Engaging Scripture

One Bible passage slave owners used to justify owning and beating slaves

Image result for slavery chains

Southern Christians who were slave-owners in our American past used the Bible to justify how they could sing praises to God at church on Sunday and then beat their slaves Monday through Saturday. Were they right? Does God condone slavery? As we continue our study through 1 Peter, this week we come to one of those passages that slave owners cited to support their ways.

Turn to 1^st Peter 2:13-25, and what do you read? Look at verses 18-20, and you’ll find Peter says, “Slaves submit to your masters.” Then he even says that if a slave receives a beating and takes it respectfully, he is being commendable to God. What’s more is that Peter goes on to point them to Jesus as the ultimate example of one who was beaten for God’s sake. It almost sounds like Peter is saying, “Slaves, just take your beatings with a smile. That’s what Jesus did, and so you should too.” Is Peter saying that slavery is okay?

All week long we are going to try to answer these questions and look at how this difficult passage might apply to Christians in our day.

First, we need to tie in to the previous verses 11-12 where Peter tells these Christians to “live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.” That sentence is key to understanding 1 Peter 2:13-25. Peter is writing to Christians who were a tiny minority in the vast, powerful Roman Empire. He is thinking of the mission these Christians have. It’s not a mission Peter made up. It was the mission Jesus had given to Peter and the other disciples. Three decades later, Peter conveys that same mission to Christians who never knew Jesus and yet believe in him and want to follow his way. That mission, Peter recalls, is to live such good lives that the people around them will be impacted for Christ. Allegiance to the mission of God, therefore, is the baseline for all Christian behavior.

With that mission in mind, Peter has a principle to share, a principle that will guide these Christians about how they should live in a culture that was toxic to them.

The principle is in verse 13: “Submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men.” Before we examine how Peter illustrates this principle, including slaves’ response to their masters, we need to understand this guiding principle in verse 13. And to understand this principle, we need to do a bit of study. Let’s examine each of the principle’s three parts.

The first part I want us to look at is the phrase: “every authority instituted among men.” How many words in that phrase? Five. But in the original language in which Peter wrote, he only used three words. “Every human institution” is the simplest English way to translate the three words Peter wrote in Greek. So why does the New International Version of the Bible add those other words? Well, the scholars tell us that the words “every” (pas) and “men” (anthropos) are pretty much straight from the Greek. Easy to translate with one word each. The words “authority instituted among” are a bit more difficult to translate. There is only one Greek word in that phrase. I suggest that “institution” is the best English word to translate it. But it has some other elements that can help us more fully understand what Peter is referring to.

The word Peter used for “institution”, ktisis, has at its root the concept of something created. That means that these are not God’s institutions. They were created. So Peter is not talking about the Kingdom of God. He is talking about institutions created by humans.

Additionally, “ktisis” carries the idea that those created institutions have authority. What are some examples of human-created institutions that have authority? Governments. The State. Police forces. School systems. Many even use the word “authority” in their title. The sewer authority. The water authority. The port authority. There are actually a lot of them. As we’ll see tomorrow, Peter is going to mention a few human institutions that were in power in his day.

To summarize, the first phrase in verse 13 is “every human created authority.”

Now we come to the second phrase, which can be a tough pill to swallow. It is the words, “submit yourselves”. Peter says to the Christians that they should submit to these created institutions. For a guy who just said in verses 2:4-10 that these Christians are a holy nation, a people belonging to God, it’s actually kind of shocking that he says “submit to human authorities.” Imagine being in the room at the house church when someone first read this letter out loud to Christians. They could easily have been thinking, “What? Peter, you’re confusing. You just told us that we a holy nation belonging to God. Why should we submit to human authorities?”

To answer that we need to first look at what he means by the word “submit”? Submit is the concept of obedience to the orders that the authorities give. To submit is to obey. It’s actually a pretty simple concept. Thus far, as we have been looking at his principle in verse 13, we have put two phrases together, and they say: “obey the orders of the created human authorities”.

The third and final part of the principle is the phrase “for the Lord’s sake.” Peter says that they are to “obey the orders of the created human authorities, for the Lord’s sake”. That last piece is crucial. It’s putting God at the priority. The submitting to or the obeying of human authority is to be done for God. God is the focus. There is a godly, spiritual purpose that undergirds why we submit to human authority. Flowing from what he said in verses 11-12, the “live good lives” phrase, you could even say that in order to promote the mission of God’s Kingdom, we Christians submit to human authority. But how?

Peter is not saying that submitting to human authority is the mission of God’s Kingdom. Submitting to human authority is like a key that can help unlock a door to advance the mission of the Kingdom. Again, I ask, how?

As we seek to answer how Christian submission to human authorities could advance the Kingdom of God, I want to muddy the waters even further. The fact that these Christians were being persecuted leaves us feeling like something is off here. You would think that Peter would say, “That persecution is wrong, and you should not stand for that. You need to rebel and fight back and free yourselves. Overthrow the oppressor. Take up arms!” In other words, Peter says “submit” when it seems like he should be saying, “Don’t submit!” But Peter doesn’t do that. Why? Is he wrong?

No, Peter is not wrong. He has the right focus: the Lord’s sake. Peter knows that if the Christians are submissive and obey, they will be in a far better position to advance the Kingdom of God.

