The First Letter of Peter- 9

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 1

1 Peter 2:11-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 18, 2026.

In some ways, we can continue to see this passage as Peter talking about all the ways that this new spiritual people are to live out their faith.  However, Peter begins to emphasize the way that our life of faith affects the unbelieving world around us.  This is why I have subtitled this part of the series, “Our Witness before the World.”  This major section of Peter’s letter goes from 1 Peter 2:11-4:11.

Let’s look at our passage.

Abstain from fleshly lusts (v. 11-12)

This small section connects back to an earlier command but also serves to transition into this issue of the world around us.  In chapter 1 verse 14, Peter had challenged them not to be conformed to the former lusts that they had in their ignorance, i.e., before they believed in Jesus.  They had been living for themselves like everyone else in their society.  Now, they are following Jesus and learning to be holy as he is holy.

God’s plan to fix humanity’s sin problem is for us to put our faith in Jesus, live a mortal life fighting sin by faith, and then He will finish the work by Resurrecting us with glorified, heavenly bodies.  Of course, the world is feverishly trying to come up with a different plan.  Ultimately, it is taking us down a path of trying to overcome every obstacle of creation in order to perfect ourselves.  At the root of the human problem is the idea that God cannot be trusted.  His creation cannot be trusted.  We must do it for ourselves!  Instead of accepting the grace of God’s help, we choose to try and make “god” ourselves.  This will not end well.  Imagine the hubris of thinking that fallen mortals can make a perfect immortal.

Chapter 1 ended with the metaphor of an imperishable seed.  Humans are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow.  However, the Word of the Lord endures forever.  We have entered into this mortal grass-existence.  However, by faith in Jesus, we can participate in the immortal and imperishable existence of Jesus, the Word of God.

This led to the beginning of chapter two where Peter tells us to lay aside things like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.  These are specific lusts.

This brings us back to verse 11.  Lusts are strong, heated desires that have their source in our body.  We cannot let these strong desires rule over us.  Thus, Peter tells us to abstain from them.  In English, the idea of abstaining is often seen in voting.  A person can vote “yea,” or “nay,” or they can refuse to vote, abstain from voting.  This can be out of protest, or it can be out of protecting future opportunities. 

Regardless, the Greek word that it is used to translate literally means to have these lust away from yourself.  It ties in with the idea of taking off the deeds of the flesh and putting on the character of Christ.  In fact, Paul gives quite the list in Galatians 5:19-21.  He tells us that they are obvious.

Notice that Peter urges them to do this.  The New King James Version says “I beg you…”  Peter feels strongly about this.  The word pictures one who calls you to their side in order to exhort you strongly about something.

He also tells them to abstain from fleshly lusts like foreigners and exiles.  This image was used earlier as well.  He is not just using this image of the Jews among them.  He is also speaking to the Gentiles.  You may be in your homeland but to put your faith in Jesus is to choose to be a part of the exiles of Christ.  We become strangers in a land that is familiar to us.

This is one of the classic tests of character.  A person who is in a place where no one knows them can be tempted to do as the Romans (when in Rome…).  This is a common way for a spouse to take their first step of unfaithfulness.

We recognize that all of humanity is in exile from God.  But in Jesus, we become exiles with a promise of a promised land.  God is in the business of bringing people out of exile into His Promised Land.

We can be blind to all the ways that our culture is pulling us away from Christ, so Peter has focused on fleshly lusts.

Peter also describes these fleshly lusts as waging war against our soul.  This is a war of possession.  Your flesh wants control of you.  It will be all about the pursuit of satisfying its urges.  However, Jesus has called us to take a stand against it. He stated in Luke 21:19, “By your perseverance, take possession of your souls.”  If you let your flesh and its strong desires win, then you will find yourself in bondage to it.  The longer this goes on the harder it will be to break this bondage.  Yet, all things are possible with God!

The lusts of our flesh can wear us down.  We can grow weary of denying them and casting them aside.  On top of this, the world around us cajoles us, even badgers us, towards living a life of satisfying our lusts.

This internal battle will have an outward effect, which he turns to next.

“Keep your behavior excellent among the nations.”  The inner battle leads to external behavior, or conduct.  This is seen and even experienced by the world, the nations, in which we live.  This is really the same command with parallel language.

What is excellent behavior?  Peter clearly means excellent by God’s definition and not by the definition of the world around you.  This word excellent has the idea of good as well as a moral good.  It is connected to beauty.  Can we live in a way that is beautiful and morally good to God?  Jesus is the pattern and the help for us to do so.

They are to do this in the face of slander.  Early Christians were slandered a lot, whether ignorantly or maliciously.  Some of the slanders were as follows:

1. Communion was often described as a ritual of eating the flesh and drinking the flesh of babies.
2. Their times of communion involved a meal called the love feast.  It was common to claim that these were nothing more than orgies (gluttony on food and sexual immorality). 
3. Christians were accused of being antisocial because they didn’t participate in the entertainments of the culture.
4. They were also accused of being atheists because they didn’t worship all of the gods.

Such slanders are done because they tend to be effective upon weak people.  It can affect some by causing them to be angry and respond in an unchristian way.  It affects others by stirring fear in their heart.  The fleshly lust of being accepted, approved by others, can lead us away from Christ and into the world.

Christians should not be quick to believe statements about others that we have not personally observed.  Of course, we shouldn’t overly defend people that we do not know either.  Have you noticed that we are a society that is pushed to and fro by slanders and libels galore?  This is a part of the sinful culture in which we live.  Can I continue to abstain from fleshly lusts when others around me deploy them against me?

No matter how the world describes our actions, we are to live out the excellent behavior that Christ leads us to do.  Like the good Samaritan, we do the right thing whether others do or not. 

