1 Peter 1, 14-25 As obedient children,
not fasting yourselves according to the former lusts
and your ignorance, but as he who hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy
in all manner of life, because it is
written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
And if ye call on the Father, who
without respect of person judges according to every
man's work, pass the time of your sojourn
here in fear.
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold,
from your vain manner of life received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifested
in these last times for you, who by
him do believe in God, who raised him
up from dead, and gave him glory, that
your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing that ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit, unseeing love
of the brethren, see that ye love one
another with a pure heart fervently, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever.
For all flesh is like grass, and all
the glorious man is like the flower of
grass.
The grass withereth, but its flower falls away.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever,
and this is the word which by the
gospel is preaching to you."
By faith in Jesus Christ, one becomes a
child of God.
And when one becomes a child of God,
it means that God is his Father, and
since God is his Father, God has certain
parental rights over his children.
Not only certain rights, but also certain responsibilities,
just as it is the responsibility of the
earthly father to oversee and to guide the
life of his growing child.
So it is the responsibility, as well as
the prerogative of God our Father, to oversee
the spiritual development of his children.
You guide your child by telling your child
there are certain things you can do, and
certain things that you cannot do.
Certain things that are permitted in the home,
and certain things that are not permitted in
the home.
This is the responsibility of the father as
the head of the home.
And in the spiritual household of faith, God
has the responsibility of directing the members of
his household to tell them what they can
do and what they cannot do.
And so, in the New Testament, we find
that God is our Father, gives a number
of commands.
These are the commands not of the law
of Moses, the commands of grace.
And one major area of these commands is
in the area of our affection.
For instance, in 1 John 2 we have
a prohibition, love not the world.
That prohibition is as strong as any prohibition
given under the Mosaic law, but it is
a prohibition of grace.
On the positive side, in that portion of
the scriptures to which we direct your attention
this morning in 1 Peter 1 verses 22
to 25, we have the positive aspects stated.
At the end of verse 22, we have
these words, love one another with a pure
heart fervently.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently.
This is a commandment.
It is that which a father put before
his children, not as something that they may
take or leave, something in which they have
freedom of will to choose whether they will
or will not.
This is a commandment of God.
It is a commandment that is laid upon
us because in verse 18 of this same
chapter, we have been redeemed.
In verse 14 of this same chapter, we
were made children, and this relationship of a
child to the father came because we were
born into God's family by faith in Jesus
Christ.
The apostle tells us in verse 22 of
1 Peter 1, that we have obeyed the
truth through the Spirit, with the obligation resting
upon us, love one another.
Now, this obligation, this commandment, rests upon a
basic assumption.
The apostle is not talking to natural man,
because it is utterly pointless to go up
to a man who has never been born
again and say to him, you love so
-and-so.
Well, you know that even as believers, it's
hard enough for you to fulfill the commandment
of the word of God and love me.
Think of trying to tell an unsaved man
to do that.
I appreciate your agreement.
I wish it weren't just quite so forceful.
And the commandments of God are not addressed
to unbelievers, that as unbelievers you love one
another and you love the family of the
household of God, and somehow by loving one
another, you will endear yourself to God and
God will love you in return.
But the commandment to love one another with
a pure heart fervently rests upon a basic
assumption given to us in verse 22, seeing
he have purified your souls.
The heart of man needs to be changed
before man can fulfill this command of God,
because the natural man is not characterized by
love, the natural man is characterized by selfishness,
that is, self-love, and it is impossible
to be totally occupied with another when we
are totally occupied with ourselves.
And the natural man, by his basic nature
received by tradition from his fathers, is a
selfish nature, a nature that is concerned within
self and his own things.
And before one can fulfill the command of
God, it is necessary for that whole attitude,
that whole nature, to be changed.
And so the apostle says, I can relay
to you this command that I have received
of God because ye have purified your souls.
And the soul here is in reference to
the entire immaterial part of man that was
under the domination of the old sin nature,
but now is under control of the Holy
Spirit, as the Holy Spirit operates on the
new nature imparted at the time of a
man's new birth by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, this old nature that knew only hatred
and that knew only selfish love, can now
turn away from self to be occupied with
another, because through Jesus Christ, by faith in
Jesus Christ, ye have purified your souls.
Now, this purification of your souls rests on
two things in verse 22.
First of all, ye have obeyed the truth,
and second, ye have purified yourselves through the
Spirit.
