Hungry For God’s Word

Today we return to our study of 1 Peter, starting in Chapter 2.  Unfortunately we are unable to supply the audio for this sermon.

You may not connect being hungry with the Bible.  However, this is a metaphor that is employed throughout the scriptures.  Like bread is to the body, so God’s Word is to our spirit.  Just as some foods are not as good for us as others, so certain thoughts and ideas are not as good for us either.  What do you hunger to eat spiritually?  If it isn’t God’s Word then you might be in spiritual danger.  Let’s look at 1 Peter chapter 2.

We Need To Desire God’s Word

Peter ended chapter 1 with a powerful reminder of the place that God’s Word had in their salvation.  It was through the Gospel that was preached to them that they believed and were born again by the Holy Spirit.  However, the Word is not just powerful in making us spiritually alive.  It is not just something that we need to get started and then can go on without.  We need it every day.

Peter instructs them to have a desire or yearning for God’s Word.  It is not the Bible’s fault if I don’t desire it.  It is “good food.”  It is exactly what my spirit needs to grow and be alive in this world.  So, if I do not desire it then the problem is in me.  That is why Peter commands them to desire God’s Word.  Change your mind, change your actions and your heart will follow. 

Laying aside the old nature is a necessary component to approaching God’s Word.  In fact much of God’s Word reminds us of this need and explains why it is necessary.  Laying aside is a picture of taking off things that are hindrances.  Putting on the proper attire for dinner with your spouse also involves taking of the dirty clothes of the day.  When we approach the Word we are approaching a very intimate thing that God provided for us. This is clearly not an exhaustive list.  However, lets walk quickly through the five things mentioned.   Malice is any ill-will or evil inclination we might have towards others.  Deceit involves craftiness and hidden motives that are generally for the benefit of self.  Hypocrisy is a form of deceit in which we pretend or act differently than we really are.  Envy is a step beyond jealousy.  It doesn’t just wish it had what you have, but desires to take what you have and despises the benefit.  Lastly, evil speaking is a very broad category.  It can spoken behind another’s back or spoken to their face.  Either way it involves saying bad things with our mouth that hurt others.

This brings us to the analogy of a little baby.  All babies need to grow and all babies yearn for milk.  Our spirit has been born again by the Word and we need it to spiritually grow.  Thus we need to yearn for it.  Growth is not just about size.  A baby can grow in size and still remain a “baby” in mind.  Thus spiritual growth is not just a matter of a certain number of years reading Scripture.  Just as a baby takes in food, digests it, and draws life from it, so we too must spiritually take in God’s Word, digest it, and draw life from it.  Notice that food only gives a baby the strength to grow physically and mentally.  However, choices are made along the way.

The word translated “pure” in reference to the milk of the Word is closer to the idea of sincere.  It literally is “not deceitful.”  God’s Word does not have any hidden motives for its own ends.  It is the sincere Word of God.  To embrace it we are going to need to “un-embrace” those philosophies and ideas of the world that are deceitful.

Do you think that you can spiritually grow to the point that you are like Jesus?  God is able to do that which is impossible.  However, we must want it.  We are going to have to go after it by hungering for his Word.  When we receive God’s Word like a child it will yield spiritual growth.  But if we approach it as an adult who has it all figured out, our own deceived nature will blind us to the Truth and keep us from new birth and life.  In verse 3, Peter seems to be alluding to Psalm 34:8.  “O, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”  Taste points to an intimate experience.  I haven’t just observed the LORD.  Rather, I have fed upon his Word.  I have taken it in and found his ways to be good.  That doesn’t mean nothing bad happens.  It is good in that it is helpful and beneficial and righteous.  Peter is not so much questioning their experience as he is emphasizing the “oughtness” of their needed desire.  If you’ve found the LORD to be good then you “ought” to desire his Word.

