1Pe 1:18-25. You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold,
But [you were purchased] with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot.
It is true that He was chosen and foreordained (destined and foreknown for it) before the foundation of the world, but He was brought out to public view (made manifest) in these last days (at the end of the times) for the sake of you.
Through Him you believe in (adhere to, rely on) God, Who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him honor and glory, so that your faith and hope are [centered and rest] in God.
Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart.
You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.
For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off,
But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you. [Isa 40:6-9]
I KNOW NOT WHY GOD’S WONDEROUS GRACE
To me has been made known
Nor why unworthy as I am
He claimed me for His own.
But I know whom I have believed;
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.
I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart;
Or how believing in His Word, wrought peace within my heart.
I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin;
Revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in Him.
I know not what of good or ill, may be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days, before His face I see.
I know not when my Lord may come, I know not how, nor where;
If I shall pass the vale of death, Or’meet Him in the air’.
C. His Conduct in the Light of His Position (1:13-2:3)
Beginning here, there is a change in emphasis. Peter has been dealing with the glories of our salvation. At this point, he launches into a series of exhortations based on the foregoing. Jowett says: “The present appeal is based on the introductory evangel. ... Spiritual impulse is created by the momentum of superlative facts. The dynamic of duty is born in the heart of the Gospel.”
First, Peter urges the saints to have a “girded” mind. The girding up of the mind is an interesting figure of speech. In eastern lands, people wore long, flowing robes. When they wanted to walk fast or with a minimum of hindrance, they would tie the robe up around their waist with a belt (see Exo 12:11). In this way they girded up their loins. But what does Peter mean by gird up the loins of your mind? As they went out into a hostile world, believers were to avoid panic and distraction. In times of persecution, there is always the tendency to become rattled and confused. A girded mind is one that is strong, composed, cool, and ready for action. It is unimpeded by the distraction of human fear or persecution.
This state of mental solidarity is further encouraged by the words be sober. This means self-control in contrast to hysteria. The sober spirit is poised and stable.
Next, the saints are urged to have the optimistic, forward-looking mind: rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The assurance of Christ's Return is held out as a compelling motive for endurance through the storms and tribulations of life. The revelation of Jesus Christ is generally taken to refer to His coming back to earth when He will be revealed in glory. However, it could also refer to the Rapture when Christ will come for His saints.
1:14 In verses 14-16, the subject is the obedient mind. Obedient children should not indulge in the sins which characterized them in their former life. Now that they are Christians, they should pattern their life after the One whose name they bear. If they conform to the ungodly world, they are denying their heavenly character. The things they did in the days of their ignorance should be put away now that they have been illuminated by the Holy Spirit. The former lusts means the sins they indulged in while they were still ignorant of God.
1:15 Instead of imitating the ungodly world with its fads and fashions, our lives should reproduce the holy character of the One who called us. To be godly means to be Godlike. God is holy in all His ways. If we are to be like Him, we must be holy in all that we do and say. In this life we will never be as holy as He is, but we should be holy because He is.
1:16 Peter reaches back into the OT for proof that God expects His people to be like Himself. In Lev 11:44, the Lord said: “Be holy, for I am holy.” Christians are empowered to live holy lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Old Testament saints did not have this help and blessing. But since we are more privileged, we are also more responsible. The verse Peter quotes from Leviticus acquires a new depth of meaning in the NT. It is the difference between the formal and the vital. Holiness was God's ideal in the OT. It has assumed a concrete, everyday quality with the coming of the Spirit of truth.
1:17 Not only are we exhorted to holiness but also to a reverent mind. This means a respectful fear, a deep appreciation of who God is. It especially means a realization that the One whom we address as Father is the same One who judges His children impartially according to their deeds. As we realize the extent of His knowledge and the accuracy of His judgment, we should live with a wholesome fear of displeasing Him. The Father ... judges His own in this life; He has committed the judgment of sinners to the Lord Jesus (Joh 5:22).
Lincoln writes: “He is looking on, taking notice of all, whether there is integrity of purpose, intelligence of mind, and desire of heart to please Him.”
We are to pass the time of our stay on earth in fear. Christians are not at home in this world. We are living in a foreign country, exiled from heaven. We should not settle down as if this were our permanent dwelling. Neither should we imitate the behavior of the earth-dwellers. We should always remember our heavenly destiny and behave ourselves as citizens of heaven.
1:18 Before their conversion, believers were not different from the rest of the world. Their talk and walk were as empty and trivial as that of men around them. Their unconverted days are described as your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. But they had been ransomed from that futile existence by a tremendous transaction. They had been rescued from the slavery of world-conformity by the payment of an infinite ransom. Was it by silver or gold that these kidnap victims had been freed (see Exo 30:15)?
1:19 No, it was with the precious blood of Christ—like the blood of a perfect, unblemished lamb. Christ is a lamb without blemish or spot, that is, He is absolutely perfect, inwardly and outwardly. If a believer is ever tempted to return to worldly pleasures and amusements, to adopt worldly modes and patterns, to become like the world in its false ways, he should remember that Christ shed His blood to deliver him from that kind of life. To go back to the world is to re-cross the great gulf that was bridged for us at staggering cost. But even more—it is positive disloyalty to the Savior.
