3014. A Sermon From A Sick Preacher

A Sermon Published On Thursday, November 15, 1906.

To you therefore who believe he is precious. {1Pe 2:7} {a}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 242, “Christ Precious to Believers” 235}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 931, “Three Precious Things” 922}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1224, “Jesus, the Stumbling Stone of Unbelievers” 1215}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2137, “Christ Precious to Believers” 2138}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3014, “Sermon from a Sick Preacher, A” 3015}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3112, “Sermon and a Reminiscence, A” 3113}

   Exposition on 1Pe 1:17-2:12 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3258, “Stumbling at the Word” 3260 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on 1Pe 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2765, “Marvellous Light” 2766 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on 1Pe 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2790, “Our Lord’s Substitution” 2791 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on 1Pe 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3014, “Sermon from a Sick Preacher, A” 3015 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on 1Pe 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3112, “Sermon and a Reminiscence, A” 3113 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on 1Pe 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3485, “Disconsolate Lover, The” 3487 @@ "Exposition"}

1. My brethren! I am quite out of order for addressing you tonight. I feel extremely unwell, excessively heavy and extremely depressed, and yet I could not deny myself the pleasure of trying to say a few words to you. I have taken a text on which I think I could preach in my sleep; and I believe that, if I were dying, and were graciously led into the old track, I could, with my last expiring breath, pour out a heartful of utterance on the delightful verse which I have selected. It happens to be the passage from which I first attempted to speak in public when I was only a boy of sixteen years of age; and I am sure it contains the marrow of what I have always taught in the pulpit from that day until now. The words are in the second chapter of the first Epistle of Peter, and the seventh verse: “To you therefore who believe he is precious.”

2. We might find “ample room and verge enough” if we were to enlarge on the preciousness of Christ in his person as God and perfect man; his preciousness to his Father, his preciousness to the Holy Spirit, his preciousness to angels and glorified men. We might next speak of him in the preciousness of his work; showing his preciousness as the Mediator of the new covenant, and at the incarnate Messenger of that covenant on earth; his preciseness as working out a perfect righteousness, and as rendering a complete expiation. We might dwell on his preciousness in all his offices, whether as Prophet, Priest, or King, and in all his relationships as Friend, Brother, or Bridegroom. Indeed, we have before us a subject as inexhaustible as the river of God, and as bright as the sapphire throne. If we should endeavour to show how precious the Well Beloved is in all respects, we should need eternity in which to complete the task.

   Precious is the name of Jesus,

      Who can half its worth unfold?

   Far beyond angelic praises,

      Sweetly sung to harps of gold.

   Precious when to Calvary groaning,

      He sustain’d the cursed tree;

   Precious when his death atoning

      Made an end of sin for me.

   Precious when the bloody scourges

      Caused the sacred drops to roll;

   Precious when of wrath the surges

      Overwhelm’d his holy soul.

   Precious in his death victorious,

      He the host of hell o’erthrows;

   In his resurrection glorious,

      Victor crown’d o’er all his foes.

   Precious, Lord! beyond expressing,

      Are thy beauties all divine;

   Glory, honour, power, and blessing

      Be henceforth for ever thine.

3. The wording of the text binds our thoughts to one point. “To you therefore who believe he is precious”; it is not so much how precious he is, as how precious he is to you. If you are a believer, the text affirms that Jesus Christ is, without any adverb to limit the extent of the descriptive word, precious to you.

4. I. We shall, first, talk for a while on the truth that JESUS CHRIST IS NOW PRECIOUS TO BELIEVERS.

5. Notice, attentively, how personally precious Jesus is. There are two people in the text: “To you therefore who believe HE is precious.” “You” and “he.” You are a real person, and you feel that you are such. To yourself, you must always be the most real of existences. You do not think of yourself as a person of whom you have read in history, or heard of in discourse, or seen from a window years ago. You have (to use an ugly word, since I do not know any substitute for it,) realized yourself; you are quite clear about your own existence. Now, in the same way, please strive to realize the other Person! “To you therefore who believe HE is precious.” Jesus exists just as really as you do, and you must not regard him as a personage who was here almost two millennia ago, or one of whom you have heard, and whom you like to think of as a poetic conception; but there is a real Christ now existing; in spirit existing here; in real flesh and blood now standing at the right hand of the Father; and between him and you, if you are a believer, there exists a bond of unity which, though invisible, is nevertheless most matter of fact and positive. You believe in him, he loves you; you love him in return, and he sheds abroad in your heart a sense of his love. Both of you are bound together tightly and firmly; there is neither myth, nor dream, either in him or in your union to him. He is and you are, and he is in very deed most precious to you.

