In the face of (understandable) ill-will to Christians, it would be tempting for these believers to retreat into an enclave to form a closed community within a community or even a colony in some distant forest. Nowhere in this letter does Peter encourage believers to do that. On the contrary, Peter tells them repeatedly to do good to those among whom they live (1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 2:15, 1 Peter 2:20; 1 Peter 3:13, 1 Peter 3:17). Meanwhile, these Christians are to know themselves to be sojourners and exiles
in their communities, in but not of. Christians are to be okay with that sort of treatment (Mark 10:29–30).
Exclusivism is offensive in today’s pluralistic culture, as it was in Peter’s day. But the fact is that no one will escape the judgment of the living God, and there is only one Saviour who can save from this righteous judgment: Christ Jesus (see 1 Timothy 2:5; John 14:6). So the Christian church needs to continue to insist on this exclusivism.
Christians ought not to get discouraged by the injustice they experience at the hands of unbelievers. Vengeance belongs to the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35), and he will ultimately execute his vengeance when Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. On that day the wicked will acknowledge that the cause of the believers was right after all, indeed, it was the cause of the Son of God.
4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;