The Church and the Christian Life THE MOST PRIVILEGED PEOPLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!

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1 1 1 PETER 1:22-25 The Church and the Christian Life (1:22-25) Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another 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. (ESV) THE MOST PRIVILEGED PEOPLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! There are 3 phrases that we are going to concentrate on this morning; all of which basically saying the same thing but get more specific as we go. The first of these statements I want to put on the table right away, that is; Privilege does not come without responsibility. This is one of the messages we see all throughout 1 Peter: The hope that followers of Christ have been given (i.e. the Hope of living with Christ in the New World) demands that we live a certain way. This privilege does not come without responsibility In the first 12 verses of 1 Peter 1, Peter takes time just to put in front of our faces the staggering privilege that it is to be saved. No one earns it. No one deserves it. No one has it who does not have it strictly by the sovereign grace of God. Let s look at the stack of privileges he has already put in front of us. 1. God has graciously chosen people to believe in Christ according to His plan to bestow His covenantal love upon us. (v.1) Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God 2. God has caused us to be born again to a living hope (a hope that has a visible impact on the way we live our lives). (v.3) 3. God is guarding the privilege of followers of Christ of escaping His wrath and living with Him forever in the New World (i.e. our inheritance) in Heaven. (v.4) kept in heaven for you 4. God is guarding followers of Christ by giving them persevering faith in Himself so that we will make it to our inheritance. (v.5) who by God s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 5. God is using the fire of trials to make followers of Christ ready for eternal praise, glory, and honor. (Vv. 6-7) you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 6. We are able to love and trust and have joy in Christ even though He is not here with us physically. (v.8) Though you have no seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory

2 2 These privileges are so rich; so intense; so unique that Peter writes in verses that the OT prophets and even angels long just to begin to understand the salvation that believers in Christ get to experience fully. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1:10-12 ESV) Consider this statement: God followers on this side of the cross (post death and resurrection) are the most privileged God followers of all time! What if I said to you, If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a more privileged saint that Isaiah was in his day? Or, If you are a follower of Christ, you are experiencing something that Jeremiah deeply desired to experience in his day! Or what about this, If you are a follower of Christ, then the salvation that has been brought to you is something that even the angels in heaven long to experience themselves! These are absolutely huge statements! Old Testament saints who were given the privilege of recording the very words of God and communicating them to His people, and angels in heaven who experience the presence and glory all the time; both of them want what followers of Christ on this side of the Cross have for themselves! This is what followers of Christ have at their fingertips; the massive privilege of being saved; chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, born again to a hope that impacts the way we live, guarded by God for the New World, refined by God through trials, and consumed with Christ. The salvation that the OT prophets wrote about, we get to experience fully; something that angels just wish they could begin to taste. BUT REMEMBER: PRIVILEGE DOES NOT COME WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY Let s be quick to remember the words of Jesus in Luke 12. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Luke 12:48 ESV) This is Peter s point beginning in verse 13; Privilege does not come without responsibility. Our inheritance demands that we live a certain way! God has not lavished His grace upon us so that we might go live according to the futile impulses and twitches of our flesh. We have not been born again so that we might be the same people as we were before our new birth. We ve been made new people so we will live like new people! And so, statement #2: The grace of God demands that we live to the glory of God. The grace God has extended to us in giving followers of Christ the privilege of being saved demands that we live to magnify His own greatness and excellence. But wait! Some might say. If grace demands that we live a certain way, then grace is not grace and salvation is not truly free. If grace demands anything, then it is no longer grace. I want to make something very clear, as I realize that many people in our day who call themselves followers of Christ struggle with this kind of thinking. It is true, God does not say, If you live a certain way, I will save you. He says, If I save you, you will and must live a certain way. The condition is not on whether or not we live a certain way, that is the indicative part of the statement. The condition is on whether or not God gives salvation. So, salvation is free in that there is nothing we

