How Can I Love Other People? - 1 Peter 1:22-25
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Introduction
Introduction
1967 - John Lennon / Paul Mccartney (The Beatles)
1 Peter 1
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy
Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
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An anecdote from the early 1900s (Lottie Moon’s era) beautifully illustrates how Christians ought to be grateful for what Christ has done for them. While on a three-story scaffold at a construction site one day, a building engineer tripped and fell toward the ground in what appeared to be a fatal plummet. Right below the scaffold, a laborer looked up just as the man fell, realized he was standing exactly where the engineer would land, braced himself, and absorbed the full impact of the other man’s fall. The impact slightly injured the engineer but severely hurt the laborer. The brutal collision fractured almost every bone in his body, and after he recovered from those injuries, he was severely disabled.
Years later, a reporter asked the former construction laborer how the engineer had treated him since the accident. The handicapped man told the reporter: “He gave me half of all he owns, including a share of his business. He is constantly concerned about my needs and never lets me want for anything. Almost every day he gives me some token of thanks or remembrance.”
Oftentimes believers—unlike the grateful engineer in the story—forget that on Calvary there was a Substitute who caught the full impact of their sinful weight and rescued them as they hurtled toward an eternity in hell. God poured out His wrath on the perfect Sacrifice, His sinless Son who “was pierced through for [their] transgressions, He was crushed for [their] iniquities; the chastening for [their] well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging [they] are healed”. Isaiah 53:5
Let’s read our passage...
Let’s read our passage...
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
I. When Were Believers Enabled to Love?
I. When Were Believers Enabled to Love?
“ Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth” (1:22a)
“ Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth” (1:22a)
Scripture repeatedly makes it plain that the unconverted person is far from having the ability to demonstrate genuine love.
Scripture repeatedly makes it plain that the unconverted person is far from having the ability to demonstrate genuine love.
(, ; ; ; cf. ; ; , ; ; ; )
(, ; ; ; cf. ; ; , ; ; ; )
Scripture repeatedly makes it plain that the unconverted person is far from having the ability to demonstrate genuine love
, ; ; ; cf. ; ; , ; ; ;
, ; ; ; cf. ; ; , ; ; ; )
- If you hate your brother you are not saved. (hated is shown by action not words)
41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
- They were concerned with the minute details of external religion and yet did not (and could not) manifest God’s love
They were concerned with the minute details of external religion and yet did not (and could not) manifest God’s love
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
It was at salvation that believers received the capacity to demonstrate supernatural love.
It was at salvation that believers received the capacity to demonstrate supernatural love.
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Evidence of your salvation continues to be (and will always be) obedience to God’s word.
Who gives you the capacity to obey God’s word? The capacity to obey God’s word is given by God through the Holy Spirit.
When you see a brother/sister show hate toward another (by action or lack of action) that person is not saved.
Faith is not a human-initiated work of obedience (, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”), but if genuinely given by God it will result in believers’ regularly obeying the truth and manifesting God’s love to others
Faith is not a human-initiated work of obedience (, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”), but if genuinely given by God it will result in believers’ regularly obeying the truth (cf. ; ; ; , ) and manifesting God’s love to others
When Were Believers Enabled to Love?
II. Who Are Believers to Love?
II. Who Are Believers to Love?
“for a sincere brotherly love” (1:22b)
“for a sincere brotherly love” (1:22b)
for a sincere brotherly love
At salvation, believers become members of Christ’s body, the church, which then becomes the target for their new, Spirit-empowered capacity for love.
At salvation, believers become members of Christ’s body, the church, which then becomes the target for their new, Spirit-empowered capacity for love.
- This love of the brethren (philadelphia) is to be sincere (anupokriton, “unhypocritical”).
At salvation, believers become members of Christ’s body, the church, which then becomes the target for their new, Spirit-empowered capacity for love
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
- Un-hypocritical - (meaning: behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.)
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Sincere love is the prevailing standard for believers , superseding all earthly limitations and considerations. (To the world it shouldn’t make sense.)
