Summary of 1 Peter 1:12-2:3:
Peter continues with advice on how to live, saying to prepare our minds for action, to be self-controlled, and have hope in Jesus. Obediently, we must not conform to the evil desires of our old life, but we must be holy in all that we do for we are called to be holy since God is holy.
We must live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear for we were redeemed from our old, empty way of life with the blood of Jesus Christ who was perfect. We believe in God through Jesus, giving us faith and hope in God.
So love one another deeply from the heart since we are pure from our obedience to Christ and God. We are born again for all of eternity through the word of God as Isaiah taught.
Get rid of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, and feast on spiritual milk to grow in your salvation and in the Lord’s goodness.
BSF Study Questions Acts Lesson 9, Day 3: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3
6a) According to Webster’s Dictionary, holy means, “Exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness; divine; devoted entirely to the deity or the world of the deity.”
Zondervan’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary by J D Douglas and Merrill C Tenney defines holiness as, “The state of quality of being morally pure and separate from evil.”
Holy is perfect in goodness and righteousness. Hence, we should strive to be perfect, good, righteous, morally pure, and separate from evil.
b) To prepare our minds for action, to be self-controlled, and have hope in Jesus. Obediently, we must not conform to the evil desires of our old life, but we must be holy in all that we do for we are called to be holy since God is holy. We must live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear for we were redeemed from our old, empty way of life with the blood of Jesus Christ who was perfect. We believe in God through Jesus, giving us faith and hope in God.
7) In the Old Testament, to be cleansed of sins God’s chosen people had to make sacrifices, which had to be perfect and without blemish. One of these sacrifices was the lamb. Hence, Peter here is saying Jesus qualifies as a sacrifice for the people, a sacrifice for all of eternity.
Exodus 12 describes the first Passover and God says, “Each man is to take a lamb…The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect…all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them.”
Leviticus 23:12 “…you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect…”
Leviticus 1:2-3: “offer a male without defect …. so that it will be acceptable to the Lord.”
Isaiah 53:7 compares Jesus to a lamb, saying “[Jesus] was led like a lamb to the slaughter.”
John 1:29: John calls Jesus the Lamb of God, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Revelation 5:6: John again calls Jesus the Lamb “I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…”
Peter is propounding on how to live a Christian life, saying to live a life as strangers here on Earth and have faith and hope in God. They were redeemed from the empty way of life through Christ Jesus just as the Old Testament people were redeemed, made righteous through animal sacrifices–only this time it’s permanent. The people have been made pure so now they can lead a holy life.
It’s hard to speculate here how much the people would have understood the sacrifices since Peter is writing to Gentiles who had no previous experience with Old Testament ways; but I will assume they knew enough to get the analogy or Peter would not have put it in.
8 ) Part Personal Question. My answer: You are born again for all of eternity through faith in the word of God (which includes Jesus as the Holy Trinity) and through believing Jesus is God’s Son who died for our sins. I need my faith strengthened in God and just being more holy every day.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Acts Lesson 9, Day 3: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3
This lesson is virtually identical to the Lesson from 2013. The idea of a Lamb as Jesus speaks powerfully to his sacrifice for us. John writes extensively of Jesus as the Lamb in Revelation.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Acts Lesson 9, Day 3: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Other Bible translations say “gird up the loins of your mind” instead of “prepare your minds.” Both mean be prepared for action.
God’s grace is for the past, present, and future.
- Peter greeted us with grace (1 Peter 1:2).
- Peter told us of the grace that came to us in Jesus, predicted by the prophets of old (1 Peter 1:10).
- Peter tells us Jesus will bring grace to us when he comes back.
“Grace is the unmerited love of God, stooping to save and bless; the source of all those bright and holy gifts which come from his infinite heart.” (Meyer)
Holiness as Separate
God is separate from the world, as we should be as Christians.
Jesus died so that we could be holy and live holy.
Holy living is accompanied by love that is only possible by those who have been born again by God’s word.
Peter did not use the same wording for born again as is found in John 3; but he did use the exact same idea.
Peter here quoted from Isaiah 40:6-8. The word of the LORD certainly has endured. It has survived centuries of manual transcription, of persecution, of ever changing philosophies, of neglect both in the Church, of doubt and disbelief – and still, the word of the LORD endures forever!
In AD 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian demanded that every copy of the Scriptures in the Roman Empire be burned. He failed, and 25 years later the Roman Emperor Constantine commissioned a scholar named Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of the Bible at government expense.
Some people try to draw a sharp distinction between the two Greek words most often translated “word,” which are the ancient Greek words rhema and logos. But here Peter used both words (logos in 1 Peter 1:23 and rhema in 1 Peter 1:25) to refer to the exact same idea. The two words sometimes have subtle differences, but often not significant differences.
The Importance of the Word of God
The word desire is strong. In the Septuagint (an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) it is used for man’s deepest longing for God: As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God (Psalm 42:1). It speaks of the desire each believer should have for the word of God.
The Word of God is necessary for Christian growth.
The attitude of heart that receives the word and grows by the word is a humble, honest heart, willing to do what the Word of God says.
Evil speaking or slander: This ancient Greek word has more the idea of spicy and hurtful gossip than the idea of profane speech.