| Church School Lesson: Building From The Ground Up |
"Building From The Ground Up"
August 31, 2025
Background: 1 Peter 2:1-17; Print: 1 Peter 2:1-12;
Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:5; Devotional: Galatians 3:23-29
1 Peter 2:1-12 (ESV)
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter Chapter 2 (Commentary)
2:1-3 Although this new life is imperishable, it requires growth. Our sinful self-centeredness will continue to rule if we let it, unless the seed of spiritual life is nourished. How do we ensure maturity? If we want to be physically healthy, we must feed our bodies what is nutritious, while avoiding what is unwholesome. The same principle is true in the spiritual realm.
Therefore, Peter says, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander (2:1). Such actions belong to the former life of sin, but they lead to death (i.e., separation from fellowship with God). Returning to the metaphor of new life (“born again,” “seed” 1:23), he exhorts them to be like newborn infants and desire the pure milk of the word so they may grow for salvation (2:2). The Word that caused us to be born again is the same Word that causes growth (2:2). But, unfortunately, many Christians choose malnourishment.
You don’t have to command babies to eat; they know when they’re hungry. Christians must be reminded that they are spiritually hungry and must be fed. You also won’t find infants consuming big meals on Sunday in order to last them the whole week. Babies eat regularly for day-to-day nourishment; Christians need the same. Some believers are consuming spiritual junk food that can’t nourish and won’t produce growth. They need a steady diet and application of God’s Word instead of man’s opinion. Once we taste for ourselves that the Lord is good (2:3), we’ll know that nothing else will satisfy.
2:4-8 In 2:4-10, Peter describes our identity as the people of God with support from several Old Testament passages. The overall metaphor here is the idea of stones being fit together into a building. The chief stone on which all the others depend for proper alignment is Jesus Christ. By virtue of his resurrection from the dead, he is a living stone. During his earthly ministry, he was rejected by people but honored by God (2:4).
As it was then, so it is today. You have only two choices with Jesus: accept him or reject him. Those who accept him know he is the Lord’s honored cornerstone—the stone on which the whole house aligns. We are to live our lives with reference to him, and we will never be put to shame (2:6). But for those who reject him, he is a stone to stumble over; thus, they will trip over him right into judgment (2:7-8).
Notice that Peter is not just talking about each individual’s coming to Jesus but to our corporate coming to him (2:4). God is taking living stones—that have life because of the living stone—and building a spiritual house (2:5). He’s not building houses but a house. And he wants all of us stones to fit snugly into that building.
You can be a good brick, but you can’t be the whole house. It takes all the bricks contributing together in the one house. We do not stand alone. All of us were dug out of the quarry of sin and cemented together by the grace of God
2:9-10 Peter describes Christians in a number of ways. They are a royal priesthood (also “a holy priesthood” in 2:5). Through Jesus Christ, we have access to God and need no other human priest to represent us or intercede for us.
Believers are a chosen race (2:9). As the last Adam (see Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:45-49), Jesus is the head of a new race of people. The first Adam brought sin and death, but the last Adam brought spiritual life. This new race includes believers from every ethnic group. All physical or cultural distinctions are subservient to this greater category: we are children of God.
The people of God are a holy nation—not a perfect people, but a people set apart with a passion to live corporately to please God. We are a people for his possession—we’re not special because of who we are, but because of the one to whom we belong (2:9).
Along with this new identity, God’s people are to live a new lifestyle. You are to proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In other words, you are to serve as an advertising agency tasked with sharing the message of his love. We were formerly not his people. Now we are and have received mercy (2:10). Therefore, as we live in this world—both as individuals and when we gather corporately—people ought to be able to see what our marvelous God is like.
2:11-12 In light of their new identity as God’s people, Christ’s followers should have a unique, influential presence. This only happens, though, if believers understand themselves as strangers and exiles. This fallen world is not your home. It’s roughly a seventy- or eighty-year pit stop on the way to your eternal destination. The Christian’s job in this interim period is to make a difference for God in the world. You are to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul (2:11)—that is, don’t do what everyone else is doing. You are to conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, those who don’t know God (2:12).