Priests in the Temple (1 Peter 2:4-8)

Often when we meet someone for the first time we will ask them who they are, who they belong to, and what they do. Those questions come at different levels, and they can be asked of us as Christians. And Peter answers those questions in this passage. These verses are not the only occasion in this letter when he does so. Here he alludes to several Old Testament roles and cites a couple of Old Testament verses.

An activity – coming to Jesus

The activity is said to be that they come to Jesus, following on from what Peter said in the previous verse about tasting that the Lord is good. It is an ongoing activity (a present plural participle). This means that it should be a constant and corporate response, although there is a conditional element. It should be constant because the Lord is the only source of grace; it should be corporate because believers don’t have different sources; yet it is conditional because what Peter goes on to say about Christians depends on them coming to Jesus for his benefits. Those consequences are not automatic. If we don’t go to Jesus for them, we will not have them. If we don’t use the personal means of grace and the public means of grace, there is no other way to receive them.

 

A description of Jesus – the living stone

Peter, when referring to a spiritual house in the next clause, may have had in mind what Jesus had said to him about building his church. In this house, there is a living stone that they all come to. 

 

How is he a living stone? I think the answer is connected to his resurrection which followed his rejection by men. They had expression their rejection by bringing about his death, but he could not be held by death. There may also be a connection to him receiving the Holy Spirit in a greater way at his ascension in order to give spiritual life to sinners. In any case, the rejected One is now the risen one. 

 

Why is he a called a living stone? The answer is given in the following verses which refer to him as a cornerstone. The cornerstone was part of the foundation, but it was the stone that held the foundation stones together, making it secure for other stones to be placed on top of it. The cornerstone would need to be able to bear the weight of all the stones placed on it, as well as ensuring that the stones remained united. 

 

What does God think of the living stone? Peter says that the Father regards Jesus as ‘chosen and precious’, a description that comes from Isaiah 28:6. The ability of God to see is eternal and he can assess the value of what he observes. The Father has observed his Son from when he was chosen to be the mediator in the eternal counsels (the Son was chosen for this role from eternity). 

 

The estimation of the Father concerning the Mediator is that he is precious, meaning that he is highly valued by God. Even in the Old Testament, we are told that the Father was pleased with his Son: ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights’ (Isa. 42:1). We can see something of that fatherly appreciation in the ways that he spoke about Jesus at his baptism and at his Transfiguration. His reward of glory in heaven and in the future tells us how much the Father valued the sacrifice of the Mediator.

 

A description of believers – the holy priesthood

Peter then says that his readers are living stones; they have spiritual life. As stones, they are part of an amazing building project, the erection of the church of Christ, which is and will be the dwelling place of God. The stones are unusual because they get bigger as well through growth in stature. It is not just the building that is an ongoing project; each of the stones are also in the process of development because they grow spiritually. This growth is inevitable because they are alive spiritually.

 

Believers are not only the stones in the new temple of the Lord, they are also the priesthood in the temple. They are a holy priesthood because they have been consecrated to the Lord’s service. The priesthood in the Old Testament were privileged in the sense that they were given a special place above the other Israelites. That does not happen in the New Testament. In the church, there is only one kind of priesthood, and every believer belongs to it. There is a danger that the notion of religious priests makes us reluctant to use this language. But one of the important rediscoveries at the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers. 

 

Consecration is an important feature of Christian living. It is not defined by what we might do at the close of a service, although there is no harm in having a prayer of dedication. Rather it is something that God has done for his people, a privilege that he has given to them to be his special servants. This consecration marks everything that they do. It does not mean that they will be sinless, but it does mean that they will be different from all others. They are a holy priesthood, doing what pleases God.

 

A description of what believers do – sacrifices 

They ‘offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’. What kind of sacrifices can they offer? Paul tells us in Romans 12 that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, which basically means that everything about us belongs to the Lord (my hands, feet, eyes etc). 

Another sacrifice that we offer to God is continuous praise: ‘Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name’ (Heb. 13:15). 

A third form of sacrifice is giving financially or otherwise to the Lord, as indicated by Paul to the Philippians when thanking them for the gift they had sent to him through Epaphroditus: ‘I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God’ (Phil. 4:18). 

A fourth sacrifice that we offer is sharing what we have: ‘Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God’ (Heb. 13:16).

 

The contrast between believers and unbelievers

Peter mentions in verse 6 that God’s people will not be put to shame. This promise is taken from Isaiah 28 where it indicated that God’s people would not have to flee in haste from a powerful enemy or to be in a panic because of a threat that would destroy them. The Israelites were shamed by the exile from their land. 

Instead believers now have the great honour, given to them by God, of being living stones, priests in his house. Older versions rendered this as indicating believers found Jesus precious, but the word translated precious means honour. The idea is that God has honoured them because Jesus is precious to him.

 

In contrast to those who believe, there are those who refuse to believe. Because they reject the cornerstone, they will trip over it and stumble (Peter quotes another verse from Isaiah here, 8:14). Rejecting and being offended at Jesus has consequences for those that react that way. They fall without rising again. 

Peter indicates that their response is connected to the sovereignty of God, a reminder that if we have received salvation, it is because God planned it and not because we deserved it or merited it, even by our faith.

 

Applications

First, we should observe that the stones that God originally rejected because of their sins are built on the One that man rejected because of his faithfulness to God. Another reminder of how different are the thoughts of God from ours, and his ways past finding out.

 

Second, we have been consecrated to the service of God, which means that all of life has significance provided it is done for him. In the Old Testament, good priests like Eli could be disobedient, and we have to watch that we do not imitate him by failing to be what we should be as God’s people. 

 

Third, Peter told his readers that, although they were being persecuted, they had been given a great honour by God to live for Jesus day by day.