We Are Being Built By God

Next Peter uses two metaphors that come directly from the Temple in Jerusalem.  The first has to do with the temple building itself.  We are living stones in a new temple that God is building.  This building is a spiritual temple that is made of people instead of stones.  Thus, before God allowed the 2^nd Temple to be destroyed, he first had his faithful, Son Jesus lay a foundation for a new one.  The temple in some ways is finished in that it is spiritually functional and the Spirit of God dwells in it.  However, in another way it is still being built as new believers are added to its coursework every day.  Notice that these stones are rejected by the world but chosen by God.  He doesn’t choose us because we are perfect, but because we are shapeable.  Many great stones of this world will not allow God to shape them.  Many great builders of this world have no place for Jesus himself.  They reject him as an unfit stone.  When you embrace Jesus you are no longer a part of those who “fit” in this world.  But worry not.  God fits you into his spiritual temple.  You have a place in his temple given by him.  No one can take it from you and you have every bit as much right as any other stone to be a part of God’s temple.

There is a personal and a corporate sense to this.  In a personal sense, God works on you to make you into his temple.  It is a work that goes the length of our life.  All along, though, His Spirit dwells within us and communes with us.  On a corporate level, we have been placed in his temple.  We are already shaped and fitted into place.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you do not have a place in God’s people.  That is a work that God does by His Spirit through His Word.

The next metaphor is the priests who worked in the temple.  We are holy priests in His new temple. Israel was used to priesthood being defined by biology or genetics.  You had to be a levite.  However, all believers in Jesus become priests in God’s new temple.  Not just priests but holy priests.  God is holy so we need to minister before him in holiness.  How can I do this?  Clearly I must first be “clothed” with the holiness of Christ through faith in him.  But I also need to pursue personal holiness by repenting of sin and removing it from my life.  This is part of my spiritual act of worship.  When I lay sinful thoughts, desires, and actions on the altar, I am allowing them to be destroyed in honor of God.  I also minister to God through prayers, praise and self-denying acts of loving service in Jesus name.  Lastly we minister by mediating between God and the lost of this world.

Peter uses Scriptures from Isaiah and Psalms to point out that Jesus was rejected.  He was the chief cornerstone of the new temple, but the builders rejected him.  The builders also rejected those who believed on Jesus and followed him.  We must not reject God’s Word, but rather desire and yearn for it.  That is how God builds us up into his holy temple and his holy priests.  You cannot receive Jesus AND reject his word.  How often people try to say something like this, “I believe in Jesus, but I can’t accept this verse here….”  Or they say, “Jesus never said what the Old Testament says.  So I believe in him but reject it.”  Those who say such things are deluded.  Jesus is the Word and the Word is speaking of Jesus from Genesis 1:1 all the way to Revelation22:21.  None of the Scriptures are in contradiction to Jesus and Jesus is not in contradiction to the Scriptures.

In verses  9-10 Peter ends with reminding them that they had become the people of God.  Israel had been identified for so long as the people of God.  But in Jesus God is doing a new thing.  For “whosoever will” of Israel that would join themselves to him, he took a remnant and put it together with people from every tribe, race, and tongue on earth to be the people of God.  Jew and Gentile alike in one body that belongs to the Lord, we have been chosen by God, made royal through our adoption into his family, made holy by Jesus, and special to him.  Special is literally the idea of purchased.  God “paid good money for us.”  We are special not just because we cost so much, but because God was willing to pay so much.  In fact, it is he who makes you special.  Don’t look at yourself trying to find something special.  You look to Him.  He is the special one who makes us rejected ones special.

Food For Thought

The enemy knows that his only hope is to get us to reject or ignore God’s Word.  That way we will not only fail to grow, but we will also spiritually die.  He hates what you have and what you stand to gain.  He will do anything in his power to convince you to throw away the best thing you could ever have.  Don’t be deceived by this world.  Let God fit you into his people and shape you into his temple that he loves to dwell within.

Same-Sex Marriage: Is It Really About Fairness & Equality?

We continue this week talking about the issue of “same-sex marriage.”  Today we are going to deal with the issue that is often raised concerning fairness and equality.  “You get to marry who you want.  So keeping us from marrying is unfair.”  Or another way this may be approached is to say, “Marriage is a good thing that you are keeping homosexuals from experiencing.  It isn’t fair to keep such a good thing from us.”

