1 Peter 2:4-10
When we left off last week, Peter was explaining that it is now time to become the people God created us to be. We are to do this by ridding ourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. We need to desire the pure milk of the word the same way a baby desires their mother’s milk.
Peter will advance that line of thought to focus on building a community. This is in preparation for Peter’s exhortation on missions coming up in verse 11. The work of the Church is not done by individuals but by all believers living and acting in community with other believers.
V4: As you come to him. This clearly talks about coming to Jesus. There are two interesting points about this statement. First, it is passive. We are coming to Jesus because we are being drawn to him. We do not initiate the coming. This is not a Calvinistic predestination in which we have no choice, but neither is it absent the work of the Godhead.
Second, it is present tense. It is not a one-time event where we were drawn to Christ, received our salvation, and go on living our lives. We are constantly and continuously being drawn to Jesus. It is not just about conversion. This is the result of what Peter talked about in verse 2, the desiring of the pure milk, the craving for God. When we crave God, we are drawn into an ever-closer relationship with him.
Jesus is then the living stone. In mind, here is the cornerstone upon which something is built. We have a lot of cornerstones in our lives, and every religion is built upon a stone, or foundation. Islam is built on the cornerstone of Mohammed. Buddhism is built on the cornerstone of Buddha, even some in Judaism built their foundation on Abraham or Moses.
The thing that each of those had in common was that they were dead stones. This faith that you have, this person you are becoming, this community that is being built, is being done so by a living stone. Jesus died but rose again. You then have a choice to make.
Jesus was rejected by the people but was chosen and honored by God. Which side are you going to take? Peter is presenting the same question to the people that Joshua did. This is the same question Elijah presented on Mount Carmel. But Peter is not asking them, and us, to make a choice. He is reminding us that we already have. Now we need to do something with that choice.
V5: You are a living stone, a spiritual house, being built to be a holy priesthood. That verb “being built” once again is passive. We do not build up the spiritual house but are being built up into one. But notice, we are already living stones, we are already a spiritual house.
What does Peter mean by a “spiritual house”? When the Bible combines “build” and “house,” it usually is meant to bring to mind the temple. This new temple is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
The key to understanding all of this is to recognize that the “you yourselves” in this verse is plural. Collectively, we are living stones, but we make up a singular spiritual house. This house is being built to be a holy priesthood. A priesthood set apart to do the work that God has called us to do. Remember the definition of holy. Something holy is set apart for spiritual or sacred use. We are to be a holy priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
No longer are we functioning as the temple did in Jerusalem by offering animal and other sacrifices. Our sacrifices now are of a spiritual nature; they are being done through the Holy Spirit. That is what makes them acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Anything we try to offer outside of the Holy Spirit is not going to be acceptable.
V6: Peter is going to quote from Isaiah 28:16 here. God is laying a chosen and honored, or some translations say chosen and precious, cornerstone. Those who believe in him will never be put to shame. The key is how someone views Christ. Is Jesus precious or honored, or is he rejected and despised? Those who choose the first become the holy people of God.
V7-8: Here, Peter is going to quote from Psalm 118, and we know this verse from Jesus’ parable of the tenants. Israel, God’s chosen people, has chosen to reject the precious and honored cornerstone that God chose. As a result, they stumble. They disobey God’s word, and they stumble. This is their destiny, not because God willed it to be so, but because they chose to reject Christ.
Verse 8 is another quote from Isaiah, this time from Isaiah 8:14. In this, I see the answer to the age-old question of God’s sovereignty and free will. The people exercised their free will to reject Jesus. God exercised his sovereignty to declare that any who rejects Jesus will stumble and fall. This is the consequence of unbelief.
V9: But you, again, this is plural. All the “yous” in this letter have been plural. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises. Peter pulls from a bunch of different Bible texts here, but what is important to note is that each of these was used in Scripture to describe God’s chosen people.
Each of these, at some point, spoke of Israel. Now, however, they are being used for those who have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light. Called this time is active, but that is because someone else is doing the calling on you, or more appropriately, all of us.
V10: At one point in time, we were not a people. What Peter means here is that before Jesus called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light, before Jesus built us into a holy priesthood, we did not know each other, and we did not have anything in common with one another. We all had different loyalties and different priorities. But now we are God’s people.
God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, has formed us into a people group. As a result, our first priority and our ultimate loyalty are to Christ. We have cast off those other loyalties because through them we had not received mercy. It is only by accepting the precious cornerstone that one receives God’s mercy.
The point of these verses is to remind us that we are not alone. We have Christ with us all the time, but we also have each other. What affects one should affect all. I like how one commentary summed it up, so let me quote it here.
“Through those who have faith in Christ, God is creating for himself not a collection of saved individuals but a holy and united people to be priests ministering his grace to a lost world.”[1]
[1] Jim Samra, James, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 132.