Part of a Family

Introduction

Engage

C.S. Lewis’ epic The Chronicles of Narnia track the story of four brothers and sisters and their journey in the mystical world Narnia. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy find themselves swept into the foreign place via a strange magic. There they journey through jagged terrain, meet strange new friends and foes, and fight of giants and witches. They rule kingdoms and conquer lands and they do it all together, as a family.

Like all siblings they have their moments of squabbling but they are united by their common adventure. Not one could survive Narnia alone and back in England they alone know of its existence. They look out for each other and care for each other because it is their duty.

Focus

The Holidays are now upon us a family is often font and center. Perhaps this is in your mind a great joy, a great pain, or some where in between. Either way, as the four children in Lewis’ story were bound to each other by blood and calling, we are also bound to our family. Our blood and marital family of course, but also our Spiritual family. Perhaps you wonder in today’s world how the Church which is spread as it is and different as it is can act like a family at all let alone a functional one. What does true Christian fellowship look like, what is it motivated by?

Set the Stage

As we look at a third Characteristic of the Christian life from Peter’s first letter he answers these questions by illustrating true Christian fellowship, real fellowship. To non-Jewish Christians spread abroad in the Roman region of Asia Minor he reminds them that they are untied together as one family.

Preview

By way of reminder and exhortation Peter reminds them of their motivation to love and the way they ought to do this. Peter shows us that the gospel has to affects on our love for our brothers and sisters in the faith.

A Gospel Produced Family (1:22-23)

While Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy in Narnia had a love for each other produced by blood and duty Christians have one produced by the gospel. No matter what our physical or biological conditions may be our salvation unites us.

Peter illustrates that obedience to the gospel produces an ongoing love. Our faith, which has been given to us by God for eternity through his Word, manifests itself in love.

1 Peter 1:22–23 ESV

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;

Peter says something of our own salvation here. That they come by means of obedience to the truth which most often means the gospel in the New Testament. Peter does not intend to say here that your obedience has saved you by merit and power within itself. Instead, your obedience which was produced by God’s Word which he enlightened to you by the power of the Holy Spirit has saved you.

Peter also does not intend to make our ability to love a means of salvation. He is stating that since we have been saved, since we have been so loved, we can now love one another. Our salvation through faith in Christ is what makes it possible to love at all.

The gospel unlocks in us the ability to love one another. How can a Jewish Peter write these words to gentile believers? The gospel. He echos John in saying that we love because we were first loved.

How is that a bible college student from Joplin and families of farmers in Dadeville can love each other? The gospel.

How is it that once a year the three churches in this community can gather to eat and worship together despite differences in preference? The gospel.

You have been purified for a sincere and ongoing, never ceasing, brotherly affection. How has God made this love, this new family possible? By making us born again. Being ushered into this new family. This love is produced by the gospel and so is this family.

Its like the young high school student who finds themselves at odds with one of the other Christians at their school. It could be that they go to different churches or perhaps their part of the same worship body but this other boy has different interests, and different friends, and he’s a little socially awkward. Other students begin to gossip about him and the temptation is to join, whats the harm if other people are already doing it? Yet this text says love one another, from a pure heart. That no matter how different they may be you actually have more in common with them than with the other students who aren’t Christians because the gospel has tied you together.

Or perhaps you’re like the woman organizing an event within the community and another woman from another church just gets on your nerves. And there is fighting and arguing as a multitude of parties try to get there own way and this woman from the other church is sold on her idea. The opportunity here would be to continue the fighting and arguing aiming for your way, yet, the others are looking. They know you two profess Christ and your call in love is to yield your own desires for the sake of the gospel, you love your sister.

We are bound to our siblings in love.

Through the preaching of God’s word our souls are ignited to first believe and respond to the gospel and it is through the ongoing preaching and abiding of his Word that we remain. The reading and preaching of scripture is vital to the family of God because it holds us together. It reveals how we should love our family and live in light of the gospel which is where Peter moves next.