6. Notice, too, that while the text gleams with this vividness of personality, to which most professors are blind, it is weighted with a most solid positiveness: “To you therefore who believe he is precious.” It does not speak as though he might be or might not be; but “he is precious.” There are some things about myself as a Christian which are frequently matters of question. I may gravely question whether I am growing in grace; and under such a doubt I may search my heart to see whether I love my Lord better, or whether I have more fully conquered my sins; but one thing I do not question, namely, that being a believer in him, Jesus Christ is unutterably precious to my soul. If you doubt your faith, you may doubt whether Christ is precious to you; but if your faith is certain, the preciousness of Christ to your heart is quite as certain. “He is precious.” If the new life is in you, you are as sure to love the Saviour as fish love the stream, or the birds the air, or as brave men love liberty, or as all men love their lives. Tolerate no perhapses here; allow no debate on this vital point of your religion. Jesus must be precious to you. Cleanse your eye if any dust has dimmed your sight of Jesus’ preciousness, and do not be satisfied until, in the language of the spouse, you can say, “My Beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand”; “Yes, he is altogether lovely.”

7. Notice, further, the absoluteness of the text: “To you therefore who believe he is precious.” It is not written how precious he is. The text does not attempt, by any form of computation, to measure the price which the regenerate soul sets on her bosom’s Lord. There is no hint that he is moderately precious; it does not even say positively or comparatively precious. I infer therefore that I may, if I choose, insert the word “superlatively”; and, certainly, if I did so, there would be no exaggeration, far more dear than light to the eyes, or life to the body, is Jesus to the sanctified heart. Each saint can truthfully sing, — 

   Yes, thou art precious to my soul,

      My transport and my trust:

   Jewels to thee are gaudy toys,

      And gold is sordid dust.

Since no sparkling gems or precious metals, no royal regalia, or chests of rare jewels can ever equal the value of Jesus, the comparison is vain. We therefore place him in a class by himself, and say that he is absolutely precious to believers. Gold is precious, but the diamond is more so; and, in comparison with the diamond, the gold is of little account. The diamond is precious; but give a man a bagful of diamonds of the first water, and put him down in a desert, or let him be out on the wild waste of ocean, he would give all his diamonds for a draught of pure water to drink, or a crust of bread to eat; so that, in certain cases, even the excellent crystal would lose its value. In fact, mineral substances are merely arbitrary signs of value, they have very little worth in themselves; gold in itself is less useful than iron, and a diamond is of little more account than a piece of glass. They have no absolute intrinsic value which would remain the same under all contingencies. But Christ is absolutely precious; that is to say, nothing can ever match him, much less excel him; and he is precious under all circumstances. There never can come a time when we shall be compelled to confess his lack of value, or lower our estimate of him. He is infinitely precious. Oh my soul, do you esteem him so? My heart, are you sure of this, that to you he is precious beyond compare; precious positively, precious comparatively, though heaven itself were compared, precious superlatively, beyond all things that can be dreamed of, or imagined. Is he to you essential preciousness, the very standard of all value? So it should be, for the text means no less: “To you therefore who believe he is precious.”

