God’s Word and Our Holiness

Introduction:

Peter has made high claims to his readers that also serve as a challenge to us.

As we wrestle with what it means to be a saved people in the world, we are reminded of:

God’s foreknown plan of redemption.

The value of the sacrifice for redemption.

Seeing suffering for righteousness sake as part of that plan, not outside of it.

Our consecration to genuine brotherly love which compels us to obey the command to “love one another constantly.”

We must remain in the frame of mind that Peter’s audience, like us, needed clarity on living as a believer caught between two worlds.

Being a believer in God’s redemptive plan, brings with the high responsibility of conducting ourselves commensurate with that plan.

Love and the New Birth

In this letter, Peter uses a form of ἀναγεννάω, in participial form.

It refers to having a rebirth. (Elaborate on the implications of this for a moment).

Note 1 Pet. 1:3.

This descriptor is designed to frame the command to “love one another.”

There is are two realities about believers that compels us to love one another.

We have consecrated our lives to genuine brotherly love.

We are reborn eternally.

Peter frames his audience, then, as those having a rebirth that is of godly rather than human origin.

The Rebirth and the Word of God

Peter’s goal, however, is to draw his readers’ attention to the power and reliability of the Word of God.

This would also include considering the readers’ access/source to the Word of God.

Hence, it is “through the living and abiding Word of God.”

There are alternative explanations here (run through them if time).

His point seems to be that being reborn from eternal seed took place through the Word of God.

Thus, Peter’s readers stand as who they are through the reliable Word of God.

Peter’s subsequent quotation of Is. 40:6 points the reader to trustworthiness and reliability of God’s word. Peter seems to making some deep reference to the following:

Living on the fulfillment side of God’s promised salvation. There must be an “in suspension” aspect to the unfilled/uncompleted side of God’s promise.

The Apostles, like Peter, as bearers, much as Isaiah was, of the gospel of God’s fulfillment and promise. This would reinforce the point Peter made in 1 Pet. 1:19-20 about God’s overall purpose in salvation. Everything, including the suffering for righteousness sake, God foreknew.

. So, it was not just the events and person of Jesus that saved them, instead, even that came about through the proclamation/heralding of God’s word. When they heard and believed, they were born again.

Confident living as believers in this world looks like people living out consecrated lives. We should have confidence on the front end, that is we believe the events about what God has brought to pass through Jesus as reported in the Gospel, and we live as people who trust the rest of the Gospel that Jesus will return (bringing to pass the promise mentioned in the earlier section).

Part 2: Introduction

Peter has written to admonish and to assure.

We might be sympathetic to the audience for their lack of certainty.

His key issue in the paragraph has been to declare that rebirth from God leads to changed conduct.

Behavior sets God’s people apart.

This was not normal for ancient people. Philosophy articulated theories about the nature of the gods and about ethical behavior. Religion, usually, was about sacrifice.

We can see that 1 Peter, like Paul in places such as Romans 12, combines the two.

He also has begun to touch on a note that he will rely upon in 2 Peter, namely, the connection between the fulfillment of prophecy, apostolic instruction, and proper living.

What guides us into the lifestyle we should lead?

Notice also the emphasis upon the old vs. the new.

Guidance Beyond Salvation

Peter has been clear that having “believers” was not God’s goal. His was to have a people who were distinguished by their mode of living.

The main idea, yet again, gets expressed in an imperative. Beginning in v. 13-25, he has used 4 thus far.

This main idea is “desire the reasonable/genuine unadulterated milk.”

The goal is “so that you all might grow in it unto salvation.”

Context would suggest that Peter wants his readers to live with confidence and remain in apostolic instruction. To learn to live as the people God saved them to be, they should remain within this system.

Another possibility is that Peter has in mind the lifestyle associated with the new birth. They should embrace the responsibility with eagerness with the end salvation in mind.

This latter meaning might make the most sense in light of the descriptor that precedes it.

Peter describes them as ones having set aside all evil (perhaps a reference to hateful malice/hateful hostility), deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.

Peter does not move far without reminding his readers that this has all been God’s doing. He uses scripture to stress this.

Petrine Point #2: You are Constructed as a Spiritual House

Peter adds a brief statement that brings the audience to contemplate that positive “lust” with their experience of the Lord’s goodness.

Psalm 34:8.

He will now return to overarching purpose.

The dividing line between these “sojourners” and the remainder of humanity is their view of the Lord.

Peter now does something very intriguing with the way he plays off of “Kurios.”

While the language that follows will be developed/supported by the scriptures, Peter’s point is less to develop high theology as it is to stress to his audience the implications of being associated with God through Christ.

Hence the calls to behavior are to understood, now, from the perspective of being constructed as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices please to God through Jesus Christ.

If we keep reading, we get a sense of what that means in 1 Pet. 1:9-12.