A Gospel Seasoned Family

A family which has been produced by the gospel and loves because they have been born again is also seasoned by the gospel. The fruit of their life is gospel fruit. They look like Jesus in their dealings with one another.

Not These Things (2:1)

Peter here gives us a short list of vices the Christian has thrown off that destroy the family.

1 Peter 2:1 ESV

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

This isn’t an exhaustive list but I think Peter is very intentional in what he chooses to go into it. Notice how each of these has a specific impact on relationships.

Malice

Malice is ill will or a mean spirit. Perhaps it comes off via shortness or rudeness. It is a general wishing of ill against you fellow Christian. Its obvious that it is difficult to have a relationship with someone you are wishing ill against let alone be their brother or sister.

This is everything from joy when they don’t get a promotion or when something goes wrong for them to deliberately trying to cause havoc for them.

Deceit

Deceit is taking advantage of one another, using each other for a purpose to meet our own ends. To deceive someone means to be disingenuous. Rather than looking to other needs and wants you look to your own.

This may be the church leader who uses his congregation for financial profit to the High School student who lies about being friends with the other Christians not wanting to associate with them.

Hypocrisy

Closely linked is hypocrisy. This is literally to pretend, to be a play act. This is to lie about or own sins and shortcoming while being totally willing and even eager to call out another person’s. Again it has self preservation and promotion in mind.

Everything from our judgmental mindsets when a local known more by their drinking than anything else walks in to a group gossiping about another couples marriage while ignoring the fault in their own.

Envy

Perhaps the most invasive yet least talked bout sin within the Church. Not just wishing to have what other have, but wishing they didn’t have it by tearing them down, making them seem unworthy.

Envy may be wanting the position of another person in the church to boasting about our own status with our words or what we wear.

Slander

Finally, slander. This is the use of words to tear another person down. Typically lies or exaggerations. In my generation it is justified when people feel as though they must blow off some steam. It has in mind the idea of making someone else look bad so that you can look better.

Slander is intentionally lying about how she raises her kids or about his work ethic just when we have no idea what is really going on.

Notice that each of these hides the person committing the sin while unfairly casting negative attention on the one they are sinning against. They are motivated out of selfishness to get something you want while using your brothers and sisters to get it.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of sins that tear down the family, but it does highlight those sins that are often focused outward and have the most lethal power to kill relationships and split churches. Peter says put them away. More precisely he says take them off. The word for removing garments. Of course when we remove one set of garments we put on a new set of garments instead.

But These Things (4:8-11)

Instead of selfish desires and seeking to promote oneself the family of God seeks to humbly serve each other.

Peter tells the family that they should keep love as their number one priority by serving each other with their various gifts for the advancement of the gospel and the glory of God.

1 Peter 4:8–11 ESV

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Why we love

For Each other

Something strange happens when we love. Those qualities and tendencies and behaviors in our brothers and sisters which annoy us and which may even be sins are covered up by our acts of love and service.

As opposed to he list of vices we examined which make use of others short comings to prop up oneself the Christian attitude and heart ought to be moved towards love.

When you hear of the scandal within the community or within the family rather than gossiping we should move in love and service towards the person caught in sin, restoring them gently. Within this family there should never be an attitude of vindictiveness and we should never seek to use someone’s failing as a way to ruin them or advance ourselves. We love, above all, keeping love first.

This is not to say that we look over sins, but that in our love sins do not cause the ruin of the family because we respond to sin with more of our own sinning.

For God’s glory

When we act and live this way as a family united under the gospel we look different. In the world each person looks out for themselves seeing every opportunity as one to help themselves, to point to them.

The Christian is able to love though because we do not point to ourselves. We see every opportunity as the opportunity to make Jesus look good. We love for God’s glory.

That in everything God may be gloried through Jesus.

Peter gives us a few different ways we may serve the body in such a manner that brings glory to God.

