1 Peter 2:4,5

Peter's readers would be familiar with many stone temples of various sorts, but in coming to Christ we come to the living stone. We do not come to a human religious system, but to the living God. We are not coming to aset of ideals or philosophy, but to a person. Christ was rejected by men, but is chosen by God. Ie Christ is God' choice of the way, it really doesn't matter what others think, it is God's opinion that counts.

We are being built into a spiritual temple. Ancient temples were made of stone, many of them were magnificant buildings, and they were the focus of the religion. We are not like that. We ourselves are the stones, being built into a living temple. The focus of the gospel is on people, not buildings.

We are all part of a holy priesthood. Priests were the ones who offered various services to the god they worshipped, including animal sacrifices. We are all priests to the one true God, and offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. Ie living lives in trust and obedience to God is the sacrifice that God requires.

1 Peter 2:1-3

There are two key things that we need to do: we need to rid ourselves of the old way of living; in its place we are to crave the things of God. Malice, hypocrisy, deceit, envy and slander are present in so many aspects of life. They can be found in politics, in the work place, at school, in neighbourhoods. These things have no place in the kingdom of God. Sadly they can sometimes be found in churches, and we should continually examine ourselves to ensure that they are not creeping into our own life, and if they are, then root them out with all haste.

Peter is continuing the theme of new birth. We are born again, and like new born babies we are to crave pure spiritual milk. We are to long for the word of God, to pray to God, to know the Holy Spirit, to fellowship with other Christians, to praise God. All these things help us to grow up in our salvation. The New Testament repeatedly sees salvation as something we already have, something we are receiving and something we will receive. That is why the analogy if new birth is some appropriate. Becoming a Christian marks a dramatic change in direction, the start of a new life. Yet it is only the beginning of the process. Jesus called us to make disciples. Just as it would be tragic for a baby to always be a baby, a Christian who does not grow and mature is equally tragic. There is a continual growth.

Peter provides motivation for this in referring to the fact that we have tasted that the Lord is good. We have experienced something of God. This can include intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual. The Lord made every bit of us and every bit of the universe, and becoming a Christian involves experiencing the Lord in all aspects of life.

1 Peter 1:22-25

We need to come to Christ in the first instance because we are unclear, we are sinners. We need to be cleansed or purified. When we obey the truth, ie when we acknowledge and repent of our sins, seeking forgiveness from God through Christ we are purified. It is now possible for us to do the right thing. One of the first fruits of this should be to love one another deeply and sincerely. We should consider the needs of others as important as our own needs.

We have been born again. In John 3 Jesus talks about being born again of the Spirit, here Peter speaks about being born again through the Word. The Word of God and the Spirit are very closely related. In Ephesians 6 Paul says the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The most obvious and effective sign of the Spirit having an effect in our lives is that He makes the Word of God alive to us, He makes it effective in our lives.

This is much more than an emotional experience (though our emotions may well be involved), for it is living and enduring. People are like grass, and the supposed glory of men is fleeting, it can turn from apparently being wonderful to being awful or insignificant in an instant. God's work in our lives, through His word, is permanent. The good news is the Word of God and its effect in our lives is eternal.

1 Peter 1:18-21

In the ancient world a slave could be redeemed or set free by someone else paying money (ie silver or gold). We have been set free from an empty way of life, our lives now have a direction and a purpose. But we were not set free by silver or gold, but by a ransom paid for by the precious blood of Jesus. He was the perfect sacrifice, He was without blemish. Ie Jesus was without sin and lived a life of perfect obedience to God. Someone has done something supremely precious for us, we therefore have an obligation to respond to that.

It was always God's plan to send Jesus. Indeed He was chosen before the creation of the world. This knocks on the head the notion that God was taken by surprise by what happened in Eden and had to come up with an emergency plan. This is not the case, Christ was always chosen for this task. Now this of course raises all sorts of questions of its own, but we need to realise that God is never taken unawares. The plan was always known to God, it was revealed to the world when Christ came. Notice that He was revealed for our sake, ie for our benefit.

Through Christ we believe in God. We are not believing in a philosophy or an ideology, but in God Himself. For God raised Christ from the dead and glorified Him.

1 Peter 1:17

We often talk about the intimacy of the fact that God is our Father, and this is true, but the Father is also an authority figure. This is something that is very much lost in our society today, but God is the perfect Father in all respects, and this includes being a figure of authority. One of the things He does is judge our lives and our works, and He does this with complete fairness and impartiality.

Now we need a Father who cares for us and has an intimate concern for our lives, but we also need Him to be an authority figure as well. One of the causes for many of the problems in society is the lack of authority figures who are worthy of respect. We need a Father who corrects us when we are wrong, who urges us to take up challenges that we might be afraid to do. We also need to know that when He gives His approval of our work it is not just because He is being nice to us, but because the work is actually worthy of praise.

So we are to live as foreigners and in reverent fear. Ie we are not to follow the ways of the world, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, and we are to live as such. We also need to know that our lives and actions are watched over by the Lord.

1 Peter 1:13-16

All that Peter has said so far has practical consequences for the way we live now. Indeed, this is true of all of the New Testament writers. The first thing we are to do is prepare our minds for action and be fully sober. Older versions of the Bible talk about girding up our loins, the reference being to the need to gather up the long robes that some wore so that they could run freely. Peter knew the consequences of not being fully prepared in our minds when he denied Jesus. We need to think ahead making our selves ready to remain true to the Lord.

This is important because it is so easy to be knocked off course by events or immediate concerns. Peter did indeed love Jesus, but the threats and fears of the moment dominated his actions and he denied the Lord. We need to be fully focused on the future that God has for us, then we will be better able to resist these pressures. Note also that it is the grace that is going to be given to us. Often we can despair because of our own weakness and failings, thinking there is no point in going on. But we stand in the grace of God. It is God's undeserved favour that will reward us, so it is always worth pressing on. We should never give up.

We are to live as obedient children, no longer living according to all sorts of fleeting and evil desires. We are children of God, but we are to be obedient children.

God is holy, so we are to be holy. Holy means to be set apart for a purpose. God is different. When Jesus was on earth He was clearly different from other men in the way He lived, thought, and responded. We are to be different just as Jesus was different. For we have been set apart for a purpose, so we need to set ourselves apart for that purpose.

1 Peter 1:9-12

I will begin by saying a little more about verse 9. The goal of our faith is the "salvation of our souls". This means much more than that we will not be condemned to hell. It means that we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ. It means that all the corrupt parts of our nature are being put to death and replaces with the new nature. It means that where we were weak we are being made strong in Christ.

The gospel is not a replacement for the Old Testament, but the fulfilment of it. The OT prophets looked forward to the salvation that is in Christ. Indeed, they searched intently for it, this implies that it was the problem to which they were trying to seek a solution. Moreover, the prophets spoke of the grace that was to come. Isaiah is the supreme example of this, but Hosea and Micah also spring to mind. They wanted to know exactly what God was talking about when He spoke of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that would follow.

The OT prophets were not serving just their own age, but also us. In practical terms this means that we should read intently the Old Testament in the light of Christ, seeing how it further explains all that Christ is about. Note the implication that both the OT prophets and the preachers of the New Testament were inspired by the Holy Spirit.