1
Peter 1:22-2:25 – Chapter Study
The
Apostle Peter probably wrote this letter in 64 or 65 BC when the Church was beginning
to feel the heat of persecution.
He knew that when people are feeling pressed and know their cause is
right, they can become defensive and end up using force to push
back against the opposition.
So he wrote this letter to move his readers to look
beyond the experience of suffering to the ultimate purposes of God behind
it.
Peter had the example of Christ who never reacted to evil with
evil but instead humbly submitted to the Father and sought to turn each event
to God’s glory.
So
the theme of this letter is the hope we have in the over-ruling purposes
of God.
Peter regularly calls his readers to submit,
rather than react;
1) They are to remain humble and gentle in the face
of suffering
2) And while their enemies may mean their
destruction, they must look to the higher hand of God who will use the
experience of suffering to mold and shape them into the image of Christ.
It’s
an amazing thing to realize that the early Christian community well heeded
Peter’s words and when persecution came, they maintained a reputation for
holiness that had a profound impact on the lost.
Many thousands were won to faith in Christ precisely because Christians
did not do what comes naturally when faced with
suffering and persecution.
They didn’t react and form armed bands that went out
to do away with their opponents.
Instead they loved and prayed for their enemies –
just as Jesus taught them.
And instead of toning down the very doctrines that
got them into trouble, they proclaimed them all the more boldly.
This abiding hope and confidence in God ended up
convincing many of even their critics that the content of the Christian faith
was true.
And it seemed the more Christians were put to death,
the more came to faith.
For every Christian who died in the fires of
persecution, 3 rose up in his/her place.
A common saying at this time was that the blood of
the saints was the seed of the Church.
We’ll
pick it up at v. 22 of chapter 1 as that’s where we left off last Wednesday . .
.
22Since you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren,
love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23having been born
again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which
lives and abides £forever, 24because [and
now Peter quotes from Isaiah 40]
“All flesh is
as grass, And all the glory of man as
the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its
flower falls away, 25 But the word
of the Lord endures forever.”
Then
he ends v. 25 with his own comment -
Now
this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
V.
22 is a classic example of how translating from Greek into English is often a
difficult proposition.
He
says –
Since
you have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of
the brethren,
This is something they’ve already done; they’ve already been made clean
by obedience to the Holy Spirit and that work of change has been made evident
by their love for one another.
Based on this evidence of being born again – Peter
exhorts them to continue on and not grow faint in the expression of communal
love -
love one another fervently with a pure heart,
When we first come to faith in Christ – a
radical change is made.
We get a whole new orientation.
Where as reading the Bible was a bore before,
suddenly we can’t get enough of it.
Prayer takes on a new dimension and sense of
connection with God.
Praise & Worship, which
before just sounded like some poor quality singing, becomes the joyful
expression of love and adoration to God.
And our attitude toward Christians goes through a
dramatic change.
These people we once thought were geeks become
family.
But after a while, as we get to know people better and realize that
Christians are people in process and often jut as messed up as we are, that
initial love for them can begin to dim.
The novelty of being a new creature in Christ and part of a new family
begins to age.
And we can find our sense of devotion to the
community of Christ cooling.
Peter is saying here that their new birth was proven by all the changes
that took place in them when they first came to faith in Christ, specially
their love for one another.
They must make sure that love doesn’t fade or become corrupted by
carnality.
No
doubt, Peter was thinking of that story that’s told in Acts 5, when Ananias and his wife Sapphira
lied to the Holy Spirit and were cut down on the spot by the sovereign hand of
God.
In those early days of the church, the love of the disciples was so
intense, they were selling their excess possessions and lands and distributing
to the needy among them.
When Ananias and Sapphira saw the attention the rich were getting when they
turned over large chunks of land, they decided they wanted some of that praise
and attention and sold a piece of land and brought the proceeds to the feet of
the Apostles.
What they didn’t disclose was that they had set
aside a portion of it to keep for themselves.
