FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

The New Birth – Continued

Because they are partakers of the divine life, Peter states some practicalities that Christians should put away once for all, namely the following unloving acts:

• Malice—the harboring of evil thoughts against another person. Malice nourishes antagonism, builds up grudges, and secretly hopes that revenge, harm, or tragedy will overtake another. George Washington Carver was refused admission at a university because he was black. Years later, when someone asked him the name of the university, he replied, “Never mind. That doesn’t matter now.” He harbored no malice.

• Deceit—any form of dishonesty and trickery (and what a variety of forms it takes!). Deceit falsifies income tax returns, cheats on exams, lies about age, bribes officials, and pulls shady deals in business.

• Hypocrisy—insincerity, pretense, sham. The hypocrite is a play-actor, pretending to be someone he is not. He pretends to be happily married when his home is actually a battlefield. He pretends to be spiritual on Sundays but he is as carnal as a goat on weekdays. He pretends interest in others but his motives are selfish.

• Envy—bare-faced jealousy. Vine defines it as the feeling of displeasure produced by observing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others. It was envy that caused the chief priests to deliver Jesus up to Pilate for death (Matthew 27:18). Envy is still a killer. Women can look daggers at others because of their better homes and gardens, smarter clothes, or superior cooking. A man can praise another fellow’s new car or speedboat but what he is thinking is, “I’ll show him. I’ll get something better.”

• Evil speaking—backbiting, malicious gossip, recrimination. Slander is the attempt to make oneself look cleaner by slinging mud at someone else. It may take very subtle forms such as: “Yes, she is a lovely person but she has this one failing. . . .” and then the knife is deftly thrust into her back. Or, sadly to say what happens in many churches, it may even have a religious pose: “I mention this only so that you might pray, but did you know that he. . . .” and then the character is assassinated.

All of these sins are violations of the fundamental commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. No wonder Peter tells us to decisively rid ourselves of them.

Thirst For the Word

A second, yet no less important obligation flowing from our new birth is that, our new birth will cause us, or should cause us, to have an insatiable craving for the pure spiritual “milk of the Word.” The sins mentioned in the previous verse stunt spiritual growth; the good word of God nourishes it.

I want you to note, that in this case, the phrase “as newborn babes” does not necessarily mean that Peter’s readers were new believers; they may have been saved for several years. But young or old in the faith, they should thirst for the Word just as infants would cry for milk. We get some idea of the thirst of the healthy baby by the impatient, aggressive, determined way they suckle and swallow.

It is by the pure, unadulterated Word of God (the milk of the Word), that a believer grows up spiritually into a mature believer. The ultimate goal toward which all spiritual growth in this life is moving is conformity to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

What a tremendous impetus for thirsting for the pure spiritual milk! The “if” does not express any doubt; as believers we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). His sacrifice for us was an act of unspeakable goodness and kindness (Titus 3:4). What we have already tasted of His kindness should sharpen our appetites to feed more and more on Him and His Word. The sweet taste of nearness to Him should make us dread the thought of ever wandering away from Him.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

The New Birth

Once again Peter takes his readers back to their new birth, and this time he expounds on the source of our new birth, the seed being the Word of God. The exhortations into the practical which culminates in 1 Peter 2:1-3 will be based on this.

Peter explains that the new birth is not brought about by a corruptible seed, one that is here today and gone tomorrow, in essence he is stating that it is not produced in the same way as a physical birth. Human life is brought into being by means of seed that must obey physical laws of decay and death. The physical life that is produced has the same quality as the seed from which it sprang; it too is of a temporary character.

The new birth is brought about through the Word of God, not bound by physical laws, but spiritual ones. The Word of God never fails. As men hear or read the Bible they are convicted of their sins, convinced that Christ is the sole and sufficient Savior, and upon surrendering to the Son, converted to God. No one is ever saved apart from the instrumentality in some way of the incorruptible Word of God. The very faith by which we are saved comes from hearing or reading the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

The Word is always alive and it will never, for all eternity, ever pass away. Though heaven and earth pass away, it will never pass away. It is settled forever in heaven. And the life it produces is eternal also. Those who are born anew through the word take on the everlasting character of the Word. The whole point of learning, growing, being molded by the Master Potter, is to become more and more like the eternal Word, Jesus Christ.

In the human birth, the seed which produces a child contains, in germ form, all the characteristics of the child. What the child will eventually be is determined by the seed. For our present purposes, it is enough to see that as the seed is perishable, so is the human life which results from it.

The temporal, transitory character of human nature is emphasized by a quotation of Isaiah 40:6-7:

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.”

