True to Our Native Land, page 98
“The Christian’s call to the Gospel preaching and teaching ministry emerges from and out of an indescribable impulse, indescribable at first to the one being called and being beckoned to an almost inconceivable, unrecognizable urge to do God’s business in a hostile, socioreligious context. This divine prodding relays an inner urge that is nearly impossible to overcome because it is an inner phenomenon, unlike the common cold or heartbreak that lasts or runs its course relatively within a brief period, depending on a person’s immune system or ability to rebound from a lost love. No matter how one seeks to escape, this call is inescapable, unavoidable, and difficult to pass off. In short, this experience like one of cupid’s arrows cannot be easily shaken, nor can one escape from it, or seek to drown it out by abusing or misusing some sort of alcohol or drug or substance. In a sense, this inner struggle will result in a spiritual experience that either will make one whole or it will cause, if avoided, in the end, self-destruction, purposelessness, and aimlessness.”
—Larry D. George, “‘Something You Cannot Shake’: The Culture of the Call to Ordained Ministry for Women in the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. and the African Methodist Episcopal Church Traditions,” The AME Church Review 117 (October–December 2002): 104.
1 Peter 4: Striving toward God’s Standards
4:1–11, “Those Preachin’ Women”11
Peter provides an additional rationale for suffering. A Christian should have the same attitude that Christ had when he suffered. Moreover, the one who has suffered in the flesh ceases from sin and spends time here on earth focusing on God (v. 1). Therefore, the time has passed for the new convert to do what non-Christians desire. They had their array of past sinful actions and activities: debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries (v. 3). The company they once kept can no longer be because they cannot submit to non-Christians who enticed them to immoralities and vilified them when the new converts refused to bite (v. 4).
Peter assures the new converts that their persecutors will be punished and their human standards will not rule over God’s standards. African Americans do not fully subscribe to the human standards of racism, which states that whites are superior to Blacks, and that white skin privilege is moral and Black suffering is accepted with further contempt (cf. Katrina), which are lies and false teachings. Rather, when it comes to embracing the truth and the law of grace, African Americans courageously continue to turn to God’s standard. The end of hegemonic oppression is far away.
After rendering several admonitions, Peter informs the new converts that they have received a gift and are expected to be good stewards or managers of “the varied grace of God.” This gift is not gender-inclusive in 4:10–11. In some African American denominations, women are denied this right to manage and use their gifts. Though women, like men, may experience calls from God to the gospel ministry, they are denied the privilege to preach and pastor, or they face glass-ceilings in the ministry, howsoever defined. Therefore, Peter says that whosoever speaks or serves, male or female, let them speak and serve God’s Word.
4:12–19, Judgment Begins at God’s House
The new converts have endured various sufferings and trials at the time of this correspondence. Peter depicts this context as a trial by fire (v. 12). He believes that these trials are to be expected and that the new converts should not think it bizarre that these trials are happening to exiles and foreigners. Likewise, African Americans also should not be astonished at all by the sufferings and trials by fire that they experience historically and daily. They, too, are strangers in a strange land, suffering because they are foreigners from Africa.
Yet Peter also admonishes his readers to adjust their spiritual attitudes of gratitude by God’s grace, rejoicing at their suffering because in so doing they share in Christ’s sufferings. Peter instructs them not to be found guilty of certain crimes: murder, theft, criminal behavior, or troublemaking. Lastly, Peter tells them not to be ashamed because of their sufferings. African Americans all too well know the shame that comes from suffering under unjust systems of oppression.
Peter issues a warning that God will begin judging the world at the house of God. All Christians within the body of Christ will pass through the judgment test, and they will be barely saved. If the so-called righteous in the church are barely saved, how much worse would it be for the ungodly and sinner? African Americans should also assess themselves concerning any form of oppression—greed, sexism, elitism, homophobia, and the like—that may exist in their midst so that they may be liberated fully from their suffering.12
“Dontcha Git Weary” by Sterling A. Brown
They dragged you from homeland;
They chained you in coffles
They huddled you spoonfashion in filthy hatches
They sold you to give a few gentlemen ease.
They broke you in like oxen
They scourged you
They branded you
They made your women breeders
They swelled your numbers with bastards. . . .
They taught you the religion they disgraced.
You sang: Keep a inchin’ along
Lak a po’ inch worm. . . .
You sang: Bye and Bye
I’m gonna lay down dis heaby load. . . .
You sang: Walk together chillen
Dontcha git weary. . . .
The strong men keep a comin’ on
The strong men git stronger.
