If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear...You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish....
Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
(New Revised Standard Version)
2,000 years ago most nations in the Middle East owned slaves, however the Jewish law did allow for slaves to be freed on a Jubilee year*, or by payment of a ransom. Jewish slaves were also not treated as inanimate objects that were owned, like a field as in Roman law, but as humans.
Simon Peter appears to have written this letter in about AD 65 while in prison in Rome, to Christians who had spread around the Mediterranean. He uses the language of slavery when he talks about what Jesus has done for them. Whether free or a slave, they would have understood his language. They knew the impossibility of keeping all the laws of the Old Testament, but he reminds them that their punishments (or ransom) has been freely paid by the death of Jesus on the cross. They are no longer slaves to sin but have been freed. Because of the generosity of this amazing action, he says, they have learnt to trust in God who raised Him from the dead.
It is that trust in God that we need to hold close to us at this time - God raised His Son, Jesus, from the dead, that by believing in him, and asking forgiveness, we might be forgiven.
*See Leviticus chapter 25 regarding the Jubilee year, or elsewhere in this book about the laws that the Israelites had to keep.
Heavenly Father,
we remember that Your Son, Jesus,
paid the ransom for our freedom from sin,
and that we must put our trust in You
who raised Him from the dead.
Help us to trust You during this time of crisis,
that Your will may be done.
Amen.