Again, they may malign us, but here is the main thing.  Peter says that they will observe our good deeds.  Have you ever thought that God gives us sacrificial things to do in order to get the attention of the world and to be a witness to it?  They need to see us doing Christ-like things!  They may be perplexed at why you don’t do what they do, and they may even be angry that you are not like them.  Yet, they will see us doing the righteousness of Christ nonetheless.

Peter then says that they will glorify God in the day of visitation.  This visible evidence of the work of God’s Spirit within us will have an effect one way or another.

The day of visitation mentioned here simply means a day when God shows up, whether for good or bad.  This can be contemplated in the ultimate sense when all the wicked are brought before Jesus for judgment.  How will they glorify God then?  They will recognize in the moment that they were wrong and that we were right.  As they declare that Jesus is Lord, they are also declaring that His work in us was true.

It is also possible to see the day of visitation in regard to the times that the Spirit of God touches a person’s heart and mind.  This visitation of grace begs the question.  What will you do with this Jesus?  When we demonstrate the goodness of Christ to a sinful world, some of them may glorify God by putting their faith in Jesus at a later date.  This is the best revenge upon enemies.  Show them Jesus and give them the opportunity to become a part of the new spiritual people of God, a brother!

Submit to every human institution (v. 13-15)

Peter now focuses particularly upon human authority structures in our lives.  These people were not under the authority of these United States of America.  They were under the Roman Empire and the Roman Emperor, Caesar.  This was a dictatorship with local governors and magistrates serving the purposes of Caesar.

We have talked about this word “submit” in the past.  It refers to taking your proper place under a particular authority.  It does not mean to obey every command.  This is exampled by Peter and the apostles in Acts 5.  They were told by the authorities to stop teaching about Jesus.  Peter stated, “We must obey God rather than men.”  How did they take their proper place under authority?  They did not obey the command that was contrary to God, but they did submit to the arrests and beatings.  They did not use the arrogance of these human authorities as a justification for fighting back with weapons.  In fact, we saw this during the arrest of Jesus.  Jesus had done exactly what God had commanded him to do.  However, he submitted to their arrest.

We are not going to fix the authorities of this world through revolution, swords, and guns.  Christians are not called to be purposefully rebelling against authorities.  However, we are not called to blind obedience to them either.  We are called to be like Christ, to share his Gospel.  We image the good Character of Christ.  What they do with us between them and Christ.

The Roman Empire no longer exists today.  That is the judgment of Jesus Christ!  And, if we are not careful, the judgment of Jesus Christ may cause the United States of America to no longer exist. 

The only thing that can fix the authorities is for enough of this Republic to repent, trust the Word of God in Jesus, and to live out that faith boldly.  In truth, to submit to the human authorities is to submit to the authority of Jesus.

In all of this, we must be led by the Holy Spirit.  Men like Jeremiah were accused of not submitting to the government because they didn’t like what he was saying.  Jeremiah did what he did for the Lord.  This is what Peter means when he says for us to submit “for the Lord’s sake.”  We can be led by God to be a rebuke to authorities all the while staying in proper submission to the authority they have.

We may not feel like doing this, but we do it for Jesus.  Jesus is King over Ceasar, over the POTUS, over any leader of a nation today.  We may ask why God let’s some of them do wicked things.  It is because He gives people time to see the error of their ways, to see His people living righteously in spite of their evil.  Yet, in the end, Jesus does judge these nations.  Do you not realize that most nations today are less than 200 years old?  As these United States of America approach 250 years since our formation, we should do so with great humility and repentance.

Regardless of the level of the authority, we respect the command of Christ.  These authorities are responsible for punishing evildoers and praising those who do right.  They may do a horrible job at this.  They may even have totally corrupted the processes that were set up to ensure this.  Yet, God will have the final word.

We are not under the Roman Empire.  The average American does not understand how authority works in this Republic.  We tend to believe that the citizens have the least authority, then the cities and counties, then the States, and finally, the Federal government is the top authority.  Those who crafted the wording of the Constitution would be perplexed at how ignorant we are in these matters.

If you think of authority as a sphere of operation, then we can recognize that a man and woman would have authority over their home and what happens in it.  This is a sphere in which the State and the federal government had no authority.  These other groups may have more power than you and can abuse that power, but in the end, they have no authority over your home.

They did not see the federal government as above or below the State governments.  Some of the powers invested in the States were delegated to the federal government.  It was a delegated authority.  The federal government is the highest authority only in those enumerated spheres that we stipulate in the Constitution.  Anything outside of that is an abuse of power without proper authority.

In those spheres that were not given to the federal government, the States would be the highest authority, but only if the people of those States had given them that sphere of authority in their State constitutions.

All authority is given by We the People through constitutions to our State and federal servants.  If a particular authority is not stipulated in a constitution, then it is retained by the people.

This brings up the question of sovereignty.  Jesus is the capital S Sovereign of these United States.  However, We the People are the little s sovereign of this land.  We need to always be asking who have We the People made to be the proper authority in this area?  We need to also ask, “What is God’s purpose?”

If we are willing to do anything in order to “fix” the government, then we will find it is easier said than done.  This is a spiritual problem not a political problem.  Many evildoers have pushed themselves into our authority structures.  In those structures, they have arrogated powers to themselves that were never properly given them.  Until We the People repent and call our elected servants to heel, corruption and wickedness will rule over the land.  This will only bring the judgment of Christ against this great Republic.

In the end, Peter states that God wants us to submit to the authorities in order to silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Many of these foolish men are not Christians, but some of them are.  Those who do not accept the truth of the authority of Jesus have a vested interest in maligning His Church.  On top of this, certain parts of the Church have not followed this admonition perfectly in the past.

