READINGS ON PETER'S FIRST EPISTILE - 1 PETER 2
READINGS ON PETER’S FIRST EPISTILE - 1 PETER 2
It is interesting to note that Peter’s ministry, as he proceeds to unfold it, corresponds with Paul’s ministry. This chapter is intended to enable the Jewish brethren of the dispersion to live spiritually independent of Jerusalem. They were themselves being built up a “spiritual house”, which would answer to the development of the truth of the house in Paul’s ministry. The Spirit of God moved in these two [p. 405] great apostles to establish the truth of the house of God in order to make the saints spiritually independent of Jerusalem, a place which had been hitherto recognised in a material way. The bearing of this passage was to help the Jewish brethren of the dispersion, so as to detach them from Jerusalem and to attach them to the assemblies of God established under Paul; for there is no obvious difference between the spiritual house here and the house that Paul speaks about in his epistles — in 1 Timothy and Ephesians. There is, however, a distinction between Judaism and what was established at Jerusalem by the twelve apostles; James carried on the latter line of things, apparently up to the destruction of the city. The epistle of James contemplates an order of things in Jerusalem that recognised the Jews as they were, and the synagogue.
It is very suggestive that the truth of the house of God was developed away from Jerusalem by Paul himself, and by Peter here. In 1 Thessalonians, which is elemental, we see how the believers in Thessalonica made the assemblies in Judaea their model, in that they imitated them. Paul evidently laid down that principle amongst them and they pursued that line, that is, of recognising the assemblies of God in Judaea. It does not say they made the assembly of God at Jerusalem their model; it is the assemblies in Judaea, those formed outside of Jerusalem.
The corner stone as laid in Zion is brought in to establish these Jewish believers in their position. Christ was received, and “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”. 1 Peter 2: 7. What the prophet Isaiah primarily referred to is, of course, the system that will be established at Jerusalem by-and-by, but the apostle applies the truth to those of the dispersion who believed now — they came in for the good of it, they were on the foundation. Christ was [p. 406] presented to them in the gospel as the foundation of everything and they believed on Him. The corner stone is also referred to in Ephesians 2. There are two thoughts: in 1 Peter 2: 6 it is, “Behold, I lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious”; in 1 Peter 2: 7, “The stone which the builders cast away as worthless, this is become head of the corner”. The first has reference to the foundation, and the second to the binding stone on the top, which is ornamental, and completes the structure. “To whom coming a living stone” 1 Peter 2: 4 contemplates Christ as that upon which everything rests, and the head of the corner is the finish, the top stone, which also refers to the Lord Himself “To whom coming” contemplates life. The earlier verses contemplate salvation — growing up to salvation by the pure mental milk of the word, having tasted that the Lord is good. But when He is viewed as the living Stone to whom we come, after that we read, “yourselves also as living stones”, 1 Peter 2: 5, that is, we are viewed as living. This would have peculiar force as applied to persons accustomed to stationary conditions at Jerusalem, for life does not suggest anything stationary, but rather movement, so that it conforms with the mind of God. There is a certain elasticity in life which conforms to the One to whom we have come, the living Stone.
There is something very beautiful about life in its identification with everything else that is living. It is that which is capable of being affected by influence. Christianity is always connected with movement; in the Scriptures written to Jews, the thought of life is emphasised because of their having been brought up in what was fixed and material. The “living stone” is the Son of the living God, hence the building is all living; Christ is the foundation, the saints are the superstructure, and the Lord is its crown. The whole structure must be Christ; first, personally, and then as formed in the saints.
[p. 407] But before we get the priesthood we must first have the spiritual house; as living stones we have come to the living Stone. We are in the good of the kingdom, having tasted that the Lord is good; our wills are broken down, and we have grown up to salvation. The earlier verses show formation, and the next thing is to be in the movement of life in relation to the living Stone. We grow up to salvation as in the kingdom, and that prepares us for the assembly. The assembly is essential for the kingdom, viewed as a system; just as in David and Solomon’s day the house was an essential part of their regime.
