They stumble because they disobey the message— which is also what they were destined for.
9But 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. 10Once 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.
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:4-12 –NIV)
According to the very first two verses in Peter’s letter, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, Peter is writing to “God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout the earth, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.” We who trust in Jesus for salvation are God’s elect! Peter has told us, in chapter 1, that our faith is more precious than gold, which perishes even though it is refined by fire. (And we, ourselves are being refined by fire, too, through many trials which prove our faith to be genuine.)
Our faith is precious to God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6) But through faith, we are shielded by God’s power until the coming of Jesus. The goal of our faith is the salvation of our souls. Our faith will result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus is revealed. In the rest of chapter 1 and the first 3 verses of chapter 2, Peter has told us that, because of these things, we must prepare our minds for action and live Holy lives.
Now let’s go on to today’s passage, chapter 2, verses 4 through 12. Today’s passage starts out, “As you come to him, the living Stone— rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him.” Today’s passage is, first of all, about Jesus (which is something you can say about most of the bible). Jesus is the living Stone who is chosen by God and precious to him. He is the one through whom we are able to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. (verse 5) In fact, he is the one through whom and only through whom we are able to do anything at all that is acceptable to God!
Jesus is the stone which God is laying in Zion—the cornerstone upon which everything else that has any lasting value is built! (verse 6) He is the one about whom God spoke through the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament when he said, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,” and about whom he spoke in many, many other places in the Old Testament as well.
Jesus is the one about whom the psalmist spoke in Psalm 118 when he said, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” The psalmist also says this: “The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes!” (Psalm 118:22,23) Jesus is also the one about whom Isaiah wrote, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
This passage is, first of all, about Jesus, the living stone. Jesus is the living stone! He is life! Life—the condition of being alive—was made through Jesus. How often his words, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” come up. There is nothing that is alive that isn’t alive because Jesus is alive!
This passage is, first of all, about Jesus. Beyond that, it is about men and their relationship to Jesus. Peter, speaking by the Holy Spirit, talks first of all about men in general. Referring to Jesus, the living stone, in verse 5, he says, “rejected by men,” and in verse 8, quoting Isaiah, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message.” And what is the message? It is this: that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus—through the sprinkling of his blood and the sanctifying work of the Spirit. We are not saved by what we do or don’t do, but by whom we trust. This is the message that causes men to stumble. It is pride that causes men to stumble. People, even when they know they are hopeless and helpless, still want to do it themselves. They would rather hold on to their pride and independence and be lost, than to come to God on his terms and be saved. (Incidentally—and this should be obvious—we don’t instantly do away with pride when we come to Jesus for salvation. It’s part of—maybe even most of—what needs to be refined out of us by fire!)
So Peter talks first about men in general. And then he talks about us—those who trust the living stone and will never be put to shame. (verse 6) We also are living stones. We also are chosen as God’s elect. We are made alive through Christ—not just with the physical life which we had from our conception, but with true life that lasts forever! We know Jesus and he knows us!
As living stones, we are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. One thing this tells us is that each of us is a priest who serves God. In the Old Testament religion, only Levites could be priests. And of the Levites, only the descendants of Levi’s son, Kohath could be priests. And of Kohath’s descendants, only those descended from Aaron could be priests. If you sinned, only a priest—a descendant of Aaron—could make a sacrifice before God for your sins.
And even the sacrifice of animals didn’t really take away your sin, because the blood of bulls and goats doesn’t take away sin. (Heb. 10:4) Only the precious blood of Jesus can do that. Through Jesus, the Aaronic priesthood has now been done away with. We are all priests. Each of us can go directly to God. Jesus is our high priest and he intercedes in our behalf.
I think that we take the fact that we can go directly to God somewhat for granted. Maybe we need to put ourselves in the place of the Israelites in the Old Testament. The high priest entered the most holy place and made an offering of blood for his own sins and for the sins of Israel once a year. If he didn’t do it exactly right, he was struck dead! That was it! That very thing happened to two of Aaron’s sons when they made an improper offering. But the offering our high priest made was absolutely proper. There could not have been a more perfect offering! As a result of the blood of Jesus, we can approach the throne of Grace—God’s throne—with confidence.
We are all priests—a royal priesthood, according to verse 9. But I think that there is something in verse 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.”—there is something in verse 5 that may be more important than the fact that we are each priests before God. In fact Peter didn’t say that we are each priests, but rather that, “You plural—the Greek word you is plural—are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood…” His emphasis is on the “spiritual house” and on the “holy priesthood”—all of us together, rather than on each of us individually.
In our individualistic society, we tend to think about individuals and our individual relationships to God. But Peter (and Paul, and others) talk about all of us together. God is taking individual living stones—each of us—and building a spiritual building. To use the apostle Paul’s words, we are one body with many members. Each member has a function in the body. No one is indispensable. No one! This is the church. Not the building or the human organization, but the total of all those who believe in Jesus. The apostle Paul refers to the church as ‘the body of Christ’ and the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit.’ I’ll say more about the church later. But think about communion, fellowship and serving Christ together.
We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. (verse 9) Again, Peter is referring to us collectively, not individually—a nation, a priesthood, a people. God’s purpose is for us to declare his praises. He called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. He deserves our praise and honor and worship, and we will willingly give it. And he wants us to declare his praises to all those around us everywhere.