3 3 can do to earn it. But if what we mean by free is, now I can live however I want, then we are gravely mistaken. Salvation by grace is in reference to what we have done before we are saved, not after we have received salvation. Let s make no mistake about it, God never entrusts His grace to anyone, simply to give them freedom to live however their flesh would choose. You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh (Galatians 5:13 ESV) I feel it necessary to make this point extremely clear, because many people are uncomfortable with the idea that Christians are commanded (not asked) to live a certain way if in fact they have genuinely received the privilege of being claimed by God as one of His own sons or daughters. When we talk like this, some people immediately perceive that we are talking about a works righteousness and a works salvation, when this is not at all the case. I am not saying clean up your act and then you will be saved. I m saying, If you are saved, then clean up your act. But the only reason I am saying it is because Jesus said it and the Gospels say it and Paul said it and James said it and now Peter is saying it. If you are saved, you will and you must live a certain way. The grace of God demands that we live for the glory of God! This has been Peter s point since verse 13. He is saying loudly to us, The privilege of being saved does not come without responsibility. If we have been saved, then (from verse 13 on) we must live to God s glory and according to God s purposes for us. Privilege does not come without responsibility. AND The grace of God demands that we live for the glory of God. Peter, whether knowingly or not, breaks these responsibilities up into two categories; individual responsibilities and community/corporate responsibilities. In verses 13-21, Peter gives us our individual responsibilities as people who have received the privilege of salvation. He gives these responsibilities in 3 commands. Individual responsibilities: 1. Live in HOPE (v. 13). Set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Live as a person who finds His pleasure and confidence in the certain coming of Christ. 2. Live in HOLINESS (vv ). As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. Be set apart ( be different ) from the rest of the world. Be set apart ( have no association with) from every appearance of sin. Be set apart ( be fully devoted to ) for the glory and pleasure of God. 3. Live in FEAR (vv ). And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile In other words, If you know that God judges sin impartially, then fear living in sin because of its horrible consequences. Fear getting to the end of your life with no fruit to show. Fear the prospect of not living in hope or holiness, because if we persist in sin after we have been rescued from it with the precious blood of Christ, we will have God to answer to. These are the things we have been called to so far. But if you notice, these are very vertically oriented commands; aimed specifically at our behavior and attitudes toward the Lord. But in verses 22 2:10, Peter levels his

4 4 commands out to the horizontal aspect of the Christian life, in the way we treat one another in the community of people who have been saved by Christ. He has already shown us that our new birth should have an impact on the way we act and feel toward the Lord, but now He is going to spend some time showing us how our new birth should impact the way we act and feel toward one another; switching from our individual responsibilities to our community responsibilities. Community Responsibilities He begins with the command in verse 22; love one another earnestly from a pure heart Or (our summary), love one another genuinely (in other words, really love one another ) out of a heart not burdened and distracted with sin. This is a good place to consider statement #3. We have been saved so that we will love. FROM THEOLOGY TO PRACTICE One of the things I really love about 1 Peter is the way Peter mixes theology with practice. Whenever he gives a command, he always supplies the theological reasons or basis for those commands. When he commands us to hope fully it is only as a therefore ; basing the command off of everything he had already said in verses When he gives the command to be holy, it is only out of the theological reality that God Himself is holy. When he gives the command to conduct ourselves with fear, he has already supplied the theological reason; our Father judges impartially according to each one s deeds. On this note I want to just stop and say something that we all need to be reminded of from time to time. That is, good theology should always lead to God-honoring changes in behavior. Just as the Lord rejects dead ritual (practice with bad theology), so does He reject dead thinking (good theology with bad behavior). It is not enough to sit around talking and debating theology (though there is certainly a place for that), if we are not willing to get our hands dirty in the Christian life. This is something we can learn from Peter; to be people who make it one of our life s goals to always make our theology work its way somehow out to our hands and our feet. Mixing theology with practice is what Peter does very well, so when he gives us the command to love one another earnestly from a pure heart ; we can be confident that surrounding that command is the theological basis for the command. But what is that basis here? What is his basis for now turning to community oriented commands? Let s read the text together. (1:22-25) Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another 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. (ESV) The command is as we have already seen; to love one another earnestly (really) from a pure heart (from a heart not burdened or distracted with sin). But as I just got done saying; Peter always supplies the theological basis for every command that he gives in this letter. So what is the theological basis here? Peter basically gives 2 truths to under gird this command to love one another. The first is in verse 22; Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love The reasoning of this first part of verse 22 was somewhat difficult for me to follow at first, but here is basically what Peter is saying:

