Strangers In A Strange Land: The Exile of the Early Christians

In his first epistle the Apostle Peter opens and closes his letter to the Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire with references to exiles and Babylon. When the Jewish people were exiles in Babylon, they were literally strangers in a strange land. But the Christians living in eastern provinces of the Roman Empire were not exiles. So why does Peter address them as, “the exiles living in the provinces”? Because by virtue of their baptism they have become exiles in the land of their birth.