Being how marriage is an institution of God and not mankind or government, it is important for believers to not be drawn into emotional arguments that sound good.  Thus we all would agree that it would be wrong to keep people from a good thing.  However, in this case, it is not the good that they seek that is being objected.  Rather, it is the changing of that good thing, marriage, into something different then it was made to be.

Today I am going to take some time to walk through Romans 1 and 2 in order to deal with this charge that Christians (and therefore also God) are not being fair or treating homosexuals as equal.  Clearly, God rejects homosexuality as a good and proper expression of sexuality.  Thus the argument is not about fairness.  It truly is about propriety and the definition of what is “good” sexually.  For Christians this is defined by God, not the passions and desires of an individual or a majority of society.  Let’s go to Romans 1:18.

God Has Judged Homosexual Relations To Be Immoral

Now Romans 1 is going to make some clear statements about the perversion of homosexuality.  However, it doesn’t begin there.  In verse 18 Paul points out that God’s wrath is made clear against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.  So homosexuality is not the only thing that God judges to be sin.  Notice that those who pursue ungodliness (both homosexual and heterosexual) unrighteously suppress the truth.  Obviously if you want to pursue your own passions against God’s Word then you will not like the Truth of God.  Thus there is a clear attempt to restrain and hold truth down.  This happens to both the special revelation we are given in the Bible and in the general revelation that we are given through nature.  This is what Paul points to next.

In verses 19-20 Paul points to the general knowledge we can obtain from nature.  It is obvious, unless you have an ulterior motive, that there is a great intelligence behind the design and system of the universe.  It is also obvious that this intellect is extremely powerful.  Lastly this intellect is divine, that is, beyond creation.  He is God.  God has left his signature all over His creation so that men who do not recognize His existence, power, and divinity, are without excuse.
Now verses 22-23 show that the rejection and suppression of Truth has a negative effect upon the heart and mind of any person.  First of all their thoughts become empty or futile.  This isn’t intended to mean that they can’t accomplish anything and are stupid.  The idea of futile is being used of where their thinking will lead in the end.  So their thinking may build towers greater than Nimrod, but their rebellion and rejection of God will come to nothing in the end.  Thus their thinking is futile.  Also, their hearts will be darkened.  This is a picture of no internal light.  Without truth we are left to operate on lies, phantoms, myths, unrealities, in short, insanity.

This leads to verses 24-25.  When a person or society reaches this point of a darkened heart led by futile thinking as a result of suppressing Truth, God hands them over to the vile passions that are pent up in their flesh and heart.   Notice that they exchange truth for a lie.  Instead of embracing the God who created them, they embrace a lie.  “God’s judgments are wrong and not fair.  Thus he is either evil, or he doesn’t really exist.”  Whichever direction you go you are embracing a lie.  Many religious people have embraced a lie instead of embracing the Truth of God.  Also, many atheists and secular humanists have embraced a lie as well.  It all boils down to rejection of God and embrace of “not god.”

Next they worship the created things instead of the Creator.  Man has been designed with the need and desire to worship.  Thus those who rebel religiously create God in their own image or after things of the material world.  Those who rebel secularly generally worship themselves or at best an image of what they can become without God/Truth. Ultimately, all of this is the same path that Satan took millennia ago.  Whether they are a Satanist or not, those who exalt their own will above that of God’s, walk in his footsteps.  “I will do what I will!!!!”

The word that is used twice “God gave them over” is the picture of a transfer of a person.  They are handed over to vile passions in the way that a prisoner would be handed over in extradition.  A boundary has been crossed.  By stepping away, God hands them over to a tyrant that cannot be satisfied, their own vile passions.  Thus starting in verse 26 we find that the rise of homosexuality in a society is increased to the degree that God has handed it over.  It is a red-flag sin.  It speaks to a level of depravity that ought to shock us into turning back to God.  It is the ultimate rejection of God because it rejects the obvious design and intent of nature.  It screams, “I will not be defined by anything, not even the reality of the material world.  I will be what I want to be!!!”

