1 Peter Chapter 2

1 Peter Chapter 2:


“1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”


As a believer in Christ you are given a new life and a living hope, which we spoke about in chapter one. Due to the fact that we are given this new life, there is a certain expectations that a believer will begin to exhibit and follow as you grow. In this verse we are asked to put away all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. That means that you are allowing your relationship with Christ to create positive habits in your actions. In order to do that we need to excommunicate our bad habits that have developed over the years. 


When we give up the negative habits, God is allowed to work in our lives and is allowed to guide us toward maturity in our salvation. Through God’s work, we will become mature believers in Christ and that allows us to better develop our community. 


The verse continues by encouraging us to long for spiritual milk. In other words, we are spiritual  being at our core, therefore we connect with Jesus on a spiritual level. So, when we develop our spiritual connection with Jesus we become stronger, more mature Christians. As we put away the deceit and the negative habits, we begin to desire God’s spiritual guidance as we grow. It is through our spiritual desire to be connected to Jesus that we grow in stronger in our faith. 


“4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”


In this next section, we are shown that often when people turn to Jesus, often times they are broken and hopeless. These are the people that are often trying to define who they are by the value that others place on them. This passage shows that in those cases, the individual is often rejected by those that they are trying to impress. 


While the world sees the broken-hearted as worthless and common-day outcasts, Jesus sees them as chosen and precious. That means that when we feel rejected, hurt and hopeless, Jesus shows us love and grace. You are not alone! You are loved by God! 


COME TO JESUS!


The next segment of the passage shows that God uses our broken hearts and our hopelessness to create a community that shows God’s love to the community around them. When we give our brokenness to Jesus, He can use that to build a community that He then calls “ The Church!”


We see that God loves those that no body loves and no body cares for and God uses our brokenness to create a church that is being used to reveal or to show off how amazing and how excellent God is. 


When the world sees what Jesus has done to create a church of love and compassion, the people of the world will then turn to God and give him the glory.