1 Peter 2:4-5 - Living Stones Part II

1 Peter 2:4-5 – Part II

“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Last time we talked about the first part of this passage – Christianity is a religion of community; we must come to Christ to be grafted into His spiritual building, members of a body have no use when they are severed from the body, etc. We’ll finish up with the rest today.

Do you ever wonder, “Who am I? What am I here to do?” Peter gives the follower of Christ the answer: you are God’s spiritual house. You are a holy priesthood. You offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That is who you are and what you do. Whenever you question your worth, or ability to be used in God’s Kingdom, remember these word. As a follower of Christ, they are the truest things about you.

What is our spiritual sacrifice? Why is it acceptable to God? Our sacrifices are prayers and praises, righteousness and mercy, love and beneficence (your word for the day – it means “being charitable”…I had to look it up too), and obedience. Such sacrifices are acceptable because they are offered to God together with the supreme self-sacrifice of Christ.

Nothing of “us” is acceptable to God without the sacrifice of Christ. The other side of that is that everything of “us” is acceptable because of the sacrifice of Christ. (You may want to read those two sentences again – they are critical to living the Christian life.)

A religious building (a church, ministry, or life) constructed on anything other than the foundation of Jesus Christ will become a Tower of Babel, perhaps impressive for a while, but ultimately a pile of rubble. What are you building your life upon…the rock of Christ or something less stable? It’s worth thinking about.

1 Peter 2:4-5 - Living Stones

1 Peter 2:4-5, Part I

“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Most of today’s thoughts come from my commentary, The Interpreters Bible. A commentary is a wonderful tool as you study scripture (just make sure it is written by a reputable author). They come in particularly handy when you have difficulty figuring out how to teach or write about a passage…like this one for me. So enjoy!

Christianity comes to us through the Christian community, and without relation to the Christian community our individual Christianity becomes either impossible or tenuous and incomplete. Jesus Christ has a body, which is the church. There is no disembodied Christianity. Those who are related to Christ as Lord and Savior relate themselves to the church. Christianity is a social faith, for it embodies itself in a unique and organic community of fellow believers.

However “living” the stones in the house of Christ may be, they must come to the Cornerstone if they would find a place in the pattern of God’s design; by themselves they lack the larger context. No individual Christian makes a church. Paul thinks of Christians as members of the body of Christ; members mean absolutely nothing when severed from the body. So Peter declares that Christians must come to the building… again and again and with increasing surrender, so that the Cornerstone and stones may be cemented and fused together into a glorious edifice which reveals the glory of God in Christ.

The ranch staff is a good picture of God’s spiritual house: different types of people working together to accomplish one goal by doing many different things. The wranglers work with the horses, the housekeepers clean the cabins, kid’s club takes care of children, the kitchen provides the meals, etc. Everyone’s job is different, yet we are all called to the same place for the same purpose – to glorify Christ by serving the guests. It is a spiritual house.

Chew on that for a while and I’ll finish up next time…

1 Peter 2:2-3 - Milk

1 Peter 2:2-3

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

At the Luttrull house, milk is a common topic of discussion. Between my lactose intolerance and tendency to purchase rice milk in bulk, Lynda’s need for whole milk now that she’s pregnant again, and Levi’s breast feeding – the topic is well covered at our house.

The picture that Peter draws is a newborn crying for her mother’s milk. He is not talking about a big glass of whole, 2% homogenized, or skim milk – he is talking about breast milk, straight from Mama. And why not? Breast milk is an amazing substance; here are some interesting facts (we’re going to say ‘breast milk’ a lot today):

* The act of breast feeding bonds mother and baby – it also reduces the baby’s stress.
** Breast milk is perfectly balanced nutritionally. It has everything that the baby needs and nothing the baby doesn’t need.
*** Breast milk helps the baby’s digestive system develop properly and prevents many allergies and food sensitivities.
**** Antibodies and other aspects of the mother’s immune system are transferred through the milk to the baby. This makes for a stronger, healthier baby.

