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Presence Weekly : "The Imperative of Soft Difference" (1 Peter 2:9-12)

February 3, 2025

Baskin-Robbins has used the pink spoon to offer foretastes since 1945.

First Things

You can now hear David Bahnsen, CIO of The Bahnsen Group, on the latest Faithful Presence Podcast discussing his most recent book and everything from the fallacy of work-life balance, Catholic social teaching, sphere sovereignty, why people are policy, properly defining Christian nationalism and post-millennialism, to the connection between growing up a pastor-theologian's kid and managing large sums of other people's money—all through the lens of great theology and the gospel! 

The Devo: The Imperative of Soft Difference

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:9-12

Our previous devotional focused on Peter’s emphasis on the indicative truths for Christians living as elect exiles in the first-century Roman Empire of Asia Minor. It bears restating that Peter is driving home their new identity in the gospel because “it is through the gospel that we come to maintain a posture of faithful presence in the public square. We may lose titles and connections that affect our role in the public square so fast that it would cause us to become despondent if we were not chosen, royal, and holy. The changing of administrations might lead us to believe that the loss of our political connections has rendered us discarded and forgotten if we are not aware that we are members of a people, a priesthood, and a nation established for us. These indicative truths allow us to respond appropriately to the imperative call to participate in Christ’s mission of making everything new.”

Peter’s turn to the imperative includes three primary elements that he will unpack through the rest of the letter: proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul, and to keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable.

Proclaiming the excellencies 

We have all witnessed the bullhorn-armed missionaries standing outside of Union Station, in front of the Supreme Court, and Lafayette Park outside the White House. Using the full passage as context to cooperate with the author’s intent for the audience makes it clear that prophetic verbal calls to “turn or burn” are not what Peter has in mind when he uses the word proclaim. 

Rather, Peter promotes a way of living and leaning into the culture through the whole of their lives that not only declares that they are a different people but also offers foretastes of the fuller redemption that awaits the elect exiles. In other words, instead of condemning proclamations through a bullhorn, Christians offer inviting proclamations through a pink spoon. For those who miss the reference, Baskin-Robbins™ has used the pink spoon for decades to hand out samples of their ice cream because they know that once people “taste and see that the [ice cream] is good,” they will want more. 

What are the excellencies of God? Many, to be sure. As already stated, their identity is now as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.”  People with a sense of their own preciousness have a way of caring for themselves in the world that, when not self-generated, is attractive to others. In an age where “social media” has left people longing for community and partisan politics has created intense division, Christians are a people united by what has been done for them by their Savior. Because we understand that we were transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of his marvelous light, we adopt a posture of love rather than judgmentalism.  

Consider the people of God rescued out of slavery in Egypt who were maltreated by Pharaoh as they labored to make his name great. But now, in the kingdom of his glorious light, the work of Christians is received by God as worship, regardless of how their master may react. This realization and the subsequent attitude can have a considerable impact on an office. One that might even prompt the question, “How can you work for that person when they don't value your work?” In response, we offer a different type of proclamation. 

Abstaining from the passions of the flesh

The conduct of the elect exiles among the watching world is not just declarative of the good, but it also is absent of evil. In Psalm 1, the people of God are told,

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;” Psalm 1:1

The guidance here is on what not to do, and the point is clear: avoid the way of the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers. Peter is not saying that we should have no association with them, but that we should live differently when among them by not adopting their behavior. 

Paul is even more explicit to the church in Galatia, 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19–21

Those serving and leading in government, or at least the media which covers it, know that sexual “morality, impurity, sensuality…drunkenness, orgies” draws the attention of the general public and is most likely to end a career. However, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [and] envy,” which sit at the center of PPaul'slist, provide an ever-present threat to Christians in the public square. This comes from the fact that, culturally, they are not seen as negatively as the more salacious items due to their perceived usefulness in advancing a political cause or career. 

Here again, Christians are called to live differently in their everyday lives. In doing so, we become known as the safe person in the office to share vocational questions or personal difficulties with because they know that their weakness will not be used against them. When our method of leadership includes shutting down office politics and not allowing “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [and] envy” to get a foothold, we cultivate flourishing. 