8. The thought which I desire to bring out into fullest relief is this, that Jesus Christ is, today, continually precious to his people. The moment a soul believes in Jesus, his sins are forgiven. Well, then, the precious blood that washes all sin away, is that not all over and done with? Oh, no! To you who believe, though you have believed to the saving of your soul, he is still precious; for your guilt will return on your conscience, and you will still sin, still being in the body, but there is a fountain still filled with blood, and so to you, from experience, the cleansing atonement is as precious as when you first relied on its expiating power. Indeed, Jesus is more precious to you now than when you were first washed in his blood, and were made white as snow; for you know your own needs more fully, have proved more often the adaptation of his saving grace, and have received a thousand more gifts from him. I fear that some Christians imagine that, after believing, all is over and done with; but my Lord Jesus Christ is no old Almanac, used up, and of no further service. He is not like the medicine which I took months ago, which then healed me of my disease, so that now I can afford to put the rest of it on the shelf, and laugh at it; oh, no! he is still my divine medicine. I still need him, and I still have him. If I believe in him, I feel I want him more than I ever did, and he is dearer to me than he ever was. If I needed him previously as a poor guilty sinner, I need him just as much as a poor needy saint, hanging on his daily bounty, deriving life perpetually from his life, peace from the power of his precious blood, and joy from the outflowings of his love for me. Instead of Christ’s losing value to the believer, the pith of the text is this, — that you, believer, when you get Christ, and get what Christ brings to you, instead of esteeming him as though he were an empty vessel, out of which you had drained the last drop, prize him most highly than you ever did before. He is not a gold mine worked out and exhausted, a field reaped of its harvest, or a vineyard where the grape gleaning is done: he still has the dew of his youth, the fulness of his strength, the infinity of his wealth, the perfection of his power.

9. II. Now, beloved, just for a minute or two, let us think HOW CHRIST IS PRECIOUS TO YOU TODAY.

10. Today he is precious to you because his blood, even now today, is the only thing which keeps him from being a condemned sinner, exposed to the wrath of God. There has been enough sin on your soul, my brother, my sister, this very day, to cast you into hell, if your Surety had not stood between you and God’s justice. You have been into no sinful company today; you have been in your Sunday School class, and I have been in the pulpit; but, ah! my pulpit sins would have damned me today, if it had not been for that precious blood, and your Sunday School sins would have shut you up in hell, if that dear Mediator had not stood between you and God. So, you see, it is not merely the first day in which you believe in which he is precious to you, but right on still, as long as you are a sinner, the Intercessor stands and pleads for you, putting your sin away for evermore; being yesterday, today, and for ever, your Saviour, your shield, and your defence, and therefore supremely precious for evermore.

11. Remember, too, he is precious, because the only righteousness you have is still his perfect righteousness. What pleads with God for you is not what you are, but what HE is. You are accepted at this moment, but you are only “accepted in the Beloved.” You are not justified because you feel in a sweet frame of mind, or because your heart rejoices in the name of God. Oh, no! your acceptance is all in your great Surety; and if it could be possible that he and the entire system of his grace could be withdrawn, and covenant engagements abrogated, you would be as unacceptable as even lost spirits are, and would be like them, for ever driven from the face and favour of God. Is he not, then, as your accepted Substitute, at this hour most precious to you?

12. Moreover, beloved, Jesus Christ is precious to you at this moment, as much as he ever was, because from henceforth it is his example which you strive to initiate. So far as he is an example to his people, his character has always been most admirable in your esteem, and today you delight to know that, in his life, God’s law appears — 

   “Drawn out in living characters.”

You aspire to be like him now; you expect to be perfectly like him in the day of his appearing. Now, because he shows you what you shall be, and because in him lies the power to make you what you shall be, is he not therefore precious to you daily? In proportion as you fight with sin, in proportion as you seek for holiness with inward longings and sublime pantings, in that proportion will Jesus Christ, the Paragon of all perfection, be precious in your esteem. Beloved, you are to be crucified with him; your flesh, with its corruptions and lusts, must die on his cross as he died. Is he not precious when you believe that it will be by virtue of his death that sin will die in you? You are to rise in him; indeed, I trust you have already risen in him, into newness of life; I hope you are panting more and more after the resurrection-life, so that you may no longer regard the dead things of this world, but live for eternal things, as those whose “life is hidden with Christ in God.” If so, I know you will prize a risen Saviour, and your appreciation of him will increase as you drink more deeply into the fellowship of the risen life. Do not forget, beloved, that our Redeemer has ascended, and in that ascension every saint has his share. I do not say that you all enjoy your share yet; but, in proportion as you do so, you will consider Christ to be precious; for he “has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places”; “our citizenship is in heaven; from where also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” whose Second Advent is to be the perfection of our spiritual life, the unveiling of the hidden beauties and manifestations of the sons of God. Just in proportion as you enter into your royal inheritance, and live in it, and believe in it, in this proportion Jesus Christ will be precious to you.

