Friday, January 21, 2022

LIVING HOLY LIVES IN AN UNHOLY WORLD #3 : 1 Peter 2: 1-12 "The Church - The Primary Context in which we exhibit our Holy Living"

 


We have previously considered 

(i)                 1 Peter 1: 1-12, the FOUNDATION  for holy living - our calling and election by God.

(ii)               1 Peter 1 :13-25,   the MOTIVE   for  holy living  -   be holy because your God is holy 

                   From 2 Peter 2:1-12 we will now consider  THE PRIMARY CONTEXT   in which we are called to be  holy – the Christian community – the church.  The key text here is 1 Peter 2:4,5


When God calls His people out of this fallen, sinful world, He not only calls them to belong to Himself but He also calls them to belong to His body, called here ‘a spiritual house’ - the church. This pastoral letter, addressed to the exiles in the dispersion is written not to an individual, but to a community of God’s people in these territories mentioned here. 

By way of extension, this letter is for the church in all ages.

Our primary thought now is the fact that God saves His people to belong to a spiritual house, in which they are called to serve as a holy priesthood, in the context of an unholy world.  

In the history of the Christian church there have been numerous attempts  to form holy communities apart or separate from  an unholy world.  These were known as monasteries. While the idea of separation is central in the Bible, we find that God separates His people for the purpose of sending them back into the world as born again believers and   as witnesses to the work of God.  Leonard Ravenhill says, “The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy, then put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.”

That point is clearly made in the Great Commission which Jesus has given to the church in Matthew 28:18-20.  God calls and saves His people out of the world, and then commissions them to go back into that world to proclaim the gospel to men and women in the world, alienated from God by virtue of the fall.  The church is not a monastery in which people retreat into holy huddles, waiting for the coming of the Lord. No! God calls His holy people, to proclaim the gospel far and wide because God loves this world!  (Jn. 3:16). For this reason He gave His Son, that ALL who would believe should not perish.  

In practical terms God then calls you and me to proclaim the gospel where we are, in season and out of season, using our abilities as best as we know.  Christians are called to do this in the midst of a very messy, unholy and hostile world, such as the world of Peter’s exiles in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia was.This world in which we live today, this global village now so  open and accessible and reachable through so many  means, in this world  we are called to be  God’s faithful witnesses (Rev. 2:13). To this world God has given   the church a commission to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world [Matt 5:13-16]. This letter from Peter is written to the community of saints living in unholy, worldly communities, “living”, as Paul writes to the Philippians, “in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom they must shine as lights in the world.” [Phil. 2:14]. 

And now we shall consider the premium way in which the church’s evangelistic impact  may be seen and felt in the world… which may surprise you!

LIVING AS GOD’S HOLY COMMUNITY  (1 Peter 1:15,16 ; 2:5,9)

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 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.”

1.      The Importance Of Bearing Credible Christian Testimony: 2:1-3; 11-12

Peter reminds these churches that in the eyes of a watching world they would need to bear a credible testimony. 2:11,12 makes that point clear: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

Before Peter dwells on the glory and the holiness of the church, he provides us with some reality therapy. Life in the local church can be challenging! A profound poet once wrote,“ To live above with saints we love, oh Lord that will be glory. To live below with saints we know, well that’s a different story!”  You laugh … but unholy living in the church is a severe hindrance to the credibility of the gospel witness to the world.  That is why Peter makes this appeal in 2:1-3:  “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Like new born infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

No true Christian can remain  the way they were  once  they have been born again  through the living and abiding Word of God [1:23]. Our Salvation includes our sanctification. Sanctification is an inevitable accompaniment of our salvation, just as fruit are the proof of a healthy tree. Jesus reminds us that a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit [Matt. 7:18]. Here are some things that make churches, called to bear fruit for the glory of God diseased: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. These things are not only church killers; they kill the effective witness of the church!  So we find here  that  the apostle Peter  with his God given wisdom firstly deals with  some  fundamental  spiritual diseases which rear  their head in the church as  she  lives in  an unholy world (2:1), followed by  a prescription  which will ensure  the steady progress, growth and health of the church  in 2:2.  

Note then in 2:1 that God’s holy people should put away (apothesthai –strip off) all malice (kakia – evil) and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. What a perennial source of trouble these destructive attitudes are, and how they hurt the testimony of the church. These spiritual diseases tend to invade the church from time to time, and they come from within the church, and they are linked to the passions of our former ignorance  (1:14) and from the  futile ways inherited from our forefathers  (i.e. our culture!) (1:18). This needs a remedy! 

