Undying Love - 1 Peter 1:22 Series

1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure 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 men 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 stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, having 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.

Introduction: The Problem of Temporary Love

We live in a world of temporary love.

“I will love you forever! Now just sign right here on this pre-nup.”

We have to have prenuptial agreements because “I will love you forever” means “I will love you until it gets too hard, too costly, too uncomfortable, or too ‘abusive’ – and then I’m done.” All love in the natural world is temporary because love can only last as long as its source lasts. Whatever it is that causes you to love something or someone – that thing is like a battery. And when that battery – that power source runs out, love runs out. Some batteries last longer than other batteries, but all of them go dead eventually.

And there are certain things that make the batteries drain even faster than normal. Isn’t it true that there are certain people in your life who, when they do certain things, it just drains the batteries of your love? They do or say those things and you can just feel the affection for that person drain right out of your heart, and there is nothing left but cold indifference or even hot animosity. When they do those things or say those things it is like throwing water on the fire of your love for them.

How do you keep loving someone when they do that? Or is it even possible? It is not possible for the natural man. But for the believer it is, and starting in verse 22, Peter is going to show us how.

Remember Your Direction

We return today to our verse-by-verse study through 1 Peter, and we are in the middle of a section on holy living. Peter is giving a series of commands, and at the end of verse 22 he delivers another one. But this one is one of those commands that we will never be able to obey unless Peter helps us out with some crucial insights about our salvation. So he gives us some of those insights before the command, and then some more after the command. Those we will plan on looking at next time, but for today let’s take a look at the insights about our salvation that come before the command in verse 22.

The form of this verse is this: “Now that you have done that, go ahead and do this.” In order to obey the command at the end of the verse we have to be reminded of this thing that we have already done in the past. So what is that thing that we have already done in the past?

22 Having purified your souls by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers…

That is what happened in the past. You have purified yourself by obeying the truth resulting in sincere love for the brothers.

“When did I do that? I don’t remember doing that.”

You did it the day you became a Christian. What Peter is talking about here is something that is true of all believers. He does not say, “Some of you have done this.” He just makes a blanket statement that this is true of all of us. This is what happens at conversion.

The word purified is in the perfect tense, which refers to a past, completed action that has ongoing results. It is talking about your decision to become a Christian. Peter wants us to remember our conversion. And there are three things about your conversion that he wants you to remember.

22 you purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers

First he says what you did, then how you did it, then the result. What did you do? You purified yourself. How did you pull that off? By obeying the truth. What was the result? Sincere love for the brothers. That is what we need to be reminded of in order to obey this command that he is going to give us at the end of the verse.