c. How to advance in holiness (2:1–10)
c. How to advance in holiness (2:1–10)
1. Be nourished by the Lord through the word (2:1–3)
1. So put away resumes the line of argument which was interrupted by verses 23 to 25. The word so, or ‘therefore’, refers back to the command ‘love one another’ in verse 22. This verse explains in more detail what is involved in loving one another ‘earnestly’: one must put away (give up, get rid of) attitudes and habits which are harmful to others. This same verb (apotithēmi) is used of taking off clothing (Acts 7:58), but also metaphorically to exhort Christians to ‘put off wrongful practices (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22, 25; Col. 3:8; Heb. 12:1; Jas 1:21). It makes little difference whether the verb, which is a participle in Greek, is translated as an imperative (RSV, NIV) or as a participle dependent on the command ‘long for’ in verse 2 (NASB), for in both cases the force of a command is expressed.
Genuine love requires ridding one’s life of all malice (the Gk. term kakia is broader, nearer to English ‘evil’ or ‘wickedness’, including not only ill intent but also any actions harmful to others), all guile (i.e. deceitfulness that harms others through trickery or falsehood), insincerity (or hypocrisy, the masking of inward evil by an outward show of righteousness—note this word in Matt. 23:28; Mark 12:15; Gal. 2:13), envy (the opposite of thankfulness for good which comes to others), and all slander (any speech which harms or is intended to harm another person’s status, reputation, etc.—the related verb is used in 2:12; 3:16; Jas 4:11). All these sins aim at harming other people, whereas love seeks the good of others.
2. No new sentence begins here in the Greek text, and the connection Peter intended is probably best preserved by the NASB: ‘Therefore, putting aside (v. 1) … long for the pure milk … (v. 2).’ Peter implies that ‘putting away’ unloving practices (v. 1) is necessary for spiritual growth (v. 2), for the two verses are part of one long command. Someone who is practising ‘deceit’ or ‘envy’ or ‘slander’ will not be able truly to long for ‘pure spiritual milk’.
Like newborn babes does not imply that Peter thought of his readers as young or immature Christians, for some of them had been Christians for thirty years (see Introduction, p. 39). It only says that they are to long for spiritual milk in the same way that new babies long for milk (eagerly, frequently)—a metaphor easily understood by any parent whose sleep has been interrupted by the crying of a young baby hungry for milk. Milk in this context does not represent elementary Christian teaching (as it does in a different metaphor in 1 Cor. 3:2 and Heb. 5:12–13, where milk is contrasted with meat or solid food), but rather something to be eagerly desired for nourishment.
The readers are to long for this pure spiritual milk. The verb suggests an intense personal desire (note its use in Ps. 42:1 (LXX 41:2), of longing for God; Ps. 84:2 (LXX 83:3), of longing for the courts of the Lord; also Phil. 1:8; 2:26; 2 Tim. 1:4).
Pure (adolos) when applied to objects like wheat or wine has the sense ‘pure, unadulterated’ (MM, p. 10, gives several examples from Greek papyri), so the spiritual milk in view here is free from all impurities. (If this ‘pure milk’ is the written word of God—as is argued below—then this adjective implies that Scripture is free from impurity or imperfection, that it will not deceive or lead astray its readers, and that it affirms no falsehood.)
Spiritual (logikos) though often used with the sense of ‘reasonable, rational’ can mean ‘mental, in idea only, i.e. figurative, not literal’ (cf. T.Levi 3:6 and Corpus Hermeticum 1.31, which speak of ‘spiritual’ [not literal] sacrifices or offerings). This seems to be the force of logikos in Romans 12:1, its only other New Testament occurrence—‘your spiritual worship’. So here it seems to mean ‘long for pure figurative (not literal) milk’.
But what is this pure spiritual milk? Several contextual considerations favour a reference to the written word of God, the Scriptures (whether read or listened to, cf. Col. 4:16; 1 Tim. 4:13): (1) the word of God has just been mentioned extensively in the previous three verses (vv. 23–25), thus, no new idea needs to be introduced into the context; (2) the fact that the word of God is said to be ‘living’ (v. 23) suits not only the idea that it is life-generating (v. 23) but also the idea that it is life-giving and capable of nourishing and sustaining life, enabling Christians to ‘grow up to salvation’ (v. 2); (3) the idea that the word of God is spiritually nourishing is consistent with statements elsewhere in Scripture which would be familiar to Peter and his readers (Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4); (4) the purity of God’s word is an Old Testament concept which would also be familiar to them (Ps. 12:6; 18:8; 119:96), and would fit the imagery of ‘pure’ milk better than any other option; (5) the idea of ‘longing’ for God’s word is also an Old Testament concept, and one which is twice expressed with the same verb (epipotheō) used by Peter (Ps. 119 (LXX 118) 120, 131); (6) reading or listening to God’s word involves a process of taking information into oneself, a process more readily represented by a metaphor of drinking milk (taking it ‘into’ one’s body) than some other activities—such as prayer or worship—which more clearly involve ‘giving out’ words of prayer or praise.
