Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently.
See that ye love one another.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Being born again,
not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible,
by the word of God.
For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man
as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
Amen.(hymnary.org)
The Transformed Life: Three Metaphors (1:24 – 2:10)
The Grass Metaphor (1:24, 25)
Overview
This section is composed of three metaphors describing the transformed life: grass, milk, and living stones. They convey the dynamic quality of the life brought about by new life in Christ. Although two of them are in chapter 2 of 1 Peter, together they create a coherent message about the transformed life, vividly illustrating complementary qualities of this existence.
Many of the ancient writers liked Peter’s use of the grass metaphor of Isaiah 40: 6–8. For example, Eusebius of Caesarea (c.260–340) comments, “Like the grass of the field and like beautiful flowers he [man] will soon wither and die” (Catena, CEC 49: my tr.). Theodoret of Cyr expands it somewhat, allegorically: “But just as when the grass withers, the flowers fall off, so when men die, their pride and glory are extinguished” (Catena, CEC 49–50L my tr.). Hilary of Arles adds another perspective, that the human being has two sides: the outer person is mortal like the flower of the field and will pass away, but the inner person lives forever by God’s power (Intro. Comm. on 1 Peter, PLSupp).
This metaphor has some notable effects in culture as well. For example, in 1760, Anne Steele was inspired by 1 Peter 1:24 to write a poem entitled “Life is a span, a fleeting hour.” Steele captures the sense of the transience of life, seen through the lens of hope conveyed in the passage of Peter. She had certainly experienced suffering in an extraordinary way: she lost her mother at the age of three, became an invalid following an accident when she was 19, and finally her fiancé drowned on the day of their wedding. Hope still characterized her life and she cheerfully assisted her father in ministry for the rest of her life. Her poem was set to music in 1875 by John B. Dykes and is still popular, being included in 159 hymnals.
Life is a span, a fleeting hour;
How soon the vapour flies!
Man is a tender transient, flow’r,
That e’en in blooming dies.
The once‐lov’d form, now cold and dead,
Each mournful thought employs;
And nature weeps her comforts fled,
And wither’d all her joys.
But wait the interposing gloom,
And lo! stern winter flies;
And, dress’d in beauty’s fairest bloom,
The flow’ry tribes arise.
Hope looks beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore
Shall rise in full immortal prime
And bloom to fade no more.
Then cease, fond nature! cease thy tears;
Religion points on high:
There everlasting spring appears,
And joys that cannot die.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) based the second movement of his Requiem, “Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras” (translation: “For all Flesh is as Grass”), on this metaphor and cited 1 Peter 1:24, even though the same metaphor is in Isaiah 40: 6–8. As is customary for German requiems, it is scored for full symphony, including strings and harp, woodwinds, brass, and timpani accompanied by full chorus. Interestingly, the beginning of the movement is used in the opening credits of the BBC documentary film series The Nazis: A Warning from History, and segments are repeated during the closing credits. Clearly this is a radical shift from the meaning of the text of 1 Peter, but is another example of material from 1 Peter being used without the knowledge of its connection to the text of 1 Peter.
The Milk Metaphor (2:1–3)
Overview
This is the second of the three metaphors Peter uses to illustrate the transformed life. Together, they provide aspects of the new existence, contrasting this new existence with their old life: the grass focuses on the transience of life (fleeting like grass) versus the eternality of life in Christ; the milk metaphor highlights the intimate relationship with God which the new existence makes possible; and finally, the living stones describe the new community into which they are incorporated by the new life. The metaphors also reintroduce and elaborate the main themes of this section: for example, the characteristics of the life they have left behind. Lists of vices and virtues are a common rhetorical device in the Jewish and Hellenistic worlds as well as in the Christian tradition. This list, in particular (2:1), is relatively short and appears to generalize the categories of evil and wickedness. The author broadens the meaning of the terms for “malice” and “deceit” by using the adverb “all” (pas). These characterize the life they have left behind representing forms of behavior that “oppose the ethos and practice of love” to which they have recently been called (cf. Green, 2007: 52). They are now asked to leave behind this former lifestyle and to move forward into their new, transformed life, described in terms of motivation and growth.
Peter uses the metaphor of newborn babies and milk to emphasize the intimacy of the new life. This is different from Paul’s use of the milk metaphor in 1 Corinthians 3:2: whereas Paul contrasts the milk needed by new babies (new converts) with the solid meat craved by adults (mature believers), Peter’s point is that the intense longing for the milk felt by babies expresses the way all believers should feel about their new relation with the Lord – their intense craving for the Lord replaces their life of evil desires (cravings). Two main themes are included here: the life they have left behind and the transformed one they have chosen (elaborated upon with the metaphor of the “living stones”).
Ancient Receptions
The imagery of the metaphors is of interest to the ancient writers. For example, Didymus the Blind comments, “This verse upsets the heretics, who like to think that natures are good or bad in themselves and thereby cannot be changed” (Comm. on 1 Peter, PG 39: 1761–1762: my tr.). Hilary of Arles allegorizes the milk metaphor in an intriguing way (clearly, he is using one of the medieval exegetical methods. See Lubac, 2000):
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. (Intro. Comm. on 1 Peter, PLSupp 3: 88, ACC)
Oecumenius stresses still another issue:
These