5 5 Since you responded in faith to the Gospel (i.e. obedience to the truth ) you found purification for your souls in the blood of Christ, you have been enabled to love God s people as you ought (ZT) Peter s point is that by responding in obedience to the Gospel, not just agreeing with its content but also with the commitment to live by it, people are given new and clean and fresh identities; free from the dominion of sin; which in turn frees them up to devote themselves to things of eternal significance, like loving other people who have been saved. This should give us some insight into part of God s goal in saving us; we have been saved so that we will love. We have been saved in part so that we will take care of other people who have been saved. The people that God saves, He saves to make into a family; a message that we really need to here in our church and in our fragmented culture. I really appreciate the New Living Translation of this half of verse 22. Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. (1:22a NLT) We are going to return to this idea in a moment, but for now just let this reality sink in. If you have been saved by God on account of your faith in Jesus Christ, you have been saved in part so that you will spend the rest of your life attending to the needs of other people who have been saved! Loving other Christians is not simply a nice and cute little ornament on the tree of a Christian s life; it is a major section of the tree itself; so much so that if a professing Christian does not make a concerted effort to love and support and serve with the body of Christ, he/she should wonder if he/she is truly a follower of Christ at all! We have been saved so that we will love. In an extremely powerful sermon, one pastor put it this way: The modern evangelical thinks about salvation and about becoming a Christian in almost entirely individualistic terms. (Unfortunately my addition) The convert doesn t hear about the church, about the community of faith, until after he has gone forward at an evangelistic meeting or confessed faith at a retreat or in someone s living room. He may never be told that his Christian life, to be authentic at all, must be the life of someone who lives in the most intimate and structural fellowship with a community of believers like himself and that his great calling as a Christian is to serve the Lord in and through that community. To the extent that the typical evangelical thinks about the church, he thinks of it as an institution that exists to help him in his own, individual walk with God. He does not see the church as his home, his mother, his people, his place of life and work, his family, his calling, his very body, which is the way the church is viewed in the Bible over and over again! ( (Robert Brayburn Sermon on 1 Peter 2) This reality; that we have been saved to love; is the first truth that Peter appeals to in order to support this command to love one another. Keep that in mind as we look at the 2 nd truth Peter uses to uphold the command to love one another. Look at verse 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. (1:23-25 ESV)

6 6 The idea here is really quite a bit like the one in verse 22, but simply more general. In verse 22 Peter is saying, Your response of faith to the Gospel has freed you up to love one another as you ought. Verses then take the roots of verse 22 and pull them to the core of the earth. Its like taking the anchor of a ship that is sitting on the surface of the bottom of the ocean (which itself is strong and supportive) and driving it 20 miles into the rock bottom. You can t get much stronger of a support than that! That s what s going on in verses There is a general principle in verses that upholds the specific principle of verse 22. Not only has God saved us so that we will love one another (v. 22); God has saved us by His eternal Word, so that we will devote ourselves to eternal things period. This is why he writes in verse 23, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. In other words, you have not been saved so that you will go on living for things that are going to perish and die with time. You have been eternally saved so that you will devote your earthly life to eternally significant things, which are wrapped up in large part in loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let me ask Spurgeon to drive this point home for us. Looking upon God's people, as being heirs of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth's true and only real aristocracy, Peter saith to them, "See that ye love one another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed; because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things; and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the glory of flesh shall fade, and even its very existence shall cease. I think it would be well, my brethren, if in a spirit of humility, you and I recognized the free dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it. Oh! What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king's royalty often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his very nature. Compare him with a senator, with a mighty warrior, or a master of wisdom, and he far excelleth them all. He is of another race than those who are only born of woman. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as man is above the beast that perisheth. As humanity towers in dignity high above the groveling brute, so doth the regenerate man overtop the best of human once-born mortals. Surely he ought to bear himself, and act as one who is not of the multitude, one who has been chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, written among "the peculiar people," and who therefore cannot grovel as others grovel, nor own think as others think. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, make you cleave to holiness, and hate the very appearance of evil. (Charles Spurgeon The New Nature, Sermon given on June 30, 1861) Peter s point is simple; love one another because it is an eternally significant thing, and you have been saved so that you will devote yourselves to eternally significant things. Loving your brothers and sisters will have an impact on the Kingdom of God, which is what you have been called to invest in. Remember Jesus words: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21 ESV) This is the call of Christ: Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life! (John 6:27 ESV)

