1 Peter 1:18-25 The World's Greatest Quartet January 22, 2023

1 Peter 1 Verses 18 to 25 The World’s Greatest Quartet January 22, 2023

Class Presentation Notes AAA

Background Scriptures:

· Isaiah 40:6-8 (NASB) 6 A voice says, "Call out." Then he answered, "What shall I call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORDblows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

· Mark 13:31 (NASB) 31 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

Main Idea: The world’s greatest quartet is made up of Faith, Hope, Love, and the Word of God

Question to Explore: Do I practice “agape” love?

Teaching Aim: To encourage adults to understand that for faith to be a saving faith, it must be faith in God. It is the object of our faith that is important.

Create Interest:

· The sending of our wonderful Savior was planned ‘before the foundation of the world’, but his mission had only just been accomplished, and it was all for them—for Peter’s readers. The mission was, in a sense, incomplete without them. They were now ‘believers in God’. And with good reason. The resurrection and ascension demonstrated God’s power and God’s pleasure in the sacrifice of his Son. ‘Faith’ and ‘hope’ and ‘love’ in such a God were well placed. Despite the sufferings that were still to be faced, they could be confident that they would not finally be put to shame or embarrassed. A living faith should make us hopeful about the future and obedient in the present.[1] Our love for God grows with our focus on Him and relationship with Him. God’s Word allows the Holy Spirit to teach us holy living.

· Many people think that to practice Christianity as a religion is to adhere to a set of systematized tenets and religious rituals based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. In that sense a Christian could be anyone who knows those tenets and regularly observes the rituals. The New Testament, however, describes and defines a Christian in terms of a person’s relationship to God through Jesus Christ. It involves a spiritual birth and an ongoing spiritual transformation wherein a person is set apart by faith unto the Lord to a new lifestyle.[2]

Lesson in Historical Context:

· Peter sought to encourage first-century believers undergoing persecution by emphasizing to them their call to holiness. They had been set apart from the lifestyles of those around them to live as reflections of the holy God. Though their lives of obedience might initiate or increase persecution, Peter reminded these brothers and sisters in the Lord that this earthly life would quickly fade, but holiness unto God would endure forever.

· Peter did not want believers to forget that though they have an intimate relationship with their heavenly Father, they must conductthemselves in holiness during the time of their stay on earth because God is also the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work (1 Cor. 3:10–15; 2 Cor. 5:9–10; Heb. 12:5–6; cf. Eph. 6:9). This judgement is focusing on the rewards to Christians when Jesus returns and establishes His final kingdom. We should not be concerned about our salvation being taken away but rather focus our lives on allowing Christ to guide us to share His love with everyone.

· True love and worship to God are marked by understanding that He is the Christian’s loving, gracious, and generous Father, but also his holy, disciplining Judge. How believers conduct themselves before His omniscient presence matters in both time and eternity. Paul’s testimony to the Thessalonian believers is a pattern for all believers:

o “You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory”. (1 Thess. 2:10–12)[3]

· Now Peter comes to the heart of our salvation: how can we as sinners be drawn to the holiness of God? The answer is redemption. Unless God had made us His, we could not gain his holiness or want it. But God has claimed us as His own, claimed us at a cost that sears our minds with the flame of His love.

· Peter appeals to the two most profound emotions our hearts can know. One is love, love that sees the price God paid to redeem us. The other is fear, the fear of despising God’s love. What judgment would we merit if we were to trample upon the blood of Christ, and treat God’s precious ransom with contempt, the contempt that mere gold and silver would deserve in comparison?

o Remember Peter’s response to the magician Simon who offered him money for the Holy Spirit: ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!’[4]

Bible Study:

1 Peter 1:18 (NASB) 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,

· This is the highest motive for holy living. In this paragraph, Peter reminded his readers of their salvation experience, a reminder that all of us regularly need. This is one reason our Lord established the Lord’s Supper, so that regularly His people would remember that He died for them. Note the reminders that Peter gave.