God is teaching this world about righteousness and freedom.  We can work in harmony with that teaching, or we can be at odds with what God is doing through Jesus.

This is where controlling the fleshly lusts can help us.  Much of politics is about manipulating the fleshly lusts of the populace in order to gain power against an opponent.  We can be manipulated to work against our own best interests!  No politician and no political party can fix this land.  Only a repentant people surrendered to the authority of Jesus can be truly set free from the bondage into which they have fallen.  That will transform our society!

Our Witness 1 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 8

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 5

1 Peter 2:9-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 11, 2026.

This section will finish the description of this new spiritual people that Jesus is making out of Jews and non-Jews (those of all the nations).

It is not enough to know the content of these descriptions and commands that Peter has given in 1 Peter 1:13 to 2:10. We must believe them and trust God’s work in them.  We must grow in walking out a life of faith in Jesus as the Messiah of God who is leading us in glorifying God the Father.

We need to be the new spiritual people that God is making us to be.  We can complain that it’s to hard, and God can’t expect us to do this.  However, God doesn’t expect you to do it.  He expects you to do it with the Help of His Holy Spirit and by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Let’s look at our passage.

But you who believe are… (v. 9)

When Peter quotes Psalm 118:22 (the stone the builders rejected) in verse 7 and then quotes Isaiah 8:14 (a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense) in verse 8, he is giving us the Scriptural support for understanding this as always being God’s plan.  He ended verse 8 with the point that those who did not believe were disobedient to the Word, and this caused them to stumble over Jesus the Messiah.

However, God had appointed them to this stumbling.  This is not in the sense that they had no choice.  However, having become hard-hearted towards the prophecies about Messiah and his suffering, God sent Jesus at just the right time.  He would be rejected by those who were supposed to point the world towards the Messiah that would come.  God sent them a test that He knew they would fail.  Yet, their failure would lead to the salvation of anyone who would believe in this Messiah, even if they were involved in putting him to death!

In verse 9, Peter now turns to those who didn’t reject Jesus or, at least, didn’t continue in rejecting him.  “But you are…”  Both Jews and Gentiles ended up in this place of faith in Jesus by different ways.  Those Jews who believed the Scriptures embraced Jesus as Messiah when he was revealed.  Simeon and Anna are examples of this in Luke 2:25-38. Saul of Tarsus would be an example of someone who rejected Jesus at first but then changed his mind as God confronted him with his errors.

The Gentiles did not have the Scriptures unless they had interacted with some Jews.  They are hearing the Gospel without a foundation of the Scriptures.  Yet, some of them believed.  By the way, we should always recognize that though Gentiles were embracing Jesus as the Messiah, many of them were also rejecting the Messiah.  It was only a remnant of Israel and a remnant of the nations that were believing.

Peter is going to use language from Exodus 19:5-6 and Deuteronomy 7:6 to describe this new spiritual people in the same way that Israel had been described there.

The first one is that they are a Chosen Race.  The word translated as “race” in the NASB has the idea of offspring.  Thus, it can emphasize a family, or larger nation of people.  Using race is almost too specific since the Church is made up of people from every nation.  If anything, we are spiritually connected to Jesus not biologically.  We are offspring of the spiritual work that he has done.  I think that some better translations are Chosen People (NIV) or Chosen Generation (KJV/NKJV).

The key point of this phrase is that we are Chosen by God (and generated by His Spirit).  Lots of people are born again by the Spirit of God to join this chosen people.  This first phrase is not specifically used in Exodus 19, but it is there in concept.  This phrase is used of Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6.

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Of course, we see Israel using this of themselves in places like Psalm 105:6.  Yet, we must be careful of letting God’s choice of us go to our head.  For what are we chosen?  Why did God choose us?  It was not because we were better than anybody else.  Both Israel and the Church did not exist when God purposed to make them. 

We should also recognize that the Church is chosen because of its connection to Jesus who is the Chosen One of God.

Isaiah 42:1, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.

I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

This comes from the Servant passages of Isaiah in which God describes a perfect servant in contrast to the imperfect service of Israel as a nation.  Those who believe in the Chosen One are spiritually birthed into a new spiritual people who work with Christ for His Chosen purpose.  We become chosen ones.  Our purpose is to call all people to join this chosen people and live a life that demonstrates the love of Christ.

Second, Peter tells them that they are a Royal Priesthood.  In Israel, the kingship and the priesthood were to be kept separate which makes these two terms stick out.  Only Messiah could rightly be both king and high priest.  Yet, this idea is used in Exodus 19:5-6.

“5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

The Hebrew of this phrase is made of two nouns in a construction similar to “Kingdom Priests.”  When this was translated into Greek (c. 250 BC), they used a Greek phrase that is exactly what Peter uses in our passage.  In light of this, I am not sure why translators of the NASB chose “kingdom of priests” in Exodus 19 but chose “royal priesthood” in 1 Peter 2:9.  The testimony from at least two centuries before Christ is that this Greek phrase is the closest equivalent to the underlying Hebrew in the Old Testament.

All of that said, I believe the emphasis is that they are priests that belong to a particular King and His Kingdom.  For Christians, this King is Messiah and his kingdom. 

Even in the Old Testament, it is clear that God is not talking about the Levitical priesthood.  He is describing the whole nation of Israel as priests of God’s kingdom.  Israel could be a kingdom of priests in the sense that they would be the mediator between God and the other nations.  The other nations would know the word of God through them, and they would learn how to have sins covered by them.

