Peculiar People - 1 Peter 2:9-10 - May 30, 2021

These are the Sermon Notes for May 30, 2021. We are meeting in person (check out our Covid-19 Plan here) and online (facebook and youtube) every Sunday at 9:37 am. You can also watch livestream recordings at any time.

 1 Peter 2:9-10 Peculiar People

Good morning! We are continuing our work through 1 Peter this morning with chapter 2 verses 9-10, page 1014 in the pew bibles.

Last week we talked about how the church is made up of living stones, us individual believers, built upon the foundation of the confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord with Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone, setting the lines of plumb and square for the Temple that He is building.

Peter also said in verse five, “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.”

And as I said last week, we are going to look a little closer at the church as a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ in this week’s text of verses 9-10.

So, let’s look at that together…

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 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.

Let’s pray.

So after just a quick glance at these two verses, what do you think Peter’s purpose could possibly be?

Remember that Peter is original audience was made up of exiled Jewish believers, separated from their homeland and spread out and sprinkled into other nations. And though we are not exactly the same, and certainly not in the exact same situation as them, we can identify with being sprinkled among others who are outside of our holy nation of believers and followers of Jesus Christ, and so, we can find similar encouragement from Peter’s words here in these verses.

So let’s look briefly at this list of adjectives Peter uses to describe the church and how we might identify with them and be encouraged by Peter’s message.

Peter begins by calling the church a “chosen race.” 

What is the significance of this expression?

Being a chosen race, or as some translations put it, a chosen generation, or people, chosen out of the great mass of humanity destined for salvation. Does that sound like anybody else to you? It sounds like Israel!

Exodus 19:1-6 says, On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Being the chosen race was the honor conferred on Israel but is now conferred on the church, they fell from that dignity because they rejected the Messiah while the church embraces Him by faith.

Now before we start to get all puffed up about that idea remember the words of John Calvin, “There is no other reason why the Lord counts us as His people except that He, having mercy on us, graciously adopts us.” Mercy and grace being the key ideas, mercy- not getting what we deserve, and grace, getting the good that we don’t deserve.

Paul echoes this thought in Romans 9:21,

21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea, 

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

I’m sure that there are many sermons just based on this one thought, but this is not one of them…

Peter adds to the description of the church as  a chosen race, the honor of being called a “royal priesthood.”

Verse five calls the church a “holy priesthood,” a priesthood set apart and consecrated for God’s use, but now he adds the idea of that holy priesthood being a “royal priesthood.”

The church is indeed a kingdom of priests, all believers in Jesus Christ as Lord are priests that offer spiritual sacrifices to God, but what does it mean to be royal? How does a person become royal? 

It’s simple really, in order to be royal, you have to be related to the king.

Ephesians 1:4-6 says, In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace…

We are a royal priesthood because we have been adopted by the Great King by faith in His Son. And as a holy and royal priesthood we can freely draw near to God sacrificing, praying, blessing, offering our bodies, our whole being as a genuine act of worship.

He sets apart a people who are by nature polluted, slaves of sin and Satan, to freedom to serve Him and draw near to Him, and worship Him, and to enjoy all the blessings of royal liberty and freedom.

There are many sermons that could be based on this one thought, but this is not one of them.

The church is a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.

So what does it mean to be a holy nation?

To be holy, as we’ve discussed, is to be separated and consecrated by God, it pertains to being holy in the sense of having superior moral qualities and possessing essentially divine qualities in contrast to what is merely human.

Israel was a shadow of this idea, this is what they were intended for but because of their sin and idolatry they couldn’t fulfill this role. God is not done with the nation of Israel but now the church is God’s holy nation.

When the nation of Israel was faced with the choice to remain pure and true to the Lord instead of following the idols and false gods of the pagan nations when they left Egypt and entered the Promised Land they chose poorly, they turned from the Lord to idols. Even today, people of Jewish descent have turned from the Lord to good works instead of faithfulness to God’s Word and His Messiah Jesus.

As the church, God’s Holy Nation, we must strive for holiness, we must renounce the ways of the world and the pagan nations, and we must grow in brotherly love as we are destined to lead a pure and holy life.

Peter’s use of the word, “nation” is an extension of the idea of a tribe, it the largest unit that the people of the world can be divided into that constitute a broader community. 

This is the universal church, the communion of all believers in Jesus over all the world and for all time. We are part of the wonderful, gigantic, diverse group!

The church is a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s own possession…

The King James Version calls us, “a peculiar people.” Very true words, but a poor translation!

In truth, this literally means a people acquired by God through considerable effort. And His effort was considerable!

We are acquired by God by the blood of His only Son!

Paul’s charge to the Ephesian Elders in Acts 20:28 emphasized this idea. “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

Matthew Henry wrote, “All true Christians are a chosen generation; they all make one family, a sort and species of people distinct from the common world, of another Spirit, principle, and practice, which they could never be if they were not chosen in Christ to be such, and sanctified by His Spirit.”

