1 Peter 1.22-25

Love For Eternity

1 Peter 1 22-25

(10/18/98)

Introduction:  Do you remember your literature class in high school?  Lit classes are famous (or maybe infamous) for making students read a certain story or a poem and then telling what it meant to them. 

The stories and poems are analyzed with such scrutiny for some hidden meaning.  Some secret interpretation.  The stories are treated as having great wisdom and insight.  What is the theme of the poem, what is its point?

Take for example, a couple of lines from the poem entitled “Each In His Own Tongue,” by William Herbert Carruth.  The lines read:

            “A fire-mist and a planet,

A crystal and a cell,

A jell-fish and a saurian

And caves where the cave-men dwell.”

Now, what does that poem mean to you?  I wonder what the theme is, I wonder what he really meant? Ha!!!!

Well, when it comes to the Bible, there is one theme that is hard to miss.  The theme of love.  Scripture is quite clear that Christians are to love each other.

Our big idea this morning is nothing technical, nothing fancy, just the facts:

Big Idea:  True Christians love each other.

Three Questions

I.       What is a Christian?

II.    What Does a Christian Do?

III.  What is the Motivation?

1 Peter 1:22-25

I.       What is a Christian?  (vs. 22)

A.    A Christian has been purified

1.     The Context-  1:18

a.      They had been ransomed from sin by the costly, valuable, blood of Jesus.

b.     A Christian is one whose life has been cleansed by the blood of Christ

c.      Cleansed from what?  Sin.

d.     The very soul of the Christian has been washed clean.  Sin no longer has charge of the believers life.

e.      The believer does not have to live under the heavy load of a guilty conscience.  He has been purified. 

f.       He is spiritually clean. 

g.      People in the world speak of wanting to “clean up there lives.”  There is only one way to clean up your life, and that is by the precious blood of Jesus. 

B.    A Christian has obeyed the truth

1.     The truth about Jesus

2.     The truth of the gospel.  The acceptance of the good news that Jesus Christ has paid the ransom for our sins. 

3.     This is not a works salvation.  This word “obedience” here means merely that they had placed their total trust in what Jesus has done. 

4.     Notice that it was the Spirit Who was at work in their purification.  Believers have merely responded to the gift of eternal life.

Point of application:  Have you been purified, have your obeyed the truth?  Are you a Christian?

II.    What Does a Christian Do?  (vs. 22)

      Answer:  A genuine Christian loves other Christians. 

A.    Love Comes naturally for the believer. 

1.     Love of the brethren-  Philadelphion  (Show overhead)

a.      Brotherly love

                        aa.  Used in the New Testament, often if not always in conjunction with                                                             some form of the word “brother or brethren.”

bb. The type of love brothers have for one another.

b.     Based upon the common bond in Christ 

Illustration:  Have you ever noticed that often total strangers when faced with a common experience will band together.  Maybe their plane crashes or their neighborhood is threatened by a fire and they come together for help.  They have a bond.  They are facing a shared difficulty.  And atleast for a time they experience a commonality. 

                        aa.  Christians share the same Savior

bb. Christians share the same future

cc.  Christians share the same blessings

dd. Christians share a family relationship.  We are brothers and sisters. 

Isn’t that so true?  Look around you right now!  Go ahead, do it!  Look at the person on your right.  Now look at the person on your left.  Now look at who’s in front of you.  Now look at who is behind you. 

If you have known any of these people for any length of time, you have to admit, there is a certain bond with them. 

They feel like family.  You may even feel closer to some of these people than you do some of your more distant relatives. 

That is philadelphion- “love of the brethren”

Believers are far ahead of the world in this area.  We have a group of people to whom we belong!

It came immediately, the moment you underwent spiritual purification.  You were added to the family of God.

It’s natural for those who have been purified to feel this way.  And it’s great isn’t it? 

                  c.  It comes naturally at the time of salvation

2.     “Unfeigned”-  It’s not a put on.  It’s not pretend.  It’s nothing we have to fabricate, because the fact is, it’s already there at the moment of salvation.

Well if this is the case, why does Peter go on in verse 22 to say “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently?”

Peter is talking about two different kinds of love.

