Crave those things that build us together into a mature church.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for 1 Peter 2:1-10
Peter ends his introduction by saying that Christians know how wonderful Jesus is, and that should be ample motivation to want to grow to be more like Him. But that is something we do together as a church, not as individuals. God has made us amazing, and now we should serve Him in the world with gladness.
Editor's Note: This post started life as a printed handout for Bible study leaders. It has been edited to become an online resource.
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Building Blocks.
If you have space, bring in something to build with. Blocks, legos, boxes, jenga, anything. There are lots of ways you could do this, so let me tell you what I’m thinking as the point, first. (1) It takes a strong foundation if you’re going to build anything complex or stable. If you’re building on a good table, that counts as a foundation. (2) If you’re going to build something tall or big, you really need to have a good plan. (3) If you’re going to build something with multiple people, you need to have a plan before you start.
Spiritually speaking, the application is that we should only build our lives on the foundation of Jesus: salvation He has provided, strength He has provided, and instructions He has provided. That’s how we can have a whole bunch of people involved in “building” the church—because we are all following the plans Jesus gave.
So, you can ask a few people to build separate structures in a competition to build the tallest or largest (make sure you have plenty of supplies). Or you can ask several people to work together to build something, making funny psychological evaluations along the way. Just make sure that you can connect it to whatever main point you want to emphasize to your group.
Healthy Eating!
I can’t take credit for this—it’s based on an idea in the Quicksource. Bring in a bag of groceries; make sure it includes both healthy food and junk food. Talk about diet—what are the advantages to eating healthy? What are the disadvantages to eating unhealthy? Your group can probably talk in depth about this, and they can probably give you many reasons why they aren’t eating as well as they know they should. (Just to add a twist, do some research on new diet recommendations; doctors keep changing their minds on what is and isn’t healthy!) Make the application that our spiritual health is just as informed by our spiritual intake as our physical health is by our eating. And if the threat of diabetes or heart disease (or whatever they said) isn’t enough to help us overcome the inconveniences of cost or time (or whatever they said), what will it take for us to really work hard in our spiritual health? This is the ultimate question for our Christianity, one that Peter will talk about for the rest of his letter. Blessedly, we don’t have to listen to “experts” on this; we can go straight to the source—the Bible.
This Week's Big Idea: The Priesthood of All Believers
One of the core doctrines of our church (and indeed most Baptist churches) is the “priesthood of believers.” We’ve talked about priesthood multiple times recently; in 1 Samuel it was the changing role of the high priest with respect to the new kingship. In Hebrews it was how Jesus was the ultimate high priest. God established the priesthood to help maintain the covenant—priests were the ones keeping up with and making the sacrifices according to the rules God gave. We understand from Hebrews that Jesus basically ended the need for priests. He offered the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice Himself (the precious Lamb of God that we read about in last week’s passage) and then sat down at the right hand of God.
So Peter then says that Christians now take up the role of priests. But it’s not the same kind of priesthood that they had in the Old Testament. That’s where the wording you’ve probably heard—”The Priesthood of the Believer”—ended up creating more problems than its author, E. Y. Mullins, intended. People began thinking of this priesthood as meaning “I am my own priest.” Well, that’s not what E. Y. Mullins meant and it’s certainly not what the Bible teaches! While it is true that we do not represent one another before God or mediate for one another before God (i.e. we don’t need a priest), don’t get the impression that we are somehow our own priest. If we were to stand before God on our own, we would be in big, big trouble! Jesus Christ is always our priest. Jesus Christ always mediates between not-yet-holy us and always-holy God. Jesus enables us to come to God in prayer (for ourselves or others), and He atoned for our sin.
When Peter calls us a Holy Priesthood in these verses, he’s recasting the Old Testament priesthood into new terms. The old priests served together under the authority of the high priest. We are not priests for one another, we are priests with one another. They did not see themselves as individual priests; they were a priesthood. Do you see the difference? Calling it a priesthood of “the believer” has given the mistaken impression that we can somehow stand alone or serve alone. That was not the case in the Old Testament, and it is not the case now.