By taking in pure spiritual milk, those whom Peter addresses will grow up to salvation, i.e. grow towards Christian maturity (‘salvation’ is used in a similar sense in 1:5; see note there). Grow up is used elsewhere both of physical (Luke 1:80; 2:40) and spiritual growth (Eph. 4:15; Col. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:18).
3. For you have tasted the kindness of the Lord gives an additional reason for the command to long for pure spiritual milk. The statement ‘the kindness of the Lord’ is in Greek more literally, ‘that the Lord is good’, an exact quotation from the LXX of Psalm 34:8 (LXX 33:9), ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good.’ (Peter also uses the same verb for ‘taste’, but in a different tense; in both cases the word is used as a forceful metaphor for ‘come to know by experience’; cf. Matt. 16:28; John 8:52; Heb. 2:9; 6:4.) The context of the Psalm encourages delight in the Lord for the fact that he daily provides for all the needs of those who trust him, and the fact that the Lord is ‘good’ or ‘kind’ (chrestos, used also in Luke 5:39; 6:35; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 4:32) emphasizes his habit of bringing all sorts of good blessings to the lives of his people.
But how can the goodness of the Lord (v. 3) be a reason to long for the words of Scripture (v. 2)? The connection is more natural than it first appears. Peter is assuming that the words of Scripture are the words of the Lord, so to read or listen to Scripture is to hear the Lord speak, to take his good and nourishing words into one’s heart. To drink the milk of the Word is to ‘taste’ again and again what he is like, for in the hearing of the Lord’s words believers experience the joy of personal fellowship with the Lord himself. Moreover, those words give direction into his ‘good’ paths for life (cf. Ps. 34:12–16, quoted in 1 Pet. 3:10–12) and give promises of his continued ‘goodness’ in time of need (cf. Ps. 34:7–10 and 2 Pet. 1:4). It is significant that the ‘Lord’ of Psalm 34:8 is here seen to be the one to whom believers come in faith and worship (v. 4), the ‘living stone’ (v. 4), the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 5): thus, the Lord who is the source of spiritual delight for Old Testament saints is now in the New Covenant seen to be the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom our soul delights.
2. Abide in Christ—together—as the new temple of God (2:4–6)
4. This verse begins a new section (vv. 4–10) in which Peter uses extensive Old Testament imagery to show that New Testament believers (both Jew and Gentile) are in fact a new ‘people of God’ who have come to possess all the blessings of Old Testament Israel but in far greater measure.
Come to him employs a verb (proserchomai) frequently used in the LXX of ‘drawing near’ to God, either to hear him speak (Lev. 9:5; Deut. 4:11; 5:27) or to come into his presence in the tabernacle to offer sacrifices (Exod. 12:48; 16:9; Lev. 9:7–8; 10:4–5; etc.). It is also used in Hebrews as a specialized term for ‘drawing near’ to God in worship (Heb. 4:16; 7:25; 10:1, 22; 11:6; 12:18, 22). Peter’s choice of the term here may have been suggested by its use in Psalm 34:5 (LXX: ‘Draw near to him’). By this expression Peter hints, in a theme to be made explicit later in the sentence, that all believers now enjoy the great privilege, reserved only for priests in the Old Testament, of ‘drawing near’ to God in worship. But rather than coming to the altar or even to the holy place in the Jerusalem temple, they now come ‘to him’ in whom ‘the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily’ (Col. 2:9).