And here the Spirit and the truth, or
the word of God, are brought together as
the two things that were instrumental in bringing
about the new birth of the individual sinner.
Ye obeyed the truth through the Spirit.
Our Lord, in dealing with Nicodemus in the
third chapter of John's Gospel, made it very
clear that man does not and cannot originate
his own salvation.
Man is viewed as a spiritual corpse, dead
and devoid of life, incapable of exercising himself
toward God.
But the Holy Spirit comes upon that one
who is dead and trespasses and sins, and
energizes that one so that that one may
respond to the invitation that God presents to
every man.
Ye were purified through the operation of the
Holy Spirit of God, who moves upon one
dead in trespasses and sins, characterized by selfishness,
with the result that after the Spirit has
accomplished the new birth, ye may love one
another.
But along with the divine side, that is,
the operation of the Spirit, Peter emphasizes the
human response, ye obeyed the truth.
The obedience to the truth is mentioned in
several instances in our Lord's teaching.
I go, for instance, back to the Gospel
of John in chapter 6, and there in
verse 27, read our Lord's words, labor not,
or do not work for the meat that
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you, for him hath God the
Father sealed.
Then said they unto him, What shall we
do that we might work the works of
God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is
the work of God, that ye believe on
him whom he hath sent, that ye believe
on him whom God hath sent.
And faith in Jesus Christ is viewed here
as a response, divinely enabled as it is,
to that presentation of the cross, that presentation
of the gospel, that presentation of the person
of Christ that the apostles had given.
This is the work of God, that ye
believe.
I find, again, Paul emphasizes this fact in
Acts chapter 17, and verse 30, wherein his
message he says, The times of this ignorance
God winked at are overlooked, now these were,
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
He commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Christ is died.
This is a fact.
Men are commended to respond to that fact,
and the fact to which they are expected
to respond is that Christ died and that
Christ offers himself as a savior to sinners,
and that if one accepts Jesus Christ as
his own personal savior, he will be born
into the family of God.
Now, when I turn back to 1 Peter
and verse 22, they have purified their souls,
first of all, by the operation of the
Holy Spirit, but they have also obeyed the
truth, the truth of the word, that Christ
died for sinful man.
Now, this is not viewed as a work
that wins them salvation.
This is a response to the presentation of
the gospel that is made by those who
are evangelists, or who present Christ as the
savior of man.
The Holy Spirit of God takes the word
and convicts man of his need of a
savior, and then when Christ says, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, they hear his command,
and by the Spirit's enablement respond in obedience
to the command to believe, and they purify
their souls.
Now, because of this basic assumption, they have
purified their souls because of the work of
the Spirit, and because of obedience to the
truth, this command is given to them.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently.
The love referred to here is not the
love of emotion, where one suddenly becomes attracted
to us in all of his person.
The love commanded of the child of God
has to do with watchful care, a consideration
for the good of another, and attention to
his needs.
It's in the realm of the will rather
than in the realm of the emotion.
I dare say that when you rise, put
your hands in dishwater again, or to modernize
it when you put the dishes in the
dishwasher, you feel no flutterings of emotion for
your family when you do it.
But you do it, why?
Because you have a loving care for the
needs of your family, and you mothers have
to change a soil diaper for the umpteenth
time.
You feel no particular stirring of emotion for
that baby, but you do give careful attention
to the baby's needs.
The man who day after day after day
goes to the same desk in the same
office, does it because he loves to provide
for his family, not because he experiences an
exhilarating emotional thrill when he sees that desk
again, but because he gives careful, anxious attention
to the needs of his family.
Now, that is what Peter is commanding here,
because you have been delivered from the basic
selfishness of your own nature because of the
Spirit's work, and because you obeyed the truth.
Now you therefore exercise a care and a
concern and a consideration for those who are
in the family of God together with you.
Now, when we move on into verses 23
to 25, we find that this command has
its basis.
We have been born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of
God, which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is this grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of
grass.
The grass withereth, and the flowers that are
falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever.
And the Apostle Peter, as a basis for
the command that has been given to love
one another, reminds them in this explanation of
the seed by which they have been born
into God's family.
The Apostle is here contrasting the fact of
a natural birth with the fact of a
supernatural birth.
We were born through the activity of a
natural seed.
That natural seed was corrupted by Adam's disobedience,
by Adam's lawlessness and rebellion against the command
of God.
And the child born of corruptible seed is
a corruptible individual.
Thus, we were born into this world.
