One of the standard commentaries on the Scriptures (The Expositors Bible Commentary) begins this section by saying, “This section contains some of the most difficult exegetical problems in the New Testament.”

You think so? Yes … I vote it as the #1 most convoluted and difficult to understand passage of them all. I’d almost rather have to write about Song of Solomon! If I go into trying to give you all of the details and variant views of Greek constructions, I will end up doing what others have done — essentially writing a book on it.

Rather than do that, let me instead simply tell you what I think this passage is saying; and this is an interpretation that is standard in large part among conservative, evangelical scholars.

Here is the passage … remembering as you read this, that it follows on the heels of an extended section of suffering for righteousness …

3:18 – For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

3:19 – After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Though Jesus was put to death physically, he was not eliminated in any way; he yet lived as the victor over the grave as would be vindicated by his resurrection.

So who are these spirits to whom Jesus preached, where are they, and what did he preach to them? Though various views have been given over the years, here is a brief on what this means…

You may recall that the Scriptures teach that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. You recall also that Noah spent a great many years (with his family) building a boat in the middle of nowhere, surely receiving the scoffing ridicule of the perverse generation of people in his day. Jesus was in him (in spirit / in a pre-incarnate way) preaching to that generation who were then lost in the judgment of the flood. And those spirits are now imprisoned (meaning in hell) awaiting a final judgment.

Noah and his family — a total of eight people — were saved through the waters of the flood. The water did not save them, but they came through the water and out to the other side of the flood as having been saved from God’s wrath. This thought of going through water to salvation on the other side becomes in Peter’s mind a symbol that is like baptism. This rite does not wash sins away, but it symbolizes identification with Christ as the one who saves.

And finally the last verse picks up this very theme of Christ’s victorious exaltation: the culmination of Christ’s suffering by triumphing over the hostile forces of this world.

The practical application of this writing — both for the readers of Peter’s original letter and down to us today — is that we may have confident peace that no matter how dark the world may seem at present, our certain hope is that God’s ultimate justice prevails. In a crazy world with a lot of crazy people both in charge and trying to get in charge, this is a truth that gives me peace each evening at the end of the newscast. And I trust it does for you also.

(Our original schedule called for these ideas today to have been in separate writings today and tomorrow, but for the sake of clarity, I have combined them into the one post. So the next devotional will be next Monday, written by Chris after his great sermon on Sunday.)

When I went to college as a freshman, I did not know in advance even one other person who would be a classmate. I did know a few others from my church and from the Christian summer camp that I had worked at in high school who were upperclassmen in the school. But that did not help me on day one of orientation as a freshman.

Also complicating matters and leaving me unusually alone was the fact that the fellow who was to be my roommate was killed in an automobile crash about a week before our time of arrival, so I was the only freshman who did not have at least the partner relationship of a roommate to share and experience the orientation period together.

Being and feeling much alone over the first couple of days, I determined I needed to take action and connect myself to a couple of other guys. Looking around at those who were on my floor in the dorm, there were two guys who had been put randomly in the same room who seemed like they were my kind of people. One of them was very talkative and cheerful and the other was a muscular hunk of humanity and the heartthrob of every girl from the first day; both were into sports and planning on playing on the basketball and baseball teams (as was I). We became great friends and remain so to this day. Both were in my wedding party — the talkative guy was my best man.

However, there was another fellow who sort of came along as a “bonus.”  He was from the same high school and church as the studmuffin friend. And he too was VERY talkative and incurably cheerful all the time. Beyond that, he was a music major like me. And then the big thing was this: the overly sentimental dude found out that we had the same birthdate … yep, the same year too! He determined that we just had to be great friends and he attached himself to me.

You couldn’t exactly dislike this guy, he was always so nice. But I didn’t think we shared nearly so much in common as he thought we did. He was not an athletic guy particularly, and he had a decidedly old-fashioned way of dressing and carrying himself. He was age 18 going on 65. Every time I turned around, it seemed I bumped into his big toothy smile. When I later finagled to get a single dorm room, he somehow worked it out to get the room immediately next to mine so that we could be together. He was like a human Labrador retriever. And I didn’t deserve his loyalty.

Over time, I simply got used to his presence and friendship and received it as a gift, even if it was kinda weird sometimes and not the best wingman for the game of feminine pursuit. Eventually, he too was a part of my wedding lineup of friends. How could I leave him out? And you’ll probably not be surprised to hear that he is a pastor of a church yet today and is one of the finest followers of Christ I have ever known.

I was not worthy of his kindness. I was operating under the more standard mode of interpersonal connection and interaction: I will be kind to those who deserve it, and if someone else is a jerk and does not deserve my kindness, I’ll tell him he is a jerk and an idiot in terms that are one click higher than the way he did it to me.

