This verse upsets the heretics, who like to think that natures are good or bad in themselves and therefore cannot be changed. But what Peter says is fully in line with the words of Jesus: You must be born again.^[1]

As you have been born again by the Word of the living God, lay aside all malice, for an infant has no malice in him.

Peter says that now that you have been born again and have become children of God through baptism, you ought to become like newborn children in the innocency of your life and behavior.

These few words say a great deal, for it is unworthy of those who have been born again to an incorruptible life to be ensnared by evil and to prefer things which have no existence to that which truly exists. For evil is not a substance but merely clings to substances as if it were part of them. Peter says that believers ought to be immune to all deceit, pretense, envy and disparagement. Deceit and pretence are the exact opposite of the truth which was preached to you. If envy and disparagement find a home inside you, who are bound by the tie of brotherly love, how will you be able to bear the attacks of the heretics?

Milk has three forms which can be compared to doctrine, that is, the liquid, cheese and butter. Liquid milk is the literal sense of Scripture, cheese is the moral sense, and butter is the spiritual sense. Find a good teacher and you will soon learn these things.

The divine law wants us to be perfect, but on the way toward perfection it has us first drink milk, as if we were newborn babies, and by that milk we shall grow toward salvation. Paul spoke to the same effect when he said: Do not be children in understanding, but be innocent in wrongdoing. In understanding be adults.^[1] For it is not possible to advance toward purity, or toward maturity in understanding, or toward adulthood as a worker approved by God, unless you renounce evil and become like an innocent child.

In accordance with the apostolic principle of discretion, to disciples who are still ignorant the priests supply elementary doctrine, which is the rational milk without guile. But they also provide the solid food of more sublime doctrine to those who are more nearly perfect.

Everywhere we notice that the various facets of the soul are designated by outward things. Thus when our Lord is described as the true bread and his flesh as the true food, we must understand this as meaning that the pleasure of right reason is like the taste of bread. Just as it is impossible for someone to know what honey is like simply by being told about it, because he must taste it in order to find out, so too the goodness of the heavenly bread is not properly communicated by teaching alone. We must taste the goodness of the Lord by our own experience.

It is hardly surprising if someone who has never tasted the kindness of the Lord fails to avoid the filth and corruption of this world. But if your hearts and minds have been cleansed from wickedness, then it is natural for you to long for the vital nourishment of Christ. ON1 PETER.

Those who have accepted the gospel and who have been born again of incorruptible seed are an elect and approved race. At the same time they have been made living stones, built on top of the living Stone, who is chosen and honored, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, in order to build a spiritual house for God toward whom they are being led and to whom spiritual sacrifices are offered.

The Lord will repay his faithful followers who are so lovingly, so cheerfully, so devotedly carrying out these works, to the effect that he includes them in the construction of his own building, into which they hasten to fit as living stones, fashioned by faith, made solidly firm by hope, cemented together by charity.

This is how Peter describes the way in which those who have been accepted by God are integrated into the church. It is by sharing a common origin, and by being in harmony with one another, by thinking and by saying the same things, by having the same mind and the same thoughts, that we are built into one house for the Lord. CATENA.

Even though a man may have departed out of this life insufficiently instructed but with a record of acceptable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints, that is, he can be taught and informed and fashioned into a living stone, a stone precious and elect, because he has borne with courage and endurance the trials of life and the struggle for piety.

We learn from Peter that the church is a body and a house of God built from living stones.

You have been built on a good foundation, that of the apostles, prophets and patriarchs.

The temple which Christ built is the universal church, which he gathers into the one structure of his faith and love from all the believers throughout the world, as it were from living stones.

Without the cornerstone which is Christ, I do not see how men can be built into a house of God, to contain God dwelling in them, without being born again, which cannot happen before they are born the first time.

Peter calls our Lord Jesus Christ a chosen and precious stone, fashioned by the glory and splendor of divinity. He calls it the cornerstone, because through one faith it binds together in unity the two peoples, Israel and the Gentiles.

Everything in this prophecy is written about Christ. There are many living stones in God’s temple, but here we are contemplating only the One.

Peter reinforces the reliability of Christ as our Lord and Savior by reminding us that he was called a rock by the prophets.

Just as the Lord is the true light who has come into the world for judgment, so that at his coming he may give sight to the blind and blind those who see in the wrong way, so he is also a chosen cornerstone, giving honor to those who join themselves to him in faith and revealing himself to them as a reliable foundation, but to those who do not believe he is not precious but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, considered worthless by the builders who have rejected him. These builders are the scribes and the Pharisees.

These words refer to Christ, who himself prophesied in the Gospels, saying: Have you not read, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner?’^[1]

Those of you who believe in Christ are more than just stones—you are sons of God!

