Our Scripture Portion.

1 Peter 2:1‑10
You must open your Bible at the passage indicated anti follow this article with the Scripture before you, if you would get any real help. Space forbids quotations of any length from the passage so, as you read, refer to the Scripture and THINK.
If consequently fresh light begins to break in upon you, do not lightly turn from it, but pursue your searching of the Word on the point. It may open up to you a fruitful field of truth and you can resume your reading of the article on another occasion.
THE latter verses of chapter 1 have shown us that the new birth which has taken place with each believer has a purifying effect, therefore the first verse of chapter 2 takes it for granted that we lay aside those ugly features which are the nature of the flesh in us. Of the things specified, malice, envy and evil speaking’s specially concern our relations with our fellows, and they are particularly mentioned because Peter is now going to bring before us truth which shows us the believer in intimate relation with all his fellow-believers as a stone in a spiritual house, and as one of the priestly family. In such connections, nothing will proceed rightly unless these evils are laid aside.
It is not enough, however, to lay aside evil, we must go in for that which is good. We must not merely put on good as an outward dress or adornment, but imbibe it as spiritual food. There is “the sincere milk of the Word” suitable for the now-born babe, and we are to earnestly desire it. If we feed upon the Word we grow up. But even then we still need the Word, for it is meat for those of full age as well as milk for babes, as Hebrews 5:12-14,12For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12‑14) tells us.
This furnishes us with a very clear answer to the oft-repeated question—Why do some Christians make such good spiritual progress and some hardly any at all? Because some feed heartily and regularly upon pure, spiritual diet. They feast their souls upon the Word, whether as milk or meat. Others feed upon it but little and are half-starved spiritually. Others again, choke up their minds and hearts with light and foolish reading. Some go in for sentimental love stories, slightly flavored with the gospel perhaps; such, naturally, do not progress spiritually any more than a child would progress physically whose diet consisted only of sweetmeats. Others take up reading of a more intellectual sort but with a strain of infidelity in it; and progress no better than would the child brought up on solid food with small quantities of poison in it.
Food for our minds and hearts we must have. Let us see to it that it is the Word on which we feed, seeing it is by the Word we have been born again, if indeed, we have tasted the goodness of God—for all this supposes that we are truly converted people, that we have really come to the Lord.
And who and what is the Lord to whom we have come? He is the “Living Stone.” This is a remarkable title of our Lord. It sets Him forth as the One in whom is life, who became Man, and who, by death and resurrection, has become the Head and Foundation of this new structure which God is building composed of men who live through Him and in Him. He is the “chief corner stone, elect, precious” (verse 6), “the head of the corner” (verse 7). The men who, as “living stones,” have been built into this “house” of a living sort, became such by coming to Christ, the Living Stone.
Evidently, the Apostle Peter never forgot his first interview with the Lord Jesus, as recorded in John 1, and in these verses we have a definite allusion to it. John 1 introduces the Lord Jesus to us as the Word, in whom was life, become flesh that as Man He might die as the Lamb of God, and then in resurrection baptize with the Holy Ghost (verses 1, 4, 14, 29, 33). Then Andrew brings his brother Simon to Jesus, as the Christ. The Lord Jesus, knowing that which was before Him, and conscious of all that He Himself was—whatever Simon might know or not know Him to be—instantly assumed possession of him and changed his name to Peter, which means “a stone.” It was as though the Lord said to him, “Coming to Me in faith you have become—even though your faith is partial as yet and incomplete—of the same nature as Myself.”
Neither did Peter forget the subsequent interview recorded in Matthew 16. On this occasion Peter had confessed the Lord Jesus as the Son of the Living God, which was virtually to confess Him as the Living Stone. The Lord Jesus in reply reminded Simon that his real name now was Peter— “a stone” —while He Himself was the Rock; and that Peter as a stone was not to be left in isolation, but to be with others builded into the church or assembly which Christ called His own― “My Church.”
When the Lord Jesus spoke thus to Peter all was future, for He said, “I will build.” Now Peter writes to others who also had come to Christ and thereby become living stones, and he can speak of all as a present and existing thing, though not an absolutely completed thing. He says in verse 5, “Ye are built up”— or, “Ye are being built up a spiritual house.” A spiritual house they were, yet it was not a completed thing for other living stones were continually being added.
Now a house exists for its occupant, and we are thus builded together as a dwelling-place for GOD; not a material house of the sort they had been accustomed to as Jews, but a spiritual house. Moreover, where God dwells there He is to be praised and so, by His work and ordering, we fill a further capacity as “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” These spiritual sacrifices are “of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)).
Every true believer is a living store in the house, and a priest as belonging to this holy priesthood.