The Church is in a similar position, although it is of global scope and the empowering of the Holy Spirit makes it a stronger work.  Peter is not talking about a particular priestly group within Christianity.  He is talking about all Christians together operating as mediators between God and lost humanity.  This is what the Protestant reformers meant by the priesthood of all believers.

We can even see this principle in a smaller scope.  Moms and dads are to be priests in their home for the sake of their children.  Churches are to be priests for the sake of their cities.   All of us together are to operate as priests between God and the lost of every nation.

Let me also just add that the royal part is not so much about us right now.  Jesus suffered in doing the will of God as the Great High Priest of all humanity.  He is now exalted into his kingly role seated at the right hand of the Father.  The Church that is on the earth right now is destined to reign with Jesus as kings, but we must first follow his lead.  We serve as priests to our God embracing the suffering that comes with pointing sinners to Christ.  Thus, the royal part is mainly about Jesus.  We are priests for the King of kings, and we will one day reign with him.  But, for now, we focus on being priests for the King.

Next, he calls us a Holy Nation.  Though the non-Jews are a part of the nations, they become a part of a spiritual nation made up of believers from all nations including Israel.  It is not about geography in the natural.  However, we are tied to the spiritual geography of Christ ruling from the heavens.  The followers of Christ are a new nation, or people, that God is using to speak to all the nations.  Thus, we are holy, set apart for His purpose.  We see this concept used of Israel in Exodus 19:6.

“6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

Finally, Peter calls them a People for God’s Own Possession.  The KJV has translated this as a “peculiar people.”   The word peculiar is generally used today to refer to something strange or odd.  However, its Latin origin only meant something that was “one’s own thing.”  A possession was peculiar to a particular person.  It belonged to a specific person.  We are a people peculiar to God.  We are His own special possession.

Of course, all the nations belong to God, the whole earth is His.  Yet, after the tower of Babel, God had disowned the nations, turning to make a nation out of the man Abraham.  The Church is not so much trying to take over the nations as it is making a people from out of all the nations into a possession that especially belongs to Him and for His holy purposes.

This is why 1 Peter 4:4 talks about the nations thinking it is strange that Christians do not run with them after the things of the flesh that are an excess of wickedness.  If you trust in Christ, then you will live a life that is contrary to the world around you.  You can’t hold on to the world and God.  It will eventually pull you apart spiritually.  You will eventually hate one and love the other.

We see this described in similar language in Exodus 19:5. “5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine…”

The Church just as Israel is not a special possession of God because we were smarter, richer, more powerful, etc.  We are His special possession because we have believed upon Jesus as His Savior for the world.

Before and After, Then and Now (v. 10)

Peter has two more descriptions that come from the book of Hosea.  It has a before and after (then versus now) aspect to it.  He essentially gives two parallel statements saying, “This is what you were before, but you are now this!”

The book of Hosea opens with God speaking to Hosea.  He is to marry a woman who will become an adulterer.  The children from these illicit affairs were to be given symbolic names.  Two in particular are Lo Ammi, which means “not my people,” and Lo Ruhamah, which means “no mercy” or “no compassion.”  In that book, God is telling Israel that they have been like an adulterous wife to God.  The generation of Hosea’s day were the offspring of this spiritual adultery.  God was going to unmake them as a people and show them no mercy.  Yet, the passage ends with a promise that God would reverse this condition.  “Where it was said of them ‘not my people,’ it shall be said of them ‘You are sons of the Living God!’” (Hosea 1:10).

Peter sees this as not only a restoration of Israel’s fortunes through the remnant, but also the reversal of the fortunes of a remnant of the Gentiles.  If God could reverse the spiritual adultery of Israel, then why not do so for the spiritual adultery of the Gentiles since the Tower of Babel?  Of course, this was God’s plan all along.  He has done it in such a way as to demonstrate the wisdom of His mercy.  The Church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who were cast off (not my people).  However, in Jesus, they are now His people again.

Peter then describes the same thing but focusing on the mercy, or compassion, of God.  You who had not received mercy have now received the mercy of God!  Mercy involves help from one who doesn’t owe it to another who needs it due to an affliction they suffer.

If there is no mercy from God, then it is because we keep choosing our sins and rejecting His Word to us.  Yet, in embracing Jesus, we step into a place of God’s help for our affliction under sin (ours and others).

You might ask how you can live up to those great statements?  You can’t by yourself. However, if you ask the Holy Spirit to help you, and you listen to God’s Word and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will find that God does these things through us.

The next time you think that you are not important in God’s purpose, just remember that you are a part of His special people.  You belong to Him.  He has mercy for you, and He has purpose for you!

New Spiritual People 5 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 7

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 4

1 Peter 2:4-8. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 4, 2026.

We continue in this section where Peter admonishes us to be a part of the new spiritual people that Jesus is making.  He has been doing this through a series of imperatives (commands) that have other admonitions attached to them.

As we pick up today’s portion of Scripture, Peter moves into another section that is not couched in the language of command.

Let’s get into our passage.

You are being built into a spiritual house (v. 4-8)

Peter switches from the image of a baby growing up in the family and needing the milk of the word.  This image now is that of a stone building.  We could describe these as an organic image and an inorganic image.  However, notice that the stones in this section are described as living.  This is not just a dead building.  This is a living building made of living stones.  However, I don’t want to get ahead of myself here.

Though there is no explicit command, there is an implicit one.  If this is what God is doing, then we need to cooperate with Him and keep it in mind in all that we do.

One last thing before going into verse 4.  The imagery of a spiritual house is very rich in the Old Testament.  First, a house was a way of referring to a family.  The building itself draws its importance from its aid in the growth of a family.  In Ruth 4:11, Rachel and Leah are described as having built the “house of Israel.”  This is not about a literal house.  They gave birth to the sons of Israel who themselves are the house of Israel. 

