1st Peter Chapter 2– John Karmelich

1. This lesson can be summarized by the statement and question: “I’ve got problems, I believe in Jesus, now what do I do? That pretty much summarizes most Christians I know.

a) Peter wrote this letter to those who were under a death threat for their religious beliefs. Therefore, we have no right to complain in comparison. ☺ Over and above that, this letter is designed as a set of instructions of how to life the Christian life especially during difficult times.

b) One of the main issues Peter gets into is the concept that one’s perspective about life affects your circumstances, and not the other way around. The people Peter were writing to were focusing on their fears, and those fears can and does cause people to lose faith. Peter is teaching the opposite. To summarize Peter, “Understand what God has done for us as believers, let it change you from the inside-out, and with that fresh perspective, then deal with the problems the world is throwing at you.

c) In many ways, this letter is about “how to be happy during rough times. Don’t get me wrong. We are not to artificially jump for joy when we are really hurting. Again, this is about changing our perspective about the reality that is around us.

d) With that surprisingly short introduction completed ☺, let’s get going.

2. Chapter 2, Verse 1: Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

a) To start, it would probably help to define some of the terms used in this sentence:

i) Malice is the intent to harm someone else.

ii) Deceit is to act in a misleading way in some action.

iii) Hypocrisy is act in a way that is not true to your nature.

iv) Envy is to want something that doesn’t belong to you.

v) Slander is to make a false accusation.

vi) In summary, none of these are good. ☺

b) The sentence starts with the word “Therefore”. Whenever you see the word “therefore”, you should always ask yourself, where is the “wherefore of the therefore? The term “therefore” is a conclusion based on some previous statements.

i) Peter is asking us to rid ourselves of all these ugly things.

ii) He starts by saying “Therefore”. We need to go back to the latter verses of Chapter 1 and find out the “what” aspects leads to this “therefore”.

iii) The last sentence of Chapter 1 says, “And this is the word that was preached to you.” Well, that doesn’t help much. ☺ Let’s go back a little further.

iv) Let’s go back to Verse 23. It says, “For you have been born again”…. From there, Peter goes on to say, “all men are like grass (i.e., our time on earth is relatively short as compared to eternity)…but the Word of the Lord stands forever”.

a) The point is we are born again into a new life in Jesus Christ. The “therefore” that opens verse 1 answers the question: “Now what?”

v) It would be like us asking, “Ok, I’ve committed my life to Jesus, now what?”

a) The answer is the first verse of Chapter 2. Those terms I defined are the specific’s of the “now what”.

c) Notice that to start a new life in Jesus does not mean the first thing we do is go out with a bible in our hands, konk people on the head, and tell them to repent. ☺ It begins with our internal and external behavior. The first thing Peter is teaching, even before going out and telling others about Jesus is to watch our behavior.

i) Does this mean Peter expects us to be perfect? Of course not. Remember this is the guy who denied Jesus three times! He’s got no right to talk. ☺ The advice Peter is giving applies to all Christians, including himself and myself.

ii) The point is to check our behavior. With that said, let’s get back to the list of bad things in Verse 1. Notice all of the actions listed are those that do harm to others. Most of the things on the list are not those actions already committed, but “actions of the mind”. In other words, Peter is saying, “kill the bad thought before it becomes bad actions”.

d) OK, onto the why question: For starters, “if” we want to tell others about Jesus, and we have a reputation as a hypocrite or a slanderer, etc., who will take us seriously? Why should anyone want to “be like us”, if we act this way?

i) Remember people judge our behavior as much as our words.

ii) Second, this is about our own maturity. The “world” expects you to get revenge. Our ego’s say, “I got hurt, and I want to hurt them right back.” In other words, “Vengeance is mine, so saith my ego!” ☺

iii) If we can learn to take our pain, and “give it to God”, it changes our attitude. If we can see people as “those needing God” it changes our desire for revenge.

iv) I should add this is not about self-defense. I’m not arguing to sit there and take it if someone is about to hit you with a baseball bat. The issue is about willfully seeking revenge on someone. The issue is about slandering someone falsely because you are angry with them. The issue is internal malice due to your anger.

v) I once heard a famous pastor use the phrase, “Hurting people hurt people” (Rick Warren). When you see people who are miserable and want to harm others, it is usually due to some internal pain of their own. This doesn’t mean God called you to go fix everyone’s problems. It just means one has to have understanding of other’s actions. It helps get us into proper perspective.

