You really could not have a better introduction to our passage this evening than what has just been sung: "Lead me, oh Lord, in thy righteousness; Make thy way plain before my face." I felt like although the moment I'm going to talk you about was in many ways a tragic moment, Luella and I felt very privileged to be part of it. We were on sabbatical in Clearwater, Florida, some years ago; both my mom and Luella's father lived in that area. And during that period of time, Luella's father was diagnosed with cancer and was on his way to go home with Jesus.
A Prayer From a Hospital Bed
I remember one particular moment that I will never forget. We were in his hospital room; we were standing around his bed; we were praying for him. And he asked if he could pray. I'll never forget his prayer. His prayer wasn't for his own sickness. His prayer wasn't for wisdom for the doctors. His prayer was for us. He prayed that, in his time of suffering, he would be a good example to us. I will never forget that prayer, and that is a wonderful example of the spirit of the passage that we will look at tonight from First Peter, Chapter 1, if you would turn there.
Before I read the passage to you, I want to set it up again, reminding you that Peter is writing to people who are suffering. They are experiencing the harsh realities of life in this fallen world. They are experiencing the uncomfortable grace of God's refining love. And although First Peter is full of words of comfort, it's not just a letter of comfort; because Peter understands that even in times of suffering, God calls us to give ourselves to His plan and to His purpose. There's wonderful pastoral wisdom in that.
You know and I know that often times of suffering are times where we are tempted to be all too self-oriented and all too self-focused, and we're tempted to sing victim themes and tempted to forget about others and just think about ourselves. And so Peter is calling people away from that, because when you do that, you trouble your own trouble. The more you are dominated by your suffering, the greater your suffering becomes. And so it's wise to call people beyond that and to call them to participate, even in times of suffering, in the beautiful plan and purpose of God.
That's not just a glory to God; that's just not good for the people that you will minister to; that's good for your soul. And so there's wonderful pastoral wisdom in this passage. And beginning with verse 13, Peter begins to lay out this way of living that has God's purpose in view - yes, even in times of suffering. I've said these are more than just words of comfort; these are marching orders, and they really are. And you could say that the summary of all of this call is found there in verse 16: "You shall be holy as I am holy."
It's a call to holiness. And how is it that God demonstrates His holiness? Well, here's how: in everything He does; that's how! And so the call to be holy is a call to commit myself to righteous, godly living in every situation and every location and every circumstance of my life (now are you ready for this?) no matter what. Difficulty doesn't change the game. Suffering doesn't change the game. This is not a call for moments when we're experiencing particular blessing and comfort and ease; it's a call for every moment of our lives, and we need that call because we can be weak in our zeal, and as I have said many times, fickle in our faith.
And so this is a call to give yourself to God's purpose and God's plan no matter what you're facing. Oh, may God work that in every heart in this room. May we love Him so fully; may we love Him so dearly; may we have such zeal to participate in His purposes, that even in the darkest moments of life, we will not turn from them. May God, in His grace, plant that in your heart and mine. Now again as your pastor, I have some sense of what some of you are facing. There's sickness among us. There are people who have faced loss in their lives.
Trouble All Around Us
There are jobs that have ended. There are people facing financial difficulty. There are parents who are weeping for their children. There are young families dealing with the stress of raising their children. There are people facing financial difficulty. And the temptation is to settle for survival. This is a call to step way beyond survival. This is a call to give yourself, even in want, even in weakness, even in difficulty, to the plan of God. And I think maybe this passage is particularly helpful for us in this moment as a church.
We need this call. Let me read for you beginning with verse 22: 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."
(1 Peter 1:22-25) The central point of this little passage is a call to love, and so I want to start with that call. It's the only command in the verses that I just read to you. The first part of the passage and the last part of the passage are there to support this call to love. Verse 22 again: "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart." Again, perhaps there's no call more important in moments of suffering than the call to love - the call to be part of God's transforming work of love, the call to incarnate the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in the place where He has put you.
In other passages, words like 'ambassador' are used. You have been called; I have been called to be one of God's ambassadors. What does an ambassador do? Only one thing: he represents. And so I have, by God's sovereign plan, in the place where He has put me, I have been positioned as His representative. You have the high and holy calling of making an invisible Christ visible through your communication of His love to the people in your life. How's that for a reason for getting up in the morning? Hear this: you're the tone of His voice.
