Standing Strong (3)
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Recap Chapter 1: Peter writing to a church facing challenges such as persecution, so he urges them to stand strong. Jesus is our example. Believers are reminded of the rich inheritance awaiting them, so they have hope. The message throughout the letter is to trust in the Lord and live obediently to him, no matter what is happening in the world or to us. In fact, suffering is to be expected. The suffering a believer endures is temporary but great blessings will come for the one who endures it.
In Chapter One he has asserted that we are born again to a living hope, to an inheritance that cannot perish, be defiled, or fade away. In fact, the trials prove the genuineness of faith like a precious metal being refined.
The prophets of old worked for believers to bring them the revelations of God, especially about his salvation, which is something the very angels are curious about.
So the believer is called to be holy, and to prepare the mind for action. The faithful do not shy away from learning more from God’s Word, they embrace it. In growing with the Word, the believer is not to be conformed to the passions they were subject to before they believed; instead, they are to be holy in their conduct.
Having a reverent fear of God, they are to conduct themselves as those who were ransomed by the blood of Christ. The attitudes of believers include sincere brotherly love, especially towards other believers; this love is evident in those born again through the living and abiding Word of God, that word being the good news that was preached and believed.
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,
or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
The first verse of Chapter 2 is a charge to put away some behaviors that ought to be completely absent in the church. Yet, Peter was writing to the church. It must be that believers still need to be reminded of specific sins that they are tempted to do.
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
Maybe a naive person would think that these cannot exist in the church. The reality is, there is no one among us that is immune from these. The first one, malice, is a very strong word. It is one that believers may think they are above. It means wickedness, evil, depravity, or even perversion. And while Christians have put much of this away, and a true believer would be changed significantly as compared to their old self, yet there remains this charge to put it away. This is an imperative clause, “put away”.
So while much of our past ways have been put away, we must continue to put it away. The next thing to be put away is deceit, or some translations will have here guile, and it could also mean treachery or cunning. Some scholars have said this is getting at the way people can fool each other, such as using flattery to manipulate the person.
Many people have gone through intense times of sadness or depression or self-doubt because someone manipulated them, either through flattery, or through gaslighting, which is a newer term compared to what Peter is saying, but along the same lines. The kind of deceit that manipulates others is a very evil thing, and another thing the believer is to put away.
Hypocrisy as well must be put away. And this is one that most believers would admit is still not only in the church, but within ourselves. Hypocrisy is most commonly seen in the one who is quick to judge another while forgetting their own fallen estate and tendency to sin. Even if you never did this in conversation (which unfortunately is all too common in the church), but even if you have never verbally called out the sin of someone else, while ignoring your own issues, you certainly do so in the mind. Not one of us can claim we have never observed another person in their sin and not felt superior in some way.
Yet when we understand that every sin, all of our own incidents of falling short of God’s standard, are cosmic treason against a Holy God, then we will be humble enough to see the sins of others with an understanding that only by the grace of God are we presently not guilty of that sin.
Envy is the next thing to put away. Envy can be coveting money or possessions, but can it can go quite beyond that. Some people are envious of the relationships others have, the position they hold, even their looks or their health. There seems to be no end of what we can envy. The marketing industry often uses that envy to sell products. They manipulate people into thinking they cannot be fulfilled or happy unless they have a certain product, or a certain vacation, or whatever.
Finally, slander. Many Christians have felt the sting of being slandered. It is one thing to be slandered by an unbeliever, but it is quite a traumatic thing to be slandered by one who calls themselves brother or sister in Christ. Imagine if your conversations about others were all recorded, and they were publically disclosed. Would you be guilty of slander, which is inaccurately accusing others of things they didn’t do?
