Fifth Sunday of Easter

How does our own sense of being “Christian” rely on strategies of feeling exceptional?

Commentary on 1 Peter 2:2-10

Jimmy Hoke

This passage of 1 Peter (like much of the letter) is about group identity formation, what biblical scholar Jennifer T. Kaalund describes as “an identity that will come to be known as Christian.”¹ The author uses the term “Christian” in 1 Peter 4:16, one of only three occurrences of this term in the New Testament. The widespread use of terms like “Christianity” and “Christian” postdate most of the New Testament, and people who followed Christ in the late first or early second centuries CE generally did not think of themselves in these terms.

The other two occurrences of “Christian” in the New Testament come from the second-century book of Acts, where the author depicts hostile parties using the term to describe Jesus’s followers, making the term appear derogatory. When 1 Peter uses the term, the author alludes to this derogatory meaning, connected to “suffering” as a criminal. First Peter calls its audience to “glorify God because you bear this name,” beginning a process of claiming a term of criminality and transforming it into an identity.

First Peter 2:2–10 makes claims that draw this group together into a coherent identity that only later will be claimed as “Christian.” “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (2:9). Citing terms and scriptures from Jewish texts and traditions, the author summons together an audience that he describes as dispersed exiles (see 1:1; 2:11) and claims them, as a newly formed group, to be God’s holy chosen. First Peter’s language of exile appropriates the terms of Jewish diaspora in the aftermath of Babylonian conquest.

First Peter shifts to a theology that distinguishes identity by replacing Judaism with a superior Christianity. The author takes the rhetoric of rejection from Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14–15 and orients these quoted texts in ways that enable anti-Judaism. The declaration of holy identity in 2:9 distinguishes Christian identity from the Jewish tradition that the letter declares “disobeyed” (see 2:8). The author presents a Judaism that has stumbled in order to forge an audience who can claim an identity that the author presents as a superior replacement.

Jesus Christ becomes “a living stone” (2:4) that brings life to his followers, who will be “built into a spiritual house” (2:5). Christian life emerges from the implication that other stones are inert and lifeless. When read alongside the language of rejection and the appropriation of Jewish scripture, 1 Peter’s common “Christian” identity calls one group “into marvelous light” by casting another into darkness.

What does it mean to be “Christian” in an era of Christian exceptionalism?

First Peter 2:2–10 coheres Christian identity through strategies of exceptionalism. The author makes their audience feel exceptionally superior by praising their group in distinction to others who have, via their stumbling, been made exceptions. The group is distinguished as excellent because others have been excluded from being “a holy nation, God’s own people.” This group formation betrays a lack of solidarity with Jewish folks who were also living in the aftermath of Roman conquest, occupation, and a new sense of exile.

While interpreters should appreciate how the author and their gentile audience seem to have been suffering under the hostile conditions of Roman imperialism, they should also reflect how the author’s exceptionalism distinguishes the group so they might live honorably as model subjects to both God and Rome (“Fear God. Honor the emperor,” 2:17). The author’s rhetoric works toward forming a group and poising them to respect the empire with whom, only a few centuries later, this group will become synonymous.

The roots of the Christian supremacy that defines our contemporary context can be perceived in the text, if readers are willing to notice. Christian supremacy was built on a cornerstone of Christian colonialism that rendered and continues to render countless cultures and religious traditions aliens and exiles.

It is good and right that pastors and congregations condemn and work alongside others to dismantle Christian nationalism. However, these condemnations often rely on the same exceptional strategies of identity formation found in 1 Peter 2:2–10. Christian nationalism isn’t “Christian”—that’s not us. They have stumbled; we have light and love. Christian identity continues to be forged in opposition. Embedded in this rhetoric is an unspoken assumption that when these texts have been interpreted “correctly,” a superior, revolutionary Christianity shines from the first century into the 21st. Christianity remains exceptional merely by adding another group onto its list of exceptions.

Christian nationalism represents only one current and dangerous iteration of Christian Supremacy Culture. Uncritical engagement with texts like 1 Peter 2:2–10 continues to form Christians with a pride in a group identity that can perpetuate our own sense of superiority. This underlying superiority continues to enable present and future dangers that arise when Christian supremacy moves from unspoken assumption to a loudly claimed political stance.

Christians need to notice and speak aloud the dangers of our own unspoken assumptions. More critical engagement with the identity-forming rhetoric in this passage invites us into more critical engagement with our own sense of Christian identity. How does our own sense of being “Christian” rely on strategies of feeling exceptional? How can exposing 1 Peter’s and our own exceptionalism enable us to look for solidarity with others?