The First Letter of Peter- 6

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 3

1 Peter 1:22-25; 2:1-3.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 28, 2025.

We continue in this section where Peter admonishes us to be a part of the new spiritual people that Jesus is creating.  He does this through a series of imperatives, or commands.  We have looked at the first three.

1. Fix your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1:13).
2. Be holy like obedient children of God (1:15).
3. Conduct yourself in the fear of the Lord during this time of your sojourn on earth (1:17).

Of course, there are more things that are attached to these three commands, but they are the core points.  Let’s look at our passage as Peter gives some more commands.

Fervently love one another from the heart (v. 1:22-25)

Peter gives them the same command that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples, particularly in John 13 to 15 on the night of his betrayal.  It is probably fresh in Peter’s mind just how wrong-headed he had been that night.  Yes, he believed in Jesus and was following him.  Yet, his flesh kept side-tracking him from where Jesus was leading.

We are to love one another as Jesus loved us.  On the night of his betrayal, we should first recognize that Jesus had risen and washed their dirty feet, something a servant should have done.  He loved them enough to do the lowest task among the group. Once we have absorbed this lesson, then we can move to the fact that Jesus physically was willing to die for them that they might live. 

Does this sound like something that is easy?  No, it is not!  One of the problems with American society is that we have exalted the idea of “falling in love” beyond any usefulness.  Today, people fall in and out of love without much thought.  They are simply led by the desires of their heart, which are often only lust.  Jesus is talking about a motivation that comes from Jesus Himself, rather than our own heart.  The love that Jesus gave to me when I didn’t deserve it becomes a motivation to give love to those others that he commands me to love.  In this case, he is talking about other disciples of Jesus.  If I have been forgiven much, then I should love Jesus much, so much that I am willing to love his other followers.  This is not a love of feeling, but a love of choice, a love of sacrifice.  Feelings will come and go, some good and some bad, but always we should make the choice to love.

Peter adds that this love is to come from the heart.  Some manuscripts have “from a pure heart.”  Both of these would be true.  There is an intellectual part to this choice to love, but we must not let hypocrisy and ulterior motives lead us.  Our heart has to embrace the decision.  We are not just intellectually seeing the vision that Jesus is laying before us but also capture that vision and making it our own.

We could say that acts which look loving, but are done in hypocrisy, are not truly loving at all.  They are self-serving actions in disguise.

Verse 22 starts off with “since you have in obedience to the Truth purified your souls…”  Peter reminds them of this prior action.  It is not in question, i.e., “since,” but the latter action of loving each other from the heart is in question (at least until we follow through).  The prior action is that they have purified their souls.  This may sound wrong.  Isn’t it Jesus who has purified our souls?  Yes, Jesus is the Purifier of our souls.  However, his work of purification involves the work of putting our faith in the “Truth” of the Gospel of Jesus. 

This is what is meant by “in obedience.”  The Gospel is first good news of what Jesus has done and has made available to us.  However, it is also a challenge.  Will you embrace this Jesus as God’s answer to your sin-sick soul?  Thus, it can be said that we purify our souls when we put our faith in Jesus.  It is understood that we could not do that, i.e., our works of faith would be useless, if Jesus had not done the foundational work of providing the foundation upon which we are putting our faith. 

There is also a work of the internal battle against sin that we are to engage with the help of the Holy Spirit, who was made available to us by the work of Jesus as well.  Like the Israelites taking possession of their inheritance in the Promised Land, believers are to take possession (purify) their souls that have been overrun by the giants and strongholds of sin.

We might not think about it in this way, but Peter says that we have purified our souls “for a sincere love of the brethren.”  The grammar depicts the sincere love of the brethren as a target, or goal, of the purifying.  

Think of it this way.  Jesus commands us to love one another, but my heart is filled with things that make it difficult to obey that command.  I am not enough like Jesus to do it.  However, I have put my faith in Jesus both for salvation and for the strength to war against the lusts that are in my own heart, all of this so that I can actually follow through on the work that Jesus has given me.  If you are going to do the hard work of fighting sin in your life, then follow through with the target of loving other believers.  This is what Jesus would do if he were here in the flesh.

Christians are not hypocrites that pretend to love people.  Instead, we are up front that without Christ none of us would love others.  It is his love for us that is transforming us and leading us in saying, “No” to our flesh, and “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.  We who have followed Jesus have also joined this new spiritual people.  Jesus wants it to be a community of love between one another just as the Father and He have always existed in a community of love between themselves and the Holy Spirit. 

We should not blame our lack of love for others on them.  Of course, we all have things that are hard to love, and we have things that are easy for us “to love.”  Our society has a sense of feeling good when helping others (the poor and powerless, etc.).  However, in our flesh, our target is not high enough.  Making yourself feel good is on the same level as drinking alcohol so that you can forget about your woes.  Jesus wasn’t making himself feel better when he loved us.  He was paying a price so that we could be set free from our sins.  His target was much higher than just his own human feelings.  This is why people can be so “loving” to one group but then spew vile hatred towards others.  Christians are not to be like this.  If someone spews hatred towards you, you are to love them as Jesus would love them.

Peter also brings up in verse 23 that they have been born again.  We should fervently love one another from a sincere heart because we have been born again.  We have been born from above, born of the Spirit of God, born of the will of the Father.  This spiritual life that has begun within us is working to express itself in our life through actions that are inspired by Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.

He goes on to point out that this new birth did not come from an imperishable seed.  This ties back to the phrase in verse 22, “in obedience to the Truth…”  Peter is helping them to see this metaphor that Jesus used in his parables in which the seed represents the Word of God, the Truth.

There are all kinds of seeds of “truth” in this world, but only the Word that comes from God the Father is “Truth.”  What word is planted in your heart and growing there?  The words of this world are all impotent and destined to fail, to perish.  However, the Word of God is imperishable.  Even when we ignore it, it accomplishes what it was sent to do.  Its living principle is not dependent upon us believing it.  Yet, we should believe it if we want to be on the good side of its potency.

This Word of the Lord is essentially the Gospel that they received.  Simultaneously, the Gospel, even all Scripture, is an analog of Jesus, the Son of the Most High, who is the Truth.  To obey the word of God (Scripture) is to obey the Word of God (Jesus Christ).  In fact, we can tie this back to prophecies in the Old Testament that refer to seed, but in this case, the seed is the offspring.  Genesis three promises that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.  Later in the same book, God promises that the Seed of Abraham would bring blessing to the whole world.  We also find the importance of the Seed of David that would eventually come forth to rule over Israel and the Nations.  In Jesus, this promised Offspring (the Anointed One) is also the One who is the Seed (Truth) of God.

Jesus is the Imperishable Seed.  If you believe on him, his imperishable nature will make you imperishable too!

Peter fills out what is meant by this imperishable seed by calling it the “living and enduring word of God.”  God’s Word is living versus dead.  It has life in and of itself because it comes from the Author of all life.  The words of men may make us feel alive, but they will not bear out in the end to be true life.

God’s Word is also enduring.  It remains, or stays, when all else fails and falls aside.  God’s Word remains as a stalwart signpost pointing back to Him, back to life, even as we stand on the cliffs of destruction.

This brings Peter to quote Isaiah 40:6,8. It emphasizes the contrast between humans, who are like grass, and the Word of the Lord, which endures forever!”  Sometimes in Scripture God emphasizes that the wicked are like grass (see Psalm 92:7).  They may look intimidating and substantial to us, but they are here today and gone tomorrow.  Theirs is temporary power, temporary success.  However, the grass imagery can also be applied to all humans (wicked or righteous).  Our time to impact this world is brief and short.  What we do is important, but we will also quickly be gone. 

This may sound cynical, but those who have placed their faith in the Word of the Lord, Jesus, will find that His enduring life is greater than our mortal, grass like nature.  Jesus will not leave us behind.  We have been born again by the Spirit of God because we have believed the Word-Become-Flesh that was sent by God the Father to us.  Though we are perishable in our flesh, the Word of the Lord will raise us up!  We will live because we are connected to the living Word of Life!

All of this is about loving one another.  It may feel like a worthless life, just loving other grass-people.  However, we can trust God and offer it up as an offering of worship unto Him.  We have truly born the grass image of Adam, but we shall also bear the image of Jesus, which is anything but grass!

Peter reminds them at the end of verse 25 that this is what they have received, the Living, Enduring Word of the Lord!  This really is the only thing we have to offer people.  My ideas, my thoughts, are here today and gone tomorrow.  But, when we proclaim the Word of the Lord to people, we give them something that will never fail them!  It is this Life of God that should drive our ability to fervently love one another from the heart as Jesus has commanded us.

Long for the pure milk of the word like newborn babies (v. 2:1-3)

A spiritual person needs to live upon spiritual food.  The Scriptures are our spiritual food because they speak of Christ and are from him.  To read and to embrace the Scriptures is to embrace Jesus Himself.  This spiritual food will enable them to grow.

Peter particularly speaks to them as newborn babies.  Many Gentiles were completely unfamiliar with the Word of God.  When they believed in Jesus, there were many things they did not understand and in fact were too hard for them to understand quickly.  Easier to understand things from God are like spiritual milk.  Newborns exist only on a diet of milk because their stomach is not able to digest more complex foods.

So, what are these easier to digest things of God’s Word?  In short, the Gospel itself is based upon an elementary understanding of God’s Word.  The Creator of humanity loves us.  Our sin has separated us from Him and brought about the pain and suffering we see.  He has sent Jesus to remove that separation and bring us back into a loving relationship with the Creator.  We need to share this good news with others.

Of course, there are things that are harder to digest, or understand.  In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul expected the Corinthians to be able to eat “solid food” by now.  Though Peter does not address solid food, we might ask ourselves this question.  How do spiritual babies get to a place where they can eat meat?  They do so through a steady diet of milk.  Peter is reminding them to desire the milk of the word, not so that they will remain in that state, but so that they will grow spiritually.  Believers are called to long, to yearn, for the pure milk of the word.

For what are we hungering?  A believer may start out hungering for the milk, but then other things that are not spiritual food draw our attention.  A new believer can become distracted by harder to digest truths that they are not ready to eat, but they can also become distracted by unspiritual food, the philosophies of this world etc. 

Here is another question.  Do adults still drink milk?  Of course, they do.  However, they will not be able to do adult work on a diet of milk.  As you grow spiritually, you are going to need to grow in understanding the Word of God.  This will take time, but it will also take intentionality and focus.  Make sure you are hungering for God’s Word at the appropriate level and not going after supplements that come from the devil, the world, and our flesh.

This spiritual growth is mentioned in verse 2 (“so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation”).  Babies take on the image of the ones by whom they were born.  We ought to take on the image of Jesus more and more.  We should be taking more and more possession of our soul as an inheritance given to us by God.  Our discipleship in this life is important, even though we have a greater inheritance in the age to come.