7 7 Devoting our lives to loving one another is laboring for food that endures to eternal life. But on this point, let s ask ourselves a question. WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE: What does it mean to love one another? We see it all over the place in Scripture (John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; 1 John 3:23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 5), but what does it mean? What does it look like to love one another? Loving one another means sincerely seeking to meet each other s needs, both spiritual and physical. That will look different in different contexts. Some times it will mean praying for each other. Sometimes it will mean speaking a kind word to a discouraged brother or sister. Sometimes it will mean having someone over for dinner. Sometimes it will mean challenging someone to up their commitment to Christ. At other times it will mean confronting a brother or sister on sin. Sometimes it will mean reproving a brother or sister, even though it carries the risk of being interpreted as judgmental or even unloving. Sometimes it will mean teaching a less mature sibling in Christ biblical truth. Sometimes it will mean forgiving one another. Sometimes it will mean putting our preferences aside to maintain unity and peace in the body. Sometimes it will be quite pleasurable and rewarding. Other times it will be quite difficult and tiresome. But whatever form it takes, loving one another is sincerely (i.e. really ) seeking to meet each other s needs, whether physical or spiritual. This is one of the reasons that those who have been saved by the blood of Christ have been granted that privilege by God; that we might take care of one another s needs. We have been saved so that we will love. WHY THE COMMAND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER? At this point, who else is asking this question: Why is Peter commanding us to love one another here? I don t mean, Why should we love one another? Peter has already answered that question (because God has saved us for that purpose and it is an eternally significant thing). What I mean is, Where is the logic here? What brings him to the command to love at this point in the letter? How do the horizontal commands in 1:22-2:10 contribute to the overall message of this letter? If we take a closer look at verses 24 and 25, I think we ll begin to see how this fits with the overall purpose of 1 Peter. PETER S USE OF ISAIAH 40: Verses 24 and 25 are a quote taken and partially adapted from Isaiah 40, where God is comforting Israel by promising that He will restore them again as a nation despite their exile in Babylon. Just as it does not matter how beautiful and how magnificent flowers may look in the springtime; when the cold of fall and winter arrives, their beauty and glory dies with them. In the same way, God is saying in Isaiah 40 that no matter how strong and how powerful and how undefeatable their enemies might appear, He is going to defeat the enemies of Israel and deliver His people to the point that one would never know that their enemies once prospered. In a day of great discouragement, Isaiah 40 was to serve as a comfort for Israel and a reminder that no situation is beyond the sovereign power of God. No matter who oppresses you, your God is going to rescue you in due time. There is a principle here in Isaiah 40 which Peter employs here in 1: The principle is this: All that is of the world will pass away with the world. Everything that is perishable will perish. Only eternal things will matter in the New World. All that is of the world will pass away with the world.