But you might say to yourself, “Yeah, but Joel, where should we draw the line? Isn’t there a time and place to rise up and rebel?” Very good question. We’re going to get to that. But first, let’s keep walking through the passage and see how Peter illustrates the principle of how submitting to human authority will actually help advance the Kingdom of God. Tomorrow we’ll look at the first of three illustrations: submitting to the State.

How all Christians have a responsibility to be priests

Related image

Christians, you are all priests! All week long we have been looking at some unusual ways Peter describes Christians’ identity and responsibility. A holy nation, living stones, and now priests! Yesterday we talked about how Christians can understand their identity as priests.

Now let’s look at how Peter in 1 Peter 2:4-10 describes as our priestly responsibility. What do priests do? Peter lists two tasks:

The first task, Peter says in verse 5, is that we offer spiritual sacrifices. Note that the sacrifices are spiritual. Peter is talking about the spiritual realm here. One illustration he mentions about how to make spiritual sacrifices is when he says in verse 9 that we, “declare the praises of God who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Have you ever heard the lines of the song: “we bring a sacrifice of praise”? God desires us to praise him. At first I thought, “Why does God want us to praise him? Isn’t that a bit self-serving of him?” It can seem like it. But in the unexpected, upside-down way of God, praising him turns out to be the best possible way for us to live.

That is important. Praising God is a lifestyle. Praising him is not just singing songs during a worship gathering. We try to emphasize this even about our worship services. We would be wrong to say that they only part of our worship that is praising God is when we are singing songs. The correct view is that all the parts of our worship service should be seen as and done as praise to God.

When we place our monetary gifts in the collection baskets, we do it with a heart of praise and thanks to God.

When we greet one another, we do so with a heart of praise to God, thanking him for placing us in a church family with all its variety.

When we share our stories of God’s work in our lives, as we pass around the microphone, we do so with praise and thanks to God.

When we study his Word during the sermon, or in our classes, we do so praising and thanking God that he still speaks.

Every part of our worship service is praise to God. We emphasize that because we want that attitude of praise to spill out into the rest of our lives. Drive your car, praising God. Prepare food in your kitchen, praising God. Go to work, praising God. Work hard at work, praising God. Interact with your friends and family, praising God. Clean your house, praising God.

That’s how we priests bring a sacrifice of praise: we live lives of praise to God.

The next thing that Peter says holy royal priests do is in verse 12, live good lives. The actual text says, “live such good lives among the rest of the world that they too will see your good deeds and glorify God.”

Holy royal priest live good lives! How do we live a good life? I would suggest that Peter is talking about a life of following the way of Jesus. The good life is how Jesus himself lived. Jesus calls his followers to live like he did. How, then, did Jesus live?

Discover for yourself by reading the Gospels, the four accounts of Jesus’ life. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Open up space in your life to read about the life of Jesus. It is amazing material. But it will require time. Netflix can wait.

Your kids can do this too. Have them take a break from Minecraft or Fortnite. Read to them the stories of Jesus. Learn about how Jesus lived.

As you read, pray: “Lord Jesus help me learn how to live like you live.” Make a bookmark with that prayer, and use it as a reminder to pray that prayer before you read.

What you will find is that the way Jesus lived was very odd. And amazing. His way is so different from the way of the world. As you read, discover how you can choose to live differently, and then ask the Holy Spirit to change you, to make you more like Jesus, to live like he did. Then try it out. Try to practice kindness and forgiveness when your heart feels anger. Try to practice love when you have been hurt. Spend time alone with God like Jesus did. Invest in helping others like Jesus did. Speak the word of God like Jesus did. Practice patience and goodness and self-control.

That’s the good life of Jesus that he invites his holy royal priests to live!

How all Christians should identify as priests

Sometimes people have bizarre reactions when they learn I am a pastor. If they had been cursing, once they find out I’m a pastor, they’ll over-apologize and try to stop. Often they’ll ask where Faith Church is and talk about how they’ll visit some Sunday.

Even people within our church family can have strange reactions. At a church meal, they’ll often wait for me to pray for the meal before they start eating. Or if they get sick and go to the hospital, they’ll want me to visit. I could go on an on with stories like that. I’m just a regular guy, so even after nearly 16 years in ministry, I’m still often surprised by these reactions to me. Pastors aren’t special pray-ers or visitors, but people often think we are, elevating us to a higher plane of spirituality.

As we saw yesterday, Peter taught against this idea when he said that all Christians are royal and holy priests. Not just pastors. Not just missionaries. Not just Bible teachers. Every single Christian is a priest! We’re all on the same level in God’s eyes. Sure, we have different gifts and different roles. I am so thankful for this teaching about all Christians being part of the holy, royal priesthood. As a pastor, I think way too much focus is placed on me. All Christians need to learn how they are priests. But how?

In our continuing study of 1st Peter 2:4-10, Peter explains our priestly identity, which we will look at today, and he explains our priestly responsibility, which we will look at tomorrow. So for today, what is our priestly identity?

First Peter says we are holy. He was telling the Christians in his day that they are set apart. It doesn’t mean “holy” in the sense that they are perfect. It means they are set apart for a special purpose.

They are a “people belonging to God,” he says, and “a people of God.” We all need to see ourselves that way. A special people, belonging to God, set apart for a purpose, which we will look at tomorrow.

