1 Peter 1:22-2:3
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Man who loved ducks.
Man who loved ducks.
In the 1970s, the Vietnam War had just ended. And many of the men who had fought in the war for the United States, returned home. Some of those men came home and went right to work on farms, or family businesses.
Others of those men attended college and universities with their GI Bill to learn a new trade in order to find work outside of the military.
One particular man came home and enrolled in Judson College in Elgin, Illinois.
Just for some context, Judson College is located along the Fox River.
And this one man, who had recently returned home from the war, he was there. While he was at college, People began to notice that he spent a lot his free time along that river feeding and taking care of a group of ducks that had made the college and the river there their home.
During the winter months the man would stand alone along the river’s frozen edge, taking care of those ducks. He would feed them. He cut through the ice to open up an area of water for them. Every day without fail, this man was caring for those ducks.
A little boy whose dad worked there at Judson College, he noticed the man and asked his father why the man cared so much about the ducks. And his father told him this story-
“He has just returned from the war in Vietnam. The story is that ducks saved his life. His unit had been ambushed. Many of his friends had been killed, and while he hadn’t been shot, he lay down to look like he had. He hoped they would go away. But they didn’t. The enemy kept coming. Through the fields they came. They’d put one more shot in every fallen man to ensure that he was dead. But suddenly a covey of ducks flew overhead, and the attention of the enemy soldiers was diverted. In their excitement they began running after the ducks to shoot at them instead. In the end, they stopped checking the field for men and left. That’s how the man down by the river escaped. And now he has a special love for ducks. He loves because he lives.”
He loves because he lives.
This story illustrates for us that The natural result of his life being saved by ducks, is that he now genuinely loved and cared for ducks that previously were just animals to him. He had no particular interest in them before.
And this is a nice little story, but it illustrates a profoundly larger point.
And that is, there ought to be a profound love in our hearts for Christ who has saved us.
You and I were lost and hopeless, until Christ showed up and saved us from our sin.
So with that now having happened to us, the natural response should be for us to love Christ and love the things that Christ loves.
This is essentially the argument that Peter is making in verse 22.
22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,
In other words, if we have been saved by Christ, then our lives ought to reflect a sincere love for the brethren. When he says brethren here, he is referring to the church.
In other words, just to put it simply, if you have been saved, you ought to love the church.
Now, it is a common theme today to hear someone say that they love Jesus, but that they don’t need the church.
We hear things like-
“I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian”
Or now the new one is this- “I don’t need to go to church, I can just watch it online. I don’t go to church for those people anyhow.”
“Or that church up there is full of hypocrites.”
Or they may not say anything like that explicitly, but their actions prove this is their line of thinking.
People claim to be Christians and yet they live in isolation and exclusion of any resemblance of a commitment to the church.
But according to this verse, there are at least two problems with that.
I believe that mindset shows an absence of Christ’s work in that person’s heart, because this verse implies that if we have believed in Christ- If our souls have been purified, then there ought to the presence of fervent love for the brethren. In other words, you can’t grow closer to the Shepherd without growing closer to his sheep.
That type of mindset is in direct defiance to the command given in this verse.
“Fervently love one another from the heart” is a direct command given to those who have their souls purified to love the bride of Christ from a point of genuine care, concern, and love.
So to say, I love Jesus, but I don’t like the church is incompatible.
Let me see if I can illustrate this-
We all know the Bible refers to The church as Christ’s bride.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
That is what Jesus did for the church. He loves the church. The church and Christ are one.
In fact marriage itself is a picture of the Gospel.
So take my marriage for instance- Lauren is my bride. She and I are one.
So I’ll be honest, if I had someone invite me somewhere, but then they turned to me and said- Hey by the way, we love you, but if you could just leave Lauren at home. We don’t necessarily like your wife.
Well, by virtue of the fact that she and I are one, I ain’t coming to where that person invited me. Why?
Because this person obviously doesn’t love me, if they don’t love the most precious person to me. To love me is to love her. To love her is to love me. If they don’t love my bride who I love, then they can’t possibly love me.
In the same way, someone who says, I love Jesus, but I don’t like the church. I love Jesus, but I won’t be going and being a part of the church, is essentially saying- I love Jesus, but I can’t stand His bride. How genuine can their love of Jesus be?
Peter says here that salvation ought to produce a love for the bride of Christ.
And this love is more than just an outward expression of love.
It’s more than just coming to church. Its a love that goes deeper than mere attendance.
Its a love that says, because I love you Jesus, I will care for what you care for, and Christ cares for the church.
Because I love you Jesus, I will forgive who you have forgiven. I will serve who you serve.
To love Jesus is to love His bride.
And born again believers will love His bride, by virtue of the fact that they are born again..
Look at the beginning of verse 23.
SDFS
SDFS
23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
In other words, the reason for our love of God and a love for the church is that we have experienced new birth in God.
We are not who we used to be.
We are different. Changed.
Which tells us this- the new birth produces more in someone’s life than a few tears at the altar when they trust in Christ.
It produces genuine fruit, and a necessary component of that fruit is that we love the local church.
So let me ask, do you love the church?
I’m not asking if you attend the church although if you love it, you will want to be there.
Do you love the church? Warts and all.
Do you love the people that get on your nerves?
Do you love the people with whom you may disagree or may have disagreed over some things in the past?
