Practicing Perfect Love

1 Peter: Hope and Holiness "Practicing Perfect Love" 1 Peter 2:4-10 Sunday October 17th, 2021 Pastor Thomas Heotzler Introduction It has occurred to me that in many cases, peoples' motivation to go above and beyond for someone else can often be traced back to an experience where someone has gone above and beyond for them. For example, you're in the drive through at McDonalds and you're getting ready to pay for your food, but when you drive up to the window, the cashier informs you that the person ahead of you has paid for your meal! You of course are very thankful, yet you now feel a debt needs to be repaid and so what do you do? You pay for the meal of the person behind you. Or how about this: you're shopping at Aldi, and you forgot to bring a quarter. Have you ever done that? I do that frequently... Anyway, you forgot to bring your quarter and you've nervous about finding a cart, but before you get to where the carts are locked up, a wonderful angel freely offers her cart! Thank you, Lord! When you're finished shopping and have loaded your groceries into your car, what do you now want to do with your cart? In my mind, I want to offer it to someone else, or I leave it unlocked in the cart area in case someone else forgot their quarter. Motivation to love someone usually comes from the love that we have been shown. Last week we were instructed to love one another with an agape love, with a sacrificial and selfless love that is willing to forfeit our own rights and freedoms for the sake of another. Today, we build upon that command to love by marveling at what God has done for us and then looking at what we should be doing out of love for others. We begin with a familiar truth of being chosen by God unto salvation. Chosen by God So far in the book of 1 Peter, God's sovereignty in choosing those whom he saves has been the most repeated theme. From 1 Peter 1:1 through our passage today which ends in 1 Peter 2:10, Peter has directly mentioned this truth 6 times (1:1, 1:3, 1:15, 2:4, 2:9a, 2:9b). He does not want followers of Jesus to forget that their salvation has come entirely by the grace of God who, in his eternal love, chose to save certain sinners from their deserved destruction. Because of this, Christians can praise only God for salvation. When we look at our lives and inevitably see a life full of sin (which should be the case for all Christians) and feel completely and utterly underserving of the slightest bit of goodness from God, we should praise God all the more because of the undeserved gift of our salvation and of the fact that God saw fit to bring us into divine and glorious fellowship with him. If salvation only comes through the grace of God to those whom he chooses in his great love to redeem, then all Christians are in the same boat...there is not one more or less deserving than another. Because all Christians are in the same boat in God's eyes, we should treat one another as equals. Regardless of someone's spiritual maturity or leadership position or level of involvement, we must not view ourselves as any better or any more inferior. To do so would void the wonderful grace and love of God and it would act as a ravaging cancer to the agape love we are to have for one another. Precious to God While we are chosen by God, Peter also stated that we are precious to God. God highly values and treasures those whom he chooses. In fact, Peter said in verse 6 while quoting Isaiah 28:16 that Jesus is a cornerstone, chosen and precious to God. This means that God has not only chosen us just like he chose Jesus, but that we are just as precious to God as Jesus is to God! Wow! That's a bold statement that should cut straight to our hearts because it demonstrates the incredible love that God truly has for all those he calls his children. We are so valuable and precious to God that he won't ever let go of us (John 6:37,39), he will never abandon us (Joshua 1:5), he will always take care of us (Matthew 6:25-34), and he will always work things out for our greatest good (Romans 8:28). If all Christians are this precious to God, shouldn't Christians value one another in the same way? Whenever we are in the presence of another Christian, we should treat them with the utmost value and honor because like you, they are a favored one of the Lord. Sadly, we often become too casual with one another, and it becomes easy to be disrespectful and demeaning; we begin to treat one another with less regard than we do our own belongings. This should never be the case. We are precious to God and highly valued, so much so that Jesus died for us. In the same way should we value one another. Parts of God's temple While describing Christians as chosen and precious, Peter is also describing Christians as living stones. Christians "are living stones that are being built up into a spiritual house (verse 5)." The spiritual house should really be thought of as a spiritual temple. All Christians are being actively built into a spiritual temple whose cornerstone is the resurrected Jesus. A cornerstone was the large first stone of a building that both decided the position of the building but also served as the guide for all the rest of the stones. In the same way, Jesus is the cornerstone of the spiritual temple God is actively erecting. Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) and he is the first of many who will rise from the dead to eternal life (Colossians 1:18). What Peter is saying here is huge: He's saying that followers of Jesus constitute the new temple. In many Old Testament prophecies that predict the rebuilding of the temple, I think many of them (like the one in Ezekiel 37:24-28) are actively being fulfilled right now as more people come to know Jesus. As living stones, all Christians are being built up into the temple of God; we are parts of God's temple The imagery of a building being built reminds me of 1 Thessalonians 5:11 where it says, "Encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." Paul used the same Greek word for build as Peter did. As Christians are being built up by God to make the new temple, we should be building up one another in encouragement. What God is building up we should never tear down. Life as a follow of Jesus is one that is full of difficulty and frustration; troubles seem to find us out. We all know this and we all know what it feels like to be alone or to feel like we are unloved. The thought of discouraging a fellow Christian with our words and actions should revolt us and if we do fall short and speak discouraging words to another, we should be quick to make it right; our spirit should groan within us and convict us of our sin until we repent and make it right. As a Christian, you are never alone. You are one part of the glorious temple of God...you are not yourself the entire temple, but only one part of the temple that God is building. There are many around you who need encouragement. Be the one who gives it. Priests of God Peter then builds on the image of a spiritual temple by making the declaration that Christians are also holy priests. This image certainly takes us back to Israel of the Old Testament. When God gave the law to Moses at Mount Sinai, he appointed the tribe of Levi as the tribe of priests. They were the ones who would perform sacrifices in the temple and act as the middlemen between God and his people. But even though the tribe of Levi was the designated tribe of priests, God ultimately considered Israel as a whole to be a nation of priests. He said as much in Exodus 19:6 when he said, "'and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'" The nation of Israel was to be a beacon of light to the whole world and all the world would know that the Lord is God. Well, Israel didn't do such a great job at this. In fact, they did such a bad job that the nation of Israel was destroyed and exiled into foreign countries. It was at this time that God spoke through prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel about Israel being rebuilt and governed by an everlasting covenant that God would make with them. According to Peter, the true Israel is all of those who have faith in Jesus. Peter used the exact language from Exodus 19:6 and applied it to Christians. He said that Christians are a royal and holy priesthood and a holy nation, a chosen race who are a people for God's own possession. We, just like the nation of Israel was in the past, serve as a nation of priests; through our Christian witness and testimony, the world will know that Jesus is Lord. As God has made us all into a nation of priests who are to declare to the world the gospel of Jesus, so are we to lead one another to Jesus. One of our priestly duties involve directing fellow Christians back to Jesus. Christians still fail, do we not? We still find ourselves giving into sin and being overcome by fear and despair and we often need someone who will help remind us about Jesus and point us back to him. Out of all the things that Christians can do for one another, I think this is the most important and fulfilling, for what is better than being used by God to help a brother or sister come back to Jesus? Recipients of God's Mercy Finally, Peter concluded the passage by reminding all of us that we are chosen and changed by God into a spiritual temple and holy nation of priests because we have received God's mercy. Once we had not received God's mercy, but now we have. I like to think of mercy as not receiving what I deserve. I am deserving of eternal judgement in hell, but God had compassion on me and chose me to be a recipient of his mercy; through Jesus, I now have eternal life and I will not receive what I truly deserve. "According to his great mercy, he has caused me to be born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3)." As God has shown all believers mercy, we should show that same mercy to one another. It's too easy for us to be judgmental and condemn a brother or sister in Christ for ways they fail or fall short. A large portion of our American culture currently demands that someone be publicly shamed and discredited and ruined for life if they make one mistake. People make it their goal in life to ruin someone's life by finding an email from 15 years ago or a tweet from 10 years ago that can be used to turn someone into a monster. Christians are not immune to this. We find it much easier to point out someone's faults then to show mercy. What we all need is to show mercy to one another like God has shown us mercy. We do not need to define one another by our failures. Rather, we should keep giving one another chances to grow and change, just as God has done and is still doing with us. We are still called to keep one another accountable, yet we are to do so as God does with us, with a merciful, gentle, and patient heart. Conclusion So, in conclusion, Christians are chosen by God, precious to God, living parts of God's temple, priests of God, and all of this is because we are recipients of God's mercy. What God has done for us should motivate us and serve as our guide for how we should love one another. We should demonstrate agape love for each other by treating one another as equals, valuing one another, building one another up with encouragement, leading one another to Jesus, and showing mercy to one another. By living in this way, we proclaim the praises and glories of God who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. 2