The Taste of God’s Goodness (And Tolerable Sin)

1 Peter 1:22-2:1-3 The Taste of God’s Goodness (And Tolerable Sin) Introduction: In this epistle where Peter teaches us How to Live as the people of God, he is first concerned about how we are to live in relation to God as our Father and God’s people as our family. We’ve been spending the last few weeks looking at this subject of family relations. Last week we looked at Peter’s command to love one another intensely. He reminded us that this is the purpose for which God saved us: to be a the family of God who love one another intensely from pure hearts. Peter now goes on to show what will hinder our love and what will strengthen it. 1. Love Earnestly from a Pure Heart. a. If we are to love one another with an intense love, there are things we must not do. There are certain things that will work directly against our love and unity as a family, there are certain things that will stunt our individual spiritual development as well as our corporate development. i. “What Peter commands us to be rid of is not the grosser vices of paganism, but community destroying vices that are often tolerated by the church. (Especially if a community or individual is under pressure there is a tendency to begin bickering and division, which only makes the community that much more vulnerable to outside pressure).” -Shreiner 1. Sadly these are the sins that we most often tolerate in the church community. ii. We’ve talked in weeks past how being a new creation means that we will have to unlearn old habits. There are certain practices that we will have to put off and new practices and characteristics that we must put on in order to live up to our new life, and new family. 2. What Will Hinder Love from a Pure Heart? a. Malice: a desire to hurt someone with words or deeds. Malice is usually brought about through bitterness and therefore is a heart issue that shows up in our behavior. b. Deceit: the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. (stealth or bait) i. This term was used of “fishing bait.” c. Hypocrisy: the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. i. This is literally “to judge under.” It is a theatrical word used of actors speaking behind a mask. You are putting on an act. 1. It is anything less than speaking the full and honest truth from the heart. 2. This means that when you interact with this community you should not simply go through the motions. To do so is damaging to our community. You need to be transparent, open, not hiding behind any pretense. a. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” - 1 John 1:7 b. Transparency is absolutely vital to our community. If we walk in hypocrisy and deceit we have no fellowship with one another. d. Envy: a desire for some privilege or benefit that belongs to another with resentment that another has it and you don't. e. Slander: the desire for revenge and self-enhancement, often driven by the deeper desire to deflect attention from our own failings. i. "The sins listed tear at the social fabric of the church, ripping away the threads of love that keep them together. Malice is ill will or bitterness toward one another destroying the harmony befitting the community of believers. Guile and hypocrisy are closely related, for in both cases deceit and falseness have entered the community. "sincere love" is to be the goal of believers and deceit and hypocrisy introduce pretense and disingenuousness so that the trust necessary for love vanishes. Envy is also contrary to love, for instead of desiring the best for others, it hopes for their downfall or prefers the advancement of oneself to the joy of others. slander is not limited to spreading false stories about others but also involves belittling others. Well timed words that carry insinuations about others are often all that is necessary.” - Shreiner. 1. Every single one of these actions is in direct opposition to Peter’s command to love and Christ purpose for his people. f. How awful is it to find out that someone feels anger or hate towards you? Or to find out that someone lied to you, by misrepresenting or concealing something..How about when you find out someone is not what they’re claiming to be...Or that someone is radically jealous of you? Or to find out that someone is saying hurtful untrue things about you and your character.... i. If we hate this so much when it is done to us, if it makes us feel the way it does than why on earth would we do this to others? ii. Fear? Power? Insecurity? Pride? Yes. g. It is because we are self loving and self preserving people by nature that we do these things to one another. i. I wonder if we realize what we’re doing when we do these things? Not only are we failing to keep the command to love but we are sabotaging ourselves. Who in their right mind would purposely sabotage their own life, their future or their own family? But that’s exactly what we do when we foster this sort of behavior. ii. “It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.” And he is an ill Believer who tells tales about his fellow Christians! If you, as a Church member, have anything against a Brother, tell him alone. And then, if it should be some public and crying sin, tell it in an orderly manner to the Church officers. But for you to go chattering about things you do not know to be true is such an offense against Church order, that if you are expelled from Church communion for it, the ejection will be justifiable! You certainly cannot expect to have fellowship with Christ if you mar the fellowship of Christ’s Church by talking the one against the other.” - Spurgeon iii. Not only that but we work against Christ. 1. “For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” - 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 2. So, again, why are we doing these things? Why do we tolerate this kind of sin in the church? I can think of two reasons: a. Either, we have not truly tasted the goodness of the Lord. b. Or we are in a state of Christian immaturity. i. Either way Peter’s answer is that you need to continually taste the goodness of God. 3. What Will Nourish Love? a. Pure Spiritual Milk i. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” ii. The Pure Word of God 1. Peter is saying if your life is characterized by malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, it is because you have never truly tasted the goodness and grace of the Lord! a. You might have seen it in others, you might have heard it preached and taught, you might know it theoretically, but you yourself, your own heart has not been touched by it. You have not tasted it yourself! b. The child of God has a natural craving for the goodness and grace of God, they no longer crave the approval of others, they aren’t looking to one up one another, they aren’t in competition... They have a desire for more of God’s goodness, experienced specifically in the Word of the gospel. c. Those who have tasted God’s goodness, are continually desiring more of it. If you have tasted of the divine approval that we receive through the Gospel, - God’s verdict on our lives because of Christ work - My beloved son or daughter in whom I am well pleased... There’s nothing else like it, you won’t be seeking self-approval or the approval of others for long, you will desire the goodness of the Lord instead. i. The things that Peter commands against are ways that we exalt and preserve self- they are at the very heart selfish sins. 2. Peter is saying that we might have done those by nature but ow we have a new nature and we are to mature in that new nature, and this maturity comes through the Word of God. a. Peter uses an analogy, likening the Word of God to a mother. A baby is born of it’s mother, but it also receives it’s continued life, sustenance and maturity through it’s mother’s milk. i. Likewise we have been brought forth, or born by the Word of God, and it is by that same Word that we will grow up into our salvation. 1. Remember Peter’s analogy was used in a day when they didn’t have formula, if a baby did not have it’s mother’s milk the baby would die...meaning this is not a suggestion, this is an absolute necessity to your Christian life and Christian maturity. 2. “We do not read the Bible simply to fill our minds, but to change our hearts. We do not read the bible simply to be informed but to be conformed to the image of Jesus. We read the Bible to stir our affections: our fear, our hope, our love, our desire, our confidence. We read it until our heart cries out, The Lord is good!” - Everyday Church 3. The Word created our new family, and it sustains our new family, so we are to be a Word-centered community that craves that Word.” -Everyday Church Conclusion: By continual gospel reflection, through meditation on God’s word, by continual meditation on the goodness of God, that we have received in Jesus Christ, we will grow up/mature in our salvation....fulfilling the purpose for which God has saved us: to be the people of God who love one another intensely!