Here we can start to see Peter’s flow of thought into verses 11-12 which we already covered a few weeks ago when we talked about the theme of aliens and strangers. People who have been built on the foundation of Jesus need to see that that are so precious in God’s eyes. Though we might be strangers and aliens in the world’s eyes, we are people who belong to God!

Another way that Peter says they are holy or set apart or special is that they have received God’s mercy. How amazing! You are loved by God. He has shown mercy to you! How has he shown mercy? God has shown his mercy by making it possible for us to become living stones. Read about that here.

That is the first way Peter teaches that all Christians are priests: you are a holy priesthood.

Second, he says we are a royal priesthood.

Royal? Did you know, Christians, that you are royal?

You’re like Meghan Markel. Remember her? She recently married Prince Harry, and is now known as the Duchess of Sussex. She doesn’t have royal blood so she cannot be called “Princess.” That is a title she can earn eventually. William and Kate’s children, however, were called princes and princess at birth. They have royal blood.

When Christians consider our relationship to Jesus, we’re like Meghan Markel. We weren’t born of royal blood. We were adopted into it. Or as Peter says, we are reborn into God’s family, and thus we are now children of the king, with the rights and privileges of royalty.

Think about how special God views you!

If I were to guess, most of us would never think, “I am a holy, royal priest in God’s Kingdom.” We don’t see ourselves that way. I suspect we don’t think of ourselves that way because we are humble or feel unworthy. Humility is respectable. But Peter is saying, “You actually are holy, royal priests in God’s Kingdom,” and because of that we all need to see ourselves that way.

But note that the world will not see us that way, and we shouldn’t try to get them to! Being a holy royal priest of God doesn’t mean that we go around saying that! “Look at me, I’m a holy, royal priest!” That would be really weird or arrogant. Instead, we stay humble. We know that God looks at us as holy royal priests, and so we gratefully and humbly serve him. Jesus, our great high priest, gave us the pattern for how live in his Kingdom when he washed the disciples’ feet and gave his life as a sacrifice.

So all you Christians, your identity is holy, royal priests. Yeah, it is an unexpected identity. But take on that identity. And tomorrow we’ll see how Peter describes our priestly responsibility.

Why all Christians need to see that they are living stones and priests

We’ve been seeing lots of images of lava in the news in the last month or so, as volcanic activity has rocked Hawaii and Guatemala. Red hot glowing lava seems alive, as it crawls along the ground. But it is not alive. Lava is molten stone. There is no stone that is alive. Maybe something like coral is close.

Yesterday we looked at 1 Peter 2:4-10 where he says that Jesus a living stone. There Peter also calls Christians living stones. How are we living stones?

A living stone is an anomaly. Stones are dead. They have no life in them. But living stones? How can a stone be alive?

What Peter describes here is something that is physically impossible. A stone that is alive. For a stone to be alive, a miracle has to take place. The stone’s physical properties have to change. The rules of biology and geology must be replaced. That is exactly what has happened for Christians. We once were dead in our sins, but we have been made alive in Christ Jesus.

That is good biblical talk right there, but what does it mean? “Dead in sin, alive in Christ.” It means that all humans have a sin nature, and we will choose, over the course of our lives, to behave in such a way that goes against God’s will for us. That is sin. Choosing to do what God does not want us to do. From the littlest white lie to grand acts of violence and everything in between. Because of that, the biblical writers figuratively call us dead in sin. What they mean is that when we die, we will be separated from God forever. That’s really dead.

But thanks be to God, it doesn’t have to be that way. Because of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection for us, God is at work rectifying the sin problem. He has made it possible for us to place our faith in Christ, to trust in and obey Jesus, and thus be reborn. This is what baptism symbolizes! The idea of new birth is the idea of new life that Peter has mentioned three times so far in his letter. Here he hints at it again. This time he is not talking about being born again as babies, but he is talking about the concept of something that was dead that is given new life. A stone that is alive.

In Christ, we are living stones, just as Jesus was the original living stone. As he died and rose again to new life, so we too, when we trust in and obey him, we can become living stones, which means that when we die in this life, we will not be separated from God, but we will be with him forever.

The image of living stones, then, is an image of hope!

Now Peter quickly changes images. Next he says that we, the church, are a holy and royal priesthood, a holy nation, and we have a job to do!

Priesthood is not a word that is common to many Protestants. In Catholic circles, it is common. The priesthood is how Catholics and some other denominations describe their pastors. Would the idea of priesthood have been common to those first Christians Peter was writing to? Some of them likely came from a Jewish background, and it was a big part of their history, there were priests of the nation of Israel. Also, some of these Christians were Greek or Roman, and there again, pagan religion in Greco-Roman society had priests.

In each of their societies/culture there was a priestly class. But in those cultures, like ours, only the rare few were priests. Most people are not priests or pastors.

Peter teaches something shocking. He says they are all members of the holy, royal priesthood.

Not just the pastors. Not just the missionaries. Think about that: Every single one of us that is a living stone is now in the priesthood! You transformed living stones are all priests! We so rarely talk about that. We should not elevate a priestly class within the church. I’m the pastor. It doesn’t mean that I am in a different special class in the church or in the Kingdom of God. The young, the old. The males, the females. We are all on equal footing in God’s eyes.

So how did Peter envision that these Christians live out their role as living stones in a royal and holy priesthood? We’ll look at that tomorrow!

