The Commission of the Calling
A sample from ch. 5 of Narrative, Calling and Missional Identity (pp. 99–102; releasing 30 Nov)
Coming to the Living Stone
Initially, coming to the ‘Living Stone’ must be seen light of God’s call (καλέω) in 1 Pet 2:9. One comes to the Living Stone because they are called. The fact that the purpose of God’s calling in 2:9 is to declare God’s mighty acts aligns naturally with the theme of worshipful living that is hinted at in 2:4 through Peter’s use of προσερχόμενοι to begin the pericope; a word that is often used in relation to approaching God to offer worship (e.g., Heb 4:16; 7:25; 10:1, 22), or to offer sacrifices in God’s tabernacle (e.g., Exod 12:48; 16:9; Lev 9:7–8).1 Such an understanding fits the present context (e.g., spiritual sacrifices [v. 5] and proclaiming God’s mighty acts [v. 9] in fulfilment of their role as God’s new priestly community). The language also recalls the Exodus motifs that helped guide our understanding of 1 Pet 1:13–21 and will inform our understanding here also.
‘Living Stone’ (λίθον ζῶντα) appears as a surprising, yet apt metaphor that serves a dual purpose for Peter. On the one hand, it anticipates the spiritual house imagery (v. 5) and further ‘stone’ imagery to follow (vv. 6–8) providing narrative facets to consider. Equally, Christ—as the Living Stone—stands in antithesis to the idols and futile ways referenced prior in 1:14, 18, providing an identity aspect to ponder.2 That is, coming to the λίθον ζῶντα is an expression of repentance that stands as the positive counterpart to leaving behind the old way of life. It is a turning from former ignorant passions and the futile ways (vv. 14, 18), to come to the Living Stone in a posture of reverence and worship or, to recall 2:9 again, it is transfer from darkness to light on account of God’s call.
As the Living Stone, Jesus is worthy of reverence and worship by virtue of his resurrection.3 Albert Vanhoye is right when he states that, ‘[Peter] évoque la résurrection du Christ: depuis Pâques, le Christ est désormais “le vivant”, celui qui a définitivement triomphé de la mort humaine ... c’est par sa résur- rection que le Christ est devenue pierre vivante’.4 That Peter immediately speaks of Jesus’ rejection/chosen-ness suggests that he drew this motif from Ps 118:22 which is explicitly cited later in v. 7, and provides another narrative focus for the recipients (on which, see further below). It is entirely possible, in fact, that Peter learned of this interpretation from Jesus himself (Mark 12:10–11; Matt 21:42–44; Luke 20:17–18; cf. Acts 4:11–12).5
Perhaps surprisingly, although Jesus is presented as the Living Stone, he exists in a paradoxical and perpetual state of rejection and ‘chosenness’. He is rejected by men but, at the same time, chosen (ἐκλεκτόν) and precious.6 In this sense, Peter presents Jesus as the prototypical ‘elect-sojourner’ in whose steps all Christians follow: elect of God but rejected by the ones he came to serve. As Volf so aptly puts it,
The root of Christian self-understanding as aliens and sojourners lies not so much in the story of Abraham and Sarah and the nation of Israel as it does in the destiny of Jesus Christ, his mission and his rejection which ultimately brought him to the cross. ‘He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him’ (John 1:11). He was a stranger to the world because the world into which he came was estranged from God.7
In [social identity theory] terms, a prototype is one who embodies the essential attributes of a group, modelling the thinking, feeling, and behaving, that ought to characterise fellow group members.8 As such, group prototypes often become exemplars and leaders within a group setting because they are seen by their peers to personify best their shared social identity.9 They are, in essence, ‘one of us’.10 Thus, when new group members (such as the Anatolian believers) begin to psychologically identify with a group, they begin to view the world ‘through the lens of the prototype—[having] one’s perceptions, attitudes, feelings, and behaviours ... configured and dictated by the group’s prototype’.11 In 1 Pet 1:13–21, God the Father was presented as prototypical in terms of his holi- ness, ‘Be holy, like the Holy One who called you’ (1:15–16). Here, in [1 Pet] 2:4–5, Jesus is prototypical as the Living Stone in his ‘chosenness’ and his ‘rejectedness’. He is elect and granted honour and glory by God yet despised and rejected by the world. Similarly, those who respond to the call of God (2:9) by coming to the Living Stone in faith are also chosen and rejected. As believers follow in Christ’s footsteps they too will suffer, be despised and rejected (2:21), but like the Living Stone to whom they are called and into whom they are built, they are elect, honoured, and destined for glory.12 The ‘elect-sojourning’ character and identity of the church is, thus, Christologically based.13
In many respects, this insight provides the baseline by which the church is to understand itself and its relationship with the world. We may express this reality by describing the flipside of Volf’s earlier insight: if Jesus was a stranger to the world because of the world’s estrangement from God, then the same must also be true of the church. Namely, those who come to Christ in faith also find themselves, like Christ, estranged from the world. It is for this reason that the church is slandered, and its members suffer as evildoers despite their honourable conduct (2:12, 20; 3:14–17; 4:12–16).