· Vs. 18: He reminded them of what they were. To begin with, they were slaves who needed to be set free. The word redeemed is, to us, a theological term; but it carried a special meaning to people in the first-century Roman Empire. There were probably 60 million slaves in the Empire! Many slaves became Christians and fellowshipped in the local assemblies. A slave could purchase his own freedom, if he could collect sufficient funds; or his master could sell him to someone who would pay the price and set him free. Redemption was a precious thing in that day.

o We must never forget the slavery of sin (Titus 3:3).Moses urged Israel to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt (Deut. 5:15; 16:12; 24:18, 22). The generation that died in the wilderness forgot the bondage of Egypt and wanted to go back!

§ Not only did we have a life of slavery, but it was also a life of emptiness. Peter called it “the empty (futile) way of life handed down to you from your forefathers” (1 Peter 1:18), and he described it more specifically in 1 Peter 4:1–4. At the time, these people thought their lives were “full” and “happy,” when they were really empty and miserable. Unsaved people today are blindly living on substitutes.

· Their reverential awe before God, however, is not based simply on their recognition of judgment, but on deep gratitude and wonder at what God has done for them. Thus, Peter reminds them of what the gospel has already taught them, namely, the cost of their redemption.

o The readers would realize from the gospel proclamation they had heard that they had been living in bondage, a slavery they had inherited from the ancestors, which must mean that they had been Gentiles.

o This “way of life,” which includes not just their religious beliefs but also their ethical values and actions (cf. 1:15), was “empty,” by which Peter means that it was worthless, futile, and empty of hope and value when viewed in the light of the gospel (1 Cor. 3:20; Eph. 4:17; cf. Rom. 1:21; 8:20; Jas. 1:26). This same evaluation of pagan worship is made in both Testaments (Lev. 17:7; 2 Chron. 11:15; Jer. 8:19; Acts 14:15).

§ Before they had received the gospel, these believers had a culture with its values and religion, indeed perhaps a high culture, but however sincere they may have been about it and however beautiful it was, they can now see that in the end it was a futile existence.

· They have been purchased from all this; their release has been paid. Yet the price is not that which would have purchased a slave in the market, silver and gold, for these are corruptible, which means that they rot or perish (1 Cor. 9:25; 15:53–54)—the typical lack of value the NT places on money (Jas. 5:1–5; Luke 12:13–34); the price paid for them was something much more precious, something with true value.[5]

§ Romans 3:24 (NASB) 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

§ Titus 2:14 (NASB) 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

§ Colossians 1:14 (NASB) 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1 Peter 1:19 (NASB) 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

· Peter not only reminded them of what they were, but he also reminded them of what Christ did.He shed His precious blood to purchase us out of the slavery of sin and set us free forever. To redeem means “to set free by paying a price.” A slave could be freed with the payment of money, but no amount of money can set a lost sinner free. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can redeem us.

o Peter was a witness of Christ’s sufferings (1 Peter 5:1) and mentioned His sacrificial death often in this letter (1 Peter 2:21ff; 3:18; 4:1, 13; 5:1).

o In calling Christ “a Lamb,” Peter was reminding his readers of an Old Testament teaching that was important in the early church, and that ought to be important to us today. It is the doctrine of substitution: an innocent victim giving his life for the guilty.

o The doctrine of sacrifice begins in Genesis 3, when God killed animals that He might clothe Adam and Eve. A ram died for Isaac (Gen. 22:13) and the Passover lamb was slain for each Jewish household (Ex. 12). Messiah was presented as an innocent Lamb in Isaiah 53. Isaac asked the question, “Where is the lamb?” (Gen. 22:7) and John the Baptist answered it when he pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In heaven, the redeemed and the angels sing, “Worthy is the Lamb!” (Rev. 5:11–14)

Thought to Soak on

o We were not redeemed by gold or silver from our futile, empty, vain life that we inherited from our ancestors. These things can be corrupted. Peter states we were redeemed by something more valuable. It was by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

o How could this happen? Why are we redeemed by His blood? The answer is the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin. For Christ to be perfect, He could not have the blood of Adam flowing in His veins. If His blood was corrupt, then He would be corrupt. To be our Savior, He had to be sinless and without corruption. His blood was innocent blood[6]

given in ultimate sacrificial love for us that we might have forgiveness of sins paid by Him.

