1 Peter 2: Living Stones

Today’s reading is 1 Peter 2.

As we learned yesterday, Christ’s church is likened to the temple. Jesus is the cornerstone. If we will believe and obey, He will be our cornerstone of refuge, shelter, and protection. If not, He will be the rock of offense on which we will stumble and fall.

Peter takes the metaphor further. We aren’t merely people standing on the foundation which is Jesus. We ourselves are like Him. He is a living stone. We are living stones. We are being built up into the spiritual house for the dwelling place of God (see also Ephesians 2:19-22).

But Peter’s point is not simply to provide a neat metaphor. His metaphor demonstrates a purpose. We are being built into this house in order to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. No, we won’t be sacrificing animals. But we will offer the sacrifices of praise and worship to God and service and sharing to one another (see Hebrews 13:15-16).

Our purpose is now to proclaim His excellencies. He has called us out of darkness into marvelous light. He has given us mercy. We are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).

We do not simply proclaim His excellencies when we are assembled to worship. We proclaim His excellencies all the time. That is our job. That is our purpose. That is why God has built us into His house.

But, of course, be aware the subtle message. If Jesus, the living stone, was rejected by men, we as living stones will be rejected by men. Yet, we can hang on to Jesus and we will be chosen, precious stones in God’s eyes. Men may belittle us, but God will value us and choose us for His household.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is 1 Peter 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does 1 Peter 2 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Do Good to Everyone

Today’s reading is Galatians 6.

I look forward to the day when I read through the Bible and quit discovering statements I’ve taken out of context. That may not happen until eternity, but I look forward to that day too. Too often, I get caught up in debates and issues (and those must be dealt with), make a specific application (and usually they do apply), and lose sight of what was actually being said in the original flow of the text, forgetting that the debate application was actually secondary in the passage.

For instance, Paul tells me to “do good to everyone, and especially to those of the household of faith.” This verse gets dragged out in discussions about benevolence and social gospel as if Paul laid down a legal stipulation for Christian living. We argue about the verse making our various cases for what the lines and nuances of the rule are. This is an odd approach for a verse in a letter all about how we won’t be saved by keeping a list of legal stipulations.

Galatians 5:10 begins with “So then” (ESV). In other words, this is a concluding statement. Paul has just told us some things leading up to this admonition. Why is he telling us to do good work for all? Not because of how beneficial doing good to others is to them, but because of how beneficial doing good to others is for us. When we take the opportunities presented to us to do good for others, we are sowing to the Spirit. The Spirit will take those seeds and grow His fruit which ultimately results in eternal life if and only if we take the opportunities we have to do good.

The hindrance is doing good is work. It is tiresome, toilsome work. It is often inconvenient. It is often a sacrifice. Further, we can spend a long time doing it without seeing results. And again, we aren’t talking about the results in the lives of others, but in ourselves. However, Paul says, if we keep on sowing to the Spirit, we will eventually reap the Spirit’s life. If we keep doing good with every opportunity we have, especially when we do so for those in the household of faith, we will see corruption fading and life growing in us. We will see progressive victory over the works of the flesh and increasing growth of the Spirit’s fruit.

I get it. I often want to take time off. I’d often rather put off until tomorrow doing good. But don’t grow weary. You’ll gain the fruit, you’ll reap the life if you take today’s opportunities and do good with them.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 6.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is doing good tiresome and wearying?
3. What excuses do we make to put off doing good for others, especially for the household of faith?
4. What advice would you give others to provoke us to keep up doing good as we have opportunity?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?