help

[preacherinblack]

hi everyone I need y'alls help can some one please tell me what 1st peter 1:23-2:2 means?

 

[heirmiles]

My first thought is about the word "word". Thinking about John 1, Jesus is the Word of the gospel, Jesus is the gospel, and apart from Him we can do nothing.

 

[heirmiles]

My second thought is that Scripture is the perfect verbal expression of God's will and Truth, and that the "sincerity," and "purity" of the Scripture enables us to grow to in Him. That as Jesus does not fade, neither does the truth of God's written revelation.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

It is better explained in the rest of chapter 2, for the ekklesia, >> (talking about the ones immersed in Y'shua) >>


1 Peter 2 PHILLIPS (Biblegateway)

You are babies, new-born in God’s family, and you should be crying out for unadulterated spiritual milk to make you grow up to salvation! And so you will, if you have already tasted the goodness of the Lord.

4-6 To change the metaphor, you come to him, as living stones to the immensely valuable living stone (which men rejected but God chose), to be built up into a spiritual House of God, in which you, like holy priests, can offer those spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. There is a passage to this effect in scripture, and it runs like this: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame’.

7 It is you who believe in him that he is “precious”, but to those who disobey God, it is true that: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’.

8a And he is, to them, ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence’.

8b-10 Yes, they stumble at the Word of God for in their hearts they are unwilling to obey it—which makes stumbling a foregone conclusion. But you are God’s “chosen generation”, his “royal priesthood”, his “holy nation”, his “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you. It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of him who has called you out of darkness into his amazing light. In the past you were not “a people” at all: now you are the people of God. In the past you had no experience of his mercy, but now it is intimately yours.
Your behaviour to the outside world

11 I beg you, as those whom I love, to live in this world as strangers and “temporary residents”, to keep clear of the desires of your lower natures, for they are always at war with your souls.

12 Your conduct among the surrounding peoples in your different countries should always be good and right, so that although they may in the usual way slander you as evil-doers yet when disasters come, they may glorify God when they see how well you conduct yourselves.

13-17 Obey every man-made authority for the Lord’s sake—whether it is the emperor, as the supreme ruler, or the governors whom he has appointed to punish evil-doers and reward those who do good service. It is the will of God that you may thus silence the ill-informed criticisms of the foolish. As free men you should never use your freedom as an excuse for doing something that is wrong, for you are at all times the servants of God.





18-20 You who are servants should submit to your masters with proper respect—not only to the good and kind, but also to the difficult. A man does something valuable when he endures pain, as in the sight of God, though he knows he is suffering unjustly. After all, it is no credit to you if you are patient in bearing a punishment which you have richly deserved! But if you do your duty and are punished for it and can still accept it patiently, you are doing something worthwhile in God’s sight.
21-25 Indeed this is part of your calling. For Christ suffered for you and left you a personal example, and wants you to follow in his steps. ‘Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth’. Yet when he was insulted he offered no insult in return. When he suffered he made no threats of revenge. He simply committed his cause to the one who judges fairly. And he personally bore our sins in his own body on the cross, so that we might be dead to sin and be alive to all that is good. It was the suffering that he bore which has healed you. You had wandered away like so many sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

 

[least]

Hi Preacherinblack, thank you for your post because it has been a blessing to me to look closely at this passage today! Please let me know if you have any questions or other insight to this study.

Peter is speaking about the believers responding to God’s Salvation that came through “the precious blood of Christ” (1:19). First, they believed in God through Christ, and now they are being sanctified by their obedience to God, namely by their compliance to love one another with brotherly love. Why should they love one another? “Since” they had been born again! Peter explains that their new life sprouted from an imperishable seed, which is “the living and abiding word of God…that was preached to you.” (1:23, 25).

This makes me think of two other passages. The first is found in the tenth chapter of Romans: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (17). Without hearing (or reading) the word of God it is impossible to know the means of Salvation. That is why the written word is so important to us. Paul also quoted Isaiah 52:7 in this passage: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (15). Do we have beautiful feet?