Keeping your conduct honorable

How we live our lives within our families and among our friends, community, and the public square matters because it is supposed to be evangelical - “a proclamation of good news.” Keeping our conduct honorable as we interact with those who see Christians as irrelevant and extreme (namely the Gentiles) is imperative if they are to understand the nature of our living hope.

Yale University professor Miroslav Volf has written eloquently on 1 Peter in an essay entitled, Soft Difference: Theological Reflections on the Relation Between Church and Culture in 1 Peter, 

“Though 1 Peter does not envisage changing social structures, Christians nevertheless have a mission in the world. They should conduct themselves "honorably among the Gentiles...so that they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge" (2:12; cf. 3:lf). Indeed, the purpose of Christian existence as a whole is to "proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (2:9). The distance from society that comes from the new birth into a living hope does not isolate from society. For hope in God, the Creator and Savior of the whole world knows no boundaries. Instead of leading to isolation, this distance is a presupposition of mission. Without distance, churches can only give speeches that others have written for them and only go places where others lead them. To make a difference, one must be different.”

How we live matters. We are not called away from the world but into it. We are called not to yell through a bullhorn but to offer foretastes on a pink spoon. Of course, our “soft” difference will look different in different situations. 

Application Questions

How does your identity as a Christian impact your regular proclamation of God? How could you improve your imperative action by more deeply applying the indicative truths of the gospel?

Where do you experience the passions of the flesh impacting your proclamation? What steps can and should you take to mitigate their draw?

How does Volf’s term “soft difference” describe the role of the Christians within our culture and reshape your understanding of how to participate in Christ’s mission of making all things new?

Faithful Prayer

  • Cabinet Agency: For the servants and leaders of the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) who coordinate federal government job training and worker dislocation programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs, and unemployment insurance benefits. These services are primarily provided through state and local workforce development systems.

  • Think Tank, Lobby group, NGO: The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents and advocates for 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers worldwide.

  • Weekly delegation: For the servants and leaders who are part of the congressional delegation of the state of Washington.

  • News: The teams at the FAA and NTSB as they work hard to provide answers to the horrific crashes in Washington D.C. and outside Philidelphia last week. The nomination approval process and those who serve on the oversight committees of the numerous Cabinet and sub-Cabinet agencies who are working through the growing list of nominees awaiting confirmation who must first be examined. 

  • Personal requests: For someone who was offered and accepted a high-level position in the new administration; for a couple in their second year of marriage and working through conflict resolution; for someone experiencing the emotional exhaustion of workplace dysfunction; for two individuals waiting for word on new positions; for someone thankful for the positive impact a therapist had on their mental health; and for Faithful Presence's first quarter ministry needs.

The Page, The Pod & The Stack

What's Happening?

Two Thumbs Up: Cultural Sanctification: “Engaging the World like the Early Church,” Stephen Pressley (2024)

Named Christianity Today’s Award of Merit in Popular Theology and The Gospel Coalition’s Book Award of Distinction in Cultural Apologetics winner, Pressley’s work proposes that if Christians desire to navigate and impact the public square today and in the future, we must look back to the past.

As we have been learning from our devotional’s examination of 1 Peter, our increasingly post-Christian world is creating an increasing number of similarities with the first-century elect exiles of Asia Minor.

Cultural Sanctification examines numerous works from the first two centuries of the early church to emphasize the important role of catechesis (whole-life discipleship) in equipping recent converts to the faith for life in the public square. As Pressley states, “After joining the church, Christians had to struggle through the evolving circumstances of the social world, always trying to manage their cultural absorption or acculturation. All the while, they sought perfection and conformity to the likeness of Christ.”

There is a reason Cultural Sanctification topped so many Books of the Year lists: it is extremely relevant and practically helpful to our current cultural moment.

Last Things

Our next podcast, out tomorrow, features William Monroe, Vice President of Analytic AI, discussing airport wait times, Mad Max, the image of God, virtual therapy, red-lining, and why data scientists matter to human flourishing.

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