1 Peter 1 13-25 Holy People

We began our series a couple of weeks ago – Stand - by considering the first short letter of 1 Peter.

A letter written by the apostle Peter, probably in Rome, approximately AD 60ish, to a group of churches covering a vast geographical area in the north of Asia Minor, which is now Turkey.

Peter didn’t know these Christians.

He had never visited the churches, neither had Paul, and we don’t know a huge amount about them, except the fact that they were predominantly Gentiles – that is non-Jewish.

These churches were struggling to stay firm in the faith under the rule of Emperor Nero, who was not afraid to persecute Christians. And so this was a tough time for the receivers of Peter’s letter.

Peter began his writing to them by reminding them that they were chosen by God, set apart for him, through the work of the blood of Jesus Christ.

That their identity was to be found in their calling by God. Even though the practical result of that is that they were living as strangers, aliens, exiles in this world.

Spain – registered as ‘Extranjero’ – Alien / Foreigner

And for those who call themselves followers of Jesus, this is a truth for us today; that we are in the world but not of it – this is not the basket we are putting all our eggs into - so we must do our best to work out what it means to live as Christians in the light of the tensions this raises for us.

The rest of Peter’s letter is intensely practical as he helps us to work out what the principles are by which we are to live out our faith.

If you have your Bible switch it on or open it so you can follow along.

The practical nature of Peter’s teaching starts straight away in verse 13: “Therefore prepare your minds for action.” – the Greek is literally “therefore, when you have girded up the loins of your mind” but I like the Message – “So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear,[1]”

There is a real sense of urgency in the way that Peter phrases this. It’s not that we must be prepared in case we are called upon to act as Christians sometime in the future - but that we must be prepared so that we can act straight away.

How are we to prepare? Peter says, ‘Prepare your minds…’

Is he saying that we should learn more and develop more intelligence and knowledge regarding Christian beliefs?

I don’t think that is what he means because the next part of this phrase says, “exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world[2]”

In verse 13, it seems to me that what Peter is saying – he starts with therefore - in the light of our identity in God and the life to which we are called, we must be absolutely, wholehearted and actively engaged in the lifestyle of concentrated prayer.

Our mind, our understanding is not primarily to be geared towards getting more knowledge (good as that is) – so much as the experience of God through prayer.

The development of a concentrated prayer life, talking to and hearing from God, is a preparation, if you like, for the hope we have for the future: the hope that will be revealed to us either when we die to Jesus returns.

As Christians we are called to pray and to meditate on (invest time in considering and thinking on) the hope we have, which is the revealing of Jesus Christ at the end of times.

And as we meditate on that hope and allow it to fill our very beings, so we will be able to get perspective on our present experience and be able to interpret the sufferings and trials of our present life in the appropriate context of the hope that is to come.

Peter is saying that we can only cope with, and survive our earthly trials if we spend time meditating on the future hope that is to be revealed.

So we are waiting for that day…And what hallmarks our waiting? How do we wait for Christ to return?

As Peter says in verse 14: “14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.[3] Or that you formerly had in ignorance.”

Now, this is a fascinating verse, with a few things to be said about it…

First, here is the clearest evidence so far that Peter is writing to Gentiles, not Jews.

We said earlier that this is a letter to Gentile Christians, however it is written in a very Jewish style?

Peter talks about “the desires that you formerly had in ignorance”.

Now, whatever other phrase Peter may have used about the Jews, he would not have said that they were driven by ignorance…The Greek word he uses here is not about intellectual deficiency – a charge that he and Paul may have brought to the Jews – that is not rthe meaning of the word he uses here.

Instead, the word ἀγνοίᾳ ‘agnoia’ has the meaning of moral and religious defect; the idea of paganism, which is far more suited to past Gentile living.

Second, the word that he uses for ‘desires’ ἐπιθυμίαις – epithymia is a neutral word, which tells us that desires are not necessarily bad.

This is important because the church seems to have implicitly taught for centuries that passions are, by nature, bad, and that we need to get our passions under control. But Peter doesn’t say that. Peter tells us that passions are neutral.

The issue is, ‘What are we passionate about’? Driscol says – its not whether you worship, its what you worship. We all worship something or someone.

Third, Peter calls us ‘obedient’ - ὑπακοῆς ‘hypakoe” and this word doesn’t have to do with our moral or ethical behaviour so much as the idea that obedience is about us accepting the Gospel and believing in Jesus: that is our spiritual obedience…

Fourth, Peter calls us ‘children’, τέκνα ‘teknon’ which indicates the spiritual privilege we have of calling God our Father. That is a privilege we must not take for granted: it is such a privilege to be able to call the Creator of the Universe, Father; it is the pinnacle of the Christian faith…

So, in this verse alone there is so much good theology, as Andy said last week we could spend a whole sermon exploring…But we need to move on…

Verse 15: “15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,[4]”

The first thing to say here is that Peter does not say, “Become holy” but “be holy”…

The truth is that you and I are already holy.

Theologically speaking, it is not something that we become: we are holy already, so “Be holy…”

That being the case, what does holiness mean in this context? Clearly, it is not a definition of our behaviour because otherwise, we would be able to ‘become holy’ by behaving better. No, holiness is our status, not a description of how we behave and so we are to be holy like the Holy One, like God. So what does that mean?

Well, in the Scriptures, the description of the holiness of God is directly linked to the idea that he is set apart, he is different.

And so Peter is saying that we must be set apart from the world in the same way that God is set apart from the world. Now, of course, that will work itself out in our patterns of behaviour - but the way we behave does not define whether we are holy or not. And that is such an important difference, because if we think that our holiness is defined by our behaviour, we will always feel guilty when our behaviour does not live up to our profession of faith. But the truth is, when we fail morally or ethically, we are still holy because that’s who we are, already, in God…

Paul writing to Christians in Eph, Galatia etc.