Human life is as impermanent as the grass and the flowers they produce. Physical beauty is as short-lived as the flowers of the field. The grass withers and decays, and so to do the flowers which droop and die.

In contrast Isaiah wrote, “but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). Therefore, the new life of the believer is equally incorruptible. This incorruptible word is the message of the Good News which was preached to Peter’s readers and which led them to be born again. It was the source of theirs and our eternal life.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Love One Another

Now the Apostle Peter urges his readers to have a mind suited for loving others (1 Peter 1:22-2:3). First, he describes the new birth and points out that one of the changes that it brings is love for our brothers and sisters. Next, he presses home that we have an obligation to love and to do so fervently with no motive for gain. Then once again he reverts to the new birth, and especially to the seed from which this new life has grown, the word of God (1 Peter 1:23-25). Then again he emphasizes the obligations that rest on those of us who have received the Word (1 Peter 2:1-3).

Peter first describes the new birth; (1 Peter 1:22). We understand, of course, that it is God who purifies our souls when we are saved; in the strictest sense, we must realize and recognize that we do not have the power for personal purity. However, in this figure of speech, those of us who have experienced purification are said to have attained it when we believed.

The means employed in this purification is in obedience, “in obeying the truth.” This is the second time Peter describes saving faith as an act of obedience (see 1 Peter 1:2). This confirms also the teaching of James concerning faith and deeds. In Romans, Paul twice uses the phrase “the obedience of faith.” Therefore, in our thinking we should not try to separate belief and obedience. True faith is obeying faith. Again, faith as in so many other attributes of the Christian lifestyle, is based in action, manifestation of what we are walking in. This can only be done through the abiding in and anointing of the Holy Spirit.

One of the goals of the new birth is as I stated above, a “sincere love of the brethren.” In a very real sense, we are saved in order to love all our fellow Christians as well as God, our Father. By this love, we know that we have passed out of death into life (1 John 3:14), and by it, the world knows that we are disciples of the Lord Jesus (John 13:35).

So the exhortation that follows is given quite naturally, “love one another fervently with a pure heart.” This is one of the many instances in the New Testament where a declarative statement becomes the basis for an imperative. The declaration is this: “Since you have purified your souls . . . in sincere love of the brethren . . . ,” then the command: “love one another fervently with a pure heart.” The positional forms the basis for the practical. Our love should be warm, wholehearted, with all our strength, earnest, unceasing, and above all, it should be pure.

The exhortation to “love one another” is especially timely for a people who at the time were undergoing persecution because it is a time-proven fact that under conditions of hardship, trials and tribulations, trivial disagreements take on gigantic proportions. This doesn’t just mean for the immediate readers the Apostle was targeting, but for all of us as disciples who were to follow.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Breaking With the World – Continued

Christ’s work for us was no afterthought on God’s part.

“He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you . . .”

The Redeemer was destined to die for us before the creation of the world. But at the end of the times, that is, at the end of the dispensation of law, He appeared from heaven to rescue us from our former way of life.

Peter adds these considerations to impress us even more deeply with the importance of making a clean break with the world system for which Christ died to deliver us from. We are in the world but not of it. It’s a true statement that we must not isolate ourselves from unregenerate men, but rather carry the gospel to them. Yet in our dealings and relationships with them, we must never share in or condone their sins; we are not meant to be enablers. We are to show by our lives that there is a better way to live and we do it by showing that we are children of an Almighty, yet loving God. The moment we become like the world, our testimony is weakened. There is no incentive for worldlings to be converted if they cannot see a difference, a change for the better in our lives.

Lincoln also commented in his lectures:

“In these last times—the world’s moral history was closed at the cross of Christ. It has shown itself fully and got to its end before God.” ²

Loyalty to the Lord Jesus is further demonstrated by what Peter tells us concerning the origin of our belief:

“[We] who through Him [Christ Jesus] believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

In other words, it is through Jesus we have come to believe in God. He is the One who has revealed the Father’s heart to us. As the late W. T. P. Wolston, medical doctor and preacher said:

“It is not by creation nor providence nor law that man knows God, but by Christ.” ³

The Father indicated His complete satisfaction with Christ’s redeeming work by raising Him out from among the dead ones and honoring Him with the place of highest glory in heaven. The result of all this is that our faith and hope are in God. It is in Him, not in the present evil world system, that we live and move and have our being.

To Be Continued

² Lincoln, Lectures, p. 30, 33.
³ W. T. P. Wolston, Simon Peter: His Life and Letters, p. 270.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved