greeting from 'Babylon' which is probably a code word for Rome. These 2 verses, however, conjure up the exile idea from Judah's history of being in bondage in Babylon beginning with Jerusalem's destruction in 586 BC. Peter relates that as exiles in this world, we look for something permanent and certain, i.e. a home if you will and this is what he describes in 1.4-5.  Peter calls it an inheritance (our salvation) and describes is as 'imperishable', 'undefiled', and 'unfading'. Imperishable, of course, means eternal. Undefiled means free from sickness or anything that makes one unclean. Unfading is a 'rust' picture or a painting picture losing its colour over time in the steady glow of the sun. It struck me that this life is being fully described if you take away the 'a' prefix to these words. Life, in spite of its joys, happiness, etc., is one that perishes, is touched by sickness and physical defilements, and of course fades into old age and infirmity. Peter's answer to these facts it to look to eternity ('kept in heaven, guarded by God, to be revealed in the last time'-v.7). All of this emphasizes the exile theme. This world is not our home. I suppose, however, for some of us being an 'exile' doesn't really affect us until something like cancer or the like touches our lives. Although I hate the thought of cancer (though I really doubt that my wife's life is in  deathly danger, suffering maybe, but not death), this has been a wake-up call and I am seriously thinking about what it means to be in exile.

Peter goes on to say than even though we rejoice as exiles, we may have to experience various trials in vv. 6-7. Peter, in context, probably means persecutions for being Christians in a hostile environment. I have no doubts, however, that trials can come in all kinds of situations. Peter says to rejoice in our various trials because the trials 'test' our faith to refine it and take away the impurities and make it more precious.

I am further struck by how crazy these things seem from a worldly point of view and I wonder if even in our churches with our extravagant buildings and large carparks we are ever really taught that we are exiles in this world. We are taught that we are the children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, etc. (all wonderful aspects!), but do we ever really think of  (or taught to think of) ourselves as exiles? I can't tell you how many prayers I have heard calling upon God for friends and loved ones to be delivered from sickness and infirmities (especially cancer!), I have never, as far as I know, heard a prayer thanking God for a trial that a brother or sister is going through nor have I heard prayer asking God to take/strengthen them through the trail in order to refine and strengthen their faith. The prayer tends to be to ask that the trial be avoided all together. I understand this and no one should rejoice in another's pain and we do need to pray for healing and it needs to be made clear that God doesn't rejoice in suffering, but rather in what the suffering can produce. I do wonder, however, if we refuse to take the fact that Christians are exiles seriously that we become truly foolish and miss to whatever degree God's ways in which he can increase and strengthen our faith, We will never really become exiles (or enjoy the blessings of being exiles) until we set our sights on what is eternal and reject the world's way of thinking which considers trials and sufferings as only evil, unpleasant, and to be avoided at all costs.