Bible Strands
1 Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Peter writes to believers scattered across Asia Minor, positioned between their new identity as God's people (v.10) and their conduct before hostile outsiders (v.12).
The words — παρεπιδήμους (parepidēmous) is a military term for a sojourner with no permanent claim to the land; it sharpens the alienation beyond the simpler "aliens" (παροῖκους) that precedes it.
The thread — The same tension between fleshly desire and divine purpose runs through 1 John 2:15, Galatians 5:24, and 1 Peter 4:2.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to stop treating this world's appetites as their own inheritance and to actively hold back from them, not because they are forbidden in the abstract but because they are at war with the soul.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Cross-references
- 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
- 1 Peter 4:2 Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.
- Hebrews 11:13 All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- 1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- James 4:1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
- Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Romans 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
- 2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.