Thrive - Love One Another

Love One Another

1 Peter Encourages Us To Thrive by:

Looking back to the great salvation that God has accomplished for us.

Looking forward to the great salvation before us and the appearing of Christ and the consummation of the Kingdom of God

Perseverance in the now to live lives of holiness, in the fear of God, loving one another in spite of the circumstances we find ourselves in.

(Reminder of the fruitful soil in Luke 8:15 was soil that heard the word and persevered)

Identity recap

You are called, chosen, foreknown, born again, children of God.

You are not what others say you are, their labels are not truth.

You are not the summation of all your sins

You are not dependent on the recognition of others.

Conforming to their approval and slaves of their recognition.

You will thrive when you rest and hear the voice of the Lord saying to you, “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The 4 Pillars of Value & Christian Ethics:

Hope - Living life and evaluating decisions based on eternal significance.

Why do you do what you do?

Holiness - Imitating your Father in Heaven. Set apart and consecrated. The entirety of your life and resources in life belong to Him. Holiness is giving yourself to Him.

Fear of God

Not terror or fear of punishment but reverence and awe because of Love.

Parents can motivate by fear or love. Fear will produce hate. Love will produce respect.

Love One Another

Peter’s Exhortation

Peter is exhorting them to work out their salvation by building a life of ethics/values that is rooted in the salvation that God has given to them. The root of our values and ethics are in the holy and loving character of God.

It isn’t rooted in trying to earn God’s favor or love or earn his blessings or check a box off or even to make myself feel better. It is rooted in my new identity and the imitation of my loving holy Father.

For contrast (this is an oversimplification):

The World bases their ethics on consensus and on what makes sense to most rational people which is why it is ever evolving. What is right or wrong in “modern times” free from the shackles of religious oppression.

Christians have been given new life and identity and it is this that provides the ground of our new morality, that does not evolve or change because God does not change.

The proper motive for morals comes only from God’s work of grace - Philippians 2:12–13“...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

And a life pleasing to God finds its blueprint in the pages of the bible.

These 4 pillars create the grid for our evaluation of what is right or wrong.

Does it conform to the character of God

Is it the natural outcome of a life that has benefited from the salvation of God

Will it stand up to God’s scrutiny in that final day when he ushers us into his glorious presence?

So there are things we must do and not do, this is what Peter will teach us next.

1 Peter 1:22–2:3“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

The highest expression of obeying the truth (believing the truth) is to love one another.

Spiritual maturity - how well you love. Not the amount of miracles you have seen, not the amount of gifts of the spirit you operate in, rather it is how well you love.

“Love one another deeply from the heart”

This is consistent with Jesus’ teaching: John 13:34–35 ““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.””

No where else in the world did the supremacy of this virtue called love characterize an entire movement.

This love is without hypocrisy, in other words, it is genuine, not faked. Not pretending to love in front of their face then gossiping about them behind their back.

It’s about truly willing the good and best for them.

A hypocrite originally designated actors in the theater. Hypocrisy for us would be denying our true convictions and acting like the world, which we are not. Not because we aren’t doing what we say but because we aren’t doing who we are.

His new nature within us empowers us to love as he loves.

Which means: we must rid ourselves of some things.

We will thrive by ridding ourselves of:

We reject these things based on our new identity and God’s nature within us.

These sins stop love.

Malice: Evil/Wickedness

Deceit: Trickery or lying: exaggerations to make yourself look better in the eyes of others because you don’t trust in the goodness and greatness of the Father enough to speak the unvarnished truth.

Acts of hypocrisy: the opposite of sincerity.

Acting in love in front of people but talking bad about them behind their back to others. Which is the next one- slander.

Slander: shaming others to look good or better.

Why would you do these things?

All of us are intimately aware of our participation in these sins. My prayer is that if they are still apart of your life that you would become aware to stop them. Because these sins stop love. You cannot love and also participate with these sins.

Envy/Jealousy: The big sin that destroys and reveals NO LOVE.

Proverbs 14:30 “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

We see Envy in the parable in Matthew 20.

Matthew 20:13–15““But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’”

Envy goes further than just wanting what someone else has; it is the begrudging, frustrating consternation that that person has it. We start to give the evil eye.

The origin of the word envy comes from the latin word - invidia which means to look on, to gaze, to give the stink eye to others.

In Greek it means: eye begrudging heart or simply evil eye.

Do you have resentment and frustration because others have a blessing in their lives that you don’t or, as in the laborers’ case, you don’t think they have earned like you did?

Are you angry at someone because you think God has been more generous to them than He has to you?

Hypocrisy looks like envying someone when you are a child of God. It will stop love and stop you from living as who you are.

Thread throughout scripture:

Cain

Rachel

Korah and the rebellion against Moses

Saul

1 Samuel 18:8–9“Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.”

He was not content with what God gave him, he wanted more than someone else. It was really hatred toward God for what He did for David.

Pharisees

Envy says I want what they have and since I don’t have it, hatred rises towards those that do.

Envy says “it’s not fair that they always get the breaks, they always get the best, it always happens for them and not me!”

Social Media

It refuses to be grateful to the sovereign God for what he has given us and wants more. More not for the sake of glorifying God but for the sake of having more than someone else. Better than someone else. Prettier than others, more successful than others. It can’t help but compare.

Paul said: Love does not envy.

When we envy someone we rejoice with their weeping and weep with their rejoicing.

We are to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Because you can be content because God has said he will never leave you nor forsake you! You are complete in Christ!

Grow with Milk / Desire the Word!

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Instead of craving the former sins of the flesh, crave the nourishment that comes from God’s Word. Milk in the Greek world represented learning. This craving also implies the need just as a child needs nourishment.

He is not saying that we graduate from milk or from babies. He also is not referring to our spiritual maturity as babies but rather the attitude and desire within a baby for their mother’s milk. They crave it and they need it - so should you!

Jesus said to Martha: “Luke 10:41–42““Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.””

Problems that arise from not desiring the right things… Malice, envy, etc.

This craving for spiritual nourishment should be like the cravings of nursing children for milk. When we are craving spiritual nourishment as a church we will thrive instead of being involved in demonic disputes of envy and such.

The very foundation for desiring the Word of God and the spiritual craving is that the Lord is good.

God is the source of the milk.

And as a child nurses from his/her mother’s breast, a special unbreakable bond is formed, So as we taste the goodness of the Lord in His Word, we mature in this relationship.

God is good

Reminder of Peter in Luke 5 who experienced the goodness of the Lord.

Peter did not deserve it earn it.

It changed the course of his life.

It is the goodness of the Lord that brings us to repentance

The goodness of God is not hypothetical or theoretical. It is experienced.