A PILGRIM'S LOVE

Introduction

-{1 Peter}

-Many popular songs, shows, and movies have some element about love in them, but the love that they depict is unstable, volatile—it is constantly changing and tossed around like waves on the beach. You see characters on TV that change their object of love more often than I change socks. There is a discontentment in the love that is portrayed, and then our culture encourages that same view of love to bleed into real life, and you have people going from one boyfriend/girlfriend to another (which then leads to people jumping from one spouse to another). There is no commitment in this love, and it is very selfish. So, when you hear the word or concept of love spoken about you need to really pay attention to what kind of love it portrays. This worldly kind of love is no love at all.

-I mention all this to make comparison to the love that is real and eternal and stable—and how that is then demonstrated in our life. Because it starts with the love of God for us, and then that bleeds into our life, flowing through us unto others, especially the church.

-So, I’ve been doing a study in 1 Peter, and Peter tells Christians that we are simply pilgrims in this world. This world is not our home, it is merely a journey before we get to our final destination. But there is a certain way we live while we are on this journey, and so Peter is trying to describe that for us. Immediately before the passage I’m about to read, Peter talked about the Pilgrim’s lifestyle, one where our mind is set on our future hope, and we live in holiness, and we seek to honor God with our lives. This then leads us to love. But it is nothing like the human, worldly love that we are used to in the media. What I want us to find today is that a true, Christian love has a supernatural source that leads to a supernatural change which leads us to be conduits of love.

1 Peter 1:22–2:3 ESV

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 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.

-{pray}

-This will be a simple message that will hopefully open us to accept the love of God that then empowers us to be a spring from where love flows to others.

1) The supernatural source of love

-What I’ve noticed about Peter’s writings is that he throws at you so much rich, theological detail that it’s difficult sometimes to pinpoint the main thrust of his message. Everything else supports the main point, but it’s like a puzzle that you have to piece together. Now, the main thrust of this particular passage is found at the end of v. 22—LOVE ONE ANOTHER EARNESTLY FROM A PURE HEART. Peter is saying to the Christian pilgrim—this is part of your journey; you are to love other people in a way that perseveres.

-You don’t follow the culture where people fall in and out of love every day. But you are to love other people consistently and constantly—and this is especially true of the church. And not only is our love for others consistent and constant, but it is a love that is clean, without any impure motives behind it. It is pure in the sense that you don’t expect anything in return and your love is not contingent on what you can get out of the deal.

-But, let’s face it, that’s a tall order. So, how do we get there, because we know that by our nature we love ourselves more than we love anybody else? Well, that’s where all these other details come in. To sum it up, you are able to love others like that because you have been loved like that in a very specific way. It is completely based on the supernatural love given to you that you in turn can give it to others.

-He tells us in v. 23 that you live out this love toward others since you have been born again. This returns to a theme that Peter mentioned earlier in v. 3, where Peter says that God caused us to be born again—we have been given a new birth and given a new life. Everything about us becomes new, even if we don’t feel it or our emotions are not in line with it, it is still true of us.

-Well, how did we become born again? How did we receive a new life that lets us love others earnestly and from a pure heart? He tells us that we have been born again through the living and abiding word of God, which planted an imperishable seed in our hearts. What does that all mean? Generally, the Word of God refers to the entire revelation of God in the Bible; but more specifically, here it refers to the gospel message—as Paul tells us elsewhere, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (specifically, the good news of salvation).

-The imperishable seed is the gospel message. First, God so loved you. But how did God demonstrate that love? It wasn’t by letting us do whatever it is that we wanted to do according to our own desires and passions. Rather, God so loved us that He gave His Son. What did the Son do? The Son left the glories of heaven, and became a human being, and lived a perfect life, but then died on the cross to be our substitute (to take the punishment for our sin in our place), and then He rose from the dead. God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Then, what’s to be our response? Well, whoever believes in Him does not perish for eternity, but is given eternal life.