This other fellow was working with me on a different mode of interpersonal interaction: He was modeling the way Christ served others by extending grace and kindness, even when it was not deserved or earned or reciprocated.

Peter wrote to the chosen strangers who were the recipients of his letter to encourage them about how to behave in an oft-hostile culture where they were out of step with the world around them. He spoke of the oneness of mind and attitude that they should have first of all with each other in the family of faith. And beyond that, as they lived in kindness and grace with each other, to also extend that to the world around them, even when it was undeserved (or deserving of just the opposite).

This would give them the approval of God, a generally disarmed response from others, and a clear conscience and spotless record if falsely accused and slandered.

This would also mean that they would be following the model of Jesus Christ. He was the righteous, innocent one who took the sins of the guilty upon himself to bring us to God. As it says in Romans 5:8, Christ did this for us WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS!

So extending consistent kindness and service to others, deserving or not, is not beyond a reasonable pattern of life for those who have received the grace that we have received from Christ.

8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. 11 They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” [from Psalm 34:12-16]

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” [from Isaiah 8:12] 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

There is a 10,000-pound elephant in the room and it has nothing to do with Republicans. It is a theological pachyderm with a collar tag that says “election.”

At this moment, there is a little man in my brain who is standing upon a heap of rubble waving a red flag, saying “Danger, danger, go another direction!”

The doctrine of divine election has to do with God sovereignly choosing who will be saved. This goes against the sensibilities of many, especially Americans, who feel that a man-initiated choice was a part of salvation. And over the years, theologians have used quite a lot of ink and paper to reconcile these ideas.

Whereas I very comfortably fall out well to one side of center on this doctrine, I have no desire to battle with those, even at TSF, who fall toward the opposite direction. Not that I’ve never debated this issue.

In one such encounter, the person said, “I don’t believe election is biblical and that it happens at all.”

Well, you can’t have that view. The Bible says in various places that election, which means choosing, is something that God did. One of those passages in our text for today where it says “you are a chosen people.”  This issue has to do with what is the basis of God’s choosing, and then we get into definitions of foreknowledge and all sorts of deeper waters.

But today, let’s rejoice in the big idea of it all — the wonderful grace and love of God in granting salvation. To the living stones of God’s spiritual temple, Peter writes …

2:9 – But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Recall again that the bulk of Peter’s readers are Gentile peoples scattered over a wide area. Their history would have been (apart from a very few who became converts to Judaism) those who were entirely estranged from God and from truth. God was working through the nation of Israel.

But with the death and resurrection of Christ and the new institution of grace abounding in the church age, those who were far away have been graciously targeted to be brought now into a new and living organism, the church of Jesus Christ.

That this is a wonderfully new and expansive work of God is seen in the wording of these verses. Compare them to the familiar Jewish text in Exodus 19 that talked about Moses at Mt. Sinai …

Exodus 19:3 — Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Here is the main point for today: However you define it, if you have trusted in Christ, you have been chosen by him through God’s magnanimous grace and love. In the words of the text, you are chosen, special, called … you were specifically desired by God. And we know from plenty of other texts that God’s choosing was not based upon our goodness or merit, quite the opposite. When we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, etc. We were truly in darkness, and the light has come to us.

The result is that we should be, by life and speech, those who proclaim his praises. We’re part of his body, his temple, his spiritual house. We don’t just come to it once a week or whenever it is convenient. We are his temple, and that is pretty special.

If you have friends whom you have known throughout the entirety of your life, you really have something special. Remember your high school pals and classmates? You did so many things together, and at that time you could not imagine that those friendships would ever fade or be lost.

Then you went to college, or to the military, or to a career. You met new people, and the old friends faded away one by one. And were it not for the modern phenomenon of social media, you might never be connected at all with the high school gang.

And then there is the break from friends that so often accompanies falling in love. No longer are you one of the boys or a part of the sisterhood in quite the same fashion. Just as you saw others before you drift away, so too it happened with you. You were moving on to a new dimension of life.

Over the years you likely moved in and out of varied social interest or cooperative ventures of business or pleasure. For a while it might have been sports pursuits or a community service club, but then new jobs, location changes, or simply the passing of time brought about new networks and experiences.

Relationships come and go with the seasons of life. But above all human relationships is the desire to have a connection to God — a desire to fill what Blaise Pascal spoke of as an “infinite abyss that can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”

In all religions over the years, the place where mankind has gone to fill this hole is to a temple — a place where God and man would meet. This was true in Judaism as well. The Temple was a grand place, but apart from God’s presence inhabiting it, it was a big stack of dead stones.