When they gave it, they said it was the full price
and Peter pronounced doom upon them for thinking they could lie to God.
Ananias and Sapphira
were guilty of an impure love and devotion – one that was a pretense to
personal gain.
Peter exhorts his readers to maintain the things that marked their
first faith – passionate love and devotion to God and one another.
What
a timely word for us tonight!
How critical that we stir up love among the brethren! For without love – it’s all pointless!
Love is the real fruit of the Spirit, and without
love, everything else we accomplish is empty.
CCO
has a reputation for being a solid Bible ministry – and we can rejoice in that.
But rather we had a reputation for holy love!
The fact is, we’ve garnered
something of a reputation for being unwelcoming and less than warm.
Not a few people have come and attended for some
time, waiting to make connection with the fellowship, but their hope and
expectation has gone unrealized, and they’ve moved on.
Truly, if we’d reached out to these people with
genuine love, CCO would today be one of the largest churches in this County.
Very
simply, we need to do what Peter says here.
We need to lower our guard and reach out to one another in genuine,
sincere love.
Not thinking about what it’s going to cost us – not
holding anything back in reserve.
Peter says –
love one another fervently with a pure heart,
When you hear the word “fervent”, what do you
picture?
The Greek word means to “stretch
out” to “extend.”
Peter is saying we must go
“out of our way” to love others.
Not just when it’s
convenient, not just when it suits us.
This is a love that
stretches itself in the service of others.
It goes outside itself and
into the needs of others.
If
you’re a naturally shy person, you might think that being warm and welcoming is
something people who are naturally that way are to do.
You leave the greeting ministry of the fellowship to those you deem are
naturally extrovert.
This word is specially for
you!
The ministry of love isn’t just for the out-going; it’s for all God’s
people.
Let’s ask the Lord to add to our reputation as a
solid Bible ministry the reputation that we are living out what we’re learning
by loving one another.
In
v. 23, Peter connects this kind of love for one another to the fact of our
being born again . . .
23having been born again, not
of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and
abides forever,
Our
new life in Christ did not arise from anything within us; it came about as the
result of a seed God planted in us.
That seed was planted through the preaching of the
Gospel.
24because [and now
Peter quotes from Isaiah 40]
“All flesh is
as grass, And all the glory of man as
the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25 But
the word
of the Lord endures forever.”
Now
this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
We
must never underestimate the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What I mean is this – we must never short-sell the effect of our
testimony and the simple facts of the content of the gospel message.
The gospel, the message that Jesus died to pay for
our sin & guilt and that He rose again to give us new life, is spiritual
seed that goes into the human heart.
Whenever the good news is proclaimed, either in
personal one on one conversation or from a crusade platform, it is like seed
sown in the hearts of the lost and one day will produce a harvest.
Peter contrasts the words of man with the Word of
God here.
The word of man will fail and fall short – but the
Word of God endures forever – it never fails – NEVER!
One
interpretive sidelight before we move on:
Some people try to make a big deal about the
difference between the two Greek words for “Word” - rhema & logos.
But here in vs. 23 & 25, Peter uses both words
to refer to the exact same thing.
The two words sometimes have subtle
differences, but the difference between them is no where near significant
enough to make any kind of deep theological conclusions from them.
In Classical Greek usage, they were virtually
interchangeable.
1Therefore, laying aside all
malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2as
newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3if
indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Peter
says that if his readers have indeed been born again, they must put off the
fruit of their previous lives and instead seek to grow in the qualities of
their new life.
And just as the Word of God was the seed that
produced new life, that new life is sustained by more of the Word of
God.
But he is NOT encouraging them to remain spiritual babies!
He is not telling them to stay on the bottle.
Rather, he is saying that just as a newborn craves
milk, so they ought to crave the Word of God.
I’ve noticed that it’s a general spiritual maxim that what a person is
won by, they are won to!
