Obdience, Purity, Love

1 Peter 1:22-2:3 “22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

1 Peter 2

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

In the verses preceeding this, we looked at how we are called to be holy, separate, chosen

And we talked about how that looks, or how a holy person acts

Prepare their minds for action

They are sober-minded

Their hope is set fully on the grace that will be revealed

They are obedient

They don’t allow themselves to be conformed to the passions of the world (being ignorant as they were in the past)

And they conduct themselves with fear and respect of a Father who judges absolutely fairly

And now we are going to flesh this out a little bit. We are going to see that the aim of what Peter has said previously is for the sake of loving each other

You want to “gird up the loins of your mind”? You want to get some flesh in the game?

Well, here it is!

Love one another!

The outworking of holy living, of being chosen and set apart is love for one another

And not just any kind of love

This doesn’t mean that we tolerate one another,

But it’s a SINCERE, EARNEST love for each other that comes from a pure heart.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Sincere: The Greek word (I can’t pronounce it) means, “without hypocrisy. Genuine”

Do you know what a hypocrite is?

A lot of times, we think of a hypocrite as a self-righteous person. One who looks down their noses at other people and judges them

Could be. After all, Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites. And they did lots of judging, didn’t they

And we think, well that’s not me. I don’t look down my nose at people. I don’t judge people.

That’s good!

But do you know what a hypocrite really is?

Well, that Greek word referred to

AN ACTOR—one who wears a mask to disguise how they are really feeling or what they are really thinking.

Ooof!

Now that hits a little closer to home, doesn’t it?

We could talk for a long time about masks. The folks from Grace Haven came last year and talked to us about how we wear masks

How we do our best to hide what we are feeling and thinking, especially when those feelings are “bad”.

When we are angry with someone or have had a really rotten day

Or when our heart has been deeply hurt by someone.

How you doing today? Fine!

Masks are part of our lives. We use them to help protect ourselves

But Peter reminds us, drop the masks and love each other sincerely!

Love each other enough to let others see our scars and help carry our pain.

EARNEST

This word means eagerly, fervently, intensely

It has the idea of “reaching out”. This kind of love reaches out to each other eagerly

Desiring to care for each other.

Love each other like this!

But backing up a bit

He says first of all in our passage

Having purified your souls

What do you notice about this phrase?

What I notice is that Peter is assuming something to be true.

He is writing to a group of people who have purified their souls

And the root word in the Greek for what is translated “purified”, is the same word that is translated “holy” in verse 16 and that we will see again other places in this book

So, this is not a new thought. Peter is continuing this discussion of what it means to be holy and set apart.

You have purified your souls.

Your soul is another word for…You

YOU have been purified, You have been made holy.

How?

Through obedience

when the Law was given in the OT, the people of Israel declared, “we will be obedient! we will be careful to do ALL that is written in the book of the law”

But how did they fail again and again?

They failed to obey!

Obedience, to us, can be such a hard thing

And it sound so…strict and constricting, this idea that we have to obey

But again, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” Pure and simple

It doesn’t seem like obedience is much of an option to us, does it

So what are we obeying? Obedience to what?

Obedience to the Truth

Well, what is the truth? What is he talking about here?

The truth of the Law?

Does it mean obeying the law and progressively pushing sin out of our souls?

Well, no, I don’t think that is what is being said. I don’t think it CAN be it.

The reason is because of the statement that follows

For (or unto) a sincere brotherly love

Our obedience to the truth must result in a sincere brotherly love!

Now is it possible to obey the law so enthusiastically that it purifies us and results in a sincere brotherly love?

I don’t believe it is

So what can this obedience be talking about?

I would say that the truth that Peter is talking about here is the Gospel.

And I would say further that the obedience which Peter is talking about is confession, faith, and hope.

When you obey something, you do what is required, right? You do what is called for

And if the truth that Peter talks of here is the Gospel, what is required to obey the Gospel?