The next passage is Luke 8:4-18 where Jesus is telling the parable of sower who “went out to sow his seed.” Of course, the sower scattered his seed over multiple types of soil, but only those whose conditions were right produced a crop. The point of the parable is this: “The seed is the word of God” (11). Jesus made a really good point after this parable by saying that no one lights up a lamp and then covers it to conceal the light. We have the light of the gospel and we should never conceal that light. Likewise, we have been given the seeds to broadcast throughout the world…and some will fall on good soil and produce a great harvest.

This was the same seed that had been planted in the lives of those to whom Peter was writing his letter. Peter reiterated what Jesus had taught: “And this is the good news that was preached to you” (1:25). This seed is only germinated by faith. And just as we are born again by faith in Christ, we grow up in the Lord by faith in him through his word (see Romans 1:17). If we live by faith, we are to “put away” all those things that hinder our growth (much like pulling up spiritual weeds), such as “malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (2:1). Let us cultivate the seedling that has sprouted by our faith by nurturing it with the word of God! Peter switches to the picture of new born babies drinking their mother’s milk. Likewise, we are to “long for the pure spiritual milk” of God’s word, “that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (2:2-3).

This was what God has shown me through my study and I hope it is a blessing to everyone.

 

[least]

I wanted to mention also about Peter's quote from Isaiah 40:6, "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." Remember that the Peter is speaking about imperishable seed. In contrast, our flesh is like the grass and flowers of the field which are here today and perishes tomorrow. James said our lives are as a vapor "that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:14). That is what we are in our flesh; here today, gone tomorrow. But if we are born of the imperishable we are "born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (1:3-4). What a great and awesome promise for us to look forward to! God bless you all!

 

[preacherinblack]

Hi Preacherinblack, thank you for your post because it has been a blessing to me to look closely at this passage today! Please let me know if you have any questions or other insight to this study.

Peter is speaking about the believers responding to God’s Salvation that came through “the precious blood of Christ” (1:19). First, they believed in God through Christ, and now they are being sanctified by their obedience to God, namely by their compliance to love one another with brotherly love. Why should they love one another? “Since” they had been born again! Peter explains that their new life sprouted from an imperishable seed, which is “the living and abiding word of God…that was preached to you.” (1:23, 25).

This makes me think of two other passages. The first is found in the tenth chapter of Romans: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (17). Without hearing (or reading) the word of God it is impossible to know the means of Salvation. That is why the written word is so important to us. Paul also quoted Isaiah 52:7 in this passage: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (15). Do we have beautiful feet?

The next passage is Luke 8:4-18 where Jesus is telling the parable of sower who “went out to sow his seed.” Of course, the sower scattered his seed over multiple types of soil, but only those whose conditions were right produced a crop. The point of the parable is this: “The seed is the word of God” (11). Jesus made a really good point after this parable by saying that no one lights up a lamp and then covers it to conceal the light. We have the light of the gospel and we should never conceal that light. Likewise, we have been given the seeds to broadcast throughout the world…and some will fall on good soil and produce a great harvest.

This was the same seed that had been planted in the lives of those to whom Peter was writing his letter. Peter reiterated what Jesus had taught: “And this is the good news that was preached to you” (1:25). This seed is only germinated by faith. And just as we are born again by faith in Christ, we grow up in the Lord by faith in him through his word (see Romans 1:17). If we live by faith, we are to “put away” all those things that hinder our growth (much like pulling up spiritual weeds), such as “malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (2:1). Let us cultivate the seedling that has sprouted by our faith by nurturing it with the word of God! Peter switches to the picture of new born babies drinking their mother’s milk. Likewise, we are to “long for the pure spiritual milk” of God’s word, “that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (2:2-3).

This was what God has shown me through my study and I hope it is a blessing to everyone.

thanks