e) Remember that Peter is writing to churches dealing with persecution. The first instinct is to want to harm them as much as they have been harmed. Imagine seeing family members and friends killed for believing in Jesus. We would want to harm back those that harm us. Peter is teaching, like Jesus and like Paul, there is a better way.

f) Let me end this section with a practical prayer: Lord, right now, I’m really angry with this person for what they did to me. It is so wrong. I’m really hurt. It’s not fair. First of all, I pray for that person (or group). I lift them up to you. Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44) and I’m doing that right now. Now I take that pain and lay it at the foot of the cross. Lord, I am blind to my own sins and I am quick to accuse others. You said to pray to forgive others, (Matthew 6:12) and I’m asking that right now. This anger is blocking my peace with you. Therefore, this situation is now “your problem”, so I can now once again draw close to you”. Amen.

3. Verse 2: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

a) Here is a case where I prefer the King James and the NIV translation used above.

i) The NIV translation here “just” says, “crave pure spiritual milk”.

ii) The New King James Version says, “Desire the pure milk of the word”. I believe the best original Greek text includes the phrase that is translated “of the word”.

iii) My point is that the “spiritual milk” refers to the Word of God.

b) To those readers who have ever been parents, remember the days when the babies were up around the clock craving milk. Peter is saying we should crave the Word of God the same way that babies crave milk. It doesn’t mean we are to read at 3am feedings. ☺ It means that we are to depend upon it the same way a baby depends upon milk.

c) Now let’s tie Verse 2 with Verse 1.

i) Verse 1 is about things in our life we are to get rid in order to be better Christians and better witnesses to others.

ii) This is immediately followed by a request to be a diligent student of God’s Word.

iii) I’m going to argue that “giving bad thoughts to God” and reading God’s word go together. After you haven given those bad thoughts to God, in a sense, you have a hole in your head that has to be filled. I believe Peter wants us to fill that negative void with Scripture. If we expect to turn over our pain to God, we need to replace that negative thought with something positive and pleasing to God.

d) Further, Peter is arguing that in order to grow in maturity, it requires regular reading of God’s word.

i) Now in Peter’s time, the bible was not canonized. Peter was probably referring to Old Testament and specific parts of the New Testament that were already making the rounds. In 2^nd Peter 3:15-16, Peter refers to Paul’s letters and puts them on the level as “other Scriptures” implying Paul’s letters are part of God’s word.

ii) My closing argument for the regular reading of God’s word comes from Jesus himself. When he was tempted by Satan, one of his responses was, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 NIV, a quote of Deuteronomy 8:3). The point is if we are to live on every word of God, it means to regularly study every word of God!

e) Verse 3 says, “Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

i) This ties back to a baby’s craving of milk. A baby takes one taste of milk and instinctively thinks, “Hey, good stuff. I’d like some more please”.

ii) The same attitude should be toward us. Peter is preaching on maturity of the believer (Verse 3 says “you may grow up in your salvation”). Part of that maturity comes from a regular study of God’s word. To “grow up in your salvation” implies that once you are saved, there is “more to it”. There is a maturity process.

4. Verse 4: As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- ⁵ 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.

a) From Verse 4 to Verse 8, we are going to have a study of “stones”.

b) The name Peter means, “living stone”. With that said, Peter is not talking about himself, but Jesus as the cornerstone of the “whole house of believers”. Each of which is a “stone”.

c) One thing to understand as you read the Old Testament is that when you see the word “stone”, especially as it ties to some sort of miracle, is usually a word picture of Jesus.

i) Paul himself states this: “They (Israelites coming out of Egypt) were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” (1^st Corinthians 10:2-4 NIV)

ii) When the Israelites were wandering through the desert, there was a point where they were all thirsty. God commanded Moses to strike a particular rock and water would come out. (Reference: Exodus 17:5)

iii) The funny thing is, years later, the Israelites were thirsty again. This time, God told Moses to just “speak” to the rock, and not strike it. Moses disobeyed and struck the rock. God punished Moses by refusing to let him enter the Promised Land (Ref.: Numbers Chapter 20). The reason God did this is “Moses blew the model of Jesus”. Jesus only needed to die once for our sins, not over and over again. After the price is paid for our sins, all we have to do is “speak to the rock”. Because Moses struck the rock again, he “blew the model” of Jesus only having to suffer once. Remember Paul stated this rock is a model of Jesus in 1^st Corinthians.