It is to confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, it is to put your hope in the finished work of Christ.

Now again, why do I think that the TRUTH of which Peter is speaking is the Gospel?

It’s because of what results from that obedience. LOVE! And not just any old kind of love. A SINCERE BROTHERLY LOVE.

Now, while we are commanded to love the Lord our God and love our neighbor as ourselves, did obedience to the Law or any other kind of system, result in the kind of love that Peter is talking about?

NO!

The only kind of obedience that could purify our souls and result in a sincere brotherly love is faith and hope in the Gospel!

Remember Galatians 5:6 “6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

Also 1 Timothy 1:5 “5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Another reason that I think Peter is speaking of the Gospel is because of verse 23

1 Peter 1:23-25 “23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

The reason that you are purified by obedience to the truth and it results in sincere brotherly love is because you have been born again!

You have received a makeover! A reset! A new heart!

This love that he is talking about cannot possibly come from human endeavors at obeying the law

Because, why? Because all flesh is as grass. It dies. Human effort withers and dies. We cannot hope to be purified by human effort

But, the word of the Lord? Being born again! Now there is hope! Because this lasts forever. It is living, and life-changing

The reason that obedience to the truth results in purity and a sincere brotherly love is because belief in the finished work of Christ is a total rebirth!

And what does sincere brotherly love look like? How is it fleshed out?

First of all, he says there are some things that you need to put away.

Remember, we are still talking about what it means to be holy. To be God’s chosen people

And as God’s holy people, we need to put away some things. Put it into long-term storage, never to get it out again

Actually, better yet, take them out to the incinerator. Destroy these things!

We put away things like

Malice—the desire to do harm to someone; ill will. wrongful intentions toward each other

Deceit—treachery, cunning. Using deceitful means to trick someone

Hypocrisy— to pretend. to hide inward wickedness under the appearance of virtue.

to try to portray to others what isn’t true in your life

envy—desiring what others have. their gifts, their talents, their possessions. whatever they have. don’t desire those things

slander—making false statements which damage other people’s reputations

And more! Could there be others in there?

Darren pointed out some things while he was here

Hurtful words

“Triangling” : did that make sense to you all when he talked about it?

It’s when I have a problem with someone and instead of talking to that person, I talk to someone else about it

Now, I have laid that burden on that person

Why do we do this?

Because it’s much harder to talk to someone who has hurt me than to talk to someone else about it

Would a brotherly love that is fervent allow us to overcome the fear of talking to each other when there is a problem?

And instead, Peter says, we develop a craving. A longing for something else

A craving for the pure spiritual milk of the word

When a baby is born, what does it desire?

Does this baby have a craving for a McDonald’s cheesburger?

Does it want a bag of Doritos?

No, it only craves one thing. That is what only its mother can supply

Pure milk

What would happen if you tried to give a newborn baby a steak or a cheesburger?

It would eventually die, wouldn’t it?

And so it is with us

Peter says, you have had a rebirth, a renewal.

And because you have been reborn, You cast off the old

You cast off impure desires and motives,

you crave what only your Father can give you

The pure spiritual milk of the word.

Because without this pure spiritual milk, you cannot hope to grow

But with the pure spiritual milk, we grow up into salvation

And the idea is that we continue to crave the nourishment from our Father

I love what Peter says in verse 3: If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good

Have you? Have you indeed tasted that the Lord is good?

Psalm 34:8 “8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

Do you long for what your Father gives you so that you can grow up, mature, into salvation?

Instead, so often we spend our lives craving other things

Power, control, pleasure, safety

We so often crave junk food

We feed our minds on what ultimately brings death

Or, at the very best, it stunts our growth. It causes us to remain infants or malnurished

But if we indeed have tasted that He is good, then should not we continue to long, to crave for what He has for us

So, here’s the goal.

It is sincere, earnest, brotherly love

But that comes through obedience, purity, feasting on the purity of the Word, transformation of the heart.