1 Peter 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Peter tells his readers to drop malice and deceit and to crave God's word the way a newborn craves milk. He describes them as living stones built into a spiritual house on Christ, the stone that builders rejected and God chose, and calls them a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. He then turns to how they are to live among outsiders: submit to human authorities for the Lord's sake, and, in the case of household servants, endure even unjust treatment from harsh masters. He points to Christ, who suffered without retaliating, bore their sins in his body on the tree, and is now the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • The readers are to put away all malice.
   • They are to put away all deceit.
   • They are to put away hypocrisies.
   • They are to put away envies.
   • They are to put away all slanderous speech.
   • This putting away follows from what was said before.
2. 2:2
   • The readers are to long for milk like newborn infants long for milk.
   • The milk they are to long for is unadulterated and belongs to the word or to the reason.
   • The purpose is that they may grow by that milk.
3. 2:3
   • This is conditioned on their having tasted that the Lord is good.
4. 2:4
   • The readers come to him.
   • He is a living stone.
   • He was rejected by men.
   • He is chosen by God.
   • He is precious to God.
5. 2:5
   • The readers themselves are living stones.
   • They are being built up into a spiritual house.
   • They are being built into a holy priesthood.
   • The purpose is to offer up spiritual sacrifices.
   • Those sacrifices are acceptable to God.
   • They are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6. 2:6
   • It is contained in the scripture.
   • God says he lays a stone in Zion.
   • The stone is a cornerstone.
   • The stone is chosen.
   • The stone is precious.
   • The one who believes on him will not be put to shame.
7. 2:7
   • To those who believe, the honor or preciousness belongs.
   • To those who are disobedient, the case is otherwise.
   • The builders rejected the stone.
   • That same stone has become the head of the corner.
8. 2:8
   • The stone is a stone of stumbling.
   • It is a rock that causes offense.
   • Those people stumble at the word.
   • They stumble because they are disobedient.
   • They were appointed to this.
9. 2:9
   • The readers are a chosen race.
   • They are a royal priesthood.
   • They are a holy nation.
   • They are a people for God's own possession.
   • The purpose is that they proclaim the excellencies of the one who called them.
   • He called them out of darkness.
   • He called them into his marvelous light.
10. 2:10
    • In the past they were not a people.
    • Now they are the people of God.
    • In the past they had not received mercy.
    • Now they have received mercy.
11. 2:11
    • The writer addresses them as beloved.
    • The writer urges them as resident aliens and temporary residents.
    • He urges them to abstain from fleshly desires.
    • Those desires wage war against the soul.
12. 2:12
    • They are to keep their conduct among the Gentiles good.
    • The Gentiles speak against them as evildoers.
    • The purpose is that the Gentiles, observing their good works, may glorify God.
    • This glorifying is to happen in the day of visitation.
13. 2:13
    • They are to submit to every human institution.
    • They are to submit for the Lord's sake.
    • This includes submitting to the king as supreme.
14. 2:14
    • This includes submitting to governors.
    • Governors are sent by him.
    • Governors are sent for the punishment of evildoers.
    • Governors are sent for the praise of those who do good.
15. 2:15
    • This is the will of God.
    • By doing good they are to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
16. 2:16
    • They are to live as free people.
    • They are not to use their freedom as a covering for evil.
    • They are to live as servants of God.
17. 2:17
    • They are to honor everyone.
    • They are to love the brotherhood.
    • They are to fear God.
    • They are to honor the king.
18. 2:18
    • Household servants are to be subject to their masters.
    • They are to do so with all fear.
    • This applies not only to masters who are good and gentle.
    • It applies also to masters who are harsh and crooked.
19. 2:19
    • This counts as grace or credit.
    • The condition is that a person endures pains because of consciousness of God.
    • The condition includes that the person suffers unjustly.
20. 2:20
    • There is no glory in enduring patiently when beaten for one's own faults.
    • If they do good and suffer for it and endure patiently, that is different.
    • Such endurance is grace or credit with God.
21. 2:21
    • They were called to this.
    • Christ also suffered for us.
    • Christ left us an example.
    • The purpose is that they should follow in his steps.
22. 2:22
    • He committed no sin.
    • No deceit was found in his mouth.
23. 2:23
    • When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
    • When he suffered, he did not threaten.
    • He kept entrusting himself to the one who judges righteously, though the source does not state what he handed over.
24. 2:24
    • He himself bore our sins.
    • He bore them in his own body.
    • He bore them on the tree.
    • The purpose is that we, having died to sins, should live to righteousness.
    • By his wound they were healed.
25. 2:25
    • They were like sheep going astray.
    • Now they have been turned back to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"Guile" is an old word for sneaky tricks. A person with guile fools you on purpose to get what he wants.

2:2

"Sincere" in 1611 English meant pure or unadulterated, not honest or heartfelt; the picture is milk with nothing watered into it. The Greek adjective behind "of the word" is unusual and has been read two ways: milk belonging to the word or message, or milk that is spiritual rather than literal. The rendering takes the first.