You're the look on His face. You're the touch of His hand. You're the incarnation of His goodness. You're sent to reflect His patience. You're sent to reflect His forgiveness. You're sent to reflect His faithfulness. You're sent to reflect that acceptance even when it's not deserved. You're there to be an instrument of His transforming grace. You are called to love! Not just because love is a wonderful thing, but because love reflects the zeal of the character of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. That love is the most powerful force of transformation in the universe.
It was love that brought Christ to earth. It was love that sent Christ to the cross. It was love that brought this message to us. It is because of love that we're redeemed. Love is our identity. Love is our calling. Love is our mission. Love is our duty. Now - is it your mission? Is it? Have you taken it as your calling? Have you? Did you leave a trail of empirical evidence last week that you are a person on a mission of Christ, revealing Christ-like love? Well, that love is detailed for us here in four ways.
First, it is to be sincere love. Again, this is way above sort of mannerly, cultural niceness that can have a whole lot of different motivations to it. This is something greater than flattery and sort of self-aggrandizing encouragement, you know, you're doing that because you actually want something from this person. This is love that's born out of sincerity of heart: I have been loved; I am being loved; I will forever be loved. That is the joy of my life; and in sincerity of thanks and worship and gratitude and praise, I long, somehow, to splash that love onto the people that God has placed in my life.
Sincere Love
It's not an act. It's not a formalistic duty. It flows from sincerity of my heart because I'm blown away with the majesty of the love that has been lavished on me. It's sincere. Second qualifier is the word 'brotherly.' It's familial love. It's actually here - dare I say this: "Philadelphia love." I don't get to mention that word, but it's actually there in the original. Now, I don't mean love like you find on the streets of Philadelphia, but it is brotherly. Now what that means is it's not love that stands above and looks down on a person, that sort of "I'm better than you" saccharine-sort-of pity.
It is standing alongside. It recognizes this: that we share identity. I am like you. I have not arrived. I, too, am a person in process. I stand in need of love, giving love, that's it. And everything I give, I need, because I'm like you. I like to think of it this way: no matter how well-known you are, no matter what great ministry God has given you, no matter what your position is in the body of Christ. Hear this: Christ is the head of His body! Everything else is body! This is level-playing-field love.
I would say this as your pastor: Please minister that love to me; I need it. I need your godly care. I need your godly affection. I need your prayer. I need accountability. I need godly rebuke. I need encouragement. All of us need that, and when I stand in this pulpit, I don't stand as a man who's arrived; I minister to you the love of Christ out of a deep sense of my own need. There are times during the week, as I'm holding these majestic truths in my hands, I feel so unworthy. I scan my life and feel like there are ways where I am still such a poor example of the truth I adore.
You see, the war is still going on for all of us. We're still living in this fallen world. We are still being sanctified by God's grace. I love those moments when somebody comes forward after the end of a message and doesn't say to me, "Great sermon, Paul" but says, "I'm praying for you." May God help us to have that kind of brotherly affection for one another. Everyone in this room is still in the midst of God's process of sanctification. Everyone in this room is still facing the realities of life in a fallen world.
And we stand alongside of one another; and when your knees are weak, I will hold you up. When your heart is giving way to doubt, I want to encourage you. When problems loom so large that it's hard for you to see Jesus, I want to give you eyes to see Him again. Brotherly love. There's a third word, it's the word 'earnestly.' This love we're called to is love that must be earnest. What does that mean? It means zealous. It means motivated. It means self-starting. That means I'm looking for places to love.
It means I have eyes open and ears open and heart open. I'm not just waiting for opportunities to come to me. I'm not waiting for the church to design a program that I can participate in. I'm not waiting to be pointed to a need of love. I'm zealous and committed and active, looking for those opportunities to incarnate the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in some situation, in some relationship, in some moment in someone's life. Now I would ask you again: does that describe you? Are you scanning the situations and relationships in which God has placed you, your community, your circle of relationships, your place of influence, looking for opportunities to love with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Love From a Pure Heart
And then the final word, 'pure' - "from a pure heart." Sincere love, brotherly love, earnest love, love from a pure heart, love without mixed motives. I'm not loving you because I want something from you; I'm not loving you to grow in your favor, or to place you in my debt, or to be thought well of, or to be accepted, or to be respected. I am loving you because I want to be part of God's good work in your life in this moment in your life; that's my single motive. Now that's hard. It's hard for our relationships to rise to the level of what I've just described.
