The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 85

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-10.-The regenerate life. I. lTs GROWTH. 1. What must be shunned. St. Paul bids us work out our own salvation. The new bidh is the beginning; that comes from God-from his free grace. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, hut according to his mercy he saved us, hy the washing of reg;eneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." But the new man must grow; and that growth is not spon- taneous; it will not evolve itself without effort from the" incorruptible seed.'' Progress, ~rowth in grace, requires earnest prayer, watchful11ess, constant self-denial. St. Peter bids us "grow in grace" (2 Pet. iii. 18). We do not bid a plant to grow; we watch its growth, we assist it. But Holy Scripture bids the Christian grow; the comrua11d- ment implies the power. Our Father doth not mock us with precepts which we cannot obey. And growth in free agents implies effort.. They must avoid all peruicion8 influences, everything which might check the growth of the precious germ. Especially they must avoid all offences against the law of love; for love is the very pulse of the regenerate life; those who are born again of the incorruptible seed must love one another with a. pure heart fervently. There can be no such things as malice and guile and envy in the heart wherein the holy seed abideth; for these things come of Satan; they have the taint of hell. Christians must not speak evil of one another; it is Satan who is the accuser of the brethren. Christians must be true and real. The Lord Jesus hates hypocrisy; he condemned it sternly in the Pharisees; it is more hateful still in those who are called by his holy Name. The Christian must lay aside all these evil things; he must strip them off. They are the garments of the old man; he must put on the new. 2. What must be desired. "The sincere milk of the Word," the spiritual nourishment of the soul. They who cherish malice and envy in their hearts have no appetite for the heavenly food. They who have not holy love withiu themselves  THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. [Ol'l. n. 1-25, ----------------------------------- rannot dt'sire the \Yord of him who is Low. Bnt all who answer to tho apostle's descript:on will long for it. 'l'hose to whom he wrote had not been Christians very long; ~ome of thL'tn probably only a very short time-they were new-born babes. But the true Christian will always regard himself as a mere child in Christ; ho will feel whl\t little progress he has made in spiritual growth; and, feeling this, he will Jong for ~piritual nourishment. The Word of God is the food of the soul; it is the suitable food, tbe food divinely provided for the soul, as milk is for infants. It is pure, una- dulterated. The soul that desires it will assimilate it, will grow by its nourishing influence unto sR!mtion, unto the measure of the stature of Christ. The Christian will desire the \Vord, that be may !(!"OW thereby; not simply for present pleasure and excite- ment, not simply for knowledge, or for facility in preaching and theological controversy; but above all things, that he may grow thereby. The Word of God is sweet to bear, knm\"lcdge is precious, religious eloquence is a great gift; but this pleasure and this knowledge are little worth in comparison with growth in holiness of heart and life. The Scriptures are able to make ns wise; the wisdom which we shouM seek there is that wisdom which comeLh from above, which is unto salvation. 3. Wliat leads us to desire it. Experience, ibe taste of its sweetness. The psalmist says, "How sweet are toy words to my taste l yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Aud in another psalm, which St. Peter quotes here, we are invited to" taste and see that the Lord is good." His Word is sweet, but it derives its sweetness from him whose Word it is. We do not realize the sweetness of the Word of God till we have felt something of the sweetness of the Saviour's presence. For he himself, who is in the highest sense the Word of God, is the true food of the soul. He bids us feed on him by faith; he giveth food and drink to the soul that huogereth and thirsteth after righteousness; and that food and drink, which is himself, he giveth in the blessed sacrament and in the daily life of faith to those who lift up their hearts to him with earnest longing and strong <lesirP- Those who have known how gracious the Lord is will long more and more for increasing nearness unto him. II. lTs CE1''TRE, WHICH IS CHRIST; AND oua RELATIONS TO HIM. 1. Tl1e Church is a spiritual tempk, of which Christ is the chief Cornei·-stone. The whole universe is in a sense the temple of God: he fills it with his presence. The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him; he inhabiteth eternity. Yet he vouchsafed to manifest his presence in the ancient temple--it was" the habitation of his house, the place where his honour dwelt." But that temple was the figure of a holier temple. God is a Spirit; his temple in the highest sense must be a spiritual house. It is built up of living stones, Christian men and women, living with the life of Christ, who come, drawn by the attracting force of love (as, the fable said, the stones of 'fhebes were drawn by the lyre of Amphion) to the one living Stone which was once disallowed of men, but is chosen of God and precious, and range themselves, or rather are built up by the power of the Holy Spirit, as chosen stones upon the one Stone first chosen, which is at once the Foundation on which the building re~ts, and the chief Corner-stone that holds the walls together, so that the whole building fitly joined and compacted in all its parts groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. 'l'he whole building is a. temple; so in a true sense is each living stone therein, for the bodies of Christians are temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. vi. 19); but in the fullest sense the whole Christian Church is the spiritual temple of God-it is a corporate unity, knit and framed together into one building by the chief Corner-stone, the principle of unity on which it rests, which binds its various parts into one whole. The closer Christians are bound by spiritual union with that one Corner-stone, the closer will they be bound together in the com- munion of saints, though they may be set as living stones in widely distant parts of tho spiritual building. And God dwelleth in this temple, which is the holy Catholic Church, the whole congregation of Christian people throughout the world. He fills it, all and in every part, with his sacred presence. For this temple is very precious in his sight; each living stone is precious, and precious above all price is the chief Corner- stone which holds the whole together. " For this purpose chiefly did he make the world, that in it he might raise this spiritual building for himself to dwell in for ever. . . . And from eternity be knew what the dimensions and frame and materials of it should be. The continuance of this present world, as now it is, is but for the service of 'li;s work, like the ,caffolding about it; and therefore, when the Bfiritual buildin~ cu. u. 1-25.J 'l'HE FIIlST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 79