8 8 I see 2 very specific ways this principle can be applied here. The first way is meant for encouragement. The second is meant for instruction. Keep in mind that Peter is well aware of the sufferings that his readers are going through. They were facing as Peter called in 1:6, trials of various kinds. These people were being treated unjustly by their masters (2:18). They were struggling in marriages with unbelieving spouses (3:1-6). They were being insulted and ridiculed for their faith by people close to them (4:14). And, they were facing the very real prospect of more intense persecution (4:12-18). They did not have it easy whatsoever. All of them knew in some way, what it meant to suffer as one of God s chosen saints. They all knew in some way or another, what happens to people who are different in this world; especially people who are different on account of the Gospel. They all knew what it was like to experience the unjust and unfair treatment of the world on followers of Christ. See, Peter understands that people of hope and people of holiness and people of fear get tend to get treated badly (or at least insensitively) by the rest of the world. He knows that to be chosen by God is to be different from the rest of the world, and that to be different is to be persecuted in some way, shape or form. We all know what its like to suffer for our faith to some extent. We know what its like to be the target of spiritual attack. We know what its like to be looked at differently by people at work or school, or people in our family simply because we identify ourselves with Christ. We all know what its like to want to quit on the faith. We know what its like to battle the impulses of our flesh. We know the hardships of the Christian life. None of us are immune to them. Here s the where the encouragement of Isaiah 40 comes in. Just as in Isaiah 40, the enemies of God s people are sure to perish, no matter how powerful or indestructible they may look. All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls It does not matter how threatening your persecutors may look, they are like grass. All that is of the world will die with the world. Everything that is perishable will perish. God will defeat His enemies, and all those who persecute His people. This is something that He promised to His people in Isaiah 40 and to Peter s audience 2000 years ago and is something that He promises to us today! No matter how big and strong and undefeatable your oppressors may appear; only what God promises and commands and decrees will stand forever. The encouragement here is simple: Persevere, because your enemies are sure to be defeated. God will rescue you in due time! All that is of the world will pass away with the world. But there is also instruction in this deep truth from Isaiah 40, which goes back the words of Jesus which we looked at a moment ago from John 6. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life (John 6:27a ESV) There is a question that all of us have to ask ourselves, which is the same question that Peter s audience had to ask themselves as they endured trails of many kinds, and that is, Can I go through this alone? Can I make it on my own? What are God s people going to do when they face persecution and the many colored trials of the Christian life if they are left to go through it all by themselves? What would we do if throughout all of our trials we never got a word of encouragement or an exhortation to press on? What if no one ever sat down to pray with us for strength and encouragement through our trials? What would happen if we were never confronted on any level regarding our sin by a sibling that cares for our spiritual well-being? What would happen if no one ever extended forgiveness to us for the wrongs we had done to them? What would happen if we were never encouraged or

9 9 instructed or rebuked or comforted by our siblings in Christ with the Word of God? What follower of Christ could possibly be faced with the many colored trials of the Christian life and remain faithful to Christ without any support from another human being on the face of the earth? Let us not fool ourselves. There is not a single one. So, do we see where the eternal value is in loving one another? By the design of God, followers of Christ need one another, because we are tools in the hand of God that He uses faithfully to ensure our perseverance in the faith! We need each other so that we will all make it to the Kingdom! That s what makes our interaction with one another an eternally significant thing. We have been given to one another as a gift from God, to ensure our perseverance. The body of Christ is one of the things God uses to guard us through faith until the day Christ returns to set up His Kingdom. We are some of the instruments that God uses to preserve one another s faith. Remember the words of God from Isaiah 40; All flesh is like grass and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. All that is of the world will pass away with the world, so for our lives to count on Judgment Day we must devote ourselves to eternal things, like loving one another earnestly from pure hearts. There is eternal value in sincerely seeking to meet each other s needs, both spiritual and physical. There is eternal value in praying with or for a brother or sister in Christ! There is eternal value in speaking a kind word to a discouraged brother or sister! There is eternal value in having someone over for dinner. There is eternal value in challenging someone to up their commitment to Christ! There is eternal value in confronting a brother or sister on sin! There is eternal value in admonishing a brother or sister, even though it carries the risk of being interpreted as judgmental or even unloving. There is eternal value in teaching a less mature sibling in Christ biblical truth. There is eternal value in forgiving a person who has hurt or offended you. There is eternal value in putting our preferences aside to maintain unity and peace in the body. There is eternal value in loving one another! Loving one another earnestly from pure hearts is something that carries eternal value; something that will produce eternal fruit; something that will result in eternal reward and eternal pleasure! In other words, it is worth it! Loving one another earnestly from pure hearts builds the Kingdom of God because it strengthens the legs of weary pilgrims, causing them to continue walking the difficult road of the Christian life. Peter ends by saying, This word is the good news that was preached to you. In other words, this word from Isaiah 40 sums up the Gospel. All that is of the world will pass away with the world, and only what God desires to remain will remain in the end. That is the Gospel. Earthly things will pass away with the earth. Only those that are of God will make it to the New World! Devote yourselves to things of God. I am reminded a couple verses in Hebrews 10. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV) SOME CLOSING OBSERVATIONS 1. This text is a call away from independent and selfish living.

