Mennonite Weekly Review

Early on, we discover the covenant community is deeply connected to God’s plans to redeem his creation. It is, as Scot McKnight puts it in The Blue Parakeet, “the context within which our wonderful redemption takes place.” With Jesus and the Spirit came a remarkable new opportunity, and a new community begins to form. God’s people are finally enabled to start living out the kind of relationship with him, others and the world for which he created them.

Andres

And as we continue reading Peter’s letter, we understand more how all this works and what it looks like.

A living, breathing temple

Peter began his letter by reminding believers in Asia Minor that they’ve been “born again” with “a life conceived by God himself” — one that cultivates “sincere love” with which they should “love one another as if your lives depended on it” (1:22-23 NIV, Message).

“So clean house!” Peter continues. Get rid of all those behaviors that break relationships — like malice, pretense, envy and hurtful talk. Instead, like nursing infants, keep drinking deep of God so “you’ll grow up mature and whole in God” (2:1-3, Message).

And remember, Peter says, Jesus is “the living Stone, the source of life” (4). So trust him: “Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life” — a living temple made up of those who have put their trust in Jesus, “the chief foundation Stone” (5-7). Even those who don’t trust Jesus, says Peter, won’t be able to avoid him — they’ll stumble over him like “a boulder blocking the way” (8).

“But,” says Peter, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (9, NIV). In other words, scholars note, what God started with Abraham is finally fulfilled and continued with them — this is their new bloodline and identity.

And the purpose of their new life together? The same as it’s been from the beginning: Declare his praises as “instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you” (9-10, Message). They are now enabled to be a community in which, as Dallas Willard puts it, God “is tangibly manifest to everyone on Earth who wants to find him.”

And again, at the core of this new community is love — for each other and those around them. Respect everyone, love the family of believers, fear God and respect the government, Peter says (2:17). Be agreeable, sympathetic, loving, compassionate and humble without retaliation or sarcasm (3:8-9). “Instead bless — that’s your job” (3:9).

Above all, says Peter, love deeply, because “love makes up for practically anything” (4:8).