The Priesthood of All Believers, Part One

I spoke with a new mother the other day who was extremely happy because her baby was growing. Parents desire that their children grow up, isn’t that true? And if the children fail to grow physically according to certain criteria, parents take them to the doctor and find out what they can do so that the children will grow correctly.

Even so, our heavenly Father, who has given us new birth, desires that we grow up. To do so we need a proper diet. Junk food is tasty, but it is harmful and destructive to health. We know that as unbelievers we ate poisonous spiritual food, but now that we are believers God our heavenly Father desires that we change our diets completely and eat food that is sure to make us grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We need to become mature so that we will love God and the people of God deeply from our hearts, and so that we may truly be servants of God, having denied ourselves. God wants us to delight in his worship and service. He wants us to grow up to face the trials and persecutions that will inevitably come against us.

How can we rid ourselves of spiritual junk food and come out of wicked spiritual anorexia and emaciation? We need to listen attentively to what the St. Peter is saying to us in this passage. Have you ever seen people in seminars on how to make money? They sit on the edge of their seats and take in as much as they can. They listen very attentively, shutting off everything else, because they want to hear the words which they think will help them become successful. In the same way, we must listen to God’s word. If we do not listen carefully, we will remain as infants, never growing up in God. Now, there is beauty in an infant, but when a twenty year old person never grows up, it is pretty ugly and shameful. If you want to grow up in God and your salvation, you need to listen attentively now. Then you can enjoy your salvation here and in its fullness when you die.

Love One Another Deeply

First Peter 2:1, 2 instructs us “therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

What does the word “therefore” refer to? In 1 Peter 1:22 God gave a command: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth”–meaning these people had heard the gospel and trusted in it–“so that you have sincere love for your brothers”–now comes the command–“love one another deeply from the heart.” If you are a Christian, you are known by your love for the brethren. That is an automatic thing. But here God commands us to love one another from the heart deeply.

Right there we have a problem. We have to grow up to love deeply. Why? This love is sacrificial. It means self-denying action that costs me everything for the benefit of the people of God. That is an activity of a mature person. Now the fact that God gave us this command tells us that we have the ability to do so, because every time we see a command in the Scripture, we must assume correctly that God has given us the ability to fulfill that command. That ability comes to us on the basis of the fact that we have been born again. Look at verse 23: “For you have been born again.” When new life is granted to us, a new nature and ability is given to us, and therefore, we can fulfill this command to love one another from the heart deeply. That is why we have to grow up. Infants always demand and receive, but parents give.

We were born again as the gospel was preached to us by the Holy Spirit sent from above, and now we have the ability to love. In 1 Peter 2:3 we read, “now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” The word “taste” there means having personal experience. We have come to love the Lord Jesus Christ because there is a relationship that has been established. We have discovered that Jesus Christ is good and gracious. We have received grace from Jesus Christ, and therefore we are able to do what is commanded. What is that? Loving others deeply from our hearts. It means self-sacrificial living, not crying, moaning, complaining, being depressed or murmuring. Those are all self-centered ways of manipulating others. No, Peter says, persecution is coming, and his readers must be strong and mature enough to stand up against all fiery trials and persecutions. Grow up, Peter says.

Deep Love as Evidence

Love is the evidence of a relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no other way for the world to know that we are Christians. In John 13:34 Jesus told his disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

What kind of love is Jesus talking about? He demonstrated that love in this same chapter. In John 13 we read about Jesus’ last Passover meal with his disciples. Do you remember that meal? The disciples went to the room and sat down. No one wanted to wash anyone else’s feet, even though they all knew that washing was a prerequisite for eating. There was water and a towel available, but there was no official servant there. Everyone was sitting down and the disciples were asking the question, “Who is the greatest?” No one wanted to serve, so who washed the feet? Jesus Christ.

What did Jesus tell his disciples after he finished washing their feet? “He put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet'” (John 12:12-14). Jesus was encouraging his disciples to love each other, and love means action. Love means laying aside all your glory and putting a servant’s apron on and washing the feet of others. Love is not just a funny feeling, according to the Bible. Love is action based on the example of Jesus Christ. It is laying down our lives for another. It is the heart of Christianity. This type of love is shown by those who have grown up, and this is what is commanded in 1 Peter 1:22.

