Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
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Good morning, Bereans. We are continuing our study of 1 Peter, and this morning we will be finishing up chapter 1. Let me just remind you that Peter is not writing to us. He is writing to the elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia around the year AD 65. That said, Peter is writing to believers, to the church, and thus much of what he teaches can be applied to believers today.
I think that Peter uses "exiles" as the writer of Hebrews did—believers, all believers, are exiles on the earth because our home is heaven. I believe he uses the term parepidēmos (exiles) in a spiritual sense of people to whom Heaven is their real country and they sojourn on earth. They are not exiles because of language or skin color but because of their Christian faith. Peter says that the exiles are in fact God's "chosen" ones; rejected by society but chosen by God.
Believer, we are all exiles. This world is not our home and though society may reject and persecute us please remember that we are "the chosen ones" of Yahweh. This should strengthen and encourage us as seek to honor Yahweh in our daily life.
In this final section of chapter 1, Peter starts out by stating something that is true of his readers because of their conversion: They had purified their lives in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren (1:22a). Then he states the consequent demand: "Fervently love one another from the heart" (1:22b). He follows this with a theological truth relative to their conversion, which he supports with a lengthy quote from Isaiah 40:6-8. They have been born again through God's imperishable Word (1:23-25).
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 1 Peter 1:22 ESV
"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth"—at face value this sounds as if they did it themselves, doesn't it? Sounds as though they made their lives pure by their own obedience. The Lordship people love verses like this. Whenever the word "obedience" comes up, they like to tell us that we must obey in order to be saved. They make the Gospel all about works.
David Pratte writes, "These Christians to whom Peter wrote had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (verses 18,19). But to receive that purifying of their souls, they had to obey the truth that has been revealed by the Spirit. Notice that the verse plainly says that we must obey the truth in order for our souls to be purified. We do not receive forgiveness of our sins by 'faith only' without the necessity of obedience."
What did he just do in that last sentence? He equates forgiveness with purified. So, if you're not purified, you're not forgiven. A problem with this view is that "purified" is hagnizō—a perfect active participle. The perfect tense looks to a past act with present continuing results. They have already purified their souls.
How did they purify their souls? "By your obedience to the truth"—obedience is a recurrent theme in chapter one. It refers to the obedience of receiving the gospel. It's what Paul and Peter both call "the obedience of faith."
through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, Romans 1:5 ESV
but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—Romans 16:26 ESV
Paul says that the goal of his preaching is to bring about the obedience of faith. So, Paul brackets the book of Romans with the Gospel of Yeshua that is to bring about the obedience of faith to all nations.
Paul says that the Gospel has been made know to all nations to "Bring about the obedience of faith." This significance of the genitive pistis (of faith) is disputed. Some take it as a subjective genitive giving it the sense of obedience that comes from faith. It can also be taken as an appositional construction and should be translated as "the obedience that is faith." Acceptance of the Gospel in faith can be described as an act of obedience.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" Romans 10:16 ESV
The word "obeyed" is the Greek word hupakouo which means "to obey." Paul uses it four times in Romans where it is translated has "obey." The way to obey is to believe. He explains what he means in the rest of the verse: "For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" The parallelism of the two lines reveals that disobedience consists in failure to believe. This is what we have said over and over. To believe is to obey the Gospel. We are called upon to believe the objective message concerning Yeshua the Christ. To do so is to obey. Notice what Luke says:
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Acts 6:7 ESV
What Luke means here is that these priests were believing the Gospel.
Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Yeshua answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." John 6:28-29 ESV
It is an act of obedience to God to believe in His Son.
Understanding this, let's look at our phrase again. "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth." Let's break this down. "Soul"—is the Greek term psuchē which is used often in Peter's writings. It is used as a Hebraic idiom for the entire person. Psuche is translated in the New Testament as breath, life, soul, person, heart, and mind. So, this could read, "having purified yourself by your obedience to the truth."
"Purified"—is from the Greek word hagnizō. Strong says it means "to make clean, that is, (figuratively) sanctify (ceremonially or morally)." Hagnizo is only used 7 times in the New Testament and 4 of them are clearly a reference to ceremonial cleansing. Here it means to cleanse, to purify. Hagnizō is a perfect active participle. The perfect tense looks to a past act with present continuing results (now that you have already purified your souls).
To correctly understand verse 22, we must see that Peter is talking about a purifying that takes place at conversion or the new birth. Notice what Paul says in Tuts 2:14.
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:14 ESV
Notice what it says, "to purify for himself a people for his own possession." He purified us. He did it.
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5 ESV
He gave us the washing, the purging, the cleansing and the new birth. It is His work.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Hebrews 1:3 ESV
Christ, when He had made purification of sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. We were purified positionally and totally at salvation.
