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NORTH PINE BAPTIST CHURCH
Sunday 13th July 2025
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
“Be What You Are”
In the past weeks we have seen, and we will continue to see, that the letters of Peter are built on the foundation of the Gospel. What Peter will show us is that the Gospel can’t just be a message we hear and know.
The Gospel APPLIED should become a catalyst for transformation because God, through His Word, places this transformational calling on every single elected disciple who are foreigners dispersed throughout the nations.
The Gospel isn’t just knowledge to store away. It transforms, and continues to transform, our lives. This morning, as we keep understanding that transformation, our focus is on 1 Peter 1:13-2:3. In these verses there are five times when Peter uses a grammar form called an imperative
An imperative is not a command in the sense that the words are issuing an order, or setting out a rule, or making a law which we need to follow to earn our salvation.
Rather the imperative is a Word from God telling us what sort of life God expects us to have when we say we are disciples of Jesus.
Imperatives are requests, or exhortations which describe the continual actions, or life decisions, which God expects to see in His disciples.
1 Peter 1:13-2:3 has five imperatives. The first imperative is in
1 Peter 1:13-14
13 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. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
The imperative is set your hope on (1:13).
In this case hope is based on the reality that we will be shown grace when Jesus Christ is revealed.
The grace which reveals itself in the reality that nothing will separate us from this loving grace of Jesus.
Not trials, or doubts, or fears, or joys, or blessings, or overcoming temptation or falling into temptation.
When we see Jesus face-to-face nothing will have been prevent the grace of Jesus from being shown to us when Jesus is revealed.
Which could make us think that
… a little sin now and then isn’t going to be a big deal.
… or we could just be Sunday only Christians and less-than-Christian from Monday to Saturday.
… if nothing can separate us then we can just coast along as disciples, and not get too stressed if we drop the discipleship ball every now and then.
We could think this way. But we don’t.
Instead we look at this imperative and it leads us to obedience … specifically an obedience where we don’t conform to the evil desires we had when we lived in ignorance.
Living in ignorance is a description of our pre-Christian life.
When we set our hope on the grace of Jesus that will be revealed at His coming it causes us make sure, now, that we are not living a life belongs to our time of ignorance.
We look at out life …
… perhaps it is anger and impatience.
… or it is a harsh and judgemental character.
… perhaps we see rudeness and self-absorption.
… or aggressive and obnoxious actions.
We look at these, and so many other actions, and we say this is “ignorance-type” living.
The imperative to set our hope on the grace to be brought to us when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming is an imperative which leads to an honest assessment of when we are not being obedient. The same imperative continues to drive us to keep asking “Where else does transformation need to take place in my life?’
Let’s move on to the second imperative. We find it in 1 Peter 1:15-16
15 But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
The imperative is be holy (1:15)
When we read these words our response may be “That is impossible. How can I be holy like God is holy.”
Let’s understand that Peter is not setting a standard … “you be holy just like God is holy.”
Rather Peter is providing us with a motive … “you can be Holy, because God is holy.”
The issue of holiness comes back to the transforming power of the Gospel.
We are holy because of the work of Jesus in us.
God’s people are holy because God has made them holy.
It worked the same way in the Old Testament. Which is why Peter can quote from the Old Testament—specifically Leviticus 11:44-45.
44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45 I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be Your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
I am the LORD God.
I have used my holiness to bring you out of Egypt to be Your God.
As the ones I have chosen, you are now holy because I am holy.
That is what is happening in Leviticus 11. The LORD spells it out even more clearly in Leviticus 20:26
26 You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.
As a result of this work of God, the Gospel applied in our lives, holiness is a God characteristic which we can “be”.
We “be holy” by allowing our “holiness character” to be shaped after and defined by God’s holiness character.
Not in the sense of holiness being about purity and doing no sin.
But in the sense of living as those who know they are set apart and chosen.
That is what defines our holiness character. We are set apart.
We no longer conform to the patterns of this world.
We can’t “just fit in” because we are cross shaped pegs in this world.
We, by our very nature, are set apart.
Be holy. We don’t have to work at it, as much as following the imperative to be who we already are. We live each day
… even when we find areas of disobedience.
… even when we see the need for transformation.
We live each day being who we are … we are holy because the Gospel is applied in our lives.
Looking at the third imperative. Which we find in
1 Peter 1:17-21
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 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, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
The imperative is live out your time as foreigners (1:17)
Peter keeps coming back to this “foreigner” language.
We are chosen … called to be disciples through the work of Jesus. In this case
… His blood given.
… His sacrificial death as a perfect sacrifice.
… His victory over death through His resurrection.