What I mean is that there are a lot of methods of evangelism out
there today.
Preachers, teachers, and evangelists use all kinds of bait to get
people to “make a decision.”
Some appeal to greed and preach a message of
prosperity.
Others appeal to the desire for fun and use heavy
doses of entertainment.
But what you win a person with,
is what you win them to.
Peter said they’d been won by the Word – and reminds them to stay
focused on the Word because that’s how they will grow and mature.
A
ministry that uses entertainment to win people will have to keep turning up the
level of fun and excitement or the people will get bored and turn away.
When they first start, they may make a big splash
and draw a lot of attention and initially big numbers –
But after a while, the machine will need more
maintenance than the people are willing to invest and it will grind to a halt.
A
ministry that focuses on the novel and the latest and greatest thing the Spirit
may draw a big and curious crowd as the dramatic is seen –
But if novelty is the attraction, then the leaders will have to keep
coming up with something new – and this will inevitably lead to the
increasingly bizarre.
A
ministry that promises health and wealth appeals to the flesh and will attract
many –
But when the promises of wealth and health go unrealized for all but
those at the top who are profiting off the gullibility of their followers – the
people will fall away with the feeling of having been used.
A
ministry that uses the means of the Word of God will probably not grow quickly,
but it will grow consistently.
People will be won to faith in Christ as opposed to faith in faith, or
faith in fun, or faith in the spectacular.
And this faith will grow because they’re getting a
steady diet of the Word of God rather than endless stories and new revelations.
As they grow, the corporate expression of their
fellowship grows and the work of ministry multiplies and expands.
4Coming to Him as to a
living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5you
also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. 6Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, [he quotes Isaiah 28:16]
“Behold, I lay in
7Therefore, to you who
believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, [and now he quotes from Psalm 118:22]
“The stone which the
builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8and [here Peter quotes Isaiah
“A stone of stumbling And
a rock of offense.”
They
stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
This
is a great passage in which Peter describes the Church as being a
This temple has as its cornerstone nothing less than the person of
Jesus Christ.
And it’s constructed of living stones – each one
being a follower of Jesus.
Peter draws his imagery from 3 OT passages which refer to stones and
speak of them prophetically as being fulfilled in Jesus.
In
the ancient world, major buildings were constructed of stone.
The larger the building, the larger the blocks.
For instance, Solomon’s temple was made of marble
blocks that were as large 15 feet across!
They weighed many tons!
But in any structure constructed of stone blocks, the most important
block of all was the cornerstone.
This was the stone that was laid first and provided the strength
and integrity of the entire building.
You see, the cornerstone was the block the masons
used to draw the lines for their walls.
The corners of the cornerstone had to be absolutely
straight and square, because as additional blocks were added, they used the face
of the cornerstone as their level.
Thus, the shape of the cornerstone determined the
shape the entire building.
Peter says that the church is a living building, made up of
living stones, in which the Spirit of God abides.
Each and every Christian is one of those stones, and our lives are laid
out according to the shape and pattern laid down by Jesus.
He is the level by which the whole building
is constructed.
Last
Sunday I began the message by saying the word “Christian” was coined by the
critics of the early church because the followers of Jesus were just like
Him; they were “like-Christ” which is what the word “Christian” means.
Jesus is our plumb-line, our rule; the mark and measure of our lives
and living.
This is why the series we’re doing right now on Sundays on the Nature
of Jesus is so important.
Just
as Jesus provides the plumb & rule for our individual lives, He also
forms the foundation for all of us together as the Church.
Peter’s emphasis here is not our individuality but rather, the corporate
unity we have in Christ.
There are many models for the Church, many ideas on how it ought to
operate and what it ought to be about.
But any idea, any vision & mission that
isn’t drawn directly from the person and work of Jesus Christ is no real church
at all.
Really, Peter describes the bottom line for the Church right here in v.
5 . . .
