Most of us will be familiar with the TV programme Grand Designs. There was an Australian version for a while too. On each episode on an extravagant building project. In today’s reading from the First Letter of Peter we learn that God has a grand design, and every follower of Jesus is part of God’s grand design. Christian hope is based upon the foundation of Jesus Christ — the foundation of God’s grand design.
- SPIRITUAL FOOD
The first point that Peter makes is that spiritual food is essential for spiritual growth, and it comes from “the word of God” — “the good news” about Jesus Christ (verses 2-3). Peter says,
- 2: Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation
That is, we are to long for the food we need for our spiritual growth — just like newborn babies long for physical nourishment. What is “spiritual milk”? The translation “spiritual” is not so helpful for us. A better one might be “wordy” milk. Therefore, Peter is looking back to “the living and enduring word of God” in 1:23–25:
1 Peter 1:23–25: You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” That word is the good news that was announced to you.
The idea that God’s words are spiritual food is the first of several biblical ideas Peter uses here (read Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4; also Psalm 119:50, 93; Acts 20:32, 1 Corinthians 3:1–3; Hebrews 5:12–14). Peter continues:
- 3: if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The word “good” (in Greek chrēstos) points us to good food (compare Luke 5: 39). Peter’s Good Food Guide tells us what is chrēstos. And chrēstos is a play on words with the Greek word Christos which is translated “Christ.” Who is the Lord? Jesus Christ! Peter is saying: If you know that Christos (Christ) is chrēstos (good) — if you have experienced the love of God in Christ — how can you slide back into your old way of life? But unless you grow spiritually it will easily happen. You must take in spiritual food.
A LIVING STONE
Peter’s second point is that Jesus Christ is the living corner stone of the Christian community (v. 4, 6).
- 4, 6: Come to him [the Lord, Jesus Christ], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight …
6 For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Believers should remember the structure of the spiritual community (“house”) which Christ has founded. The idea of Jesus Christ as a “living” “cornerstone” is based on another biblical idea (compare Mark 12:10; Acts 4:11; Romans 10:11; 1 Corinthians 3:11; Ephesians 2:20; based upon Isaiah 28:16). A cornerstone was used to make sure the rest of the building lined up — built on that foundation the walls would be straight and stable. Everyone in the church, peter says, must be built upon that one stone. However, we must also remember that Christ was rejected by many people (v. 8) but he was in fact the living cornerstone chosen by God!
- A SPIRITUAL HOUSE
Third, Peter says that we are part of the “spiritual house” God is building (v. 5).
- 5: like living stones, let yourselves be built [fn]into a spiritual house …
The description of the community of believers as a building is another biblical idea (read Numbers 12:7; Ruth 4:11; Matthew 10:6; Ephesians 2:22; Revelation 21:3). And it doesn’t matter that the building may not look like much in the beginning because God is the builder and Jesus is the cornerstone — we are “living stones” being built upon a “living stone”! In his commentary on this letter Norman Hillyer says:
These living stones are not left uselessly scattered about, forgotten. God has a grand design for them. This is none other than their being built into a spiritual house…. Thus each is being built into and made part of God’s house. (Norman Hillyer, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude; Baker Academic, 1992, p. 61)
- A HOLY PRIESTHOOD
A fourth point is that all Christians are “priests” not a select few (v. 5).
- 5: to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Here all believers are “priests.” In the Anglican Church we use the word “priest” to refer to a group of specially appointed (ordained) leaders and this is an important role in the church. The problem is that in English this word is used for Old Testament “priests” who offered sacrifices and represented God to the people. That is the idea here with one change. After Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice on the cross (read Hebrews 9:27–28) no more sacrifices are needed. But we still need people who represent God to people who don’t Jesus by the way we live and the message we speak — our “spiritual sacrifices.” (The “priests” Anglican refer to in English are related to a different word in the New Testament meaning “elders” and their primary role is to preach and teach the good news.) The point for those us who are not ordained is that we are actually the “priests” on our street (and in our families, and workplaces, sporting clubs and everywhere else). What does it mean for you to be a “priest” to the people in your life?
Amen