Though the RSV opts for an imperative, ‘Come to him’, the verbal form is actually a participle, and its relation to the main verb in verse 5 must be determined from the context. Because the verb in verse 5 is best taken as indicative (‘you are being built’; see discussion below), the relation between verses 4 and 5 is well expressed by the NASB, ‘And coming to Him … you … are being built’ (cf. NIV, ‘As you come to him … you … are being built’, which catches the simultaneous nature of the ‘coming’ and ‘being built’, but misses the continuous sense of the present participle). This gives the sense, ‘As you continually come to Christ (in initial faith, then in worship and prayer) you are yourselves being built into a spiritual house.’ The verb ‘being built’ has the sense ‘being built up, growing’ when it refers to the building up of the church: Acts 9:31; 1 Cor. 8:1; 10:23; 14:4, 17; 1 Thess. 5:11. Personal devotion to Christ through the word also increases corporate integration into the church.
Christ is called a living stone—a daring metaphor (for stones do not live), but one already suggested by Jesus’ own application of Psalm 118:22 (‘the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner’) to himself (Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; cf. Peter’s own statement in Acts 4:11). Peter is about to quote three Old Testament ‘stone’ prophecies and apply them to Christ (Isa. 28:16 in v. 6; Ps. 118:22 in v. 7; Isa. 8:14 in v. 8), and his imagery here must be understood in the light of those verses. The fact that Christ is the living stone shows at once his superiority to an Old Testament temple made of dead stones, and reminds Christians that there can be no longing for that old way of approach to God, for this way is far better.
Though rejected by men, Christ is in God’s sight chosen and precious. ‘Rejected’, ‘chosen’, and ‘precious’ are all taken from the vocabulary of the LXX (Ps. 118:22 and Isa. 28:16). The sentence contrasts the world’s estimate of Christ with God’s estimate, and warns the readers that while coming to Christ is to side with God, it will mean being opposed by ‘men’ (Peter appropriately speaks of ‘men’ generally here, allowing a wider application in these churches in the Gentile world, whereas Jesus had made specific application to unbelieving Jews: Matt. 21:45). The term chosen echoes Peter’s use of the same term to apply to Christians in 1:1 (see note there). Precious means ‘highly valued or esteemed’, an apt term to describe God’s evaluation of his Son and also to suggest how believers should always esteem their Lord.
5. And like living stones extends the ‘stone’ imagery in a remarkable way to Peter’s readers, now portraying not only Christ but also Christians as ‘stones’ that live (cf. Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Cor. 3:10–15; Heb. 3:2–6; and Matt. 16:18, all of which in various ways liken the church to a building). The Greek text begins this verse with two words meaning ‘even you yourselves’ (… like living stones are being built into a spiritual house), further emphasizing the amazing fact that these humble believers also, like Christ, have become living stones precious to God.
These ‘people-stones’ are being built into a spiritual house. The word ‘house’ (oikos) is often used to refer to God’s house, the Jerusalem temple (1 Kgs 5:5; Isa. 56:7; Matt. 12:4; 21:13; Mark 2:26; Luke 11:51; John 2:16), and the mentioning of priesthood, sacrifices, and ‘coming near’ (to God in worship; see note on v. 4), all in this sentence, make it almost certain that Peter has in mind the house where God dwells, the temple of God (cf. also 1 Tim. 3:15). Thus the NEB rightly translates this phrase, ‘built … into a spiritual temple’ (cf. Phillips, ‘into a spiritual House of God’). (See also Additional note below.)
Thus Peter encourages Christians to think of themselves as the living stones of God’s new temple. But what is the appropriate visual image corresponding to this metaphor? We might try picturing ourselves as changed, thinking of ourselves as block-like but animated stones, being fitted into the shape of a large rectangular temple. But that image makes it difficult to understand how Christians can be both the stones of the temple and the priests who offer … sacrifices. It is better to change our visual image of a temple, so that we no longer think of a rectangular building made of stones but of an amorphous ‘building’ that continually takes on the changing dimensions of God’s assembled people. The beauty of this new and living ‘temple made of people’ should no longer be expensive gold and precious jewels, but the imperishable beauty of holiness and faith in Christians’ lives, qualities which much more effectively reflect the glory of God (cf. 1 Pet. 3:4; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Spiritual (pneumatikos) when applied to ‘house’ and ‘sacrifices’ does not mean ‘immaterial’ (for the believers are not ‘immaterial’ persons!), but rather ‘influenced or dominated by the Holy Spirit; sharing the character of the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 1:11; 1 Cor. 2:13, 15; 12:1; Gal. 6:1; Col. 3:16). Christians are a new temple of God under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit.
