1 Peter 2:11
New International Version
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

New Living Translation
Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

English Standard Version
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Berean Standard Bible
Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

Berean Literal Bible
Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul,

King James Bible
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

New King James Version
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,

New American Standard Bible
Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

NASB 1995
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

NASB 1977
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

Legacy Standard Bible
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul,

Amplified Bible
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges [those dishonorable desires] that wage war against the soul.

Christian Standard Bible
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

American Standard Version
Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Contemporary English Version
Dear friends, you are foreigners and strangers on this earth. So I beg you not to surrender to those desires that fight against you.

English Revised Version
Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Dear friends, since you are foreigners and temporary residents [in the world], I'm encouraging you to keep away from the desires of your corrupt nature. These desires constantly attack you.

Good News Translation
I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul.

International Standard Version
Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

Majority Standard Bible
Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

NET Bible
Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,

New Heart English Bible
Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and temporary residents, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Webster's Bible Translation
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Weymouth New Testament
Dear friends, I entreat you as pilgrims and foreigners not to indulge the cravings of your lower natures: for all such cravings wage war upon the soul.

World English Bible
Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
Beloved, I call on [you], as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires that war against the soul,

Berean Literal Bible
Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul,

Young's Literal Translation
Beloved, I call upon you, as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires, that war against the soul,

Smith's Literal Translation
Dearly beloved, I beseech as sojourners and strangers, to keep off from fleshly passions, which war against the soul;
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul,

Catholic Public Domain Version
Most beloved, I beg you, as new arrivals and sojourners, to abstain from carnal desires, which battle against the soul.

New American Bible
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and sojourners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against the soul.

New Revised Standard Version
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Beloved, I beg of you, as wayfarers and as foreigners, depart from all these desires of the body that make war against the soul,
NT Translations
Anderson New Testament
Beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and sojourners, that you keep yourselves from fleshly desires, which war against the soul,

Godbey New Testament
Beloved, I exhort you as pilgrims and strangers, to abstain from the carnal desire which wars against the soul;

Haweis New Testament
Beloved, I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners, Abstain from carnal lusts, which war against the soul;

Mace New Testament
but at present have obtain'd it. I exhort you, my dear brethren, as strangers and travellers to avoid all sensual passions, as destructive to your

Weymouth New Testament
Dear friends, I entreat you as pilgrims and foreigners not to indulge the cravings of your lower natures: for all such cravings wage war upon the soul.

Worrell New Testament
Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly desires, which, indeed, war against the soul;

Worsley New Testament
Dearly beloved, I exhort you as strangers and sojourners here, to abstain from carnal lusts, which war against the soul:

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Living Stone
10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul. 12Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.…

Cross References
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Galatians 5:16-17
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. / For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.

James 4:1
What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?

1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. / For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world. / The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

Ephesians 2:3
All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. / The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the flesh. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. / We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Romans 13:14
Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:24
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

James 1:14-15
But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. / Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; / each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, / not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

Matthew 26:41
“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Romans 8:5-8
Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. / The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, / because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ...

Philippians 3:18-20
For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. / Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. / But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

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.


Treasury of Scripture

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

I beseech.

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 Corinthians 5:20
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 6:1
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

as.

1 Peter 1:1,17
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, …

Genesis 23:4
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Genesis 47:9
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

abstain.

1 Peter 4:2
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

Luke 21:34
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

Acts 15:20,29
But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood…

war.

Romans 7:23
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Romans 8:13
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Galatians 5:17,24
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would…

Jump to Previous
Abstain Aliens Beg Beloved Beseech Country Cravings Dear Dearly Desires Entreat Exiles Flesh Fleshly Foreigners Friends Heart Indulge Loved Lusts Natures Ones Passions Pilgrims Request Sinful Soul Strange Strangers Urge Wage War World Yourselves
Jump to Next
Abstain Aliens Beg Beloved Beseech Country Cravings Dear Dearly Desires Entreat Exiles Flesh Fleshly Foreigners Friends Heart Indulge Loved Lusts Natures Ones Passions Pilgrims Request Sinful Soul Strange Strangers Urge Wage War World Yourselves
1 Peter 2
1. He exhorts to put away wickedness;
4. showing that Christ is the foundation whereupon they are built.
11. He beseeches them also to abstain from sinful desires;
13. to be obedient to authorities;
18. and teaches servants how to obey their masters;
20. patiently suffering for well doing, after the example of Christ.














Beloved
The term "beloved" (Greek: ἀγαπητοί, agapetoi) is a deeply affectionate address, indicating the close relationship between Peter and his readers. It reflects the love of God for His people and the love that should exist within the Christian community. This word sets the tone for the exhortation, reminding believers of their identity as cherished members of God's family.

I urge you
The Greek word for "urge" (παρακαλῶ, parakalō) carries the sense of a strong appeal or exhortation. It is not merely a suggestion but a heartfelt plea from Peter, emphasizing the importance and urgency of the message. This reflects the pastoral concern Peter has for the spiritual well-being of his readers.

as foreigners and exiles
The phrase "foreigners and exiles" (Greek: παροίκους καὶ παρεπιδήμους, paroikous kai parepidēmous) highlights the temporary and transient nature of the Christian's life on earth. Historically, this reflects the status of early Christians who often faced social and political marginalization. Spiritually, it underscores the believer's true citizenship in heaven, as echoed in Philippians 3:20.

to abstain from the desires of the flesh
The call "to abstain" (Greek: ἀπέχεσθαι, apechesthai) is a command to maintain a distance from sinful desires. "Desires of the flesh" (Greek: σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν, sarkikōn epithymiōn) refers to the sinful inclinations and passions that are contrary to God's will. This echoes the biblical theme of sanctification, where believers are called to live holy lives, set apart for God.

which war against your soul
The imagery of war (Greek: στρατεύονται, strateuontai) conveys the intense and ongoing battle between the sinful nature and the spiritual life of a believer. The "soul" (Greek: ψυχάς, psychas) represents the whole person, emphasizing that these desires threaten one's spiritual health and relationship with God. This metaphor serves as a sobering reminder of the vigilance required in the Christian life to resist temptation and pursue righteousness.