5you also, as living stones,
are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The
Church, the real thing, is a spiritual building that is comprised of individuals
who’ve been born again by the Spirit of God.
God quarried them out of the pit of sin and cemented them by grace into
a heavenly structure.
Peter then shifts the picture a bit and speaks about
what takes place in that spiritual temple.
The living stones become priests whose task is to
offer to God service that glorifies Him.
A
priest’s duty is two-fold: He represents people to God, and God to the people.
In all things, as he stands before people, he seeks to bring forth the
mind, heart, and counsel of the Lord.
And as he stands before God, he brings intercession
and a request for blessing on behalf of the people.
This is precisely what Jesus did when He came – and this is exactly
what the Church needs to be about today.
The very best way to accomplish this is the faithfully teach and preach
God’s Word to the people, and to pray before the throne of God that His kingdom
might come and His will be done on earth in the lives of those we lift before
Him.
In
v. 7, Peter quotes from Psalm 118, a passage which Jesus used of Himself when
confronted by the chief priests in the temple.
Once again they came to Him with questions that were aimed at tripping
Him up in the sight of the people.
They were always angling for something they could
use to condemn Him.
So they asked Him by whose authority He did what He
did and said what He said.
After answering them He went on to show how their
opposition to Him was fulfilling a passage of scripture they well knew – Psalm
118, which was clearly Messianic.
“The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,”
The chief priests knew that this spoke of the coming
Messiah and how He would be rejected; but they had always thought it ludicrous
and condemned those who would be so stupid and blind as to stand in the way of
God.
Yet here they were, the
very object of their own scorn and ridicule!!!!!!!
Peter’s point is to comfort his readers with the knowledge that the
source of persecution they are enduring and will face in ever increasing
intensity is those who’ve rejected Christ.
They stand outside the work God is doing and are trying to stop it –
but they cannot succeed because God Himself is for them and against them.
Peter
goes on now and gives an incredible description of those who comprise the
Church.
9But you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you
may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light; 10who once were not a people but are
now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
While
this includes Jews, it’s aimed more at Gentiles.
Before they came to faith in Christ, they were nobodies as far as the
covenant and purposes of God were concerned.
But faith in Christ has brought them into the very
family of God and made them part of His household.
Look
at the descriptive terms Peter uses here for the Community of the Redeemed:
1)
You are a chosen generation • For generations the Jews
had constituted the chosen people of God, but now the chosen are those who’ve
come to faith in Christ.
God chose you! That ought to
thrill you right down to your socks!
To get the faintest glimpse of how wonderful this
is, think back to your elementary school days when they chose up teams to play
some game.
The first one’s picked were the best players – the
ones who could contribute the most to winning.
Then as the selection went on it got down to the
weaker players until it was the players no one really wanted.
You are God’s first round choice for His choosing
took place before the foundation of the world.
God had you in mind before He ever hung the stars in
space!
He chose you before you were.
And together, you and I, along with all the saints
from every age constitute a generation, a group of people who are chosen by
God!
2)
You are a royal priesthood • Not only are we priests, as we’ve already seen,
but we are royal priests.
In Jesus Christ the roles of prophet, priest and King have all been
united.
Our faith in Him places us IN HIM, and that means
we’ve been initiated into a priesthood that is also tied to the throne.
Christian – you are a member of the heavenly royal
family!
The angels in heaven cannot claim that privilege!
We are not only priests, we are princes and
princesses who are destined to sit with Christ upon His throne – as it says in
Revelation 3:21
3)
You are a holy nation • Prior to Christ the focus of God’s redemptive attention was the
nation and people of
Just as the Jews were the chosen people, the scope of their choosing
was the borders and
But with the coming of Christ, the scope of God’s
redemptive attention switched from the nation of
Now – let me be clear, I am NOT saying the Church
has taken over for
God will once again return His focus to the people
and nation of
But for now – the focus of God’s attention is the
Church, whenever and where ever, and whoever they are – regardless of ethnic or
national origin.