Let me point out that in verse 32, Paul points to not just the existence of these evil, self-driven things in society, but also the approval of them as a problem.  Here in Washington State we have moved past the point of the existence of homosexuality.  We have even moved past the point of an overall social acceptance of it.  Now we have reached a point where society at large is being challenged to approve of it.  This will not end until the Church embraces homosexuality, our society repents and turns back, or God judges us.  This is where we are.

Just Who Is Being Unfair?

This leads us to Romans 2.  Here Paul talks about people who judge others breaking those same laws.  This is what is happening in those who actually dare to judge God himself.  Those who accuse God and his people of being unfair are unfair themselves.  They use political ploys to have laws struck down and others passed.  And then they use strong-arm techniques both politically and socially to silence the opposition and enforce acceptance.  Three years ago, in our own state, we had the passing of civil union legislation that was billed as “everything except marriage.”  How many people voted for that law because they wanted to be fair and yet now find themselves trying to defend making a line at calling it “marriage.”  Who is forcing whom?  The current same-sex marriage law was encouraged by a Governor who knew they wouldn’t be up for re-election.  The law itself pretends to protect clergy and churches, however, adds several legal avenues of later prosecution.  You cannot continue to offer marriage as a service to the public without putting yourself in jeopardy.  Also, the definition of discrimination is added to same-sex couples.  Thus they leave the door open for pursuing legal action down the road upon the basis that it is wrong for clergy and churches to discriminate.

At issue here is a warped sense of fairness.  Typically what is meant in this argument is fairness of outcome rather than fairness of judgment.  Thus the social enforcers try to make all have the same outcome.  Everyone can marry any way they want to whomever they want and everyone should accept it as Fair (at least as an outcome).  However, you will notice that many of the judgments that lead up to enforcing such fairness of outcome will be anything but fair or just.  A case in point, is socialism.  In order to achieve a desired goal of fair income/wealth for all they support redistribution schemes that trash fairness at all possible points.  So you will find those who work hard and are rewarded with income and wealth will be penalized and some who refuse to work will benefit from the penalty of the previous.  I know this an oversimplification.  But to say it doesn’t happen is an injustice itself.  In the name of fairness we will FORCE society to accept a perverse sexuality as normal and acceptable.

Final Thoughts

Paul says in 11-12 of chapter 2 that God does not play favorites.  In other words in the true sense of the term he is fair and just.  He is righteous and good in his judgments.  He holds us accountable for what we have known.  Thus some trapped in homosexuality may have a better chance of being saved then some hypocritical Christians opposing it.

Christian brothers and sisters, we can stand for Truth without losing sight of people’s need for the Gospel.  Homosexuals need to understand that it is not just that sin that is under judgment.  It is all sin.  And God’s judgment is coming.  We ALL need to admit our sins and flee to Jesus Christ for salvation.

Lastly, we need to operate out of love for the lost and not fear of what we might lose.  If this law passes, I do not have to fear.  The faith that has been passed down to us by godly people and the relationship we have with the Father has passed the test of many wicked and depraved generations.  Maranatha!

Same Sex Marriage: Fairness audio

Same-Sex Marriage? The Heterosexual-Marriage Mess

Across America the cultural battle has moved beyond the propriety of homosexuality and onto the equality of its relationships to those of heterosexuals.  Here in Washington State our outgoing-governor solicited such a bill that eventually passed and signed into law.  However, a referendum (R-74) is currently on the ballot in November.  Historically, when given the right to vote on this matter, people have rejected equating such civil unions to marriage.  One of the arguments that come from those in favor of this law is that “heteros” haven’t done so well with marriage themselves.  Thus a redefinition isn’t going to hurt marriage.

I wanted to deal with this issue first because I think that is the biblical way.  We must face the problems in ourselves before we can help others understand their problems.  It is very true that, not just heterosexuals but even Christian heterosexuals have made a mess of the marriage scene.  In fact this is nothing new.  Jesus confronted the religious leaders of his day over their own sexual sin.  So I think it will be good to start with a look at Matthew 19:3-10 and challenge Christians first.

