Life Project Blog

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

1 Peter 2:1-3

Peter is summing up his discussion in the first chapter and transitioning into the next section in these three verses.  There’s some good stuff here…

You will recall from last time that Peter has reminded us of our salvation, and how we have been purified from our sins and now it’s time to live as followers of Jesus by loving one another.  Therefore, we need to rid ourselves of the old ways, and he mentions several things that we should no longer harbor or practice. I’m sure (or at least I hope) that I don’t need to elaborate on malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy or slander; we can move on to the “good stuff.”

Like newborn babies… Can you think of what a newborn baby is, that we were not, but now are in Christ?  (Hint: We covered this in the last post)

Newborn babies are innocent. Now that our sin has been taken away by the blood of Christ, we are as innocent as a newborn.  So, Peter uses a metaphor, a baby’s milk.  Peter says:

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

We’ve received so much already from our relationship with Jesus; crave more!  Seek out His Truth in your relationship with Him.  Dig into a healthy portion of His Word, pray unceasingly and seek His guidance, asking Him always to grow in your being so that in all things you do, your walk with Him will grow closer.  Form the habit of seeking His presence and His Word so that your testimony to the lost will give Him glory… and do all of this because you love Him and remember that we love one another because He loves all of us.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:22-25

Peter wraps up chapter one with these wonderful verses, bringing his discussion of our lot as followers of Jesus back to the source of everything in a Christian’s life: Love.  His reference to our having “purified” ourselves is another reference to our having our sins taken away− I wonder how many of us really grasp what that means…  Our sins haven’t been merely atoned for, as they would have been under the Old Testament Law, they have been taken away, removed, eliminated entirely.  They are gone. It is as though they never happened.  This is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Great news… in Christ you have been “purified.” This is the truth, and when we obey the truth, we love one another as God loved us.  If you were with us as we went through 1 John recently, this will sound quite familiar; Love one another.

Why should we love one another?  Because we have been born again.  We were not born again in the biological sense, but in a spiritual sense.  We are without sin because our sins have been removed, so we no longer have the stain of sin… and it’s about time we acted like it.  Again, this is the power of the Gospel going forward; act as though you are in Christ… because you are.

Take careful notice of the quote from Isaiah 40 in the next verses. Isaiah tells us that we are like grass or flowers.  We will grow, fade and die, but God’s Word is eternal and will endure forever.  As mortal humans, living in a physical, biological body, we will grow up, fade and then die, but as followers of Jesus Christ who have been redeemed from the old, sinful life and filled with the truth of the salvation of Jesus Christ, we too will carry on forever.  Do you know why that is?  Note that Isaiah said that the word of the Lord endures forever.  The word is none other than Jesus Himself who lives in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, we are different now… love one another, and let the earthly things go…

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:17-21

These few verses have really been “messed with” over the years.  I used to read terror into them, as though they were a serious threat of hellfire, but these days, I’ve changed my view.  Let’s bear in mind what Peter has been telling us up to this point.  Recall that he has been talking about our great salvation, pointing out that it has already come. Then he mentioned our inheritance as co-heirs with Christ and reminded us that we have so much to look forward to that, in faith, we set this crazy world and its ways aside for Him. Now, he is continuing in that vein.

He reminds us that our salvation is great, by pointing out that is wasn’t bought with mere perishable things, but with the very lifeblood of the Son of God; what amazing, incredible, awesome powerful love− WOW!! Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate, was chosen from the beginning to redeem us all.  He was without sin, totally undeserving of His fate, and yet He willingly allowed Himself to be led to slaughter for you and I: Amazing Love! He took our sin away…

So then, why would we want to go back to the old ways?  With this great salvation that came from indescribable love, why ignore it for a moment’s amusement?  It makes no sense.

Are we missing anything if we decide to knock off the things we really don’t need to be wasting our time with?

NO! We are gaining everything!

The long and short of it is simply this: We modify our behavior not because we fear punishment, but because God loved us and in return we love Him.  Remember that next time you are tempted, and see if the temptations don’t fade significantly…

See, I told you this stuff wasn’t complicated!

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16

In this passage, we begin with “therefore” and whenever you begin with “therefore,” you need to think back to what came before.  Last time, we saw Peter make reference to our great salvation and with our inheritance that is still to come, and that is what he is referring to here. So, with that in mind, we set our alert and sober minds on that inheritance that we will receive when Jesus comes.  Remember, our salvation is already here; our inheritance is more than we can even comprehend.

Peter then tells us that we, as “obedient children” shouldn’t concern ourselves with the evil nonsense of the past, reminding us that next to what is coming, such things appear to be foolish indeed.

Then the “be holy” part…

It seems that many of us think that we are being “holy” when we are busy disapproving of other people, but that is far from being holy.  “Holy” means “set apart,” and we are not to be set apart from other people−  far from it, in fact.  We are to be set apart from the evil of this world, not from the inhabitants of this world.  In truth, these are the very people we are supposed to be reaching out to in love.  Think about it this way, when a person is “set apart” and they reach out in love, and then the person who needs Jesus Christ sees Him in the faces of those who are reaching out, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most powerful force on the planet, and it can bring about nothing less than a movement, sometimes called a “revival.”

Now, I ask you: Is any part of this complicated? No, it is simply… simple!

I wonder why this sort of thing is so rare. Surely not because it is complicated.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Peter begins this letter by giving praise to God for the living hope that we have in such abundance through Christ, what an amazing hope this is! It cannot be taken away from us, and it is being kept pure and unsullied by the very power of God in Heaven, waiting for the day we will inherit.  It remains intact even though we will have our share of problems during this time on earth, but take heart, for whatever may happen to us now, we remain co-heirs with Christ, and if what He received after His sufferings is any indication, our inheritance is far greater than the human mind can even begin to comprehend.

Even now, because we believe, we are filled with joy, and we have already received the salvation of our souls, which is to say that we have received forgiveness for our sins. But wait− there’s more…

 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

1 Peter 1:10-12

This is one of my favorite passages, for it demonstrates that the work of Jesus in establishing His Kingdom at the time and by the methods He used were no mistake, having been part of God’s purpose from the outset.  Look carefully at the words here and you will see something truly amazing… The Old Testament prophets were filled with the spirit of Christ and understood that they were serving a different people in a different time when they foretold of the salvation that we have received.  Notice that we have already received this salvation; it is not still in the future.  Those prophets searched carefully to figure out when this would happen as they wrote of the work of Christ, and in this, they were serving us.

Then, Peter says the most interesting thing:   Even angels long to look into these things.  Even the angels want to look into these things, for our inheritance is far greater than anything they will get, and we have been sinners.  When God created Man, he had a great purpose in mind, and even though things went astray back in the Garden, God is sticking with his plan, and you and I are right in the middle of it, for we are on a track where even the angels cannot follow.