1 Peter 1:20 (NASB) 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you

· Peter made it clear that Christ’s death was an appointment, not an accident; for it was ordained by God before the foundation of the world(Acts 2:23). From the human perspective, our Lord was cruelly murdered; but from the divine perspective, He laid down His life for sinners (John 10:17–18). But He was raised from the dead! Now, anyone who trusts Him will be saved for eternity.

o That is, it was foreordained, or predetermined, that he should be the great atoning Sacrifice for sin. On the meaning of the word foreordained, (προγινώσκω) see Rom. 8:29. The word is rendered which knew. It does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. The sense is, that the plan was formed, and the arrangements made for the atonement, before the world was created.

o Before the foundation of the world. That is, from eternity, it was before man was formed; before the earth was made; before any of the material universe was brought into being, before the angels were created.

o But was manifest. Was revealed. 1 Tim. 3:16.

o In these last times. In this, the last dispensation of things on the earth. Heb. 1:2.

o For the sake of you. For your benefit or advantage.

§ that the atonement was not an after-thoughton the part of God. It entered into his plan when he made the world and was revolved in his purposes from eternity.

§ It was not a device to supply a defectin the system; that is, it was not adopted because the system did not work well, or because God had been disappointed.

§ It was arranged before man was created, and when none but God could know whether he would stand or fall [7]

· When you and I meditate on the sacrifice of Christ for us, certainly we should want to obey God and live holy lives for His glory. When only a young lady, Frances Ridley Havergal saw a picture of the crucified Christ with this caption under it: “I did this for thee. What hast thou done for Me?” Quickly, she wrote a poem, but was dissatisfied with it and threw it into the fireplace. The paper came out unharmed! Later, at her father’s suggestion, she published the poem, and today we sing it.

o I gave My life for thee,

My precious blood I shed;

That thou might ransomed be,

And quickened from the dead.

I gave, I gave, My life for thee,

What hast thou given for Me?[8]

Thoughts to soak on

· I believe in the Passover plot—that it was plotted before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ would be sent to die as a Passover Lamb for my sins. In looking on Him as a Lamb slain, I see not only His grace and mercy, but a graphic picture of what sin does.[9]

o Romans 8:29 (NASB) 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

o 1 Peter 1:18-20 (NASB) 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you

o 2 Timothy 2:19 (NASB) 19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness."

1 Peter 1:21 (NASB) Faith and Hope 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

· Jesus Christ pleased God perfectly. God accepted Jesus Christ, and He has proven it in the most supreme way possible: He has raised Christ up from the dead and glorified Him. Therefore, the person who believes in Jesus Christ—who really trusts the blood of Jesus Christ to cover his sins—who really honors God’s Son enough to cast his whole life and eternity upon Christ—that person can rest assured that God will accept him. God will raise him up and glorify him with Christ.

· God has proven His omniscience (supreme knowledge) and omnipotence (supreme power) by raising up and glorifying Christ. Therefore, the person who believes in Jesus Christ can rest assured that God knows how to raise him up and to glorify him forever and ever.

· Note one other fact: we believe in God “by Him,” that is, by Christ. Christ is the Mediator between God and men, the only Person who is perfect and ideal. Therefore, He alone can make us acceptable to God. If we are going to approach God, we must come by Jesus Christ.

o John 6:28-29 (NASB) 28 Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

o John 6:40 (NASB) 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

o John 11:25 (KJV) 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

o Romans 5:1 (KJV) 1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

o Romans 10:9-10 (KJV) 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.[10]

1 Peter 1:22 (NASB) Godly love 22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

· The readers, in obedience to the truthas revealed in Jesus, have accepted the Redeemer’s work of salvation as personal for each of them as individuals.

