From Pastor Perry

1 Peter 2:18–25 (ESV)

A Living Stone and a Holy People

¹⁸ Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. ¹⁹ For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. ²⁰ For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. ²¹ For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Scripture never teaches that those who follow Jesus will be immune to suffering. Just as Jesus, our sinless Savior, faced unjust suffering and death, so we may be called to take up our own cross to follow Him. But if God gives us a cross to carry, He also promises to give us the strength to bear it by faith. Christ our Shepherd calls us by name, brings us into His fold through the Gospel, and cares for us in the midst of suffering. We are honored to follow Him.

I pray: Gracious God, we praise You for Your mercy through Your Son, who bore our sins in His body on the tree. Give us grace to reach out to our enemies with the power of Your Gospel, which works faith and saves eternally. Amen.

1 Peter 2:13–17 (ESV)

Submission to Authority

¹³ Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

God establishes governments for His good.  We are called to be good citizens and to be subject to the authorities as long as they don’t go against God’s will.  We are to live according to our Christian freedoms, yet not using our freedoms as a cover to do what is wrong.  Verse 17 states: “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood.  Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

I pray: O Lord, help to be a living example and witness by walking according to your ways.   Amen.

1 Peter 2:9–12 (ESV)

A Living Stone and a Holy People

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Notice that we did not choose to be part of the chosen race… “But you are a chosen race.”  God is doing the choosing.  He has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.  We are to walk away from the old ways… the ways of the flesh.  Instead, we are to live to glorify God.

I pray: O Lord, help me to flee the darkness and to seek the light.  Amen.

1 Peter 2:6–8 (ESV)

A Living Stone and a Holy People

⁶ For it stands in Scripture:

       “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious,

       and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

       “The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

⁸ and

       “A stone of stumbling,

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Jesus is the cornerstone, the founder of the Christian Church.  The cornerstone is the first stone laid when laying a foundation for a building.  I must be cut just right and laid in the right spot, because the cornerstone dictates the angles of the wall and the direction of the building.  The Church’s One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord!

I pray: O Lord, Jesus is our foundation for the church and we put our hope and trust in Him alone.  Amen.

1 Peter 2:1–5 (ESV)

A Living Stone and a Holy People

2 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.

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.

Like infants crave milk, we too should crave spiritual milk… the Word of God, forgiveness, eternal life, and heaven (the Kingdom of God).  If we are not seeking these things, then we have spiritual problems.  We are a living stone, chosen by God.

I pray: O Lord, help me to keep my eyes focused on you and let your Word shape me according to your will, not mine.  Amen.