A person who is listening to the Word of God and being led by the Holy Spirit will grow in becoming more like Jesus.  This is not without difficulty and spiritual battle, but it is the work Christ is committed to doing within us.

Peter lists up front (vs. 1) some of the negative things that we need to battle against within our hearts.  These things not only get in the way of doing everything Peter has commanded so far, but they also get in the way of our desire for the Word of God.

We need to put aside all malice.  This is a general term for any ill-will (literally bad will) that we might have for others.

We need to put aside all deceit.  This is the type of activity that the devil employed against Eve in the garden.  Deceit has an ulterior motive underneath a nice-looking veneer.

We need to put aside hypocrisy, which is putting on an act rather than being sincere.

We need to put aside envy, which is often a source of hypocrisy and deceit.  We envy others when we desire what they have more than what God has for us.  There is nothing wrong in desiring something, but it becomes an idol when we sacrifice relationship with God in order to get it.

He ends with telling us to put aside all slander.  This word is more general than how we use it.  It simply means to speak evil of another person.

These are the things that we need to put aside or take off like filthy clothes.  We saw this language in our study of the Letter to the Colossian Church.  When these things fill our heart, we will not long for the word.  We need to take hold of them and expel them from our heart, but we also dare not let ourselves act upon their leading.

If my heart is not longing for the Word of God, then the response is to start cleaning while asking God for help.  None of us can do these things without the help of the Holy Spirit.

In verse three of chapter two, Peter says, “If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  I don’t think Peter is questioning whether they have “tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  He knew that the Gospel had drawn them into putting their faith in Jesus.  They had even believed in the face of difficulty and persecution, which supports the reality of their faith.  Peter is actually reminding them or challenging them to remember.  Don’t let yourself be sidetracked from the original drawing to the Lord that you had.

To taste something requires you to take it into yourself.  It is one thing to know about apples, but it is quite another thing to eat one.  Taste is about intimate knowledge.  Of course, Peter is talking about spiritual things.  To taste the kindness of the Lord is to hear about it and then to take it into yourself by putting your faith in it, in Jesus.

The idea of tasting the nature of the Lord comes from Psalm 34:8. There, the psalmist refers to the “goodness of the Lord.”  When we trust the Lord, we will no longer only know about Him.   We will come to have the knowledge of experience.  Yes, there are bitter-sweet things that we experience in the Lord, but the Lord works them to the good for those who trust in Him!

God doesn’t just want us to know about Him.  He wants us to know the goodness, the kindness, that He desires to lavish upon us.  He wants us to experience His love by faith.

How does this relate to these mostly Gentile Christians?  God had cast off the Gentiles and handed them over to the false gods that they worshipped.  Yet, now, He was drawing them near to Him like children to a Heavenly Father.  We might accuse God of not being kind when He cast them off (us off), but then, we didn’t experience the wickedness and evil that was happening because of a rejection of His wisdom.

God is good even when He lets us go into the results of our choices.  Even in His judgment, He is bringing us to a place where repentance is possible.  His grace is without bounds, but it will not believe for us.  We must believe for ourselves.  The Word of God helps us to do this.

New Spiritual People 3 audio

The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-5, 9-14. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner during our Christmas Service, December 21, 2025.

We are pausing on our study of 1 Peter today in order to focus on the Incarnation of Jesus.  The Messiah would not just come to fix Israel, but he would also come to fix the Creation through a process of re-creation.  Matthew and Luke emphasize the human genealogy of Jesus.  However, John focuses on the fact that Jesus was an incarnation of the eternal Word of God that was revealed in the very first Word, “Let there be Light!”  The Word that brought forth all of creation in accordance with the will of the Father is the same Word that comes into the fallen world in order to bring about a re-creation.

This opening passage of John is intended to point us back to Genesis chapter one, helping us to understand the connection between Jesus and the Word of God.  The original creation is pictured as a world covered with darkness and water, i.e., not a good place for humans to live.  The destructive forces of sin brings us back to this state in a very real way.  We become stuck in darkness and the systems of our own making that are not good for us as humans.  At a particular point in time, however, God the Father sent the One True Light into the world so that we could see, believe, and be re-created.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus was the Word of God at creation (v. 1-5,14)

Jesus is the name that was given to a human who was unlike any other.  In some respects, this name only references the event in which the second person of the Godhead took on the additional nature of a human.  Yet, God had planned for this incarnation from the very beginning.  If Jesus is the Lamb, slain from the foundations of the earth (Revelation 13:8), then he was also incarnated from the foundations of the earth.  What I mean is that the Incarnation was the plan from the beginning.  The Father knew that it would become necessary.

Thus, there is nothing wrong with talking about Jesus being the Word of God back in Genesis one, as long as we don’t think of him as being a human being at that time.  Jesus is not a man who became God.  He is God who has become a unique man.  John is tying this back to the first light that came forth from the Word of God in the beginning.  He is showing us the backstory to the reality of who this Jesus truly was.

We should note the closeness of Jesus, the Word, to God in this section.  John uses four statements to reveal this.

1. The Word existed at the beginning of creation.
2. The Word was with (right up next to) God.  Before we go on, I would note that verse 18 refers to him being “in the bosom of the Father.  This pictures The Word, Jesus, within the embrace of the Father.  It is a picture of intimate relationship.
3. The Word was God.
4. The Word was in the beginning with God.

There is no clearer way to say that the Father and the eternal Son are both distinct and yet, one.  Like words that proceed from the inner part of a man, so the Son proceeds from the Father.

