Chapter Two
1 Pet. 2:1. Therefore, having put aside all malice and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander,
1 Pet. 2:2. As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby unto salvation;
1 Pet. 2:3. if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1 Pet. 2:4. Coming to Him, the living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious,
1 Pet. 2:5. And you yourselves, as living stones, build yourselves up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Pet. 2:6. For it is said in Scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and he who believes in Him shall not be put to shame.
So, he says, "laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all evil speaking." With these few words he embraces the entire multitude and variety of evil. For those who have been reborn to an incorruptible life must not fall into the snares of malice and prefer the non-existent to the real. For evil is not a substance, but consists in the error of a created substance. And there is a great difference between life itself and what merely accompanies it. They, he says, must show themselves free from guile and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking. For guile and evil speaking are far from the truth and from the teaching proclaimed to you. Guile seeks the destruction of the one it deceives; hypocrisy thrives on disparity with reality, while the saving teaching with which you have been instructed thrives on the opposite. And what place is there in you for envy and evil speaking — in you who, being bound by the inseparable bond of brotherly love, can suffer no harm from anyone who would separate you? That envy and evil speaking are the cause of strife and mutual hatred is unknown only to one who does not know the sorrowful history of Cain, who through envy broke the bond of brotherhood and then fell into guile, hypocrisy, and murder (Gen. 4). And that the envious person is not free from evil speaking can be confirmed by the example of Joseph's brothers, who slandered him greatly to their father (Gen. 37). Therefore, he says, having been cleansed from all these evils, draw near as newborn babes, "for of such," said the Lord, "is the Kingdom of God" (Luke 18:16). And, being nourished by guileless teaching, grow up into "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). "For you have tasted," that is, through the practice of the sacred evangelical commandments you have tangibly come to know how good this teaching is. And experience in the matter of knowledge is stronger than any word, just as what is experienced in practice is more pleasant than any word. So, having experientially come to know the goodness of the Lord upon yourselves, show kindness and mercy to one another as well, and lay yourselves upon the living cornerstone, rejected by men but honored and chosen by God, both existing and foretold by the prophets. Draw closer to one another through the union of love, and join together into the fullness of a spiritual house, caring nothing for the contempt of men, because the cornerstone — Christ — was also rejected by them. Having attained unity of mind among yourselves, and having built yourselves into a spiritual house, and having acquired a holy priesthood, offer spiritual sacrifices. And do not think that you can offer unblemished sacrifices to God when you do not preserve among yourselves the bond of love. "Lift up holy hands," it is said, "without wrath and doubting" (1 Tim. 2:8); how then shall one who desires to be united with God through prayer achieve this, when he himself tears himself away from his brother through wrath and evil doubts?
1 Pet. 2:7. So He is, for you who believe, precious, but for unbelievers, the stone which the builders rejected, but which has become the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
1 Pet. 2:8. against which they stumble, being disobedient to the word,
To the unbelievers God even now says the following: I lay for you in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. He becomes a stone of stumbling for the unbelievers, who also stumble, not submitting to the word, to which they were also appointed. The full thought is as follows: behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, precious and chosen; and he who believes in Him shall not be put to shame; for you who believe, He is precious, but for the unbelievers, a stone of stumbling. They stumble at the word of the Gospel,
1 Pet. 2:8. "to which they were also appointed."
By this it is not said that they were appointed to this by God. For from Him Who "desires all people to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4), there can in no way be a cause of perdition. But since they themselves made themselves vessels of wrath, adding to this also disobedience, they were left in the very condition they prepared for themselves. For if man, as a rational being, was created free, and freedom cannot be compelled, then it would be unjust to blame the One Who renders to man precisely the honor that he himself prepared for himself by his own deeds. Christ is called the cornerstone because He unites both walls that compose the spiritual house, that is, the Gentiles and the Jews, embracing them in His arms and binding them into one harmony, abolishing the useless sacrifices of the one, and transforming the demonic superstition of the other into piety.
1 Pet. 2:9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired as His own, that you may proclaim the perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wondrous light;
1 Pet. 2:10. Once not a people, but now the people of God; once not having received mercy, but now having received mercy.