Deep Love in Action

In the book of Acts we see how the early church acted out this love. In Acts 2:42 we read, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. . . .” and in verses 44-45, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” That is love. Notice, people were selling their own possessions. I am sure no one told them to do it, but the Holy Spirit was working in them. They saw that people had needs, they loved one another, and they sold their possessions, including real estate, and brought the money to the apostles’ feet for distribution to others as they had need. Acts 4:32 says, “All the believers were one in heart and mind,” meaning unity of the spirit and of the faith. “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”

Do you see that love? It is not taking. That is exactly what St. Peter was exhorting the people of Galatia, Bithynia, Pontus, and Cappadocia to do. They were to love deeply from the heart since they had been born again. Because they had been given new life from heaven, they were now able to behave this way, in a way not found in the world.

Preparation for Growth: Putting Off

In order to love in this way, a Christian must grow. How can we aid our growth? In 1 Peter 2:1, Peter instructs us to rid ourselves “of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” Putting off is preparation for growth. No one is going to grow in God unless he or she does this first. Just as people take off their dirty clothes completely and put them away, so also we must take off our old habits and old ways of life and put them away.

Isn’t it wonderful that a Christian has the ability to do that? We don’t have to be angry, frustrated, lazy, wretched, and miserable. We don’t have to continue in our old lifestyle. What freedom! An unbeliever cannot do this, but a believer can now take off all these things and throw them away. We have this glorious freedom and ability in Jesus Christ to be different. In fact, Christians should never say that they are unable to change. If we were not able to change, this scripture would make no sense. So Peter reassures us that we do have the ability to change, and then gives us a partial list of habits that will stunt our growth as Christians if we continue in them. These habits are part of a pagan lifestyle that will cause spiritual anorexia and arrested growth. We must put them away.

Rid Yourselves of. . .

What are we to put off? First, Peter says, “rid yourselves of all malice.” Notice how he uses the word “all.” That is freedom, isn’t it? We are to get rid of all of it. What is malice? It is malevolence, a pagan desire to hurt somebody else. Malice is the exact opposite of loving deeply from the heart, which is what Peter is commanding us to do. You see, a sinner, a wicked unbeliever, has a deep desire within to see other people getting hurt, to see something bad happen to others. Malice is ill will toward others, a desire to hurt and damage others, and a desire to bring others down. So Peter says that if we want to grow up, we must first get rid of all malice.

What else should we get rid of? All guile. Guile is a desire to harm others through trickery and deceit. Like malice, guile is the exact opposite of love. Lack of guile is commendable in God’s sight. Remember when Nathanael came to Jesus? Jesus praised him for his lack of trickery and deceit, saying, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (John 1:47, KJV).

Then Peter says to get rid of all hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is covering up one’s evil intent with a show of righteousness. Again, the idea is to damage and destroy someone else. God wants us to get rid of hypocrisy, and we are able to do so now that we have been born again by the living word. We must rid ourselves of all envy. An envious person is primarily unthankful toward God, but, secondarily, extremely unhappy at another’s good fortune. Envy is painful displeasure over another’s lot. We all experience this. If a person gives a testimony about a good experience, do we rejoice with that person, or do we start complaining: Why did that happen to him and not to me? Why is he getting all these good deals? Why did she find the boyfriend and not I? If it is difficult for us to rejoice with others, we are experiencing envy. Peter says to get rid of it.

Then Peter says to get rid of all slander. What is slander? It is speech intended to destroy another person’s reputation. Like the other sinful items listed, slander is harmful and hurtful to other people. We are to put it off, and begin to love one another deeply from the heart. Why? Love builds up others rather than destroying them.

We must also recognize that these sinful behaviors destroy us as well as other people. My father used to say that if a person grinds his teeth in anger against another, his own teeth are the ones being destroyed. If you are angry towards another and lie awake thinking about it, it is your sleep you are losing. These behaviors affect one’s own health and engender diseases. So to fulfill the command of 1 Peter 1:22 to love one another from the heart deeply, it is essential to cleanse these poisons from our system. Praise God, we can do that. Why? We have been born again. And if you are not excited at the prospect of doing this, you may not be born again. You may need to cry out to God and ask him to save you.

