1 Peter 2
1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
The kindness of the Lord is manifested in the fact that He doesn’t send us to Hell for our sins but provided a way out for everyone. To taste the kindness of the Lord is to internalize this fact and to take the way out. Everyone who is born again has tasted the kindness of the Lord. When we receive what God has given us but don’t feel as if we owe Him anything then we lack gratitude.
Now that you are saved, don’t let anything prevent you from making the best of this salvation that God has given you. Don’t waste your time being malicious or deceitful or hypocritical or envious or slanderous; instead, focus on understanding what God has given you, and make the best of it.
Malice is the intention to do evil to someone. If someone hurts you and you want to hurt them back, you have malice towards them.
Deceit is pretending to like someone when you don’t, or pretending to be something that you aren’t, or saying something that you don’t mean. It is to give a false impression.
Hypocrisy is telling others to do something that you yourself don’t do. It is to hold others to a standard that you yourself don’t hold on to.
Envy is wanting what someone else has.
Slander is making a false statement about someone to damage his reputation.
There is no place for any of these things in the life of a believer, and we must take pains to eradicate them from our lives.
The secret for getting victory in all these areas is to get a true understanding of how blessed you are because you are saved. For example, if you realize that you have the most important thing ever (which is what salvation is) you will never envy another person or slander him. Your intense joy will make it wholly unnecessary to be malicious towards another. Your security in God’s love will make it unnecessary for you to pretend to be what you aren’t or to make someone else to do what you don’t do yourself.
How do you get a true understanding of who God is and how much He loves you and how blessed you are? You do this by reading and meditating on God’s word. By this, God’s truths will grow on you, and you will be overcome by the kindness of God.
4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For {this} is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER {stone,} AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
A Christian primarily walks with God, not with men. If others walk with God along with you then you will be able to walk with them too as they walk with God. But since this is not usually the case, a Christian must be prepared to be rejected by men (and even church leadership, just as Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders of His day).
If you want to be precious in the sight of God then you must be willing to forego being precious in the sight of men.
Those who are precious in the sight of God get integrated into God’s house as His bondservants, and are useful to Him as priests – people who help others solve their spiritual problems.
7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER {stone,}"
8 and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this {doom} they were also appointed.
On the other hand, those who fear the rejection of men end up stumbling all over the place because they refused to believe Jesus about different things. For example, if you don’t believe that God will take revenge for you (Rom 12:19) then you end up taking revenge for yourself and end up in all sorts of problems.
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR {God's} OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.
God is very great – beyond our understanding – and one of our jobs is to proclaim how great, or excellent, He is (in as much as we understand His greatness). Now that you are saved, He has called you to discover and see His greatness, and then proclaim it to others. This is what He chose you for. You are a son of the King. As a son of the King, you are there to help others solve their spiritual problems. You are part of the church – the nation of God – separated for special tasks in God’s kingdom. So then, don’t be afraid to be rejected by mere men; if the Almighty God is for you, what can men do against you. This is the attitude with which you must go about your life.
11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
Once again, Peter reminds us that we have to stop giving in to our lusts if we want to make the best use of God’s salvation.
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe {them,} glorify God in the day of visitation.
When you don’t fear men, they will try to pull you down. If they can find fault with you, they will. You should live so that they cannot find fault with you. When they cannot, they will fabricate lies about you, but you should still do good to them, so that they can see the transformation God has done in your life and will be drawn to God. Also see Mt 5:13-16.
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,
14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
We are called to obey the law of the land (as long as it doesn’t contradict the commandment of God in the New Testament). That way, people who try to find fault with you will have to fabricate stuff about you.
16 {Act} as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but {use it} as bondslaves of God.
Don’t be limited by unnecessary laws. At the same time, don’t attempt to do what you know to be wrong just because you can get away with it because there doesn’t exist a law in the land stopping you from doing it. You are a special agent of God, and you must live up to a higher standard or morality than those who you serve and are an example towards.
17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
To honor someone is to think and speak well of that person. We are to honor everyone, put especially our parents (as it is one of the Ten Commandments) and the king (the person who is in charge).
It is so easy to find fault with those who are in charge, but God’s command is that we not find fault with them. Why so? It is because there is no authority except that which God has instituted, and when we complain about those who are in charge, we are essentially saying that God didn’t do a good job.
Some of us are born with a critical spirit. Finding fault is natural to us. But how wonderful it is to turn that around and begin to see and mention to others the value of others rather than their faults. It is true that we need to sometimes point out the faults and areas of improvement of those we are responsible for, but we should do that sparingly and seek to honor them more often.
To fear God is to hate evil (Pr 8:13). That is, a person who fears God is someone who hates doing what God doesn’t want him to do. We must hate to disappoint God.
When it comes to the brothers and sisters in the church, we must practice the love described in 1 Cor 13:4-8.
18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.
19 For this {finds} favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.
20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer {for it} you patiently endure it, this {finds} favor with God.
21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;
23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting {Himself} to Him who judges righteously;
24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
How do you know whether someone is a connoisseur of art? Well, you show him a beautiful painting and watch his face. If he goes into a state of ecstasy then you know that is a connoisseur of art; on the other hand, if he glances at it for a moment and then moves on, then you know that he is not a connoisseur of art.
How do you know whether someone really loves God? Well, you show him a verse like verse 19 above and watch him. If he is thrilled to find out something that finds favor with God and then goes and practices it so that he can please God then you know that you’ve found a lover of God. On the other hand, if he just reads that verse and moves on, you know that he is not really a lover of God.
If you love God, you want to make Him happy, right? So then, what’s a good way to make God happy? It is to be respectfully submissive to your boss even if he or she is unreasonable! That’s what 1 Peter 2:18-19 clearly says!
Patiently suffering unjustly is something that really makes God happy.
Jesus is our example here – and if we claim to be followers of Jesus then we should really have no problem following Him in this particular area too.
In doing so, He accomplished something very valuable for the kingdom of God, namely, our salvation. In the same way, if we want to become valuable to God and serve Him, one key skill that we must master is to patiently suffer unjustly when God warrants it by putting us in such a situation.
25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
Look at the value of what Jesus did – He made salvation available to the whole world. It was because Jesus suffered unjustly that we are able to return to God and be saved.
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