o By that obedience, Peter tells them, you have purified your souls. The use of a perfect participle in the Greek here for purified implies a past action with its effects extending into the future.

o The believers’ acceptance of Christ as Savior has the consequence that Jesus’ holy life is now within them.

o Furthermore, this new spiritual life is constantly prompting believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:18), that is, to grow more Christlike in moral purity. This they achieve by continuing to obey God’s word in their day-to-day conduct (Rom. 6:16).

o That very process of purification, and so of increasingly becoming Christlike, means that their relationship to fellow believers benefits too: for a sincere love for your brothers.

§ Without this purification, which flows from the new birth (v. 23), believers could not show genuine Christian love for other believers.

· Although Peter does not spell out the point here, for his readers to love one another fervently(deeply), from the heart, would be an immense source of mutual encouragement to stand together in the face of persecution.[11]

· The sense of the verse is therefore, ‘Once you have begun to grow in holiness so that you have a genuine affection for one another, make your love for each other earnest, deep, and strong.’ This is Peter’s first specific application of the general commands to holiness in verses 13 to 21.

o It is a reminder that one of the first marks of genuine growth in holiness in individuals and in churches is earnest love for fellow Christians.

o It also gives encouragement that human personalities, far from being immutably fixed early in life, can be dramatically and permanently changed through the power of the gospel.[12]

§ 1 John 1:7 (NASB) 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

§ John 13:34-35 (NASB) 34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

1 Peter 1:23 (NASB) Word of God 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

· Peter now picks up one of the apostle John’s favorite expressions. He reminds us that the fact that we are in the family of God is proof that we have been “born again.”

o John tells us of the part that the Son of God plays in our regeneration

§ John 1:11-13 (NASB) 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

o Peter tells of the part that the Word of God plays in it.

· He begins with the nature of the wonder we receive: “Being born again …” he says (1:23a). We must not allow our familiarity with the expression to erode our appreciation of the scope and wonder of it all. Born again! Just as there are natural laws that result in our being born, so there are spiritual laws that result in our being born again.

o A doctor was dying. His visitor had been urging him to accept Christ. The doctor seemed to have difficulty understanding what was involved. The visitor tried verse after verse. At last, he hit on this expression: “Being born again.…” The light dawned. The doctor said, “That’s it! That’s what I need. I need to be born again. In my lifetime, I have delivered hundreds of babies into this world. And this I know—a baby has no past. All it has is a future. Now tell me just how I can be born again.”

· It is an amazing thing to be born again. Note the following😊

o It means that we receive a new, divine nature.

o It means that we become members of the Royal Family in heaven, the Holy Spirit of God indwells us and empowers us, and we become joint-heirs with Christ, enthroned with Him in the heavenlies.

o Thus, we rank higher than the angels and all of the principalities and powers, thrones and dominions that inhabit the unseen world.

o It means, too, that in due time we shall receive bodies like unto Christ’s glorious body.

o We shall be saved to sin no more. Because we belong to Christ, are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and are partakers of the divine nature, all that the future holds for Him it holds for us.

§ Such is the nature of the wonder we receive.

· Peter mentions, moreover, the nature of the Word we believe, for it is the Word of God that the Spirit of God uses to make us children of God. That Word is imperishable (incorruptible): “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible” (1:23b); and it is invincible: “by the Word of God, which lives and abides(endures) forever” (1:23c).

· In regeneration, the Spirit of God first uses the Word of God to quicken the conscience and bring about a condition that we usually call “conviction of sin.” John described it (John 16:7–11).

o The Spirit of God then uses the Word of God to open the sinner’s eyes to Christ and his heart to a realization that he needs to accept Christ as Savior and Lord. Regeneration takes place when the awakened sinner responds to Christ (John 1:11–13).

o The Holy Spirit then brings the cleansing power of the blood of Christ to bear upon the awakened sinner’s inner being.

§ The Holy Spirit inhabits the human spirit, and the miracle of regeneration takes place.