10 10 Let there be no mistake about it: Independent living is not only harmful to you, it is harmful to others. There is no room for the kind of self-consumption that our self-obsessed culture promotes. You have not been saved simply for your own sake! You have been saved in large part for the sake of the body of Christ. We tend to dramatically overemphasize the individual nature of our salvation (the just me and the Lord attitude); to the detriment of not only ourselves, but the detriment of the rest of the body. But if we are not doing our part, who is? If we are not encouraging the discouraged brothers and sisters that we are seeing, then who is? If we are not confronting the sin that we are seeing, who is? If we are not teaching and admonishing and exhorting with the Word of God, then who is? If we are not being patient with our siblings in Christ, who is? The health of the body of Christ depends in large part on the intensity of their love for one another. I m not crazy about hypothetical statements like these, but I think we all need to be aware of something very important. We are all called to love one another genuinely out of hearts that are not burdened or distracted by sin. All of us. Every single one of us. None of us are exempt. This is one of the horizontal requirements that come with the privilege of being saved. We were put in the family, to meet the spiritual and physical needs of the family, which is a tool in the hand of God to preserve each one of us for the day when Christ will return to the earth, to rule and to reign. 2. This text is a call away from sin. What does Peter say? Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Sin takes away our ability to love one another. This means that in some way that outbursts of anger and enslavement to sexual sin and gossip and disobedience to parents and gluttony and lying and laziness and materialism and greed and deceit and hypocrisy and all other forms of sin desensitize us and disable us from loving one another as we have been called to love; genuinely, earnestly, really, fully. We cannot and will not love one another with complete genuineness unless we are loving one another from hearts not burdened or distracted with sin. Or maybe we can put it another way. To the extent that we are fighting sin in our lives; to that extent are we able to love one another genuinely. Please hear what this means. This means that our personal sin is not a personal issue; it is a community issue. Sin draws our thoughts and our actions and our energy to ourselves. Sin is birthed out of selfishness and itself feeds selfishness in us. Sin leads us to live independently and selfishly, which we have already seen is detrimental not only to ourselves, but to the rest of the body. 3. This text is a call to examine and (if necessary) to re-order our values. As you look over your life, what do you see are your priorities? What are you investing in, not just financially but emotionally and physically? What do you spend most of your free time doing? Where does the body of Christ rank in your priority list after your relationship with God Himself and your relationships with your immediate family? Remember, All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. But the grass withers, and the flower falls The things of this world will pass away with this world; houses, cars, the dollar bill, clothes, empty popularity, worldly status and position, jobs, power, self-centered relationships, and all forms of sin. These things, though like the flower may look beautiful and appealing and attractive for a time, will all fall to the ground and perish. I don t know about you, but I do not want to be found at Judgment Day, clinging to something that the Lord will consider earthly and temporary. Only God; His desires, His commands, His decrees and His people will remain in the end. If there are priorities in our lives that need to be re-ordered; now is the time!

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