Loving, Leaving, & Longing

1 Peter: 1: 22 - 2:3

Transcript

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere
brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have
been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living
and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like
the flower of the grass. The grass withers away, the flower falls, but the word
of the Lord remains forever, and the word is the good news that was preached to
you. 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 you may
grow up in salvation, if indeed you have tasted the Lord, tasted that the Lord
is good. Let's pray. Father, as we read your word and hear it, we pray for the
work of your Holy Spirit to illuminate us, Lord, where we are indifferent or
failing to understand or cold. We pray for your Spirit's work to help us to
understand, help us to believe, to respond in faith, to grow in love for Christ.
Lord, we pray for this time that you would work in it and that you would open
our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. I need to pick up my Bible. That would be a
good thing for me to grab and have up here with me. All right. We are continuing
our sermon series from the New Testament letter of 1 Peter, and it's titled Hope
in a World That is Not Our Home. The sermon itself this morning is called
Loving, Leaving, and Longing. And I know you don't need to tell me. I felt good
about the alliteration of that sermon title for about five seconds, and then I
realized that really sounds like a movie my wife would like. But these words,
these words, loving, leaving, and longing, are also the primary commands of the
passage that we're in today, and they form the structure of the passage. So I'll
spend more time on the first point than on the second two. But for a little
background as we get started, let's remember the Apostle Peter is writing to
churches that are scattered across Asia Minor. They are suffering trials, trials
that come from being a tiny minority religion in the Roman Empire. But Peter has
written to encourage them that God is at work in their trials, that God is
purifying them, and that he's told them that they are born again to a living
hope and that they are called to be holy despite their trials. So with that in
mind, let's get into the passage and let's look at this emphasis on the word
love. We see it in verse 22. 1 Peter 1, 22. Having purified your souls by your
obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly
from a pure heart. If you go back in the letter in verse 14, Peter has already
referred to his readers as obedient children. The idea that he's now getting at
in verse 22 is active progress in obedience to God's word. We've been told in
the letter already, you shall be holy for I am holy. That's God's word to the
people. It's from the Old Testament. Peter's quoting it now, applying it to
these churches. And he is telling his readers that they are called to holiness
and that they are to be progressing in that goal. They're pursuing obedience to
the truth of God's word and they're increasingly being cleansed from the
pollution of sin. Now we're never going to be free fully from the effects of sin
in this life, in our own hearts and in this world. That's only going to be fully
realized in the age to come. But the biblical expectation is that we grow, we
progress in our sanctification even in this life and even however slowly and
however painfully, that we are actively purifying ourselves through obedience to
God's word. First John says it like this, everyone who hopes in him, everyone
who hopes in Jesus, purifies himself as he is pure. So with that in mind, we
hear Peter's command as to how Christians ought to relate to each other. He
says, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. The connection to holiness
is that as we grow in holiness, we will also grow in love for one another. And
that one another that you see in verse 22 is referring to the church, your
fellow believers, the people sitting right next to you. Most of us love our
friends, that's why they are our friends. Most of us love our families, at least
on some level, even if there are times you may not really like your family, most
of us have love on some level for our families. And that is good of course, but
that is not specifically Christian love. Matthew 5, Jesus said, if you love
those who love you, what reward do you have? Jesus is basically saying everyone
does that. Peter's now saying love one another. That is different than your
friends or the people that are your blood relatives. Loving the people who love
us is not usually hard. But if you're growing in holiness, that is going to mean
more than just the things that you avoid doing, one of the marks of genuine
holiness is increased love for others. And that word earnestly describes the way
that we love. It's from a pure heart, it's from genuine motives, it's entirely
different than the worldly love that often, that so often has a hidden agenda
behind it. We've all experienced this before, right? Where someone pours on the
charm with us and we think that it's genuine only to realize their interest in
us was entirely self-serving. Christian love is different than that. It's
earnest, it's sincere, whether or not that person can do anything for us, it's
for one another, those who are part of the household faith, whether or not they
are similar to us. So this goes beyond just commonality, it goes beyond family
lineage, and here's the encouragement. Because of the power of the Gospel,
people, Peter believes, self-centered people can change to sincerely love others
from a pure heart. And the reason why change is possible here, why we are called
to love, and why we're even able to love is in verse 23. Since you have been
born again. Look at verse 23. Since you have been born again. Not of perishable
seed, but of imperishable. That phrase born again was used earlier in verse
three. Peter begins a letter saying, you've been born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Most people today in the
US have probably heard that phrase born again. They don't really understand it.
