Seeds for 04/25/2024 - 1 Peter 2:4-5

Scripture:

As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Observation:

This sentence is dense with metaphor and rich in theological teaching about what it means to be Christian disciples. For one thing, Peter has no concept of Christians as individual freelancers. As we come to Him, we are built together. One result of greater proximity to Jesus in our lives is increasing communion with fellow believers as a church community. This is the image of believers as “living stones” who “are being built into a spiritual house.” Stone upon stone, our Builder is making us into the household of God.

It’s not only we who receive something of value from this arrangement, though we certainly do. The community of the church—the “spiritual house”—supports, guides, teaches, and holds us accountable to grow in Jesus. Cue the song, “the church is not a building… the church is the people,” here. Peter would agree that we don’t go to church, we are the church.

God receives something—the worship of His people, those He has redeemed. There is a purpose to our being “built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” That purpose is that we may offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

The point of worship and kingdom service is not that we get but that we give—not that we consume but that we contribute. Though not unimportant, the primary purpose of worship is not for us to “get something out of it.” The primary purpose of worship is that God’s people gather and worship Him.

Getting something out of worship is a byproduct of authentically giving our worship to the Lord. This operates on the same principle that Jesus taught when He said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” When we give our worship because of His goodness and worthiness, we are indeed becoming a “holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices” to Him. And this is our first order of business as the People of God.

Application:

• What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?

Prayer: Lord, draw me unto you with no purpose other than to offer a spiritual sacrifice of worship that pleases you. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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