We are studying First Peter together. I’m not just writing a devotional for you to read each week. I am letting you see what I see as I think about this passage in my personal study and meditation (See Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:1-3).

One of the habits the Bible encourages is meditation, which is basically mulling over and pondering God’s Word. I have been doing that with the last part of First Peter chapter 1 and through chapter 2:1-5. What I thought I would do today is to let you see the flow of this section the way I actually grasped it for the first time this week. I’d like to paraphrase the passage and just focus on the main progression of Peter’s thought. I would like you to read the passage as well as what I’ve written below and see if it makes sense to you in the same way. I would also like you to use your imagination to visualize the word pictures: put off, put on, milk, growing up, tasting, living stones, construction of a spiritual house, you as a priest offering sacrifices.

1 Peter 1:25 – 2:5 Paraphrased and summarized:

Since you have been born again through the eternal gospel of God, put away all malice and every other evil way, and, as we learned last week, put on the new self which is created in the likeness of God. You should desire the pure spiritual milk of the Word like a newborn desires physical milk. You need to do this so that you will grow up into salvation like a human baby grows up into adulthood. This should be a natural desire for you since you have already tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to Jesus, who is a living stone, you yourselves are like living stones that are being built up into a spiritual house which is actually a holy priesthood to God. The purpose is that as holy priests you will offer spiritual sacrifices to God. These sacrifices are always acceptable to Him because they are offered through Jesus Christ.