I Peter 2:11

As heretofore he exhorted them to walk worthily of their calling, in contradistinction to their own former walk, so now he exhorts them to glorify God before unbelievers. Dearly beloved--He gains their attention to his exhortation by assuring them of his love. strangers and pilgrims-- (Pe1 1:17). Sojourners, literally, settlers having a house in a city without being citizens in respect to the rights of citizenship; a picture of the Christian's position on earth; and pilgrims, staying for a time in a foreign land. FLACIUS thus analyzes the exhortation: (1) Purify your souls (a) as strangers on earth who must not allow yourselves to be kept back by earthly lusts, and (b) because these lusts war against the soul's salvation. (2) Walk piously among unbelievers (a) so that they may cease to calumniate Christians, and (b) may themselves be converted to Christ. fleshly lusts--enumerated in Gal 5:19, &c. Not only the gross appetites which we have in common with the brutes, but all the thoughts of the unrenewed mind. which--Greek, "the which," that is, inasmuch as being such as "war." &c. Not only do they impede, but they assail [BENGEL]. the soul--that is, against the regenerated soul; such as were those now addressed. The regenerated soul is besieged by sinful lusts. Like Samson in the lap of Delilah, the believer, the moment that he gives way to fleshly lusts, has the locks of his strength shorn, and ceases to maintain that spiritual separation from the world and the flesh of which the Nazarite vow was the type.

The general exhortation to holiness is continued, and enforced by several reasons taken from the foundation on which Christians are built, Jesus Christ, and from their spiritual blessings and privileges in him. The means of obtaining it, the word of God, is recommended, and all contrary qualities are condemned (Pe1 2:1-12). Particular directions are given how subjects ought to obey the magistrates, and servants their masters, patiently suffering in well doing, in imitation of Christ (Pe1 2:13 to the end).

2:11-12 These verses are transitional. They can be viewed as the finale to the first section of the letter or as the opening statement of the second section of the letter. They enunciate the letter’s central theme: Christians living in hostile territory need to live out the principles of the Good News so that they can win other people to the Lord. 2:11 “temporary residents and foreigners”: Believers belong not to this world but to the Kingdom of Heaven (see 1:1, 17).