Peter's Letters
3 - Living Godly Lives
One of the themes of Peter’s first letter is how to live godly lives in a godless world. The pagan world of his day was riddled with gods of this, that and the other. How do we know our God is the right God? The word ‘god’ is very elastic and can refer to any old god. Here’s the test for discovering the true God. Is He the One revealed in history in Jesus of Nazareth? In 1 Peter 1 verses 20 to 21 we read that Jesus Christ ‘was chosen before the creation of the world.’ Note He was a Redeemer before He was Creator. His redeeming purpose was not an emergency measure. “He was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God.” Jesus is the revealer of God. We do not know the true God until we see Him in the face of Jesus Christ. It is this God who raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Peter continues, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers – ‘sincere’ literally means ‘un-hypocritical’ – love one another deeply, from the heart” (verse 22). The Authorised Version says ‘fervently.’ I guess our love seldom gets beyond temperate and never to boiling point.
It was Peter who declared that Christ alone had the words of eternal life (John 6 verse 68). He knew that the Word of God, the Scripture, is God’s means of inducing the new birth. The Christian is remade by the entry into Him of the seed of the Word. We have been born again of imperishable seed. The living and enduring word of God implanted within us is ‘imperishable’ (verse 23). Our inheritance ‘can never perish’ (verse 4) and we were redeemed ‘not with perishable things such as silver or gold’ (verse 18).
Peter emphasises that God is the Father of His children by likening the Word of God to human sperm. The Latin Vulgate uses the word semen. It is God’s life which enters dead human souls through the Word and makes them live.
Peter quotes some lines from Isaiah chapter 40. “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands for ever.” It brings to mind the old hymn which went “We blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree, and wither and perish but nought changeth Thee.” Man’s glory simply does not last, but God’s glory is eternal. Everything God is and does is characterised by glory. He is glorious in wisdom and power. All He thinks and does is marked by glory.
Chapter 2 begins with an exhortation to do some spring-cleaning. The responsibility is ours; the resources are His. “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind” (verse 1). The word preached to you has brought life to you so strip off all malice – that’s the positive desire to do someone else harm. Malice is an unforgiving spirit. Strip off all deceit which has its root in the word for bait which attracts fish to certain death. Sir Walter Scott wrote, “O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.” Strip off hypocrisy (sham pretence) envy and slander of every kind – disparaging gossip, evil speaking which slays character and splits the church of Jesus Christ. There can be no brotherly love as long as these evil things exist. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that it’s necessary to urge Christians to surrender such obvious evils as these. No Christian can stay the way he is. We are to go on to maturity. How embarrassing it would be to go into the presence of God as still a burping baby. So Peter writes, “Like new-born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (verses 2 and 3).
How does a Christian grow? By studying the Word of God and doing it. There is no growth apart from the Word of God. A preacher held a baby. It was bawling its head off, but as soon as it saw the milk bottle, it started moving its hands, mouth and feet and reaching out for it with every part of its body. The preacher said, “I wish I had a congregation that would reach out after the Word of God like that!”
Have you a craving for God? David said “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God! My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42 verses 1 and 2). Are you hungry for God and His word like that? How vital is the Bible to you? Is it just something you hunt for each week so you can take it to church to make you look religious? Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4 verse 4). Stunted growth can occur when we stop feeding on God’s Word.
Peter’s first letter has more Old Testament references than any other letter in the New Testament except Romans which is three times longer. Quoting from Isaiah and Psalms Peter says Jesus is “a chosen and precious cornerstone” (Isaiah 28 verse 16) laid by God in Zion. Jesus is “the stone the builders rejected” (Psalm 118 verse 22) who has become the capstone or cornerstone. Jesus is also “a stone that causes men to stumble” (Isaiah 8 verse 14).
Peter calls Jesus ‘the living stone.’ Verses 4 and 5 read, “As you come to Him, the living stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. Jesus Himself is the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and in Him we’re built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
Peter writes, “Now to you who believe, this stone is precious” (verse 7). Spurgeon said, “Let the thought of what life would be without Him enhance His preciousness.” As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Corinthians 3 verse 11).