Just as those who refused to make Christ the foundation of their heart in effect condemned him by their actions, so too will they be condemned by him when he comes again, for then he will be unwilling to receive those who rejected him into his house, which is in the heavens.

They stumble because of their wicked mind and because they were chosen for damnation. For it is that which has brought them to this position.

The position in which they find themselves is one which they have chosen, for it starts with their unbelief. For just as the world, which has been placed under evil, is not evil by nature but has attained this position by its own desire, so also those who are being talked about here have been so placed because of their own unwillingness to believe, for they are cousins of those who have been handed over to the wickednesses of their desires. For God was very patient with those who despised his goodness and mercy, but in the end he left them to follow their own will.

God is not to be held responsible for this, for no cause of damnation can come from him who wants everyone to be saved. It is they who have made themselves into vessels of wrath, and unbelief has followed naturally from that. Therefore they have been established in the order for which they have prepared themselves. For if a human being is made with free will, that free will cannot be forced, nor can anyone accuse him who has decreed their fate of having done anything to them which they did not fully deserve as a result of their own actions.

That we are a chosen people is clear enough, but Peter said that we are a royal people because we have been called to share Christ’s kingdom and we belong to him. We are a priesthood because of the offering which is made in prayers and in the teachings by which souls which are offered to God are won.

Because you are a priestly race you are able to approach the sanctuary of God.

If you want to exercise the priesthood of your soul, do not let the fire depart from your altar.

Under the old dispensation, the priesthood and the kingship were two different things. No one could be both a king and a priest. But afterwards came the gospel, which united these two offices in Christ. From this it follows that the people whom he has chosen will be both royal and priestly at the same time. Some people wonder how it is possible, seeing that we are called from all the nations on earth, for us to be regarded as one holy people. The answer to this is that although we are from many different nations, the fact that we have all repented of our sins and accepted a common will and a common mind gives those who have repented one doctrine and one faith. When there is a soul and heart common to all believers, then they are called one people.

In ancient times only one high priest was anointed, but now all Christians are anointed.

All who have been born again in Christ are made kings by the sign of the cross and consecrated priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

We are royal from the fact that Christ is a king, and we are a priesthood from the fact that he is a priest. Furthermore, we are also a holy people, so called by the one who is called holy in himself.

As believers in Christ we have received exactly the same things as he already has. Since he is of the royal tribe and became a high priest, so too have we been enriched by these gifts. Having them, we have become a holy nation and a people for safekeeping, that is, for being kept apart from the world; for we have entered into his rest.

This title of honor, which God gave to his ancient people through Moses, the apostle Peter now applies to the Gentiles, and rightly so, because they have believed in Christ who was the true cornerstone of Israel’s faith. The Gentiles are therefore a chosen race, in contradistinction to those who have been rejected because they themselves rejected the living stone. They are a royal priesthood because they are joined to the body of him who is both the king and the true high priest. As their king, Christ grants them a share in his kingdom, and as their priest he purifies them with the sacrifice of his own blood.

O people of God, chosen to expound the virtues of the Lord: take up the circumcision worthy of the Word of God in your ears, on your lips, in your heart and in the foreskin of your flesh, as well as in every part of you.

This verse means that Gentiles who were not God’s people before they believed have now been called by him and have come to him. Some people think that Peter is talking about a mixture of beings who are both good and bad by nature, but their interpretation comes up against many serious objections. You cannot say of spiritual beings that there was once a time when they were not a people and when they lacked mercy, nor can you say of earthly beings that they have been turned into a people or received mercy. Therefore I believe that that is the wrong interpretation of this verse.

When people from different races and nations are called to abandon all their differences and to take on one mind, drawing near to him by one faith and one teaching, by which the soul and the heart become one, they are one holy people.

These words are taken from the prophet Hosea^[1] and confirm what Paul also said: You were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.^[2]

Those who are worthy of love because of their godliness are called beloved not because they are that way by nature but because they have received love. The writer of this letter urges such people to abstain from carnal desires which attack the soul. The flesh and the soul have different natures. A soul which is uncorrupted and immortal will desire that kind of thing, whereas the flesh, which is both corrupt and dissolute, desires things which are wicked and vile. But when the two are joined together, the soul naturally feels the passions of the flesh. When it distances itself from bodily passions, it is preserved pure and glorious, with a saving understanding of the way it should act, with a will to behave in that way, with a love for God and with a desire to know him.

As always, the apostle turns to ethical matters after he has dealt with doctrine. After saying what good things are available because of Christ, he now calls us to lead the right kind of life.