Do you see them as the bride of the Christ?
Do you readily offer forgiveness to them because you know you need forgiveness? Here’s the issue so many times, we want people to forgive us when we do wrong but we don’t want to give forgiveness when we are wronged against.
Just to put it plainly, genuine believers do this, because the Word of God is at work in their heart.
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
He tells us here how this transformation happens where we go from people who don’t love the church to now people who do love the church
This happens when You and I are saved by the living and enduring Word.
Every believer, without exception is saved through and by the Word of God.
18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
So it is the Word of God through the Spirit of God that has produced this new life in us, and because the Word is living, it produces enduring life in us. Life that doesn’t waver or wain or fade.
He uses the language here of perishable seed vs imperishable seed.
Perishable seed produces life but eventually it will die out. Every earthly seed planted, whether it be plants, or seed sown through the reproduction of creatures, every seed may produce life but it all withers.
Right now, we have a shortage of rain. Our farmers are in need of rain and good weather for producing crops because those seeds are dependent upon their surrounding to continue to grow.
If we don’t get rain long enough, the seeds may have produce a crop at first, but they will eventually wither and die.
Here he contrasts that with the Word of God that has been sown in our hearts which he calls imperishable.
Meaning the seed of the Word of God sown into our hearts does not fail regardless of the surroundings.
He goes on in verse 24-25 to say this very thing-
24 For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, 25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you.
So in other words, the source of our salvation is also the source of our love for each other.
So if we have the enduring Word of God in our hearts, then so too our love for each other constantly nourished by the enduring and living Word of God ought to be living and enduring as well.
And as it nourishes and feeds our hearts, It produces two things-
Look at chapter 2 verse 1
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
Repentance.
The word of God produces repentance.
Therefore ties it back to the previous section, so Its all one argument-
In light of the fact the Word of God is enduring, therefore - Put aside these things.
The assumption is that these things exist in our hearts and need to be put away.
And he list five things that inhibit our love for one another as believers.
And lets be honest here-
So many times these are the sins that are tolerated by the church when he says to put them aside. Repent of these.
Cast these off.
He lists
Malice- quickly defined is wicked ill will- just general disdain, dislike, or hatred for someone.
That type of thing has no place within a body of believers.
Too often, malice lodges in our heart toward someone, where we hold things over someone. Sometimes its because of something they have done to us or someone we love.
And with malice, We refuse to forgive people God has forgiven.
So we live with this hatred in our heart for someone that God’s loves deeply.
He says here that we must put that aside.
Deceit- deliberate dishonesty
Lying
You don’t lie to me people you are seeking to love.
Hypocrisy-
Pretending to love and to be godly- a lack of genuine love
You say one thing, but you do another.
You worship along side and act like we love each other and then speak harshly about someone behind their back.
Its an acting game. Rather than genuine love.
Envy- resentfulness discontent
Resentfulness to someone else because you are discontent with what God has given you.
We tend to be envious of people and their things, talents, their position.
Rather than desiring the best for them, we would like to see them fail.
Church. That’s wrong.
We must put that away.
He saves the best for last-
Slander- back biting and saying things about people you would not say to them face to face. Or you may be willing to say it to their face, that doesn’t make it any less sinful.
At times, people excuse their behavior with this-
“Well its true. This is what they did.” Maybe they did do what you are saying.
Slander is not just lying about someone. Slander could mean spreading hurtful things about someone that are true. Some things are better left unsaid.
Stop talking about other people’s sins to others, and start talking about your own sin to the one who can save us both. Amen?
Let me just say on this one- All of us have to be careful about our words.
The tongue is a dangerous dangerous thing.
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
Be very careful about how you speak about other members of Christ’s bride. And that is precisely what we do when we slander those who he has redeemed.
Imagine standing before Christ and Him asking you “What did you say about my bride?”
And by the way, that will happen.
36 “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
Every careless word.
Beloved, as I said when we started these verses, these are sins that often are tolerated by folks within the church, but there is no room for toleration based upon this text.
If any of these are the roads we are traveling on, its time to turn around and go a different route.
I pray God even now would do what it takes break our hearts over any of these attitudes or actions that may be present within our church.
We cannot expect God to do a work in our midst and bless our church while remaining unrepentant and harboring these things. We must put them aside.
And the Word of God produces that in the life of the believer.
The Second thing the Word of God produces.
2. A healthy and longing desire for more of the Word.
2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
The Word produces a desire for more of the Word, which in turns grows us.
There should be an ever growing desire for the Word produced by the Word.
That in turn produces a desire to live a holy life.
I believe the most effective way of promoting unity within the church is exposure to God’s Word. A constant diet of God’s Word.
Nothing promotes spiritual growth like the teaching of God’s Word.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Four: Christian Togetherness (1 Peter 1:22–2:10)
When Christians are growing in the Word, they are peacemakers, not troublemakers, and they promote the unity of the church.
Hearing the Word is the means by which have knowledge of Christ and in turning to Him we are saved.
The Word is imperishable. It accomplishes and grows the believer.
It produces repentance, a desire for more of the Word, and a love for each other.
That man I’m sure had a love for ducks that endured a lifetime. it was the natural result of having his life saved by them.
When we think of what Christ has done for us, it has to produce a love that will endure a lifetime for Christ and His church.
If not repent.
If so, keep loving it.