1 Peter 2

I continue to emphasize the theme of 1 Peter: the revelation or revealing of Jesus in and through us now.  I also remind everyone that the sins of their entire lifetime have been forgiven, past, present, and even future sins.  This idea opens up the writings of the New Testament epistles and helps to make sense of them.  The church declared that Jesus paid the penalty for all sins to be remitted, and that God is not counting sins against people. 2 Corinthians 5:19   That is our message to the world.  Luke 24:47 says that repentance, or changing our way of thinking, and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations.  This idea was prevalent in the message of the early Christians.  Non-Christians said this message of grace was just a cloak or covering for sin, and that Christians were really just evildoers looking for an excuse to sin.  1 Peter 2:12, 15-16.  Now you can understand the emphasis on holiness in all of the epistles.   How can Jesus be seen in us when we are running wild or mean or angry?  Also, how can we as Christians enjoy love, joy and peace when we are participating in the works of the flesh?  Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within us.  Luke 17:21.  Paul said the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 14:17  So now we understand what Paul meant in Galatians 5:19-22.  Paul says that if we practice the works of the flesh, we will not inherit or walk in or experience the kingdom of God within us.  We will not experience the fruit of the Spirit listed in verse 22.  How can we experience love, peace and joy if we are suffering turmoil from practicing the works of the flesh?  Paul is not saying that Christians who participate in these behaviors will not go to heaven.  But we will suffer the earthly pain and misery that sin brings with it.

Peter expounds upon the process of spiritual maturity in 1 Peter 2.  We recognize that our sins are forgiven.  We start to see Christ in us.  We learn to abstain from fleshly lusts and walk in love.  We show mercy and grace to others through our words and actions.

1 Peter 2:1-3 "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."  If we understand that Jesus paid the penalty for all of our sins, past, present and future sins, we should realize that God is not holding sins against those around us either.  So we should be able to lay aside any malice or envy or evil speaking against others.  We should take in the Word of God.  This will cause us to grow in our understanding of Christ in us.  The Lord is full of grace or gracious toward all of us. 

1 Peter 2:4-5 "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."  Peter says that Jesus is a living stone, part of the spiritual house of God.  He is the foundation stone.  We are also living stones.  God has come to indwell us also, just like Jesus, through the Spirit of God within us.  This is the beginning of understanding our identity.  We recognize that our sins are forgiven and Christ has come to dwell in us through His Spirit.

1 Peter 2:6-8 "Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes in Him will by no means be put to shame.  Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,' and 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.'  They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed."  When we accept His grace, He is precious to us.  For those with a works mentality who choose not to believe in His grace, they stumble and do not receive the life of God.

1 Peter 2:9-10  We see in these verses what darkness and light is.  If we approach God by our works and reject His grace, we are in pride and in darkness and are not the people of God.  If we trust in His grace and mercy, we are walking in His marvelous light. 

1 Peter 2:11-16 'Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God."  Our bodies are not yet redeemed, so they still have fleshly lusts and desires.  We are told to abstain from these fleshly lusts because they war against the soul.  Our soul or mind is where we understand the idea of Christ in us.  These fleshly lusts war against that image of Christ in us.  We ask ourselves the question, how can Christ live in me when I have these fleshly lusts or desires?  This is the fiery trial that Peter says we must pass through for Christ to be revealed in and through us.  See 1 Peter 1:5-7. Also, 1 Peter 4:1-2, 12-13.   If we give in to fleshly desires, it distorts the image of Christ in us.  It also prevents God's love from being revealed through us to others.  If we live in  selfishness and act immorally, that is when people call us evildoers and say we are just using grace or liberty as a cloak or covering for vice or sin.  When we walk in love, Christ and His love are expressed through us.  This is the process of maturity in the believer.  If we are then persecuted as Christ is revealed in us, we should rejoice. 

Most churches and pastors do not declare that all sins, even future sins, are forgiven.  They either do not understand it or they feel that people will just sin and run wild and they will lose control.  They declare that if Christians persist in sin, they might lose their salvation.  Others are declaring that Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of our entire lifetime.  But they seem to shy away from teaching obedience and the portions of the epistles that discuss holiness, as if that is putting people back under the law or trying to control people.  Peter and Paul both understood grace.  They were not schizophrenic, teaching grace for part of their epistle and then switching back to teaching law.  Hopefully everyone can see the grace of God in the teaching of holiness.  Our sins are forgiven by faith in His mercy and grace alone.  That is grace.  His same grace teaches us to walk in holiness, not as some prerequisite to gain entrance into heaven, but for our benefit in this life and for the benefit of those around us.

Keith Oliver