1 Peter 1:22 - 2:3
The Life-Giving Word

  1. Love one another
    1. You have purified your souls
      1. Refers back to previous passage
        1. The blood of Christ has been sprinkled on you
        2. Remember the Passover significance of that
      2. "Purified" refers to ritual purification
        1. Word in OT refers to any ritual of purification to prepare one to approach God
        2. People were to purify selves before God came down on Sinai (Ex 19.10)
        3. Priest and Levites were to be purified with water of sprinkling prior to entering service of tabernacle (Numbers 8.7)
        4. People were to purify themselves prior to coming to Passover meal
        5. Meaning: Those who underwent this ritual were able to approach God w/o fear of his bursting forth in wrath against their sin.
      3. Peter here refers specifically to the act of Baptism
        1. But not as a bare, ritual act
        2. But to the reality which baptism signifies and seals — the appeal to God for a clean conscience (i.e. a means of approaching him without being destroyed)
        3. And thus calls you to reflect on the sermon your baptism preaches to you.
        4. (And if you lack this cleansing, you have no hope of approaching God; he will certainly destroy you.)
      4. This was brought about by your heeding the gospel
        1. Not "obeying the truth" in the sense of doing everything God says and thus becoming pure by law
        2. but heeding the gospel (as Paul uses the word)
        3. So that you've become pure not by an act on your part, but by hearing the preaching of the gospel and believing it (anticipates Peter's second point)
      5. You have purified your souls
        1. That is, not merely your outward parts in a ceremony, but your innermost being
        2. Peter prepares you for the internalization of his message
        3. Not only your conduct is to be affected by the message and the power of the gospel
        4. But your hearts and inward thoughts as well.
      6. And the result is that you love the brethren.
    2. Therefore let your love be pure
      1. i.e. Since you are pure...
      2. The indicative/imperative strikes again
      3. Love one another sincerely
      4. Literally: unhypocritically
      5. Special NT word, born out of Greco-Roman world — Think of Greek actors (hupocrites): They pretend all sorts of emotions they don't really have.
        1. Jesus makes good use of this word to describe the Pharisees and those who don't believe in him
          1. You hypocrites! Rightly did Isaiah prophesy concerning you "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Mt 15.7)
          2. Clean inside of cup first! (Mt 23.25)
          3. like whitewashed tombs you look righteous but are full of death (Mt 23.27)
        2. Basically it is any pretense of emotion, feeling, joy, etc. where none really exists.
      6. One of my favorite writers, C.S. Lewis, used to advise people to behave as if they loved their neighbor and the feeling would come along later. This is hypocrisy and has no place in the Christian life
      7. We have been purified in our souls. Therefore our love should be pure and come from the heart.
      8. And our love should be fervent, as fervent as Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Lk 22.44) where this word is also used

TRANSITION: Don't be intimidated! And don't settle for less! You say: "How can I manage that sort of love? I could do it if it were a simple matter of doing things that look like love. But how can I manage this heartfelt yearning for the good of my brothers in Christ" Well, part of the answer's already been provided in the indicative/imperative above. You already have been purified with the result that you love the brethren. So come to Christ and take that love for free. Now Peter zeroes in on that answer by saying the same thing that purified you is the source or your continuing life and growth.

  1. Desire the milk of the gospel
    1. You've been born again by the imperishable word
      1. Peter continues his contrast between perishable and imperishable
        1. You haven't been redeemed with corruptible things (1.18)
        2. Therefore, don't live according to your former, futile way of life (1.17)
        3. Same basic point here
          1. Look at what redeemed you and that will clue you in to the kind of life you're called to
          2. With the added wrinkle: Here is the power to grow in exactly that kind of life
      2. You were not saved by your own efforts, but by the word of God
        1. All flesh is grass. Anything you could have tried to do would come to nothing.
        2. but the word endures forever
        3. And this is the word of the gospel preached to you
        4. You were saved when you thought "Can it really be true?" And you knew that it was and longed only that it should be true for you.
      3. Your salvation partakes of the character of that word — living and enduring
    2. Therefore shun all evil
      1. Since all those things belong to your flesh
      2. And you were not redeemed by flesh (which perishes) but by an enduring word.
      3. Lay aside all overt and covert acts of flesh
        1. Whether in outwardly working against our neighbors
        2. Or in pretending to love our brothers, but hypocritically envying, maliciously desiring their downfall, etc.
        3. These things do not and cannot belong to the new person you became when the word caused you to be born again
    3. And grow by the same word that rebirthed you
      1. Be like babies who desire pure milk
        1. Not "milk of the word" (although that's implied in the context)
        2. but spiritual milk
        3. Peter doesn't want you to mistake his point that all of these images of natural growth — whether of seed or milk — have been pointing to a spiritual growth to eternal life
      2. In this way you grow up to salvation
        1. NKJV lacks "to salvation"
        2. But best mss have it — and it's important
        3. The very thing that "saved" you in the first place is that which must go on saving you
        4. In Paul's terms, you don't begin in the Spirit and become perfected in the flesh.
      3. Since you've tasted that Lord is good
        1. Why shouldn't you long for this milk?
        2. You've already tasted it when you were reborn.
        3. You know it's good.
        4. Come! Here is more of it. Drink it for free! Take as much as you can. Gulp it down like a greedy infant.
        5. In this way, more and more, you will love your brothers you will lay aside the deeds of your flesh — not by gritting your teeth and forcing yourself to it, but by crying out to God until he satisfies your hunger.

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