Would you go to a church named “The Church of the Holy Royal Priesthood of the Living Stones”?

I would like to propose a new church name: Church of The Holy Royal Priesthood of the Living Stones.

Do you like it? Would you go to that church?

I don’t know if I would. I’d be thinking, “Huh? Something is off there.” I would really be suspicious of going to a church with that name.

And yet in our next section of 1^st Peter, 2:4-10, Peter uses those exact terms to describe the Christians he is writing to. So actually, if a church named itself the Church of the Holy Royal Priesthood of the Living Stones, we would have to say that church has a completely biblical name. A weird name, for sure, but straight off the page of the Bible.

Why would Peter use those words to describe the church?

Read the passage again, and what you’ll find is that there are actually more terms Peter uses. There were so many I couldn’t figure a good way to include them into a church name.

He starts off calling them Living stones, a Spiritual house, and a Holy priesthood. Then it gets confusing because the next one he says is “Royal priesthood”.

Didn’t he just say “Holy Priesthood”? He did. Now he goes on and says “Holy nation.” Is he changing his mind?

Holy priesthood, royal priesthood, holy nation. Peter is all over the place. Can we sort this out?

Imagine being these new Christians hearing this read to you for the first time; would this passage be helpful to you? In my mind, I read and think, “Peter, what are you talking about? What is a holy, royal priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices?”

Is Peter trying to give them a job description? Is he saying there “Here is what I want you to do?”

The simple answer is Yes. He is giving them a job description. That means by extension, he is giving us a job description. We can learn in these verses what we, a church, are to do.

But before he gets to job description, he is giving them an identity, which is why he mentions all these labels. And in particular Peter needs them to see the central place that Jesus must have in their identity as his church.

In verse 4 Peter says “you come to him.” To who? To Jesus. Jesus, Peter says, is the living stone. Then he goes on to describe Jesus three ways: Rejected by men, Chosen by God, Precious to him. Those phrases describe Jesus’ identity. A living stone who was rejected by men, chosen by God, precious to him.

It gives me the image of a game of backyard soccer. The neighborhood kids come together, and they start to pick teams. There is often one guy or girl that no one wants. All the kids are getting picked, running over to their team captains, so thankful that they got picked. You know how it feels to be picked for a team, right? Doesn’t matter if you are kids or adults. If you get picked, it is so life-affirming. Sadly we also know what it is liked to be rejected. To be the kid who is waiting there, hearing other kids’ names called, desperately hoping their name gets called, and one by one, the options narrow down and their name is still not called. Then it comes down to the final two. At the final two, you do not want to be picked last. Your heart starts pounding, your face flushes red with embarrassment and fear. Then you hear it. The other person’s name. You are last. Rejected. No one wants you, and it hurts. The team captain with the final choice looks at you and says “I guess you’re on my team.” Wow, that stings, right?

Peter says that person picked last was Jesus. Jesus was rejected by men when he was crucified. But surprise!, there is an unexpected turn of events.

Jesus was chosen by God not to die, but to rise again! The dead stone lives. Jesus is precious to God. This odd living stone, whatever that means, though he is rejected by men, is actually quite amazing from a totally different viewpoint, from God’s viewpoint.

Peter is saying this because these Christians he is writing to are experiencing the same thing in their world. They, too, were being rejected by men. They are being persecuted. They are not wanted in their communities. These Christians are a tiny minority, and they seem really odd to the vast majority of the people around them. When these Christians received and accepted the Gospel, the good news about Jesus, the word of God that was preached to them, and they started following the way of Jesus, they started becoming different.

So Peter reminds them that they, like Jesus, are actually chosen by God, and what’s more, they are precious to God! Peter is saying that they also need to see themselves as living stones, just as Jesus was. He is their foundation.

They are living stones built on the foundation of Jesus. They are being built into a spiritual house to be a royal priesthood. Time out? What? Peter is changing images so fast here. Living stones? We barely have a clue what that is about, and now he is calling the Christians a royal priesthood? Why is he changing images so fast?

We will look further into those two images, but first let’s keep going through verses 6 and following. There we see that Peter goes on to describe the foundation of Jesus.

He quotes some Old Testament passages in verse 6-8 showing that Jesus is the foundation. More specifically, Jesus is the precious cornerstone of this spiritual house. But there is a problem. Not everyone thinks Jesus is precious. We who believe think he is precious, of course, but for some other people, Jesus is a stumbling stone.

You ever walk on rocky path and stumble because there was a stone you didn’t account for? At our house, it is dog toys. It seems like every day, someone in our family, me included, walks across the living room carpet, not looking down, and steps on a dog toy, stumbles, looks hilarious doing it, and says “Bentley!” our dog’s name.

Jesus, Peter says, is a stumbling stone for people who do not believe. It’s not just that they don’t believe in Jesus. They find him distasteful or repulsive. All that Jesus stands for, they find unnecessary or unhelpful, maybe even wrong.

So when we look at Jesus as precious, we stand out at odd. When we see Jesus as precious, we want to follow his way. We want to be like him. That is what Peter is saying. We are living stones, built on the foundation of the original living stone, Jesus.

How is Jesus a living stone? He was dead like a stone and came back to life! Because Peter calls Christians living stones, how are we living stones? Check back in tomorrow when we’ll take a look at why Peter uses this unique image of living stones.

Naming a new church is difficult (and the Bible might make it worse!)