God’s people occupy the middle ground. They are to be compared neither with those who think that the only good is to enjoy earthly delights nor with those sublime inhabitants of heaven, whose sole delight is in the heavenly bread by which they were created. Between the people of heaven and those of earth, the apostle was suspended in the middle, heading toward heaven, though he was not yet there, but at the same time separated from others here below.

Evil desires are called carnal because they operate through the flesh, but in reality they are spiritual, because they come from the soul.

As the head of the church Peter lays down rules for everyday behavior, and by doing so he unites all the members of the church in one overall harmony.

It often happens that pagans who once reviled the faith of Christians, because they had abandoned their gods, stop doing so after they see what a holy and pure life they lead in Christ. They begin instead to glorify and praise God, who is shown by acts of goodness and righteousness to be good and righteous himself.

Peter presents the pagans as people who disparage us. Anyone who doubts the truth of this should read what Irenaeus wrote about the martyrs Sanctus and Blandina. Stated briefly, when the Gentiles discovered servants of these Christians, who were learned in the sacred mysteries, they tortured them in order to find out some secret evil about them. But since the servants had nothing to say which would please them, beyond the fact that they had heard their masters talk about the holy communion as the body and blood of Christ, which they took to mean real flesh and blood, they gave that answer to the inquisitors. The Gentiles seized on that apparent cannibalism as if it were something practiced by Christians and tortured Sanctus and Blandina as a result. Blandina replied to them freely and intelligently as follows: How can people who do not touch meat because of their devotion to the study and contemplation of God do such things? The day of visitation is the day on which worldly people like those Gentiles will be judged. For when our lives are laid bare, it will become apparent that the truth is the very opposite of what they suspected, and not only will they be ashamed, they will also be punished, and God will be glorified.

The day of visitation will be like the time when God visited Egypt through an angel and slew all the firstborn children. Similarly he will visit the lands of the earth and will cut off the firstfruits of all evil works.

Pray for kings, because when the kingdom is shaken, all its other members are shaken with it, and even if we stay aloof from tumults we shall have some part in the resulting misfortune.

The proclaimers of the truth take all opportunity for wrongdoing away from us by describing how we should behave toward those who are in power in such a way that the gospel and its teaching will not be hindered by us through our unwillingness to do what they require of us and by telling us to be subject to them when it is clear that they are doing something in accordance with just laws. Nor should we be worried if they do not act in the way appointed by God, because he is in charge of them and will judge them accordingly.

By every human authority Peter means those which have been ordained by rulers. We are called to submit to them for the Lord’s sake, because he himself said: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,^[1] but if they command something which is not God’s will we must not obey them.

It is not that every human ruler punishes those who do wrong and praises those who do right, since many obviously do not live up to what God expects of them. Nevertheless, Christians receive honor and praise from God if they endure the unworthiness of their rulers and stand up against their foolishness.

Peter calls those magistrates who are appointed by kings human creatures. Sometimes Scripture describes appointments as creations [as in Ephesians 2:15]: God’s purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two.

This therefore is the praise which good men receive, when they act properly and obey the king’s servants, even when it means putting up with the ignorance of unwise governors.

Peter said this because there were some subversive people who were saying that Christ had come to overthrow the state, teaching us that we should despise every earthly power. But when they see us submitting to them because it is God’s will, then they are silenced, because they realize that they were wrongly trying to tear the kingdom of Christ in two.

We are truly free if we have been cleansed of our sins through baptism and if we have been redeemed from slavery to the devil, because we have been made children of God. If we have really received so great a gift, we must not fall back into sin, because if we do so, we are falling right back into the old slavery again.

We have been set free from the world. We have become citizens of heaven. This verse does not imply, according to John Chrysostom, that the apostle now wants us to be subject once again to earthly powers and to obey them. No, we are to obey them as free people, honoring the one who has delivered us and who has told us to do this for his sake. Similarly you must not have any kind of evil in your mind, like disobedience or hardness of heart. You must not use your freedom as a pretext for refusing to obey. We might add that someone who is free according to the Lord would never do anything absurd or foolish.

If we have a form of religion on the outside but inside we are opposed to the rulers of the church as well as to kings and princes, we are using our faith as a pretext for evil.

How is it proved that we love the fellowship? Because we do not split unity; because we keep love.

The fear of God must come first and govern all the rest.

Do not say to yourself: What have I got to do with the emperor? . . . The apostle intended that emperors should be served, and he wanted kings to be honored.

It is wrong to be insubordinate and disobedient to earthly authorities. Let no one say that we have been set free from the world because we have become citizens of heaven. Are you still insisting that we should obey earthly powers? Yes, says Peter, but obey them as free people, which is to say, in obedience to the one who has set you free and who has commanded you to do this. That way you will not glory in your freedom as if it were a cloak to cover up your evil thoughts, that is, of insubordination and disobedience.