We Have Made A Mess Of Marriage

Every generation has its own failures in adhering to God’s Word and we need to own them.  Seventy years ago we would have never expected to be talking about same-sex marriage, but here we are.  Instead of pointing to the advocates of this as if they are strange, let us recognize that in our own day and age we fought against God’s plan as well.  Let’s go to the Bible.

This section starts out with a religious and ethical question from the religious leaders we know as the Pharisees.  The question was simply this: Is it lawful (permitted) for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?  Now notice the main issue is not so much divorce, but the acceptable reasons for it.  There was a debate in their day with some having a very restricted view of divorce (only in the case of sexual sin) and others whose view was quite lax (she is a bad cook, or is getting old).  We are not told what their motivation is, but they clearly want to hear what Jesus says on the subject, most likely looking for polemical ammunition.

Jesus responds by first reminding them where marriage came from.  God created marriage when he first created Adam and then made a woman for him.  Jesus quotes from Genesis where it says that a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one-flesh.  He gives a masterful conclusion based on the biblical facts.  People should not be separating what God has put together.  How simple is that?  It is a religious no-brainer.  God’s purpose in marriage is for them to be joined together in a one-flesh relationship.  This is more than physical.  It is emotional and spiritual as well.  In fact notice God is active in this purpose.  It is God who joins man and woman.  He is spiritually involved in this event that begins at marriage.  Thus those pursuing divorce are doing so in opposition to the plan and activity of God. 

I’m sure all kinds of “wait a minute…” questions come into your mind.  Well guess what, the Pharisees had some too.  They expected Jesus to walk through all the exceptions.  But Jesus takes them to the heart of the matter.  Before he gets into exceptions, he first lays down the primary principle.  Marriage is God’s way of teaching men and woman how to become one.  Divorce is an activity that rejects God’s way.  We can never waver on this understanding even when we talk about exceptions because it reminds us of the serious nature of marriage. Quickly the Pharisees move into theological debate mode and ask the question, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”  This question is a slippery one.  Notice the issue is not about any certificate.  Moses did command a certificate of divorce to be given.  But he never commanded divorce.  In other words, the commands were more about what you had to do at a minimum if you were going to divorce.  But no command to divorce exists.  So they have begun to switch the issue instead of dealing with the logic Jesus had just laid out.  Jesus masterfully brings them back to the issue.  He changes their word “command” into “permitted.”  “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”  Divorce was never the plan of God, neither the activity of God.  But it was eventually permitted because of hard hearts that wanted to sin against God’s way.  At the root of every divorce is at least one, hard heart that has chosen sin over God’s way and often there are two hardened hearts.  Such hard hearts are the source of much physical and emotional abuse within marriage.  There is nothing wrong with God’s plan of teaching us unity.  The problem is our heart’s unwillingness to learn.

Now Jesus is going to agree with a reason for divorce and that reason is in the case of sexual immorality.  Whether he finds out she was not the chaste virgin she was presented as, or she later involves herself in adultery, somehow sexual immorality is involved. Yet again, Jesus masterfully turns it in a way they were not expecting.  Though he concedes an exception, he goes on to interpret divorce far more strictly.  For those who divorce for “just any reason,” Jesus reminds them that those who divorce and remarry, for reasons other than the exception, are committing adultery.  In other words, man may recognize it as a legitimate divorce, but God doesn’t.  The harsh reality is that God is the ultimate judge and he does not recognize divorces that are for just any reason.  We will be accountable to God in the end. 

The cultural mess we are in today didn’t start in this generation.  It has been progressing.  Moving backwards we find a time when the issue was not same-sex marriage, but the acceptance of homosexual activity period.  This too was a progression from an earlier rejection of God’s way.  Let’s go back to the 60’s and the era of free love.  It would have appeared in those days that marriage itself was dead.  Society struggled over embracing the idea of love outside of marriage without marriage in mind.  As we continue our trip into the past we find an era that struggled over the issue of adultery.  It is interesting that today there are websites to help you “hook-up” with those who want to have an affair.  The idea is often promoted that adultery can be a way to not end your marriage but rather “spice it up.”  There was a day in America where you could not get a divorce unless you could show true cause.  In fact, there were people who would game the system by agreeing to lie about some alleged affair so that they could get divorced.  What you see is that though the sexual issue changes the problem is always the same: hard hearts rejecting God’s way. 