They probably think of born again as like a subset or a slice of the pie when
the broader pie is the category of Christian. So even though born again is a
scriptural phrase, it became more popular in the 70s. About 50 years ago,
Charles Colson wrote a bestselling book about his time in the White House and
Watergate and his conversion. It was called Born Again. That book became a
bestseller. People started to ask people about that, and Jimmy Carter, who was
running for president at that time, said that he was born again. And at that
time, the phrase became part of the broader national discourse. But if you say
today that you are a born again Christian, generally speaking, people will
interpret that to mean, oh, you're a little more narrow, or you're a little more
emotional, or maybe you have a certain political persuasion, or you are more
conservative in some way. The scriptural truth is that there are no Christians
who are not born again. The new birth is absolutely essential. Jesus said, you
must be born again. And that's what's happened to the believers that Peter's
writing to. They have passed from spiritual death to new life through faith in
the work of Jesus Christ, his death, his resurrection. They have been born
again, spiritually regenerated. And here's the point. You'll never love people
sincerely from a pure heart without being born again. We are all hardwired for
selfishness, for self-love. And in that state, you're going to love yourself,
and you're going to love the people who like you. But Peter's audience, since
they have been born again, are called to love one another. They can say, I'm not
the person that I used to be. I've been spiritually regenerated. I've been born
again. And the reason that we're to love one another is that we've been born
again. We've been given new life by the Spirit of God. And Peter says, love one
another earnestly from pure heart since you've been born again. You've probably
heard the expression before where someone says that they have been given a new
lease on life. And usually, if we use that, that usually refers to a health
scare maybe, or a car accident, or maybe someone was incarcerated and they're
let out of prison. And the person realizes they have been given a second chance,
perhaps one that they didn't really rightfully deserve. And they're going to get
a chance to make some changes. Maybe they didn't deserve it. Maybe they didn't
earn it. But they're getting a clean slate. They say, I've been given a new
lease on life. If you follow Peter's logic back to the beginning of the letter,
he says, bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his
great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So I've been born again, not because
something good that I did, but because of the great mercy of God shown to me
through the life and death of Jesus. That means I have a new lease on life. And
the result of that new lease on life is love, sincere, genuine love. Love for
one another flows out of that state. And we know people that have gained a new
lease on life. And then when that happens, it feels like a tragedy to see it get
wasted, doesn't it? You say, how can you, if you went to the hospital and now
you're still eating like that, you're still smoking, you're still hanging out
with those people. You say, how can you still do that when you've been given
this second chance? Peter says, since you've been born again, love one another
earnestly from a pure heart. He goes on to say, you've been born again, not of
perishable seed, but of imperishable. In other words, the change that's taken
place within you is not some temporary thing. It's a permanent lasting change.
You've been born again through imperishable seed. If you walk through the
neighborhood where my family lives, it's like a lot of neighborhoods in
Williamsville where the houses were built around 60 years ago and trees were
planted. And now there are these canopies of trees lining the streets. And those
trees were planted decades ago. They started as, of course, as all trees do, as
little seeds. Now today you have these 30, 40 foot trees and the sidewalks are
cracked and heaving, they're all lopsided. And it's the underground power of
those seeds. It's actually moving cement out of the ground. They're small, but
they have massive power. That's what the word of God is like this. It's referred
to here as imperishable seed through which we are born again. Peter says, you
were born again through the living and abiding word of God. The living and
abiding word of God, the imperishable seed. That is the means by which a person
is born again when they hear the saving message of what God has done for them in
Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, they believe. The living and abiding
word of God refers to both the word when it's spoken, the word when it's read.