Image result for naming a church Have you noticed the trend in the last 15-20 years to give churches unique names?

For years Christian churches tended to be named by one of four methods. The first two methods are quite practical.

First, it could be simply the location, usually connected to a denomination’s name. A church is named for its town name, or street name. For example, in a town near us there is Leola United Methodist Church.

The second common method was the timing of when the church was started relative to other churches, usually of the same denomination, in the same area. You see this mostly in larger towns or cities. In Philadelphia, one of the most famous churches is Tenth Presbyterian. That means there were nine other Presbyterian churches before it. I can see the original members of the church thinking, “We have Grace Presbyterian, Westminster, Trinity, Philadelphia…they’ve already taken all the names! There are nine others! What should we call ours?” Someone says, “How about Tenth?” And it stuck. That’s true!

Then the next two methods are distinctly Christian.

A church could be named for a famous Christian, usually titled a Saint. Some of our sister EC Churches are named for saints. St. Matthew’s EC Church is in Emmaus, PA.

Fourth, churches used to be named with a word related to a significant Christian concept: Grace, Faith, Trinity, Christ, Bible. In Lancaster county, we have three different Trinity EC Churches. One in Lititz, Manheim and the city. And that is how Faith Church got its name.

But in recent years, groups starting new churches became more…creative. Have you ever heard of the Babylon Bee? It is a Christian publishing company that releases satire, trying to help us laugh at ourselves and our idiosyncrasies. Let me read a few lines from an article they published about this trend in creative church naming. Again, this is satire, meaning that it is not true, and is meant to be funny. So you’re allowed to laugh!

CHARLOTTE, NC—A representative for the Ekklesia Church Planting Network confirmed Monday that church planting teams from around the nation are running dangerously low on edgy names for new churches.

“We’ve really started scraping the bottom of the barrel,” the representative noted.

The problem was perhaps most pronounced in a recent brainstorming session for an Oklahoma City urban church plant. According to sources at the scene, in a conference room featuring a whiteboard displaying all kinds of different random, unique names for churches, Ekklesia church planting specialist Holly Quinn reportedly just sat staring blankly at the coffee machine while chewing on a pen. Suddenly, she just started throwing out whatever random words popped into her head as possible name ideas. “Pipes. Barnyard. Bauble. Weasel. Pilot.”

According to the representative, the crisis has been brewing since the ’90s, but only recently has the potential name shortage come to a head. “You definitely can’t just use words like ‘Faith,’ ‘Bible,’ or ‘Church’ anymore,” the rep said. “Even ‘Grace’ is played out, our research has consistently shown.”

If we had more time, we could experiment with the Babylon Bee’s Church Name Generator, where, with the push of a button they create church names for you! Try it, it’s amazing.

My point is that churches have been experimenting for centuries, using all kinds of names to describe what they are about! How should we describe a church? A few weeks ago, I said that “family” is a good word, because Peter taught that we should love one another. But it seems like Peter himself maybe wasn’t totally sure how to describe a church. In our next section of 1^st Peter, 2:4-10, he uses a whole bunch of ways to describe the church. And some of them are…unexpected. Check back in tomorrow to find out what they are!

The cause and cure for spiritually malnourished Christians

Hey there, Christians. Quick question for you: are you spiritually mature? Take a few minutes and think about that. Pause reading the rest of this post, and really try to answer this question.

I am concerned that though Peter is very clear in 1 Peter 2:1-3 that we need to crave pure spiritual milk from God in order to mature spiritually, what we actually crave is far different.

Just like the difference between skim and raw milk, I am concerned that we are skim milk Christians, when we need to be raw milk Christians. Is it possible that we have attempted to nurture Christians on skim milk for decades, teaching them that only a thin, weak commitment to growing in maturity is what is needed?

But Peter says that if we want to grow up in our salvation, we are going to have to crave raw milk. I’m concerned that we might be malnourished baby Christians. In fact, it is entirely possible that people can be baby Christians for decades. For their whole lives. Staying in a state of immaturity because they are not craving pure spiritual milk.

Do you need to go deeper with Christ? Evaluate how much time you give in life to receiving the nourishment of pure spiritual skim milk. The Daily Bread is good, and the verse of the day app is good. Nothing wrong with them. Use them. But they are spiritual skim milk. We simply need to go deeper.

In order to mature as followers of Jesus, we need to take in lots of pure spiritual milk. We talked about that yesterday. So where does a Christian get this pure spiritual milk? The Bible? Is it from the Word of God?

Think about the Christians Peter is talking to in 1st Peter 2:1-3. How could they get this pure spiritual milk? They did not have smart phones with the Bible app. They did not have Christian bookstores where they could visit and choose from 100 different kinds of Bibles. They didn’t have Amazon where they could go online and select from 1000 different kinds of Bibles. This might be shocking, but those Christians Peter is writing to didn’t have any Bible at all. So though the Bible is a source of spiritual nourishment from God, Peter is not talking about the Bible.

Where, then, could those early Christians get spiritual nourishment? Well, they did have bits and pieces of the Bible. They would get letters, like this one from Peter, and from guys like Paul. Those letters were often copied and distributed. But they didn’t have copying machines with cheap ink and paper like we have. Each week at Faith Church we crank out paper bulletins at minimal cost. To have one’s own copy of Peter’s letters would have been unthinkable for most Christians. So they would gather together as a group, and they would listen to the letter read to them. They would listen together as the apostles and pastors taught them. They would gather in groups to encourage one another. And of course they could grow their relationship with God through prayer, fasting and other spiritual disciplines. Their church family was a treasure to them. That was how they could take in pure spiritual milk.