PRUDENTIAL RULES OF CONDUCT IN VIEW OF THE HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF THE HEATHEN.--As slanders against the Christian name are rife, and bringing practical persecution on the Church, they are exhorted to extreme care about their conduct, especially in regard (1) to purity, and (2) to due subordination, whether as subjects to the officers of state, or as slaves to their masters, or as wives to their husbands (1Peter 2:11 to 1Peter 3:12.)

(11) Dearly beloved.--"Affectionate and pressing exhortation," says Bengel. "That which is known to come from love," says Leighton, "cannot readily but be so received too, and it is thus expressed for that very purpose, that the request may be the more welcome. Beloved, it is the advice of a friend, one that truly loves-you, and aims at nothing but your good; it is because I love you that I intreat you, and intreat you, as you love yourselves, to abstain from fleshly lusts."

As strangers and pilgrims.--The exhortation will be felt with the more force if we turn to the Psalm from which St. Peter draws the phrase (Psalm 39:12, LXX.). The words, especially when compared with that Psalm, prepare for the description of distress which is to follow. (Comp. also Psalm 119:19.) The word "pilgrim" (which comes to us through the French form pelerin, from the Latin peregrinus) does not originally, or in this place, mean one on a pilgrimage. It implies no journeying, but simply residence in a foreign country. Here it represents the same Greek word which is rendered "strangers" in 1Peter 1:1, but is used in a metaphorical and not literal sense. Though no longer "scattered," but gathered mercifully once more into "a people," they were still far from home--unprotected residents in an alien and hostile world, which scrutinised their conduct and was anxious for an opportunity to get rid of them. . . .

Verse 11. - Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. St. Peter returns to practical topics: he begins his exhortation in the affectionate manner common in Holy Scripture. He calls his readers "strangers and pilgrims." The word here rendered "strangers" (πάροικοι) is equivalent to the classical μέτοικοι, and means "foreign set-tiers, dwellers in a strange land." The second word (παρεοίδημοι, translated "strangers" in 1 Peter 1.) means "visitors" who tarry for a time in a foreign country, not permanently settling in it. It does not contain the ideas associated with the modern use of "pilgrim;" though that word, derived kern the Latin peregrinus, originally meant no more than "sojourner." St. Peter is plainly using the words metaphorically his readers were citizens of the heavenly country; on earth they were sojourners. Both words occur in the Septuagint Version of Psalm 39:12 (38:13 in the Greek), with the same metaphorical meaning. Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Strangers and pilgrims should remember their distant home, and not follow the practices of the strange land in which they sojourn. The lusts of the flesh are all those desires which issue out of our corrupt nature (temp. Galatians 5:16-21). They "war against the soul." "Non mode impediunt," says Bengel, "sod oppugnant; grande verbum" (comp. Romans 7:23). St. Peter uses the word "soul" here for the whole spiritual nature of man, as in 1 Peter 1:9, 22.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Beloved,
Ἀγαπητοί (Agapētoi)
Adjective - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 27: From agapao; beloved.

I urge [you],
παρακαλῶ (parakalō)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 3870: From para and kaleo; to call near, i.e. Invite, invoke.

as
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

foreigners
παροίκους (paroikous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3941: Foreign, alien, subst: a foreigner, sojourner. From para and oikos; having a home near, i.e. a by-dweller.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

exiles,
παρεπιδήμους (parepidēmous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3927: From para and the base of epidemeo; an alien alongside, i.e. A resident foreigner.

to abstain
ἀπέχεσθαι (apechesthai)
Verb - Present Infinitive Middle
Strong's 568: To have in full, be far, it is enough. From apo and echo; to have out, i.e. Receive in full; to keep away, i.e. Be distant.

from
τῶν (tōn)
Article - Genitive Feminine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

[the] desires
ἐπιθυμιῶν (epithymiōn)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural
Strong's 1939: Desire, eagerness for, inordinate desire, lust. From epithumeo; a longing.

of the flesh,
σαρκικῶν (sarkikōn)
Adjective - Genitive Feminine Plural
Strong's 4559: Fleshly, carnal, earthly. From sarx; pertaining to flesh, i.e. bodily, temporal, or animal, unregenerate.

which
αἵτινες (haitines)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Nominative Feminine Plural
Strong's 3748: Whosoever, whichsoever, whatsoever.

war
στρατεύονται (strateuontai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 4754: To wage war, fight, serve as a soldier; fig: of the warring lusts against the soul.

against
κατὰ (kata)
Preposition
Strong's 2596: A primary particle; down, in varied relations (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined).

[your]
τῆς (tēs)
Article - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

soul.
ψυχῆς (psychēs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 5590: From psucho; breath, i.e. spirit, abstractly or concretely.


Links
1 Peter 2:11 NIV
1 Peter 2:11 NLT
1 Peter 2:11 ESV
1 Peter 2:11 NASB
1 Peter 2:11 KJV

1 Peter 2:11 BibleApps.com
1 Peter 2:11 Biblia Paralela
1 Peter 2:11 Chinese Bible
1 Peter 2:11 French Bible
1 Peter 2:11 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved I beg you as foreigners (1 Pet. 1P iP i Pet)
1 Peter 2:10
Top of Page
Top of Page