I have visited some of the grandest structures of religion in my lifetime: the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in Turkey, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Cathedral de Notre Dame, Il Duomo di Firenze in Florence, the National Cathedral, St. Paul’s in London, Westminster Abbey, St. Patrick’s in NYC, York Minster in Yorkshire, the Mormon Tabernacle, St. Giles in Scotland, Old St. Mary’s in Cambridge, and the Sacré-Cœur de Paris. Though beautiful and impressive, apart from the living God, they are merely walls of dead stones.

But Peter speaks of a different sort of temple (or “spiritual house” in the NIV). This is one that has Jesus as its living cornerstone, and believers joined with him as living stones.

2:4 – As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house < a temple > to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him     will never be put to shame.”[from Isaiah 28:16]

7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”[from Psalm 118:22]

8 and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”[from Isaiah 8:14] They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

When it speaks here of “coming to him” … of coming to Jesus, this is not the simple moment of salvation / ask Jesus into my heart sort of thing. The words used originally here speak of an intimate relationship. In relationship with Christ, we are a part of something more than a club or association with merely a membership card for our wallets; we are a living member of the very work of God in the world.

These living stones have a serving and ministering capacity to perform, as priests and as living sacrifices. It involves a full-time role of being God’s people before the world, and bringing the world to him.

This may not be popular. The chief cornerstone will never be undone, but He has been rejected and despised; and we may expect the same from those who stumble over the immoveable Rock.

It is interesting that Peter — “the rock,” and the one upon whom Christ metaphorically said the church would be built — is pointing to Jesus as the true rock and foundational cornerstone.

So the church of Jesus Christ is not like other clubs or organizations that may come or go, depending upon their usefulness within the seasons of life. No, the church is the main thing, the main idea of what it is ALL about.

So, in pointing you to a vital relationship with Jesus and with the life of the local expression of the church, we are not just encouraging your participation in a nice, additional component of life to embrace when you have time in the otherwise busy schedule of life. No, we are calling you to be a daily and functioning part (a living stone) of the biggest, most important, eternally-enduring main idea of what life itself is about. It is the visible expression of priority #1 of life.

As most of you know who are connected to the coming and goings of my family, we finished off the year with two new grandchildren in December, just a week apart. When the family is around or when we are visiting, it really has struck me again about just how much eating a baby does. You could almost say that a baby lives to eat.

And so it is not surprising that Peter would use this picture to speak of hunger for growing in the Lord …

2:1 – Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The “therefore” ties us back to the previous thought about the enduring word of God. Peter’s readers should nourish themselves on that which is for their health, that which is the stuff of eternity.

Those things that are natural to the passing world involve such items as are listed here to be gotten rid of: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. The first two words speak of ill intent to do and speak wrongly. The others are no better; from envy, one might purposefully feign affection and support while falling short of truth and speaking of others in an ill light.

Think of a presidential debate stage and the way each speaks of the other. This is a high-stakes illustration of the natural way of promoting self at the expense of others. How would that work in a church family environment? But that is that way of this world.

Rather, believers should set aside the gravitational pull of the natural self, and they should choose rather the healthy choice of truth and enrichment through regular connection to God. This is especially true since even a taste of this (quoting from Psalm 34:8) would make the believer understand that it is much better and to be preferred. This brings healthy growth for self and for others.

So it is rather stupid to not choose this course. I saw recently where someone voiced the frustrated opinion that they wished it was not so much hard work to be healthy physically, that they’d rather eat anything and just be lazy. I understand that feeling, to be honest!  In my efforts to be healthier, I have to say that I get so sick of fruits, vegetables, grains, salads, etc.  If only it tasted better than the unhealthy choices, it would be a lot easier path to follow.

But with God’s truth and his word, it is the better tasting way to go as well as the healthier choice for spiritual growth. For some reason (let’s call it the sin nature), this is not naturally the immediately-believed path. But the results are undeniable, even in … especially in … a world where the follower of Christ lives as a “chosen stranger.”

Picture this scene: you are walking through the woods in an area of some mountainous terrain. You hear a rumble ahead, see some rising clouds of dust and also hear some cries for help.

And so you run ahead to see what has happened and discover there has been a rock slide off the edge of the path. A hiker ahead of you has been caught up in it but is hanging perilously onto the exposed roots of a tree. He cannot in his own strength pull himself up to safety and is dangling over a precipitous fall with serious injury or death at the bottom.

He is within reach if you lie down flat and stretch out to him. But as you begin to do so, you have some second thoughts … “Is this fellow worth saving?”  And so you hold back for a moment from fulling stretching out your arm.

And again, you think … “Has this fellow ever done anything for me, or would be ever do something to assist me in the future?”  And you hesitate to reach out fully.

And then another thought hits you … “What if he pulls me down with him?  Maybe I should just walk on by and hope for another person who is better gifted to pull him up, or possibly there is just such a person nearby.”