Thus the rise of fringe sexual sins within the open culture should not shock us.  When homosexuality, pedophilia and other perversions come to the surface they are well on their way to society acceptance.  Sure not every person accepts it.  But, the overall media, whether news or entertainment, promote the progressive embrace of these things.  This is where we are as we ask the question, “Should same-sex marriage be accepted?”

Does This Mean We Should Embrace Same-Sex Marriage?

Is it right to sin further because you have already sinned?  Hard hearts are the problem.  Should we harden them further?  To cast off restraint is to commit spiritual suicide, if we aren’t spiritually dead already.  Instead we ought to repent and begin the true, progressive work of going back to God’s ways.  Ways that repudiate divorce and are willing work through the pain of becoming one with another person.

Secondly, these arguments are only made for argument’s sake.  When they argue that heteros have messed up marriage and thus there is no reason to resist same –sex marriage, they are not seeking truth.  They are inconvincible.  Like the Pharisees they don’t deal with the logic.  Rather they look for any traction in getting a majority to embrace their pet sin.  Just because someone uses the Christian code word of “Love” doesn’t mean we need to cave in.  When they say that they only want to have the joy of what others have in marriage, don’t go weak in the knees and say, “I’ve never thought about it that way.”  We are in rebellion against God’s way and we are going to be held accountable for it in the here and now and in the judgment to come.

Thirdly, to embrace such perversion will only increase the amount of pain and suffering upon men, women and children within our society.  When you vote to support this, you are voting to bring more destruction and pain into our society.

Lastly we would be forging our own future shackles.  Once same-sex marriage is socially/legally acceptable, all those who disagree will be branded as bigots.  In fact, we already are by those who are trying to convince us this is the right thing.  Notice the advertisements rarely show a homosexual couple.  They always show a priest, parents, or some other third party who is saying to you, “We should same-sex marriage.”  Churches and Christians will quickly be encircled in an ever-increasingly pressured environment, until we conform. 

Food For Thought:

We are long down the path of rejecting God’s way and forging our own.  Let’s not plunge off the cliff.  However, neither do we need to get nasty in this debate.  This is not a time of attacking others, but is a time of weeping over the hardness of hearts: theirs and ours. 

Whether this gets passed or not, someone is going to have to share Jesus with those who are caught up in sexual sin.  Maybe your heart is not hard when it comes to following God’s way sexually, but what about evangelically?  God’s heart is to save the sexually perverse from the path they are on.  He has sent us to share the good news to every sinner, just as someone shared it with us when we were caught up in our sin.  We should love them enough to recognize their plight and work to share God’s heart with them.  Promoting same-sex marriage is not the answer.

Same-Sex Marriage Sermon

Our Present Life III

Today we will pick up at 1 Peter 1:22-25.  As review, Peter has encouraged them: to keep their Hope in Christ to the end, to pursue holiness, to live with a fear of the Lord, and now today, Peter encourages them to go deeper in their love for one another. 

Love One Another Fervently With A Pure Heart

Verse 22 has a lot to say, but the core of the verse is at the end.  Love one another fervently with a pure heart.  Let’s look first at the word fervently.  The root of this word has the idea of being stretched out, as in stretching out one’s hand to do something.  It can be translated as earnest.  In a sense Peter is asking them to go the extra mile in their love for one another and stretch themselves out.  By analogy, perhaps we can think of a football player who is trying the catch the ball.  Sometimes the quarterback throws it just a bit too far in front of us.  At that moment the receiver has a decision to make.  Do I stretch myself out and risk getting hit to catch that ball?  Or, do I play it safe and not try so hard?  Players who stretch out to make the catch don’t do it because they like getting creamed.  They do it because they are earnest in making that catch.  They are willing to expose themselves for the sake of making the catch.  How about you?  Do you stretch yourself out in love or do you play it safe and only meet out love in small, safe increments?