Their church families, therefore, were vital for spiritual growth. Those first Christians were a small minority. They did not and could not approach their faith in Jesus as something they did alone. They were in this as a family. That’s why Peter has to say “love one another deeply from the heart” and “get rid of” all the family killers.

They would have conceived of craving pure spiritual milk primarily as something they did together. Look again at 1 Peter 2:1-3. See all those times Peter uses the words “you” or “your”? We can’t see it our English translations, but in the original language, those words are all plural.

If we were to capture his meaning in English we would have to add the word “all”. Like this: “You all rid yourselves of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you all may grow up in your salvation, now that you all have tasted that the Lord is good.”

So craving pure spiritual milk is something we do together. It is participating in worship, it is hearing the word of God preached, it is gathering in smaller groups and praying and discussing what it means to live as a follower of Jesus in the real world.

But it wasn’t only a group thing. Each person also has to receive spiritual nourishment.

What helps us get this spiritual nourishment? I am convinced that spending time in spiritual disciplines is essential. Spending time in prayer, contemplative prayer, silent prayer and studying God’s word. And going deeper it in groups. It requires time. I learned that during sabbatical. Prior to sabbatical I didn’t spend nearly enough time craving and drinking pure spiritual milk. I was way too distracted, and figured “Well, at least I got the spiritual skim milk.” That was an excuse to not actually drink pure spiritual milk. I am so thankful for sabbatical. And now in the three months that I have been back from sabbatical, I’ve made a change. I spend time almost every day with God, particularly in contemplative prayer.

The next keep step is putting action to what we learn. And this is where the group can be so important. For accountability. Telling someone what you are learning and what action you think it might be requiring. Pure spiritual milk always leads to action. It is not simply knowledge. And it is so much more effective when we do this with others. That’s the plural “you” that Peter is talking about.

Make the time to bring others into your walk with God. We Americans talk a lot about our “personal relationship” with God. And God does love us each personally. He cares about our individual lives, needs, concerns. But community is where the power of nourishment from raw milk comes can really grow us.

Our church family is where we have to work through things in our lives, where we can be about doing things for the Kingdom together, as His church. Do what Jesus did. He had plenty of personal time alone with God. He went away to quiet places to spend time with Him. But he also then came back to his earthly family, the 12 disciples, and he helped them understand how to live life.

So let us crave pure spiritual milk. That almost certainly means our lives will have to change in some way. Stopping the wrong habits and starting new ones takes work, it means establishing new patterns. It can take time. What do you need to change? What will it take for you to invest the time to change and grow in that area? Do you need a mentor? Find someone to be your guide!

Two odd but important Christian phrases about becoming spiritually mature

If you’ve ever watched a newborn nursing or drinking from a bottle, it is wild how hungry they can be. As they grow a few months, and they start to be a bit more aware, they can get very excited when you start talking about their bottle. They shake, they wave their arms, and sometimes start crying because it is taking you soooo long to get the bottle ready. Then when you hand them the bottle,they slam it into their mouths, gulping furiously, and their crying stops in an instant! I remember watching our kids do that, and thinking they are craving that milk.

Christians, that’s how we should be.

Yesterday we looked at how Peter, in 1st Peter 2:1-3 says that there are five church family killers we should get rid of. But Peter doesn’t stop there. Peter doesn’t just want the people to stop things. He also wants them to start things. Remove the poor behaviors, for sure, but then add what?

He says in verse 2, “like newborns, you should crave pure spiritual milk.” Again he mentions the concept of new birth! Since the beginning of his letter, this is now the third time Peter has brought up the idea that Christians are reborn. When you are reborn in Christ, you gain citizenship in a new country, and you become part of a new family of love. Now Peter says we should be like newborn babies who crave milk. But he calls it “pure spiritual milk.”

Odd Phrase #1: Do you crave pure spiritual milk?

That’s a weird question, isn’t it? “Do you crave pure spiritual milk?” I don’t think I ever in my life asked that question before. What is pure spiritual milk?

It’s pure. That means it is not infected, it is not diluted. It is not half and half. It’s not skim. It’s not pasteurized. It is pure, like raw milk straight from a cow.

Also that pure spiritual milk has a purpose. Peter says in verse 2 that the purpose of this milk is that, “by it you may grow up in your salvation.”

This pure spiritual milk is stuff that helps you grow. But not physical growth. It is spiritual milk and it helps you grow spiritually, in your salvation, Peter says.

Odd Phrase #2: Grow up in your salvation

“Grow up in your salvation” is one of those Bible-sounding phrases that I could skip by really quickly assuming that you know what that means. It is a very Christian kind of thing to say. We Christians talk about salvation as if it is normal and everyone knows about it. But do they?

“Grow up in your salvation.” Look at that phrase. Who talks like that? You won’t hear that phrase anywhere in our culture.

You will hear “Grow up.” If a person is acting immature, we say, “Grow up!” Why? They are not acting their age.