§ Thereafter, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God in the life of the born-again believer to effect spiritual growth.[13]

📷 John 3:3-6 (NASB) 3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus *said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

📷 1 John 5:1 (NASB) 1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the childborn of Him.

📷 Titus 3:4-5 (NASB) 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

1 Peter 1:24(NASB) 24 For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,

· Peter, having given an account of the excellency of the renewed spiritual man as born again, not of corruptible but incorruptible seed, now sets before us the vanity of the natural man, taking him with all his ornaments and advantages about him: For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; and nothing can make him a solid substantial being, but the being born again of the incorruptible seed, the word of God, which will transform him into a most excellent creature, whose glory will not fade like a flower, but shine like an angel; and this word is daily set before you in the preaching of the gospel.

o Man, in his utmost flourish and glory, is still a withering, fading, dying creature. Take him singly, all flesh is grass. In his entrance into the world, in his life and in his fall, he is similar to grass, Job 14:2; Isa. 40:6, 7.

§ Take him in all his glory, even this is as the flower of grass; his wit, beauty, strength, vigor, wealth, honor—these are but as the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away.

o The only way to render this perishing creature solid and incorruptible is for him to entertain and receive the Word of God; for this remains everlasting truth, and, if received, will preserve him to everlasting life, and abide with him forever.

o The prophets and apostles preached the same doctrine. This word which Isaiah and others delivered in the Old Testament is the same which the apostles preached in the New Testament.[14]

§ Isaiah 40:6-7 (NASB) 6 A voice says, "Call out." Then he answered, "What shall I call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORDblows upon it; Surely the people are grass.

§ Psalm 90:5-6 (NASB) 5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. 6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away.

1 Peter 1:25 (NASB) 25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.

· When we receive a book, the first thing that interests us is the title of the book. The title of a book goes a long way toward insuring the sale of the book.

o The Book of books is commonly known as the Bible. The word “Bible” is from “Biblos” which simply means book. Another name given to God’s Word, is the Holy Scriptures.

o In verse 23, the Bible is called “the Word of God.” While in verse 25, it is called the “Word of the Lord” and again it is called, the “Gospel.”

· There is no other book that we can open which we can call the Word of God. These words belong exclusively to the Bible.

o Other books may contain much truth but not all the truth. Other books may be approved of God, but they are not written of God.

· It is because the Bible is the Word of God that it is forever established in Heaven. There are some who would defame the Bible, calling it no more than legendary; than a compilation of old wives’ fables, fit only to be relegated to the scrap pile of ancient dogmas. Such talk is mere nonsense. No one who really knows the Bible fails to recognize in it the finger of God. It carries on every page the marks of its inspiration. It is called the Word of God simply because it is not the word of man, although God spoke and wrote through men.[15]

· Therefore, only God’s Word has lasting value; it endures throughout eternity, it alone stands firm and unmoved in the midst of this world of death.

o If we but place our trust in this Word, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it will lift and take us safe through the uncertainty and decay and misery and wretchedness of this world to the eternal life of salvation.

o Once more, then, the apostle calls out: But this is the Word which in the Gospel is preached to you. If we place our trust in this Word, in this glorious Gospel, then we are safe, here in time and hereafter in eternity.[16]

Thoughts to Soak On:

· Vs. 24: To the sojourners scattered as seed by the sovereign hand of God, Peter uses a most graphic illustration taken from Isa 40. The brief and transient quality of natural life is presented as withering grass. All the glory of man together is like the flower of grass. Their life is but a brief day. “In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers” (Ps 90:6).

o The same winds and rains and withering heat come upon both the good seed and the fleshly. They look alike in many ways, but the life principle is different.

o The children of the kingdom, the good seed, have a life engendered by the incorruptible seed. The rest are corruptible, withering, blown and gone forever.