Sincere, brotherly, earnest, pure love. Those four words should make you say, "I need help," because the motives of our hearts are still mixed. Pure love often can quickly morph into idolatrous love, and so this call to love should drive you to the cross of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I should say: We don't always love, Lord, with that kind of sincerity. We don't always live with brotherly affection. We don't always have that kind of earnestness; we can get so into our own schedule, and our own wants, and our own desires, and our own plans and purposes that we forget what we've been called to.
We can be so mixed of motive. Oh, Lord, won't You visit us? Won't You rescue us by Your grace? Won't You forgive us for our self-centeredness? And won't You give us the heart to love in a way that honors You and in a way that is good for Your children? I think when I think of these passages again and again that we are called to love our enemies; oh my. And yet we would say we struggle to love the people that we say we love. We struggle to love brothers and sisters. Oh, that God would work in our hearts by His grace: sincere, brotherly, earnest, pure love.
Now the top and the bottom of the passage are meant to support this command. Notice this: "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere and brotherly love." Now what he's saying is, when you begin to give yourself to something bigger than yourself, when you give yourself in obedience to the plan and purpose of God, you clear the decks of your heart in order to be able to love. It's sort of what you do when you build a house on a wooded lot. What's the very first thing you do?
Well, you know. You clear the lot, so that there's room to build this house. And so the words here are important: "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth." Now he is not talking about 'works righteousness.' What he's talking about is the process that God's grace works in our heart that moves us toward obedience. What's the first step? The first step is awareness of your sin. God comes to you in His grace, and He makes you aware of your sin. Awareness of sin is always the result of being visited by God's grace, because sin blinds us.
That awareness of God's grace is followed by conviction. Conviction is a ministry of the Holy Spirit that makes me uncomfortable with my sin. That conviction is followed by confession. Confession now is leaving blame shifting, leaving excuses, and before a holy God, admitting that the way I live is wrong. Now confession is followed by repentance. What is repentance? Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change in the direction of my life. And so now, I have turned from the 'me-centric' way of living, the pursuit of my kingdom, and my purposes, and my law, and my will, and my way.
By God's grace, I've recognized that that's wrong; I've confessed that is wrong, and I've committed myself to live in a new way. Now what's the epicenter of that new way? What are the two great commands? "Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself." And so when I move away from that selfish way and give my heart to God's new way, I have now cleared my heart to give it to God's call of love. Because what consumes your heart before that operation of God's grace is love of self. Jesus came so that you would not what?
Grace Rescues You From Selfishness
Live for yourself. And so actually what Peter is doing is reminding you of the work of grace in your heart. God's work of grace rescues you from your selfishness so that you are now ready, your heart has been cleansed, and ready to love. And so what should your response be? Well, it's very easy, love: sincerely, in a Philadelphia way, earnestly, with a pure heart. Now notice what he says at the end: "Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God."
He says, "Don't you understand that an eternal seed of new life has been placed inside of you?" You have not been connected to something that's temporary; you have been connected to something that's eternal, and the eternal seed of God, the eternal purpose of God, the new life that you have been given will not ever be quenched. So you don't have to worry. God has brought you into something that is eternal; you can rest in that fact and give yourself to God's plan and God's purposes. Now how has that happened?
Through God's living and abiding Word. That word 'living' could actually be translated, 'life giving.' Eternally abiding word. This Word remains forever. Now why does he focus us on God's Word? Because life in the Word of God is a life of love. Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples." How? "By your love for one another." 1 John says, "Those who love are born of God because God is love." John says, "How can we say we love God who we can't see if we don't love our brother who we can see?"
I could quote passage after passage that again and again say to take seriously the message of the Word of God is to take seriously this life of love. If you've been born again by the Word, and born to live out the Word in your life, you have been born for a life of Christ-like love. And by God's grace, the good news of the Gospel was preached to you so you would be rescued from you and live this life of love. What a beautiful passage! What is our motivation? It's not just that there's need around us.
It's not just that God is continuing sanctifying work. It's that the Lord Jesus Christ, in the magnitude of His love, subjected Himself to things that none of us would want to experience so that through His death and resurrection, we would be rescued by His love and be enabled to live this life of love - right here, right now, in this church and in this city. There is a great need for love that is sincere and brotherly and earnest and pure. May, by God's grace, we follow His commands and live in that love.
Let's pray: Lord, thank you again for the truth of Your Word. Thank you that it welcomes and calls us to things that we would not choose for ourselves. Thank you that You rescue us by Your love so we can be part of Your great company of love. May we love sincerely, in a brotherly way, with earnestness of heart, and purity of motive for the sake of Your people, for the furtherance of Your Kingdom, and to the praise of Your glory. In Jesus's name, Amen.