Or we use “grow up” from the perspective of a child who is dreaming about what they want to do when they grow up. Usually it is about the career they want to have. We often ask children, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Of course there are some adults who are also wondering what they want to be when they grow up. Usually that is because they aren’t sure they have found that thing, that meaning, that fulfillment, in their career.

We know the term “grow up.” It refers to a change that needs to take place. A development in our lives. It is a development toward maturity, right? Growing up means that we are putting aside immaturity, kind of like Paul saying “Get rid of” the family killers in your life, and we are moving toward maturity.

Craving and taking in pure spiritual milk so that we can grow up in our salvation is just like that.

Our salvation is a way that Peter is describing our relationship with Jesus. By his life, death and resurrection, Jesus made it possible for us to be saved from the penalty of sin. When we trust in and obey him, as Peter said in verses 1:21-25, we are saved, we are reborn as citizens of a new spiritual country, the Kingdom of Jesus, and thus we are reborn as new babies into a new spiritual family, the church.

That’s what happens when we trust and obey; we are saved, we are reborn. Thus the image of new babies is perfect for the Christians that Peter is writing to. They need to see themselves new babies in a new family. Thus they should want to grow up and mature.

The implications are clear. Christians are not to stay in the infant stage. Christians should grow up. Growing up as followers of Jesus requires that we take in a form of nourishment called pure spiritual milk. Just as a baby derives nutrients and calories from milk, and that causes the baby to grow, so Christians must take in pure spiritual milk, and the spiritual energy it brings will cause them to grow and mature as followers of Christ.

Also, Peter is saying this pure spiritual milk is not option. He says we should crave it. We need to want it. That means we need to have humble teachable hearts to see those areas of our lives that are immature, where we need growth. Then we can seek pure spiritual milk to help us in those areas.

Finally, Peter answers where this spiritual sustenance comes from.

In verse 3 he is saying, “Christians, you have tasted that the Lord is good. You know that he is the real deal. He is the truth, and because you have tasted the goodness of the Lord, that means that the pure spiritual milk is from the Lord.”

Only the Lord can satisfy the longing of your life. In other words, if you want to grow up in your relationship from the Lord, you need sustenance that only comes from him. That’s what pure spiritual milk is. Pure spiritual milk is spiritual sustenance, spiritual calories that are only available from God. If you want to grow up in your salvation, if you want to become more mature in your practice of discipleship to Jesus, drink more spiritual milk.

Check back in tomorrow as we’ll give practical suggestions about how to get this pure spiritual milk and take it in to our lives on a regular basis.

5 church family killers

Yesterday our community learned that police apprehended a man who is accused of, 25 years ago, killing a local school teacher. He has been living and working in our community all these years. Here’s the freaky thing, he has a long career as a popular DJ, and he recently deejayed our daughter’s 6th grade end-of-year party hosted by her elementary school. Undercover officers attended the party and were able to obtain a DNA sample giving them long-awaited evidence to confirm his involvement in the murder. They later arrested him at his home without incident. My wife and I read the news article with eyes wide. There was a killer in our midst.

Today, as we continue studying what Peter has to say in his letter to Christians in the first century Roman Empire, he teaches us about 5 killers in the midst of church families, and he says they need to go. If you want, go back and read the intro post from yesterday. Here’s the scary thing, though: the five church family killers could easily be within any of us.

Read 1 Peter 2:1-3 where Peter names the five: Malice, Deceit, Hypocrisy, Envy, Slander.

If we are to be a loving church family, all five of those family killers have to be discarded like dirty clothes, Peter says. Let’s make sure we know exactly what they are so we can identify them in ourselves and clean them out.

First up is Malice. Not a word we use too often. But this word Peter used is defined as, “a feeling of hostility and strong dislike, with a possible implication of desiring to do harm—‘hateful feeling.’^[1] That is intense, right? Feeling hostile toward someone? Maybe even desiring to do them harm? My first thought is “Woah…wait a minute Peter. Are you serious? People in a church family are not like that toward one another. You’re starting us off way over the top here, Peter.”

But let’s face it. When it comes to church, our feelings can run really deep. In a culture that is changing rapidly, we want the church to be our safe place. When the church starts to change, that can set off deep feelings of anger and stuff comes out of our lives that maybe we didn’t ever imagine we were capable of. Rage and temper are powerful forces that many of us cannot control.

Peter is saying malice has to go. Do you have those strong angry feelings toward anyone? Those feelings need to go. Surrender your feelings to the Lord, repent, confess, ask forgiveness. Don’t let them eat you up. Malice has to go.

The next two are similar. Deceit and Hypocrisy. Deceit is defined as “to deceive by using trickery and falsehood.”^[2] This is lying. Hypocrisy is defined as “to give an impression of having certain purposes or motivations, while in reality having quite different ones.”^[3] Normally when we think of a hypocrite, we think of a person who says one thing and does another.

No surprise here that hypocrisy and deceit are church family killers, right?

My wife, Michelle, is reading a book right now called Sacred Slow, and the author says that hypocrisy and deceit can be poison. She says, “Physically most of us will never poison ourselves. But mentally, most of us habitually poison ourselves. “I’m unattractive.” “I’m all alone.” “I’m stupid.” “I’m worthless.” “If only I were…” “If only I wasn’t…” “If only I hadn’t…” These are poisonous thoughts which can ruin ourselves, our activities, and our relationships.”