It is the work of God to acquire us as a people and He alone can and has accomplished it by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the sanctification of His Spirit.

We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired by God…. What for?

Have you ever stopped and wondered why God would save you, why we He send Jesus to die for you? These are important questions and they have a wonderful answer!

that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Proclaiming the excellencies, the virtues, the attributes of God connected with our being called out of darkness, with our salvation, that’s why!

This is not the work of the elite, this is not the sole work of evangelists and pastors and preachers and teachers, this is the wonderful purpose and calling for the whole community of believers! Give glory to God by telling everybody what He has done for you!

He has called you out of darkness, the sad condition of all men before Christ, ignorant of God, unrighteous, slaves to Satan and sin, under the curse and wrath of God, he has called you, by name, out of that miry pit and into His marvelous light!

He has called us into holy communion with the One who is light, He has enlightened our understanding and sanctified our wills, He has filled our consciences with peace. The nature and work of His light are marvelous because of what it does to people, it makes lost sinners children of Almighty God!

He is the only light, don’t be fooled, and don’t forget!

We have no reason to magnify ourselves above others for once we had been in the same darkness, and only by God’s grace have been brought to the light, and now we have the awesome privilege of showing that light to others.

10 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.

John Calvin wrote, “The meaning then is, as though he had said, ‘Moses called formerly your fathers a holy nation, a priestly kingdom, and God’s peculiar people; all these high titles do now far more justly belong to you [the church]; therefore you ought to beware lest  your unbelief should rob you of them.’”

And, “There is no other reason why the Lord counts us His people, except that He, having mercy on us, graciously adopts us.”

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

By faith in Jesus Christ we are adopted as God’s own children, and with God as our Father, Jesus as our Brother, how much more can we be connected than by the blood of Christ? The blood of Christ makes strangers brothers and sisters. I don’t need to know anything else about you other than you belong to Jesus to know that we are family!

…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 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.

Amen

Living Stone(s) - 1 Peter 2:4-8 - May 23, 2021

 1 Peter 2:4-8 Living Stone(s)

Good morning! I don’t know about you but I really enjoy Peter’s use of metaphors in his letter. I especially like the metaphor he uses in our text this morning of house building and construction materials. I am built to build so this really resonates with me.

We are going to look at 1 Peter 2:4-8 this morning, page 1014 in the pew Bibles, and examine Biblical building materials, and also a Wile E. Coyote reference!

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 For it stands in Scripture: 

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” 

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Let’s pray.

I’d like to begin with a short passage in Matthew to set the stage for our time this morning, Matthew 16:13-18.

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now there are two reasons for bringing up this particular passage involving Jesus and Peter. My hope is to alleviate the confusion caused by the Catholic church about the Pope, and to point out some Biblical church construction methods.

Firstly, the Catholic church has taught, based on this passage in Matthew that the rock upon which Jesus said that He would build His church is Peter himself, making Peter the first Pope. This is completely wrong. 

The rock upon which Jesus promised to build His church is not Peter, but rather the confession found in verse 16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The confession of Jesus Christ as Lord is the bedrock, “petra”, that Jesus promised to build His church upon. Meaning, that you cannot be part of Christ’s church without believing in Jesus, there is no other entrance into His divine building.

I also bring up this passage because I think that this must have been Peter’s favorite metaphor, I mean, why wouldn’t it be?! He wasn’t the first to use it as we can clearly see from the passage itself, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt his feelings at all to use it.

So let’s get back to our passage in 1 Peter.

Peter begins with the phrase, “As you come to Him…”

To be clear, Peter’s meaning here is not the first time we come to Christ, not when we first come to faith in Him, but rather, as we continually come to Him, as we draw near to Him day by day in prayer and fellowship with Him. The verb is present tense, it is continual.

Under the Old Covenant, the priests were the ones who came near to God.

The German theologian Weisinger wrote, “Under the Old Covenant, Yaweh had His house and priests who served Him in His house. The church fulfills both purposes under the New [Covenant], being both His house and His holy priesthood.”

Peter continues with this picture of a holy priesthood of believers later in this chapter as well and we’ll work on it a little more when we get there, but for now we can simply state that believers in Jesus Christ are chosen and consecrated by God, cleansed by the blood of Christ, and anointed by the Holy Spirit to offer spiritual sacrifices for themselves.

Paul echoed this picture in Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [genuine] worship.”

So, as you come to Him, as New Covenant Priests, to the Living Stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious…

Jesus Christ was rejected by mankind, He came to His own people, and His own people knew Him not, and we’ll deal with that a little later.

Peter calls Jesus a “Living Stone.” The word for stone is not the same word for “rock,” that Peter was named after. “Petra,” is bedrock, “lithos,” means a natural or shaped stone.

Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16 when he says, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

Jesus is the Living Cornerstone, as a stone he is firm not hard or harsh, absolutely reliable and true, setting the lines of plumb, level, and square for His building, the church, but He is also living, he is alive and makes alive other living stones for His magnificent spiritual house.

Because he is God’s chosen and precious Cornerstone, as living stones ourselves, connected to Him by faith, and built into His spiritual house, we can be assured an eternal state of grace and salvation.

I have had the great privilege of visiting the Western Wall of the temple Mount in Jerusalem when I was at BICS. The walls of the Temple Mount make up the ground that the Temple was built on where the Dome of the Rock stands today. The stones of that wall are huge limestone blocks that are so tightly fitted together you can barely squeeze a piece of paper into the cracks, which people do, tightly rolled up prayers jammed between the stones.

These massive stones needed to be quarried and shaped so that they could be fitted together perfectly, and so do we as living stones, we are joined together in love by the grace of God the Father. Those massive stones rely on one another to support each other in their grand structure and none of them makes the Temple alone, the need each other. Christ’s church is no different.

The church is God’s spiritual house, built by Jesus on the good confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, based on Jesus as the Cornerstone, chosen and precious, to set the lines and the boundaries of the building to which He is continually adding more and more living stones, more and more disciples of Jesus Christ.

But there are two functions of Jesus Christ the Living Stone. The first is to function as the life giving Cornerstone of the Church but the second is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Those who believe in Him will never be put to shame, literally meaning, that we will never have to run away like cowards that have thrown down their arms and fled the battle. We have a strong and sure Defender.

6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” 

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Listen to Jesus’ words on this same Old Testament Scripture from Matthew 21:42-44:

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” 

It’s this last statement that is so troubling, or at least it should be. This is Jesus’ word on the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense.

Stumbling stone is a fairly straightforward interpretation but the “rock of offense” is a little more difficult.

This is the Wile E. Coyote reference. A “rock of offense,” is more literally translated as a trap where a rock is propped up by a stick in order to trap an animal and all I can see in my mind is Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner.

This is why Jesus said, “the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

This rock of offense, doesn’t mean that those who reject Jesus will be offended, it means that they will be crushed. Ruin and misery await those who reject Jesus, as Peter says, they disobey the word, the gospel, and stumble as those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord are destined to do.

All those who reject Jesus Christ as their Savior will one day face Him as their Judge.

I pray that’s not you, and if you have rejected God’s free offer of forgiveness through faith in Jesus up to this point you don’t have to stay that way. 

You can still come to Him and ask for forgiveness, turn from your sin and trust Him with your life and He will make you a living stone and add you to His spiritual house, the church!

And for those of us who belong to Christ:

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 For it stands in Scripture: 

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” 

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Amen.

Simplicity - 1 Peter 2:1-3 - May 16, 2021

These are the Sermon Notes for May 9, 2021. We are meeting in person (check out our Covid-19 Plan here) and online (facebook and youtube) every Sunday at 9:37 am. You can also watch livestream recordings at any time.

 1 Peter 2:1-3 Simplicity

Good morning! We are going back to 1 Peter this morning and looking at chapter 2, verses 1-3, page 1014 in the pew Bibles.

So last week we discussed a little bit about what holy living looks like. Chapter one gave us lots of arguments in favor of holy living, so much so that it seems pretty iron clad that holy living is our responsibility as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Chapter one also wrapped up with a great first step in what holy living really looks like, brotherly love.

Now often the Bible gets a bad rap for just being a list of do’s and don’ts, but in truth, there’s some logic to that idea, there’s some conditional statements involved. For example: If you call on God as Father, then act like you’re His children, right?

Well chapter two starts off this exact same way based on the end of chapter one and the command to love one another. If the “do” is to love one another earnestly from a pure heart from chapter one, then the “don’ts” are here at the beginning of chapter two. 

So let’s read that together.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Let’s pray.

So this chapter division here is really not helpful when it comes to keeping these thoughts all connected, these verses rely heavily on where we just came from last week. These thoughts which we’re going to outline here are all based on the idea of being born again and the brotherly love from a pure heart that flows out of that new birth.

The do’s and don’ts here are quite obvious, you could call them “virtues and vices” if you want to sound smarter to your friends.

The virtues are brotherly love and loving one another from a pure heart from chapter one, but in order for these virtues to grow the vices must die.

And what are the vices? Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

Peter uses the words translated, “put away,” and the idea is that of taking off and laying aside old dirty clothes, not to just be washed and worn again but to be thrown out.

James uses the same words in James 1:21 when he said, “…put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

Paul also uses it in Ephesians 4:22-24, “…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Putting off the old self like old clothes and putting on the new self in righteousness and holiness is a recurring theme in the New Testament, and as Peter has been dealing with it, the putting on of the new clothes is holy living through brotherly love.

