In this excerpt from Peter’s pastoral letter to the churches in Asia Minor there are some very particular concepts and images.
 It seems likely that letters like this one from Peter were deliberately coded messages. They used images and ideas that the church would know how to interpret.
 They wrote using code because the church was engaged in something that was considered profoundly subversive to the authority of the empire. This meant it was risky business! Letters could easily be intercepted by Roman authorities. But the encoded messages meant the uninitiated would not be able to get what they were actually saying.
 I believe this is what we have before us today.