13. Beloved, let me tell you a secret. For many of you, there is as much in Christ undiscovered as you have already enjoyed. Your faith has only yet grasped Christ as saving you from going down to the pit, — Christ is precious to you so far; but if your faith could even now comprehend the fact that you are one with Christ, members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, that you are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, ah, then, how doubly precious would Jesus be! As surely as your faith grasps more, and becomes more capacious, and appropriating, Christ will grow in preciousness to you. I am persuaded that there is a meaning in these words which none of God’s saints have yet been able to discover, a deep mysterious preciousness of Jesus, only to be known by a close and intimate acquaintance with him such as falls to the lot of very few. “To you therefore who believe,” — just in proportion as you believe, the larger, the stronger, the deeper, the purer, the more sublime, the more full-grown your faith, the more Jesus Christ is precious to you. Ask, then, for more faith, so that Jesus may be more precious to you, and may God grant it to you, for his name’s sake!

14. III. So much on that point, now a few words on another. BECAUSE JESUS IS PRECIOUS TO BELIEVERS, HE EFFICACIOUSLY OPERATES ON THEM. The preciousness of Christ is, as it were, the leverage of Christ in lifting up his saints to holiness and righteousness.

15. Let me show you this. The man who trusts Christ values Christ; what I value I hold firmly; hence, our valuing Christ helps us to remain steadfast in times of temptation. The world says to a Christian, “Follow me, and I will enrich you.” “No,” says the Christian, “You cannot enrich me; I have Christ, and I am rich enough.” “Follow me,” says the world, “and I will bless you; I will give you the delights of the flesh.” “No,” says the heart, “you cannot bless me, for these things are accursed, and would bring me sorrow, and not pleasure; Jesus Christ is my pleasure, and to love him and to do his will is my joy.” Do you not see that, the greater your value of Christ, the greater your strength against temptation? Although the devil may tempt you with this and that, yet Jesus Christ, being more precious than everything else, you say, “Get behind me, Satan; you cannot tempt me while Christ is dear to my spirit.” Oh, may you set a very high value on Christ, so that you may be kept firm in the day of temptation!

16. Notice further this valuing of Christ helps the believer to make sacrifices. Sacrifice-making contributes a large part of any high character. He who never makes a sacrifice, in his religion, may shrewdly suspect that it is not worth more than his own practical value of it. When a man has a very important document on him, on which depends his title to his estates, if a thief should try to take it from him, he will permit the thief to tear away his garments, to rob him of anything he has except his treasure; that he takes care to hold firmly as long as he can. Messengers in India, who were entrusted with jewels, have been known to swallow them to preserve them from robbers, and to allow themselves to be stripped naked of every rag they wore, but they would not lose the jewel with which their prince had entrusted them. So the Christian will say to the world, “Take away my fortune; take away my livelihood; take away my good name, if you wish, oh lying world; but, despite all that, I will retain my Saviour, for he is precious!” Skin for skin; yes, all that a man has he will give for Christ, and he never will or can give Christ up if Christ is precious to him.

17. See, then, that believing in Jesus makes him precious, and his being precious helps us to make sacrifices most cheerfully for his dear sake.

18. Moreover, brethren, this valuing of Christ makes us jealous against sin. What, I say, does Jesus Christ condescend to live under my roof? Then, while he lives in my heart, I will give no roosting place to any foul bird of sin that might begin hooting in his ear. No, you enemies of Christ, begone, begone, begone! My Beloved shall have the best room of my spirit, undefiled by your filthy feet. We are afraid lest we should do anything to grieve the heavenly Lover of our souls; this makes us keep our garments white, and pick our steps through this miry world. Hence, a proper valuing of Christ directly promotes the highest degree of sanctification. He who loves the Redeemer best purifies himself most, even as his Lord is pure.

