The Hunger Of Saint Who Series

“The Hunger of Saint Who”

Passage to explore:

I Peter 1:22 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.

I Peter 2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Passage analysis:

➢ God’s Word is PERMANENT. 1 Peter 1:22-25

The pursuits of the flesh will fade away. But God’s word endures forever. If you want to invest your life in something that lasts invest it in the Word of God. No other pursuit will endure like learning His Word.

Gods Word will always accomplish its purpose as well.

Isaiah 55:11: so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Is there anything else that carries that kind of guarantee. Permanent, perfect and it performs its purpose.

The bible is not just a book nor is it a collection of books and writings.

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God’s Word is a scalpel for your soul to remove the workings of sin and flesh and it is a sword for you protection and warfare against the enemy.

There is nothing more important to invest your life in than God’s Word.

➢ For Spiritual life to flourish divisive attitudes must be PUT AWAY. 1 Peter 2:1

I Peter 2:

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Last week we explored how God calls us to obedience. And that we must examine our life to see what pieces we are holding back from God that are keeping us from being made whole and holy in Him.

Here Peter gets specific about attitudes and actions that are particularly destructive to the body of Christ collectively. He does not list issues like murder, greed, thefts, sexual immorality here because his focus is more targeted to building up one another in Christ and the SIN Selfish Inward Nature that weakens that unity.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. (parallel in James)

James 3:

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

Wishing ill against another, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander and similar sins destroy Christian community. We are linked together. And therefore we must all pursue holiness and to tune our lives to Christ.

100 pianos tuned to the same fork will also be in perfect tune with one another. A.W. Tozer.

Peter is addressing Christians. So He assumes that the more base sins have already been put away and warns against the more subtle sins that cause division. This will lead into his description of us as living stones being built into the temple of God.

Peter talks first about what must be put away, now He stresses what must be PUT IN our lives. He is giving us practical instruction about how to foster a life of true obedience and holiness.

It is God’s holy presence, consciously abiding with us, that keeps us from disobeying Him.

Imperfect obedience is the result of a life that is lacking. To defend our life by arguments and faulty motives will only make us feel the need of a more committed life, one that is entirely under the power of God. But a life of broken or sporadic fellowship with God will lack both power and joy. The secret to true holiness is ongoing intimacy and fellowship with God. And that fellowship begins with feasting on God’s Word.

➢ God’s Word must be pursued in its PURE Form. 1 Peter 2:2

These sins he has been describing are like children's diseases that retard growth and threaten life. Peter said put them all away and get healthy, and then proceed to live on the sincere milk of the Word. That word "sincere" is a tough one. Peter used a Greek word. We have "sincere" in our King James Bible, and the translators have had a tough time with it. A student and translator ran into this word "sincere" and gave the best explanation I have ever heard. He explained that "sincere" could apply to milk. While he was visiting in Athens, Greece, he noticed coming down the street a milk wagon pulled by a burrow, and on the side of the milk wagon was a sign written in Greek. Being a Greek student, he was able to read it. The sign said, "such and such milk company, we sell only sincere milk." He got it in a second. He knew what it meant. It meant unadulterated milk. No extra water in this milk. That is what Peter meant when he used that old Greek word. He said, "Feed yourself on the unadulterated Word." Do not water it down. Take it full strength. That is, let the Word of God say to you all it says. Do not simply pick out the happy verses. It would be shocking to go through some Bibles and find how we underline only the happy verses.