Peter addresses his letter to “elect exiles.” That includes us today. Everything he has to say to us flows from this basic two-part descriptor. We are exiles here, reviled, spoken evil of, and persecuted, just as Christ was. Yet we are not mere exiles, but elect exiles. We are rejected here but specially chosen by God, just as Christ is God’s chosen. We have a living hope because we have a living Lord. More than this, we are born of a living Word for a new and beautiful way of life—a way of life that declares his praise so that people see and believe. We may be tempted to live a double life in order to avoid suffering, but Jesus calls us to a different kind of double life, to stand firm in grace and truth in an unfriendly time and place, and to do so for his praise and the advance of his name.