Consecrated Love

Consecrated Love 1 Peter 1:22-25 Context • Peter’s first words explore the heights of Christian theology. • Several themes emerge: hope, inheritance, holiness, imperishable, sovereignty • Chapter 1 has four commands, three of which we’ve already covered: set your hope (v. 13), be holy (v. 15), and conduct yourselves with fear (v. 17). These commands are vertical – they’re between you and God. • In the fourth command of Chapter 1, Peter transitions to the horizontal – a command relating to our relationships. • Outline: The Command; The Description; The Proof. Peter’s Command to Love (1:22a) • “Having purified” – taps the rich Old Testament picture of consecration unto service (Exodus 19:10; Numbers 8:21). • “The Truth” is shorthand for “the truth of the gospel” – see Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5-6; 1 Timothy 2:4) • Peter’s straightforward command goes like this: “Since all Christians have already been consecrated by the truth of the gospel for the specific service of brotherly love, love one another.” • Peter uses two Greek words for love interchangeable – it’s an all-encompassing love both emotional and active (see Acts 2:42-47). Peter’s Description of Love (1:22b) • Peter describes the love he’s commanding in two ways: “earnestly” and “from a pure heart.” • From a Pure Heart: in Greek, this phrase leads the sentence: “from a pure heart, love …”; Peter defines love by the absence of contaminants (he describes those is 2:1); “pure” is taken from the world of theater, meaning an absence of two-facedness. • Earnestly: intense and unrelenting (see Acts 12:5); in 4:8 Peter says this kind of love is perpetually forgiving. Peter’s Description of Love (1:22b) • Purity and Intensity keep us from a host of unloving actions: 1. Remaining only slightly attached and aloof from God’s people. 2. Harboring secret accusations of another believer’s motives. 3. Thinking oneself better or higher than another believer to an attitude that, at best, resembles pity instead of affection. 4. Loving the wrong people more than we love God’s people (secular people who’s respect we want to gain; godless or bitter relatives; people who refuse to love in return). Peter’s Proof of Love (1:23-25) • Peter gives a two-part proof for his high estimation of brotherly love – regeneration by the eternal Word. • You were born again by the actions of the Wordmade-flesh, the Person who loved us more than we’ll ever know (see John 1:14-18) • His arrival was predicted in the loving proclamation of God (see Isaiah 40:6ff) • Summary of God’s Loving Word: The God of Love (Jeremiah 31:2-3) lovingly predicted (Isaiah 40:6; 54:10) the Incarnation of love (1 John 4:6) who, in love (John 3:16), would love us to the end (John 13:1) and command us to love as He loves (John 13:34). Reflections 1. Through trials, God has forged some of the closest local church relationships I have ever seen – FBC is to be commended for our closeness. Love that profound must be guarded. 2. In recent months, God has brought us several new people who are in the process of connecting to our body. To those folks, I would ask, “How do you plan to draw closer to our body in love?” If that hasn’t been a question you’ve asked, why not? Is it time to draw closer?