—“Dontcha Git Weary” from The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, edited by Michael S. Harper. Copyright © 1980 by Sterling A. Brown. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Peter places an extremely fearful truth in front of the new converts that will aid them in their struggle to exceed the human standards of righteousness in the church. Peter admonishes the new converts to strive toward God’s standards or God’s will so that they may be saved as sufferers for Christ’s sake, thereby entrusting “their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good” (v. 19).
Are We There Yet?
There are approximately thirty million African Americans. Approximately half of them survive in the Black Belt south, in abject poverty, poor housing, poor schools, high crime rate, and high unemployment, in the twenty-first century, and in America.
—See Ronald C. Wimberley and Libby V. Morris, The Southern Black Belt: A National Perspective (Lexington: TVA Rural Studies and the University of Kentucky, 1997), and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_Region.
1 Peter 5: Farewell to the Faithful
5:1–11, God Opposes the Proud and Gives Grace to the Humble
Peter returns to providing instructions to the faith community. As a fellow elder, Peter admonishes the elders (vv. 1–4) and the entire Christian community (v. 5c–11). He charges the elders to be good shepherds of God’s flock and exercise their roles and responsibilities not as a duty but willingly under God’s directions, and not for shameful profit nor as lords or dictators. If they perform God’s will for the flock, then when the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, returns, Peter assures them that they will “receive a crown of glory that never fades” (v. 4).
Peter charges the rest of the community to be subject to the elder, the spiritual leader of the flock. Peter expects new converts to have the same spirit as the elders and defer to them for their work as shepherds of the flock.
Crowns to Be Cast at the Chief Shepherd`s Feet
“And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever, the twenty-four elders throw themselves to the ground before the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever, and they offer their crowns before his throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.’”
—Revelation 4:9–11.
In Peter’s instructions to the entire community, he cites Proverbs 3:34 (cf. Jas 4:6) to reinforce the central charge of humility toward one another. God has nothing to do with the proud, but the humble receive more of God’s grace. If they humble themselves, then they will be exalted by God in due time. In vv. 8–11 Peter instructs them to be sober and alert because the devil is on the prowl, seeking whom he may devour. Peter further charges the entire community to resist the devil, stay strong in their faith, and endure suffering like Jesus. After they suffer for a while, God will address the question of theodicy—“Why do the righteous suffer?”—with the response that God will fully restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish them.13
5:12–14, From a Church in Babylon
Peter closes this correspondence with a final greeting, referring to Silvanus, his secretary; to the church in Babylon (a code name for Rome), who were chosen together with them; and to Mark, whom he calls his son. By practicing one of his admonitions to show affection, he instructs them to greet one another with a loving kiss and to be at peace.
Africans of the diaspora, especially African Americans, would do well to take Pheme Perkins’s words seriously (see sidebar below) and to develop a praxis that would eliminate oppression in whatever form it presents itself—poverty, classism, elitism, and the like.
The Church in Babylon
Concerning the status of the church in Babylon, Pheme Perkins admonishes:
“Since 1 Peter uses the symbolic name ‘Babylon’ to refer to Rome (cf. Rev 14:8; 18:2), he and his associates become the primary example of a church in exile. This designation throws the opening reference to its addressees in the ‘Diaspora’ into a different light. Ordinarily, a letter to those in the Diaspora would have come from Jerusalem (as in Acts 15:22–29). Here the political center of the empire that controls the provinces of Asia Minor is also the epitome of a place of exile. Since the author shares the situation of his addressees, they can be confident in his advice. This warm greeting also reminds readers today of their responsibility to other churches around the world. No church that remains insolated in local or even national boundaries incarnates the vision left by the apostles. Christians must reach out to their brothers and sisters around the world with the same love and support demonstrated in this letter. The sufferings of Christians in distant regions of Asia Minor were acknowledged by their fellow believers in the capital of the empire.”
—Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, Interpretation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 81–82.
Notes
1. James Allen, Hilton Als, Congressman John Lewis, and Leon F. Litwack, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America (Santa Fe, NM: Twin, 2000), 46–163; see also Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (New York: Random House, 2002), 17–52.
2. See, e.g., Cheryl J. Sanders, “Liberation Ethics in the Ex-Slave Interviews,” in Cut Loose Your Stammering Tongue: Black Theology in the Slave Narratives, ed. Dwight N. Hopkins and George C. L. Cummings (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 96.
3. The five Roman provinces are Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. See John H. Elliott, 1 Peter ab 37B (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 85.
4. Since the real flesh-and-blood author is unknown, in this commentary I refer to Peter as the implied author.
5. James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 10.
6. Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, ab 37C (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 43–44.