In fact, Christians enter into and become a part of the House of Messiah Jesus, the family that he is making.  This is not a family that is birthed in the natural, thus it is called a “spiritual” house.  We are not born into the Family of God by our natural birth but by a spiritual birth when we put our faith in Jesus.  This is a real work of the Holy Spirit.

The second image of a house is by further extension a reference to a dynasty.  The house of David can refer to his family, but it can also refer to the successive generations of kings that descended from him.

Thirdly, the temple in Israel was called a house.  We see an interesting word play on these images in 2 Samuel 7.  There, David wants to build God a temple, a house.  Up until then, the sacrifices happened at the tent structure called the tabernacle.  The presence of God was there above the ark of the covenant.  God questions David.  “Do you want to build me a house?  When did I ask you to do that?”  God then goes on to tell David that He would make David a house (a dynasty) and that one of His sons (Seed) would build Him a house (temple) for His Name.  Furthermore, God would establish the throne of this Son’s house forever.  Clearly, Solomon was not the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Instead, Solomon gives us a glimpse that falls short of one who would come and be the Greater Solomon (or the One Greater than Solomon).

Peter is picking up on this prophecy and its imagery.  Jesus was and is now building a spiritual temple out of God’s spiritual people.  We are individually and corporately a place where His Presence dwells.

Because every house, family, grows through the offspring (the Seed), we can also see the connection to the many prophecies of the Seed of the Woman who would crush the serpent’s head, the Seed of Abraham who would bless the nations, the Seed of David who would build a temple for God and rule forever, etc.

A Jewish person in the first century who heard these things would be troubled.  How could Messiah build a spiritual temple and let the natural temple Jerusalem be destroyed? 

Now, let’s look at our passage.  Peter describes believers as “coming” to Jesus as to a Living Stone.  So, before we even get to the building of this spiritual house, we see that Jesus is a Living Stone.  This is the merging of the two images surrounding a house, that of the Son of the Father and yet a foundational Stone to God’s spiritual temple.  Jesus is a spiritual stone that is not just alive, but full of the Life of God.  God’s source of life is within this Living Stone.

Peter then details that this Living Stone was rejected by men.  Of course, he is thinking of the rulers and elders of Israel as a group (some of them did believe) and also the larger group of society that followed them, though some did believe.  Jesus was essentially rejected by Israel as a nation. 

Peter then reminds them of how God saw that Living Stone.  God does not reject him. Rather, to God this Living Stone (Jesus) is choice and precious in His sight!  The idea that Jesus is choice is the idea of chosen by God.  He is what God has chosen.  The fact that he is precious refers to how much God valued him.  He is highly valued by God.

This is reminiscent of Psalm 2. There we have the rulers and nations of the earth complaining that they will not have God’s Messiah ruling over them.  However, God laughs.  “I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.”  He is not going to change His mind.  He has chosen this One.  This One is highly valued by Him.

So, we are coming to this Chosen, Highly Valued Stone (Messiah), which makes us living stones as well.  Of course, we are not a living stone in the same way that Jesus is.  It is his life flowing into and through us.  It is His Life taking up residence within us.  Like the branches connected to the vine in John 15, we need to be connected to Him in order to live and have life.

Verse 5 then speaks of the fact that we are being built into a spiritual house as living stones who are in connection to The Living Stone.  This “coming to” and “being built up as” is harkening back to when Solomon’s temple was built or when the 2^nd Temple was built.  Stones would be brought to the master builder on the temple mount and placed in the appropriate place.  Of course, Jesus as a Master Builder places us among his family who are both individually and corporately a spiritual temple of God.  This is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 3:16. Don’t you know that you are the temple of God?

So, what is great about the temple?  It is not how great the stones are.  Rather, it is great because this is the place that God has chosen to place His Presence.  The Presence of God is there!  Why is His Presence there?  He is there to shine the light of God to the ends of the earth!

In keeping with us being a spiritual house (temple of God) we are also a holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices to God that are holy and acceptable to Him.  Our sacrifices are no longer sheep and calves, but rather, they are the sacrifice of praise to Jesus.  They are the sacrifice of the desires of our flesh and the pride of life for the sake of God’s purposes.  They are the sacrifice of enduring persecution and mockery for His Name’s sake.  It is ultimately a whole life worship in sacrificing our whole life for the sake of His purpose.

What makes us holy and acceptable to God?  It is clearly not our perfection.  Rather, it is the perfection of Jesus and our faith in him that makes us acceptable.  Our service to the world as priests of God’s Messiah, Jesus, is not always accepted by man, but it is choice and precious in the eyes of God because it is done by faith in His Choice and Precious Living Stone.

In verse 6, Peter turns to make a case from Scripture for this.  He is not just making this up.  It is what the Scriptures foretold.  It was God’s plan all along to make a new spiritual people serving as His spiritual temple on earth out of the Jews and Gentiles becoming one people by faith in the One Living Stone.

He first quotes Isaiah 28:16. In that passage, God is rebuking the leaders of Judah.  Verse 14 says, “Hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem!”  He goes on to declare that He is going to lay down, i.e., establish or set in place, a tested and precious cornerstone in Zion.  Those who believe on this cornerstone will not be put to shame.  I know that the KJV uses the phrase “shall not make haste.”  The idea is that they will not be put to flight (shame) by enemies or by judgment from God.

The leaders were refusing to trust in God’s ways, so He would send a foundation cornerstone.  This sets up a situation in which everyone will need to choose.  Will I believe on this stone or not?  It doesn’t matter what man says or does.  What matters is what God says and does.  He will always have the final word.