So what is the “priesthood” to Peter? To answer that question, we just need to look at the outline of his letter. His purpose: to encourage faithfulness under persecution. Our motivation/hope: salvation provided by Christ. Our responsibility: to grow in this salvation. You’ll notice that the bulk of the letter describes how to live (last week, it was holiness; in future weeks we will talk about other examples, like submission to authorities). That means that to Peter, “priesthood” wasn’t about the old ceremonial actions, and it actually wasn’t our personal spiritual disciplines — priesthood is about building the church. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the Word of God is the “milk,” and the identity is “holy nation” and “people of God.” There is nothing individual in here anywhere; everything is corporate (which for us means church). What does all of that mean in our terms today? Discipleship. Discipleship is the easiest way to describe the function of this new priesthood because it has both a corporate and individual element. We have personal responsibility for our discipleship, but God designed for it to happen in a group. As a priest, our “job” is to grow in our faith and help others to the same. Our “sacrifice” (as Paul clarifies) is our very way of living.
Following Peter’s Logic
This is a very straightforward, logical, and sound letter. Each one of his points easily follows his previous points (I’ll keep the outline on the back for a while). This section starts with another “therefore”—based on what we talked about last week (that we are now something new, that we don’t have to live in our old, empty ways of life). Because we are now born again into the Word of God, we have a new life to live, one that is built on Jesus and designed for a purpose: to be a church. In the following section, Peter will start to describe in more detail what that life looks like.
Part 1: Spiritual Milk (1 Peter 2:1-3)
So rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for your salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good.
There are some behaviors that are simply incompatible with being born again by the precious blood of Christ, through the gracious power of the Holy Spirit, and built on the enduring Word of God. Try as we might, we can never justify them. Last week I mentioned Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 as Paul’s similar lists. (If you didn’t read them last week, have your group read them this week.) The phrase “rid yourselves” is elsewhere used in the context of taking off soiled clothing, and sometimes in the context of ritual purification. There’s actually a bit of a debate whether the tense is supposed to mean a once-for-all (as in “do this once and be done with it”) or if it is continuous (as in “this is something you have to do every day of your life”). Whichever is meant, both are certainly applicable.
Malice. This is a general term for wickedness but is most often related to physical violence. Malice is a vicious intent. (Rom 1:29, Titus 3:3)
Deceit. Also “guile.” The word was also used of bait. Essentially it means fraud or the use of deception and trickery. (Acts 13:10, 2 Cor 4:2)
Hypocrisy. This is a big word. Back then, it was used of an actor who played multiple roles in the same play by means of different masks. It eventually came to be associated with people who pretended to be something they were not. For a Christian, this means impersonating a true follower of Jesus.
Envy. Also “spite” “jealousy.” It has a lot to do with coveting others’ belongings and accomplishments or even desiring their misfortune. (1 Cor 3:3)
Slander. Another big word—diabolos, often applied to the devil. It literally means “to speak against” and often includes the intent to harm. Note that the words spoken can be true or false; this is about the intent. (Lev 19:16)
This new life we have isn’t supposed to be like the old life the rest of the world has. You might have noticed that each one of these traits is about how we treat other people. The image Peter is about to use—one of being built together into a perfect building—makes it clear why these particular behaviors are unacceptable. How can a wall be stable if the bricks themselves are fighting one another?
Then he brings us back to the Word of God and a new word picture: pure milk (see below). This is not talking about boiled cow milk, but a human mother’s milk for her infant. Such nutrient was (and still is today, although we have learned how to fabricate it effectively) absolutely vital to the proper growth of an infant. Babies craved it. Some can’t make it more than a few hours before needing to be fed again—and they let you know! They need it. How powerful it is for Peter to say the same thing about Christians and "spiritual milk"!
Ston
And what a great image! This helps me answer the question I used at the beginning: what would it take for us to start eating healthy? The answer in our house is to find foods that we really like that are also healthy. Micah and Sarah really like fruit, so it’s easy for them to want to eat fruit as a snack instead of chips (like I prefer). When you really, really like a food, you’re more likely to spend the extra money or go through the extra prep time. (And if that’s not enough, then you may have a problem.) Now apply that to Jesus. Have you ever had an AHA! moment in the Bible? Have you ever had a real spiritual connection with Jesus somewhere, maybe in a worship service? If you have, you know there’s nothing like it. Peter says that every Christian has “tasted” that the Lord is good. And he’s right. That is our motivation to continue to follow Jesus.
