Our text talks of a church in Babylon. Babylon represents everything that is opposite of the church. It was a wicked place. We might compare it to the reputation that Las Vegans has in modern time, but even by those standards, Babylon was much worse than Sin City. That there was a church in that wicked culture that was so opposed to all that the church represents is amazing. The church at Babylon serves as an example to all who try to live for God. The did not allow their environment and surroundings to diminish their values or silence who they were. Peter refers to them as an elect group of people Elect people are not watered down or lukewarm Christians. How do we live in a culture that tries daily to unravel all that we believe and who we are? How do we live in an environment but not be of that environment? We cannot lose our identity to conform to the culture. The king of Babylon renamed the three Hebrew boys, but they refused to acknowledge their new names and continued to identify by their given names that related them to God. They maintained their identity. Remembering who they were was vital to them maintaining their identity in a hostile culture. God equips us to not only survive, but to trive. The key to triving in Babylon is to not be affected by the culture.