19. Besides, beloved, high valuing of Christ helps the Christian in the selection of his associates in life. If I hold my divine Lord to be precious, how can I have fellowship with those who do not esteem him? You will not find a man of refined habits, and cultured spirit, happy among the lowest and most illiterate. “Birds of a feather flock together.” Workers and traders unite in companies according to their occupations. Lovers of Christ rejoice in lovers of Christ, and they delight to meet together; for they can talk to each other about things in which they are agreed. I would recommend you to choose the church of which you would be a member, and the pastor whom you would hear, by this one thing; by how much of Christ there is in that church, and how much of the savour of Christ there is in that ministry. It is an evil thing for a child of God to be enchanted by mere rhetoric. As well might you choose a table to feast at merely on account of the knives and forks, or the polish of its mahogany. You require food for the soul, and there is nothing that will long feed a true heart except Jesus Christ, who is the food and the drink of his people. Love for Christ soon makes a Christian discontented with mere oratory. He cannot be satisfied even with the best doctrine apart from Jesus. “They have taken away my Lord,” he says, “and I do not know where they have laid him.” I must hear about Jesus; and if that silver bell does not ring, then all the rest may chime as they may, but my ear is not at rest until I hear that celestial sound.

20. So, a lofty estimate of Christ will be seen, if I had time to track it, to operate through the entire history of a Christian.

21. There is little need more fully to go into more detail, but we must not fail to remark that a sense of the Redeemer’s preciousness makes the Christian useful, for what is much on the heart will soon creep up to the tongue, and the testimony of the heart is a notable method of spreading the gospel. If you love Christ much, you will speak about him. Your restrained speech will almost choke you, your soul will be hot within you while you are silent, until, at last, like a fire in your bones which cannot be concealed any longer, it will break out, and you will say to others, “My Beloved is the fairest and noblest of all beloveds; oh, that you all knew him and loved him as I do! If you see him, his face is brighter than the sun in its strength; if you hear him, his voice is sweeter than the chorus of heaven; if you draw near to him, his garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia; and if you trust him, you will find him to be faithfulness and truth itself.” The words may be broken, the sentences may not flow with rhythmical harmony, but he who really loves Christ must come out with it, some way or other. So, proclaiming, with a burning heart, the things which he has made touching the King, others will hear the good news, and they will ask, “Who is this Precious One?” and they will, by God’s good Spirit, be led to seek him and find him too. So, the Christian valuing Christ will come to be useful to the souls of men; indeed, as I have said before, it will exercise an operating power on the entire Christian manhood, and render it holiness to the Lord.

22. IV. Christ being so precious, HIS PRECIOUSNESS BECOMES THE TEST OF OUR CHRISTIANITY.

23. I shall not prolong this humble talk; but shall, in conclusion, ask you a question, Beloved brother or sister, you know very well that I would be the last person in the world to speak lightly of the value of sound doctrine. I wish we were all far more acquainted with the Scriptures than we are; and that the doctrines of grace were more clear to our understandings, and more imprinted on our hearts; but there are some people, who love a certain set of doctrines so much, that, if you diverge a hair’s breadth, they will denounce you as rotten to the core. They will not associate with any who do not say, “Shibboleth,” and sound the “sh” very harshly too. They will cut off and condemn all God’s people who do not precisely agree with them. Now, notice that, it is not written, “To you who believe a code of doctrines will be precious.” That is true, but it is not written like that in the text. The text is, “To you therefore who believe he is precious.” It is better to consider Christ precious than it is to consider orthodoxy precious. It is not loving a creed, but it is loving Jesus, that proves you to be a Christian. You may become such a bigot that it may be only the laws of the land which keep you from burning those who differ from you, and yet you may have none of the grace of God in your heart. I love Protestantism; but if there is anything in this world that I have a horror of, it is that political Protestantism which does nothing but sneer and snarl at its fellow citizens, but which is as ignorant as a cow about what Protestantism truly is. The great truths of Protestantism — not merely Protestant ascendancy, — and the great secret power of those truths, far more than the mere letter of them, is the thing to be prized. You may get it into your head that you are a member of the one and only true church, you may wrap yourself up with any quantity of self-conceit, but that does not at all prove you to be a possessor of grace. It is love for Christ that is the root of the matter. I am very sorry, my dear brother, if you should hold unsound views on some points; but I love you with all my heart if Jesus is precious to you. I cannot give up believers’ baptism; it is no invention of mine, and, therefore, I cannot give up my Master’s ordinance. I am sure that it is scriptural. I cannot give up the doctrine of election, it seems to me so plainly taught in the Word; but over the head of all doctrines and ordinances, and over everything, my brother, I embrace you in my heart if you believe in Jesus, and if he is precious to you, for that is the vital point. These are the matters of heart-work that denote a Christian; nothing else is so true a test. If you cannot say, “Jesus is precious to me,” I do not care to what church you belong, or what creed you are ready to die for, you do not know the truth of God unless the person of Christ is dear to you.