Aside: Wait, Is Milk Positive or Negative in the Bible?
You might remember that elsewhere in the New Testament (1 Cor 3:2, Heb 5:12) milk is seen as a crutch, something the Christian ought to have grown out of. I think there are two ways of reconciling this. One, even though cultures debate how old a child should be weaned, is that eventually you “graduate” from milk to solid food. Or two, and this is the one I choose, is that Peter did not intend the illustration to be taken that far. Milk is always good for you (doesn’t have to be breastmilk), but as part of a healthy diet.
Bonus Aside on Breastfeeding.
Western civilization went through a “phase” from 1800-1960 (basically after the time that formula became readily available) in which breastfeeding was seen as old-fashioned and uncultured. Even today, there is still a women’s lib faction that rejects it out of the idea that men don’t have to do it. But for the most part, research has proven the great value of breastfeeding for the health and well-being of an infant. (Of course, because we make everything difficult, there are significant legal battles taking place out there defining the line between breastfeeding and indecent exposure, or the right to breastfeed in public.)
Anyway, as you might imagine, breastfeeding has almost always been the primary means of feeding infants. Some cultures employed “wet nurses” to this function (a practice uncomfortably referenced in Mad Max: Fury Road), particularly royalty. And it was not uncommon for villages to practice “shared nursing” for the betterment of the children. Sometimes that was done for superstitious reasons (not understanding the transmission of good or bad conditions), but most often it was done because people understood that a healthy woman was more likely to produce healthy breastmilk. There are even records of practices for helping a woman lactate. I guess the point is that Peter’s culture would have at least somewhat understood the importance and value of breastmilk for the proper development of an infant.
Part 2: Spiritual House (1 Peter 2:4-8)
Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God— you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it is contained in Scripture: Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame! So honor will come to you who believe, but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected—this One has become the cornerstone, and A stone to stumble over, and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the message; they were destined for this.
And so we come to Jesus. It’s like feeding time at the zoo or on the farm. Ring the bell and here come the hands; carry out the hay and here comes the herd. We come to Jesus because we want to be near Him. And while we’re all together, He builds us into a spiritual house—together. I’ve given you sidebars on the idea of building and cornerstones. Sadly, Jesus’ own people rejected Him; but there is an important reason why Peter reminds his audience of this here: why should we care at all about what the outside world thinks about right and wrong? That same world put Jesus to death! Not a good track record. Rather, we come to Jesus and serve as “priests” in His church. And what are the “sacrifices” we offer here? According to the rest of the New Testament, they are praise, good works, sharing our possessions, and helping one another. [Note: this is where you would talk about the “priesthood of all believers.”] But to the rest of the world, those who rejected Jesus, they are “destined” to stumble over Jesus. That could mean that God picked them out from eternity, or it could simply mean that everyone who rejects Jesus will stumble over Him. The verb for “trip over” is where we our word “scandal.” Jesus is scandalous. You might spend some time asking how Jesus is a scandal for the lost world. You should definitely spend time talking about what these verses mean for the purpose and focus of every church.
Aside: Living Stones?
There’s something more about the image of Jesus as the cornerstone: He’s not just a stone; He’s not just a perfect, immovable foundation. He’s alive, dynamic, overpowering, and moving. For the image to work, we then have to realize that Jesus is a “living stone.”
Peter, of all people, understood the connection between Jesus and His followers and stones. Jesus said that Peter’s confession was the “rock on which I will build My church” and then He renamed Simon to Peter which means “little stone”. I think Peter dearly wanted to share that experience with everyone who follows Jesus.
And that’s where we come in. Both Peter and Paul (think about Ephesians) want Christians to see themselves as being “built” together into the ultimate temple, people from all over the world and all across history fitting together into these great walls as a tribute to the majesty of God. As an image, it means that we are all equally important, that we all serve a similar purpose, and that we are all built on Jesus. But most importantly, stones don’t build themselves. God has placed us into this temple and He has a perfect plan and design for us.
