The manner and place of his coming answers many of these questions. Jesus began his short ministry of three years in Galilee, the region around the lake which measured 14 miles long and 7 miles across. Galilee was a fertile area that supported a dense population in 204 villages. It was far from Jerusalem and the heart of Judaism and it was called Galilee of the Gentiles because of the mixture of ethnic groups and the influence of the Roman and Greek cultures.

You will note that this definition has nothing to say about organization, budgets, staff, programs, buildings, or any of the other activities that we associate with the church. It says nothing about our racial, ethnic, social and gender identity. It transcends all other identities, where we come from, who we are, what we have been. It defines the church as something that God does. He chooses a community of people.

This discovery by Luther and the rest of the Protestant Reformers touched the exposed nerve of both the hierarchy of the church and the everyday practice of Christianity. The Reformers held that the believer came into direct relation and union with Christ, as the one, and only and all-sufficient source of grace. His grace is available to the penitent believer by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Word of God.

Who wouldn't want to be a person described in those terms: a person of faith, good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness and generous love? What would the world be like if we were all like that? What would the church be like if we were all like that? Peter is claiming that God has given Christians all that they need to become spiritually mature.