The word of God is living and active. It carries intrinsic power and the word of
God abides. It has the power to create lasting and permanent change. It's
through that word of God, through that saving message, that you believe and are
born again. And when you're born again, you're brought into the new family of
God, the people that you are called to love earnestly. God's word also tells us
that he himself is love. And when we read the word of God, it not only has the
power to save us, it has the power to transform us, to teach us love because we
learn about his character, his word accomplishes what he intends and he sends
his word into our hearts and we're brought to new life. And then God's word
begins to teach us to manifest his character. So love one another earnestly from
a pure heart. In your Bible, in verse 24, you'll see something that looks kind
of like a poetic stanza. Peter now starts to quote from the Old Testament, from
Isaiah, 46 through 8. This is chapter 1, verse 24. He says, all flesh is like
grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the
flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the
good news that was preached to you. That's how you were born again. You heard
the word and believed. And the quotation from Isaiah is contrasting the
permanence of God's word as compared to the absolutely fleeting nature of
everything else. Peter's quoting the passage to talk about the shortness of life
in comparison with the permanence of God's word. All flesh. All flesh refers to
all of us, humanity in general. And we don't live in an agricultural culture,
but grass or hay is something that's here today, it's here for a season, it
passes. It's the same way with flowers. They can look amazing for a short time,
then they pass away. They're fleeting. They're not constant. They're not
constant. They cannot be counted on forever. When the passage is written in
Isaiah, it was referring to King Hezekiah, who was generally speaking one of the
best kings of Judah. But Hezekiah wasn't entirely constant. In his old age, he
was pulled down by, he became inflated with pride. His kingdom passed. His reign
was temporal. He was beset by sin. His glory faded. And what remains forever is
God's word. God's word is an extension of His character, and it's entirely true.
It's entirely trustworthy. And we need to be reminded about the fleeting nature
of who we actually are and what we're doing with our lives. This life is
fleeting. Here's a way of thinking about this. When was the last time you had a
really good stimulating discussion about Calvin Coolidge? That hasn't happened
lately, has it? Calvin Coolidge was the US president 100 years ago in 1925. My
mom is out of town today, so I can safely say probably none of you know anything
about him, right? And yet, he was the most significant man in America in 1925.
None of us really have anything to say about him. He's long been forgotten by
everyone except probably US history, American history professors. The Psalms
tell us this, using very similar imagery. As for man, his days are like grass.
He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it's
gone. And its place knows it no more. We will pass away and people will forget
us. That's an inescapable reality. And when we think about the fleeting nature
of our lives, we ought to also think, I need to build my life on something
imperishable. If your life and your thoughts are consumed by the perishable
things, things like the stuff that you see as you scroll through your phone,
that's all vapor. What's imperishable is a living and abiding word of God. And
Peter says, and this word is the good news that was preached to you. It was
preached so that you might be born again and have new life, and its effect is so
that you might sincerely love one another from a pure heart. That love, earnest,
sincere love involves leaving. And that brings us to our second point. These
next two are gonna be shorter. But having received this word, having believed
it, having been called to love one another earnestly, now what? Well, there's a
connecting word here. So, look at chapter two, verse one. So, put away all
malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Those are all
characteristic of the old life. If we're now born again, if we're called to a
new life, then those are the behaviors that we leave behind. Back in chapter
one, verse 14, Peter says, as obedient children, don't be conformed to the
passions of your former ignorance. In other words, in your previously ignorant
state, in your previous unenlightened state, before you heard and believed the
word of God, before you were born again, those words describe you. Malice,
deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. Those words all have to do, the commonality
there is they all have to do with the way that we relate to each other. Those
are all words that destroy healthy relationships. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy,
envy, slander. And Peter's, what he's doing is he's connecting the gospel that
these Christians have believed and he's bringing it down to the way they ought
to be treating each other. And if he was here, he might follow a logic kind of
like this. Okay, so you believe that you have a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, okay? You believe that you have an incorruptible,
imperishable inheritance that's being kept in heaven for you, okay? But you're
also consumed with envy by what someone else has. Peter might say, is that
really consistent with what you're believing? Or you might say, okay, so you
believe that you are a sinner deserving of God's wrath. You're deserving of
permanent judgment, but you've been ransomed by the precious blood of Christ.
But you are also willing to deceive or live as a hypocrite so other people will
think really well of you, okay? Is that consistent with what we're believing?
The things that Peter's listing here, malice, desire to harm another person,
deceit, dishonesty, hypocrisy, pretending to be someone that you're not, envy,
slander, using your tongue to tear down another person. What he's saying is, all
that's inconsistent with the new life in Christ. Those are behaviors that
destroy relationships. They bring harm to the church. And what he's saying is,
it's all gotta go. It all needs to be put away. It all needs to be left behind.
