Sunday, March 23, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 1 Peter 2-3
Key Verse
1 Peter 2:24 — “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Devotional Thought
Peter writes to scattered exiles—strangers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia—people whose lives have been uprooted and whose faith has made them suspect in the eyes of their neighbors. He calls them newborn babes, hungry for the sincere milk of the word. He calls them lively stones, being built into a spiritual house. He calls them a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. These are not titles of privilege but of purpose: that they should shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light. The imagery is architectural and organic at once—Christ the chief corner stone, rejected by the builders but precious to God, and we who believe, fitted alongside Him into something living and holy.
But Peter is not naive about what that life costs. He speaks plainly to servants who must endure froward masters, to wives married to unbelieving husbands, to believers slandered as evildoers. His counsel is not escape but endurance, not retaliation but entrusting oneself to him that judgeth righteously. Christ Himself is the pattern: reviled, He reviled not again; suffering, He threatened not. His stripes healed us. His death brought us back to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. The cross is not merely our pardon but our path.
And then Peter turns to the ordinary texture of daily life—marriage, speech, courtesy, the quiet ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. He quotes Psalm 34: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. This is the same Peter who once drew a sword in the garden and denied his Lord by a charcoal fire. Now he writes of suffering well, of answering with meekness, of a good conscience toward God. He knows whereof he speaks.
As Lent deepens toward the cross, these words press close. We too are strangers and pilgrims. We too are tempted to use liberty as a cloke of maliciousness, to return railing for railing. But we have been called out of darkness. Baptism saves us not by washing filth from flesh but by the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven and sits at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers made subject unto Him. So we lay aside malice and guile and hypocrisies, and we desire the milk of the word, that we may grow thereby.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you tempted to return evil for evil rather than entrusting yourself to Him who judges righteously?
- What would it look like this week to sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, chief corner stone, precious and chosen of God, we come to You as living stones, unworthy but made holy by Your blood. Strip from us all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings. Feed us with the sincere milk of Your word that we may grow. When we suffer wrongfully, keep us from reviling again; when we are slandered, let our good conversation silence foolish men. Adorn us inwardly with a meek and quiet spirit. Sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, that with good conscience and ready answer we may show forth Your praises, who called us out of darkness into Your marvellous light. Amen.