In Matthew, the power of the kingdom comes into view on the mount (chapter 17). The house is not in view there, it is the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The vision accorded was to establish those three pillars, Peter, James and John, in the sense of the majesty and glory of Christ; it is when they come down from the mount that they are given to understand they are “stones” with Him — His companions; that is the basis of chapter 18, in which you have the working out of the principles of the kingdom as we are in it today. The Lord had said to Peter, “Give it to them for me and thee”, Matthew 17: 27. That was the new position into which they were brought; then chapter 18 opens with the disciples inquiring who is greatest — meaning that they had not understood the great teaching of chapter 17, which brought them into association with the Lord as “stones”. If we know we are “stones”, we are not thinking of what we are to be in the kingdom. It is a question of the will of God, not of our dignity. In Proverbs 25:6 it says: “Put not thyself forward in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of the great”. That is the principle of Matthew 18, your dignity is already established in the fact that you are a son; so you take a low place, that it may be said, “Come up higher”.
David’s sons were chief rulers, but they were sons first. Our dignity as sons goes into eternity. We become as “little children” by taking the lowest place possible, and from that point we grow up. One who has grown up to salvation is a stone squared for the structure. In Matthew 18 we are told how to begin as a little child, and we are reminded that we have a representative at court. “Their angels in the heavens continually behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens”. Matthew 18: 10. That makes us restful. We are represented in heaven, and may boldly say, “I will not be afraid: what will man do unto me?” Hebrews 13: 6. We are not then concerned about the attitude of people towards us. The passage goes on to warn us against being a stumbling-block to one of these little ones.
The next case supposed is that of your brother trespassing against you. Being in the kingdom, the chapter shows all the resources that are there. If a brother trespass against you, go to him alone. Proverbs 25: 8, 9, corresponds with that; it says, “Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame. Debate thy cause with thy neighbour, but reveal not the secret of another; lest he that heareth it disgrace thee, and thine evil report turn not away”. The divine way is to go to the brother and if he do not hear you, then take with you one or two besides; and if he refuse to hear the one or two, then tell it to the assembly. The assembly is there to support us in carrying out the principles of the kingdom. Peter in his epistle sought to instruct the sojourners of the dispersion that Jerusalem had been superseded altogether; he shows them that Jerusalem was being set aside and that they are the spiritual house.
1 Peter 2 suggests a release for the saints from the governmental conditions referred to in chapter 1.
[p. 409] They were responsible to recognise the government of God in its threefold application to them, but in the house of God there was an outlet into a spiritual order of things. In coming to the “living stone” the thought of life is emphasised. What they are brought into would more than compensate them for what was given up in connection with Jerusalem; they were a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for a possession; they were all this now in a spiritual way. “To whom coming” was illustrated in Peter himself as invited by the Lord to come to Him on the water. The spiritual sacrifices here are in contrast to the material sacrifices at Jerusalem; they are what we offer to God — sacrifices of praise. How great a conception it was that these poor dispersed Jews should be set up in this wonderful way. It would be quite a revelation to these saints that they were privileged to offer sacrifices. They had been accustomed to the intermediary of the priest; now they were to offer — they were priests. Nothing is allowed to lapse in Christianity. All that God instituted under the old regime is still found here but in a greater and in a spiritual way.
The man in John 9 is illustrative of what we find here. The Lord finds him and says to him, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?” John 9: 35. John’s ministry helps us to understand what is spiritual; he begins with new birth. Peter does not say, ‘born of the Spirit’, but “of the living and abiding word of God”. 1 Peter 1: 23. John says “of the Spirit”, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit; we must all begin there. John begins at the bottom, and John 3 is the foundation spiritually. Chapter 1 is movement. In John 4: 24 we have “God is a Spirit”; this would divert the believer from what is material; Jerusalem is set aside. In chapter 5 there is the great principle of life, the Father and the Son quickening; in chapter 6 Peter says, “Thou hast words of life eternal”. John 6: 68. John takes account of the least bit of spirituality and looks at things abstractly. A man like Nicodemus would not be called a spiritual brother in our day, but John takes account of the little that was there.
