The Story: Peter comes back to this idea again: We’re different; live differently! This world is no place to settle down and make ourselves at home. We’re passing through, our eyes fixed on that glow beyond the horizon of time where the City to Come awaits and Christ is even now preparing a place for us. Where we’re headed will affect how we travel there – or, at least, it should. If we explain to our unsaved neighbors that we’re on a journey toward eternal glory and righteousness with God, then won’t they find it curious that, as we make that journey, we live pretty much like them? We might as well be going nowhere special as long as our lives do not reflect the character of our true homeland. The lusts of this world war against our soul. They drag us down, depress us, rob us of our joy, fill us with shame and regret, and discourage us from bearing witness to the Lord. Be done with them, brethren! Set your eyes on the City to Come, and travel there so that you do not arrive – whenever, at any moment, that may be – still dragging the baggage of this world.

The Structure: Peter is really mixing and matching metaphors here: living stones, temple, priesthood, nation, sojourners. How many different ways can he lead us to think about the life we have in Jesus Christ? So rich and full and glorious is this life, that there aren’t enough metaphors or images in the world to describe it. But Peter offers some especially helpful ones which, as we meditate on them, can shape the way we think, the things we desire, the priorities of our souls, and the everyday works and words of our lives.

Is worldly baggage slowing your progress toward the City to Come?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “The Power of Grace: 1 Peter 2.1-12,” simply click here..

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.