d) Now let’s get back to Peter. He says in verse 4 that we are to come to Jesus, “the living stone”. I believe Peter understood 1^st Corinthians Chapter 10! Peter understood that he was comparing Jesus to a rock or stone. In particular, Peter said, “living stone”.

e) The next analogy has to do with building a house. In particular, Peter is stating that a house built out of rocks is like the Christian church. We are each a stone that together make up one large house. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of this house.

i) With this in mind, the Old Testament references to monuments now get a lot more interesting. Whenever, God commanded the Israelites to build some sort of monument, the specifications were to build it out of stone, and to not cut or carve any stones (e.g., Deuteronomy 27). In other words, they were just to take a pile of rocks and make a monument, without any cutting of the stones.

ii) That is now a word-picture of “Christians working together” for the purpose of glorifying God, again, with Jesus as the cornerstone.

iii) Ah, you bible scholars say, ☺ what about the temple? That was made in the days of Solomon with cut stones. In fact, those stones were not cut at the temple site, but at a quarry and then shipped to the temple site to fit in place. (Ref.: 1^st Kings 6:7). My response is “that is different”. That “temple-model” is a word-picture of how God is shaping us and molding us so that for eternity we “fit together” as a body of believers for the purpose of worshiping God.

iv) I actually take this a step further and argue that the “tabernacle”, the portable structure built by Moses (in the latter chapters of Exodus), is a model of Christians working together in our life here on earth. The tabernacle is meant to be a portable structure, just as we are “in this world, but not of this world” (this is a paraphrase of John 17:15-16). The “Temple”, but centuries later by Solomon is a permanent structure, and can be read of as a model of “fitted, mature Christians” living in heaven for eternity as a finished work for the Glory of God. “

a) If I’ve just lost you, don’t worry, let it go. ☺ Time to get back to Peter.

v) With all of this understanding of “Christians as a house of stones”, lets re-read Verse 4 and 5 again: “As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.”

vi) Ok, I’ve beaten the stone house analogy to death. It’s now time to move on. ☺

f) The next phrase to notice in Verse 5 is “a holy priesthood”.

i) Did you ever realize that as a Christian, you are a priest? And you didn’t even graduate from seminary! ☺

ii) The Book of Revelation teaches us that we are “kings and priests” to God the Father. (Revelation 1:6, and 5:10).

a) That does not mean that God will say to us in heaven, “OK, Bob, Sally and Tom will be priests while Jennifer, Allison and Ted are to be kings”. ☺

b) It means that all believers are kings and priests to God.

c) We are “kings” in the sense that God has given us every spiritual blessing that can possible be in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3). Further, we are adopted as God’s sons (Ephesians 1:5). When Jesus comes back to rule over the earth, we rule with Him (2^nd Timothy 2:12).

iii) Onto the main point. We as Christians are like the “priests” that one reads about in the Book of Leviticus.

a) Old Testament priests were “chosen” by God. You had a descendant of the tribe of Levi. In a sense, those priests were “pre-destined” by God.

b) Those priests were to live separate, holy lives and “not like everyone else”.

c) Old Testament priests were not given an inheritance in Israel, but were scattered through the nation to minister to other believes. Boy does that ever describe Christians here on earth! We are to be “in this world, but not of this world”. Like those priests, we are to be living witnesses for God.

d) If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m trying to give you a new perspective when you read the Book of Leviticus. Next time, personalize it!

g) The next phrase Peter uses is, “offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God…”

i) Let’s face it, when we go to church, we don’t bring sheep to sacrifice.

ii) The comparison to priests “ends there”. Here is why:

a) “Unlike the other high priests, he (Jesus) does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
(Hebrews 7:27 NIV)

iii) If Peter says we are to offer up spiritual sacrifices, what does he mean?

a) That’s the Christian life. Look at what Paul says on the same topic:

b) “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1b, NIV)

iv) Here is two more examples from the Book of Hebrews:

a) “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13:15-16 NIV)

v) To summarize, how we live as Christians consists of “spiritual sacrifices”. To sacrifice is to voluntarily give something up for the benefit of others. Since we are living to please God, we do “offer sacrifices” by living the Christian life: This is the acts of obedience that is taught all throughout the Scriptures. This is praising God. This is being a witness to others. All of these are examples of “offering spiritual sacrifices” to God. Peter is just giving “obedience and worship” a title we may not have used before.