Then, in verse 7, Peter stops to comment.  This stone is not just precious to God.  He is precious to us who believe in him.  The Messiah Stone has been given by the Father to His people.  Of course, when you give a precious gift, you hope for the recipients to understand and to treat it with the proper value it deserves.

This would not have been a surprise to any of the Jews.  What was a surprise is that there would be some who do not believe, who do not see it as choice and precious.

In verse 7b, Peter quotes from Psalm 118:22. This prophesied cornerstone shows up again.  We are told there that the builders would reject a stone, but that it would become the Cornerstone.  That is, they would be overruled by the Master Builder Himself, God the Father.  The builders would refuse to set, to install, Him in His proper place, but God would do it.

Peter then quotes from another passage, Isaiah 8:14. It starts by stating that Messiah will become a sanctuary, which is connected to the Temple.  However, to both houses of Israel, he would be a stone of stumbling and a stone of falling away.  Peter stops there, but let me take us further.

“14 Then He shall become a sanctuary; but to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  15 “Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken; they will even be snared and caught.”

This is what Simeon was referencing when he described the baby Jesus in the temple.  “This Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against.” (Luke 2:34).

The warning is given by the prophet Isaiah so that people would believe and be ready.   Simeon and Anna were of those who believed the Word of God and were ready when Messiah appeared.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who do not fall away because of me.”  He spoke this to the disciples of John the Baptist.

This brings us to our last point.

Peter explains in verse 8 that they stumble at Jesus the Messiah Stone because they are disobedient to the Word.  God warned them, told them in advance.  They have no excuse.  We shouldn’t blame God when we fail the tests that He told us we would have.

When it says that they were appointed to this stumbling, we should not read this as if they had no choice.  It is not as if they wanted to serve Messiah, but God wouldn’t let them.  Rather, they are appointed to stumble because they refuse to listen to the teaching of God.  We can choose to reject God’s Word, but we do not get to choose where that takes us.  Of course, one who stumbles can recognize their error and get back on track.  Saul of Tarsus is one such person.  But if we refuse to acknowledge our error, then the Stone of Stumbling becomes a Stone of Falling Away.

Ask yourself this.  Is Jesus no longer a Stone of Stumbling?  As Christians, we can fool ourselves into thinking that this was only for the Jews.  Yet, Hosea 14:9 is still true today.  “The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.  It is not enough to be in the right group, saying the right things, and headed in the right direction.  The Word of the Lord is given as a litmus test.  Do you trust Him, or do you trust yourself more?  The Pharisees would have said that they were embracing God’s Word and doing it.  Yet, those same Scriptures were given to prepare them for Messiah.  We cannot co-opt God’s word for our purposes and think that He will be okay with that.  Our challenge is not to do the same thing as the Pharisees.  Our challenge is to believe the Word of God and respond to the goading of the Holy Spirit with faith.  Otherwise, we will just be another group exalting the traditions of our fathers over the top of God’s Word.

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The First Letter of Peter- 6

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 3

1 Peter 1:22-25; 2:1-3.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 28, 2025.

We continue in this section where Peter admonishes us to be a part of the new spiritual people that Jesus is creating.  He does this through a series of imperatives, or commands.  We have looked at the first three.

1. Fix your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1:13).
2. Be holy like obedient children of God (1:15).
3. Conduct yourself in the fear of the Lord during this time of your sojourn on earth (1:17).

Of course, there are more things that are attached to these three commands, but they are the core points.  Let’s look at our passage as Peter gives some more commands.

Fervently love one another from the heart (v. 1:22-25)

Peter gives them the same command that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples, particularly in John 13 to 15 on the night of his betrayal.  It is probably fresh in Peter’s mind just how wrong-headed he had been that night.  Yes, he believed in Jesus and was following him.  Yet, his flesh kept side-tracking him from where Jesus was leading.

We are to love one another as Jesus loved us.  On the night of his betrayal, we should first recognize that Jesus had risen and washed their dirty feet, something a servant should have done.  He loved them enough to do the lowest task among the group. Once we have absorbed this lesson, then we can move to the fact that Jesus physically was willing to die for them that they might live. 

Does this sound like something that is easy?  No, it is not!  One of the problems with American society is that we have exalted the idea of “falling in love” beyond any usefulness.  Today, people fall in and out of love without much thought.  They are simply led by the desires of their heart, which are often only lust.  Jesus is talking about a motivation that comes from Jesus Himself, rather than our own heart.  The love that Jesus gave to me when I didn’t deserve it becomes a motivation to give love to those others that he commands me to love.  In this case, he is talking about other disciples of Jesus.  If I have been forgiven much, then I should love Jesus much, so much that I am willing to love his other followers.  This is not a love of feeling, but a love of choice, a love of sacrifice.  Feelings will come and go, some good and some bad, but always we should make the choice to love.

Peter adds that this love is to come from the heart.  Some manuscripts have “from a pure heart.”  Both of these would be true.  There is an intellectual part to this choice to love, but we must not let hypocrisy and ulterior motives lead us.  Our heart has to embrace the decision.  We are not just intellectually seeing the vision that Jesus is laying before us but also capture that vision and making it our own.

We could say that acts which look loving, but are done in hypocrisy, are not truly loving at all.  They are self-serving actions in disguise.

Verse 22 starts off with “since you have in obedience to the Truth purified your souls…”  Peter reminds them of this prior action.  It is not in question, i.e., “since,” but the latter action of loving each other from the heart is in question (at least until we follow through).  The prior action is that they have purified their souls.  This may sound wrong.  Isn’t it Jesus who has purified our souls?  Yes, Jesus is the Purifier of our souls.  However, his work of purification involves the work of putting our faith in the “Truth” of the Gospel of Jesus. 