7. See, for example, Elliott, 1 Peter, 97–109.
8. “Be not conformed” (syschēmatizesthe) functions as a passive middle, suggesting both the passive mode of resisting and the reflexive form of performing a task for oneself.
9. See, for example, Brian Ward, Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
10. See, for example, Clarice J. Martin, “The Haustafeln (Household Codes) in African American Biblical Interpretation: ‘Free Slaves’ and Subordinate Women,’” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, ed. Cain Hope Felder (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 206–31.
11. See Ella Mitchell and Jacqueline B. Glass, eds., Those Preachin’ Women: Sermons by Black Women Preachers (Valley Forge, PA: Judson, 2004).
12. See, for example, Prathia Hall-Wynn, “The Challenge of True Kinship,” in What Does It Mean to Be Black and Christian? Pulpit, Pew, and Academy in Dialogue, ed. Forrest E. Harris Sr., James T. Roberson, and Larry D. George (Nashville: Townsend, 1995), 111–23.
13. God’s consolation for those who suffer is recounted in the epilogue of the book of Job (42:7–17) and at the end of Revelation (chaps. 21–22).
For Further Reading
Bell, Derrick. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Performance of Racism. New York: Basic, 1992.
Blassingame, John W., ed. Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
Bryant, K. Edwin, and Lewis V. Baldwin. ChaRIOT: The New Cultural Conversation. Full Media Publishing, 2022.
Elliott, John H. 1 Peter. ab 37B. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
González, Catherine Gunsalus. 1 & 2 Peter and Jude: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.
Hall-Wynn, Prathia. “The Challenge of True Kinship.” In What Does It Mean to Be Black and Christian? Pulpit, Pew, and Academy in Dialogue, edited by Forrest E. Harris Sr., James T. Robertson, and Larry D. George, 111–23. Nashville: Townsend, 1995.
Heil, John Paul. 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013.
Hopkins, Dwight N., and George C. L. Cummings, eds. Cut Loose Your Stammering Tongue: Black Theology in the Slave Narratives. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003.
Martin, Clarice J. “The Haustafeln (Household Codes) in African American Biblical Interpretation: ‘Free Slaves’ and ‘Subordinate Women.’” In Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, edited by Cain Hope Felder, 206–31. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991.
Mitchell, Ella, and Jacqueline B. Glass, eds. Those Preachin’ Women: Sermons by Black Women Preachers. Valley Forge, PA: Judson, 2004.
Mason, Eric F., and Troy W. Martin. Reading 1–2 Peter and Jude: A Resource for Students. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014.
Neyrey, Jerome H. 2 Peter, Jude. ab 37C. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
Perkins, Pheme. First and Second Peter, James, and Jude. Interpretation. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1995.
Reese, Gareth L. 1 & 2 Peter and Jude: A Critical & Exegetical Commentary. Annotated edition. Moberly, MO: Scripture Exposition Books, 2016.
Richard, Earl J. 1 Peter, Jude, and 2 Peter: A Literary and Theological Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2000.
Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
2 Peter
Larry D. George
Introduction
Second Peter is a second-century, post-apostolic general epistle. Because scholars have determined 2 Peter’s dependence on Jude,1 it is dated between 90 and 135 ce. Although this epistle purports to be written before Peter’s2 martyrdom in Rome (62–64 ce, see 1:12–15), its literary relationship to Jude (written between 70 and 90 ce), suggests that it dates from the early to mid-second century. Since no specific reader is addressed in the salutation (1:1–2), 2 Peter was inserted among the “General Epistles” (James, 1–2 Peter, Jude, and 1–3 John) of the Second Testament canon. Moreover, though 2 Peter lacks the complete structure of a Greek letter,3 it does address a real, urgent matter: false teachers are wreaking havoc on believers concerning the parousia (the “second” coming of Jesus Christ) and concerning the perceived lack of involvement of God in the world that God would not punish the wicked and reward the righteous.
Inferiority versus Superiority
“From the early decades of the 1600s, when Puritan Christians first defined black people as inferior and made slavery their ‘normal condition,’ until the mid-1950s, blacks used every means available to free themselves from this brutal racism. Some put their trust in prayer, some turned to social protest, others tried reasoning, and still others staked their hopes on open revolt. Nothing they or their sympathetic white allies tried was able to extract and deal a deathblow to the ideas of inferiority in the American mind.”
—Paul R. Griffin, Seeds of Racism: In the Soul of America (Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1999), 63.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
“While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ‘unwise and untimely.’ Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.”