This passage is both mysterious and very clear.  The One True God has existed from before creation as a unity of plurality, a community of loving relationship.  God is not dependent upon creation, but He does desire relationship with it, with us.  He created this universe, and He can uncreate it.  He is the only uncreated thing that exists.

Genesis 1 pictures God creating through a series of commands, “Let there be light,” and so on.  By referring to Jesus as the Word of God, John shows us that there is a distinction of activity with God.  The Father wills and sends, but it is the Word, Jesus, who comes forth to do the will of the Father.  This makes Jesus the active agent of creation.  Verse 3 tells us that all things came into being through him.  To be clearer, apart from Jesus, the Word, “nothing came into being that has come into being.” This shuts down the argument that the Father must have created Jesus, or that a contradiction exists in which it looks like John says that the Word created the Father.  The Father and the Word are not a created being.  Rather, they are an eternal unity that existed before time itself was created.

Imagine a man walking on this earth knowing that everything on it owes its existence to him.  There are many powerful people on this planet who act like everyone owes their existence to them, but this is only true of Jesus.  All of creation owes its existence to Jesus, the Word of God.

We can also see the personhood of The Word in this passage.  John clearly sees the Word not as an impersonal force that comes from the Father, but as a person.  He refers to “the Word” as a means of helping us make the tie to Genesis chapter one.  Notice verse 14 expressly states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Even before this, the passage uses masculine personal pronouns of the Word (“through him,” “by him,” etc.).  This continues in the next verses as well.

He became a man to redeem and recreate humanity (v. 9-13)

The story of creation is not yet complete.  God has purpose and meaning for everything that exists, and humans are at the middle of that purpose.  Genesis chapter three shows how everything went sideways.  Mankind has lost its place and ability to image God the Father.  The Word become flesh, i.e., Jesus, came in order to redeem and re-create humanity.

Jesus pays the price to give us back what has been lost.  This has two stages to it.  Stage one involves us remaining mortal and learning to battle our sin, while growing in the ability to image God the Father within a fallen world.  Stage two comes into play when we inherit a new, immortal body and step into a restored Eden, a new heavens and a new earth.

As the True Light (v. 9), Jesus comes into the world to enlighten us just as we see in Genesis chapter one.  There are many forces from within humanity and from the fallen angels that promise to enlighten humanity.  The enlightenment of the 1600s forward projected the idea that there is no God and that the world around us can be disenchanted from such antiquated notions.  These are false lights that only mislead and bring humanity into greater and greater bondage, into blindness.  Only Jesus can truly enlighten us to our true purpose, which is to image God, and to the means by which all things can be fixed, which is to put your trust in him.  This world pretends like Jesus is a nice story but can’t really affect this world.  Jesus was sent to open our eyes to the reality of the Father’s love for us.

John tells us that the Word that had become flesh was not recognized and received for who he really is.  Verse 5 tells us that the light shined in the darkness but the darkness did not comprehend it.  The word translated “comprehend” also has the connotation of overcoming it.  When a person mentally grasps something, they comprehend it.  However, people often try to take hold of messaging and turn it to their own ends.  This is an overcoming and repackaging of Jesus, which John declares doesn’t work. 

We are all in the dark to the plans and purposes of God the Father without Jesus.  In him, we can step into the light and know the truth.

Verse 10 tells us that the world he made did not know him.  Verse 11 states that those who were his own did not receive him.  This is not just about Israel, although they are the initial example of this.  We become so blinded by the systems of this world that we cannot recognize the one who made us and gave us a purpose, meaning, value.  Thus, Jesus was treated as a common heretic by Jews and as a common rabble rouser by the Romans.  Yet, this was not the truth about who he was.

Verses 12 and 13 lay the path of redemption for humanity as a whole, but also for us as individuals.  We are to receive Jesus as sent by God to us.  We are to believe in His name.  That is, we are to live our life by faith in who He is.  We are not to trust in our genetics, our family wealth, our technology, and our ability to will things into being.  We are to embrace being spiritually reborn by the will of God the Father.

One day we will be also physically reborn by the will of God the Father, and through the Lord Jesus, King Messiah.  Do not lose heart.  Things are not falling apart.  God is simply birthing new children into the world, until the day that He brings this world into judgment.

May God strengthen your faith this year in the One who became human in order to save us from our ruined condition.  The world may not look like it is being redeemed by Jesus, but he is focused on our hearts first.  Fear not!  The day will come when Jesus will take up the thrones of this earth and bring all things into the glorious rule of the One True Light!

Word Became Flesh audio

The First Letter of Peter- 5

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 2

1 Peter 1:18-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 14, 2025.

We are continuing today in a section where Peter is describing what it means to be a part of this new spiritual people belonging to Jesus Christ.  So far, Peter has given them three main instructions.  First, fix your hope completely on the grace to be revealed at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Second, be holy as our Lord is holy.  Third, we are to conduct ourselves in the fear of the Lord while we live as pilgrims in this world.

It is this last command that is still in view in verse 18.  Part of what instructs our conduct in fearing the Lord is knowing just how we were and weren’t redeemed.

Let’s look at our passage.

Conduct yourself in fear during the time of your pilgrimage in this world (v. 18-21)

It is easy to think of how our redemption leads to joy and happiness.  However, Peter wants us to contemplate how it leads to a fear of the Lord.

Let me remind us of what the fear of the Lord means.  Anyone who is an enemy of God should be terrified of Him because He is holy and will not put up with our wickedness.  However, God is also merciful and desires to redeem us out of our wickedness and the consequences it brings to us and the people around us.

