How to Love Fervently
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Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
Learning to love music that ministered to the Spirit, rather than music that encouraged the flesh. It was at first, very hard. How do we do it? How do we change what we love? How do we change the way we love?
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
Wherefore-
I Pet 1.
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
This passage gives us why we should love fervently:
When we obeyed the truth of the gospel through the Spirit one of the reasons we were saved was to love the brethren sincerely
You were born again by means of the eternal word of God. This has value.
Peter now tells us how to love fervently, and He gives us two ways:
I. We must rid ourselves of the sins that destroy fellowship
I. We must rid ourselves of the sins that destroy fellowship
Laying aside- take off, lit. of clothes, fig. lay aside, rid oneself of
Laying aside- take off, lit. of clothes, fig. lay aside, rid oneself of
The First Epistle of Peter 4. Christian Identity (2:1–10)
What has been gotten rid of, however, is not the grosser vices of paganism, but community-destroying vices that are often tolerated by the modern church.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (2) Longing for the Pure Milk (2:1–3)
The sins listed tear at the social fabric of the church, ripping away the threads of love that keep them together.
The First Epistle of Peter 4. Christian Identity (2:1–10)
Especially when a community is under pressure there is a tendency to begin bickering and division, which only makes the community that much more vulnerable to outside pressure.
Malice- a mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition.”Ill-will”, “The force that destroys fellowship.” In this term we find the inner problem of the hear that will show up in the behaviors mentioned in the context.
Guile- taking advantage through craft and underhanded methods. “It indicates speaking or acting with ulterior (usually base) motives, that is, anything less than speaking the full and honest truth from the heart.”
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 80.
Hypocrisy- play-acting, pretense, outward show. “Any type of pretense or deception before God or man, or any inconsistency between doctrine and practice, inward thought and outward action, behavior in the church and behavior at home or in the marketplace.”
Envies- spite and resentment toward the success or possessions of another. Envy is an inward attitude behind much guile and hypocrisy. It is an impossible contradiction to one who has the mindset of Christ.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 81.
Evil speakings- the act of speaking ill of another, slander. Ironically, these Christians had become victims of slander by unbelievers.
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 519.
Yet this did not stop the community of believers from practicing it.
The First Epistle of Peter 4. Christian Identity (2:1–10)
Deceit is practiced to a person’s face, when one speaks only nicely of him or her, but for the person with envy and malice within, the insincerity will come out as he or she criticizes the person to others in that person’s absence. Whether this criticism is cloaked as “sharing a problem,” a “prayer request,” or a “concern,” it makes little difference.
Guile is usually practiced to a person’s face- you only say nice things when you are around that person. Anything less than speaking the full and honest truth from the heart.
ss Deceit is practiced to a person’s face, when one speaks only nicely of him or her, but for the person with envy and malice within, the insincerity will come out as he or she criticizes the person to others in that person’s absence. Whether this criticism is cloaked as “sharing a problem,” a “prayer request,” or a “concern,” it makes little difference.
But for the person with envy and evil speaking within, how does that usually come out? Not face to face, but how? Criticizing the person to others. How do we usually disguise or cloak this envy or evil speaking? As “sharing a problem,” a “prayer request,” or a “concern.” We need to be very careful that we do not allow these types of community destroying sins into our lives.
Whether this criticism is cloaked as “sharing a problem,” a “prayer request,” or a “concern,” it makes little difference.
“Peter has neatly cut the ground from any practice other than open truth and love among members of the Christian community; it may be the “tough love” of a rebuke, but Christians should be able to trust that no ulterior motives lie behind fellow-believers’ actions and that nothing is said in their absence that has not already been said to their face.”
We usually struggle most with these kinds of things when we are under pressure. It’s when I am sick, and tired, and run down, and at my wit’s end that I typically snap at my kids. These are the times when it is the hardest to love one another with a pure heart fervently. So how do we do it? Is it even possible? Yes
II. We must strongly desire that which brings spiritual growth
II. We must strongly desire that which brings spiritual growth
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Like newborn infants we are to
Desire- to have a strong desire for someth., with implication of need
Main command of this passage. Primary concern on Peter’s mind.
The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive;
And he shall be blessed upon the earth:
And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:
My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 377.
What are we to desire? milk- two adjectives
ἄδολος- sincere, unadulterated
λογικός- pert. to being carefully thought through, thoughtful, here in the context of I Peter it has the idea of spiritual
So we are to strongly desire the pure spiritual milk, that we may grow thereby.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (2) Longing for the Pure Milk (2:1–3)
The reference to “milk” (gala) in 1 Cor 3:1–3 and Heb 5:11–14 occurs in contexts where believers are indicted for spiritual immaturity, but we must beware of imposing those contexts on the Petrine usage.
Here in the context the pure spiritual milk is the substance whereby believers grow in their salvation. This has to be what Peter refereed to in 1.25
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 598.
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
So, if we are to love fervently we must desire, long for, with an urgent sense of need nothing other than the incorruptible, eternal, enduring Word of God. Nothing else must replace this longing.
When a newborn is crying it is usually doing so for three main reasons. 1). the baby is tired 2). the baby has a dirty diaper 3). the baby is hungry. If the baby is hungry there is nothing else on the planet that will satisfy that need other than milk.
We must desire God’s word, the pure and spiritual milk of the believer. Because it is only through the milk of the Word of God that we will be able to grow. In order to grow out of the sins of v. 1, in order to love one another with a pure heart fervently, we must have a heavy dependence upon the Word of God in our lives.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And as the Word dwells in us richly, the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God in our hearts to transform us into the image of God in our lives. So even when we are facing the pressures of life we can love each other fervently because we are depending on the power of God worked out in our lives through the word of God. So we will be no longer controlled by malice and guile and hypocrisy, and envy and evil speaking, but instead we will grow into the very image of God through the word of God and all of that stuff of the sins of our hearts will be replaced like a dirty pair of clothes with the fervent love of pure hearts, not because we tried harder, but because we depended more on the pure spiritual Word of God. And God will produce in us a love that models His love.
Peter adds one final encouragement to seek this kind of growth.
If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (2) Longing for the Pure Milk (2:1–3)
Peter wanted the readers to contemplate whether they have in fact experienced the kindness of the Lord, and he was confident that the answer would be affirmative.
O taste and see that the Lord is good:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Peter does not call us to blindly forsake sins and seek God. Rather He calls us to pause for but a moment and remember the thousands of mercies of God. It is that personal experience, that personal relationship with God, that if you have already taken but a mere taste of the kindness of God leaves believers desiring more.
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 81.
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 81.
What else in life have you tasted that even remotely compares to God? Why would you seek anything else? We all desire things, we all seek after things. As believers what we must always seek is God, and the way we earnestly seek Him, is by desiring the pure spiritual milk of His Word.
How have you been doing this week at seeking His Word?
What is life has replaced your desire to seek God through His Word?
How are you doing at loving one another fervently with a pure heart?
What sins are you participating in that are destroying fellowship with other believers?
Will you seek after God right now?