How We Love

We love by ministering the gospel and by serving one another. Peter seems to suggests that the Christian serves in two primary ways depending on their gift. These overlap but each person has a certain affinity. Acts of Service and the Preaching or Speaking of the Word of God.

Acts of Service

Peter does not here provide an exhaustive list of gifts and ways to serve the family, but he gives some key guidelines. Those who serve do so cheerfully and by the strength of God.

When we show hospitality Peter says do so without grumbling. Not taking the service opportunity to begrudge the work, but doing so with the chief end of the family’s good in mind.

This is possible when we recognize that our spiritual gifts, our service, is not about us, boosting our self esteem, but its about the strengthening the faith and resolve of our brothers and sisters. We do not serve to look or feel good, we serve to build the family up.

Perhaps you’re naturally hospitable. If so the call is to graciously open your home and not just to those you know and love, but to the new comer who isn’t quite acclimated to the culture and the old comer who you have tried your best to peacefully avoid. Its reminding each other of the gospel with our words around the dinner table as we live out the gospel in our preparation for their visit.

Perhaps its even simpler. Doing yard work for the widow in the congregation because that is what family does.

The Ministry of the Word

Peter says some speak as their service and they ought to speak the oracles of God. there are those among us who’s greatest service to the family is there ability to communicate. These people should only be concerned with speaking the words of God as he has revealed them. When I preach I do not preach primarily from my own wisdom or experience. When you instruct a fellow believer the same things is true. Do not aim to pass along conventional wisdom or common sense. Seek to speak the very words of God.

These are not new revelations. My words from the pulpit should never be taken as is they were Scripture, but my words should be so saturated in Scripture, in that they aim to unpack the text, that I speak the gospel when I speak and nothing else.

Sure this is preaching and teaching. Its what I do and what ______ does, but its more. Its intentional family worship with your kids. Its not shrugging off the person who is asking advice, again, for the same issue, but speaking kindly into their need. Its passing along your spiritual practices to the next generation. It speaking the gospel in love in every conversation you have until we are a community known only for one thing and its that we are a family united under king Jesus through thick and thin.

All of this, whether acts of service or the speaking of God’s word, are done by his power, so he gets the glory. We can’t point to ourselves when we serve because we know it was never us to begin with that empowered us to serve. The Christian doesn’t serve when its convenient or popular, but has service as a lifestyle. Such a lifestyle that the only logical explanation for it all is that something from without us motivates us to love our strange family that we have been given.

Conclusion

The story of Narnia illustrates this all so well that I want to return. Without spoiling it I want to use a part of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy’s story to illustrate what true Christian family intent on serving each other to God’s glory well. At the beginning of the first book Lucy finds herself alone in Narnia yet non of her sibling believe in her or her story of the faun she met there. eventually Edmund finds himself there alone and in cahoots with the which, the enemy in the story, who promises to make him a king if he brings the others back with him. Not wanting to spoil his fortune he lies about ever being in Narnia so his siblings don’t suspect anything and when they have all finally entered the strange world his heart is so hard and intent on following the witch that he betrays his own sibling to follow the which. She ends up treating him treacherously and using him to wage her war and it takes the sacrifice of a Aslan, the Lion and Christ figure, to free him. He is wounded fighting the which in the end and Lucy uses one of her gifts to heal him and when he is restored all the sibling are strictly charged not to bring up the past any longer but to receive him back. Rather than showing malice they receive him back in love and service as part of the family. Good wins and Narnia is restored and the sibling reign together.

We of course do find ourselves fighting witches and werewolf's, but we engaged in battle. We are fighting to bring the gospel and to glorify our God, to be part of the good and we have been given each other to do it with. It is only together as one family united by the gospel and empowered by the Spirit using our various gifts to love and serve one another that we can be the family, the church that God intended us to be. You’re part of a family, so love and serve each other as a family ought.