OVERVIEW: Having described what it means to be born again in Christ, Peter outlines what those born anew are called to strive for in their lives. We must grow to be more like Christ, and we must also be built into the structure of his temple, which is the church. Since you are children of God, act like it (DIDYMUS, BEDE). Be immune to all deceit, pretense, envy and disparagement, which are the opposite of the truth preached to you (HILARY OF ARLES, OECUMENIUS). The newborn baby must first drink milk before growing stronger (ANDREAS). The pure spiritual milk you long for is found in the Scripture taken in its literal, moral and spiritual sense (HILARY OF ARLES), in the elementary teaching of the gospel (BEDE). Therefore taste the kindness of the Lord in the vital nourishment of the bread of life (BASIL, BEDE).
Believers are being fashioned together into a single living edifice (ORIGEN), a spiritual house (DIDYMUS, ANDREAS), cemented by charity (AUGUSTINE), having the same mind together with Christ (THEODORET). Believers all stand as if in one house, built on a good foundation (HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE), in relation to a single, living cornerstone (ANDREAS). There is no unity of the edifice without its unique cornerstone, Jesus Christ (HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE), who binds together believers of all cultures into one community of faith (AUGUSTINE, CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Christ gives honor to those who join themselves to him in faith and reveals himself as a reliable foundation, but to those who do not believe he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, considered worthless by the builders who have rejected him (DIDYMUS). He will reject those who reject his divine sonship (CHRYSOSTOM, HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE). They stumble because of their own unwillingness to believe (DIDYMUS). Though their decisions are foreknown by God, God is not to be held responsible for this, for no cause of damnation can come from him who wants everyone to be saved. It is they who have made themselves into vessels of wrath and unbelief has followed naturally from that (OECUMENIUS, ANDREAS).
Christians are integrated into a new nation, which is described here as a royal priesthood. This means that we share in the government of his kingdom because we have benefitted from the sacrifice that he made on our behalf. We are a royal people because we have been called to share Christ’s kingdom (BEDE). We are a priesthood because of the offering that is made in prayers by which the people are offered to God (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, ORIGEN). The gospel unites the kingly and priestly offices in Christ (DIDYMUS). All believers are therefore anointed (AUGUSTINE), being made kings by the sign of the cross and priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (LEO) and a holy people by participating in God’s holiness (SEVERUS, ANDREAS). Believing Gentiles are now rightly called God’s people (ORIGEN, DIDYMUS), united by faith (ANDREAS), brought near to God by the blood of Christ (BEDE). The Christian church has been formed on this spiritual foundation by people from every corner of the world, there-by fulfilling the prophecy of Hosea, who foretold that a time would come when God would create a new nation that would glorify him forever (DIDYMUS, BEDE).
BE BORN AGAIN. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: This verse upsets the heretics, who like to think that natures are good or bad in themselves and therefore cannot be changed. But what Peter says is fully in line with the words of Jesus: “You must be born again.”1 COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.2
LAY ASIDE MALICE. HILARY OF ARLES: As you have been born again by the Word of the living God, lay aside all malice, for an infant has no malice in him. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.3
ACT LIKE CHILDREN OF GOD. BEDE: Peter says that now that you have been born again and have become children of God through baptism, you ought to become like newborn children in the innocency of your life and behavior. ON 1 PETER.4
BORN TO AN INCORRUPTIBLE LIFE. OECUMENIUS: These few words say a great deal, for it is unworthy of those who have been born again to an incorruptible life to be ensnared by evil and to prefer things which have no existence to that which truly exists. For evil is not a substance but merely clings to substances as if it were part of them. Peter says that believers ought to be immune to all deceit, pretense, envy and disparagement. Deceit and pretence are the exact opposite of the truth which was preached to you. If envy and disparagement find a home inside you, who are bound by the tie of brotherly love, how will you be able to bear the attacks of the heretics? COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.5
LONG FOR SPIRITUAL MILK. HILARY OF ARLES: Milk has three forms which can be compared to doctrine, that is, the liquid, cheese and butter. Liquid milk is the literal sense of Scripture, cheese is the moral sense, and butter is the spiritual sense. Find a good teacher and you will soon learn these things. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.6
NEWBORN BABIES DRINK MILK. ANDREAS: The divine law wants us to be perfect, but on the way toward perfection it has us first drink milk, as if we were newborn babies, and by that milk we shall grow toward salvation. Paul spoke to the same effect when he said: “Do not be children in understanding, but be innocent in wrongdoing. In understanding be adults.”7 For it is not possible to advance toward purity, or toward maturity in understanding, or toward adulthood as a worker approved by God, unless you renounce evil and become like an innocent child. CATENA.8
ELEMENTARY DOCTRINE. BEDE: In accordance with the apostolic principle of discretion, to disciples who are still ignorant the priests supply elementary doctrine, which is the rational milk without guile. But they also provide the solid food of more sublime doctrine to those who are more nearly perfect. ON THE TABERNACLE AND ITS VESSELS 2.10.81.9
TASTE THE BREAD OF LIFE. BASIL THE GREAT: Everywhere we notice that the various facets of the soul are designated by outward things. Thus when our Lord is described as the true bread and his flesh as the true food, we must understand this as meaning that the pleasure of right reason is like the taste of bread. Just as it is impossible for someone to know what honey is like simply by being told about it, because he must taste it in order to find out, so too the goodness of the heavenly bread is not properly communicated by teaching alone. We must taste the goodness of the Lord by our own experience. CATENA.10
LONG FOR VITAL NOURISHMENT. BEDE: It is hardly surprising if someone who has never tasted the kindness of the Lord fails to avoid the filth and corruption of this world. But if your hearts and minds have been cleansed from wickedness, then it is natural for you to long for the vital nourishment of Christ. ON1 PETER.11
COME TO HIM. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Those who have accepted the gospel and who have been born again of incorruptible seed are an elect and approved race. At the same time they have been made living stones, built on top of the living Stone, who is chosen and honored, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, in order to build a spiritual house for God toward whom they are being led and to whom spiritual sacrifices are offered. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.12
CEMENTED BY CHARITY. AUGUSTINE: The Lord will repay his faithful followers who are so lovingly, so cheerfully, so devotedly carrying out these works, to the effect that he includes them in the construction of his own building, into which they hasten to fit as living stones, fashioned by faith, made solidly firm by hope, cemented together by charity. SERMONS 337.15
HAVING THE SAME MIND. THEODORET OF CYR: This is how Peter describes the way in which those who have been accepted by God are integrated into the church. It is by sharing a common origin, and by being in harmony with one another, by thinking and by saying the same things, by having the same mind and the same thoughts, that we are built into one house for the Lord.
CATENA.16
FASHIONED INTO A LIVING STONE. ORIGEN: Even though a man may have departed out of this life insufficiently instructed but with a record of acceptable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints, that is, he can be taught and informed and fashioned into a “living stone,” a stone precious and elect, because he has borne with courage and endurance the trials of life and the struggle for piety. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.3.17
A HOUSE OF GOD. ORIGEN: We learn from Peter that the church is a body and a house of God built from living stones. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 10.266.18
BUILT ON A GOOD FOUNDATION. HILARY OF ARLES: You have been built on a good foundation, that of the apostles, prophets and patriarchs. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.19
IN ONE EDIFICE. BEDE: The temple which Christ built is the universal church, which he gathers into the one structure of his faith and love from all the believers throughout the world, as it were from living stones. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.24.20
NO BUILDING WITHOUT CORNERSTONE. AUGUSTINE: Without the cornerstone which is Christ, I do not see how men can be built into a house of God, to contain God dwelling in them, without being born again, which cannot happen before they are born the first time. LETTERS 187.31.21
BELIEVERS OF ALL CULTURES. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Peter calls our Lord Jesus Christ a chosen and precious stone, fashioned by the glory and splendor of divinity. He calls it the cornerstone, because through one faith it binds together in unity the two peoples, Israel and the Gentiles. CATENA.22
ONLY ONE CORNERSTONE. HILARY OF ARLES: Everything in this prophecy is written about Christ. There are many living stones in God’s temple, but here we are contemplating only the One. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.23
CHRIST THE ROCK. BEDE: Peter reinforces the reliability of Christ as our Lord and Savior by reminding us that he was called a rock by the prophets. ON 1 PETER.24
BELIEF AND REJECTION. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Just as the Lord is the true light who has come into the world for judgment, so that at his coming he may give sight to the blind and blind those who see in the wrong way, so he is also a chosen cornerstone, giving honor to those who join themselves to him in faith and revealing himself to them as a reliable foundation, but to those who do not believe he is not precious but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, considered worthless by the builders who have rejected him. These builders are the scribes and the Pharisees. CATENA.25
THE REVERSAL. CHRYSOSTOM: These words refer to Christ, who himself prophesied in the Gospels, saying: “Have you not read, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner?’”26 CATENA.27
SONS OR STONES? HILARY OF ARLES: Those of you who believe in Christ are more than just stones—you are sons of God! INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.28
THOSE WHO REJECT HIM. BEDE: Just as those who refused to make Christ the foundation of their heart in effect condemned him by their actions, so too will they be condemned by him when he comes again, for then he will be unwilling to receive those who rejected him into his house, which is in the heavens. ON 1 PETER.29
WICKEDNESS BRINGS DAMNATION. ANDREAS: They stumble because of their wicked mind and because they were chosen for damnation. For it is that which has brought them to this position. CATENA.30
THEIR OWN UNWILLINGNESS. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: The position in which they find themselves is one which they have chosen, for it starts with their unbelief. For just as the world, which has been placed under evil, is not evil by nature but has attained this position by its own desire, so also those who are being talked about here have been so placed because of their own unwillingness to believe, for they are cousins of those who have been handed over to the wickednesses of their desires. For God was very patient with those who despised his goodness and mercy, but in the end he left them to follow their own will. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.31
GOD WILLS EVERYONE TO BE SAVED. OECUMENIUS: God is not to be held responsible for this, for no cause of damnation can come from him who wants everyone to be saved. It is they who have made themselves into vessels of wrath, and unbelief has followed naturally from that. Therefore they have been established in the order for which they have prepared themselves. For if a human being is made with free will, that free will cannot be forced, nor can anyone accuse him who has decreed their fate of having done anything to them which they did not fully deserve as a result of their own actions. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.32
A ROYAL PEOPLE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: That we are a chosen people is clear enough, but Peter said that we are a royal people because we have been called to share Christ’s kingdom and we belong to him. We are a priesthood because of the offering which is made in prayers and in the teachings by which souls which are offered to God are won. ADUMBRATIONS.33
THE APPROACH TO THE SANCTUARY. ORIGEN: Because you are a priestly race you are able to approach the sanctuary of God. SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 9.9.34
THE ALTAR FIRE MAINTAINED. ORIGEN: If you want to exercise the priesthood of your soul, do not let the fire depart from your altar. SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 4.6.35
KING AND PRIEST TOGETHER. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Under the old dispensation, the priesthood and the kingship were two different things. No one could be both a king and a priest. But afterwards came the gospel, which united these two offices in Christ. From this it follows that the people whom he has chosen will be both royal and priestly at the same time. Some people wonder how it is possible, seeing that we are called from all the nations on earth, for us to be regarded as one holy people. The answer to this is that although we are from many different nations, the fact that we have all repented of our sins and accepted a common will and a common mind gives those who have repented one doctrine and one faith. When there is a soul and heart common to all believers, then they are called one people. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.36
ALL BELIEVERS ANOINTED. AUGUSTINE: In ancient times only one high priest was anointed, but now all Christians are anointed. SERMONS 198A.37
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE MADE PRIESTS. LEO THE GREAT: All who have been born again in Christ are made kings by the sign of the cross and consecrated priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. SERMONS 4.38
A HOLY PEOPLE. ANDREAS: We are royal from the fact that Christ is a king, and we are a priesthood from the fact that he is a priest. Furthermore, we are also a holy people, so called by the one who is called holy in himself. CATENA.39
A PEOPLE APART. SEVERUS OF ANTIOCH: As believers in Christ we have received exactly the same things as he already has. Since he is of the royal tribe and became a high priest, so too have we been enriched by these gifts. Having them, we have become a holy nation and a people for safekeeping, that is, for being kept apart from the world; for we have entered into his rest. CATENA.40
BELIEVING GENTILES A CHOSEN RACE. BEDE: This title of honor, which God gave to his ancient people through Moses, the apostle Peter now applies to the Gentiles, and rightly so, because they have believed in Christ who was the true cornerstone of Israel’s faith. The Gentiles are therefore a chosen race, in contradistinction to those who have been rejected because they themselves rejected the living stone. They are a royal priesthood because they are joined to the body of him who is both the king and the true high priest. As their king, Christ grants them a share in his kingdom, and as their priest he purifies them with the sacrifice of his own blood. ON 1 PETER.41
THE NEW PEOPLE OF THE CIRCUMCISION. ORIGEN: O people of God, chosen to expound the virtues of the Lord: take up the circumcision worthy of the Word of God in your ears, on your lips, in your heart and in the foreskin of your flesh, as well as in every part of you. Sermons on Genesis 3.5.42
BELIEVING GENTILES NOW GOD’S PEOPLE. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: This verse means that Gentiles who were not God’s people before they believed have now been called by him and have come to him. Some people think that Peter is talking about a mixture of beings who are both good and bad by nature, but their interpretation comes up against many serious objections. You cannot say of spiritual beings that there was once a time when they were not a people and when they lacked mercy, nor can you say of earthly beings that they have been turned into a people or received mercy. Therefore I believe that that is the wrong interpretation of this verse. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.43
ONE HOLY PEOPLE. ANDREAS: When people from different races and nations are called to abandon all their differences and to take on one mind, drawing near to him by one faith and one teaching, by which the soul and the heart become one, they are one holy people. CATENA.44
BROUGHT NEAR BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. BEDE: These words are taken from the prophet Hosea45 and confirm what Paul also said: “You were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.”46 ON 1 PETER.47