2:2 The remedy is that we are to put off these things,  and  instead  we are  to long  for   pure spiritual milk, which helps us  to grow up into salvation. The antidote to is to  grow  up,  as we  feed on  that holy means of grace - the feeding  upon  spiritual milk – the Word of God.  Incidentally,Martin Luther said that three things were formative disciplines in a Christian person’s life: Prayer (ORATIO), Meditation (MEDITATIO)– the feeding on  God’s Word,  and  Trials (TENTATIO), and they are all found here  in Peter’s letter.  Peter exhorts us here,"feed on that spiritual milk, that you may grow up into salvation, and to grow out of the passions of  your former ignorance."  He finishes this thought with an allusion to Psalm 34:8. You are obliged to do this, he writes, "if you have tasted that the Lord is good.”(2:3).   The fact that God has been so very   good to you is a great motivator for us to live good. Our primary responsibility in having received such great grace is that we must make it work in terms of a positive testimony to the watching world.  With these important observations behind us we now can give attention to our key text.

THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN AN UNHOLY WORLD (1 Peter 2:4-12)

2:4,5 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,  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. 

The Church in which we are called to live out our holy lives is built on the Living Stone, the Cornerstone  who is Christ. 2:6[1]  is a quotation from Isaiah 28:16 and Psalm 118:22.  Jesus applies this to Himself, and so does Peter.   Please take note that a holy Church is not built upon tradition, or a denominational label or a certain culture, but she is built upon Christ. Christ is her identity. Isn’t it strange that so many Christian churches are known for their many distinctives and activities, but so few are known by their Christ-likeness. Christ is identified with His church as a living stone (2:4), and a cornerstone (2:6) that vital bit of masonry that holds everything together.  He is rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious (2:4). Though the world does not own Christ, He is owned by the church.  The church derives her identity from this Living stone.  But the church is not only a   spiritual building. Something happens in that spiritual building!  The Christian church is constituted as a holy priesthood (2:5b) to offer spiritual (holy) sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

That statement must have rocked the Jewish establishment. 

The role of a priest[2]  in the OT was limited to an appointed order -  the Levitical priesthood. No unauthorised person would have ever dared  to interfere in their holy duties i.e. to facilitate between God and man in prayer and in the bringing of sacrifices for the purpose of making atonement.

This old system is abolished by Christ our High-priest, who as Offeror and Offering   has become the perfect sacrifice for sin. He has brought us near to God once and for all. Everyone  that believes  in  Christ  can now approach  God, and in that sense every true Christian  is  inducted into the priesthood to offer  spiritual (holy) sacrifices  acceptable to God  through Jesus Christ.”   In fact, everything that the Christian does is an offering to God.  Your entire life is an act of holy worship. "Present your bodies," said Paul, "as a living sacrifice to God" (Rom. 12:1).  And  the church engages in holy worship, and so, when outsiders come into her midst, they  see this beautiful picture  of a  holy, worshipping congregation,  they declare, “God is really  among you.” (1 Cor. 14:25).  United, holy worship,  is one of the most powerful (and  often  most neglected)  tools of witness of the church. We need to work  at being  a holy community. God  has called us to be holy, and He has enabled us to be holy.  

In 1 Peter 2:9 we read of the things to which the Christian is a witness: “…that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.  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.  The world must hear this. The gentiles must hear this.  Their foolish slander must be silenced when they see this church proclaiming and living out the gospel of Christ. That is our PRIME witness! A holy church in an unholy world is God’s primary evangelistic method.  No amount of thoughtless and prayerless evangelistic schemes  and plans and activities will  bring people into the kingdom  of God. It cannot, Every other evangelistic activity flows from that. 

So the call then is to live such holy lives in this unholy world, with the help of the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, that this unholy world can do nothing but glorify God.  This is also what  Jesus said: 

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).

Here then is our challenge. It is by the holiness of our daily life and conduct as a believing community, and as individuals in that community that we  make attractive the Lord Jesus Christ to those who do not believe. Amen!

 

 



[1] See also Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17 ; see  also Isaiah 8:13-14

[2] the Latin word for priest is pontifex, which means bridge-builder; the priest is the man who builds a bridge for others to come to God; and the Christian has the duty and the privilege of bringing others to that Saviour whom he himself has found and loves.( William Barclay)

No comments:

EVANGELICAL REPENTANCE #4 : REPENTANCE IS A SPIRITUAL MEDICINE MADE UP OF SIX INGREDIENTS

  OUTLINE 1.  The Heart of Biblical Repentance 2. True and False Repentance 3. Repentance -  A New Testament Overview 4. Biblical  Repentanc...