For the one who believes God, the fear of the Lord is the desire not to be separated from God anymore.  I fear life without the Greatest Good in the universe being favorable to me.  It also is the fear of rejecting the great love that God has given to us in Jesus.  I don’t want to live life without a love that would lay itself down for me even while I was a sinner.

What does Peter mean by telling us that we were redeemed?

Redemption is the action required in order to restore the things that have been lost for a person.  Sin has cost humanity dearly, and it has dearly cost each of us as individuals.  We lost an earthly paradise.  We lost a perfect union with God.  We lost an earth that was designed to cooperate with humanity. 

Even those who lived a life of faith in God would find themselves stuck in the grave (the holding place for human spirits who had died).  Though some people were clearly worse than others, all people were guilty of sin against God without exception.  In fact, the Bible does not hide the fact that the heroes of the faith were not perfect.

This created an impasse where God wants to save those who have trusted in Him despite their failures, and yet, it would be unjust simply to do so.  It would also be a problem for God’s nature.  He is holy.  How could He dwell eternally with sinful people, no matter how good they looked next to others?  He made us to dwell with Him, but we had lost that ability. 

This is where Peter reminds us that God did not redeem us with silver and gold, as is often the case among humans.  When he redeemed Ruth, Boaz had to cover the price of the land that had been sold (or more properly, leased).  Of course, he also married her in order to “raise up” a son for her dead husband whose line was in danger of being extinguished.

However, no amount of money, silver, or gold can remove our sins from us and the guilt that goes along with them.  In order to regain our lost status as the children of God, our lost relationship with God, and our lost dominion over the earth, we needed God to help us because we were in a position of helplessness.

The world today is full of men and women seeking to take dominion of the earth through their wealth (silver and gold).  On top of this, they seek to set themselves up as the gods of this world.  All of this is done in the face of the One True God.

Peter then mentions that we are being redeemed from the “futile way of life inherited from [our] forefathers.”  Thus, redemption is not just what we are getting back.  It is also about the powerless position that we leave behind us.  This is not just about the ultimate powerless position of being stuck in the grave after death but is also about the way of life that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden, a life of fellowship, provision, perfect-imaging, dominion, and freedom.  Instead of these things, we have degenerated into a way of living that was handed down to us by our forefathers.

How can a person be broken free from the prison of futility that they inherited from their forefathers?  The Gentiles had inherited a religious system of worshipping the fallen Elohim as if they were gods.  This system was full of further ways to sin against the creator through sexual immorality, sacrificing humans (even children), and placing created things above the true Creator.  They had also inherited a political system that looked to special men to save this with the help of those weak, pretender gods.  They also inherited a system of social relationships that was built upon who had power and who didn’t.

Even Israel had taken the Law of God and encased it in a multitude of traditions that trapped them in futility (i.e., ways that are powerless to do anything of value).  Without God, we are trapped in a life of wasting away in a bondage that He didn’t make for us.  In fact, gold and silver (wealth) are often at the root of this bondage.

We are in the same position today without Jesus.  Our republic was built upon the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, but over time, we have created ways of doing economics, politics, business, religion, and relationships, that are not God’s ways.  They are thus futile in the end.  Jesus is redeeming us out of these broken, human-made systems.

How can a person be broken free from their life of futility inherited from their fathers?  They can only do so by the grace of God.

Having spoken about what was not used to redeem us, Peter then points to the reality that God redeemed us with the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious, unblemished, and spotless lamb.

The blood of Jesus is precious because he is the only human who has perfectly imaged the Father and is worthy of receiving all that has been lost by humanity.  It is unblemished because he did not give in to the desires of his flesh, the desires of the world around him, or the temptations of the devil.  Peter is basically letting us know that Jesus is like a perfect, sacrificial lamb, spotless.  His death was a worthy sacrifice that was acceptable to God and made atonement, or a covering, for all our sin.

There is no other person who has ever lived who fits the above description.  The fact that Jesus, who is the perfect, worthy one, who is favored of God, used his life to be a sacrifice instead of conquering and taking over the earth is completely contrary to how most humans think.

This is what John the Baptizer was referencing in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  This is what Isaiah meant in Isaiah 53:7, right after he said that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…”  Jesus was the one who “like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”  Even further back, it is what Abraham meant in Genesis 22:8 when he answered Isaac’s question about where the lamb was for the burnt offering.  “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

This miracle child was to be placed on the altar and sacrificed to God.  How could God ask such a thing?  It is clear in the story that God was not going to let Abraham go through it.  Yet, notice Abraham’s answer to his son.  Is Abraham lying to his son?  I don’t think so.  He had a relationship with the God of heaven, and he spoke by faith.  He didn’t know how God was going to do it, but God would keep His word to Abraham through Isaac, even though Isaac may be put to death.  The writer of the Hebrews says that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead if He had to do so in order to keep His promise to Abraham.

What Abraham did that day was to be willing to act out something that God the Father was going to do in the future.  It became a template that would help us understand what God was doing later.  Jesus was the Lamb of God that was sacrificed on our behalf in order to cover our sins.

Peter then states that this perfect Lamb of God, Jesus, was foreknown by God before the foundations of the earth were laid.  God knew that there would be a rebellion if he made sentient beings who had free will.  Before He created humans, He already knew that the Eternal Son would have to take on human flesh and do for us what we could not do for ourselves, redeem humanity from its fall into corruption and out of close relationship with the Father.