5. Verse 6: For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

a) This is a quote of Isaiah 28:16.

b) Peter validates Isaiah as Scripture. That’s good enough for me. ☺ Jesus does that too.

c) Mount Zion is a particular mountain that is part of the City of Jerusalem. Zion has become a nickname for Jerusalem itself. Zion also refers to a “New Jerusalem” (Hebrew 12:22). In particular, a “heavenly city” that will be set upon the earth as part of the events of Jesus Second Coming. (Rev. 3:12 and 21:2).

d) What Isaiah is predicting is that part of the events of Jesus first coming is to become the “cornerstone” of the house of believers. It is about the birth of the church.

e) Notice the promise that comes with Verse 6: Whoever trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame. What does that mean in particular?

i) Does that mean Christians will never be shamed publicly in front of others?
If history is any judge, that is not the case.

ii) I believer this refers to judgment day. God will not put us on the stand and say, “OK, I’ll forgive you of all of your sins, but before I do, here’s a few highlights! J

iii) If God says we will never be put to shame, I trust in that promise! That means when God welcomes us into heaven, we are not shamed first. God forgives and “forgets” all of our sins, period. Take comfort in that thought.

f) This verse is also an argument against “purgatory”. This is a term invented by the Roman Catholic Church with no biblical support. Purgatory is a “temporary hell” to purge us of our sins. Peter says, “We will never be shamed”. Purgatory sounds like shame to me. J

6. Verse 7: Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, " ⁸ and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.

a) Jesus is compared to a “living stone”. That same living stone that we depend upon as our cornerstone (i.e., the foundation of all we believe) is the same stone that nonbelievers “stumble upon”. Since we’ve already talked about Jesus as “our living stone”, I’m going to focus a little on Jesus as the nonbelievers’ “stumbling stone”.

b) Notice the judgment of the last sentence: They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.

i) That’s a scary statement. People willfully choose to disobey the Gospel message. Why is that? I believe the most common reason is people don’t want to change their lifestyle based on what Christianity teaches.

ii) Nonbelievers would rather live for pleasure or some other issue than accept the fact that God must die for their sins in order to be saved.

iii) People want to approach God based on their own ego’s (i.e., “I deserve to go to heaven because I’m a good person”) rather than accept the idea that a perfect God requires perfection to be with Him forever. We can only be perfect by accepting the “perfect punishment” on our behalf, which is Jesus dying for our sins.

iv) The fact that people refuse to accept that means they desire to approach God on their terms, and not on God’s terms. The other reason is they don’t want to change their lifestyle in order to please God.

v) This leads back to Peter’s last comment. To paraphrase Peter, “So, you don’t want to accept Jesus? Well, that’s God’s “terms” for salvation. You don’t want to accept it? Ok then, but I’m sorry, you can’t get into heaven on your terms.” That is why it is their “destiny” as Peter says in at the end of Verse 8.

c) This leads back to the big issue of dealing with suffering and pain. Peter is writing to people dealing with persecution. We see nonbelievers as people who are hurting us and we want to hurt them back. Peter is saying, “Their destiny and punishment is far worse than anything and everything we have to deal with in our lifetime.

7. Verse 9: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

a) Peter is contrasting the destiny of the nonbeliever versus the believer. In Verse 8, Peter teaches about the eternal destiny of those who refuse to believe the Gospel message and “stumble” over Jesus.

i) Verse 8 is meant to be read in contrast to Verses 9 and 10. In these verses Peter focuses on all believers and what we are called to do.

b) First of all, Peter says we are a “chosen people”.

i) As I stated in the last lesson, Peter is primarily writing to Jewish Christians. That does not mean these lessons are to be ignored by non-Jewish Christians. It simply means that the illustrations and examples used are “best understood” by someone with a Jewish background. Don’t forget Peter is a Jewish Christian himself.

ii) Peter deliberately is comparing Christians to Jews in the sense that God “formed” the Jewish nation when they were in Egypt. They were specifically called out of Egypt to form a nation. They were formed to be a witness to others about God and to corporately worship God as a nation.

iii) In Verse 9, Peter calls Christians, “a chosen people” and “a holy nation”. The same way the Jewish people were separated and chosen by God to be a special nation and a chosen people, so is the Christian church. There is a parallel in the Exodus story with what God has been doing with the Christian church for the past 2,000 years!

iv) Earlier I talked about how since we are a “royal priesthood”, that should give us a new appreciation when we read about the duties of the priests in books like Leviticus. It is meant as studies of how God wants us to live separate and holy lives just like those priests.