"Obedience to the truth"—the truth was nothing more and nothing less than the gospel message—the message of Christ and His death and His resurrection and His salvation. And that truth came into your life and that truth became the cleanser. Do you remember the third verse of John 15?
Already you clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. John 15:3 ESV
Literally, "you are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you." Believing the Word of the Gospel cleanses us.
Talking about God sending the Holy Spirit, Peter wrote:
and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Acts 15:9 ESV
Faith and cleansing are linked. Faith and obedience are linked. Cleansing or purging or purifying and obeying are part of saving faith.
Notice what Yahweh said to Israel
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:24-27 ESV
Notice who is doing all the work here. Yahweh says, I will sprinkle clean water on you… I will cleanse you… I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit… I will remove the heart of stone… and give you a heart of flesh… I will put my Spirit within you.
That's the new covenant. It not only purges the past, but it gives a new capacity for the future.
Dr Thomas L. Constable writes, "The purification to which Peter referred ('you have purified your souls') occurred at conversion as a result of believing the gospel (cf. John 13:10)."
Yeshua said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." John 13:10 ESV
This cleansing made it possible for believers to love other Christians.
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 1 Peter 1:22 NASB
In effect, Peter is saying "Now that you have already purified your souls, love one another." In other words, the loving of one another is predicated on the purifying of the soul. This is because it is impossible to love others as Christ commands if you are not a believer.
"For a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart"—the first use of "love" in this phrase is in a compound Greek word philadelphi (brotherly love). The second is an aorist active imperative of the verb agapaō.
Agape/agapao and philos/phileo have slightly different meanings. However, the New Testament frequently uses them synonymously and interchangeably. We are told by those who are considered Greek experts that the Greek word "phileo" means only a casual or friendly type of love. But when the New Testament speaks of godly love, it does not always use agape or agapao. In the following verses, the Greek word phileo (loves, loved) is used by Yeshua Himself:
For the Father loves phileō the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. John 5:20 ESV
Verses
The Father loves agapaō the Son and has given all things into his hand. John 3:35 ESV
for the Father himself loves phileō you, because you have loved phileō me and have believed that I came from God. John 16:27 ESV
Verses
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved agapaō them even as you loved agapaō me. John 17:23 ESV
If "phileo," then, means only a casual or friendly type of love, does God love the saints casually because they love His Son casually? Should we love our brothers in the faith casually? Should we love the Lord Yeshua casually? Does the Father love the Son or us casually? Is love in the faith casual?
When they had finished breakfast, Yeshua said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love agapaō me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love phileō you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love agapaō me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love phileō you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love phileō me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love phileō me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love phileō you." Yeshua said to him, "Feed my sheep. John 21:15-17 ESV
So, they may convey different aspects of love.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 1 Peter 1:22 ESV
In these verses, we see phileo and agapao used interchangeable. But that is not what you hear from most Bible teachers. What I want you to understand is that godly love far exceeds agape. To understand the attitudes and actions of godly love requires far, far more revelation than knowing the definitions of a couple of Greek words.
"For a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart"—the word "sincere" is anupokritos which means without "hypocrisy." Hypocrisy is a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. The Greek word, which is translated hypocrite, originally referred to an actor, one who was playing a role. So, it carried over to indicate someone who was not genuine or sincere. Hypocrites are those who are playing roles, pretending to be something they are not. Paul teaching that for love to be genuine, it must be true and not an act or show.
"Love one another earnestly from a pure heart"—the word "earnestly" here is ektenos, which means "intently." It comes from ektenes, which means "without ceasing." We are to intently love each other without ceasing.
Modern society portrays love as emotional feelings, while the Bible portrays love primarily as one's actions, that is, the labor of love in how we treat God and other people.
Four times in this epistle Peter calls his readers to love one another. And this is not a new command with Peter. It's a command that Peter was given by Christ. Back in John chapter 13 our Lord said,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34 ESV
This is where Peter learned it and he passes it on to his readers. Other New Testament writers repeat this same command. Paul, in Romans 12:10 says,
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10 ESV
So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Philippians 2:1-2 ESV
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:11 ESV
Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1 ESV
So, this is a fundamental Christian message. Peter says it, Paul says it, the writer of Hebrews says it, and John says it. Why? Why should loving others be important to Christians?
Let me tell you why. When Yeshua was questioned by the lawyer about what was the greatest command, what did say?
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" Matthew 22:34-36 ESV
This lawyer and his colleagues often debated which commandment was the greatest. They identified 613 laws in the Torah, 365 being negative ("you shall not") and 248 being positive ("you shall"). Many hours were spent debating about which commandments were heavy and which were light, which were great and which were small.
