Focal Passage: I Peter 2:1-12
In this study we will be discussing the church. When the word church is used, most peoples mind immediately goes to a building, a place, a structure that is inanimate made with brick and mortar. But in Scripture, the church is a living, growing, maturing, entity. Its body is comprised of all who believe in and follow its head the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the Jew this was a whole new concept but still familiar to their way of thinking. You see the temple in Jerusalem had become the focal point of all their spiritual worship with the synagogues being a representation of the temple in every community. It was a tangible place, a destination, to which people go to worship God. It was a visible, materially built structure. It had no life of its own. It was considered Holy only because God inhabited it in worship.
For the Gentiles, it was just a building, a place, nothing more. But the church in the New Testament is completely different. It is a spiritual structure unseen by the human eye but very much real and very much alive. It has no specific place it occupies but is universal in nature. It is everywhere. And, it continues to grow with every soul who believes in Christ for salvation becoming a spiritual stone in its construction.
Peter addresses his letter to the Christians living in the area of Asia Minor. His readers would have included Jews and Gentiles who had accepted the Good News and was now, or soon would be, experiencing persecution as a result.
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He is writing this letter from Rome, so it is presumed he is in prison perhaps awaiting execution. This persecution was coming from two sources, Jewish rejection of the messiahship of Jesus and secular political pressure, particularly Rome.
In verses 1-5, Peter writes to encourage the believers to remain strong in the faith. Then he outlines how to do that. They are to live lives worthy of the calling they had received and by the wisdom of knowing God’s Word and being strengthened by it as they grew in their faith.
He then reminds them that they are not alone and that they are building something bigger than themselves. What Jesus had begun, they were continuing to build, a Kingdom to the glory of God.
In verses 6-8, Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16, stating those who reject Jesus, are essentially rejecting God. But the ones who put their faith in Him will never be put to shame.
However, the ones who don’t believe will find themselves destined for destruction. In the end, believers will not be put to shame, but they will.
In verses 9-12, Peter ends this passage by reminding his readers just how important their mission as the church is because of what God has done for them through Jesus Christ.
He also reminds them that they are not of this world and they are not controlled by the things or desires of this world unless they allow themselves to be. And with that knowledge, he encourages them to remain strong and to live their lives in a way that disqualifies anything unbelievers would accuse them of. By heeding this instruction, they would bring glory to God. B&R
