Sojourners and exiles do not see themselves as free
in their host society; instead, they commonly experience what it is like to be far down the social ladder (be it in how they are viewed, what kind of jobs they can get, their chances for promotions once they secure a job, what neighbourhood they can live in, etc.). Peter’s readers, however, are to remember that by God’s grace they have been born again
(1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:23) and so freed from the narrow constrictions of the womb and released into a world of comparatively endless opportunity under God, which their (spiritually) unborn compatriots cannot understand. But since God set them free and said of them that they were a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession
(1 Peter 2:9), this is how they are to see themselves, and that means they’re to live as free people, not bound by the worldview of the womb or by that of the unborn around them.
16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.