In Yeshua's day, there were seven schools of Pharisees. These seven schools all took the Bible literally, but they ranged from the most progressive school (the school of Hillel) to the most conservative (the very traditional school of Shammai). There were five other schools whose views fell in between these two. These rabbinic schools were always arguing about how to interpret the Torah or how to determine the proper yoke. A yoke was how they interpreted the Torah. The debate always revolved around which is the greatest commandment. The Jews said that the commandments contradict each other by God's design, so they had to know which ones were greater than the others. For example:
You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Exodus 31:14-15 ESV
That's clear enough, isn't it? They were not to work on the Sabbath. But the Torah also taught:
You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again. Deuteronomy 22:4 ESV
They were not to let animals suffer. If they saw an animal in trouble, they were to help raise it up. That is clear enough also. But what were they to do if they saw their neighbor's animal fallen down on the Sabbath? How could they keep one command without breaking the other? This is why they were always asking which commandment was the greatest? The greater one they must keep.
Look at Yeshua's response to the lawyer.
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
This lawyer came to test the yoke of Yeshua. How did Yeshua interpret the Torah? Yeshua agrees with this man's interpretation of the law to love God and to love your neighbor.
With 613 individual statutes of the Torah from which to choose, all of the schools of the Pharisees agreed on the greatest commandment—love God! When asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" Shammai's school would answer, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Hillel's answer would be the same, and so was Yeshua's answer.
When asked what the second commandment was, Shammai's school would answer: "Keep the Sabbath." They put the Sabbath law above loving your neighbor because they said the Sabbath was about God. It was simply too bad if a neighbor was in trouble on the Sabbath. One must keep the Sabbath. When Hillel's school was asked what the second commandment was, it would answer, "Love your neighbor." Yeshua's answer was also, "Love your neighbor." Love your neighbor came seventh in order in Shammai's school even though biblically it is second.
So, if all the commandments boil down to love God and love your neighbor, that tells us how important love is. Someone may ask why there are so many commands in the New Testament if love is the number one command. All of the New Testament commands tell us how to love our God and our neighbor. This is how you love. Love is not a feeling; it is an action, and this is what it looks like. If we did not have specific commands, how would we know how to love God or our fellow man? God's moral law gives us a description of love in action.
So, how are you doing with this? Are you loving one another earnestly with a pure heart? Whom are you loving and how are you loving him or her?
Are we able to love as Christ loved? We are if we are living in dependence on Him. What Peter is teaching in this text is that we received the capacity to love at salvation. As we have seen, we were purified at salvation. Peter tells us that we are to love like this because we have been born again.
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 1 Peter 1:23 ESV
"Since you have been born again"—this is a perfect passive participle. The passive points to God's action in the new birth. The verb here makes you passive. You were born again. You didn't give birth to yourself. God did it.
Peter has already brought this up in verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Yeshua the Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3 ESV
"He has caused us to be born again"—this phrase is used to assert God's sovereignty in the new birth. The ESV here gives us a literal reading. Peter's saying that God caused us to be born again. It seems to refer the readers back to what he talked about in verses 1 and 2. He talked about the believer's election (i.e., God chose them before time). Just as human birth has nothing to do with the child, neither does the second birth.
"Born again"—the idea of being "born again" is a very familiar concept to believers. At least the terminology is a very familiar part of evangelical lingo. Believers speaking of themselves as being born-again Christian, has been popular for a long time. Do you believe that over 50 percent of Americans say that they're "born again Christians?" But born-again Christian is redundant. To be born again is to be a Christian, and to be a Christian is to have been born again.
"Born again" here is the Greek word anagennaō. This word is only found twice in the Scriptures—here and in 1 Peter 1:3. But the root gennaō is used in John 3:3. Peter did not use the same wording for born again as is found in John 3, but he did use the exact same idea.
According to Ephesians 2, we MUST be born again because the condition of humanity demands it.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins Ephesians 2:1 ESV
Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— Ephesians 2:5 ESV
We were dead, and God gave us life. When a person is dead, he cannot see, feel, or act. Until God gives a person life, he is dead to spiritual things. Man is passive in the new birth; he does no more to produce his own birth than Lazarus did to produce his resurrection.
Those who do not like the truth of God's absolute sovereignty in salvation try to come up with ways around it. They make up strawman arguments like Michael Heiser did on his Naked Bible Podcast #208 when he stated:
Calvinists, of course, make spiritual deadness about an inability to believe, based on the idea that dead people can't do anything. They're dead! But that presses the focal point of the metaphor (a dead body) into an unnecessary service. That is, it takes all the aspects of the metaphor and then loads them into the discussion. That's an intentional but unnecessary use of the metaphor, so I have a bone to pick with the Calvinists here. The spiritual death topic ultimately hinges on how one defines death. For Calvinists, death is the absence of conscious life. You see what they did there? They loaded consciousness onto the idea of death.