-We are called to love one another earnestly from a pure heart since we have received that love by being born again by grace through faith in the gospel message of Jesus Christ. This living, abiding word of God does not come from any sort of human ingenuity. As Peter quotes from Isaiah, all the things of the world and the flesh are like grass that withers. But the gospel message, the Word of God, the good news that is preached to you comes from God Himself and remains forever. It never changes and can never be altered.

-But how does that make us love? We return to v. 22—we’re able to love because of the new life we received. It specifically says that we obeyed the truth (meaning we believed and trusted the gospel message about Jesus Christ), and this gave us new life which purified our souls so that we could have a sincere brotherly love for other people. We believe the gospel message that God loved us so He sent Jesus to die for us, and that in turn changes our nature (purifies our souls) so that we are able to earnestly and purely love everybody else.

-So, here’s the thing—without this new life and the complete change that it brings, it is impossible for you to love like Christians are called to do. Without this purification of soul you will not be able to love your family or your church, much less love your enemies like Christ calls you to do. You first experience God’s supernatural love, and then you can show others that supernatural love.

-This is not something that can be conjured up by the flesh. This is not something that can be faked. You cannot muster up enough energy to keep up the kind of love that Peter is calling for. You first receive, and then you show.

-This is a weird illustration, but imagine that someone said they want me to show up on Monday at a lot that they bought, and they want me to be the manual labor that will build their dream home on that lot. (And if you know me and my skill set, you know why this is a very weird illustration). But imagine they tell me to show up to start work on building their house. So, I get there early Monday morning, and I find that there is nothing there for me to be able to build the house. There are no blueprints. There is no foundation laid. There’s no lumber and other supplies. There’s no tools with which to work. Later, they drive up and start grilling me why their house isn’t built yet. I tell them, I can’t build your house because you haven’t gotten me the equipment that’s necessary to build the house. I can’t do what you told me to do if you don’t supply me with what I need to get it done.

-We cannot love like we’re supposed to love until we’re first supplied with the love that makes it possible. And that is the love of God in Christ. This is our supernatural source: I am presented with the living and abiding Word of God, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I obey the truth by obeying the call to believe in Jesus. I am then born again and my soul is purified so that I can then love others earnestly from a pure heart. So, after that happen, what does this love look like?

2) The supernatural picture of love

-In vv. 1-3 of chapter 2, Peter tells us what this love looks like. He gives this picture from two different angles: a negative angle and a positive angle or, what you don’t do when you love like this and what you do when you love like this.

-So, v. 1 of chapter 2 begins with the negative. He tells us to put away something. The word literally means to stop doing what you are accustomed to doing. It is more figuratively used to talk about taking off something like a dirty garment.

-You get done working in the yard all day, you’re clothes are covered with grass and mud and grime and sweat. You can’t wear that all day (and have a happy wife), and you don’t want to track all that dirt around the house, so you take off the dirty stuff so you can get yourself clean.

-We love by taking off these sinful ways of treating other people. We get rid of the habits that are the opposite of love. He gives a list of vices that we’re to stop doing, that we’re to take off, because these sins are not compatible with the love that we are called to demonstrate. You cannot rightly love people and do these things. What are we to take off and put away?

-First, he lists malice. The word describes a vicious attitude or disposition. It is such a feeling of hostility and strong dislike toward someone that you actually wish them ill-will. It’s when you hate someone so much that you hope that harm comes to them. Now, most of us would deny ever feeling that way, but let’s face it—there’s probably been times when we thought that a well-timed accident would rid us of some pest and make our lives easier. That’s of the flesh and the sinful nature and it has no part or place in a Christian’s heart. If we are to love as Peter calls us to, we can’t say that we love and then wish ill-will on someone.

-Next it tells us to put away deceit. The word means to take advantage of someone through crafty, underhanded methods. In a sense, it’s trying to manipulate someone through lies and falsehoods. It might not even be through outright lies, but by twisting the truth in such a way to your advantage that you make someone believe one thing when really something else is the truth.

