Living Stones and Holy People

There are behaviors believers must be free from if they are to love others.

First, some context:

Peter writing to Christians…new identity, new family, redeemed, etc.

With this new life, we are called to holiness.

A key aspect to our new holiness is not simply looking out for ourselves, but 1 Pet. 1:22 “Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly,”.

All of these prohibited behaviors deal with personal relationships:

Malice = hostility and being a source of difficult for others.

Deceit = skilled deception…I would think along the lines of deceiving for personal gain.

Hypocrisy = insincerity about who we really are…we would call that “fake.”

Envy = resentment birthed from jealousy over another’s possessions.

Slander = when you use words to intentionally damage another’s reputation.

The cure?

Love — seek others’ well-being above your own.

Contentment.

This will guard against using others for personal gain.

This will keep your affections off of stuff.

Be real and transparent.

Eph.4:29 “No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.”

Desire the pure milk of the word of God.

God’s Word has recreated us (1 Pe. 1:23-25 “because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.”)

God’s Word is continually shaping us. We are saved, but God’s Word helps us grow up. That’s a word for me, and maybe a word for you. Maybe our spiritual struggle is that we just need to grow up. We are saved, and we are being saved, and this is the work of God’s Word.

You’re never “too old” (spiritually) for the fundamental elements of the faith!

As we are changed, our behavior and character changes. We begin living out our identity in Jesus.

Why? We’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Ps.34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!”).

It’s completely fair to expect believers to live for the glory of God — they’ve tasted of the goodness.

It’s completely unfair to expect it of unbelievers — they’ve not tasted! Now we’ll get into this a little deeper next week, but Jesus is the only answer: people must taste and see!

The more I savor God’s Word, and the more I treasure Christ, the sweeter they become!

Perform my priestly duties.

Now, I want to give a broad overview here, but next week we’re coming back to vs.5 and vs.9, because this idea of temple and priesthood is rather profound.

Here’s what we can make note of briefly:

Who we are is set forth first in Jesus (He is THE Living Stone, we are like Him…living stones).

His rejection is our means of acceptance (GOSPEL!).

He is the fundamental piece of His church (believers), the “cornerstone.”

His rejection is necessary for ALL of God’s people to be saved (Rom.11:25-26 “I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.”)

So as this spiritual house and holy priesthood, we’re called to offer sacrifices to God.

Humble/broken spirit — Ps.51:17 “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.”; Mt.5:3 ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

An obedient/selfless heart — Rom.12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”

A holy life — 1 Pe. 1:15-16 “But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”

Rejoice in my new identity.

Once we were far off, but now we are called the people of God!

I want to point out some parallels between who God called the people of Israel to be, and who Peter now declares us to be:

Peter called us to literally “gird up the loins of our minds.”

1 Pe. 1:13 “Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Ex.12:11 “Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.”

Just like Israel, we are a holy people without a home.

1 Pe.1:15-16 “But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.” God says this to a people who have been scattered, sojourners without a home.

Lev.11:44 “For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. Do not defile yourselves by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground.” God says this while they are wandering in the wilderness, not yet in the Promised Land.

The NT people of God experience a new exodus and partake of a final Passover Lamb.

1 Pe.1:17-21. From one like to another through the blood of the Lamb.

Exodus 12-15. From Egypt to Israel through the blood of the lamb.

Partakers of a new and better covenant.

1 Pe.1:22-25. Purified through obedience to the seed of the word written on our hearts.

Jer.31:33 ““Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Ex.19-20. Israel was called here to be a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, and were given the Law on tablets of stone. God changes the New Covenant believers’ heart from stone to flesh and writes His Word on their hearts now.

We are the rebuilt Temple (more on this next week!)

1 Pe.2:1-8.

Isa.28:16 “Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.”

Ps.118:22 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

We are a royal priesthood (again, more next week!)

The bottom line is 1 Peter 2:10 “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

We didn’t belong. This was not our place. But oh, the matchless grace of Jesus!