Why did God wait 1,000s of years before He sent Jesus, as Peter says, “in these last times”?  There is wisdom in God first giving us a choice.  Will you trust Me or do you want to experience the knowledge of what is good and what is evil?  Of course, our choice was that we wanted to know.  The word for knowledge here is not about head knowledge.  It is about the knowledge that comes from experience.  By the time Jesus came, humans had experienced the depths of the folly of that choice.  We would be more open to God’s solution to our problem at that point than if He had sent Jesus down right away.

Over time, if we are listening, we come to see that evil is not just something that is in that person over there, but it is also in me.  It is not something that I can cover by simply being “better” than another person.  In fact, if Jesus had been revealed at the very beginning, then our following sin would have been ever worse.  God’s delay was actually a grace that helped us to understand the necessity of Jesus.

In the face of 1,000s of years of rebellion, God was faithful to give us grace in the man Jesus.  Why does He wait 1,000s of years after the sending of Jesus to bring sin on this planet to an end, fixing all things?  It is the redemptive grace of God.  He is not willing that anyone should perish.  So, He delays the day of judgment.  In the face of all the evil that humans do to us and all the wickedness that fallen angels and demons may produce, we are shown that God can be trusted to overturn it.

Peter ends with the reminder that putting our faith in Jesus is putting our faith in God the Father.  In Jesus, we who were not believers in God, i.e., were not living according to His ways, have become believers in Him.  To embrace Jesus in faith is to believe God the Father.  However, to reject Jesus in unbelief is to reject the Father.

Peter describes God the Father as the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead.  This is not a contradiction to the statement of Jesus that he had power to take up his own life after death.  If you pay attention to the words of Jesus in John 10:18, you will notice that he says, “I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I have received from My Father.”  Jesus is authorized to take up his life again, i.e., he has been authorized by the Father.  Thus, both are true.  Jesus takes up his own life, but he does so as the perfectly obedient Son.

The plan and operation of the Father has always been through Jesus as the source of life.  This is part of the glory that Peter says the Father gave to Christ.  He was given the glory of being the first to raise from the dead (firstborn from the dead).  He was also given the glory of the only one to sit at the right hand of the Father.  He is also given the glory of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  He also has the glory of the one who has brought many children of God into glory with him.

Peter then states that our faith and hope are in God the Father completely when we embrace the Son of His love.  It is He that will send the Lord Jesus to take up the kingdoms of the world.  It is also He that will give us the right to be perfected in order to stand at the side of Jesus Christ in His presence.

Knowing all that God has done in order to save us ought to put a reverent fear within our hearts.  How can I rebel against such love?  How can I do anything but bow the knee in awe, asking of the Lord Jesus, “Save me, please!”

Spiritual People 2 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 4

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 1

1 Peter 1:13 to 17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 7, 2025.

We transition from the joyful praise of God’s salvation in 1 Peter 1:3-12 to a section that focuses on how we ought to respond to such salvation.  Peter has put in the background of this letter the image of the patriarchs and their sojourn, being a foreigner, in the land of Canaan.  They lived by faith waiting for the Promise that God have given them.

Peter now further inserts imagery that harkens back to Israel becoming a new nation, or people, at the Exodus from Egypt.  Believers have become part of a new nation who are different from the people around them.

Throughout history, the majority of people who have become Christians have marked themselves as foreigners where they live.  Following Christ was not the norm for their societies.  A small portion of people have become believers within a society that was based upon faith in Jesus Christ.  However, even these places have demonstrated over the years that it is easy to be founded on Christ, but much harder to remain faithful to that foundation.

Let’s take the United States of America for example.  Though we were founded upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our society is far afield of that foundation.  To serve Jesus today is to become a foreigner to a land that is supposed to be a Christian land.  In fact, you will even become a foreigner to many different churches in this republic.  Overall, Christians have always needed this imagery.  You are joining an august body of believers who have lived as foreigners within a society bent on ignoring the Creator.  You walk through this world as one walking through the wilderness with Israel until the Lord brings you to the Promised Land.

This imagery of the patriarchs living like foreigners and Israel being led through the wilderness by God to the Promised land is used by Peter to instruct these believers.  They have joined a new spiritual people who belong to God.

Let’s look at our passage.

How to be a new spiritual people (v. 13-16)

Similar to the way Paul talked about Jesus transforming our relationships throughout the household and into society (see especially Colossians 3:12-4:1), so Peter uses family imagery to instruct Christians on the proper response we should have to the Gospel.

Before you believed in Jesus, how did you approach relationships?  Typically, we approached them for reasons that were focused on self, what our flesh wanted.  Don’t get me wrong.  People can do good things within relationships without God, but that good is always slanted towards what makes me feel good.

I will say up front that Peter tends to say a number of things up front that then lead to the statement of a main point.  This is exacerbated when it is translated into English.  It often appears that Peter is making a long list of main points, when in fact, he is simply describing things that are attendant to his main point.

For example, verse 13 may appear to have three things we are commanded to do: prepare your minds for actions, keep sober, and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  However, it is the third of these that is being commanded.  The others are verbal adjectives that describe how they are to do number three.

I only take the time to explain this because my approach will be to highlight the main point first, which often comes at the end of the verse or verses, and then speak about these attendant ideas.

This first imperative is for us to fix our hope completely on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Now, the revelation of Jesus Christ is equivalent to what we call the Second Coming of Jesus.  This is still in the future but will arrive one of these days.

Peter has used the three cardinal virtues praised by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: faith, hope, and love.  He praises them for putting their faith in Jesus as Messiah and loving him, even though they haven’t seen him.  In verse 3, he had reminded them that they had been born again to a living hope.  Here, he picks up that hope-theme again and turns it into a command. 