In contrast to that corruption that attached itself
to natural seed, the Apostle reminds us we
were born into God's family through the work
of an incorruptible seed.
He is contrasting your natural father with God
as the father of the believer in Jesus
Christ, and he is contrasting natural seed with
the incorruptible word of God.
And when you were born into this world
through corruptible seed, you were born corruptible.
You were born a sinner.
But when God our Father used the incorruptible
word of God as the agent to bring
us to new birth by faith in Jesus
Christ, that which was thus born into God's
family was delivered from the corruption of this
natural birth.
Now, see what he says.
You love one another, verse 23, because you
were born again not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible.
And referring to the word of God, the
agent that the Spirit used to bring us
to faith in Christ, the Apostle has three
things to say about that word.
First of all, it is incorruptible.
Second, it is the word of God, and
third, it is eternal.
It liveth and abideth forever.
Consider these briefly.
Not of corruptible seed.
As we have already emphasized, that which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and always
will be fleshly.
That which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
So, our Lord is contrasting here two progenitors,
each one begetting himself in his own nature,
in that which he begets.
The natural father begets that which is in
his likeness, sinful, selfish, hateful by nature.
God, through the Holy Spirit, begets a child
in his own image, and God will manifest
his image in his son.
And since God is unselfish, God is love,
and God exercises a care and a concern
for the object of his affection, so we,
born in his image by the word of
God of incorruptible seed, should manifest that uncorrupted
nature, unselfishly concerned for the needs of those
in the family of God.
We were born by the word of God,
and here he is implying a contrast between
the word of God and the word of
man.
Peter, at this point in his epistle, does
not argue for the inspiration of the scriptures,
as he will do later.
He simply states the fact that this word,
as we have it, is the word of
God and not the word of man.
It is only the word of God that
can be living, because man can produce only
that which is dead.
The word of God is powerful, the word
of man is powerless.
The word of God is sharper than a
two-edged sword, but the word of man
is dull, devoid of any ability to penetrate
to the depth to which the word of
God can penetrate.
We have the word of God, and since
the word of God reveals to us an
incorruptible God, then we have a responsibility to
conform to our Father who has begotten us
through this incorruptible word.
The third thing he says about the word
is that it is eternal, it liveth and
abideth forever.
Once again, he is contrasting the temporary character
of man with the permanence of the word
of God.
The scripture often likens the life of man
to the life of grass.
It grows up, it flourishes for a short
season, then it withers away and is gone.
Such is the life of natural man.
The word of God is not likened to
the temporary life of grass.
The word of God is eternal, it is
permanent.
He says in verse 23, it liveth and
abideth forever.
The word of the Lord, verse 25, endureth
forever.
How many of you can remember the books
that were on the bestseller list a year
ago, or five years ago, or more?
They're gone because they're the word of man
of only temporary value, but the word of
God, because it is a revelation of the
eternal God, is eternal.
And the eternal word, the incorruptible word, the
word of God, is that instrument that the
Holy Spirit has used to bring us to
faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul, writing to Romans, makes the
connection between knowledge and faith very clear when
he says in Romans chapter 10, and verse
17, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God.
May we emphasize again the divine principle?
A man cannot believe and therefore respond to
a fact of which he is totally ignorant.
A man can believe only what he has
been told or knows, and so the word
of God is the foundation of faith.
For the word of God reveals the Father,
the word of God reveals the Son, the
word of God reveals the truth of the
gospel, and when men are told the word
of God they are given something to believe.
No man can be saved without being given
something to believe, and so on the basis
of that principle that Paul enunciated in Romans
10, 17, Peter builds his proposition that the
word of God, the incorruptible word of God,
the eternal word of God, has been presented
to these men.
They have been commanded to believe, and because
of what they have been told, they have
responded in obedience to the command of God.
They have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and because they have believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ they have been born into God's
family.
They have been given a new divine nature.
Now, instead of a selfish manifestation of selfish
love and selfish concern, they are commanded to
show an anxious, careful, watchful care for those
who are in the family of God.
We return to the original command given to
us in verse 22, "'See that ye love
one another with a pure heart, fervently.' And
when the apostle says, "'See that ye love
one another,' he is reaching out to include
the entire body of believers.
He didn't say, "'Love all members of Grace
Bible Church who are in good and regular
standing.' He said, "'Love one another.'" This is
the universality of the command of God, and
when we think of the command that is
given to us to love one another, we
only need remind ourselves of the simple gospel
stated in John 3.16 that God so
loved the world.