We have in verses 4 - 10 of our chapter what liberates the soul; they tell what the saints are brought into: A kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession. They are set up spiritually in Jesus Christ, and then the apostle says, “I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly lusts”, etc. 1 Peter 2:11. They were strangers from the Jewish point of view, but I think Peter uses the term as indicating their calling as heavenly, and their position on the earth as one of strangers and sojourners. They were to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles”, etc. 1 Peter 2: 11,12. The passage looks on to the time when, in the government of God, the Gentiles would be visited, and God would point to this witness that these people had their conversation honest among them, and God would thus be glorified. The teaching actually extends to ourselves, because as a heavenly people we are viewed as strangers and sojourners on earth likewise. Our conversation is to be honest among the Gentiles. A poet has said, ‘An honest man is the noblest work of God’. There is a good deal of truth in it; the Jews generally are not marked by that feature among the Gentiles. The force of the passage is all the more evident when you take into account the kind of people that they were, and are known to be, among the Gentiles. The point of honesty here is emphasised because the dispersed Jews among the Gentiles were not naturally marked by it, but where the grace of God is operative, it brings about the opposite of what we are naturally.
In using the affectionate term, “Beloved” 1 Peter 2:11, Peter was coming to what was needed; he had in [p. 411] mind that they should be honest — freed from the natural proclivities which had marked them heretofore. By nature we are all dishonest, but they are particularly so. A stranger is one that belongs to another country; they were not now simply Jews; the teaching brings out that they were a heavenly people, on earth, passing through as temporary residents, like Abraham and others who “confessed they were strangers and sojourners on the earth”, Hebrews 11:13.
Fleshly lusts war against the soul. In Galatians 5:17 it says, “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh”. The warfare here is against the soul, the soul being regarded as the theatre of God’s operations. What God is effecting in our souls is damaged by the fleshly lusts. It may he indulgence in something we feel is lawful enough, but if persisted in, we are hindered by it, and lose the character of being strangers and sojourners.
Verse 13 brings out their relation to the authorities — the powers that be. Peter gives you the character of the institutions to which we are to be subject — to the king as supreme or to rulers as sent by him. This adjusts us in regard to the governments that we have to do with on earth. These institutions remain governmentally, but we are enabled to do God’s will in relation to them. “Because so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye put to silence the ignorance of senseless men”. 1 Peter 2:15.
This chapter, in the first part, shows the outlet from what is governmental; and as in the enjoyment of the outlet, you know how to behave yourself in the circumstances in which you are set, in relation to the king and every human institution, for the Lord’s sake. At the end of the chapter we get the Lord set before us as a model in our circumstances here; He sets us the example of how to behave ourselves, following in His steps.
Referring again to verse 4, “to whom coming”; Peter walking on the water would be an illustration of the thing. Peter began to sink when his attention was diverted from Christ to the water. There are many who start but they do not advance; they break down. The test is real; many have had light yet remain in their religious associations. It is when we start out for the Lord we meet with opposition. But the Lord does not give us up because we begin to sink; if we cry out to Him He will support us, for we never get beyond the reach of His hand. A sinking man who has gone out of the boat is better than one who remains in the boat and does not sink. Had Peter been solely occupied with the Lord he would not have sunk. It is as having gone outside the boat that we experience what the Lord’s power is. The Lord is intensely interested in every one coming to Him. It is an immense joy to Him when one responds to His word, “Come”.
“To you therefore who believe is the preciousness” 1 Peter 2:7; He is precious to God, and we are in His preciousness before God.
“A chosen race” 1 Peter 2: 9; that statement should be noted; it is not often you find it in scripture. The Jews as a race naturally are well known. But a chosen race has reference to them as having faith, like Zacchaeus, for instance — a man that would give half of his goods to the poor; the Lord says of him, “he also is a son of Abraham” Luke 19:9.
In the last paragraph we are looked at as under the authorities and what the Lord was as our Model is emphasised.