(1 Peter 1:22-25) The Church's Love for One Another. (v.2)

INTRODUCTION:

What is love?

- If we were to ask the average person it the mushy gushy feeling for someone. “I care for them”

Yet, do we really love that way?

If we were to ask how do people truly love one another, then we would say it is a self-serving, self-gratifying love in which kindness is only shown when I get something out of it. If I do not get something out of it, then I have fallen out of love.

But what is Biblical love?

The greatest example of Love is the greatest Love story.

That is, God planned from the foundations of the World to have His son die on the cross of Calvary, so that God could redeem us from our sins and adopt us as His very own children.

This is the example that we are given in the NT.

Now often, when we think about this example, we often understand it in terms of evangelism.

After all, God tells us to love our enemies. (Luke 6:27)

Luke 6:27 ESV

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

What is the greatest love I can do for my enemies? Tell them of the greatest news that has been proclaimed. That God so loved the World that Christ, His Son, died to redeem them.

Now that is true and right, but that is not what I am addressing this morning.

Instead, I am addressing Christian love for one another. Look down at your text this morning in 1 Peter 1:22-25.

1 Peter 1:22–25 ESV

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

From 1 Peter 1:22-25,

Christians ought to love one another.

This text gives us 2 reasons why Christians should love one another. .

The first understanding,

1. The Gospel purified hearts loves God’s people.

1 Peter 1:22 ESV

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Peter commands us to love, but before he does that, he tells us why.

Why ought a Christians love one another?

a. The Basis for Love: You have been purified.

ILLUSTRATION:

I think every generation has understood the importance of pure water.

- Much of life in ancient times was dependent on access to pure water.

- Today, we are able to pump that right into our homes. On the go, we take bottles of purified water.

Why do I drink the tap water and not the toilet water?

Because I know the tap water is pure.

If you are a believer today, your soul has been purified.

It once was a waste land, but now it is being purified. Your soul, that is your inner person, is being purified by God.

Another way to say this, “The muck is being taken out of your soul."

How is God purifying your soul?

b. The Process: Obedience is essential to purification.

We understand what obedience is.

Obedience is doing what you are told. Whether I am the boss or parent giving the order, OR I am the employee or child receiving the order, we understand what obedience is.

But who is telling us what we ought to do.

Peter says,

You are being purified as you obey the truth.

The truth is a general reference to God’s Word.

a) Begins - when we believe and trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

b. It continues as we understand and take the whole council of God. All of His Word.

Obedience to this truth transforms us. “It takes the muck out of our souls”.

Application:

Have you ever struggled with obeying God?

Part of that process is that by obeying now, it goes from one obedience to another obedience, thus purifying our heart.

To clarify, I am not saying that biblical change is simply a matter of habits.

Instead I would that the obedience transforms our heart, making us pure.

Think about it this way.

Why does an older teacher often have a natural way to draw kids in to the subject. The average person shows up and the kid looks at them like you just spoke in another language. But an experienced teacher explains the same thing to them and suddenly they understand and like it.

Why does that happen?

Because the teachers heart and mind were changed as they taught.

In the same way, our continued obedience changes our hearts and minds into greater and greater purity.

It purifies our souls.

c. The direct result of purification: Love for the people of God.

But remember, Peter is not talking about Biblical change.

He is talking about our love for one another.

If you are purified, the natural effect is that we love one another.

Kyle Johnston said (Biblical Counselor)

“What strikes me about this, is the place of depth from which love must proceed. The heart is the deepest part of you. Love is to be true and genuine, pure and clean, not superficial and selfish but motivated by an authentic desire to bless others even when there is no personal advantage for doing so. Love comes from a pure heart.

http://biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2014/08/06/our-ministry-goal-love/

The fact is, there are many commands in Scripture for us to love one another. (Romans 12:10, John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:7-8)

But what kind of love is this?

We talked about the fact that most would call love - a feeling. That most love is actually a form of - selfishness.

Another way to say this, what muck in my heart results in impure love?

The impurity of selfishness in my soul creates much muck in my love.

In contrast,

A love with a pure heart is to love one another this way: (1 Corinthians 13:3-8)

1 Corinthians 13:3–8 ESV

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

What would our church look like if we loved this way?

Instead of the bitterness, resentfulness, arrogance, and inpatient,

You would be a body known for it’s sacrificial love, beginning with Jesus and including His Church.

In fact, John 13:34-35 tells us that we ought to be this.

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Because we are being purified through the Gospel of Christ, we ought to love one another.

Transition:

Perhaps, you say, that is a great idea, but you do not understand how wicked I am and how wicked they are.

Be assured, this purity resulting in love one another is not a hopeful Goal, but a guaranteed reality.

2. The Word Leads You to Love One Another.

1 Peter 1:23–25 ESV

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Peter begins by reminding us that:

a. Belief in the Word Accomplishes the New Birth.

We all know what birth is, and we understand that when a lady gives birth to a child a new life comes into the world.

However, instead of a physical rebirth, the believer is born a Spiritual birth. We are born spiritually to a new life in Christ.

Because it is a spiritual birth, it is different from our physical birth.

Our physical birth is a part of our mothers physical pregnancy.

Not to diminish the role or our moms, but flesh perishes. In a normal life, 60 years latter and this body perishes.

The New birth is different. While the flesh will pass away, even for believers, the Spiritual birth is imperishable.

Why?

Because of what accomplishes the new birth.

b. New birth is accomplished by the Word.

Many of us are familiar with Christian Liberalism.

Christian liberalism is the philosophy in which the historical reality of the Gospel is denied, but the general principles of Christianity ought to be lived out.

(Adapted from George Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, Introduction).

They are good general principles to live by.

