Question of the day: What is the difference between living and existing for you? Or what does it look like when you are really LIVING?
Good morning Class.
READ: 1 Peter 2:1-10
2 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.
The Living Stone and a Chosen People
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[a] 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.”
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,
8 and,
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.
We are going to start off today by looking at this first paragraph and this list of words.
Malice
Google definition: the intention or desire to do evil; ill will
Blue Letter Bible: kakia
κακία kakía, kak-ee'-ah; from G2556; badness, i.e. (subjectively) depravity, or (actively) malignity, or (passively) trouble:—evil, malice(-iousness), naughtiness, wickedness.
Deceit
Google definition: the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth.
Blue Letter Bible: dolos
δόλος dólos, dol'-os; from an obsolete primary verb, δέλλω déllō (probably meaning to decoy; compare G1185); a trick (bait), i.e. (figuratively) wile:—craft, deceit, guile, subtilty.
When I googled Deceit guess what came up? A video game called deceit... talk about the practice of...
Hypocrisy
Google definition:the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.
Blue Letter Bible: hypokrisis
ὑπόκρισις hypókrisis, hoop-ok'-ree-sis; from G5271; acting under a feigned part, i.e. (figuratively) deceit ("hypocrisy"):—condemnation, dissimulation, hypocrisy.
"a reply," came to mean "the acting of a stage-player," because such answered one another in dialogue; hence the meaning "dissembling or pretense." It is translated "dissimulation"
Envy
Google definition: a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck.
Blue Letter Bible: phthonos
φθόνος phthónos, fthon'-os; probably akin to the base of G5351; ill-will (as detraction), i.e. jealousy (spite):—envy.
Slander
Google definition: noun: slander
- the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation."he is suing the TV network for slander"
Blue Letter Bible: katalalia
It is important that we took a closer look at these words because it is easy to pass over them, all the while thinking, "I don't do that", until we look closer.
Now on to what we are supposed to do...
"like new born babies crave pure spiritual milk..."
This past week I had the opportunity to see Nolan again! He is eight months old, almost crawling, making lots of "talking" sounds, laughing, getting teeth, and becoming less and less interested in the bottle. When he was a new born, nursing, or the bottle was a sure fire way of calming him, and he would suck a bottle down without almost a breath. Now, he choose on it, he sucks a couple sucks and then wants to move. He has lost the focus, the singular desire to suck.
As we get older, even a few months older we start wanting different flavors, textures, and we loose that desire for one thing, milk!
Here Peter is reminding them to crave it! This list is a list of "practiced and deliberate" sins. Peter is saying, crave what will feed you. When someone is craving something.... that is all they can think about! Have you ever craved something specific you wanted to eat and you didn't have it, so you went and tried to find something in the kitchen to eat that would be similar but NOTHING, filled that craving? It is a craving that drives all your thoughts, all your actions in one direction. Toward the milk!
I also can't help but think of Nolan when he was first born, and after nursing he would lay there with a full belly completely content. The contrast before and after milk was huge. He now was fully content, fully satisfied. Whereas the before nursing Nolan, was driven, which looked like unsettled, fussy, rooting, and sometimes even downright angry, if milk wasn't available. That is what he wants for us... a craving!!!!
Since we are all about the words today... this word "crave"
ἐπιποθέω epipothéō, ep-ee-poth-eh'-o; from G1909 and potheo (to yearn); to dote upon, i.e. intensely crave possession (lawfully or wrongfully):—(earnestly) desire (greatly), (greatly) long (after), lust.
It is easy for us to read this and think about other passages in the bible that talk about milk vs meat such as the one in Hebrews that is often used to complain to pastors about the content of their sermons.... We use it to boast, by declaring that we need the MEAT!
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12-14
It is true that here he is speaking to young Christians, and it isn't terrible to think about growing up, however I think the emphasis here is on the craving, instead of practicing evil crave spiritual food! Crave only Jesus! A baby doesn't think about all the other stuff, a baby doesn't think about chocolate cake, just milk! JUST crave JESUS!
LIVING STONES?
What are living stones?
Let's move ahead and then circle back around.
So Christ is the cornerstone.
If we accept him, then we are what in relation to the cornerstone?
If we reject him, then what is the cornerstone to us?
So back to the living stones..
I am thinking in terms of how a movie director would set up this scene. A "living stone" would be a stone that is given a purpose, as one of the stones in the walls that build a beautiful "spiritual house" let's go with a beautiful, ornate church that shines, and where choirs sing, and ivy grows, and where light coming through the colorful stain glass windows dances on the stones... OR if we cast aside the corner stone in the dust, then we stumble on it and land face first in the dirt and dust.
To be a living stone is to be connected to the Cornerstone!
Going back to the first part of this chapter, the words, the list... the old life is one of dust and dirt. To accept Christ, to crave HIM and HIM alone, is to then be a LIVING stone, set into this beautiful wall securely on the Cornerstone.
Then this passage wraps up with....
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.Christ was rejected, he bled and died for you! He chose you!!!!
We are a chosen people, Gods special possession! Called out of darkness and into His wonderful light!
He wants so much for us...
Let's choose to CRAVE HIM! To crave more knowledge of Him! To crave a deeper understanding of him! YES! But don't forget to just crave time with HIM! Crave an experience with HIM!
CRAVE Jesus!
Crave him and be a living stone in a beautiful wall that is firmly set on Him the cornerstone!
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