He also reminds them to love with a pure heart.  This is talking about our motives.  Do I have impure motives?  Sometimes our great successes at love were actually motivated by what we thought we would get in return.  “I’ll love you as long as it makes me feel good.  But as soon as it no longer brings me pleasure, I’m out of here.”  Or, perhaps we do loving things because of the social prestige that it gains us.  Maybe I am just conforming to expectations that I am afraid to try and break out of.  Whatever our motivation behind love, if it isn’t for the right motives then it is for naught.  In any group it is easy to give in to social pressure.  We are not to “act” like Christ.  We are to pick up our cross and follow him.  That takes some sincere and pure motivations.

Peter points out how they had been obeying the truth by sincerely loving each other.  So his main purpose is to call them to a higher level of love—a stretched out love.  If you are going to obey the truth and love then do so with all your heart and all your might.  Notice that he points out that they had been made pure by their obedience.  When we think of obedience and God’s word, a good picture to keep in mind is pruning.  God’s Word points out those dead areas of our life and pursuits of our heart that need to be cut off.  It also points out those areas that need to be cut off so that we can be more fruitful.  This “cleaning” of our hearts is what enables us to stretch ourselves out in love.

However, this cannot just be a surface obedience.  Peter mentions that they obeyed “through the Spirit.”  Their obedience was led, encouraged and corrected by the Holy Spirit.  They were responding to his inner promptings to the Word of God.

He then reminds them of their new birth.  This was mentioned back in verse 3.  This new birth was not a biological birth from the corruptible seed of man.  Biology is impotent to help us.  Even if we could perfect all DNA errors, we are passing away along with this world.  They were spiritually birthed by the incorruptible seed of God’s Word, or Truth.  The verse in Luke 18:11 points out this analogy.  “The seed is the Word of God.”  It cannot perish.  It will never pass away.  The information you start with affects the durability and outcome of what it creates.  No biology can create eternal life.  Only God’s Word can give us eternal life.

Lastly Peter ties this in with the Gospel.  The good news of who Jesus was, what he did, and what he is doing now, was the main Truth of God that they had received.  That Gospel is living in that it is active and powerful.  It is also living in that it is life-giving.  However the Gospel is also eternal.  It has been said that the gospel will never cease, although the need to spread it will.

Peter quotes from Isaiah 40:6-8.  In this verse they are reminded how the things of this world are passing away, but the Word of the Lord will remain forever.  Now Isaiah 40 is an amazing passage within an amazing book.  Scholars through the ages have pointed out that Isaiah is a mini-Bible.  It has 66 chapters like the 66 books of the Bible.  The first 39 chapters deal with Israel’s failures under the law and the judgment of God upon the nations.  However, chapter 40 begins a turning in the book where Isaiah points to the good news of God’s merciful salvation.  Just as they had received the gospel, so Peter quotes from this chapter in Isaiah that is pointing towards that very same gospel. 

It is worth it to look at Isaiah 40 for a brief moment.  It starts out with the cry to “comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God.”  Then in verse 10 he points out that the Lord will come with a strong hand and rule for him.  This hand will shepherd the flock of God and gather the lambs into his arms and carry them in his bosom.  This is clearly a picture of Jesus the messiah.  Then the chapter ends with the famous lines, “they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  The things of this world are passing away, but God’s Word is going to remain.  No matter what you are hoping in, if it is something other than God’s Word, then it is going to fail you.  Don’t let the failure of the things of this world, religious people included, take your hope off of what is true: God’s word.  We have to learn to wait upon the Lord in faith.

Here is some food for thought.  We need to ask ourselves, “What is hindering my love from being His love?”  Don’t just ask yourself if you love, but do I love like He did?  Lord, help us to remove those things that would keep us from loving like you.

Another thought is a quote that someone came up with.  A coach is someone who makes you do what you don’t want to do so that you can become what you want to become.  Perhaps those difficult things that are causing you to want to quit loving are just God’s way of stretching you.  Is God stretching you?  Have you only saw the reason why you shouldn’t have to love and not the reasons why it is imperative that you do?  May God fill us with a fervent love that comes from a pure motivation: to be like Jesus.

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