But in order to put on the new clothes of brotherly love we have to deal with taking off the old clothes. 

This short list from Peter is in no way comprehensive, this is not a complete list  of things that disciples of Jesus Christ should avoid. These ideas are, however, directly related to Peter’s command to love one another out of a pure heart.

Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, think about these ideas, they are directly opposed to brotherly love, they are the opposite of loving one another out of a pure heart which flows from being born again through faith in Jesus.

Saint Augustine said, “Malice delights in another’s hurt; envy pines at another’s good, deceit imparts duplicity to the heart; hypocrisy imparts duplicity to the tongue; and slander wounds the character of another.”

Malice is feelings of hostility and strong dislike, with the implication of possibly desiring to do someone harm, these are feelings of hate. Malice delights in another’s hurt. A pure heart cannot grow with feelings like this being harbored. 

Deceit is lying, trickery, falsehood, it flows out of malice and takes aim at the soul of another.

If deceit imparts duplicity to the heart, hypocrisy imparts duplicity to the tongue. Hypocrisy is the act of hiding one’s own heart away while pretending to be something that it isn’t. There’s no way for brotherly love to exist, let alone flourish under these conditions.

Envy, pining after another’s good, wishing to have what they have and hating them for having it. Envy loses sight of the good one already has in favor of the good somebody else has.

Slander, a most popular vice, wounding the character of another, speaking ill of another when they aren’t there to defend themselves, that sometimes masks itself in “constructive criticism” and “prayer requests.” Slander is slander no matter how you dress it up.

These are the old filthy rags that we are to put off according to Peter, vices that are all poisonous to brotherly love.

JP Lange said, “The vices to be laid aside bear upon the relation to our neighbor and exert a deadly influence on brotherly love.”

He also wrote, “They had been addressed as children of obedience, now their young and tender state is mentioned as a reason why they should seek strength in the word of God.”

At the time, the phrase “newborn babes,” was a current expression among the Jews for proselytes, converts to Judaism according to Lange, and Peter adopted the phrase to cover those who were newborn in Christ as well.

2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

So this begs the question, what is pure spiritual milk, and what is its significance?

Both the Apostle Paul and the writer of Hebrews use this same expression of milk in 1 Corinthians 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12. 

Paul writes, 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh.

And Hebrews says, 12 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, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So it kind of sounds like from those verses that milk is something that we should move on from as we grow but Peter seems to suggest that we should continuously long for it. The words he uses indicate an intense recurring desire, nursing mothers or mothers who have nursed babies are very aware of what that is like.

So is this pure spiritual milk the rudimentary doctrines of Christian doctrine? I don’t think so, I don’t think that is what Peter is referring to at all. In fact, the words we have here in English don’t really help point to Peter’s meaning all that well.

The word translated, “spiritual,” more accurately means, “genuine,” or, “unadulterated.” This is milk that is true to milk’s essential nature, unclouded by human wisdom, traditions, and errors.

It’s not rudimentary doctrine, it’s simply genuine doctrine, pure and simple. Saint Augustine said, “Christ, the crucified, is milk for babes and food for the advanced.”

Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Simply meaning, you have been born again, live a life corresponding to your new birth, a life of simple trust in Jesus and hunger for His Word.

John Calvin wrote, “Milk, here is not the elementary doctrine which one perpetually learns and never comes to the knowledge of the truth, but a mode of living which has the savor of the new birth, when we surrenderourselves to be brought up by God. In the same manner infancy is not set in opposition to manhood, or full age in Christ, as Paul calls it in Ephesians 4:13, but to the ancientness of the flesh and of the former life. Moreover, as the infancy of the new life is perpetual, so Peter recommends milk as the perpetual ailment, for he would have those nourished by it to grow…

Malice and hypocrisy belong to those who are habituated to the corruptions of the world; they have imbibed these vices; what pertains to infancy is sincere simplicity, free from all guile. Men, when grown up, become imbued with envy, they learn to slander one another, they are taught the arts of mischief; in short, they become hardened in every kind of evil; infants, owing to their age, do not yet know what it is to envy, to do mischief, or the like things. New morals ought to follow a new life.”

This longing is not for the basics of Christianity but for the purity of Christianity in God’s Word, untainted by worldly wisdom and bias, unadulterated by traditions of men.

We have, in fact, tasted that the Lord is good, that He is gracious and kind. Peter isn’t doubting that, his challenge is to remember that.

Martin Luther said, “This is tasting indeed, to believe from the heart that Christ has given Himself to me and has become my own, that my misery is His and His life is mine. Feeling this from the heart is tasting Christ.”

Simple faith, simple trust in Jesus, longing for the purity of His teaching in His Word.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Amen.