When Jesus returns, he is bringing with him the grace of God for believers and the wrath of God for unbelievers.  This grace has many aspects to it.  First, the presence of Jesus here on earth and taking up the kingdoms of the world is a great grace.  There is no king or president on this earth who can do what Jesus can do.  We are also told that we will never be separated from Jesus again.  This too is great grace.  Finally, we will receive glorified bodies that do not grow old, become sick, or perish in any way.  This is the blessed hope of all believers in Jesus.  We are to fix our hope, set it steadfast upon, the future return of Jesus.

Peter adds the adverb “completely” to this.  What does it mean to completely fix your hope on the grace to come?  We might picture this as a kind of hope-meter that we need to keep pegged to 100% at all times.  I don’t think this is what Peter means.  We could also envision it as keeping our hope fully on the coming grace and not on anything else.  That is, we should not hedge our bet and put some of our hope on the things of this world.  Even if we are not hedging our bet, we may be drawn into putting hope on spouses, retirements, children, etc., without realizing that it is undermining, or displacing, some of our hope in Christ.  I think that this is much closer to what Peter is saying, but there is another way to view this that is important.  We should also do so all the way to the end of our life.  Thus, we don’t want to simply have a full hope presently but retain that hope fully on Jesus to the end of our life, or the coming of Jesus, whichever comes first.

Peter gives two descriptions of things that are to accompany or to adorn our hoping in the grace to come.  The first is that our minds are to be readied, prepared, for action.  Peter uses the imagery of tightening up a long outer cloak with a belt in order to do something like running, working, or fighting, etc.  However, in this case, they are told to tighten up their cloaks around their waists mentally.  If you saw a person doing this literally, you would know that they are getting prepared for action. 

How do we prepare ourselves mentally for action, and what is the action or actions that we are to be ready for doing?  He is talking about living for Christ and following the Holy Spirit.  He is talking about the work of becoming victorious over sin in our life, but also about walking the faith journey of this life to the very end.

Much of this imagery comes from the Exodus.  Exodus 12:7 says, “You shall eat it [the Passover meal] in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover.”  Israel was eating a special sacrificial meal before the Lord, but they were to do so with a readiness for action.  In this case, the action was leaving Egypt and going into the wilderness with Moses and God.  We too are being set free from the Egypt of this world and the bondage of our fleshly lust for sin.

Along with this readiness for action, Peter adds that they are to hope for this grace to come “being sober.”  Some translations will add the phrase “in the Spirit.”  Since Peter has just mentioned being mentally ready, it is easy to only think of this as a metaphor for clear thinking.  However, we should not be too quick to make this only a metaphor.  Literal drunkenness has shipwrecked the faith and hope of many believers.  Yet, this is another way to speak about your mind being ready for action, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, i.e., in every way.

When you are clear minded, you are able to see the reality of what is happening around you.  When you are drunk, you lose inhibition, and you think you are doing better than you actually are.  When you are spiritually drunk, the same thing happens.  What does this look like?  It is when we allow ourselves to be filled with the lust and desires of this world.  Instead of warring against these things within our mind and heart, we surrender to them while thinking we are doing well.

The ideas of girding the loins of our mind and being sober are often tied together with the idea of vigilance because we are in a spiritual battle.  This battle is internal against the lust of our flesh but also external against the pull of this world and the temptations of the devil.

We can be guilty of not being serious about the things of God and His purposes in our life.  Thus, we are not just to lay claim to a great reward and inheritance in the future.  We are to fix our hope upon it with sobriety and readiness for action within the world around us.

Verses 14 and 15 build up to another imperative: Be holy.  In saying this, he adds that they should be holy “as obedient children.”  It is understood that he is talking about being a child of God.  Here again, he connects them to the same position that national Israel had.  During the Exodus and the teaching in the wilderness, they are told that they were not to be like all the other nations or copy their activities, religious or otherwise.  In the same way, Christians are not to live like the culture around them.  We are not children of the world, but rather, children of God.

Notice the reference to obedient children.  This should remind us of Jesus who is the perfect obedient son of God.  The point is not so much about never failing as it is about keeping focused on who we are.  Of course, it is ludicrous to even compare ourselves to the one who never sinned and never needed redemption.  We, of course, did sin and do need redemption.

In short, we are to keep focused upon who we are.  Don’t listen to the devil as he accuses you of failing, or the Gospel not working for you.  You were made to dwell in the presence of God for eternity, but you were also made to be a spiritual warrior in this life, battling against sin in your life.  It wouldn’t be a battle if it wasn’t difficult.  In fact, it is a battle we would continue to lose if it wasn’t for the help of God’s Spirit and the grace of Jesus.  No, you tell the devil that you belong to Jesus because He says so!  Don’t let his lies take root in the wounds of your soul.

Peter also tells them that they should not be conforming to the former lusts that were in their ignorance.  Jesus is leading us out of the Egypt of our old life.  Before we knew Jesus, we were ignorant of God and His desires.  At the least, we only knew a little bit and didn’t have time to bother with that Christianity thing.  In that state of ignorance, we lived to please the strong desires of our flesh, of our eyes, and of the pride of life.  It was a true bondage.  We were living like everyone else around us, trying to get the most pleasure out of this life.

It is sad to see the American dream hollowed out and replaced with a cheaper form.  Since I was a kid, I have been told by the culture that the American dream was that our kids would have a better life than us.  This is a lie.  When you study history, you find that the original American dream was to be able to worship God in the way that we believed He wanted to be worshiped, freedom of worship.  The replacement dream is about bondage to materialism and never having enough.