Had we approached one of the sons of Aaron and asked him how he became a priest, he would doubtless have told us that it was, firstly, by his birth; and that, secondly, being born of the priestly family, he was put into the priest’s office by the washing of water, the sprinkling with blood, and the anointing with oil, as ordered in Exodus 29. We, too, are priests by birth. Being born of God, we are priests of God. We, too, have had the washing of water by the Word (1:22, 23). We have been redeemed by blood, the precious blood of Christ (1:19) and we have received the Spirit, who was typified of the oil; though that particular feature is not brought before us in the passage we are considering. We have come to Christ (2:4), and thus we are priests, just as Aaron’s sons were priests as having come to Aaron, and being thus associated with him in the priest’s office.
Every believer today is then a priest. But we must remember that it is one thing to be a priest, another to really enter into and exercise our priestly functions. The first exercise of our priesthood is Godward, in the offering up of the sacrifice of praise. This is “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” for He is the Great High Priest, as the Epistle to the Hebrews makes so manifest. All that we offer we offer by Him; and this of course accounts for its acceptability to God, since He is the chosen One and precious in God’s sight, as the sixth verse shows.
It must never be forgotten, however, that He is not elect and precious, nor is He the acceptable One, in man’s esteem. The very reverse, He is disallowed and rejected. The fact is that man has become a disobedient creature as verse 7 reminds us. Instead of failing in with God’s plans, he wishes to push ahead with plans of his own. Instead of being content with God’s building and with being called to have a part in it as a living stone, man wishes to create a building on his own account—a building which shall conform to his own fallen ideas and result in his own glory. When the Lord Jesus appeared, men attempted to work Him into their building and failed. Had He consented to fall in with man’s ideas it would have been otherwise. They would have been delighted if so great a One as He had been a supporter of, or even a developer of, Roman government, or Greek philosophy, or Jewish religion. Coming as He did, on God’s behalf, He exposed their folly and fitted in with none of their notions. He was, as it were, a stone of such peculiar formation that there was not a single niche in the imposing temple of man’s fame where He fitted in. Hence He became “the stone which the builders disallowed,” and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” to the proud men who rejected Him, whilst being elevated of God into the headstone of the corner in the divine building.
Consequently, we who are priests of God in association with Him are no more of man’s building, of man’s world-system, than He is, though we have another priestly function which has direct reference to the world through which we pass. We are “a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession” — as verse 9 has been rendered. We are those whom God has chosen out and separated to Himself. In the coming age the kingly character of our priesthood will be more manifest than it is at present, but now we are commissioned to show forth the praises, the virtue or excellences, of God in this disobedient world. This is our priestly function man-ward.
In the coming age the saints are going to judge the world, as 1 Corinthians 6:22Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? (1 Corinthians 6:2) tells us. As kingly priests we shall then be commissioned to dispense His judgment. We are kingly priests today, but commissioned to dispense His excellent righteousness expressed in grace, to set forth His character as light and love. This, of course, we do even more by what we are than by what we say. It is the character and spirit and attitude of the royal priest that counts for so much.
Do some feel inclined to declare this all impossible task? Nay, not impossible! Difficult, perhaps, because not natural to us as men in the flesh, though natural enough to the born-again, redeemed, Spirit-indwelt priesthood to which we belong. Possible, indeed, because we ourselves have been the subjects of the grace that we are now to “show forth” to others. We have been called “out of darkness into His Marvelous light.”
Can you not imagine one of the converted Jews to whom Peter wrote, crying out at this point— “Darkness! But, Peter, you forget, we were never benighted heathen as were others”? For we, who were brought up in conditions controlled by an enlightened and Christianized civilization, might say the same. “I know it,” the Apostle would have replied, “but your Judaism was darkness, for all that.” God was not fully revealed, was not “in the light” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)), if Judaism be considered in its original purity. When it was corrupted into a mass of traditions and observances by the Pharisees it was darkness indeed.
All was darkness for us whether we were called out of Judaism or heathenism, or a nominal and corrupted Christianity, and now we are in a light which is marvelous; we are the people of God, having obtained mercy.
Marvelous light! Is this how we feel about it? The world plunges on, deeper and ever deeper into its darkness and unbelief. Its learned scientists and philosophers fill the air with triumphant shouting’s as to their investigations and their discoveries. Yet really they are as men who clutch at elusive shadows while their science is an enshrouding mist. Their discoveries enable them to do lots of clever and curious things in the world, but not a ray of light shines in them as to things beyond the grave. And here are we, put in the light of God fully revealed in. Christ, in the light of His grace, His purposes, His glory. Are we studying these things, so as to become even more and more enlightened, and consequently, luminous ourselves?
On a cloudless night at the season of full moon we get the benefit of our satellite shilling in the light of the sun. How marvelous must be the sunlight that can make a dark body shine so brightly! Well, the world is still in the dark, for its back is turned towards God. We are in the light of His truth and grace, — the light of the knowledge of Himself. How Marvelous that light is may be discerned in the fact that it can make dark and unattractive people, like to ourselves, show forth His excellences and reflect Himself.
Oh! to be more fully in the unclouded brightness of God’s Marvelous LIGHT.
F. B. HOLE.