It's not what sincere, earnest love is. Spiritually mature love involves leaving
old behaviors. It involves leaving old behaviors. And what we see is that love
for Jesus and love for people go hand in hand. And that's what we see hand in
hand. There's a familial love for one another that we're called to. We are never
called to simply just love God in the abstract. 1 John 4 says, whoever claims to
love God yet hates his brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love
their brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not
seen. We can put it like this, genuine, sincere love for God finds concrete form
in love for those in the family of God. That is why, partly why, the idea of
loving Jesus without loving the church is a bizarre notion. You can definitely,
you can love Jesus and be disappointed and disgruntled and hurt by the church
because the church is made up of sinful people. And yet it is still the family
that God has adopted you into. We're called to love one another with a sincere
love and we're called to leave old, sinful behaviors. And finally, this is the
third point, we are called to long for the Word of God. Look at verses two and
three. 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. It's
important that we understand the imagery that Peter's using here because Peter's
not comparing his readers to infants in the sense that they are spiritually
immature. And he's not using milk and contrasting it to meet the way that
happens in the letters of the Hebrews. He's not using milk as illustrating the
basics of the Christian life. In this case, the image of the newborn craving
milk, it's an illustration of desire. It's about desire. If you've had an infant
before, if you've been around an infant, then you know what that desire is like.
They have to have milk. A hungry baby is going to need to be fed frequently,
every few hours, and you are not going to be able to convince that baby
otherwise. A newborn infant often appears to be feeding around the clock. But
here's the thing, you wouldn't want it any other way because they long for it
and also this is how they grow. When you take the baby on his or her first
visits to the doctor, the doctor is going to weigh the baby and most of the
questions are going to be something like this. How's his appetite? How is she
eating? Is she gaining weight? The milk is how the baby grows and when a person
finds new life in Christ and is born again, they have a desire for God's word
and it's through the word that we grow up into salvation. So salvation in this
sense is not referring to conversion, it's referring to spiritual maturity.
Believers ought to be longing for the word of God because that is how and
through they will grow up into salvation, into maturity. It's how you will, you
could say it like this, it's how you're going to grow up and look like a saved
person. And there are some things that you cannot long for at the same time that
are mutually exclusive. For example, you know how Jesus said you cannot love God
and money. Those longings are mutually incompatible. The point is not that you
don't need money but if that's the primary longing of your heart, that's
mutually incompatible. So example, let's say you are consumed with envy about
what someone else has or what you think that you need, you will not at the same
time long for the word of God. And that's because it's just not going to seem
relevant to you. It won't seem important because what you really need is
whatever you have to have at that time. Those longings are not, they're not
compatible. Now you also might ask, what if I don't long for it? You might say,
honestly I'm just not always that excited to read the Bible or to listen to a
sermon or to go to a Bible study. It seems like kind of a chore, I don't feel
like I'm getting a whole lot from it. There's a lot of parts that seem tedious
to me. What if I don't long for it? Or you might say, how am I commanded too
long? How can you make someone desire something they don't? Well look at what
Peter says. He says, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. That's a
reference to Psalm 34 verse 8 which we read and sang from at the beginning of
the worship service. Taste and see is symbolic, it's a metaphor for personal
first-hand experience of something. Part of the reality of our sinful nature is
we're just not constant. We may have a Monday morning where we are full of faith
and excited to dig into scripture and by Thursday all that motivation all that
motivation desire is gone. We're in constant people. Our desires, and this goes
beyond the word of God, are not static and steady things and they're not always
what they ought to be. It's a reflection of our sinful state. We're in constant.
But at some point this is the question the text is asking. Have you ever tasted
and seen that the Lord is good? Have you ever tasted that, experienced that?
Have you experienced the goodness of God and you've heard his word and you have
felt and known its power and authority? Well you might not be tasting that at
this moment but you have tasted it and if that's true well then you know. You
know that these are the words of life and this is what you need. And whatever
wherever you are today you can take steps of faith to cultivate that longing.
The text calls us to long for the pure spiritual milk of God's word. So let me
summarize. We're called to love one another earnestly from a pure heart since
we've been born again. We're called to leave behind our old behaviors, our old
ways of being that aren't consistent with who we are today as those who've been
born again. And we're called to long for the pure spiritual milk of God's word
because this is how we will grow into spiritual maturity. Let's pray. Lord God
when we read a text like this first we just thank you and praise you for at
whatever point it was in our lives Lord that we had an opportunity to hear the
word of God. Thank you for just that access. Thank you that for your Holy Spirit
awakening so many of us to the truth and power of your word for causing us to be
born again. And Lord I pray that that you would make us into people who love one
another earnestly from a pure heart, who leave behind all the behavior that's
inconsistent with our with new life in Christ. And Lord whether we are whatever
our desire or appetite is at this moment Lord I pray that each one here would
long for the milk of your word Lord that that would be that we would desire your
word to read, to study, to hear it preached. Lord give us that longing we pray
in Jesus name. Amen.