What does being a Christian mean? Is it just a matter of holding to a specific set of beliefs about God? Is it simply buying a ticket to heaven by accepting Jesus and then waiting for the train to take you there? Is it a title one bears that signifies little more than how one spends Sunday mornings?
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the Apostle Paul tells us being a Christian means we are new creatures, wholly different than we were before. He is saying that being a Christian is more than those things just mentioned—it is a complete new lifestyle. This new is not an elevation to a position of superiority to others. It is not a state of immunity to the struggles and trials of life. It is about a change of citizenship. It is about a new way of relating to others and a new way of viewing difficult times.
Being a Christian not only is about looking forward to eternal life someday. It is the experience of new eternal life here and now. At the beginning of chapter two, Peter describes several aspects of this new life and shares with us how we might more fully experience it.
A new diet (1 Peter 2:1-3)
Peter begins by pointing out this new life involves a change in our spiritual diet centered around the spiritual milk of God’s word. Yet before we take in this pure milk, we need to remove certain things from the diet of our old nature. These include malice, deceit, hypocrisy, and envy and represent those things we formerly took in to help us feel good about ourselves.
It is worth noting that each of these has to do with how we treat others. One of the clearest and most consistent messages of the Bible from beginning to end is God’s tremendous concern for how we treat one another. Jesus emphasized this when he made love for others the second greatest commandment. It thus appears that the main essence of the pure spiritual milk Peter calls for us to drink is love for all people.
Since God is love, those who have tasted God’s presence know the life-giving and sweet taste of love which is far greater than anything we ever had tasted before. And as we drink in God’s word, which is filled with this love and calls us to demonstrate it, we grow into our new life of salvation.
A new dwelling (1 Peter 2:4-8)
In addition to a new diet, our new life involves a change to a new dwelling. Before coming to God through Jesus, we spent our time building our lives for our own purposes and according to our own plans. As we come to God and drink in his pure milk, we begin to build our lives in line with God’s plan and purposes.
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Part of that involves building not only for ourselves but incorporating our lives into a greater spiritual house. God has laid the cornerstone for this new dwelling in the person of Jesus. God sent Jesus to be the foundation for every life, but most builders have rejected him.
We see this today as many admire Jesus for his ethical and moral teachings but have difficulty with his call for self-sacrifice and surrender of one’s will to God. Often in our desire to avoid offending people, we forget God’s cornerstone specifically is intended as a stone of offense over which disobedient humanity is intended to stumble.
This stumbling is not for our harm, but to show the folly of our own plans and to draw us to anchor our lives on the true rock. When we accept him as the cornerstone of our lives, we become a part of a spiritual house through which we offer spiritual sacrifices to God and receive stability and security far beyond all we could have designed.
A new purpose (1 Peter 2:9-10)
As we read verses 9 and 10, it is significant to remember that Peter is writing to a largely Jewish audience. The words and phrases Peter uses here were chosen carefully to remind these readers of the ancient promises of God (Exodus 19:5-6).
He reminds them God always has called his people to be a holy nation, one set apart and distinct from the world in their devotion to a holy God. They also are called to be a royal priesthood as they not only worshipped God, but proclaimed God’s truth to all nations.
He also reminds them they were not chosen as God’s people because they previously were a great nation, but God chose them to be a great people while they were simple shepherds. God’s call was then not to worldly greatness, but to fulfill a new divine purpose.
Peter certainly was familiar with the connection between Jesus and newness. In Peter’s first encounter with Jesus, Jesus changed his name from Simon to Cephas/Peter (John 1:40-42). This change of name signified a new direction for Peter’s life. He no longer held his identity as the “son of John,” but as a follower of Jesus.
The same thing happens for us today. As we come to God through Jesus, we receive a new life. This is not just a new façade on our old life, but a new way of living that alters every area of our life.
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