Questions: For what is the Apostle Peter most known? Is it for his walking on water? For his impetuousness? For his being crucified upside down under Rome in the 1st century A.D? For his threefold denial of Jesus on the night of His betrayal? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect it’s not for his (Peter’s) teaching in his two epistles. And yet Peter’s two epistles are packed with wisdom.

Therefore, I would like to explore just three verses from 1 Peter 2. Specifically, I would like to concentrate of Peter’s teaching on two specifics:

• Transparency
• Discipleship

Text: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pt 2:1-3, ESV).

Teaching: There’s so much in these three verses about the essential marks of Christians–transparency and lives of discipleship/learning/renewal.

See the commands from Peter? What does he say we’re to put away? Malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. How much church drama could be prevented if we all did what we’re taught right here?

Deceptivenss should be no part of Christian ministry; all should be open and transparent. We should welcome open books, open examination, and open dialogue. Do our churches welcome that? Is there a climate of openness and transparency? Per Scripture, churches should.

Secondly, Peter teaches us to grow up into salvation. That’s discipleship. We pay a great deal of lip service to discipleship in church circles often, but people know it when they encounter true depth rather than mere blatherskites. “What you win them with is what you win them to,” is a phrase I think captures the idea. If discipleship is reduced to sentimental story hour, don’t be surpised if you have intellectual pygmies rather than equipped saints. But if your discipleship goes verse-by-verse through Scripture, if the regulative principle of worship is practiced, and if there’s a climate of transparency and oversight, watch the Lord bless that ministry.

Takeaway: Transparency and discipleship. There’s no substitute, if the longing is for a biblical body of called-out saints.