This is what is meant by “in obedience.”  The Gospel is first good news of what Jesus has done and has made available to us.  However, it is also a challenge.  Will you embrace this Jesus as God’s answer to your sin-sick soul?  Thus, it can be said that we purify our souls when we put our faith in Jesus.  It is understood that we could not do that, i.e., our works of faith would be useless, if Jesus had not done the foundational work of providing the foundation upon which we are putting our faith. 

There is also a work of the internal battle against sin that we are to engage with the help of the Holy Spirit, who was made available to us by the work of Jesus as well.  Like the Israelites taking possession of their inheritance in the Promised Land, believers are to take possession (purify) their souls that have been overrun by the giants and strongholds of sin.

We might not think about it in this way, but Peter says that we have purified our souls “for a sincere love of the brethren.”  The grammar depicts the sincere love of the brethren as a target, or goal, of the purifying.  

Think of it this way.  Jesus commands us to love one another, but my heart is filled with things that make it difficult to obey that command.  I am not enough like Jesus to do it.  However, I have put my faith in Jesus both for salvation and for the strength to war against the lusts that are in my own heart, all of this so that I can actually follow through on the work that Jesus has given me.  If you are going to do the hard work of fighting sin in your life, then follow through with the target of loving other believers.  This is what Jesus would do if he were here in the flesh.

Christians are not hypocrites that pretend to love people.  Instead, we are up front that without Christ none of us would love others.  It is his love for us that is transforming us and leading us in saying, “No” to our flesh, and “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.  We who have followed Jesus have also joined this new spiritual people.  Jesus wants it to be a community of love between one another just as the Father and He have always existed in a community of love between themselves and the Holy Spirit. 

We should not blame our lack of love for others on them.  Of course, we all have things that are hard to love, and we have things that are easy for us “to love.”  Our society has a sense of feeling good when helping others (the poor and powerless, etc.).  However, in our flesh, our target is not high enough.  Making yourself feel good is on the same level as drinking alcohol so that you can forget about your woes.  Jesus wasn’t making himself feel better when he loved us.  He was paying a price so that we could be set free from our sins.  His target was much higher than just his own human feelings.  This is why people can be so “loving” to one group but then spew vile hatred towards others.  Christians are not to be like this.  If someone spews hatred towards you, you are to love them as Jesus would love them.

Peter also brings up in verse 23 that they have been born again.  We should fervently love one another from a sincere heart because we have been born again.  We have been born from above, born of the Spirit of God, born of the will of the Father.  This spiritual life that has begun within us is working to express itself in our life through actions that are inspired by Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.

He goes on to point out that this new birth did not come from an imperishable seed.  This ties back to the phrase in verse 22, “in obedience to the Truth…”  Peter is helping them to see this metaphor that Jesus used in his parables in which the seed represents the Word of God, the Truth.

There are all kinds of seeds of “truth” in this world, but only the Word that comes from God the Father is “Truth.”  What word is planted in your heart and growing there?  The words of this world are all impotent and destined to fail, to perish.  However, the Word of God is imperishable.  Even when we ignore it, it accomplishes what it was sent to do.  Its living principle is not dependent upon us believing it.  Yet, we should believe it if we want to be on the good side of its potency.

This Word of the Lord is essentially the Gospel that they received.  Simultaneously, the Gospel, even all Scripture, is an analog of Jesus, the Son of the Most High, who is the Truth.  To obey the word of God (Scripture) is to obey the Word of God (Jesus Christ).  In fact, we can tie this back to prophecies in the Old Testament that refer to seed, but in this case, the seed is the offspring.  Genesis three promises that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.  Later in the same book, God promises that the Seed of Abraham would bring blessing to the whole world.  We also find the importance of the Seed of David that would eventually come forth to rule over Israel and the Nations.  In Jesus, this promised Offspring (the Anointed One) is also the One who is the Seed (Truth) of God.

Jesus is the Imperishable Seed.  If you believe on him, his imperishable nature will make you imperishable too!

Peter fills out what is meant by this imperishable seed by calling it the “living and enduring word of God.”  God’s Word is living versus dead.  It has life in and of itself because it comes from the Author of all life.  The words of men may make us feel alive, but they will not bear out in the end to be true life.

God’s Word is also enduring.  It remains, or stays, when all else fails and falls aside.  God’s Word remains as a stalwart signpost pointing back to Him, back to life, even as we stand on the cliffs of destruction.

This brings Peter to quote Isaiah 40:6,8. It emphasizes the contrast between humans, who are like grass, and the Word of the Lord, which endures forever!”  Sometimes in Scripture God emphasizes that the wicked are like grass (see Psalm 92:7).  They may look intimidating and substantial to us, but they are here today and gone tomorrow.  Theirs is temporary power, temporary success.  However, the grass imagery can also be applied to all humans (wicked or righteous).  Our time to impact this world is brief and short.  What we do is important, but we will also quickly be gone. 

This may sound cynical, but those who have placed their faith in the Word of the Lord, Jesus, will find that His enduring life is greater than our mortal, grass like nature.  Jesus will not leave us behind.  We have been born again by the Spirit of God because we have believed the Word-Become-Flesh that was sent by God the Father to us.  Though we are perishable in our flesh, the Word of the Lord will raise us up!  We will live because we are connected to the living Word of Life!

All of this is about loving one another.  It may feel like a worthless life, just loving other grass-people.  However, we can trust God and offer it up as an offering of worship unto Him.  We have truly born the grass image of Adam, but we shall also bear the image of Jesus, which is anything but grass!

