The Hope of Genuine Love
A Living Hope
1 Peter 1:22-25
1Pet. 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord stands forever."
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Message: We Genuinely love others when we live out the gospel and follow Christ's example.
Is it possible to experience real, genuine Love?
God does a mighty thing in a person's life when His salvation comes to them. It impacts their life in extraordinary ways. He changes them, places them on a new path with a new direction, new purposes.
When God's love comes to a person, and they are impacted by the passion of Jesus and His extraordinary grace, it begins a partnership between the person and God's Spirit of working together achieving God's purposes in their life. It establishes an active relationship of growing in trust and responding to the changes He is working out in the persons life.
In this passage, Peter is bringing a wonderful point to the preceding verses, that we looked at the last couple of weeks. Peter had challenged his young churches he was writing to, to be ready to live differently in their world, to live holy lives and also to respond to the Fathers corrections that will ultimately build spiritual confidence in their lives. God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - are at work within His children shaping them to be extraordinary people. Peter later calls them
"...a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God," 1 Pet 2:9
and the way these people are distinguished is by the nature of God himself - LOVE.
Peter says:
1Pet. 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
The working out of our salvation is to build an active, working, genuine, sincere love in our lives.
Perhaps Peter is reminded by the Holy Spirit of an experience He had with Jesus as he writes
John 13:3-17
John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Peter sees that there are steps that lead to love
1. Purified souls ‘purified yourselves' (NIV) (psuche - souls, life)
Purifed (hagnizo - ceremonially purify, make holy, clean, set apart)
- take the initiative to live a holy life
does not come naturally - sin comes naturally
Ø Acknowledge need for purification (cleansing) -
John 13:8 "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
Ø The work of repentance builds grace in our lives
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
John 13:9 "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
John 13:10 Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean
Helps us see and desire truth - to have clear vision
Removed the obsticles
The second step leading to love is
2. Obedience to Truth - living out the gospel
Purified our souls by living in obedience to the truth
John 13:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Truth leads to love - when we love we tell the truth
Truth protects love - promotes love
Truth strengthens love
2 Loves here
...so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
Philao - brotherly love
CS Lewis - "the least natural of loves; the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious and necessary." "...we can live and breed without friendship."
"This alone, of all the loves, seemed to raise one to the level of gods or angels."
"It is a relation between men at their highest level of individuality"
it draw individuals together in 2s-3s.
True friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. One who interest is in the other and offers themselves first over the need to receive.
a friendship that does not demand uniformity - everyone does not have to look alike,
nor demand unanimity - we do not all have to think alike, we have different perspectives, we can spend our money differently, we can look at the social concerns of our community differently
But, it is building unity - making us one unit
John 17: 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Phileo Friendship exhibits a glorious "nearness by resemblance" to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every person, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest, and the whole of the friendships gain a greater understanding of God.
This kind of relationship builds a matrix of friendships that becomes tighter and stronger like a great wall around the city. A Unity is developed that demonstrates the mutual respect and regard for one another.
Agape - sacrificial love - "Charity" (Lewis)
John 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
It is not so much the love that God IS, but the love that God bestow - he gives to us to give,. It is the evidence of the grace we live in.
- His Charity - is His benevolence - meeting a need that the populace would not naturally meet.
- Charity requires a sacrifice, and draws on resources other hold dear, whether money, time, sleep, image
Multiple times Jesus demonstrated charity -
Spending time with lepers, sick, dying, demon possessed, sinners
Mark 7: 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
Mark 7:27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
Mark 7:28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
Mark 7:29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."
His Charity - His grace
The ability to love the unlovable, the unlikable, the "not like me"
We are able to Love Genuinely because:
23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
We are Children of the same Father
Children in a family can all have very different births, some natural, some caesarian, some children have unknown fathers or mothers, some are abandonded, adopted, some live with many different mothers or fathers,
We all have the same spiritual father
We have been impacted by the Word of God
We take instruction from the same source - Word of God
Living and abiding word of God
Truth can change you in a moment - hear God's word, it penetrates your heart and mind and you never quite escape its impact or effects
Others can sit next to you, hear the same words and it rolls off them like water on a ducks back
We have the responsibility to apply what we hear - that is your part of the partnership in a relationship with God, this is what makes it an active relationship.
Just hearing it does not change me until I do something with it, let it into my heart, let it into my mind.
I do control my heart and mind - God is sovereign everything in all the earth belongs to him except two things my heart and my mind. I can close them to him and keep them closed. I can read the Bible, I can listen to sermons, I can talk to my friends about my spiritual life, but unless I purposefully open my mind and heart to him, the power of his word, the seed that will cause my life to take new directions, will not have it's effect. Many people have listened to many sermons but never changed the way they live
Because a person is born again, they gain the ability to love in ways the rest of the world is mystified by.
"Behold, how they love one another"
If you want to make a difference in the world, make a mark, leave some significance, there is no greater way than to love, genuinely, from the heart,
When God's love is flowing through you God changes things. Peoples lives are changed, they become different people, not because of you, but because of God's word alive in you, because God's love is flowing through you.
Message: We Genuinely love others when we live out the gospel and follow Christ's example.