1 Peter 2:1-12--A Living Stone and a Holy People

READ:  1 Peter 2:1-12 English Standard Version (ESV)LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/1Pet.2.1-1Pet.2.12​
A Living Stone and a Holy People1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 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.”
7 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,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
    and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 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. 10 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.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 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.

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Continuing the discussion on holiness, we are told that it is something we must actively practice by putting off our old nature--malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander--and fill ourselves with the Word of God.  We  are to consume it like it is milk to a newborn baby.  Think about that.  How often does a newborn nurse?  When does it nurse?  Only when it's hungry?  Isn't it a very intimate experience that makes a bond between the baby and the mother?  Doesn't the mother's milk not only provide nutrition, but antibodies to help the baby ward off infections and other diseases? I don't want to make too much of the metaphor, but I think God used it for a reason.  A mother's milk is exactly the right kind of food for a newborn baby and has everything it needs to keep the baby healthy and help it mature.  In the same way the Bible contains all we need for life and godliness.

Peter than shifts metaphors to one of constructions where Christ is the "living stone" that was rejected by men and has become the Chief Cornerstone of what God is building--the Church eternal.  We are also stones in this building.  Each of us has a unique role to play.  Along we may seem insignificant, but as we work together we have an essential role to play in the body of Christ (another metaphor for the Church that we'll study in 1 Corinthians).  Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14 to show how Christ is the fulfillment of all of these prophecies.  It seems strange to say that that Jesus would be a stumbling block for people to trip over, but Peter clarifies that those who who trip and fall do so because they desire to be disobedient to the written Word of God.  Jesus is the Living Word of God, not just God in the flesh, but the Word of God in the flesh--see John 1.  You cannot say you are obedient to Christ and be disobedient to God's Word.

Peter than switches to a historical reference that the Jews would very much understand as descendants of Abraham.  "You are a chosen race...."  God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans--he didn't even choose that entire country or Abraham's entire city or clan.  Just him and his immediate family and his household. Then God chose Isaac, the child of promise, over Ishmael and God chose Jacob over Esau.  Why did God choose the least and the weak to establish a covenant people?  Because it's not about us and it's all about Him.  He gets all the glory and it brings Him great pleasure to use the weak this of this world to confound the wise and the strong because it is apparent that He is the one at work in and through us.  We'll see a lot more of this as we study Paul's epistles as he likes to remind everyone that there is no Jew or Greek (Gentile) before God's eyes and we were all chosen because we had nothing to offer--we were all spiritually dead in sin, but God did a miraculous work to make what was dead alive in Christ.

God has given us our identity our mission and our marching orders.  Everyone that is a member of the US Armed Forces is expected to live under what is called the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).  It governs everything about what it means to be a soldier in the US Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, or any of their respective Reserve or National Guard units.  Why should we expect any less as a member of the Lord's army?  What happens to people that commit stolen valor and dress up in a uniform that they don't belong in?  What happens to the members of our armed forces that act in ways that can only be described as "conduct unbecoming"?  Isn't that uniform not just a set a clothes, but a brotherhood they share and something that is holy?  When someone sees the uniform they should immediately assume something about the person wearing it because it says something about their character and their code they live by.  You live your life in such a way when you wear such a uniform to not bring dishonor to the uniform, your brothers and sisters in arms, your commanding officers, your branch of service, your country and those who served before you or will come after you.  Should it really be that different for us in the Church?  I think this is the idea when Peter wraps up to remind us that we are at war and our conduct is an example to those who are not saved (Peter will use the word "Gentiles" often to refer to those that are lost because that was largely true of the world at his time and in a very real sense, those of us who were Gentiles and have been saved have been grafted into the "one true vine" that is Israel--the chosen people that Peter was talking about earlier.  We'll study this more in the gospels when we to Jesus' teaching on the vine and the branches in the Gospel of John).