What makes Peter’s use of this image so striking (separately from Paul, who then goes into all of the different parts of the body of Christ) is that he mixes it with the royal priesthood. Not only are believers the stones that make up the temple, but we are all the priests that serve in the temple—all at the same time. Clearly Peter didn’t want us to push this image too far! He just wants us to take a dynamic view of our relationship with Christ and one another.
Part 3: Spiritual People (1 Peter 2:9-10)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
These are some of my favorite verses in the Bible. Just reading them, not knowing a thing about the Bible, I learn who I am and what God wants me to do. Your leader guide highlights the Old Testament allusions and meanings just fine, so I’ll leave that. Yes, there’s a whole lot of nuance in here (for example, Peter switches from “holy priesthood” to “royal priesthood”), and I would be curious what the different translations your group uses might say, but the basics are clear. Just make sure to point out that the primary emphasis is on God, and the secondary emphasis is on people. Note that there is nothing about the individual here; everything is plural. Even though living in darkness or living in light is something that individual people choose to do, once we live in the light, we do so as a collective, experiencing salvation and serving Jesus together.
Theological note: By making so many thick Old Testament allusions, Peter is not trying to say that the church is the new Israel. Many groups have made that mistake and so they end up doing things like baptizing infants and hiring priests. Rather, Peter saw Israel as the shadow that pointed to the church, the fulfillment of Israel, so to speak.
So here’s your discussion: based just on these words, what is a church supposed to be and do? Not just individual church members, but a church as a whole? Your leader guide recommends a “growth chart” as an illustration, which I think is great. How do we measure “how we’re growing” as a church? We can certainly get too caught up in numbers (for example, some kids aren’t going to be as tall as others, and that’s okay; same thing true of churches), but having a way to track our progress is valuable. Will doing the things to help us grow stronger require a major investment? Of course—just like any healthy lifestyle! Is it worth it? You tell me. People spend a whole lot of money trying to make a few decades of life a little bit better. But with Jesus, we’re talking about the rest of eternity. Do you think that’s worth it? Darkness vs. light. Alone vs. in a people. Stagnant and dying vs. healthy and thriving? Come on; that’s an easy choice.
Closing Thoughts: The People of God
Verse 9 is one of the more important verses in the Bible for understanding the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. When some people read “holy nation” they start to think “kingdom of God.” That’s an Old Testament perspective in which Jews thought of themselves as the people of God; God’s kingdom was their kingdom. It was a place, and they were genetically linked to it.
Peter turns that on its head by using “race” and “nation” in parallel with “priesthood” and “people.” When God used those terms and images in the Old Testament, He wasn’t limiting it to one place and one people. He was starting with Israel and intending through them to spread through the entire world. “Race” did not have anything to do with genetics (except for the fact that we are all children of Adam); it had do to with what makes us unique from other human beings. And what is that in context of 1 Peter? Being born again by the precious blood of Jesus. We are now a new “race” of people with a new relationship with God. This is unlike any nation or people group ever in history because our bond is not physical but spiritual. Those who follow Jesus are being built together into this temple as living stones; what nation is like that? Those who follow Jesus serve side by side as priests in the service of God; what people group is like that? None. God is doing something new, something not restricted by generation or genetics. We are a people, a people in which all of us have equal access to God, have equal worth before God, and have equal responsibility under God. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before.
Royal Priesthood
You don’t think I would throw out that nuance without saying anything about do you? Well, yeah, actually I guess I would. But not today! There are only two “royal priests” in the Bible: Melchizedek and Jesus. This is the easiest way for Peter to clarify that we are not a priesthood like that of the Jews; we are a priesthood belonging specifically to Jesus. It also means that we share in the prerogatives of Christ’s reign over the earth; we don’t just serve in the temple, we rule in the palace. But again, all of that happens under the authority of Christ. This title should not be taken to mean that we are more than we really are. Being a child of God should be the only perk we worry about. Perhaps you can talk about what you think this means in your day-to-day life as a Christian . . .