1 Peter - Following Jesus Sample

Where should you go if you want to meet God? In Old Testament times, the right answer to that question was Jerusalem. Back in those days, God was present in a special way in his temple in that great city.

But that is not true anymore. Today you will find God living in the spiritual community of Christian believers. No wonder we need to get on with loving each other deeply and getting rid of all malice! When outsiders visit God’s new ‘temple’, they need to see God’s love in action.

In this section of his letter, Peter is weaving together lots of images from the old Jerusalem temple. He wants to show his Christian friends how Jesus is fulfilling everything from those days. Today we learn more about why God has joined us to Christ and to each other as ‘living stones’.

• What is the purpose of the ‘spiritual house’ God is building (v. 5)?

We are ‘to be a holy priesthood’. In Old Testament days, only a few special people were chosen to be priests in God’s temple. Look how different things are now: the whole Christian community that God is building is his holy priesthood. We, together, are to bring God to people and people to God.

Old Testament priests offered physical sacrifices of animals. This symbolised the fact that our sin deserves the death penalty. Now there are no more physical sacrifices. Jesus’ blood paid for all sin, past, present and future.

But that doesn’t mean that we, God’s new priesthood, have nothing to do. We have ‘spiritual sacrifices’ to offer and Peter will tell us more about these as we read on. For now, though, notice that whatever we do for God should not make us proud.

• Why does God find what we do for him ‘acceptable’?

God doesn’t accept our service because it is perfectly pure and holy. It never is, so stay very humble. Yet God does accept it and God does accept us ‘through Jesus Christ’, through his death for us.

God has great purposes for us to fulfil. We are ‘living stones’ in the most important meeting place in the world. We are part of a ‘holy priesthood’. We have the great privilege of helping others come to know the living God.

Pray

Thank God for the privilege of being part of God’s new ‘holy priesthood’, helping to bring God to people and people to God.