We need to rid ourselves our deceit and hypocrisy first by telling ourselves the truth! The author of Sacred Slow says we need to speak truth to ourselves regularly: “God made me, I am not alone, I have Jesus, I have _____ as a friend, God loves me unconditionally and I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

What we allow our minds to focus on becomes our truth, and that flows into our actions. Dwell on who you are as a child of God. View one another in your church family as children of God. Peter says remove deceit and hypocrisy in the church family.

Fourth he brings up Envy. This one is defined as a “state of ill will toward someone because of some real or presumed advantage experienced by such a person”^[4] That definition might sound complicated. Basically, envy is jealousy. Here’s an example: have you ever had bitter feelings because a person in your church family clearly makes more money than you and is able to have a bigger house, better vacations, and nicer cars?

Jealousy can happen when one person has a certain kind of family, and another person doesn’t.

Jealousy can happen when one person seems to have a lot of friends, or is invited to certain social functions, and another person is not.

We can be jealous of another person’s personality, sense of humor, attractiveness.

Peter says get rid of envy.

Finally, Peter mentions Slander which is “to speak against, often involving speaking evil of”^[5] Slander and malice go together. Malice is the feeling of evil against another. Slander is speaking in an evil way against or about another. You might be a person prone to malice, where you feel strong feelings against another, but you are not a slanderer. You wouldn’t go so far as to actually open your mouth and speak against them. Slander involves another level of sin. It is not only having strong feelings, but speaking them. Gossip is very much related to this.

Peter says get rid of slander.

So there they are. The five church family killers. Malice, Deceit, Hypocrisy, Envy, Slander. That is a bad list! These are really awful behaviors. Peter wants the readers of his letter to be super clear: these things should have no part of a church family. It would be easy to think, “Well, geez, Peter, those are really bad behaviors…why are you talking about them? Wouldn’t it be super rare that Christians treat each other like that?”

Maybe. Maybe not.

I think it is important that Peter clearly lists out what is not acceptable in a loving church family. But more than likely, Peter is addressing issues that he actually heard about in churches. So let’s pay attention to our church family. Let’s call out these behaviors and work to stop them. They should have no part of our fellowship, and no part of our individual lives. Take off those dirty clothes!

But Peter doesn’t stop there. Peter doesn’t just want the people to stop things. He also wants them to start things. Remove the poor behaviors, and make sure you add what? Check back in tomorrow, and we’ll find out!

^[1] Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996 : 763. Print.

^[2] Ibid. 758.

^[3] Ibid: 765.

^[4] Ibid: 759.

^[5] Ibid: 432.

That time the Bible teaches us to take off our dirty clothes and drink raw milk?

How much milk do you drink? And what kind? Skim? Whole? 1 or 2 percent?

Milk is good stuff. And what I have found over the years is that people have lots of opinions about milk. My family is a skim milk family. I have heard some people call skim milk, “chalk water.” Some of you are 1 percenters and 2 percenters, and it seems to me that you tend to be a bit more quiet about your preferences. The whole milk people, though? You are passionate. For you, whole milk is the only milk. To me, though, whole milk tastes like liquid sugar. I really like its sweetness at first, but I can barely get through a full bowl of cereal with whole milk because it is so sweet. It can make my stomach sick.

But that is not the only option when it comes to milk, right? There is also flavored milk, like chocolate and strawberry, and non-dairy versions like almond milk.

Then there is raw milk. I had raw milk for the first time about five years ago at our Amish friends’ house. First of all, it didn’t look like milk. I’m used to pure white milk. This raw milk had a touch of tan coloration to it. Second of all, it didn’t smell or taste like milk. Remember, I’m used to skim milk. I love skim milk. To me skim has the perfect sweetness level. Raw milk? Whew, it tasted like liquid earth. Like there had to be some actual dirt in there.

Raw milk is pure unadulterated milk. Not even whole milk can say that. How many of you like raw milk?

I’m saying this because when you’re used to skim milk, whole milk might make you sick. If you’re used to skim milk or whole milk, you might not like the taste of raw milk. We might be so used to impure or diluted spiritual milk that we won’t like the real thing.

In our next section of 1^st Peter, 2:1-3, Peter says we should be drinking raw milk. Check it out for yourselves. We’re going to be looking at these three verses all week.

Peter starts with “therefore,” thus connecting the material that came before with this new material. So what came before? Well, the final verses of chapter 1 which we studied last week. And in those verses we saw Peter the Christians in his day that they were to love one another deeply from the heart, because they were reborn into a new family by trusting and obeying the imperishable word of God that was preached to them.

Remember that? We are reborn into a new family, and we are to love one another deeply, from the heart.

Now Peter continues. Because of that rebirth into a new family, because we are to love one another deeply, he says we must rid ourselves of five family killers. Before we get to describing those five family killers, it is important to reemphasize that Peter is saying clearly that the Christians need to stop these behaviors.

The image Peter uses is one of taking off old clothes. Get those old dirty clothes off because that’s not you anymore!

Maybe Peter heard that the Christians were behaving this way. It wouldn’t surprise me. These behaviors he’s about to bring up can be present in nearly any church family. There is no perfect church! And so Peter is clear. These church family killers have to stop. A follower of Jesus who has been reborn will strive to stop these things. Then they will drink raw milk!

Check back in tomorrow as we look at the five family killers. Then later in the week, we’ll see Peter make his case for drinking raw milk.