4)
You are His own special people • Peter caps this idea of the Church being a unique
community that’s the focus of God’s attention.
Here he uses words that refer to the fundamental difference between the
lost and the saved.
His point is that the difference between someone who
is lost and someone who is saved is far and away more significant than the
differences that exist between people of various ethnic and national origins.
Peter’s
main point in all of this is the dramatic unity that marks all of God’s
people!
We are one generation, one priesthood, one
nation, one people!
We are chosen, we are royalty, we are holy, and we
are special!
Friends
- This is the Church! This is who and
what we are.
We must strive to ever more find the reality of this lived out in our
relations with other Christians, specially the members of other congregations!
Peter
says that our unity is to be lived out as we -
proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light;
I
sure hope that praise and worship is something you look forward to.
It’s in worship and praise that what we are learning finds primary
application.
For the first-fruit of our lives ought to be to the
Lord – just as the first fruits of the fields of Israel were to be brought to
the temple as an offering.
11Beloved, I beg you as
sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
12having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they
speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they
observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
To
be a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special
people,” means to be an alien to this world’s system.
Peter
addresses his readers as pilgrims and travelers, people who are just passing
through this world to a heavenly homeland.
Because they are just passing through, they
have to be careful they don’t get snagged by things that would slow their
momentum toward heaven.
Many
years ago, two friends and I went on a backpacking trip in the Sierra.
Because we wanted to find the best possible fishing
we got out our maps and looked for a lake that was as far as possible away from the
nearest trail.
Our thinking was that the more inaccessible the
lake, the better the fishing.
So we picked a lake and hade to do many miles of cross country hiking
to get there.
It was a harrowing experience and extremely
dangerous and the telling of the full tale is quite exciting.
In one portion of the hike out from the lake,
we only went 3 miles in an entire day!
Normally, we hiked 12 to 15 miles a day – but that
day, we made it only 3 miles.
The reason why was because we spent most of the day
wading through thick branches of trees and thorny bushes.
The canyon we were in had such steep sides we were
forced to walk along the banks of a small river which was choked with trees and
shrubs.
We spent hours never touching the ground – walking
instead on the branches and fighting our way through the growth.
Many times, we’d run into such a thick clump of
greenery, it would give a little and then fling us backward onto our rear.
We came through with our clothes in shreds and our
arms and legs filled with splinters and thorns.
The entire day’s hike was one continual battle against the clutching,
grasping plants of the High Sierra.
We were travelers, but it seemed the mountains were
conspiring to make us permanent settlers.
That’s
the picture here in v. 11.
As Christians, this world is not our home – heaven is our Home.
We’re just passing through, and we need to be
careful that we don’t allow ourselves to get snagged and thrown back by some
worldly growth that would seek to trip us up or hinder our progress.
Peter
knew that the difference between the saved and the lost was the main
thing that was leading to persecution and the suffering it brings.
So he encourages them to not weaken this different-ness
so they might duck opposition.
Rather – they must be diligent to maintain a holy
lifestyle so that when they are opposed, at least their opponents will
have to give grudging acknowledgement of their godliness.
13Therefore submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14or
to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers
and for the praise of those who do good. 15For this is the
will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men—16as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as
bondservants of God. 17Honor all people. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Peter
is clear and concise in regard to his counsel to believers who are suffering
persecution.
They must submit humbly and quietly to every ordinance of man, to the
degree that it does not violate the higher law of God.
I
want to take a little time with this tonight because what Peter says here finds
tremendous application to today and our setting.
As
I’ve already mentioned, Peter wrote this about 64 or 65 A.D..
[1]
Its theme of submission despite unjust suffering remained relevant to
the church for several hundred years.
During this period Christians experienced
significant persecution.
A letter written about 110 A.D. by a regional
administrator named Pliny, asked the Emperor Trajan “whether it is the mere name
of Christian which is punishable, even if innocent of crime, or rather the
crimes associated with the names.”
