1 Peter 2:9,10- A chosen people, a royal priesthood

2:9

The Christians were a people rejected by the world, as is increasingly true in our society, but though we may be rejected by the world we are chosen by God. We are a chosen people. We are a royal priesthood. In Israel kings and priests were separate. However, Exodus 19:6 speaks of God’s people being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. THe nation of Israel failed to fulfil this role, but we now do fulfil that role, through Christ. We have been chosen by God to have a special role on the earth. We are God’s “special possession”. We need to realise who we are, not so that we become proud, but so that we realise the security we have, and the responsibility we have. We are to declare the praises of our God. While the world rejects God we are to proclaim Him. Why should we live in opposition to the world? Why not just go with the flow? Because the way of the world is darkness, and we have been called into God’s wonderful light. So we should proclaim the praises of God because of what He has done for us, and so that others may also take hold of this great salvation.

2:10

Once we were not a people. We were on our own, living for ourselves, fending for ourselves. But now we are a people, we have become the people of God. And this happened as a result of God’s mercy. Without Christ we are on our own, we have to justify ourselves, we have to seek to do the impossible. But now we have received mercy. If we believe in Christ we are in a blessed position.

1 Peter 2:6-8 - A precious stone

2:6,7

Peter quotes from Isaiah 28:16. The preceding part of Isaiah speaks of those who scoff. We need to understand the world we live in. It is a world that is in rebellion against God and considers God’s ways to be foolish, it rejects His Messiah. But the Messiah the world has rejected is the One laid by God, the One chosen by God. He is precious and although the world rejects Him, and although the world may mock us, if we trust in Him we will never be put to shame.

Verse 7 quotes from Psalm 118:22. In that Psalm it goes on to say that “it is marvellous in our eyes”, and “ “let us rejoice today and be glad”. The world may reject Christ, but He is the cornerstone of all God’s plans, and He is the source of our salvation. So we should rejoice and be glad.

2:8

Then Peter goes back to Isaiah, this time Is 8:14. Again it is worth looking at what comes before the verse quoted. God has just told Isaiah that he is not to fear what they fear, instead the Lord is the One he is to fear. We need to understand the distinction between those who believe and those who do not. Not in the sense of considering ourselves superior, because we are not, but in understanding what is going on, and so that we are not dismayed when the world mocks and goes against what we believe. Some will believe in Christ and will be saved, some will not. In fact Christ will cause some to stumble. Many Jews “stumbled”, they reacted against Christ, just as many do today. The reaction against Christ is not a result of any wisdom or insight on their part, but is a result of disobedience to God. This is what they were destined for. This can be understood in various ways, but whatever the exact meaning it is all part of God’s plan. Nothing unusual is happening when people react against the gospel or against Christ.

1 Peter 2:4,5 - Living stones

2:4

We need to remember that the Jews, on the whole, had rejected Jesus. The Gentile society on the whole considered Jesus and the gospel to be an odd group of people, sometimes deserving of persecution. In our day we are increasingly regarded as outsiders if we believe in the Bible. The normal state of affairs is that the world rejects Jesus. But we have come to Jesus and He is the living stone. And while men may reject Him, He was chosen by God and is considered precious by God. So whose opinion are we going to live by? The world’s opinion, or God’s opinion?

2:5

Jesus is a living stone. God’s plans are based not on an idea nor an ideology, but on the living person of the Son of God. And we as living stones are being built into a spiritual house for the Lord. When we look at our lives we need to view them as part of God’s plans, we are a living part of God’s plan. He is working in us to make us a holy priesthood. The Jews offered animals as sacrifices, the pagan religions offered their own sacrifices to idols. We offer spiritual sacrifices, which are lives that are pleasing to God (Rom 12:1).

1 Peter 2:1-3 - Get rid of sin, drink pure milk

2:1

Our old way of life was founded on perishable seed, it was doomed for destruction. Our new self is based on imperishable seed, so we should do all we can to divest ourselves of the old self and to put on the new self (Eph 4:22-24). Things like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander all belong to the old self and we should rid ourselves of these things. See how much of life is based on these characteristics, in politics, business and everyday life. We need to live differently.

2:2,3

We have been born again, so we should seek after things that pertain to this new life. Like newborn babies we should crave pure spiritual milk. Now it seems likely that Peter is writing to relatively new Christians. As we go on we should indeed mature in Christ. We should still seek after the word of God, but we should not stay as babes in the faith. When we first come to faith we taste that the Lord is good. We must not leave things there, but instead should seek to grow in Christ.

