“If you call on him as Father… pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear.” Fatherhood does not cancel accountability; the Father “without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work.” Intimate prayer and holy fear belong together for exiles.
Reverent fear is not terror that God is against you; it is seriousness about a holy Judge who is also Father. Exile living means temporary residence ethics—do not settle into the world’s corrupt currency of worth.
Redeemed “not with corruptible things like silver or gold… but with precious blood… of Christ” revalues everything. The empty ancestral way of life—however traditional—could not buy freedom. Christ’s blood, “as of a lamb without blemish or spot,” is the costly ransom.
Christ “was foreknown… before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake.” The cross is not Plan B. Redemption’s timeline stretches from eternity into “this last age,” centering believers’ faith.
Through Him they are “believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.” Resurrection and glory aim faith and hope Godward. Practice: when money, status, or family tradition feel like salvation, preach to yourself the Lamb’s blood and the Father’s raising of Jesus.
Reverent fear keeps intimacy from becoming casual. Calling God Father while living as if judgment were a myth is spiritual dissonance Peter will not allow. Exile fear is the seriousness of people who know they were bought at infinite cost.
Preach the Lamb’s blood to your conscience when shame or nostalgia for the empty way returns. Silver and gold cannot repurchase what Christ already redeemed. Faith and hope rest in the God who raised Jesus—not in the fading currencies of the old life.