Trajan’s answer instructs Pliny not to accept
anonymous charges against anyone as a Christian, or to “hunt them down.”
But he says that “if [Christians] are brought before
[him] and the charge against them [that they are in fact Christians] is proved,
they must be punished.”
Less than 50 years after Peter wrote this letter, to
bear the name “Christian” in the
What a need for Peter, aware of growing hostility
even in the 60’s, to write and show believers how to live in times when
maintaining allegiance to Jesus means suffering, discrimination, ridicule, and
even death.
So
Peter begins by laying a vital foundation.
To stand up to suffering the Christian must have a strong sense of
his/her identity in Christ (1:3-2:10).
This is rooted first of all in a salvation granted
to us by God (1:3-12), a salvation that leads us to a life of holiness,
reverence, and genuine love (
In that life we serve our God as His chosen
priesthood (2:1-10).
Our
response to suffering must be made in view of who we are as God’s people, for
privilege brings with it responsibility.
And that responsibility is to live such good
lives that even our opponents have to give grudging acknowledgement to it.
That “good life” is one
marked by a submissive respect for others and human institutions, despite the
fact that they may treat us unfairly (
Should persecution come even though we do nothing
but good, we are to trust God and remember that Christ also suffered
unjustly—with blessed results (3:13-4:11).
Throughout
church history this letter has spoken to thousands who have remained committed
to Christ despite persecution.
Peter has more to say about suffering than any other NT or OT book.
In fact, he uses 7 different words to describe suffering!
He reminds us that God uses suffering to purify our
faith, and help us experience His own presence in our lives.
And - God uses our suffering as a witness to the
world—a witness which will bring God, and us, glory when Jesus comes again. [2]
How
this all speak to us today is this – there’s a growing militancy in the
Christian community in the
As the world oppresses and opposes the Church,
there’s been the tendency in some circles to use political force to
fight back.
Evangelical Christianity has been courted by one
major political party and held in derision by the other.
It is a sad day when the Cause of Christ is cast as
a political agenda for Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world.
And when the people of His day tried to pressure Him
into adopting the worldly means of power to attain His throne, He resisted.
The crowds eventually became so disaffected with His
means, they turned against Him and consented to His
crucifixion!
It
is ever the task of the People of God to stand as a Prophet against the
age, not to stand with it and sanctify its desires.
The OT prophets were always running afoul of the political leader
because they dared to hold him accountable to the Word and Will of God.
In the OT, we read of those false prophets
who buddied up to the king and his cronies for the sake of influence and gain.
They were always ready to give a word of blessing
and favor to the king – but the true prophets were sent with the message of
rebuke and correction.
Even the prophet Nathan went to David with the
hard word of rebuke when he sinned with Bathsheba and tried to cover it up with
a conspiracy to commit murder.
The
point is this, the Church must never buddy up with the
world and use worldly means to accomplish the objectives of the
Instead, it is the duty of the Community of Christ to stand as a
witness to the world, a witness which runs contrary to the nations and will
inevitably result in hostility and persecution.
Make no mistake – though this nation was founded by godly men on biblical
principles, the
It never has been and never will be.
And while we have a duty as stewards to be good
citizens, we must never attempt to use force of any kind to accomplish the
objectives of the
Apart
from the return of Christ, in all likelihood, our nation will continue down the
road of destruction and ruin it has been on now for the generation.
And what Peter writes here will need to be dusted off and
re-appropriated by the people of God.
If things continue as they are, it won’t be too long
before Christians are persecuted for nothing more than bearing the name of
Christ, just as they did in Peter’s day.
But that doesn’t mean that all is lost!
For it was against that backdrop that Peter saw the
potential for the difference between the world and the Kingdom to be most
obviously and powerfully demonstrated.
What
Peter said to them, the Spirit says to us tonight –
15For this is the will of God,
that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—16as
free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
17Honor all people.
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.