What would you do? Well of course you would stretch out your arm fully to help a person from falling. Would you be more likely to do it for someone you know, versus someone unknown? I suppose so. Would you particularly extend your arm if it was your sibling, or a member of your family? Why yes!

I’m glad you agree with this, and pleased that you see the person hesitating as ridiculously uncaring and self-absorbed. And of course this means that you will extend any possible effort to help anyone else in need who is of the church family of faith.

Peter said this is how you should love others …

1:22 – Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.

The Greek word for “sincere” means to be without hypocrisy. And so to love non-hypocritically means to love one another deeply. And since we’re getting deep here and into the Greek roots, what is the original meaning and picture for “deeply?”  It is a term that literally means “fully stretched out and completely extended,” and hence by translation it carries the idea of being fervent, strenuous, or fully earnest.

That is a high calling to love in this way; and it is one that should be an immediate challenge we take deeply into our lives for examination. Did we move around church and interact with the others there this past Sunday with such an action and attitude? How might we do that this next week?

This is a way of making an eternal impact, not just something that lasts in this life …

23 – For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

 And this is the word that was preached to you.

Again, while calling upon the temporal versus the eternal, the entire exposition we have been studying in recent days is an exhortation to life investment in the stuff that never perishes — and that is the truth of God’s Word and its application in the lives of others.

This word, this truth, was at some point preached to us and we became God’s family through it. We should now be people of this truth:  with each other and before a watching and perishing world of people who have bought into all categories of lies and death and dying ideas and values.

Don’t hold back in serving God by serving others. Stretch out fully.

I have a profound memory of the first time that I took a trip to a foreign county. You’ll laugh at this as truly “foreign” … it was England. My family never travelled far on vacations. We went to the beach a lot (in New Jersey, of course!), to Baltimore to see my sister, and on a few occasions to visit more distant relatives in Niagara Falls — going a mile or two into Canada one time! And I got to Florida with the college baseball team and on this thing called a “honeymoon.”  But that was it.

So, getting out of the airport in London was a big deal, especially being thrown into a rental car and sitting on the opposite side and driving on what is, yes, the WRONG side of the road. About a half-mile out of the airport on a narrow street, I very slightly clipped a parked vehicle, with the mirrors kissing. All the signs were strange, and it was confusing to know where to turn and how to navigate roundabouts. GPS systems had not yet been conceived, let alone invented.

Everything about the experience, including finding out that my first name is a dirty word in British (and thereby using my acceptable middle name of “Alan”), screamed to me that I was the odd one out and was walking as a total stranger in a foreign context.

In terms of our spiritual lives and eternal perspectives, that is how we should feel in the culture around us. That is how the readers of Peter’s letter were feeling — totally out of place and out of step. When in such a situation, the choices are to either give in and get with it by accepting and adapting to the larger reality, or to rather accept and even embrace the idea that you are different and in fact citizens of a different place altogether.

Peter encouraged his readers to essentially embrace choice B …

1:17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

It is our nature as creatures to seek out our own comfort and security; this has always been true and is what lies at the heart of the evolutionary, naturalist view of man. Survival. Strength. Aggression. Accumulation. This is the way of life handed down from the ancestors, to trust in silver or gold — whatever are the exchange items of identified value — the “perishable things” of this material world. Hoping only in this leads, invariably, to an “empty way of life.”

The alternative is to place value in non-perishables — in God generally, and specifically in the blood of Christ who was the chosen sacrificial lamb set aside even before creation, sin, or anything else. Peter is saying to invest in the meta-story and overarching reality of it all, and to not get invested rather in that which has ultimately nothing but transitory value.

A message throughout Scripture is to live in such a way that we are content with giving merely necessary energy and value to the basic necessities of life, and to rather give greatest concentration in all ways to those things that are connected to God’s eternal kingdom.

We should feel like strangers in this material world. We should understand and embrace that our citizenship is in another categorically different kingdom. Our movement through this world is with a temporary passport, but our legal papers are with God’s kingdom and are stamped with the blood of Christ.

I’m not much for American folk music, but there is a tune that often plays through the jukebox of my mind when I read 1 Peter. Pioneers in this Appalachian region in the late 1700s wrote and sang a song that speaks to the transitory nature of living in a world of hardships. It is a plaintiff tune and text that captures the message of this passage and of Peter’s exhortation to God’s “chosen strangers.”

I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger

A-trav’lin’ through this world of woe,

But there’s no sickness, toil or danger

In that bright world to which I go.

I’m goin’ there to see my father;

I’m goin’ there, no more to roam.

I’m just a-goin’ over Jordan,

I’m just a-goin’ over home.