Peter reminds them at the end of verse 25 that this is what they have received, the Living, Enduring Word of the Lord!  This really is the only thing we have to offer people.  My ideas, my thoughts, are here today and gone tomorrow.  But, when we proclaim the Word of the Lord to people, we give them something that will never fail them!  It is this Life of God that should drive our ability to fervently love one another from the heart as Jesus has commanded us.

Long for the pure milk of the word like newborn babies (v. 2:1-3)

A spiritual person needs to live upon spiritual food.  The Scriptures are our spiritual food because they speak of Christ and are from him.  To read and to embrace the Scriptures is to embrace Jesus Himself.  This spiritual food will enable them to grow.

Peter particularly speaks to them as newborn babies.  Many Gentiles were completely unfamiliar with the Word of God.  When they believed in Jesus, there were many things they did not understand and in fact were too hard for them to understand quickly.  Easier to understand things from God are like spiritual milk.  Newborns exist only on a diet of milk because their stomach is not able to digest more complex foods.

So, what are these easier to digest things of God’s Word?  In short, the Gospel itself is based upon an elementary understanding of God’s Word.  The Creator of humanity loves us.  Our sin has separated us from Him and brought about the pain and suffering we see.  He has sent Jesus to remove that separation and bring us back into a loving relationship with the Creator.  We need to share this good news with others.

Of course, there are things that are harder to digest, or understand.  In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul expected the Corinthians to be able to eat “solid food” by now.  Though Peter does not address solid food, we might ask ourselves this question.  How do spiritual babies get to a place where they can eat meat?  They do so through a steady diet of milk.  Peter is reminding them to desire the milk of the word, not so that they will remain in that state, but so that they will grow spiritually.  Believers are called to long, to yearn, for the pure milk of the word.

For what are we hungering?  A believer may start out hungering for the milk, but then other things that are not spiritual food draw our attention.  A new believer can become distracted by harder to digest truths that they are not ready to eat, but they can also become distracted by unspiritual food, the philosophies of this world etc. 

Here is another question.  Do adults still drink milk?  Of course, they do.  However, they will not be able to do adult work on a diet of milk.  As you grow spiritually, you are going to need to grow in understanding the Word of God.  This will take time, but it will also take intentionality and focus.  Make sure you are hungering for God’s Word at the appropriate level and not going after supplements that come from the devil, the world, and our flesh.

This spiritual growth is mentioned in verse 2 (“so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation”).  Babies take on the image of the ones by whom they were born.  We ought to take on the image of Jesus more and more.  We should be taking more and more possession of our soul as an inheritance given to us by God.  Our discipleship in this life is important, even though we have a greater inheritance in the age to come.

A person who is listening to the Word of God and being led by the Holy Spirit will grow in becoming more like Jesus.  This is not without difficulty and spiritual battle, but it is the work Christ is committed to doing within us.

Peter lists up front (vs. 1) some of the negative things that we need to battle against within our hearts.  These things not only get in the way of doing everything Peter has commanded so far, but they also get in the way of our desire for the Word of God.

We need to put aside all malice.  This is a general term for any ill-will (literally bad will) that we might have for others.

We need to put aside all deceit.  This is the type of activity that the devil employed against Eve in the garden.  Deceit has an ulterior motive underneath a nice-looking veneer.

We need to put aside hypocrisy, which is putting on an act rather than being sincere.

We need to put aside envy, which is often a source of hypocrisy and deceit.  We envy others when we desire what they have more than what God has for us.  There is nothing wrong in desiring something, but it becomes an idol when we sacrifice relationship with God in order to get it.

He ends with telling us to put aside all slander.  This word is more general than how we use it.  It simply means to speak evil of another person.

These are the things that we need to put aside or take off like filthy clothes.  We saw this language in our study of the Letter to the Colossian Church.  When these things fill our heart, we will not long for the word.  We need to take hold of them and expel them from our heart, but we also dare not let ourselves act upon their leading.

If my heart is not longing for the Word of God, then the response is to start cleaning while asking God for help.  None of us can do these things without the help of the Holy Spirit.

In verse three of chapter two, Peter says, “If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  I don’t think Peter is questioning whether they have “tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  He knew that the Gospel had drawn them into putting their faith in Jesus.  They had even believed in the face of difficulty and persecution, which supports the reality of their faith.  Peter is actually reminding them or challenging them to remember.  Don’t let yourself be sidetracked from the original drawing to the Lord that you had.

To taste something requires you to take it into yourself.  It is one thing to know about apples, but it is quite another thing to eat one.  Taste is about intimate knowledge.  Of course, Peter is talking about spiritual things.  To taste the kindness of the Lord is to hear about it and then to take it into yourself by putting your faith in it, in Jesus.

The idea of tasting the nature of the Lord comes from Psalm 34:8. There, the psalmist refers to the “goodness of the Lord.”  When we trust the Lord, we will no longer only know about Him.   We will come to have the knowledge of experience.  Yes, there are bitter-sweet things that we experience in the Lord, but the Lord works them to the good for those who trust in Him!

God doesn’t just want us to know about Him.  He wants us to know the goodness, the kindness, that He desires to lavish upon us.  He wants us to experience His love by faith.

How does this relate to these mostly Gentile Christians?  God had cast off the Gentiles and handed them over to the false gods that they worshipped.  Yet, now, He was drawing them near to Him like children to a Heavenly Father.  We might accuse God of not being kind when He cast them off (us off), but then, we didn’t experience the wickedness and evil that was happening because of a rejection of His wisdom.

God is good even when He lets us go into the results of our choices.  Even in His judgment, He is bringing us to a place where repentance is possible.  His grace is without bounds, but it will not believe for us.  We must believe for ourselves.  The Word of God helps us to do this.

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