Preparation for Growth: Craving

In 1 Peter 2:2 we are told to “crave pure spiritual milk.” We are told to not only rid ourselves of evil behaviors, but also to crave something. What does craving mean? It is like the craving some pregnant women experience–a sudden longing for certain things–or as Peter says, like the craving of newborn babies. We assume he is referring to healthy babies, because if babies are not healthy, they don’t crave anything. But healthy newborns desire to eat eagerly and frequently, day and night. Every time they wake up, they are voracious. The idea of craving, then, is to be filled with a passionate, voracious, deep, strong, intense desire.

We see this idea of craving in other places in the Scriptures. In Exodus 15:22, we are told how the Israelites traveled in the wilderness for three days without water. When they came to a place called Marah, they all wanted to drink. Three days without water–that is thirsting and longing, isn’t it? And when they drank the water, they discovered it was bitter, but God transformed it into sweet water, from which they drank deeply. In Luke 15 we read of the prodigal son who hated his father’s rule and left his home. While he was in a far country, there was a severe famine. This son had nothing to eat, so he joined himself to a pig farmer. “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything” (Luke 15:16). He experienced great hunger and longing. And when he came to himself, this young man walked all the way to his father’s house, knowing there was always sufficient food there. That is the type of deep longing we are talking about.

And what are we craving? In Psalm 42 we read, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” This is not hunger for peanut butter and other food. This is a famine for God. This hungering and thirsting for God is a sign that a person is born from above. In Psalm 84:2 we read, “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”

In Matthew 5:6 Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Do you have this hunger, this thirst, this craving? Does your heart and flesh cry out for the living God? If not, it can mean two things. First, you may not be born again. If that is the case, I beg you to cry out to God and ask, “O God, save me!” If you are not born again, you are without God and without hope. That is a terrible condition to be in. All your money, all your power, and all your position means nothing. You will have to meet with a God who will judge you. The other explanation for not having such hunger for God is that you have not grown into adulthood. You are spiritually anorexic and your growth is stunted. Your pastor can preach many sermons, but they mean nothing to you. It is like giving food to anorexic people. What do such people do with food? They play with it. They push it away. It makes them sick. They may look like pencils, but they feel they are overweight and refuse to eat.

Pure Spiritual Milk

Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk.” What does pure spiritual milk stand for? The word of God. We are born again by the word of God, as we are told in 1 Peter 1:23, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” And 1 Peter 1:25 tells us, “the word of the Lord stands forever.” This word not only gives us new birth, but it is the living and abiding word, meaning it makes us alive and nourishes us continually that we can grow up.

God’s word is essential to us. What did Jesus say when he was tempted to make bread out of stone? He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” We must take in the word of God. It alone is the pure spiritual milk! It is the well-balanced, nourishing spiritual food God has provided for us, and we are required to understand it intelligently, meditate upon it, add faith to it and do what it says.

Man lives by the word of God, said Jesus, and this word alone is pure. In the book of Psalms we are told that there is one thing in the world that is pure, and that one thing is not found in human philosophy, human opinion, political promises, or party platforms. In Psalm 12:6 we read, “And the words of the Lord are flawless like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” In Psalm 119:96 the psalmist writes, “To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless.”

God’s words is essential, perfect and pure. Mountains of books containing human opinions have been written, but there is only one pure, perfect book. Yet when the word of God is staring at us, we don’t want it. In fact, some hate it. But what is the only real food? The word of God.

What Are You Longing For?

What are you longing for? Fame? Power? Money? Do you want the word of God, or are you looking at everything else? The Holy Spirit warns you to turn your eyes away from all that nonsense to something that can really nourish you.

Psalm 119:20 says, “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.” Is this true of you? In Psalm 119:131 the psalmist writes, “I open my mouth and pant. . .” There is the idea of a bird or a little animal panting. What is he panting after? Real estate? Silver? Gold? No. “I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.” This describes a spiritually healthy person. How did the early church view the word of God? In Acts 2:42 we see that the believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” They became devotees of God’s word.