… His glorification as Jesus now sits in heaven at God’s right hand.
This redeeming work, when applied to our lives, it makes us foreigners.
As foreigners we have the sure and certain hope that
… on judgement day, when God judges everyone impartially.
… we know on that day that we will be welcomed into eternity with the adulation of Jesus who will say, “well done good and faithful servant.”
That is our hope. But for those who don’t belong to Jesus – they face the sure and certain judgement of God who will say, “Away from Me you evil doers.”
Knowing this judgement to come …
… should we be arrogant and smug that we are in, and those worldly people are not?
… should we hold ourselves distant from not-yet-believers?
… should we become a group of people closed to those “outsiders”?
… should we just keep holding the Gospel to ourselves?
No. No. No. And … No.
In the face of the judgement to come we live out our time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
In reverence of God … because why would He even choose us?
In fear knowing full well we don’t deserve to be saved.
In humility knowing it is only by the grace of God that we are saved.
The imperative to live out our time as foreigners is an imperative that leads to a life of witness, and testimony, and prayer, and sharing the Gospel. Going out into the world in compassion with a message that says, “You are fitting into the wrong worldview – and I can show you the way to eternal life.” That is the Gospel applied.
We find the fourth imperative in
1 Peter 1:22-25
22 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. 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 people 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 endures forever.”
The imperative is love one another deeply (1:22)
Peter here is specifically focusing on love that is shown to one another who are in the faith community—the love we have for brothers and sisters in Christ. The foundation for that love is based on our shared status.
We have all been born again.
We have all experienced the transforming power of the Word.
We are all like grass, and we only endure because the Word of the Lord.
Peter brings all this together under the imperative to “love one another”.
We don’t love one another on the basis of a shared interest. We are not like a car club, or a health club, or a sport club, or a craft club. We have all sorts of different interests.
This isn’t a love based on the same shared life challenge. We are not like alcoholics anonymous, or a domestic violence recovery group, or multiple sclerosis support group.
This love isn’t conditional on being a similar age, or coming from the same ethnic heritage, or our political affiliation, or similar skills and abilities.
The foundation for our love for one another is based solely on the truth that Jesus has brought us together through His imperishable work.
Which means we won’t be the same.
And we will have different perspectives.
And there may even be times when we drive one another up the wall.
And people will express their spirituality differently
… and they will make different moral choices.
… and they will have a heart for different causes.
… and allocate their finances differently.
And we may even have quite different approaches in all these matters—but we keep loving one another because of Jesus.
And the world looks at us as we put this imperative in place – and they see a group of people who love one another … not because they are the same … but because of the foundation of Jesus. It is an imperative that becomes a powerful witness because it is the Gospel being applied.
Moving on to the fifth, and last, imperative in
1 Peter 2:1-3
2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The imperative is crave pure spiritual milk (2:2)
Elsewhere in the New Testament going back to spiritual milk is a negative action. The negativity is spoken against mature Christians who should know so much more, but who need to be taught the basics of the faith because they haven’t grown.
For Peter, in this context, the craving is the road to transformation. The craving becomes the means by which we can get rid of all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, all envy, and slander of every kind. A craving which is an incessant, instinctive, eager hungering desire.
There are some babies, that when you give them milk, they just get that milk and scoff it down. They were crying and crying and crying … craving to be feed … then you put the milk in, and the crying stops because the craving is satisfied.
If we are going to have any chance of getting rid of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander – the way to do that is to crave and hunger for the Word of God. The pure spiritual milk.
To be sustained by … and carried by … the Word of God.
Meditating on God’s Word.
Praying with God’s Word.
Being in fellowship together around God’s Word.
Being those who keep putting the imperative in place to crave pure spiritual milk – not the sour full of lumps milk offered by the world. Craving the Word, not craving worldliness. That is the Gospel applied.
Five imperatives, based on the Gospel, describing the life God expects from elect foreigners who don’t just fit in.
Setting our hope on the grace which Jesus will show when He is revealed – which enables us to know when we are not being obedient, and where we need to be transformed.
Acknowledging that we will be disobedient, but at the same time, we know that our nature in Jesus is that we are set apart because God has made us to be holy.
Living as reverend foreigners who care for the lost, the same ones who may even be the case of our suffering and persecution. Care compassionately sharing the Gospel with them.
Loving one another in the family of God for no other reason than Jesus has brought us together.
Craving the Word of God so that we will not want to crave worldliness.
Is this who we are?
Fulfilling the expectations of God … following God’s imperatives.
Or are we doing just the opposite – and fulfilling the expectations of the world whose only imperative is for us to ignore what God wants, and just fit in.
Prayer
