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.”
Continuing Pastor Kyle’s
message, He explains that 1 Peter 1:1-3 can be divided into three main parts.
The first is the bad issues in our lives that do not resemble how we were
supposed to look in our walk with God. The second is talking about the longing
for the “good”, which the Apostle refers to as the pure milk of the word – God’s holy Word. The third part is
explained as growing up into a full awareness of salvation.
A lot of Christian never get
past that first part, which is about letting go of the vices of malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all
evil speaking, which constantly keep showing up in our lives. But, we also
long for the spiritual milk of the Word of God, though we struggle to put away
the unholy things that do not belong in our temple. The Apostle Paul tells us
in 1
Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you
not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy
him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Royal
priests know what does and does not belong in the temple.
1 Peter 2:4-7 “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. Therefore it is also contained in
the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and
he who believes on 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.”
1 Peter 2:4-7 discusses how
Jesus is the cornerstone upon which the temple of the priesthood of Believers
is built. The cornerstone was the foundational building block that was laid on
which everything else was built upon in the structure. Peter is clear that
Jesus is the cornerstone upon which the royal priesthood of all Believers is
built. As Believers are building their lives around the cornerstone of Christ,
the Apostle tells us that we are “living stones”. This priesthood of Believes
is not just about one person and God solo. It’s also about all believers
collectively in the body of Christ being the structure of the living temple. We
are living stones united in Christ. Verse 8 tells us that this cornerstone
shall tragically be, “a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the
word, to which they also were appointed.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But
you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a
people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but
now have obtained mercy.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 introduces
God’s people as being a royal priesthood. The Old Testament temple function of
Israel separated the priests and the king, but the Apostle is combining the
term of royalty and priesthood together to describe every single Believer for
all time. We get to carry the honor of royalty with the weight of the
priesthood because of what Christ has done. But, what does a good royal priest
look like?
The Israelite priests went
to great lengths to keep anything unholy and anything that wasn’t supposed to
be in the temple out. There were physical items that didn’t belong there, but
the most dangerous things were the spiritual ones in the priest’s heart. It is
very important for every priest to be “right” with God in their heart. Human
hearts are very easy to hide from other people, but we cannot hide our heart
from God. We are a part of the royal priesthood of Believers and should know
what does and does not belong in us as “living stones” in the temple of God.
How do we know what does and
does not belong in our heart as temple priests? Pastor Kyle says that most of
the things that do and do not belong becomes instinctive to us the moment that
we become a Christian. We know our sins and repent of them. God often puts the
“right” answer right in front of us. He doesn’t hide them from us. Brand new
Christians don’t understand much about Christian living at the start, but there
are some things that they instinctively long for as Believers; one being the pure milk of the word – God’s
holy Word. Something shifts inside of us, where previously seen spiritual
truths are brought to the forefront of our minds and we begin a different kind
of longing in our lives for that which is right.
God gives Believers and
non-believers a conscience. The difference between the two is that the Believer’s
conscience has been activated by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Once our spirit
has been regenerated and the conscience activated, by the Holy Spirit, we begin
to long for the things of the Lord; longing for what is “right” in the eyes of
the Lord. The more that the Believer walks in the Spirit and grows in the Lord,
they begin to get more and more spiritually powerful in their lives. Christians
instinctively and intuitively figure out what is “right” and “wrong” in God’s temple.
For those parts that do not come instinctively, they are taught to us.
Let’s continue Pastor Kyle’s
message on the “royal priesthood” in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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