-Next is says that hypocrisy is incompatible with love. We know that hypocrisy means to put on a mask or a facade. It’s to create a false public impression that is at odds with your real agenda. What it’s describing is someone who pretends that they love like a Christian pilgrim is supposed to love, but it’s all a show. They act all loving when other people are around because that’s the image they want to impress upon people and they know that’s what’s expected of them. But it’s not a reflection of the real them. When they’re alone or with people who think like they truly think, they act completely different, and usually their words and actions and attitudes reflect all these other things that we’re told to put off.

-Then we are told to put away envy. This is jealousy over some sort of advantage that you perceive others have, such that it leads you to harbor ill-will toward that person. Other people have something that you don’t have, and it infuriates you, and you become so obsessed with it. And not only can’t you be happy for that person who has it (whatever it is), it might even get to the point that you wished they would lose it (if I can’t have it I don’t want them to have it either). You cannot love someone earnestly from a pure heart when you can’t rejoice in someone else’s joy or even wish they wouldn’t have something that is the object of your affection.

-Finally, Peter says to put off slander. This is to speak ill of someone and to defame their name and character. Whether you do it in front of their face or behind their back, it’s when you assassinate someone’s character for whatever reason—whether you don’t like their attitude or there was a perceived harm. This obviously covers gossip (one of the favorite sin of Southern Baptists), but it also includes social media posts that are put out there with the intent of making someone look bad in other people’s eyes—whether it is someone you know personally or it could be someone famous that you want to put down to make yourself feel better.

-Listen, you cannot say that you have been touched by the supernatural love of God and that you are a conduit of that supernatural love, and then have these actions and attitudes as regular habits in your life. Love of people will not allow you to treat people in this fashion. You cannot say you love people and then hold malice against them and deal with them deceitfully and be hypocritical about your love and be jealous and slander people. Today is a day for all of us to repent. If we say we are Christian, we need to love like it.

-And I’m an offender as much as the next person. It can be so easy for me to talk about people who annoy me. It can be really easy for me to get on social media and take potshots at people who disagree with me politically or theologically—say things I wouldn’t say to their faces should I ever meet them. But that’s not the love we are called to. We’re called to be better than that.

-And we can be better than that, because of the positive aspect of this picture of love. Because, Peter tells us that instead of acting this way here’s what we do so that we truly can cultivate this love and be a shining picture of this love. He says that like newborn infants, we are to long for pure spiritual milk. If you have ever had any dealings with a newborn baby, you know that they need to be fed on a regular basis, and they have their own schedule—they don’t follow your schedule. When they are hungry they want to be fed and they don’t care what you might be doing, especially if it has to do with sleep. They have the craving and they want to be fed.

-We too have a craving, but it’s not for milk—it’s for the Word of God. We are to crave God’s Word more than anything else, because it is only then that we grow and find more joy in the Lord. It grows us in our salvation—meaning, that it matures us in the faith and we live out our salvation more and more. And that includes love. If we want to love like we’re called to and put away the things that really are the opposite of love, then we need to crave and hunger for God’s Word. God’s Word will mature this love within us. The more that I am feeding on the Word of God, the more I understand the attitudes and actions it takes to show this supernatural love to others.

Conclusion

-Peter ends this section by saying that this is only possible if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. That means that you have experienced the love of God in Christ. You can’t ride anybody else’s coattails into salvation and into this love. If I ate a delicious cheesecake, and someone asks you how the cheesecake tasted, you wouldn’t be able to answer them because you didn’t taste the cheesecake. Only those who have experienced can testify to how good it is.

-How can you testify to God’s love if you haven’t tasted and seen that the Lord is good? If that’s you, today is the day that you can taste and see that He is good. Believe in Jesus and experience His love, and then you will be able to share that love with others.

-Christian, today needs to be a day of repenting of how far we have fallen short of earnestly loving others from a pure heart. Did you ever think that revival is being held back from us because of our lack of love or that we love wrongly? Come to the altar and ask God to take away any of those vices that might be in your heart, and ask Him to renew your commitment to that love.

-Maybe you’re looking for a church home in which to be loved and in which to share that love. You have found it at Harvest Baptist Church...