· Vs. 25: The Word of the Lord endures. This abiding revelation of the mind of God brings a message of a new kind of life, a heavenly kind of love, and a genuine hope of unfading glory. Little wonder the message is called the gospel, the good news from heaven.[17]

· This gospel, this good news, is the primary motivation for our holiness as we sojourn in a hostile world during the time of our exile. Because God is holy, He will judge sin.

o We deserve such judgment.

o But instead of judgment, we receive mercy because God has purchased us with the blood of Jesus.

o Because we have been delivered from the bondage of our former ways, we are now to display our Father’s holiness during our time on the earth.

o When we meditate on this gospel and continue believing this gospel, we will be warned by God’s judgment and motivated by God’s grace to walk in holiness—to become more like him as we journey toward the day when we meet him—not only as our King, but as our Father.

· Do you really want to know the Lord? You will find that many of the answers you are looking for are in His wonderful Word.

o Spurgeon said, “If you wish to know God, you must know His Word.” The Bible is a tremendous book. It has a wealth of wisdom, an expanse of encouragement, a host of hope, heaps of history, plenty of promises, piles of prophecies and peace, a bounty of blessings, seas of strength, and loads of the love of God for us.

· The Bible has everything we need to live the Christian life.

o We are to study the Word of God and put it into practice.

o Faith and hope grow when we seek His face in prayer. In so doing, we will get to know the Lord as we see Him answer our prayers in His will, empower our lives, supply our needs, and discover the truth about Him in His Word.

§ John 5:39—Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

§ 1 John 2:3—And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandment

· Knowledge obtained from God’s Word gives us a solid grounding in faith and enables us to make good choices. It arms us for victory over temptations and trials.

o The reason for weak Christians today who are faltering, fading, failing, frustrated, and faithless is the fact they don’t study the Word of God. It’s a tragedy not to have a copy of the Scriptures, but it’s a greater tragedy to have a copy and neglect to read it

o How do we get to know the Lord?

§ The Word of God is a key factor. Get into the Book! Read it, love it, live it in your life![18]

Questions for reflection

1. Again, think of an area of your life where you regularly disobey God. How might you use the motivation of future judgment next time you are tempted to disobey in that way?

2. And how can you motivate yourself toward obedience by meditating on your redemption when you are tempted?

3. How have you experienced obedience leading to blessing and freedom in your own life?

4. How could you use that past experience to encourage present obedience?[19]

[1]Andrew Thomson, Opening Up 1 Peter, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster, England: Day One, 2016), 40–42. [2]Ronald K. Brown, Bible Studies for Life, Summer 2014, Herschel Hobbs Commentary (LifeWay Christian Resources, 2014), 91. [3] John F. MacArthur Jr., 1 Peter, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2004), 68–70. [4]Edmund P. Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter: The Way of the Cross, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 69. [5]Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 71–72. [6] Rod Mattoon, Treasures from First Peter, Treasures from Scripture Series (Springfield, IL: Rod Mattoon, 2011), 85. [7]Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: James to Jude, ed. Robert Frew (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885), 129. [8]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 398–399. [9] Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1548. [10]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 1 Peter–Jude, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 1996), 39–40. [11]Norman Hillyer, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 53. [12]Wayne A. Grudem, 1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 17, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 95. [13]John Phillips, Exploring the Epistles of Peter: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp., 2009), 1 Pe 1:23. [14]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2425. [15] R. E. Neighbour, Wells of Living Water: New Testament, vol. 13, Wells of Living Water (Union Gospel Press, 1940), 262–263. [16]Paul E. Kretzmann, The Popular Commentary of the Bible: The New Testament, vol. 2, The Popular Commentary of the Bible (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1921), 523. [17] J. Boyd Nicholson, “1 Peter,” in 1 Peter to Jude, What the Bible Teaches (John Ritchie, 2000), 64. [18] Rod Mattoon, Treasures from First Peter, Treasures from Scripture Series (Springfield, IL: Rod Mattoon, 2011), 94–95. [19]Juan R. Sanchez, 1 Peter for You, ed. Carl Laferton, God’s Word for You (The Good Book Company, 2016), 56.