There’s a song we have sung. I can’t quite recall the name of it right now. People have reminded me of what it is called, but I still don’t remember. Anyway, one of the lines in the last verse refers to people having “the hope of heaven or the fear of hell,” and then says, “but the bride will run to her lover’s arms.” We, collectively, are the bride of Christ. If you think in terms of “hope of heaven or the fear of hell,” you need to adjust your thinking! What will you do when you come before Jesus? Will you think, “I hope I made it into heaven, but I’m afraid I might go to hell?” I’ll tell you what I think. Not a chance! The bride will run to her lover’s arms!
Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. (verse 10)
Everything that Peter wrote is the word of God. It’s all absolutely true! Pray for us to have it written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Pray for us to know the love and mercy of God from moment to moment. Pray for us (the whole church) to know what it means to be built into a spiritual house and, as a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God.
Now let’s look at verses 11 and 12. Listen while I read them:
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:11, 12 – NIV)
“I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Is this teaching starting to sound familiar? Chapter 1, verse 13 says, “Be self-controlled.” Chapter 1, verse 14 says, “Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” Chapter 1, verse 17 says, “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” Chapter 2 verse 1 says, “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind.” And finally, chapter 2, verse 11: “As aliens and strangers in the world, abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Does Peter think these things are important? Does God think they are important? It sure looks like it!
Peter gives the reason—one reason, at least—for abstaining from sinful desires in verse 12. It is so that the pagans may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. In the rest of his book, he is going to tell us more about how to live our lives before the pagans, but, for now, he is speaking in general and all-inclusive terms: “Abstain from sinful desires.” Before I say more about that, though, I’m going to go back to verse 11.
When I started to write this message, I looked to see what several expositors had to say about these last two verses. I want to pass along what John Wesley had to say about the meaning of the word “aliens” and about the phrase “strangers in the world.” The Greek word translated “aliens” in the NIV literally says “those who are in a strange house.” Also, the Greek word translated “strangers in the world” literally says “those who are in a strange country.” The strange house you live in is your fleshly body. So, abstain from the desires that are in the house of your fleshly body. The strange country is the world, as the NIV translators have brought out—“strangers in the world.”
Do you know what the world is—how the word world is used in the Bible? Well, to start out, I can tell you that it’s not the kingdom of heaven! And it’s not the church! What it is is fallen human society. I’m going to quote a few verses from 1 John that should shed some light on just what the world is. Listen while I read them. This is from 1 John 2:15-17:
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world— the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does— comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17 –NIV)
Do not love the world or anything in the world . If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That’s pretty serious. The love of the Father is not in him!
In verse 16, John gives us an idea of what the world is and what the things of the world are. ‘The cravings of sinful man’ in verse 16 is literally the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes is envy, greed and covetousness. The boasting of what someone has and does belongs to the world, not to God. Do you want to acquire possessions—a nice house, fancy cars, expensive clothes—to show them off so that other people will be envious of you? Do you want to have a better job, maybe a management position with power and authority so that you can boast of what you do? (I remember many years ago at a get-together with my wife’s family, a distant relative that I met there and haven’t seen since asked me how many people I had working for me. I told him “one or two.” He was probably in his early 20’s. He said that he had 100 people working for him! And that was pretty much the extent of our conversation. So, be careful not to love the world or anything in the world or the love of the Father will not be in you! The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever! So, abstain from the desires that are in that foreign country, the world!
Abstaining from the sinful desires of the flesh and of the world is not a casual thing. It’s like fighting a war! If it were easy to do or an automatic thing for believers, Peter wouldn’t be telling us to do it. He wouldn’t need to. But he does tell us; and we need to listen. If you are wondering why you are having so much trouble abstaining from sinful desires, maybe it’s because you don’t realize that you are in a war! A war is not supposed to be easy! Also, and this is very important, this is not an individual battle! If you try to fight alone, you will lose! This is a battle we must fight together! God designed it that way.
Now to go on to verse 12 again: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” The pagans that Peter is speaking about are those who are all around us and have not accepted the gospel. They want to accuse us of wrongdoing because they want to reject God. But, if they are unable to find anything wrong with our lives and are unable to accuse us, they may just begin to fear God and be convicted of sin and repent, and finally be able to glorify him on the day he visits us. (Verse 12 literally says “in the day of visitation.” I think the “day of visitation” is the “day of the Lord” that Peter refers to in 2 Peter 3:10 when he says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.” It’s the day of judgment and the day of salvation—the day of judgment for the world, but the day of salvation for the church.)
In order to fight the battle with the enemies that are attacking our very souls—that war against our souls—we have to fight together side-by-side, not as individuals. We have to share with each other what it is we are struggling with so that we can help each other in the battle.
Because of pride or shame, we want to keep our struggles to ourselves and try to overcome by ourselves. I’ve seen this over and over again and I do it myself! Pride is one of the things that belongs to the fleshly body in which we are presently living. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5) God never let’s pride succeed! James says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)
I said earlier that God designed it so that we would have to fight the war together. He also designed it so that we will win! We are healed by the wounds of Jesus (Isaiah 53:5) and by his blood we are cleansed of all unrighteousness. Because of Jesus, we will all glorify God on the day he visits us—and if we live such good lives among the pagans that they can’t accuse us of wrongdoing, many of them will glorify God right along with us. (They won’t be pagans anymore either!)
Pray for us to be able to open our hearts to each other and confess our struggles, temptations and sins to each other and pray for each other. (And to do it without any hint of gossip, but with absolute purity.) Also, pray for God to show us battle strategies that we can use to gain victory. Don’t you want to have victory—and for us to finally rejoice together with Jesus? I do.
[Prayer]