The text of 1 Peter 2:1-10 does not fit an action event (cf Hebrews 12.21-24), but there are chronological markers. There is the action which is required:
- Getting rid of all evil so that the community can grow ‘up to salvation’ (v1-2) but this is only allowable after we have experienced the Lord (v3) (experience comes before growth)
- There is also the notion that the community must now proclaim the virtues of Christ because (in the past) the community was called out of darkness and made a people of God.
- These two retellings of the event of salvation buffet the intervening categorization of who Christ is, what the Community is, and what the role of the Community now is.
Logical markers include:
- The ‘therefore’ (v1 – NASB), the ‘so’ (v2), and the ‘if’ (v3). The pattern is revealed is: Do x, because you are y, and you need to get to z. It is also the condition.
- V4-5 includes the purpose – because Christ is the Living Stone Rejected and now the community are living stones, rejected as well, but striving to be acceptable to Christ (in my mind is the tower mentioned in Hermes) as building stone for the new community.
- V-6-8 gives the scriptural evidence of such a thought (means?)
- V9-10 gives the reason that they are the loving stones – because God chose them and further, it alludes to the result/consequence. They are the new priesthood.
I continue to think that this passage serves as the core of the epistle and is meant to give the struggling community the awesome sense of purpose that while they are castdown, they are not forgotten. Indeed, while they seem to be rejected by their neighbors and indeed God through the effects of persecution, they instead are the ones who are living instead of dying, following Christ and are themselves chosen above all.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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