THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Life and Building
Message Five—Life and Building in Peter’s Epistles
Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:8; 2:1-5, 9; 2 Pet. 1:3-4
I. The central thought of Peter’s Epistles and of the entire Scriptures is life and building—1 Pet. 1:23; 2:2-5; 2 Pet. 1:3-4: (2007 WT, msg. 5)
A. Life is the Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit dispensing Himself into us for our enjoyment, and building is the church, the Body of Christ, God’s spiritual house, as the enlargement and expansion of God for the corporate expression of God—Gen. 2:8-9, 22; Matt. 16:18; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:16. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
B. Christ, as the seed of life, is the power of life within us that has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness for the building up of the church as the rich surplus of life and the expression of life through the growth and development of life—2 Pet. 1:3-4; cf. Acts 3:15; cf. 3:15; Hymns, #154, stanza 4. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
II. God’s goal is to have a spiritual house built up with Living stones—1 Pet. 2:5: (2007 WT, msg. 5)
A. As life to us, Christ is the incorruptible seed; for God’s building, He is the living stone—1:23; 2:4. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
B. At Peter’s conversion the Lord gave him a new name, Peter—a stone; and when Peter received the revelation concerning Christ, the Lord revealed further that He was the rock—a stone; by these two incidents Peter received the impression that both Christ and His believers are living stones for God’s building—John 1:42; Matt. 16:16-18; 1 Pet. 2:4-8; Acts 4:10-12; Isa. 28:16; Zech. 4:7. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
C. We, the believers in Christ, are living stones as the duplication of Christ through regeneration and transformation; we were created of clay, but at regeneration we received the seed of the divine life, which by its growing in us transforms us into living stones—Rom. 9:21; 1 Pet. 2:5. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
III. Since God’s building is living, it is growing; the actual building up the church as the house of God is by the believers’ growth in life—Eph. 2:21: (2007 WT, msg. 5)
A. In order to grow in life for God’s building, we must love the Lord, take heed to our spirit, and guard our heart with all vigilance to stay on the pathway of life—1 Pet. 1:8; 2:2, 5; 3:4; 15; Prov. 4:18-23; Deut. 10:12; Mark 12:30. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
B. If we want Christ’s life to be unhindered in us, we must experience the breaking of the cross, the killing death of Christ in the all-inclusive Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of glory, so that the following obstacles within us can be dealt with and removed—1 Pet. 1:11; 4:14; Psa. 139:23-24: (2007 WT, msg. 5)
1. Being a Christian means not taking anything other than Christ as our aim: the obstacle to this is not knowing the pathway of life and not taking Christ as our life—Matt. 7:13-14; Phil. 3:8-14; Col. 3:4; Rom. 8:28-29. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
2. The second obstacle is hypocrisy; a person’s spirituality is not determined by outward appearance but by how he takes care of Christ—Matt. 6:1-6; 15:7-8; John 5:44; 12:42-43; cf. Josh. 7:21. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
3. The third obstacle is rebellion; we may be very active and zealous in doing things but still imprison and disobey the living Christ within us by ignoring Him—Lev. 14:9, 14-18; 11:1-2, 46-47; Rom. 16:17; 1 Cor 15:33. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
4. The fourth obstacle is our natural capabilities; if our natural capabilities remain unbroken in us, they will become a problem to Christ’s life—2:14-15; 3:12, 16-17; Jude 19; cf. Lev. 10:1-2. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
D. In order to grow in life for God’s building, we must be nourished with the guileless milk of God’s word—v. 2: (2007 WT, msg. 5)
1. The guileless milk is conveyed in the word of God to nourish our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind and is assimilated by our mental faculties—Rom. 8:6; cf. Deut. 11:18. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
2. Although the nourishing milk of the word is for the soul through the mind, it eventually nourishes the spirit, making us not soulish but spiritual, suitable for being built up as a spiritual house of God—cf. 1 Cor. 2:15. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
3. In order to enjoy the milk of the word, to taste God with His goodness in the word, we must receive His word by means of all prayer and muse on His word—1 Pet. 2:3; Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15, 23, 48, 78, 99, 148. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
4. By feeding on Christ as the nourishing milk in the word, we grow unto full salvation, unto maturity through transformation for glorification; salvation in 1 Peter 2:2 is a matter of transformation for God’s building. (2007 WT, msg. 5)
IV. The holy priesthood, the coordinated body of priests, is the built up spiritual house; God wants a spiritual house for His dwelling and a priestly body, a corporate priesthood, for His service—1 Pet. 2:5; Exo. 19:5-6. (2007 WT, msg. 5)