Trust me; I could have gone on… Peter tells us that we should crave pure, spiritual milk so we may grow up in our salvation. Like breast milk, spiritual milk has many benefits for us:

* The act of taking in the truth of God’s word bonds us with God. We know Him better as we eat His word. Knowing God better reduces our stress because we know that God loves us, that He is in control, and that He has a good plan for us.
** God’s word is perfect. It has everything we need and teaches us to stay away from everything that we don’t need.
*** Ingesting God’s pure, spiritual milk fills us with God’s truth which protects us from many harmful things in life (if we choose to obey).
**** Most amazingly, the act of reading and obeying God’s word allows God’s Spirit to change us – to infuse us with His character. By eating God’s word, we become like God.

We are so thankful that Levi has taken breast milk from the very beginning. In our case, there was an unforeseen side effect. The little man would only drink milk from Lynda; he would accept no substitute. While that was very tiresome for us (and by us, I mean Lynda), it is a beautiful picture of how we should crave God’s spiritual milk and not settle for anything else.

God’s milk is everything we need, why chase after anything else?

Rid Yourself

1 Peter 2:1, Part II

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

The “therefore” of this passage points to Peter’s previous discussion of the amazing grace that God has offered us. In this verse, Peter tells us how we should respond to that grace. I’m going to lean on one of my commentaries for this next bit – it is on the money.

In light of the grace we have been given, repentance is the natural response. “Peter listed five sins of attitude and speech, which if harbored would drive wedges between believers. Malice is wicked ill-will; deceit is deliberate dishonesty; hypocrisy is pretended piety and love; envy is resentful discontent; and slander is backbiting lies. None of these should have any place in those who are born again. Rather, in obedience to the Word, believers are to make decisive breaks with the past.”

The bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone; only faith in Jesus Christ can bring salvation. Only the work of the Holy Spirit will transform us into the image of Christ. These are things that only God can do in our lives. But there is one thing that God will not do for us – He will not change our actions. God leaves the pesky chore of “putting off our old self” as Paul calls it, to us.

Not that God doesn’t help us…He gives us strength to overcome our bad habits. But we must overcome them. He gives us His Holy Spirit to convict us when we sin. But we must listen and obey the Spirit. He changes our heart and renews our mind so we want to be obedient to His Word. But we must choose to be obedient. When it comes to our actions, we must suck it up and do right – and that is a hard thing to do.

So, what sins are dragging you down? What actions do you need to rid yourself of? Gossip? Lying? Over-indulging in drink? Looking at porn on the internet? Is your choice of music or movies less than edifying? Are you disobedient to you parents? Are you ashamed of being a Christian around your non-Christian friends? If you are like me, you have several things you need to jettison from your life.

Peter says that we are to rid ourselves of these things – they interfere with our relationship with Christ and keep us from being who God intends us to be. The time we spend doing bad things is time we could spend doing good things. So…get busy – with the strength given you by the Holy Spirit who resides within you, rid yourself of these things!

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24

1 Peter 2:1 - Proof-texting

1 Peter 2:1

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

As I’m sure you recall from our discussion in the spring, “therefore” is a word that connects what has been discussed with what is about to be discussed. When you see “therefore” it will help your understanding to go back and read the previous paragraph to fully understand what is coming up next.

Which brings up an important hermeneutical concept (“hermeneutics” is the $10 word for the study and interpretation of the Bible). You should always read the bible in context of the surrounding verses, chapters, book, and the bible as a whole. If you simply read a verse by itself, it is easy to misunderstand or misinterpret its meaning. It is often an innocent mistake, but it can cause serious problems in your biblical understanding.

On the not so innocent side, people will use out-of-context verses to support their particular argument. This is called proof-texting, which is a common and insidious practice. If you are not familiar with the passage of scripture being used, it is a simple thing to be fooled by this kind of argument. The proof-texter is using scripture, so it sounds right, but just because scripture is attached to an argument doesn’t make the argument scriptural.

The way to combat this type of false teaching is to take responsibility for what you hear. Don’t just swallow everything you are taught. Test the teaching of others – your pastor, your favorite author, your ministry leader – go to the scripture and check it out for yourself. No one, no matter how educated or Godly, is perfect – all teachers make mistakes. Be discerning as you listen and read, you are responsible for what you believe. As 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, “Test everything. Hold on to the good.”

I think that is enough for today – I’ll get to the actual verse next time. But this topic is important for your general bible study knowledge. Until next time…