The main verb of this sentence could be either imperative (‘be built’, so RSV and NEB) or indicative (‘you … are being built’, so NIV, NASB, AV). Since the verb forms would be exactly the same in both cases, the sense must be decided from the context. The indicative is preferable here for two reasons: (1) It is difficult to gain a coherent idea of what Peter might have meant people to do in response to a command to ‘be built’. But the statement of fact, ‘you are being built’, makes good sense and would encourage the readers to appreciate their spiritual status as ‘living stones’. (2) Both NEB and RSV, in order to make sense of what they take to be the command ‘be built’, must shift the main imperatival force back to the participle in verse 4 and translate it, ‘Come to him’. But if Peter’s main command was to come to Christ (and thus be built up), it would have been much more clearly conveyed by making the verb ‘come’ an imperative. (Note the contrast with vv. 1–2, where the main force is not in the participle ‘putting away’ but in the imperative ‘long for’.)
There is encouragement in these verses, then, in this sense: ‘As you (keep on) coming to Christ (in worship, in prayer and praise), you are (continually) being built up into a spiritual temple, a place in which God more and more fully dwells.’
They are also functioning as a holy priesthood, a phrase which combines two words from the LXX of Exod. 19:6, where God had promised that if his people were faithful they would be to him ‘a royal priesthood and a holy nation’ (cf. Exod. 23:22; Isa. 61:6).
As priests, believers offer not the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant, but spiritual sacrifices, which the New Testament elsewhere identifies as the offering of our bodies to God for his service (Rom. 12:1), the giving of gifts to enable the spread of the gospel (Phil. 4:18), the singing of praise (Heb. 13:15), and the doing of good and sharing our possessions (Heb. 13:16). These varied examples encourage us to think that anything we do in service to God can be thought of as a ‘spiritual sacrifice’ acceptable to God, a continual sweet aroma that ascends to his throne and brings him delight. With this New Testament perspective on ‘sacrifice’, all the Old Testament passages about sacrifices can be read in a new light.
‘Spiritual sacrifices’ must be offered through Jesus Christ, for only through him are Christians qualified to be priests to God—or to do anything pleasing in God’s sight.
This verse thus gives explicit statement to the doctrine of the ‘priesthood of believers’. Since all who come to Christ are now a holy priesthood, able continually to ‘draw near’ to God’s very presence and offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, there can no longer be an elite priesthood with claims of special access to God, or special privileges in worship or in fellowship with God. To try to perpetuate such a ‘priesthood’ distinct from the rest of believers is to attempt to maintain an Old Testament institution which Christ has abolished once for all. Every single Christian can now ‘with confidence draw near to the throne of grace’ (Heb. 4:16), and corporate worship among Christians should always be a wonderful entrance into the very presence of God.
6. Peter now supports his affirmation in verses 4 and 5 with several Old Testament quotations. He says, For it stands in scripture, indicating that what the Old Testament said was conclusive evidence in an argument, able to be trusted completely. Scripture translates the word graphē, which was used as a technical term by the New Testament authors to refer to the writings of our present canonical Old Testament (all fifty-one of its New Testament occurrences refer to the Old Testament scriptures, and never once is it used to refer to any writings of the Apocrypha or any other writings outside the Bible; however, in 1 Tim. 5:18 and 2 Pet. 3:16, some New Testament writings are included along with the Old Testament under this term.
The first quotation is from Isaiah 28:16, where God promises that he will reject the rebellious leaders in Jerusalem and establish as a ‘sure foundation’ a cornerstone chosen and precious. The fact that it would be the cornerstone, the first stone laid as the corner of the ‘foundation’ (Isa. 28:16), indicates that the original prophecy was a prediction of the beginning of a new work by God which would stand in opposition to the leaders rejected by him (Isa. 28:14–15, 17–22). The fact that the stone is laid as a foundation stone in Zion, the location of the Jerusalem temple, hints at the idea that this new work would in fact replace the Jerusalem temple, something Peter has already made explicit in verses 4 and 5. (On the words chosen and precious, see the notes at v. 4.)
Peter follows the LXX text (most manuscripts) but not the Hebrew text in including in him after he who believes, but once this ‘stone’ is understood to be a person the idea is not foreign to the context. Paul also includes ‘in him’ in quoting the same passage in Rom. 9:33 and 10:11, and similarly applying it to Christ.
The fact that ‘he who believes in him’ will not be put to shame indicates that there will be no ultimate disappointment or embarrassment (at having one’s faith shown to have been in vain) for those who trust in this sure cornerstone, Christ himself.