Impartiality, patience and kindness are very appropriate qualities for a master to possess.

The person who says that servants ought to obey their masters out of abject fear is mad and ought to be regarded as a dumb animal, for the fear which they ought to have is based on knowledge and reason and is properly known as respect. For the servant who fears his master for Christ’s sake and because of his teaching will submit to him out of respect. . . . And there is another aspect to this, for Peter is also telling women to respect their husbands in godly fear, for that is fully consonant with the Holy Scriptures.

The fear which is spoken of here is something which comes as the result of knowledge and conscience. It is not some wild emotion produced by the unknown. It is the same kind of fear by which we come into the presence of God, the perfect fear with which we approach Christ.

You will be approved by God if you suffer unjustly, because you know that that is exactly what he did.

Peter shows here that those who deserve punishment receive no mercy or grace from God if they perish.

Be sure to note carefully the extent to which Peter beholds glory even in the state of slavery, by saying that those who do well and are blameless but who are beaten by cruel and dishonest masters, are following in the footsteps of Christ, who suffered unjustly on our behalf. That is something to rejoice about!

In this sentence the apostle Peter appears to have realized that Christ suffered for those who follow in his footsteps and that Christ’s passion profits none but those who follow in his footsteps.

The praises referred to here are those of a person who is good, not by nature but by grace, and who invites us to join him in praising the One who is good by nature.

Christ taught you to suffer, and he did so by suffering himself. Words would not be enough unless example were added. And how, precisely did he teach us, brothers and sisters? He was hanging on the cross, and the Jews were raging . . . he was hanging there, yet at the same time he was healing them.

Having told servants to put up with unjust suffering, which was a bitter pill for them to swallow, Peter now comforts them by referring to Christ’s longsuffering. It is as if he were saying: I am not trying to persuade you to put up with injustice simply by arguments. Rather stand back and look at your master as freemen in Christ, and you will be comforted.

Note that the apostle holds this statement that Christ did no sin sufficient to prove that there was no sin in him. He who did not sin could not have had sin in him. . . . Certainly the adult man would have committed sin if there had been sin in the infant. Apart from him there is no one who has not committed sin after reaching his majority, and the reason for this is that there is no one who is without sin at the beginning of infancy.

Since human flesh became that of the Word of God, its subjection to corruption has come to an end. He put an end to the sickness of loving pleasure. The only-begotten Word of God has not done this for himself, for his motive is not his own pleasure, but obviously he has done it for us.

Christ was nailed to the cross, paying the penalty not for his own sins but paying the debt of our nature. For our nature was in debt after transgressing the laws of its maker. And since it was in debt and unable to pay, the creator himself in his wisdom devised a way of paying the debt. By taking a human body as capital, he invested it wisely and justly in paying the debt and thereby freeing human nature.

Jesus did not curse those who insulted him but handed them over to God, who is a just judge. For although the divine union of God and man in Christ is holy and undivided, yet there is a distinction to be made between the mind of the man assumed and the mind of the person assuming him.^[1]

By the blood of Christ, through faith, we have been cleansed from all sin, and by water we were baptized into the death of our Lord. We have sworn in effect that we are dead to sin and to the world but alive unto righteousness.

The one who offered himself for our sins had no sin of his own. Instead he bore our transgressions in himself and was made a sacrifice for them. This principle is set out in the law, for what sin did the lamb or the goat have, which were sacrificed for sins and which were even called sin for this reason?

He bore the blows and wounds in his body, he was beaten and scourged and thrashed, his head was bruised with a reed. But his wounds became our saviors, for by his stripes we are healed.^[1] For who are we, but those who were once deceived and who did not recognize him, nor were we aware of who he was?

This is a new and strange kind of healing. For in this case it is the doctor who receives the honor but the patient who is healed.

Error has three causes—darkness, loneliness and ignorance. The Gentile sheep were wandering among idols because of their foolish ignorance, and they found themselves lost in the darkness of sin and in the loneliness of a strange nation. Peter goes on to add that now they have turned to the guardian [bishop] of their souls, because although there are many guardians around who care about the things of the flesh, there are few who can look deep into the soul and take care of it.

Here Peter alludes to the parable in the Gospels where the Good Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the desert and goes after the one who has gone astray. For as it is said there, when he finds it he puts it on his shoulder and rejoices. Jesus wanted to redeem us so much that he put our sins on his shoulder and bore them for us on the tree, in order to give us eternal life as well as blessings in this world. He comes to us daily to visit the light which he has given us, in order to tend it and to help it grow. This is why he is called not only the shepherd but also the guardian of our souls.