Having disapproved of the bad conduct of the unbelievers, having said that they themselves became guilty of their unbelief, the apostle now turns to the commendation of those who acted rightly and says: you who have acted rightly are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. He speaks as if to say: those, by their hardness and stubbornness, stumbled over the cornerstone and did not enter together with it into the composition of the building; but you, through your obedience, have become part of the royal priesthood, as a chosen generation, as a holy nation. However, lest he weaken them with excessive praise and lest they think that they became a holy nation by inheritance, that they were deemed worthy of such honor because they descend from Abraham and never stumbled, the apostle, in order to restrain them from such a thought, adds and says: do not think much of lineage; you were chosen into the royal priesthood not on account of Abraham, for those who descended from him had a priesthood separate from the kingdom; you are a holy nation and a chosen generation and are appointed to the royal priesthood not on account of Abraham, but on account of Christ, Who is called both "a priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110:4) and "a King meek, righteous, and saving" (Zech. 9:9). Therefore, from Him Who possessed both the one and the other (both the priesthood and the kingdom), you, having been reborn through holy baptism, are rightly called both a chosen generation and a royal priesthood. This you have by the mercy of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; therefore, by the works of light, proclaim His excellences to the rest of mankind as well. This, he says, you have by His love for mankind. Therefore it is fitting to apply to you the words: "who once were not a people but are now the people of God; who once had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy" (cf. Hos. 2:23). Lest this speech seem harsh, he brings the words of reproach from the prophet Hosea. Therefore, proclaim His excellences by your virtue. And how are they to proclaim them? The Lord Himself teaches this when He says: "so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). "A people for God's own possession" (εἰς περιποίησιν), that is, a people taken as a possession, or as an inheritance. For all creation belongs to God, but God's own possession consists only of those who have been deemed worthy of this on account of their virtue.
1 Pet. 2:11. Beloved! I urge you, as sojourners and strangers, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
1 Pet. 2:12. and to lead a virtuous life among the pagans,
It is customary for teachers of the faith to append moral lessons to dogmatic teaching. So does the holy apostle Peter now. He calls them "beloved," and not simply dear, because they are pleasing to him in every respect; for those who are pleasing in only some particular respect are called dear, not beloved. He says that fleshly lusts wage war against the soul, because, in the words of the blessed apostle Paul as well, "the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit" (Gal. 5:17), for the desires of the flesh revolve around sensual pleasures and thereby darken the mind and enslave the soul.
1 Pet. 2:12. so that in the very thing for which they slander you as evildoers, having seen your good works, they may glorify God in the day of visitation.
By "those who slander us" the apostle means the pagans, and by "the day of visitation" he means the inheritance according to the laws of this world. For when they examine our life and find that their notion of us contradicts reality, they themselves reform from their shameful deeds and in this way glorify God.
1 Pet. 2:13. Therefore be subject to every human authority, for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as the supreme power,
1 Pet. 2:14. or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good, –
1 Pet. 2:15. For such is the will of God, that by doing good we may silence the ignorance of foolish men, –
He calls rulers appointed by kings a "human creation," and even the kings themselves, since they too are elected or appointed by people; and Scripture sometimes calls an institution a "creation" as well, as for example in the following passage: "to create in Himself one new man from the two" (Eph. 2:15). So then, he says, be subject to worldly authorities, but be subject for the Lord's sake, as the Lord commanded. And what did the Lord command? "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22:21). Therefore, if they command anything contrary to God's ordinance, one must not obey them. Thus Christ commanded; and now His disciple commands the same. This is so that the pagans could not say that Christianity brings about the overthrow of civil life, that it is the cause of disorder and sedition. "For the Lord's sake." He adds this also for the sake of the faithful. Some of them might say: the apostle himself promises us the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Pet. 1:4), and thereby ascribes to us great dignity. Why then does he again humble us by subjecting us to worldly authorities? So then, if anyone should say this, let him know, he says, that this commandment is not from me personally, but from the Lord Himself. The apostle Peter himself also indicated which authorities and what kind of authorities one must obey, namely those who render what is due. He adds the reason as well: first, such is the will of God; second, our submission to the authorities demonstrates our good conduct and, moreover, puts the unbelievers to shame. For when they slander us as proud, yet see that we are humble and, in what is fitting, obedient, they are all the more put to shame by this.