1Pe 2:6-10 | JFB | STEP | 6. Wherefore also-- The oldest manuscripts read, "Because that." The statement above is so "because it is contained in Scripture." Behold-- calling attention to the glorious announcement of His eternal counsel. elect-- so also believers ( , "chosen," Greek, "elect generation"). precious-- in Hebrew, , "a corner-stone of preciousness." See on . So in , Christ is said to be, to believers, "precious," Greek, "preciousness." confounded-- same Greek as in (Peter here as elsewhere confirming Paul's teaching. See Introduction; also ), "ashamed." In , "make haste," that is, flee in sudden panic, covered with the shame of confounded hopes.

‏ 1 Peter 2:6-10

6. Wherefore also--The oldest manuscripts read, "Because that." The statement above is so "because it is contained in Scripture."

Behold--calling attention to the glorious announcement of His eternal counsel.

elect--so also believers (1Pe 2:9, "chosen," Greek, "elect generation").

precious--in Hebrew, Is 28:16, "a corner-stone of preciousness." See on Is 28:16. So in 1Pe 2:7, Christ is said to be, to believers, "precious," Greek, "preciousness."

confounded--same Greek as in Ro 9:33 (Peter here as elsewhere confirming Paul's teaching. See Introduction; also Ro 10:11), "ashamed." In Is 28:16, "make haste," that is, flee in sudden panic, covered with the shame of confounded hopes.

7. Application of the Scripture just quoted first to the believer, then to the unbeliever. On the opposite effects of the same Gospel on different classes, compare Joh 9:39; 2Co 2:15, 16.

precious--Greek, "THE preciousness" (1Pe 2:6). To you believers belongs the preciousness of Christ just mentioned.

disobedient--to the faith, and so disobedient in practice.

the stone which ... head of ... corner--(Psa 118:22). Those who rejected the STONE were all the while in spite of themselves unconsciously contributing to its becoming Head of the corner. The same magnet has two poles, the one repulsive, the other attractive; so the Gospel has opposite effects on believers and unbelievers respectively.

8. stone of stumbling, &c.--quoted from Is 8:14. Not merely they stumbled, in that their prejudices were offended; but their stumbling implies the judicial punishment of their reception of Messiah; they hurt themselves in stumbling over the corner-stone, as "stumble" means in Jr 13:16; Da 11:19.

at the word--rather, join "being disobedient to the word"; so 1Pe 3:1; 4:17.

whereunto--to penal stumbling; to the judicial punishment of their unbelief. See above.

also--an additional thought; God's ordination; not that God ordains or appoints them to sin, but they are given up to "the fruit of their own ways" according to the eternal counsel of God. The moral ordering of the world is altogether of God. God appoints the ungodly to be given up unto sin, and a reprobate mind, and its necessary penalty. "Were appointed," Greek, "set," answers to "I lay," Greek, "set," 1Pe 2:6. God, in the active, is said to appoint Christ and the elect (directly). Unbelievers, in the passive, are said to be appointed (God acting less directly in the appointment of the sinner's awful course) [Bengel]. God ordains the wicked to punishment, not to crime [J. Cappel]. "Appointed" or "set" (not here "FORE-ordained") refers, not to the eternal counsel so directly, as to the penal justice of God. Through the same Christ whom sinners rejected, they shall be rejected; unlike believers, they are by God appointed unto wrath as FITTED for it. The lost shall lay all the blame of their ruin on their own sinful perversity, not on God's decree; the saved shall ascribe all the merit of their salvation to God's electing love and grace.

9. Contrast in the privileges and destinies of believers. Compare the similar contrast with the preceding context.

chosen--"elect" of God, even as Christ your Lord is.

generation--implying the unity of spiritual origin and kindred of believers as a class distinct from the world.

royal--kingly. Believers, like Christ, the antitypical Melchisedec, are at once kings and priests. Israel, in a spiritual sense, was designed to be the same among the nations of the earth. The full realization on earth of this, both to the literal and the spiritual Israel, is as yet future.

holy nation--antitypical to Israel.

peculiar people--literally, "a people for an acquisition," that is, whom God chose to be peculiarly His: Ac 20:28, "purchased," literally, "acquired." God's "peculiar treasure" above others.

show forth--publish abroad. Not their own praises but His. They have no reason to magnify themselves above others for once they had been in the same darkness, and only through God's grace had been brought to the light which they must henceforth show forth to others.

praises--Greek, "virtues," "excellencies": His glory, mercy (1Pe 2:10), goodness (Greek, 1Pe 2:3; Nu 14:17, 18; Is 63:7). The same term is applied to believers, 2Pe 1:5.

of him who hath called you--(2Pe 1:3).

out of darkness--of heathen and even Jewish ignorance, sin, and misery, and so out of the dominion of the prince of darkness.

marvellous--Peter still has in mind Psa 118:23.

light--It is called "His," that is, God's. Only the (spiritual) light is created by God, not darkness. In Is 45:7, it is physical darkness and evil, not moral, that God is said to create, the punishment of sin, not sin itself. Peter, with characteristic boldness, brands as darkness what all the world calls light; reason, without the Holy Spirit, in spite of its vaunted power, is spiritual darkness. "It cannot apprehend what faith is: there it is stark blind; it gropes as one that is without eyesight, stumbling from one thing to another, and knows not what it does" [Luther].

10. Adapted from Ho 1:9, 10; 2:23. Peter plainly confirms Paul, who quotes the passage as implying the call of the Gentiles to become spiritually that which Israel had been literally, "the people of God." Primarily, the prophecy refers to literal Israel, hereafter to be fully that which in their best days they were only partially, God's people.

not obtained mercy--literally, "who were men not compassionated." Implying that it was God's pure mercy, not their merits, which made the blessed change in their state; a thought which ought to kindle their lively gratitude, to be shown with their life, as well as their lips.