1 Peter 2_1_3 New Years Attiudes

1 Peter 2:1-3New Years Attitude

Intro: The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, “What are you doing?” The first replied, “I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.” The next answered, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.” But the third said, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”

Attitudes are important in life, and if we were to define “attitude” we would say that it is a settled way of thinking or feeling. In our story one man had an attitude set on money, the other on time, but the last man’s attitude was on the finished product.

Too often we have the wrong attitudes towards physical life but also towards Spiritual life. Most of us live in the here and now without much thought to the finished product. When Christ Jesus saved you it was not to merely keep you from God’s wrath but to mold you into a masterpiece, the very image of God.

CPS: Today I want you know that attitudes are important in spiritual life and the right attitude means the difference between infancy in Christ and likeness of Christ. This New Year it is my desire that we grow into what Jesus desires for us, mature and complete in Him.

As Christians we must shed the attitudes that deter Spiritual Growth. Vs. 1

“Therefore” draws us back to 1:22-23 an exhortation to believers; “seeing that we are born again of incorruptible seed we must not be entangled in evil.”

The Sinful Attitudes identified by the apostle

These 5 sins are sins of attitude and speech which are deterrents to Spiritual Growth and they stand in direct contrast to the purified soul and under minds the exhortation for brotherly love and obedience in 1:22

Malice – Evil or wickedness. This is the desire to harm someone. It is harboring evil thoughts against another person. It nourishes antagonism, builds up grudges, secretly hopes that revenge, harm, or tragedy, will overtake another.

Ill: George Washington Carver (The famed agricultural scientist) 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.

Guile/Deceit –This is any form of dishonesty, treachery, slyness, or trickery, this is the practice of deceiving. Its lying about your age in order to get your senior discounted coffee at Macdonald’s, falsifying tax returns, exaggerating the frailness of your health to gain sympathy, taking credit for someone else’s work.

Hypocrisy – pretense, duplicity (quality of being double), insincerity….. Theatrical term meaning to play a part or to pretend. You are one way Sunday morning at church then another way Sunday evening after church. You publicly speak ill of immorality and vices yet behind closed doors you act immoral. You act like you have the perfect marriage but home is actually a battlefield.

Envy – to be jealous, to not be content with what you have but to be resentful towards another for what they have. Tim resents Johnny for his new promotion because it should have been his, Sally gives Susie the evil eye over her new Gucci handbag. Envy is a killer, Cain killed Able because of jealousy, that the Lord received his brothers offering yet rejected his. It was envy that led the chief priest to hand Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified.

Slander – defamation, evil speech towards another person, to make a false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation. Slander is the action of trying to make yourself look good by slinging mud on someone else.

The Exhortation of the Apostle

“Putting Aside” or Laying aside (KJV) (Verb)= putting away, get rid of once for all. It is the Idea of cleansing from defilement or casting off a garment….

Ill: I was at a worship service last week and I saw a mother take her baby daughter in one hand and in the other hand a diaper and headed to the restroom. It is safe to say that the mother took off the soiled diaper and tossed in the trash. As a baby soils its diaper, the diaper is taken off the baby and disposed of, never to be used again.

App: attitudes lead to practice and a born again believer cannot be in the business of practicing sin, instead we must guard our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus and be conscience of our actions. We must pray “Lord show me my sin and strengthen me to cast it away.” Then refresh and renew ourselves in the holy word of God so that we may live a life of holiness that demonstrates the imperishable hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

As Christians we must embrace the attitude that is conducive for Spiritual Growth. Vs. 2-3

Peter tells us that we must develop a new attitude and it is the attitude of craving the word of God and its application into our lives.

The Longing for the Word

Long/Desire – epipotheō (Verb)= deep desire. crave

Word – logikos (adjective) = spiritual, reasonable. This word alludes to Peter’s use of logos in 1:23 and rhēma in 1:25, he is speaking of the nourishing milk contained in the Word of God.

Peter tells us that when it comes to God’s word we are to have the attitude of a hungry baby. Everyone here who has children knows a newborn cries for milk every couple of hours. Just as a baby grabs for the bottle we grab for the book! A baby needs the nourishment of milk to sustain and grown physically the Christian needs nourishment from the Word of God to sustain and grown spiritually. When a baby gets her bottle she stops crying and calms down, Peter uses this figurative language to illustrate what the Christian attitude towards the word of God ought to be.

I have found true in my life the necessity of the Word of God and my soul longs for the nourishment found in it. I can tell the difference between those days that I have feasted on God’s Word early in the morning and meditated on it the rest of the days and the days that the busyness of life snubs me of my time in God’s word. Those sweet moments of fellowship with Jesus draw me ever closer to Him and that is my desire to be close to Him.

The Purpose of the Word

Grow - auxanomai (verb)= increase

Ill: Its like depositing money into your checking account, the amount of money increases as you deposit more money into the account.

Peter is saying the Purpose is for growth (increase) in salvation. If you are here today and by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone you have been saved then you will never be more saved than you are now or at the moment of your salvation. Peter is talking about what A.T. Roberts calls Final Salvation, conformity to the image of Christ Jesus. It is by the pure milk of the Word of God that a believer grows up spiritually.

Note that Peters writes “so by it you may grow” not “so by it you may know.” There are people who know a lot but have never moved off the front step of a sanctifying life. Growth comes from study and application. The purpose of the Bible is not for you to become a smarter sinner but for you to become more like the Savior! Its purpose is to transform your life that you may be conformed to the image of the Savior.

Application: By grace through faith you have been saved and you have seen and tasted the goodness of God. Psalm 34:8 exhorts us: O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. His sacrifice for us was an act of unspeakable graciousness. What we have experienced in Him should increase our appetites to feed more and more on Him. We do this through the Word of God in our life, through the obedience of the divinely inspired Word of God. What does your Spiritual life look like? Are you a baby or are you increasing towards the image of Christ Jesus. Today I exhort you, since you have been born again from a seed which is imperishable and have been given a living hope through Jesus make it your resolution in 2022 to change your attitude and feast on the Word of God so that you may grown to full maturity in Christ Jesus.