What? No Calvinist believes that when the Bible says that man is dead that he has no conscious life. Consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifestyle. Spiritual dead man is very aware of his environment. He is just unaware of the spiritual realm because he is spiritually dead.
Heiser continues, "In other words, if you define spiritual death based on all of the elements of a dead body (a dead body obviously has no conscious life)….if that's how you frame spiritual deadness—that you're unable to believe because dead bodies don't do anything and they can't make decisions…"
Calvinists don't define spiritual death based on all of the elements of a dead body. The dead body is an analogy of a spiritual condition. Man is spiritually dead. He cannot respond to God.
Heiser goes on to say, "You have human beings that are no longer self-aware in a Calvinist system, prior to regeneration. It just doesn't make any sense."
Self-awareness is having conscious knowledge of one's own character and feelings. Spiritual dead beings are self-aware; they just aren't God-aware. This is a total strawman argument by a man who is way too smart to be doing this. No Calvinist believes what he claims a Calvinist believes. Believers, please understand this: The new birth or regeneration is affected without means. Most Christians think that the means of the new birth or regeneration is the Word of God or faith. But regeneration is a direct act of God upon the spirit of a man. Truth cannot be the means of regeneration, because before a man is regenerated, he is blind and cannot see the truth, he is deaf and cannot hear the truth, and he is dead and cannot respond to the truth. Truth cannot be the means of the new birth when the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit as taught in 1 Corinthians 2:14. The increase of light will not enable a blind man to see; the disease of the eye must first be cured. A man must be regenerated by the Spirit before he can receive the truth. It is solely a work of the Spirit. The Greek text of 1 Peter 1:23 helps clarify the concept of regeneration without means.
Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 1 Peter 1:23 ESV
Those two prepositions, "of" and "through," are different. The preposition "of" indicates the source. We are born of God. And "through" indicates the instrumentality. The Holy Spirit gives us life, so we can receive the Word. The new birth is a direct act of God upon the spirit of man. It is a spiritual resurrection.
"Not of perishable seed but of imperishable"—seed is a biblical metaphor for (1) procreation (i.e., used by the rabbis for sperm) or (2) physical descent. It is that which brings forth life.
"Not of a perishable seed"—What does he mean by that? Well, not an earthly birth, not the human birth, and not a perishable one like your human birth. You think about your human birth. You were born of sinful parents. You were born of a corruptible, perishable seed and you will die. We all will. You were born of the flesh.
"A seed which is imperishable"—In your second birth, the parent is God, the seed is incorruptible, the birth is not of the flesh. It is of the Spirit (i.e., spiritual).
"Through the living and abiding word of God"—that's the seed God uses. It is the living and abiding Word of God, the alive and remaining Word of God. Gospel preaching is personified as the means by which the Father has brought forth believers. James talks about this in James 1.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:18 ESV
What is the
"living and abiding Word" that is from imperishable seed?
It is the word about Yeshua the Christ who is the living Word of God.
for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:24-25 ESV
These verses are a quote from the LXX of Isaiah 40:6-8.
The voice of one saying, Cry; and I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: The grass withers, and the flower fades: but the word of our God abides for ever. Isaiah 40:6-8 Brenton LXX
This compares man to grass and flowers that have a short lifespan with the Word of God that never dies. In this case, the "Word" has a double meaning—the words of God in Sacred Scripture and the Living Word, Yeshua the Christ.
All flesh is like grass. All flesh means mankind, the animal kingdom. It's all like grass. And all its glory is like the flower of grass. "All flesh." Everything that is of the flesh dies whether it's common or spectacular. It all dies.
"But the word of the Lord remains forever"— the Word of God that never dies. The word is incorruptible, like the incorruptible price paid for us (verses 18,19) and the incorruptible inheritance we receive (verses 3-5). This means this seed will "live and abide forever."
In AD 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian demanded that every copy of the Scriptures in the Roman Empire be burned. He failed, and 25 years later the Roman Emperor Constantine commissioned a scholar named Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of the Bible at government expense.
Bernard Ramm wrote, "A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put." (Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences)
"And this word is the good news that was preached to you"—this Word is Yeshua and He is the living and abiding word of God that was preached to Peter's audience. And they have obeyed the truth and been purified. And since they have been born again their duty as Christians, then, is to love one another sincerely, fervently, and heartily, since we have all been born again from the same incorruptible seed.
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