1 Peter 1:22-25 - Like grass

1:22

We have been purified by obeying the truth? What does this mean? Well let’s first look at the lie we previously believed. We thought we could manage on our own. We thought we could manage materially on our own, we thought we could manage morally on our own. Both of these are a lie. When we choose our own way, become lord of our own life, things quickly start to head towards disaster. This applies to us as individuals, and on a corporate level as well. Some think they are righteous, this is another lie. The gospel tells us that we have sinned against God and are helpless to do anything about it in our own strength. Instead we need to trust in Christ, to rely on His sacrifice to justify us, and to rely on the Holy Spirit to transform us. Believing the gospel is a matter of obeying God. So often it is presented as a choice, but it is a choice of whether or not to obey the Lord.

We can now have a sincere love for one another. We are not trying to prove anything, we are free to give and free to forgive. So we should live out of this freedom and love one another deeply.

1:23

We have been born again. Life is different, we are different. We are a new creation, and we need to live out of this new creation, not the old self. And we were born not of perishable seed, but imperishable seed. Why does he say this? Well, how were we first born? We were born naturally, but this was of perishable seed. Everyone who is born is destined to die. This is not very encouraging, but it is a fact. Death and taxes, as the old saying goes, are the only certainties in life! To be perfectly honest life is a struggle. However, we were born again of imperishable seed. This new life is not a life of decay, but one of renewal, of transformation from one degree of glory to the next. In our lives we see both the old and the new at work, and we can become depressed if we focus on the old, Instead we need to learn to live increasingly out of the new life.

How did this new life come about? It was through the living and enduring word of God. We will focus on this aspect when we look at the next couple of verses.

1:24,25

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 40:6-8. We need to appreciate the life giving power of the word of God. Jesus told the devil, quoting from Deuteronomy, that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The world was created by the word of God, and we were recreated by the word of God. We can look around us and sometimes be intimidated or overawed by others or by some aspect of the world, but all the glory we see around is fleeting, it will not last forever. To put it bluntly it will decay in the grave. But the word of the Lord endures for ever, and the gospel is the enduring word of God. We need to learn to rely on this word, to live out of it, and to rejoice in it.

1 Peter 1:20,21 - Chosen before creation

1:20

Jesus was chosen to be the Lamb before the creation of the world, but was revealed two thousand years ago. God’s plans were not made up on the spur of the moment, He is not reacting to events. Everything is under control. But the plan was only revealed in recent days. Now we tend to have problems with this, with predestination and all that is associated with it. However, nowhere does the Bible teach that God’s sovereignty equals fatalism. The Bible consistently teaches that what we do matters, our lives count and make a difference. So we may not understand how it all fits together, but that is not our first concern. Our first concern should be to lives lives of faith and obedience.

1:21

Through Him we have faith in God. What does this mean? Jesus is the reason we have faith in God. It is only through Jesus, by what He said, what He did, and the Father raising Him from the dead, that we have faith in God. Otherwise judgement is all we could rationally expect from God. Jesus shows us that God loves us and offers forgiveness and new life. The Father showed that Jesus and Him were working together in complete harmony throughout His ministry, eg at His baptism and at the transfiguration where God explicitly said Jesus was His Son and He was pleased with Him. Supremely at the resurrection. Jesus was raised to the right hand of God and has all power and authority. So we have faith in God. We know that the creator of the universe is for us and not against us. Every action of God is consistent with Him loving us.

1 Peter 1:18,19

1:18,19

Now we see why we are to live holy lives, and it is not for the reasons that people normally think. It is not because we will get “beaten up” otherwise, and definitely not to stop us enjoying ourselves! Rather it is because God considers us so precious. We were redeemed from an empty way of life. Life without God is ultimately empty. The empirical “proof” of this is there for all to see, no matter what you do in life you will die, under atheism that is it (of course it isn’t actually it, all will face judgement). And we were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, something infinitely more valuable than silver or gold.

We need to realise how precious we are to God, and we need to tell the world how precious they are. Sexual immorality always comes up as an obvious sin, and rightly so for it is important and it so well illustrates the difference between God’s ways and man’s ways. The world’s ways lead to degradation of humans, treating them as mere sex objects. We are far more valuable than that. God’s commandments are what they are because we are so important, and because He cares for us so much.

The world’s ways are empty, but we have been redeemed from this empty way of life. Note that we needed to be redeemed. It was not just a matter of learning a new way of living, rather we were held captive by sin. We were also under judgement. We needed to be forgiven and we needed to be set free. The blood of Jesus shed on the cross achieves that forgiveness and freedom.