The first kind (brotherly love) comes naturally when we are saved

But the second kind comes by choice

B.    Love comes as a choice

1.     “Love one another” agapesate  (Show overhead)

a.      It’s active

b.     Does not always come naturally

c.      It sacrifices

d.     Christ loves us in this way

e.      It’s a choice.  Doesn’t need emotions to function.

f.       Doesn’t need a response from the one it loves

Norman Wright-  “Agape is self-giving love, gift love, the love that goes on loving even when the other becomes unlovable.  Agape love is not something that happens to you; it’s something you make happen. . .”

And Peter says it is with this love that we are to love each other. 

You see, it’s normal and good for a person to have brotherly love for his fellow Christian. 

But we are to go on to Agape love.

2.     Our Agape is to have two characteristics

a.      Purity-  Genuine and selfless.  It’s possible to fake our love.

b.     Fervently-  the word means to exert a lot of effort.  Fervent Agape love is hard work. 

Illustration:  “About 1490 two young friends, Albrecht Durer and Franz Knigstein, were struggling young artists.  Since both were poor, they worked to support themselves while they studied art.

      Work took so much of their time and advancement was slow.  Finally, they reached an agreement:  They would draw lots, and one of them would work to support both of them while the other would study art.  Albrecht won and began to study, while Franz worked at hard labor to support them.  They agreed that when Albrecht was successful he would support Franz who would then study art. 

      Albrect went off to the cities of Europe to study.  As the world now knows, he had not only talent but genius.  When ha had attained success, he went back to keep his bargain with Franz.  But Albrecht soon discovered the enormous price his friend had paid.  For as Franz worked at hard manual labor to support his friend, his fingers had become stiff and twisted. . . He could no longer execute the delicate brush strokes necessary to fine painting.  Though his artistic dreams could never be realized he was not embittered but rather rejoiced in his friend’s success. 

      One day [Durer] came upon his friend unexpectedly and found him kneeling with his gnarled hands intertwined in prayer, quietly praying for the success of his friend although he himself could no longer be an artist.  Albrecht Durer, the great genius, hurriedly sketched the folded hands of his faithful friend d and later completed a truly great masterpiece known as ‘The Praying Hands.’ 

III.  What is the Motivation?  (vs. 23-25)

A.    The immortality of the believer  (vs. 23)

1.     “born again”-  not a physical birth, but a spiritual birth. 

2.     This new birth was brought about by a seed.  An incorruptible seed.  That which will never die. 

3.     Because the believer has been given new life by a seed that will never die, it follows that the believer will never undergo spiritual death.

4.     This seed in the context is the Word of God.  The truth of the gospel of Christ.

B.    The immortality of the Word

1.     “liveth and abideth forever” -  vs. 23

2.     “endureth forever”-  vs. 25  (quoting from Isaiah 40:6)

3.     It is the contrast to created things-  “all flesh”  vs. 24.  All flesh one day dies.  But not so with the Word of God.  It endures forever.

4.     Since the Word of God endures forever, the new life it gives is eternal

5.     Eternal life comes from the eternal Word

So what’s the point?  Where’s the motivation?  How does our love for each other and the fact that we have been given eternal life by the eternal seed (Word of God) relate to each other? 

C.    The point of motivation

1.     Wayne Grudem seems to have the answer

2.     “. . .Peter is stressing the eternal nature of the fellowship which his readers have come to share- ‘Love one another (vs. 22), for you have all been born anew into a fellowship of God’s people which will last eternally.’ ”

3.     Remember those faces you looked at a little earlier in our sermon?  They have been given eternal life by the eternal Word of God, and you have entered into an eternal bond with them.

4.     That bond is based upon the Word of God which is eternal.  It will never end.  We can’t get away from each other.  You can’t get away from the fact that we are linked to one another.  It will be evident throughout all eternity.

5.     Since we have this eternal bond with one another, we must love each other. 

Big Idea:  True Christians love each other.

Three Questions

I.       What is a Christian?

II.    What Does a Christian Do?

III.  What is the Motivation?

Application:

10 ways to disobey 1 Peter 1:22-25

1.     Ignore an obvious need

2.     Get angry and stay angry at someone else in the church

3.     Talk behind someone’s back

4.     Think critical thoughts about someone

5.     Speak with anything less kindness

6.     Be unkind to ones spouse children or family members

7.     Have a fake love for someone

8.     Avoid or ignore someone

9.     Hold a grudge

10. Not keep another persons well-being in mind

Brothers and sisters, let us love one another!

| “Love of the Brethren”filadelfion  (philadelphion) | “Love One Another”agaphsate  (agapesate) |