Today we return to our study of 1 Peter, starting in Chapter 2. Unfortunately we are unable to supply the audio for this sermon.
You may not connect being hungry with the Bible. However, this is a metaphor that is employed throughout the scriptures. Like bread is to the body, so God’s Word is to our spirit. Just as some foods are not as good for us as others, so certain thoughts and ideas are not as good for us either. What do you hunger to eat spiritually? If it isn’t God’s Word then you might be in spiritual danger. Let’s look at 1 Peter chapter 2.
Peter ended chapter 1 with a powerful reminder of the place that God’s Word had in their salvation. It was through the Gospel that was preached to them that they believed and were born again by the Holy Spirit. However, the Word is not just powerful in making us spiritually alive. It is not just something that we need to get started and then can go on without. We need it every day.
Peter instructs them to have a desire or yearning for God’s Word. It is not the Bible’s fault if I don’t desire it. It is “good food.” It is exactly what my spirit needs to grow and be alive in this world. So, if I do not desire it then the problem is in me. That is why Peter commands them to desire God’s Word. Change your mind, change your actions and your heart will follow.
Laying aside the old nature is a necessary component to approaching God’s Word. In fact much of God’s Word reminds us of this need and explains why it is necessary. Laying aside is a picture of taking off things that are hindrances. Putting on the proper attire for dinner with your spouse also involves taking of the dirty clothes of the day. When we approach the Word we are approaching a very intimate thing that God provided for us. This is clearly not an exhaustive list. However, lets walk quickly through the five things mentioned. Malice is any ill-will or evil inclination we might have towards others. Deceit involves craftiness and hidden motives that are generally for the benefit of self. Hypocrisy is a form of deceit in which we pretend or act differently than we really are. Envy is a step beyond jealousy. It doesn’t just wish it had what you have, but desires to take what you have and despises the benefit. Lastly, evil speaking is a very broad category. It can spoken behind another’s back or spoken to their face. Either way it involves saying bad things with our mouth that hurt others.
This brings us to the analogy of a little baby. All babies need to grow and all babies yearn for milk. Our spirit has been born again by the Word and we need it to spiritually grow. Thus we need to yearn for it. Growth is not just about size. A baby can grow in size and still remain a “baby” in mind. Thus spiritual growth is not just a matter of a certain number of years reading Scripture. Just as a baby takes in food, digests it, and draws life from it, so we too must spiritually take in God’s Word, digest it, and draw life from it. Notice that food only gives a baby the strength to grow physically and mentally. However, choices are made along the way.
The word translated “pure” in reference to the milk of the Word is closer to the idea of sincere. It literally is “not deceitful.” God’s Word does not have any hidden motives for its own ends. It is the sincere Word of God. To embrace it we are going to need to “un-embrace” those philosophies and ideas of the world that are deceitful.
Do you think that you can spiritually grow to the point that you are like Jesus? God is able to do that which is impossible. However, we must want it. We are going to have to go after it by hungering for his Word. When we receive God’s Word like a child it will yield spiritual growth. But if we approach it as an adult who has it all figured out, our own deceived nature will blind us to the Truth and keep us from new birth and life. In verse 3, Peter seems to be alluding to Psalm 34:8. “O, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Taste points to an intimate experience. I haven’t just observed the LORD. Rather, I have fed upon his Word. I have taken it in and found his ways to be good. That doesn’t mean nothing bad happens. It is good in that it is helpful and beneficial and righteous. Peter is not so much questioning their experience as he is emphasizing the “oughtness” of their needed desire. If you’ve found the LORD to be good then you “ought” to desire his Word.
Next Peter uses two metaphors that come directly from the Temple in Jerusalem. The first has to do with the temple building itself. We are living stones in a new temple that God is building. This building is a spiritual temple that is made of people instead of stones. Thus, before God allowed the 2nd Temple to be destroyed, he first had his faithful, Son Jesus lay a foundation for a new one. The temple in some ways is finished in that it is spiritually functional and the Spirit of God dwells in it. However, in another way it is still being built as new believers are added to its coursework every day. Notice that these stones are rejected by the world but chosen by God. He doesn’t choose us because we are perfect, but because we are shapeable. Many great stones of this world will not allow God to shape them. Many great builders of this world have no place for Jesus himself. They reject him as an unfit stone. When you embrace Jesus you are no longer a part of those who “fit” in this world. But worry not. God fits you into his spiritual temple. You have a place in his temple given by him. No one can take it from you and you have every bit as much right as any other stone to be a part of God’s temple.
There is a personal and a corporate sense to this. In a personal sense, God works on you to make you into his temple. It is a work that goes the length of our life. All along, though, His Spirit dwells within us and communes with us. On a corporate level, we have been placed in his temple. We are already shaped and fitted into place. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you do not have a place in God’s people. That is a work that God does by His Spirit through His Word.
The next metaphor is the priests who worked in the temple. We are holy priests in His new temple. Israel was used to priesthood being defined by biology or genetics. You had to be a levite. However, all believers in Jesus become priests in God’s new temple. Not just priests but holy priests. God is holy so we need to minister before him in holiness. How can I do this? Clearly I must first be “clothed” with the holiness of Christ through faith in him. But I also need to pursue personal holiness by repenting of sin and removing it from my life. This is part of my spiritual act of worship. When I lay sinful thoughts, desires, and actions on the altar, I am allowing them to be destroyed in honor of God. I also minister to God through prayers, praise and self-denying acts of loving service in Jesus name. Lastly we minister by mediating between God and the lost of this world.
Peter uses Scriptures from Isaiah and Psalms to point out that Jesus was rejected. He was the chief cornerstone of the new temple, but the builders rejected him. The builders also rejected those who believed on Jesus and followed him. We must not reject God’s Word, but rather desire and yearn for it. That is how God builds us up into his holy temple and his holy priests. You cannot receive Jesus AND reject his word. How often people try to say something like this, “I believe in Jesus, but I can’t accept this verse here….” Or they say, “Jesus never said what the Old Testament says. So I believe in him but reject it.” Those who say such things are deluded. Jesus is the Word and the Word is speaking of Jesus from Genesis 1:1 all the way to Revelation22:21. None of the Scriptures are in contradiction to Jesus and Jesus is not in contradiction to the Scriptures.
In verses 9-10 Peter ends with reminding them that they had become the people of God. Israel had been identified for so long as the people of God. But in Jesus God is doing a new thing. For “whosoever will” of Israel that would join themselves to him, he took a remnant and put it together with people from every tribe, race, and tongue on earth to be the people of God. Jew and Gentile alike in one body that belongs to the Lord, we have been chosen by God, made royal through our adoption into his family, made holy by Jesus, and special to him. Special is literally the idea of purchased. God “paid good money for us.” We are special not just because we cost so much, but because God was willing to pay so much. In fact, it is he who makes you special. Don’t look at yourself trying to find something special. You look to Him. He is the special one who makes us rejected ones special.
The enemy knows that his only hope is to get us to reject or ignore God’s Word. That way we will not only fail to grow, but we will also spiritually die. He hates what you have and what you stand to gain. He will do anything in his power to convince you to throw away the best thing you could ever have. Don’t be deceived by this world. Let God fit you into his people and shape you into his temple that he loves to dwell within.