CHRIST'S MISSION THE REVELATION OF GOD'S LOVE (1 John iv. 10) 329 THE SERVANT AS HIS LORD (1 John iv. 17) 338 LOVE AND FEAR (1 John iv. 18) 347 THE RAY AND THE REFLECTION (1 John iv. 19) 355 I. PETER SOJOURNERS OF THE DISPERSION 'Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered ...'--1 Peter i. 1. The words rendered 'strangers scattered' are literally 'sojourners of the Dispersion,' and are so rendered in the Revised Version. The Dispersion was the recognised name for the Jews dwelling in Gentile countries; as, for instance, it is employed in John's Gospel, when the people in Jerusalem say, 'Whither will this man go that we shall not find Him? Will he go to the Dispersion amongst the Greeks?' Obviously, therefore the word here may refer to the scattered Jewish people, but the question arises whether the letter corresponds to its apparent address, or whether the language which is employed in it does not almost oblige us to see here a reference, not to the Jew, but to the whole body of Christian people, who, whatever may be their outward circumstances, are, in the deepest sense, in the foundations of their life, if they be Christ's, 'strangers of the Dispersion.' Now if we look at the letter we find such words as these--'The times of your ignorance'--'your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers'--'in time past were not a people'--'the time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles'--all of which, as you see, can only be accommodated to Jewish believers by a little gentle violence, but all of which find a proper significance if we suppose them addressed to Gentiles, to whom they are only applicable in the higher sense of the words to which I have referred. If we understand them so, we have here an instance of what runs all through the letter; the taking hold of Jewish ideas for the purpose of lifting them into a loftier region, and transfiguring them into the expression of Christian truth. For example, we read in it: 'Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation'; and again: 'Ye are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.' These and other similar passages are instances of precisely the same transference of Jewish ideas as I find, in accordance with many good commentators, in the words of my text. So, then, here is Peter's notion of-- I. What the Christian Life is.