And so Peter goes on in verse 17 to say: “If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.” There are two comments here about the nature of God: what God is in himself and in relation to the whole world, and who he is in relation to us as believers.

In relation to us, and the world in general, he is the Judge who is to come on the last day.

In relation to us as individuals, he is our Father and we have the privilege of calling him Father.

And so, as Christians, we are to hold these two ideas in constant tension: the intimacy of knowing God as Father but also the awesome reality that the Almighty God will also be our Judge.

So, we are encouraged to have reverent fear of God. Too often, we know Christians who seem to be too cosy with God; who speak of God as if were their best mate, to be treated in too informal a manner, too offhand a manner.

On the other hand, we know Christians who are too frightened of God; who can’t relate to him as Father but only as a stern, disciplinarian Judge.

We are to walk in a place of tension, to walk the middle path between the two ideas: to relate to God as both Father and Judge; a middle path that at times is far from easy…

In verse 18, we get the second hint that this letter is written to Gentiles, not Jews, because Peter mentions “the futile ways inherited from your ancestors”. And again, this is not a comment that could be made about the Jews, is it? We are reminded that it is by Jesus shed blood that we are saved. In the context of this letter, the blood of Jesus is precious primarily to God, over and above precious to us because he is honoured and loved by God.

Jesus, who is honoured and loved by God – and destined by God for a specific purpose: in verse 20, Peter says that Christ “was destined before the foundation of the world”: destined for a particular role, a particular work, which was the salvation of the world.

In verse 20, Peter tells us that he “was revealed at the end of the ages” - an idea that the world has been divided up into certain epochs or eras and the final era has been hallmarked by the first coming of Christ and will continue until his second coming.

In verse 21, we have yet another proof that this letter is written to Gentiles, not Jews: “Through him, you have come to trust in God”. The Jewish race trusted in God already although, as Paul told us in his letter to the Romans, they still needed to recognise Jesus as their Messiah.

However the Gentiles had no such heritage – and neither did we: it is through Jesus Christ that we have become believers in God and as Peter goes on to say in verse 21, it is through his death and resurrection and ascension to glory that our faith has become real, as Peter says: “So that your faith and hope are set on God”.

That is where we stand with God. And so Peter moves us on in verse 22: “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.”

Again, like with the idea of holiness, Peter is not saying that we must purify our souls: he is saying that we have already been purified by what Jesus accomplished; it is not dependent on our behaviour but on our faith. And since we have already been purified, that must now work itself out in one primary action: love.

Peter calls us to a life of love; a life of deep and unremitting love. That is a tough call – it is more than just tolerance of each other, tolerance of difference: it is absolute acceptance of each other, warts and all, over and over and over again…

It is interesting that Peter links purification of our souls with unremitting love: the basic Christian truth is simply this: we have been chosen by God so that we can love others. That is the purpose of your life and mine: to love others…it is that for which we have been purified…

Of course, that kind of love doesn’t happen overnight; we need to work at it and Peter really hints strongly at that in verse 23: “You have been born anew, not of perishable but imperishable seed”.

This is a highly nuanced verse, but so, so important because Peter doesn’t use the usual Greek word for ‘seed’ here. The usual Greek word is ‘sperma’, which generally refers to the seed itself as in Jesus’ parable of the sower who sowed seeds.

Here however, Peter uses the word ‘spora’, which has a greater emphasis on the idea of the growing process of the seed. We have been purified, we have been born anew, from the planting of imperishable seed - a seed that is continually growing within us so that we can increasingly grow in unremitting love for one another…

Isn’t that a beautiful image? It absolutely describes the growth & maturing of Christian fellowship in one, concise, incredible metaphor.

We are to grow in unremitting love, one for another, as time goes by: that is what the church is all about. And that growth comes as we seep ourselves in the Scriptures and the instructions of God, in listening to and following the words of the Holy Spirit to us and then one last thing I want to say about this passage this morning:

In verse 23, Peter says that the seed is planted “through the living and enduring word of God”.

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And in verse 25, Peter cites the passage from that says: “the word of the Lord remains/endures for ever”.

Now, there are two different words for ‘word’ used here. Verse 23: “through the living and enduring word of God”, the word used is ‘logos’, which refers to the word of God in its entirety; the whole written package of the Bible, if you like.

In verse 25: ”the word of the Lord endures for ever”, the word is ‘rhema’, which refers to the individual sayings of God; individual words that he speaks to us.

So let’s be sure what Peter is saying here: the seed of God grows within us as we reflect on the whole of Scripture. But what endures forever is the fact that God will continuously speak to us and lead us and that is consolidated for us in the truth of the last verse: “And that word is the Good News that was announced/preached to you. [5]”.

The whole content of the Gospel is a call to love: modelled to us in Jesus Christ, taught to us by Jesus Christ, inspired within us through the Spirit of Christ.

This is a quite amazing passage; full of so much grace and so much challenge - there is a depth yet simplicity to it:

we are called to a life of love, unceasing love, for one another - and it is something we should be growing into as the weeks and months and years go by.

Are you growing in your faith in Jesus? Would you say it has become deeper and better since you first committed your life to him? Has it grown or fallen in the past year?

How do we grow in love for one another as a church? By beginning to soak ourselves in the Bible, the word of God to us, and by allowing time and asking God to speak to us through his Word.

I wonder if your papers for these 70 or so years we have here are ones which have you as a resident or an exile, an extranjero or that your hope is planted in what you have here?

[1] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), .

[2] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), .

[3] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), .

[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

[5] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), .