Fleshly lusts wage a war against the soul. Peter brings this to our attention so that we would take every measure necessary to stand firm as the set apart people of God.
The church is the people of God in this age, and we exist to proclaim His excellencies as testifiers of His redemptive grace that drew us out of sin and into a new life in conformity to His holy character.
Christ is the cornerstone with which every member aligns himself. The spiritual house, the church of God, is the fulfillment of God’s plan, even as He predicted the rejection of Christ by Israel and the establishment of another place of worship.
We were born to grow. God’s purpose for regeneration is maturity. Between spiritual birth and heaven is a long process of maturation in which we eagerly long and so drink of the pure milk of the Word so that we are nourished and sustained and matured and prepared to meet the Lord face to face.