The entire world was the object of his
affection.
He loved them, and the evidence of his
love was that, in watchful care, he provided
a savior for the world, and then commands
the world to repent, to believe.
May I say to you that God presents
to you this morning a fact.
The fact is true whether you accept it
or not.
Christ died for your sins.
That's the fact.
Now, God commands you to do something about
that fact.
He commands you to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if you refuse to obey
God's command and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you will be condemned forever because you
are repeating the sin of Adam, the sin
of disobedience, the rebellion against the one command
that God has put before you.
Christ died the fact.
Now, God says you believe it, that you
might be born into God's family.
We are to love one another.
The second thing about this love, we are
to love with a pure heart.
The pure heart here does not involve the
problem of immorality.
That's left entirely outside of the scope of
the concept that Peter has in mind.
When he says, you love with a pure
heart, he is talking about a heart that
has been purified from all its natural selfish
affections, because you know a child of God
can be just as selfish in his interests
and his care and concern as an unsaved
person.
When he operates apart from the Spirit by
the old nature, then he manifests a selfish
love.
And if the child of God is to
fulfill the command of God to love one
another, his heart must be purified from that
selfishness that gives him a care and concern
only for himself in his own little circle,
prevents him from going outside to fulfill the
command to love one another.
Love purely.
When God loved with a pure heart, he
didn't love those who loved him, who were
nice to him, who were so attractive in
his sight he couldn't resist loving them.
God loves sinners.
You do likewise.
The third thing is that we're to love
one another with a pure heart, fervently.
The word fervently is related to the idea
of a fire that is burning feverishly or
burning brightly.
Not a fire that has been banished and
put to rest, but a fire under which
the bellows are blowing to fan that fire
into flame.
And Peter says, you as believers in Jesus
Christ should have a heart that is aflame
by the Spirit, the breath of God, so
that the breath of God kindles and ignites
those coals into a burning fire.
Hereby shall all men know ye are my
disciples.
You have love one for another, a love
purified from selfish interest and attention, a love
that reaches out to the whole body of
believers, and a love that actively seeks the
good, the benefit, the ministry to the care,
the burden, the concern of those who are
in the family of God.
You know, it seems to me that even
the world recognizes some obligation like this, because
when we greet one another, just as natural
men, not as believers, what is the natural,
the formal, the socially accepted way of greeting
somebody?
Hello, how are you?
What are we saying by that question, how
are you?
We profess to be showing a genuine interest
and concern about their welfare and well-being.
But what hypocrites we are when we say,
how are you?
Because the most boring thing in the world
is to have somebody answer that and begin
to tell you how they are.
It's all sham.
To become socially acceptable to manifest interest in
someone, and even the whirling does it.
We follow in the pattern of the whirling,
and profess to love with a fervent love
of Christ, but have no interest or care
or concern about somebody else.
How little interest, Mr. Businessman, you actually have
in that fellow believing businessman who sits next
to you.
You have enough business problems of your own,
you don't want to share any of his
with him.
How little interest we have in one another's
joy, and if God brings some blessing and
we try to share that joy with somebody
else, then we find ourselves cut off.
Well, why did you get that and I
didn't?
Don't tell me about it.
How little care and concern with somebody else's
heartache.
What a tragedy it is that when some
burden comes to a member of the family
of God, we're often so hard put to
find somebody who we can ask to share
that burden with us, yet we profess to
love one another.
Somebody comes into the congregation and feels repelled
or rebuffed or is given a cold shoulder.
We're saying, yes, I've received the love of
God, but don't expect me to manifest the
love of God to you and be interested
in you.
After all, I'm interested in more important things
myself.
Have you been born into God's family?
Do you know that?
Then will you hear this command of God?
May I repeat it?
This command?
Love one another, or be watchfully concerned with
the needs of one another with a pure
heart, fervently.
This is the truth of the gospel.
We pray, our Father, that God the Holy
Spirit, who has given us this word for
our admonition and exhortation, may actively work to
purify our love from stealthy scares and concerns,
to concern with the needs, the joys, the
burdens, the sorrows of others.
May we love perfectly, which we do not
wait to be asked to do something, but
we actively seek ways of showing the love
of Christ to others.
May the word of God do its work
of bringing to faith in Christ, someone who
knows enough, and do its work of conforming
us who know Christ to the Father who
has used the word to bring us into
his own family by the miracle of new
birth.
Let the riches of thy grace and mercy
and peace rest upon us, we pray in
Jesus' name, amen.