What does Peter mean when he urges the recipients of his letter to "confirm their calling and election"? As for election, the apostle, as we can see, holds a view of...
What does Peter mean when he urges the recipients of his letter to "confirm their calling and election"? As for election, the apostle, as we can see, holds a view of the Messiah and of the messianic remnant that was quite traditional for his time, the remnant that grows into a new people who meet and receive the Messiah. According to these Jewish ideas, the Messiah, like the people of God, was conceived by God before the creation of the world. Of course, God's design concerned not individual people, but the people as a whole, as a covenant people, a community of the faithful whose main historical task would be to preserve the revelation received from God until the day of the Messiah's coming, when that revelation would become available to everyone who receives the Messiah.
As for individual people, much here was determined by a person's free choice: after all, being born a Jew was not enough; one had to realize in one's life the calling that was potentially given to everyone born a Jew. To realize a spiritual calling without personal choice is plainly impossible, so belonging to the people of God was determined not only by birth but also by one's whole life. The apostle, as we can see, applies this traditional idea to the Church, and that is no surprise: a person can be born a Jew, but people are not born Christians, even though the Church, like the Messiah Himself, was undoubtedly conceived by God before the creation of the world. And everyone who is joined to it is joined to this design, becoming part of it, becoming one of God's chosen. But it is not enough to enter the Church once; one must also live in it. The Church is the earthly dimension of the Kingdom, and if one can live in the Kingdom only by making constant spiritual efforts not to lose it, the same can be said of life in the Church; otherwise election is easy to lose.
It would seem that a calling from God is forever. But a calling too is only a possibility; it still has to be unfolded throughout one's whole life, or else it will die without ever being manifested. And Peter does not tire of reminding his readers of this, perhaps because even in his time people had begun to appear in the Church who sincerely believed that their first step on the spiritual path was already its successful and victorious completion, that salvation and the fullness of life in the Kingdom were guaranteed to them simply because they had entrusted themselves to their Savior and received baptism. The apostle, as we can see, wants to dispel this delusion in them, for it could easily cost them their salvation. Salvation is easy to lose and very hard to find again afterward.