If all your private texts were hacked, and someone distributed them to the public, would you suffer the shame of your own words? Would you owe some apologies? More importantly, is there something to repent of, something you need to seek God’s forgiveness for? And when I say this, it is not just people we know that we may slander. It could be someone in the public eye, and we accuse them of something we really have no real knowledge of. Maybe we heard someone else make a grave accusation and we just repeated it without really knowing the facts. Slander is everywhere. It is an evidence of our fallen state, and we must put it away.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The apostle, like a wise physician, having prescribed the purging out of vicious vices, goes on to direct to wholesome and regular food, that they may grow thereby. The duty exhorted to is a strong and constant desire for the word of God, which word is here called reasonable milk, only, this phrase not being proper English, our translators rendered it the milk of the word, by which we are to understand food proper for the soul, or a reasonable creature, whereby the mind, not the body, is nourished and strengthened. This milk of the word must be sincere, not adulterated by the mixtures of men, who often corrupt the word of God. The manner in which they are to desire this sincere milk of the word is stated thus: As new-born babes. He puts them in mind of their regeneration. A new life requires suitable food. They, being newly born, must desire the milk of the word. Infants desire common milk, and their desires towards it are fervent and frequent, arising from an impatient sense of hunger, and accompanied with the best endeavours of which the infant is capable. Such must Christians’ desires be for the word of God: and that for this end, that they may grow thereby, that we may improve in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.
For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
We need this mild of God’s Word to grow:
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
As you come to him here does not merely mean only when we first believed. BKC: It is a coming that is a “personal, habitual approach. It is an intimate association of communion and fellowship between believers and their Lord”.
Mounce:
The first image we encounter is the living Stone. It (or he) is “living” in that, having been raised from the dead, “he cannot die again” (Romans 6:9 “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” ). He is “a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45 “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” ). This Stone has been rejected by men but chosen by God. In the parable of the vineyard (Mark 12:1–11) Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone”) to indicate that although he would be rejected by men he would, in the purpose of God, become the capstone of the kingdom. The destiny of ancient Israel is transferred to the one true Israelite. God’s ways have always run counter to the ways of man. Christ, the living Stone, was rejected by man—his claim to messiahship was repudiated by Jewish religious leaders—but was chosen by God and precious to him. The word for “precious” means “held in highest honor” or “esteemed.
We do not need a spiritual building, because God’s people are themselves a sacred space. Jesus was the final sacrifice, so that believers do not need to bring sacrifices of lambs or goats, but we are to give spiritual sacrifices; that is, our worship.
For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Jesus is the cornerstone. (The foundation is the apostles and the prophets)
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
So Peter and Paul both held to this teaching, that the church (believers, not the building) are being built together into a dwelling place for God. This is a beautiful metaphor for how God has ordained our salvation as individual members of the body of Christ, but of the utmost importance is the community of believers, the great cloud of witnesses included, being part of the same structure, the same dwelling place for God. He dwells not just among us, but in us.
Beyond that, believers are part of a new priesthood. Since the old system of sacrifices, which required priests to be mediators between God and man, is replaced under the new covenant of grace, each believer is a priest unto God, one who can directly speak with him. The only mediator between God and man is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is incredible that there are still people who call themselves Christian that think they cannot approach the throne of grace outside of a human representative.
Yet that is what scripture teaches us, and we ought to live in that way, as those who each have the authority to come to God; that is, if we are in Christ.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
This is the grace and mercy of God. He takes enemies, and through Jesus forgives their sin. He not only forgives the sin, he adopts them into his family, and it is a royal family of priests. In the Old Testament, there was a transition. The people had stiff necks, hard hearts, and were corrupt. So God separated the priests from the leadership of government. He granted his people their evil desires to have a king. The king had a secular position, charged with leading and protecting. The priests were to mediate between God and man, overseeing the temple and the sacrifices.
When King Saul intruded into the sacred, he violated the boundaries of his position, and was rebuked by Samuel (ultimately he was rebuked by God). But God has now made the priesthood available to all believers. It is those who received mercy who are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own possession, and the proclaimers of his excellencies.
So then, we are now to not follow our sinful passions, but to keep our conduct honorable.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Beloved, or dear friends
Sojourners (or aliens)
exiles: strangers in the world
passions of the flesh (sinful desires)
abstain (hold oneself constantly back from)
which war against