“Reason back from the greatness of the sacrifice to the greatness of the sin. Then determine to be done forever with that which cost God's Son His life.”
1:20 Christ's work for us was no afterthought on God's part. The Redeemer was destined to die for us before the creation of the world. But at the end of the times, that is, at the end of the dispensation of law, He appeared from heaven to rescue us from our former way of life. Lincoln comments: “In these last times—the world's moral history was closed at the cross of Christ. It has shown itself fully and got to its end before God.”
Peter adds these considerations to impress us even more deeply with the importance of making a clean break with the world system from which Christ died to deliver us. We are in the world but not of it. We must not isolate ourselves from unregenerate men, but rather carry the gospel to them. Yet in our dealings and relationships with them, we must never share in or condone their sins. We are to show by our lives that we are children of God. The moment we become like the world, our testimony is weakened. There is no incentive for worldlings to be converted if they cannot see a difference—a change for the better in our lives.
1:21 Loyalty to the Lord Jesus is further demanded by the fact that it is through Him we have come to believe in God. He is the One who has revealed the Father's heart to us. As W. T. P. Wolston says: “it is not by creation nor providence nor law that man knows God, but by Christ.” The Father indicated His complete satisfaction with Christ's redeeming work by raising Him out from among the dead ones and honoring Him with the place of highest glory in heaven. The result of all this is that our faith and hope are in God. It is in Him, not in the present evil world system, that we live and move and have our being.
1:22 Now the Apostle Peter urges his readers to have the loving mind (1:22-2:3). First, he describes the new birth and points out that one of the changes that it brings is love for our brethren (1:22a). Next, he presses home the obligation to love (1:22b). Again he reverts to the new birth, and especially to the seed from which this new life has grown—the word of God (1:23-25). And once again he emphasizes the obligations that rest on those who have received the word (1Pe 2:1-3).
In 1:22a, Peter first describes the new birth: Since you have purified your souls. ... We understand, of course, that it is God who purifies our souls when we are saved; in the strict sense, we do not have the power for personal purity. But in this figure of speech those of us who have experienced purification are said to have attained it when we believed.
The means employed in this purification is obeying the truth. This is the second time Peter describes saving faith as an act of obedience (see 1Pe 1:2). In Romans, Paul twice uses the phrase “the obedience of faith.” In our thinking we should not try to separate belief and obedience. True faith is obeying faith. This can only be done through the Spirit.
One of the goals of the new birth is sincere love of the brethren. In a very real sense, we are saved in order to love all our fellow Christians. By this love, we know that we have passed out of death into life (1Jn 3:14), and by it, the world knows that we are disciples of the Lord Jesus (Joh 13:35).
So the exhortation follows quite naturally—love one another fervently with a pure heart. This is one of the many instances in the NT where a declarative statement becomes the basis for an imperative. The declaration is this: Since you have purified your souls ... in sincere love of the brethren. . . . Then the command: love one another fervently with a pure heart. The positional forms the basis for the practical. Our love should be warm, wholehearted, with all our strength, earnest, unceasing, and pure.
The exhortation to love one another is especially timely for a people undergoing persecution because it is well known that “under conditions of hardship, trivial disagreements take on gigantic proportions.”
1:23 Again Peter takes his readers back to their new birth, and this time to the seed of that birth the word of God. The exhortations in 2:1-3 will be based on this.
The new birth is not brought about by corruptible seed, that is, it is not produced in the same way as a physical birth. Human life is brought into being by means of seed that must obey physical laws of decay and death. The physical life that is produced has the same quality as the seed from which it sprang; it too is of a temporary character.
The new birth is brought about through the word of God. As men hear or read the Bible they are convicted of their sins, convinced that Christ is the sole and sufficient Savior, and converted to God. No one is ever saved apart from the instrumentality in some way of the incorruptible word of God.
Samuel Ridout notes in The Numerical Bible:
.. the three “incorruptible” things we have in this first chapter—an incorruptible inheritance (v. 4), an incorruptible redemption (vv. 18, 19), and an incorruptible word by which we are born (v. 23). Thus we have a nature which is taintless, fitted for the enjoyment of a taintless inheritance and on the basis of a redemption which never can lose its value. How the stamp of eternal perfection is upon all, and what a fitting companion to these is that “incorruptible” ornament of a meek and quiet spirit (chap. iii. 4).
The word lives and abides forever. Though heaven and earth pass away, it will never pass away. It is settled forever in heaven. And the life it produces is eternal also. Those who are born anew through the word take on the everlasting character of the word.
In the human birth, the seed which produces a child contains, in germ form, all the characteristics of the child. What the child will eventually be is determined by the seed. For our present purposes, it is enough to see that as the seed is perishable, so is the human life which results from it.
1:24 The transitory character of human nature is emphasized by a quotation of Isa 40:6-7. Human life is as impermanent as grass. Physical beauty is as short-lived as the flowers of the field. The grass withers, and the flowers droop and die.
1:25 In contrast, the word of the Lord endures forever (Isa 40:8). Therefore, the new life of the believer is equally incorruptible. This incorruptible word is the message of good news which was preached to Peter's readers and which caused them to be born again. It was the source of their eternal life.
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