Peter uses the same term and phrase as Paul used in Romans 12:2. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  You will be pressed into the mold of this world by the pressures of your own desires, the pressures of the world around you, and the pressures of your spiritual enemy, the devil.  This will be the case unless you actively let the Spirit of God lead you in the transformation of becoming more like Christ.  Conformation focuses on dressing up the outward, but transformation focuses on changing our inner man from which flows outward change.  It is this progressive sanctification process that Peter has in mind.

Just as Israel had a tendency to want to go back to Egypt, we must fight the inner desire to go back into our old life, or to straddle the fence with an apathy for the things of God.

We are to be holy “like the Holy One who [has called us].”  We are reminded that Jesus is the one we are to be like.  He is the perfect image of God the Father, and we are being made over into his image.

Yet, this takes cooperation in how we live, our behavior.  The Spirit of God works to help you know what is good and what is like Jesus.  We can nurture and grow in this, or we can let it die on the vine.  God also places mature believers in our life in order to help us in this.

Peter then quotes from the Old Testament.  “You shall be holy for I am holy.”  This admonition to be holy because the One we are following is holy comes from the time of the Exodus as well.

In Leviticus 11:44, Israel is told, “I am the LORD your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”  He goes on to restate this in verse 45.  Several more times in Leviticus we have this repeated: 19:2; 20:26; and 21:8. You see, we are not just God’s people.  We are His children and should take on His image like true children.  This takes a lifetime and is completed through our death and resurrection.

To be holy in this life is to be peculiar to the people around you.  Of course, we do not seek to be strange only for the sake of being strange.  If you follow Jesus, this will be strange to the world because it is not following Jesus.  Like Sodom with Lot, they will grow tired of hearing your moral sermons on why these things are not good.

God will bring you up out of the slavery of your sins, and He will bring you into that good that He has for you, both the good He has for you at the 2^nd Coming and the good that He has for you now in this wilderness.  Of course, you will have seasons in your life.  You may even have times where you complain that you aren’t accomplishing anything.  Yet, if you have been doing your best to serve Christ and learn to be like him, then you have not wasted your life.  You are living out the good thing that God has desired.  It is good; trust Him.

How to be a new spiritual people (v. 17)

How long are you planning to stay here in this life?  Of course, it is not up to us.  We don’t know how long we have.  Thus, it is ours to remain faithful in spite of what we may face.

Again, Peter puts the main point last.  We are to conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our sojourn, or pilgrimage.  This too harkens back to the Exodus, which is why he reminds them of the sojourner metaphor.

He mentions conducting ourselves with fear.  It is clear that he means the fear of God.  This is a common problem for humans.  We fear everything but God.  We are weak and so we are afraid that something will be too strong for us.  We can’t control the world around us and so we fear lack of control.  It seems that it is our lot to live in fear in our fallen state.

Yet, when you come to Christ, your relationship with God is restored.  You have no reason to fear the world around us.  In truth, you have nothing to fear from God too in the sense that He only desires good for you.

Yet, Exodus 20:20 states, “Do not be afraid [of other things]; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.”

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  Wisdom teaches us to avoid and to conquer sin.

On one hand we should fear life without the LORD.  The idea of turning against Him and going back into sin should be a fearful thought because now we will go back to facing the world alone.  Of course, if we continue to be rebellious, we must also fear that God is not going to overlook our wanton disregard for Him and our lust for the things of this world.  He will not overlook our sin.

If we are to fear anything in this world, it is only to fear the way that it could pull us away from Jesus.  Like Joseph fleeing Potiphar’s wife, we ought to flee temptation like a venomous viper.  Joseph did not flee her because she was scary looking.  He fled because of what she represented.  She represented the ability of Joseph to become reprehensible to the man who had treated him well and the God who had blessed him.  She represented betrayal and unfaithfulness.  That ought to bring the fear of God up to the surface in our life.

In the first part of verse 17, Peter uses the conditional “if.”  It can be seen as a challenge or questioning of them.  Are you really addressing the One who impartially judges as Father?  However, it is most likely a stern reminder.  This One you are calling Father is an impartial judge.  Do you think that He will bend the truth in order to save you from your own wickedness?  He is not going to wink at your sin.  You will not pull the wool over His eyes.

Listen, God was not trying to destroy Israel in the wilderness, but their continual refusal to trust Him led to them perishing in the wilderness.  Men like Joshua and Caleb, however, walked in faith and entered into the promise that God had given to Israel.

We may think that God is too hard.  However, couldn’t those men who died in the wilderness repent?  Couldn’t they warn their sons and daughters against the sin of unbelief?  Couldn’t they instruct them to be full of courage when God brought them back around to enter the Promise Land?  You may have failed in great ways, but you can still repent and live out the rest of your days warning others against the errors you made.  Even now, all who repented and died in the wilderness will be resurrected one day to participate in the Kingdom of Messiah.  Even when we are faithless, God is faithful!

Finally, it may bother some to read that God judges “according to each one’s work.”  Of course, Peter is not talking about how we are saved.  Rather, he is speaking to saved people and warning them that God expects them to trust Him.  Christians do not rely upon the dead works of external control.  Our works are cleansed because they are done by faith in Jesus Christ.  They are done by the leading of the Spirit of God.  Only the works of Jesus Christ pays the price for my salvation, but God does judge my response to that payment.  Do I have external, self-righteous works, or do I have internal, led-by-the-Holy-Spirit works?

May God help us to follow Jesus through this wilderness because only He knows the way!

A New People audio