1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Anytime you see a "therefore" in scripture it is best to find out what it is there for. In this instance, it is referring back to the last few verses of 1 Peter 1 which say:
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
Peter is using a conditional word here. That word is "Now" which implies an accomplished fact. So Peter is saying that now or since we have done this, we ought to rid ourselves of the bad things listed in verse 1 like lust, deceit, malice, envy, slander, etc. The result is that we will desire the sincere milk of the word to feed on to help us grow. If we have all of those evil traits still prevalent in our life, the last thing we are going to desire is to grow spiritually. In verse 2 Peter uses the phrase "grow UP in your salvation." Note he did not say "grow INTO your salvation" for this is impossible. Salvation is a one time, instantaneous act. It is not a process. The best analogy I can think of is a muscle. When you are born you already have the muscles in your body. However, if you want the muscles to grow you need to work them out. This ties into Philippians 2:12 which says "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Remember, we never work for our salvation but we do need to work it out or build upon it to help us grow spiritually. And why wouldn't we want to do this? Once we come to Christ for salvation and taste how good God is, we should want more. This is like the people in the supermarkets who give out free samples. They give you a "taste" so that once you have seen how good it is, you will go back for more. One of the examples in scripture is Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him."
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
8 and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Jesus is often referred to as "The Rock" (my apologies to Dwayne Johnson but he is NOT The Rock"). It's interesting though that the rock means different things to different people depending on their belief. For the Jews, Jesus is a stumbling block. For us who believe, Jesus is the precious cornerstone, the foundation of our faith. Unlike the insurance company slogan that suggests we "Get a piece of the rock", we need to not just get a piece of Jesus, but all of Jesus. Once we taste how good Jesus is we should be motivated to gravitate to Jesus with all we have and not just get a piece of Him when we are in desperate need.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Here Peter uses the word "soul" again. Soul is not used as in salvation at the time of death. Remember the Greek word for soul is "Psuche" which is where we get our modern word "Psyche" from which translates to roughly our mind, emotion and will. Our sinful desires war against our mind, emotion and will. Peter is saying that since we are foreigners here in this sinful world, we need to abstain from the very things that will harm our mind, emotion and will. We don't do this for our own glory, but so that the unbelieving population of this world will see our manner of living and know that we are different. This will cause some to want what we have, draw them to God, thus bringing honor and glory to God (not ourselves).
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
Here Peter is asking us to submit (not a popular word in today's society) to the human authority that is over us. We do this not for our sake, but for God's sake. For it is God who sets up rulers and takes down rulers. When we do not submit to the human rulers over us it is the same as not submitting to God Himself. Daniel 2:21 states " He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning." Peter also talks about how we are "free" in Christ but we should not use that freedom as a free pass to do evil. Galatians 5:13 speaks of this. "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."
Verse 17 (in so many words) reiterates the basic commandment of Jesus as we are to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. This ties in with fearing God and showing proper respect to everyone.
18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
In these verses Peter is compelling us to not be like the rest of the world. He uses the example of suffering. If we bring the suffering upon ourselves (through our sin) and endure it, we are no different than the world. However, if we suffer for doing right and endure, then it is commendable to God. Jesus is our example. He became sin who knew no sin, suffered, bled and died for us. He took all the suffering and pain that we deserved to have taken. If you are a follower of Christ you can expect to suffer from time to time. In fact, if you never suffer then you need to examine yourself to see if you are really following Christ or not.
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer o
Jesus is our example in the area of how we are to react when we receive harsh criticism from others or are persecuted by others.
Psalm 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
Matthew 5:39
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
We are not to seek our own retaliation. We are to respond in love and trust that God our Father will take care of us and those who persecute us. Romans 12:19 "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
There was a commercial slogan for a bathroom cleaner called "Scrubbing Bubbles" that said "We work hard, so you don't have to." Well Jesus bore our sins, so we don't have to. He did this so we might die to our sins and live by righteousness. This is the good news of the Gospel and it is the basis of Grace. Jesus took what we deserved so we wouldn't have to. This is the highest form of love that has ever been.
This is not to say we will not sin and "go astray". It means that when we do (when, not if), Jesus, our chief shepard, will be there to welcome us back, discipline us if need be and protect us going forward.
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