The Word Gives Birth and Growth

In Acts 11 Peter told how he was brought to Cornelius’ home in Caesarea. Once there, Cornelius told “how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.'” Peter brought a message, but it was not just the word of a man. It was the word of God, the gospel, the living word, through which Cornelius and his household was saved.

In Acts 20:32 the apostle Paul gave his final discourse to the elders of the church of Ephesus: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace which can build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified.” The word of God’s grace would nourish them, build them up, and make them strong adults.

The purpose of God’s word is to bring us to maturity. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Maturity means we are prepared, made strong, and enabled to do what God wants us to do. And what does that come from? The word of God.

The Word Must Be Pure

Now, we are speaking about the pure word of God, not an adulterated word. If you go to some churches, especially liberal churches, the pastors will speak about an emaciated, human Jesus who was just an ethical teacher. They will not preach a supernatural Jesus. In fact, they hate a supernatural, redeemer, a sovereign Lord Jesus. They will dish out human philosophies, opinions, and politics, which are all poison.

Even in many evangelical churches today you will find a poisonous, adulterated gospel. Preachers in these churches want people to feel good. But if you come to a church where the true gospel is preached, you may not feel good at all. In fact, you may feel miserable. Why? The gospel tells you that first you must repent. Jesus Christ does not make us feel good at first.

We must be very careful that we take in the pure spiritual word, not nonsense. Week after week people are given spiritual junk food in churches. Why do they receive it? It tastes good and makes them feel good. But although spiritual junk food is tasty, it is not nutritious, and, in fact, it is truly harmful. A diet of such food will not cause anyone to grow in godliness or make a person able to fulfill the command to love one another deeply from the heart. Preaching spiritual junk food only nourishes self-centeredism.

Be careful what church you are going to. Don’t go where the word is interpreted incompetently and mixed with serious doctrinal errors. Why? Growth comes only when people hear the word of God preached correctly in a way that exalts Jesus Christ and him crucified.

How Do We Grow?

What is the purpose of this diet of God’s word? Growth. In 1 Peter 2:2 it says “that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” By it! “It” refers to what? The milk, the pure spiritual milk which is the word of God. The word is the means by which we grow up.

If we do not listen carefully to the word, meditate on it, add faith to it and put it into practice, we will not grow. “By it,” Peter says. There is no other way. There is no other food. Oh, today evangelicals are discovering psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. There are drive-in counseling centers, and everyone is happy. But let me assure you, in this verse Peter says by it and by it alone. There is no other way that you can induce spiritual growth, that you will finally deny yourself and begin to sacrificially love others. We grow by the word of God alone. The word of God alone is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, we are told.

In Ephesians 4:12-16 we are told how God gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the church. What is God’s purpose in doing so? “To prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.” What do apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers do? They preach the word. Why? That the body of Christ, corporately and individually, may be built up “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. . .” Growth means greater knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that knowledge is found in the word of God. “. . . and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” When we don’t grow up, we are infatuated by every stupid, scheming, crooked teaching that is available through radio, television and every other way. People like these teachings. Paul continues, “Instead, speaking the truth in love,” and that truth is found in the Bible, “we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Are You Growing?

When an individual grows by the nourishment of the word of God, the whole church is also growing. But notice, how does it grow? In love. And then our passionate interest is to love others from the heart deeply. We become interested, not in ourselves, but in the other. The husband is not interested in himself, but in his spouse. His wife is not interested in herself; rather, she is all taken up with the interest of the husband. The children are not taken up with themselves but with the interests of their parents. That is what love means. Jesus said, Deny yourself, take up the cross daily, and follow me.

What is infantilism? It is the attitude of “Give me, give me, take care of me, massage me, say nice things about me, make me feel good. Come on, buy me something. What did you bring for me?” That is the idea, isn’t it? Now you see that attitude in children, but adults are expected to give.

Let us reflect on this word. If you never have been born again, I pray that you cry out to God: “O God, I have been satisfied with everything else but the word of God. O God, save me and give me new life, that I may nourish myself with the pure spiritual milk of God’s word.” But if you are a Christian and you don’t have this intense longing, then you must confess that you have neglected God’s word and your growth is not what it should be. I pray that you will repent and begin to study the word, add faith to it, and practice it, that you may grow up in your salvation “now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”