24. This may serve as a test for each one here. My brother, my sister, do you believe in him who is the Son of God, and yet was born of the Virgin here on earth? Do you rely only on him who, on the cross, poured out his heart’s blood to redeem sinners? Do you depend on him who now stands with his priestly garments on before the throne of the infinite majesty, pleading for the unjust, that they may live through him? If you do, then answer this question: Do you love Jesus now? Do you love him with your heart and soul? Would you serve him? Do you serve him? Will you serve him? Will you subscribe your hand to be his servant from this day on? Did you declare now, if not with lip, yet honestly with your soul, “He is precious to me, and I would give up everything else sooner than give him up?” Then it is well with you! Be happy and rejoice. Come to his table, and feast with him at the banquet of love.

25. If not, you have not built on the rock. If you are not loving Christ, please examine yourself, and see where you are, for there is only a step between you and hell. Repent! May God convert you, and give you now to put your confidence in Jesus, and now to be saved, that he may be glorified in you, for so far he has had no glory from you. To you who do not believe, Christ is not precious, and you will go your way, and despise him. Oh, that you were made wise by the Holy Spirit, and taught to consider things properly! Then Christ would be precious indeed to you. He is the only way for your escape from the wrath to come. He is the only hope for you of ever entering the gates of heaven. He must be your only shelter when the world will be all ablaze, as soon it shall be; when the stars shall fall, like withered leaves from the trees; when all creation shall rock and reel, and his voice shall resound in earth, and heaven, and hell, “Awake, you dead, and come to judgment!” The only hope of a Saviour, in that last tremendous day, must be found in Jesus. Oh, seek him now while he may be found, call on him now while he is near! Do not turn your heel away from him now, lest you turn once and for all to perdition. Come to him now; believe in him now; and he shall have the glory. Amen.

{a} Not only was this the first text from which Mr. Spurgeon preached, but it was his theme on many subsequent occasions. Two of these discourses bear the same title, —  {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 242, “Christ Precious to Believers” 235} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No 2137 “Christ Precious To Believers” 2138}

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {1Pe 2}

1. Therefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings,

Putting these evil things right away from you, having nothing further to do with any of them. Notice the repetition of the word “all.” “All malice, and all guile,” — everything in the form of deceit, — “and all evil speakings.” All these are to be put away by all believers, as rags are put away in the rag basket, or refuse on the dunghill.

2. As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, so that you may grow by it:

Be glad to get simple truth, the “milk of the Word.” Even if you can digest the solid food of the Word, never grow weary of the milk, for it is always a good diet even for a full-grown man in Christ. Do not crave milk-and-water, but “desire the unadulterated milk of the Word so that you may grow by it.” It is not enough for you to be spiritually alive, you must grow; and especially while you are babes in grace, your great desire should be that you may grow.

3. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

You begin with tasting that the Lord is gracious, you go on to desire the unadulterated milk of the Word, and so you grow in grace more and more.

4. To whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, and precious.

No one metaphor is sufficient to describe Christ as he really is. A stone is a scriptural simile and symbol of Christ, but we have to make the metaphor somewhat incongruous by comparing him to “a living stone.”

