1 Peter 1:22-25 Brotherly Love
Good morning! We are back in our study of 1 Peter this morning, we are going to look at chapter one, verses 22-25, that’s page 1014 in the pew Bibles.
Over the last few weeks we have been looking at arguments for holy living. But during those studies we haven’t spent a great deal of time talking about what exactly holy living looks like. How are we supposed to do it now that the arguments have been made and we are thoroughly convinced we need to pursue holy living?
Well, verses 22-25 of 1 Peter give us the first step: Love.
Let’s look at the text, we’ll pray, and then jump in.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Let’s pray.
So Peter uses two different words or phrases here in these verses that we need to fully understand in order to come to a place where these thoughts really make sense. Those two phrases are: “The truth,” and, “the word.”
Now that may sound easy to you, Peter is obviously talking about the Bible; we call it God’s Word, we call it the truth, that must be what he means! Well, it isn’t.
Don’t forget that you are not Peter’s original audience. Peter’s original audience had access to what we call the Old Testament but may have only had access to a few letters of Paul and this letter from Peter, and maybe one or two of the Gospels. Peter isn’t talking about any of that.
So what could he be talking about? The context makes it clear since we know now that he wasn’t talking about the whole Bible as we know it. The truth that they had obeyed and the word that was preached to them was the gospel itself, the Good News that Jesus died to save sinners just like us.
Peter says, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth…” The purification of souls is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ, acceptance of the gospel.
Our English text makes it look like that purification of soul is a done deal, it’s in the past tense. Well, in Greek it’s not, it’s not aorist, it’s active, it’s continuing, and it is continually necessary, a constantly needed purifying, a constantly laying aside of evil. This isn’t Peter’s declaration of what they have already done but what they ought to do and continue doing.
This is so important because the heart of holy living which is a sincere and pure brotherly love is not possible without the continuous purifying of the soul.
Purity of soul consists in obedience to God, not just in general like following the Ten Commandments, but obeying the truth, obeying the gospel, having faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is the primary way that we obey the truth and thus purify our souls.
Matthew Henry wrote, “Many hear the truth, but are never purified by it because they will not submit to it nor obey it.”
Many people mistakenly think that faith in Jesus, being born again, getting saved, is only about getting into Heaven. “I’m all saved, I’m all set. Now I can just sit and soak.”
But that isn’t it at all! Of course when we are saved we are adopted as God the Father’s children, we are heirs of His eternal kingdom, but there is much to do before the time comes that Christ return and calls us home. Where does that “much to do start?” Brotherly love.
We have been born again by faith in Christ, born again of imperishable seed, born of God, so we ought to live and love in a manner worthy of God.
The imperishable seed is the grace of God in the gospel that causes us to be born again. The flesh is from the perishable seed, it withers and falls like flowers of grass. Some of you may be more keenly aware of this than others.
The glory of the flesh- its wisdom, strength, riches, learning, honor, beauty, art, virtue, are all temporary and are passing away, but the word of the Lord, the gospel remains forever.
And if you have received the word of the Lord, you have received the imperishable seed which is the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ, therefore you were born for eternity and are bound to live for eternity. Not just living forever but living for our Eternal Omnipotent Father, living as He lives.
And what does living for eternity look like?
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Living for eternity looks like love.
Now to be clear, this is not the world’s definition of love, this is Christian love. And as Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Christian love is not a matter of feeling but a matter of will.”
Peter said, “having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
Now we come back to the different Greek words for love, because Peter uses two of them here, “Philadelphia,” and “agapao.”
Philadelphia is brotherly love, this is affection specifically for fellow believers in Christ, and it is to be sincere, genuine, without pretense.
JP Lange wrote, “As natural relationship produces natural affection, so spiritual relationship produces spiritual affection. It is lasting because it emanates from an eternal source of life. Brotherly love must be the exponent of the nature, strength, and fruit of regeneration.”
Brtherly love is the love which God specially commends – in our self-centered times it is more important than ever to exercise this kind of love to the church. God would have us cultivate this kind of brotherly love towards one another and so testify our love of God and prove it with evidence and not just words.
1 John 4:19-21 says,
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
John Calvin wrote, “Nothing is more difficult than to love our neighbors in sincerity. For the love of ourselves rules, which is full of hypocrisy; and besides, everyone measures his love which he shows to others by his own advantage and not by the rule of doing good.”
But that is not the type of love Peter describes and commands, not selfish but selfless, not hypocritical or seeking our own advantage but sincere and genuine. Love for the brethren (and sisteren) is the evidence of our regeneration and justification by faith. This brotherhood flows from our new birth!
“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
In light of our purification of soul through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ we are made for brotherly love, Philadelphia, so, love one another, agapao, earnestly from a pure heart.
This kind of love, agapao, the selfless, choice of will to prefer another above oneself, can only come from a changed heart, from one whose motives are pure, and who seeks to give more than he takes.
This love is expressed deeply, earnestly. That means, “At full stretch, all out, with intense strain.”
Because we are born again of imperishable seed, born of God, we ought to live and love in a manner worthy of God. Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is the evidence of our new birth.
Johann Steiger wrote, “The Christian loves primarily those in Christ, secondarily, all who might be in Christ, namely, all men, as Christ as man died for all, and as he hopes that they too may become his Christian Brethren.”
Being children of God we ought first to love our siblings.
It is because we have been loved through the gospel that we are able to love one another, and we should do so more and more.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
That word, the gospel, the Good News, is simply this:
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Do you believe in Him?
Amen.
