How do I Live?

Today’s Text:              1Peter 1:17-2:3

Introduction

Last week’s text ended with a call to action: Be Holy!  This is where we pick up this week; be Holy!

God judges with impartiality.  He doesn’t care about the things that affect your reputation here on earth, but rather His judgment derives from what we have done.  Be Holy, do what is right in God’s eyes and forget about what this world approves of.  When you meet God face to face, He is the only one whose opinion counts.  Remember that the view of the world is the view of the enemy from God’s point of view.

Points of Interest

17-20:  ‘Live as a stranger while you are here on earth’ reflects the thought expressed in our introduction.  It doesn’t matter what the world thinks of us, for we are citizens of a HeavenlyKingdom.  It is not our purpose in this life to please men, in fact if we are concerned about the praise of men we are not servants of Christ! (Gal. 1:10). We were bought by the blood of Christ Himself, and this establishes a higher responsibility than anything this world can claim; live up to it!

22:  In this verse, we are commanded to love one another.  We have here the Greek imperative form: “you must love one another”. This is one of those cases where the Greek word agape is used, which indicates the highest form of godly love.  Note that it is commanded to be done.  This should indicate to you that it does not involve a mere human emotion, but a choice that must be made; a decision we must make to love one another.  Note also that this concept runs counter to the worldly concept of what love is, a feeling or a longing.  Godly love is a decision to love one another even if we aren’t always ‘loveable’; a command that we must keep if we want to be imitators of Christ.

23:  This verse gives us the “why” for the last one: Because you have been born again you must do this. You are no longer ‘of man’ but instead you are now ‘of God’.

24-25:  A quotation of Isaiah 40:6-8 comparing flesh to grass to indicate the temporary nature of life on this earth.  Then, the text draws a contrast between the temporary nature of human life to the eternal nature of God’s Word.  Peter’s emphasis is to cite this comparison to illustrate what happened to us when we were born again.  Going back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve before the Fall would live to serve God forever, but then they rebelled against God and were cut off from the Tree of Life, indicating that they were now mortal and would die.  Jesus died and rose again to rule Heaven and Earth forever.  When we were baptized into His death, we died with Him and rose again to eternal life.  Therefore we are not of this world any longer, but are citizens of Heaven who happen to be stationed here to accomplish a mission for God before returning to “Home Base” which is Heaven, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.  “And this is the word that was preached to you.”

2:1-3:  Here, Peter sums up the first chapter: because of all of this, get rid of all the worldly nonsense and get serious about your new life! He follows this with a comparison of spiritual maturity to physical maturity using the image of a baby’s diet.  Just as a newborn baby, we should crave the pure milk of God’s Word that we may be nourished and grow (rather than the poisonous nonsense of the world). Fill yourself with God’s Word until you become one with it. This is the recipe for spiritual growth.