2:3

The line quotes Psalm 34:8, "O taste and see that the LORD is good." The Greek word for "gracious" here means good or kind in an everyday sense, the way food or a person is good.

2:4

"Disallowed" is an old legal word for rejected or refused; the image is of builders inspecting a stone and turning it down as unfit. Peter is working with a set of Old Testament passages about stones, which he goes on to quote in the next few verses.

2:5

"Lively" in 1611 English simply meant living, not energetic or cheerful. A priesthood was a body of men set apart to bring offerings to God on behalf of everyone else; Peter applies that role to the whole group of readers, and the sacrifices they bring are not animals but something he calls spiritual.

2:6

"Sion" is the King James spelling of Zion, the hill in Jerusalem, standing for the city itself. A cornerstone was the foundation stone set at the angle of a building, cut true so that the lines of the whole structure were measured from it; a bad one threw everything out. "Confounded" here means publicly shamed or disgraced, not confused. The quotation is Isaiah 28:16.

2:7

"The head of the corner" is the stone at the corner, the one the whole building is aligned by. The quotation is Psalm 118:22. The Greek of the first half of the verse is compressed and can be read either as "to you who believe, he is precious" or as "to you who believe belongs the honor"; translations differ.

2:8

The quotation is Isaiah 8:14. "Offence" here does not mean hurt feelings; the Greek word is used for the trigger of a trap or anything that trips a walker up. The last clause, "whereunto also they were appointed," is grammatically ambiguous in Greek about what exactly they were appointed to, the stumbling or the disobedience, and the rendering leaves it as open as the original.

2:9

"Generation" in 1611 English could mean a race or a people, not only an age group. "Peculiar" then meant belonging to one owner in particular, as a private possession does; it did not mean odd. The whole string of titles is drawn from Exodus 19:5-6, where these words were spoken to Israel at Sinai. "Shew forth" is simply show forth, announce.

2:10

This picks up the language of Hosea 1-2, where the prophet's children were named Not-My-People and Not-Pitied, and those names were later reversed.

2:11

"Strangers and pilgrims" translates two words for people living somewhere that is not their home: a resident foreigner and a temporary visitor. A pilgrim in this sense is a person away from home, not someone on a religious journey. "Fleshly" refers to human nature and its appetites, which in this letter is broader than sexual desire.

2:12

"Conversation" in 1611 English meant the whole way a person lived and behaved, not talking. "Honest" here carries its older sense of honorable or fitting to look at. "Gentiles" means non-Jews; Peter is writing to scattered believers and uses Israel's word for outsiders. "The day of visitation" is an Old Testament phrase for a time when God comes to a people, whether to judge or to rescue, and which is meant here is debated.

2:13

"Ordinance of man" translates a phrase meaning roughly every human institution or arrangement, the offices and structures people set up. "As supreme" describes the king's rank as the highest human authority; for these readers the king would be the Roman emperor.

2:14

Governors were the officials the emperor appointed over each province, with authority to hear cases and carry out punishments, including execution.

2:15

Ignorance means a lack of knowing about something.

2:16

"Cloke" is the old spelling of cloak, used here in its figurative sense: something thrown over a thing to hide it. "Maliciousness" means wickedness in general, not only spite.

2:17

"The brotherhood" is a collective noun for the whole body of fellow believers, the way one might say the household. "Fear God" uses a word that ranges from dread to awed reverence; the same root appears in verse 18 for the respect owed to masters.

2:18

The Greek word here is not the general word for slave but one meaning household servant, someone owned by or bound to a family and working inside the home. This was an ordinary feature of Roman society, and such servants had no legal recourse against a cruel owner. "Froward" is an archaic word for crooked, perverse or unreasonable; it is the opposite of straightforward.

2:19

"Thankworthy" translates a word usually rendered grace or favor, used here in the sense of something that earns credit or wins approval. "Conscience toward God" is ambiguous in the Greek: it can mean awareness of God, or conscience held before God.

2:20

"Buffeted" means struck with the fists, beaten. "What glory is it" means what credit or reputation does that earn you.

2:21

The word translated "example" was used for the line of model handwriting a child copied letter by letter, and for an outline traced by an artist. "Follow his steps" is that kind of copying, stroke for stroke.

2:22

The verse quotes Isaiah 53:9. "Guile" is deceit or cunning, the same word used in verse 1.

2:23

"Reviled" means abused with words, insulted. The Greek of the last clause does not say what was handed over; it may be himself, or his cause, or those abusing him, and translations supply different objects.

2:24

"The tree" translates a Greek word for wood or a wooden object, used in early Christian writing for the cross. It carries an echo of Deuteronomy 21:23, where a body hung on a tree is under a curse. "Bare" is the old past tense of bear, carried. "Stripes" are the marks left on the skin by a whip; the phrase quotes Isaiah 53:5.

2:25

"Bishop" here is not a church office in the later sense. The Greek word means overseer, a person responsible for watching over others, and it pairs naturally with the shepherd image beside it. The first half of the verse echoes Isaiah 53:6.