God can use the loving unity of believers to attract a lost world and awaken it to its need for salvation. (They see something that is different)
People are looking for, begging for, something different in a church. Why would they come to yours???
God can use the loving unity of believers to attract a lost world and awaken it to its need for salvation
“We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour.” ― Timothy Keller, Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
“We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour.”
If the law of love (love your neighbor) dictates that we should love even our enemy this way…How much more so should we love the church here as Peter describes.
― Timothy Keller, Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
III. How Are Believers to Love?
III. How Are Believers to Love?
Who Are Believers to Love?
“love one another earnestly from a pure heart...” (1:22c)
“love one another earnestly from a pure heart...” (1:22c)
New Testament verb Agape expresses the ideal kind of love, that which is exercised by the will rather than emotion, not determined by the beauty or desirability of the object, but by the noble intention of the one who loves.
New Testament verb Agape expresses the ideal kind of love, that which is exercised by the will rather than emotion, not determined by the beauty or desirability of the object, but by the noble intention of the one who loves.
Meaning: You do not love someone based on their looks or what they can offer you (or the church)! You love them because God himself loves them.
Earnestly (Fervently) (ektenōs) is a physiological term meaning to stretch to the furthest limit of a muscle’s capacity. As intended by Peter, metaphorically, the word means to go all out, to reach the furthest extent of something.
Fervently (ektenōs) is a physiological term meaning to stretch to the furthest limit of a muscle’s capacity. Metaphorically, the word means to go all out, to reach the furthest extent of something
Such a strong love, does not derive from some external, legalistic requirement (cf. ; ; ). On the contrary, Peter told his readers that this love is an attitude compelled from within, from the heart, because it is a fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit. (John preached about this Sunday 9/1/19)
IV. Why Should Believers Love?
IV. Why Should Believers Love?
How Are Believers to Love?
“since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1:23-25)
“since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1:23-25)
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
Believers are to love one another to the fullest extent because it is consistent with new life in Christ.
Believers are to love one another to the fullest extent because it is consistent with new life in Christ.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
The apostle John wrote,
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Why Should Believers Love?
1 John:
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
Peter anticipated the fact that they would ask “Why should we love like this?” or “Do we HAVE to love the way you say?” or “Do I have to love those people?”
He therefore told them they should be expected to love that way because they had “been born again”.
Isn’t it just like us to argue with God over the how things are to be done? Israel did many times, so do we.
The sinful fact that we don’t want to love others God’s way should remind us that we cannot do it in our own power but only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Instead we wear it as a badge of honor that mocks God’s perfect sacrificial love.
Ill. Sunday the most segregated time of the week. (ethnically, generationally, politically, etc) Why?
We don’t worship like them? Thats a sinful attitude.
Why? (We don’t worship like them? Thats a sinful attitude)
They may change the way we do things in our church? Sinful attitude.
We may not be able to hear the same songs we like or structure of service we are used to. Sinful attitude
We may not have the programs we like. Sinful attitude
Our dress code may change. Sinful attitude
The sinful attitude is that we want God’s love our way, to reflect our thinking, to reflect our way of living, and we wear it like a badge of honor when we should be ashamed.
Ill. Gospel Light Baptist Church - man is told to leave because of his hair and dress (by a deacon)… goes to Calvary Baptist and starts a large biker ministry.
Ill. Person overheard grumbling about genre of music and left and found another church to worship with his family.
Ill. Church splits over an argument about a coffee pot in a Sunday School class room.
Why should you love someone who you deem as unworthy? Because you were loved and you were entirely unworthy.
Conclusion: The call in this text is for saints to manifest an undying love for fellow believers, which is consistent with an imperishable new life in Jesus Christ by the power of the gospel word which is itself imperishable.
Conclusion: The call in this text is for saints to manifest an undying love for fellow believers, which is consistent with an imperishable new life in Jesus Christ by the power of the gospel word which is itself imperishable.
The call in this text is for saints to manifest an undying love for fellow believers, which is consistent with an imperishable new life in Jesus Christ by the power of the gospel word which is itself imperishable.