Community and Commitment are the two chief challenges facing the new, struggling church here in 1 Peter. The widely scattered Christian churches of Asia Minor had to learn how to live apart from the greater pagan society they existed in while living as part of that same culture. The author of 1 Peter knew that this was a balancing act not easy for anyone but even less so for such new and inexperienced Christians.

Chapter 2 begins with a list of vices. This may be a recounting of some of the attitudes these faith communities had recently encountered either from the larger non-Christian society or even from those within their churches. The items certainly read like a litany of bad attitudes ones 1 Peter suggests that true Christians would never imitate or inculcate.

Somewhat surprisingly, …