NOTES for Pe1 3:1-2

Speaking of relationships with neighbors, including within families made up of Christians and pagans, Peter points to them as an opportunity to learn both communion with God and life in the Kingdom. Strictly speaking, the apostle looks the same way at all social life in general: for him it is only a means for the main thing, for the practice of spiritual life. And the family is the place where conditions for such practice arise that are impossible anywhere else. Indeed, all other relationships are more or less episodic, while relationships in the family are regular and systematic.

Besides, if the issue is, for example, a church community, then there, in conditions where religious enthusiasm inevitably comes to the forefront, much in relationships is as if blurred and goes into the shadows, especially when members of the community do not live together and meet regularly but only for a short time. The family is another matter. In a family people rest, and often also from what some call "spiritual life."

It is then, when a person rests from a supposed "spiritual life," which in fact is from his own religiosity that sometimes becomes wearisome, that he becomes himself; and then his true spiritual level becomes obvious to everyone living with him, and sometimes to himself as well. The family thus turns out to be an excellent place for spiritual practice, and the apostle understands this perfectly. Just as he also understands how great the temptation is, on the wave of religious enthusiasm that often accompanies conversion, to leave a "pagan" family and look for something more "spiritual."

Peter insists that spirituality begins with accepting a person as he is. Only in this way can one hope that someday this person will become different. This does not mean that a Christian must imitate those around him and for their sake cease to be what he is. But he also has no right to demand from others that they immediately cease to be what they are.

Here, strictly speaking, is the same acceptance of the givenness of the human world of which the apostle has already spoken when he touched on the question of the Christian's attitude toward social institutions and arrangements. In the end, God acts in the same way. He does not demand of us that we be ideal people. He accepts us as we are in order to make us what He wants to see us become. Only in this way can one help a person enter the Kingdom. And this is the main task.