The first epistle of Saint Peter is a clear testimony of the early days of the church of Christ immersed in the pagan world. With the christian faith, came a new lifestyle, based on that unconditional love of Jesus, also called Agape, which soon collided with the surrounding world, and this made Peter write two beautiful letters to encourage the first Christians in Asia.
Following Peter's thought, baptism implies a drastic change in lifestyle, the passage from a life full of sins to a life of righteousness ("Do to others what you would have them do to you" Matthew 7:12), which brings with it the spiritual communion, the ethical order of human life; and therefore, by that grace that is free, all Christians are called to hope, that is, to the security of receiving the spiritual gift of eternal life.
The eternal life, that life that once obtained cannot be lost, that is why it is eternal, is according to Thomas Aquinas the contemplative life; but it is also something more, eternal life is a set of blessings that God grants as a preview of life in glory. Eternal life is essentially one of the great mysteries of the Kingdom of God, although eternal life can also be understood as a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:21-23).
And Peter called with determination to the first Christians in Asia to bear witness before the pagans dominated by ignorance and the desires of concupiscence, of that hope and that eternal life that characterized the new life in the spirit: "You must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear" 1 Peter 3:15-16.
The Kingdom of God, as Peter understood it, is, in resume, abandoning human desires to live according to the will of God.
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