NB: Footnotes 1–13 correspond to footnotes 79–91 in ch. 5 of the book, available for pre-order here.
Προσερχόμενοι appears in the participle form resulting in considerable debate as to whether it should be considered an imperatival participle or as an indicative. The latter is to be preferred given the emphasis of the passage on God’s saving work in Christ. See Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter, 159.
J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter, WBC 49 (Waco: Word, 1988), 98.
Elliott, The Elect and the Holy, 34.
A. Vanhoye, ‘L’Epître (1 Pt 2:1–10): La maison spirituelle’, AsSeign 43 (1964): 20. Translated: ‘[Peter] evokes the resurrection of Christ: since Easter, Christ is now “the living one,” the one who finally triumphed over human death ... it is by his resurrection that Christ became a living stone’.
Jobes, 1 Peter, 146–47; pace Best, ‘1 Peter and the Gospel Tradition’, 101. Jobes observes fur- ther that identifying the ‘stone’ with the Messiah was nothing new. Isaiah 28:16–17a (LXX) speaks of a ‘highly valued cornerstone for its foundations, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame’ (NETS, emphasis original). She adds, moreover, that Targum Jonathan understands the stone imagery in the Hebrew text to refer to a mighty king. Consequently, a messianic understanding of these verses likely predated early Christianity meaning that the question was not, ‘Does the stone imagery refer to the Messiah?’, so much as identifying who that stone was. The early Christians settled on Jesus based on his own testimony as presented in the Gospels. Cf. Norman Hillyer, ‘“Rock-Stone” Imagery in 1 Peter’, TynBul 22 (1971): 58–59.
Williams, Doctrine of Salvation, 61–62, contends that the central thrust of the passage concerns the elect character of the Lord’s new eschatological temple community. Indeed, ἐκλεκτὸν, appears in vv. 4, 6, and 9 beginning with the election of Christ and ending with the election of believers; contra Barth L. Campbell, Honor, Shame, and the Rhetoric of 1 Peter, SBLDS 160 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), 85, who argues that any other theme in 2:4–10 is subordinate to the honour/shame motif.
Volf, ‘Soft Difference’, 17.
Michael A. Hogg, Zachary P. Hohman, and Jason E. Rivera, ‘Why Do People Join Groups? Three Motivational Accounts from Social Psychology’, Soc. Personal Psychol. Compass 2, no. 3 (2008): 1273–74.
Martha Augoustinos and Stephanie De Garis, ‘“Too Black or Not Black Enough”: Social Identity Complexity in the Political Rhetoric of Barack Obama’, Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 42, no. 5 (2012): 565.
S. Alexander Haslam, Stephen D. Reicher, and Michael J. Platow, The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power (Hove: Psychology Press, 2011), 108.
Hogg, Hohman, and Rivera, ‘Why Do People Join Groups?’, 1274.
Schreiner, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, 109.
Feldmeier, The First Letter of Peter, 134–35.