5. You also, as living stones, — 

It is not “lively” stones, it is the same word, in the original, in both cases, — “a living stone” and “living stones.” The translators of our Authorized Version have often rendered the same Hebrew or Greek word in a different way, which is a pity, as it is in this case: “You also, as living stones,” — 

5. Are built up a spiritual house, — 

A house that is a living structure from the foundation to the top-stone.

5. A holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

He is a living stone, and you, as living stones, are built on him, and he and you together make up a living spiritual house; and in order that the house may have suitable tenants, and be properly furnished, you also become priests, and, as priests, you “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

6. Therefore also it is contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he who believes in him shall not be confounded.”

So the apostle quotes from the prophet Isaiah the ancient prophecy concerning Christ.

7. To you therefore who believe he is precious: but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner,”

Here Peter quotes from Ps 118:22. What reverence these inspired men had for the inspired Book! The Spirit of God could have spoken fresh words if he had pleased; but, as if he meant to honour above everything else the Book which he himself had inspired, he “moved” Peter to quote the ancient prophet and psalmist in confirmation of what he was writing.

8. And “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence,” even to those who stumble at the word, being disobedient: to which they were also appointed.

These are terrible words, but they are true. I cannot fully explain them. As Archbishop Leighton says, “It is easier to get into a depth over this awful truth than it is to get out again.” Oh God; grant that none of us may stumble over Christ! If we do, Christ will not move because we kick at him, or fall over him.

9. That you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special people;

These are wonderful epithets that are heaped on believers here. May we have the grace to be able to appropriate them, and to expound them in our lives!

9. That you should proclaim the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

See where you once were, and see also to what you have been called by God’s grace: “out of darkness into light.” That is not all: into HIS light. Even that is not all: “into his marvellous light.” The light of the gospel is full of wonders. Just as common light is made up of many colours, so the light of God’s grace is made up of many marvellous colours, — the colours of all the attributes of God.

10. Who in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

What a great change conversion is! And how great a change conversion works! How wonderful is the effect of regeneration! We had not obtained mercy, but now we have obtained mercy; we were not a people, but now we are the people of God.

11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you — 

Peter puts his hands together, and pleads with intense earnestness.

11. As strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Those fleshly lusts belong to this present evil world, but you do not belong to it; you are “strangers and pilgrims” here, therefore feel an absolute alienation towards such things, an utter abhorrence of them. Do not even think of them, much less practise them. “Abstain from fleshly lusts”; for, while they injure the body, that is not the worst thing that they do, for they “war against the soul.”

12, 13. Having your conduct honest among the Gentiles: so that, when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall see, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake:

You are not to be disturbers of the peace; you Christian people are to cultivate the spirit of conciliation wherever you dwell, submitting yourselves, “for the Lord’s sake,” even to some things which you do not like.

13. Whether it is to the king, as supreme;

In Peter’s day, the king was a poor creature, and something worse than that. Indeed, I might say of most of the Emperors of Rome, who were the chief “kings” of that day, that they were monsters of iniquity; yet the office was to be respected even when the man who occupied it could not be; how much more should it be respected when the occupant is what a true “king” should be.

14-16. Or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of those who do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, — 

Free in yourselves, free in your conscience, free in your mind and heart.

16. And not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

You possess a freedom which others claim, but do not know. You feel that you are no man’s slave, yet you do not use your liberty for evil, or to the injury of others.

17-19. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience towards God endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

There is no credit in suffering rightfully; the credit is in patiently enduring suffering, which you do not deserve.

20, 21. For what glory is it, if, when you are buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For to this you were called:

It is part of a true Christian’s calling to bear what is put on him wrongfully.

21-23. Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps: “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth”: who when he was reviled, did not revile again; when he suffered, he did not threaten: but committed himself to him who judges righteously:

This leads Peter to make the following glorious declaration concerning the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

24. Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, — 

There was a transference of sin from sinners to Christ. This is no fiction. He, “himself,” bore that sin “in his own body on the tree,” — 

24. That we, being dead to sins, — 

Because he died for us, and we died in him, — 

24. Should live for righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.

By his sufferings, you were cured of sin. His death not only removed from you the penalty of sin; but what is far better, it also removed from you the dread disease itself.

25. For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

May God grant that this may be true concerning every one of us, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.