v) Now I’m trying to show how we can have “a whole new appreciation” of the Book of Exodus. Exodus is not just a historical study of how God first formed the Jewish nation. It is also there as an example of when people commit their lives to God, they are now called to be a holy nation.

vi) Exodus is not just a story about the Jewish nation being redeemed by God. It is a “word-picture” of how those who commit their lives to God are called by God and separated (that’s what “holy” means) for the purposes of glorifying God. How do we glorify God? By praising Him, by being witnesses to others, by spending time with other believers and spending time alone with God. That is why we “called” by God as a separate nation.

c) The last part of Verse 10 says”, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”.

i) Mercy is about forgiveness for things we have done.

ii) A tendency among all Christians is that we tend to have bad memories about our own sins and have wonderful memories about those who have hurt us. ☺

iii) We forget that God has shown mercy on us for forgiving our past sins. That is Peter’s point here. Again, Peter is writing to people dealing with suffering. It is that reminder that God has been merciful to us, and we need to be merciful to others. (Don’t confuse being passive with being merciful!)

a) Jesus said, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
(Matthew 9:13, NIV, with Jesus quoting Hosea 6:6)

8. Verse 11: Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

a) Now we’re back to the issue at hand: Since we are this “special people” that God called out, what do we do? How exactly do we live this life?

b) Here Peter reminds us first of all that we are “aliens and strangers” of this world.

i) That does not mean Christians are to live as isolated hermits. Jesus calls us to be “in the world”, but not “of this world” (again, a paraphrase of John 17:15-16). The point is we as Christians are supposed to act differently.

c) Now that the idea of “strangers to this world” is understood, the very next issue Peter brings up is to abstain from sinful desires.

i) We tend to think of this as sexual sins, but this verse encompasses a much bigger range. It is the idea of abstaining against all things that draw us away from God.

ii) This does not mean I’m anti-hobby or anti-interests. You have permission to go to a movie. ☺ What this does mean is that any interest you have in things other than God should be very limited. If you love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, how much desire “should” you have for other things?

d) This leads to a topic of dealing with sins.

i) Remember how God the Father dealt with sin. He crucified it. Crucifixion is a slow, painful, tortuous way to die. Let’s face it, there could have been other, less painful ways for Jesus to die for our sins. One of the reasons crucifixion was picked is that it is a model of just how we are to deal with sins.

ii) To explain this, I always liked the illustration of a charcoal briquette. For those of you who have ever used a “manual” barbeque as opposed to a gas-lighted barbeque, you will understand this illustration. In order for charcoal briquettes to be effective, they have to work as a group. If you take one charcoal briquette and place it by itself, it will go cold. It only remains hot if they are lumped together.

iii) That illustration applies in both a positive and negative aspect for Christians. As believers, God intends for us to work as a team. Christianity was never meant to be a solo act. In order to be an effective witness for Jesus, it is required and necessarily for it to be a team effort.

iv) That same charcoal illustration also applies for how we should deal with sin. The best way to “kill” sin is to isolate the sin. Whatever sin issue we have to deal with, we need to isolate it and “crucify it”. Yes, the process is painful just as crucifixion is painful. Our minds and bodies are “accustomed” to such sins and our human desires don’t want to give them up. .

v) I do believe all people are born with certain strengths and weaknesses. Some people can never drink alcohol their whole lives and that is a “non-issue”. For others, to be around it is a great temptation to be a part of it. (By the way, the bible condemns drunkenness, not drinking, that is a separate issue. Here I’m using the alcoholic as an illustration of a form of temptation.) Since we all have different weaknesses, it is important for us to abstain and avoid people and places that are bad influences to our lives.

vi) I am also in favor of support groups. Having accountability groups helps to stay away from their problem issues.

vii) The point Peter is making is that there are things that Christians need to abstain from, period. It is not a matter of “mind of matter”, it is a matter of realizing we are a “new creature in Christ” and we are no longer slaves to whatever was keeping us down. With that realization, we can come to God and let Him help us deal with the issue and “walk away” from it like an isolated charcoal.

e) The last part of Verse 11 states these things, “war against the soul”.

i) The purpose of your soul is to have a close relationship with God. Our soul is designed to communicate with God, pray and worship God and just be with Him. When we desire other things, that blocks our relationship with God. In that sense, other things are warring against our soul.

9. Verse 12: