What it means to be a Christian

1 Peter 2.1-10 (https://www.biblegateway.com NRSVA)

Here the author of 1 Peter uses some everyday images to describe different aspects of the Christian life.

He begins by borrowing an idea from Paul and then expanding on it. Paul had reminded the Christians in Corinth that it’d been necessary to feed them with milk because they were ‘infants in Christ’ who weren’t ready yet for solid food.

The author of 1 Peter says all Christians should ‘like newborn babies, drink spiritual unadulterated milk’ to ‘help [them] grow into salvation’. He’s no longer thinking, as Paul did, of milk as a starter food for people who aren't yet ready to digest the real thing. Instead, he’s thinking of it as a rich and creamy gift from God. This isn’t milk that’s been watered down to make it go further. It’s full-fat milk packed with nutrients - a gift to those who’ve ‘experienced that the Lord is kind’.

He then riffs on the idea of ‘Peter The Rock’. But he reminds his readers that the true rock on which the Church is founded is ‘the Living Stone’, who is Jesus. Although he was ‘rejected by humans...in God’s eyes [he] was select and precious’ and his followers are being ‘built up into a spiritual house’ which rests on this ‘cornerstone’.

And yet, ‘what is precious’ to some people seems ‘worthless’ and just a ‘trip hazard’ to those who don’t believe in its value. What they fail to recognise is that if they’d allow themselves to be incorporated into the body of Christ they’d gain a new and unshakeable identity. They’d be transformed from stateless refugees, condemned to wander around in search of a purpose, into ‘the People of God’.

Comments

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