What amazes me is how many unbelievers can nearly quote renowned liberal theologians to that point.

Have you ever meet someone like this?

They deny the Gospel as being true, but they try to generally follow God and the Bible’s principles.

But understand this?

The new birth comes through the knowledge of God’s Word. We as believers receive the new birth because we know and trust in the Gospel.

Failure to know or to trust in the Gospel means that we do not have the new birth. This means we are not saved and are not being purified by it’s truth.

If you are a believer though, then God’s Word is accomplishing the new birth in you.

Why is that important?

Because:

c. The Word is eternal and eternally true.

1 Peter 1:23 ESV

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

The Word of God is described as:

living - The idea that it is not dead like a normal book, but has continual life. It a living book.

Abiding - This is the idea that it remains forever. It continuously remains.

In what way is the Words of God, the Bible, Living and Abiding today?

The promises made in Scripture are being fulfilled:

in our lives.

And

b. in our circumstances

Particularly, the New Birth and the purification promised in it is being fulfilled as we speak.

In this way, Peter is describing Scripture as being eternal and eternally true.

This point is further illustrated when Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6-8 to make his point.

1 Peter 1:24–25 ESV

for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

There is a great picture here of the flesh of man vs. the eternal word.

ILLUSTRATION:

We all familiar with how grass withers and flowers fall.

Grass

- In June when we look at the Laramie valley, it is green and robust.

- Take that same snap shot in August, and you find dry, dead grass. It withers.

Even flowers fall

Hawaii is known for their flowers. I can remember 1 week walking by a tree full of Plumeria flowers. Beautiful white transitioning to Pink tips.

I can remember walking the next week to find a bare tree with all its flowers on the ground.

Understand, the flesh is like that. The flesh withers and falls away. It goes back to being nothing more than dust.

However, God’s word is not that way. It remains forever.

“forever remaining” is another way to say it is “living and abiding”.

When all flesh has passed and withered away, God’s Word remains as a solid rock, unchangable and unmovable.

Peter’s point is that it is eternal which means it is eternally true”.

Isaiah wrote that to help Israel understand that God will accomplish his promises.

That there will be a day when all the flesh of this life has passed away, but God’s word remains living out it’s eternal purpose.

Peter then, makes the point that:

d. The Gospel you believe is this guaranteed Word.

1 Peter 1:25 ESV

but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Understand, the New heart is not something new.

It is a promise in God’s word that though flesh has passed away, it remains being fulfilled in you.

The New Birth was promised in Ezekiel 11:19:

Ezekiel 11:19 ESV

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

All of Israel in Ezekiel’s day has died and withered away. They were like the grass dieing in it’s due time.

But God’s promise written in their day, abides and lives on, being preached and fulfilled in you, through the Gospel.

That the Gospel preached to you is imperishable and continues to accomplish what it promises.

The point that Peter is making:

>The gospel will forever accomplish it’s work.

>That means our purification is set in stone,

>Which also means it’s result is set in stone,

>that we love one another.

ILLUSTRATION:

This is not an easy point to understand so think about it this way.

If someone was Engineer for 25 years, that person is going to look at the World like an engineer.

- They would have completed degrees that required physics, mathematics, architectural design… and many more.

- They would have applied that theory in the work force for 25 years.

By the time you are a retired Engineer, you can’t help but think like an engineer.

The knowledge and experience has so shaped them that they could never go back.

That is Peter’s point regarding the Gospel.

God’s word Promised you would have a New Birth.

This means your soul is being purified and there is no going back.

- The purification that has occured in you is so profound, there is no reversing it.

- The promise given in the Gospel is so set in stone, it can never be reversed.

God’s word Guarantee’s you will love God’s People.

Therefore, you ought yield to God’s work in your life by choosing to love one another.

To do anything else is to fight against the sure promise of God’s eternal word.

CONCLUSION:

So what have we learned from Peter this morning,

1. Pure hearts will love God’s people.

We are being purified by the Gospel to a love for one another. It is the result of the belief in the Gospel.

2. God’s word Guarantee’s you will love God’s People.

Because God’s Word is eternal and eternally true, its promise guarantee we will love one another.

To do anything else is to fight against the sure promises of God’s Word.

If you are sitting here today and are not one of God’s saved people, then the greatest thing I can do is point you to Christ love.

John 3:16–17 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

If you cannot say you are saved through belief in Jesus Christ, I challenge you to take time to understand who the Savior is and to decide to believe in him today.

If you are a believer,

then your life ought to be characterized by love.

The main command of this verse today is this: “love one another earnestly from a pure heart”

And Peter gave us two clear reasons why we ought to love one another.

- Jesus in his ministry declared that we ought to be known by our love for one another.

Romans 12:10 ESV

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Now take a second and look around you.

Those sitting with you are those who you are supposed to love as Christ loved us. That because Christ has loved us, we ought to love one another.

- We read in 1 Corinthians 13:3-8 what purified love looks like.

Can you say that you have preferred your brothers by showing them that kind of love?

OR

Should you admit that you have resentment, bitterness, anger, and in-patience for one another?

CAVEAT: I do not stand here as your judge, or you accuser, or even in light of something I saw. I am doing my duty of faithfully preaching through whole council of God’s Word. I am simply preaching through the book of 1 Peter.

In doing that,

I must challenge you to ask what kind of love you show to your fellow church members.

The reality is we all are proud sinners who will offend each other.

Whether it is an issue present in our congregation now, or something in the future, our love for one another will be challenged at some point.

This is why it is sad when someone leaves a congregation because they were offended.

What happened to our love for one another?

That is the love of the Congregation for that person and that person’s love for that person’s fellow church members.

I challenge us as a Church, to remember the example of Christ in the Gospel, and love one another like he did.