PETER’S EPISTLES: PREPARING FOR ETERNITY

VII. Living Bible-Based Lives

(1 Peter 1:22-2:3)

I. Introduction

A. Before the Apostle Peter began to minister for the Lord in the Church, his outlook was impacted by Christ’s prophecy in John 21:18-19 that he would be crucified for Christ. Eternity was thus often on Peter’s mind.

B. We view Peter’s epistles that highlight preparing for eternity, and in 1 Peter 1:22-2:3, Peter taught us to live Bible-based lives. We view the passage for our insight, application and edification:

II. Living Bible-Based Lives, 1 Peter 1:22-2:3.

A. When Peter wrote his second epistle, at 2 Peter 1:16-19, he testified how his witness of the Mount of Transfiguration coming kingdom glorification of Jesus profoundly elevated his respect for the Old Testament prophecies that predicted Christ’s future Kingdom.

B. Peter’s great respect for Scripture is reflected in 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 where he taught that believers should live highly motivated lives that are based on God’s Word:

1. Since Peter’s readers had obeyed the Word of God in believing the Gospel and then heeding the truth on their need to love their fellow brethren in Christ “without hypocrisy” (anupokriton), Peter called on his readers to love the brethren “deeply” (ektenos, “at full stretch” or “in an all-out manner, with intense strain”), 1 Peter 1:22 NIV (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 844; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 793).

2. This kind of love was possible because the reality of the spiritual new birth that equipped the believer to express it occurred through belief in the Word of God that is imperishable, living and enduring, 1 Peter 1:23. [Such qualities of God’s Word are evidenced in the created universe, for it came into existence and endures to this day by the Word of God, cf. Genesis 1:1-31; Hebrews 1:3.]

3. Peter then cited Isaiah 40:6-8 from the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament in his day. It noted that all people are transitory like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever, 1 Peter 1:24-25a NIV with NIV ftn.

4. At 1 Peter 1:25b, Peter added that this imperishable, enduring, living Word of God was what had been preached to his believing readers, and that had led to their believing it and God’s work of salvation and equipping of them to live godly lives!

5. Peter then directed his readers to put away “five sins of attitude and speech that would drive wedges between believers” that would counter a Biblical, fervent love among them (Ibid.; 1 Peter 2:1):

a. They were to put away malice (kakian), “wicked ill-will” toward other believers (Ibid.; 1 Peter 2:1a).

b. They were to put away deceit (dolon), “deliberate dishonesty” toward other believers (Ibid., 1 Pet. 2:1b).

c. They were to put away hypocrisy (hupokriseis), “pretended piety and love” toward others (Ibid.; v. 1c).

d. They were to put away envy (phthonous), resentful jealousy toward others (Ibid.; Moulton & Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, 1972, p. 667-668; 1 Peter 2:1d).

e. They were to put away slander (katalalias), defamation, evil speech toward others (Bible Know. Com., N. T., loc. cit.; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 413; 1 Peter 2:1e).

6. Having then put away wicked ill-will, deliberate dishonesty, pretended piety and love, resentful jealousy and evil speech toward other believers, Peter’s readers as eager as babies are for milk were to desire the Word of God that by it they might grow in the Lord, 1 Peter 2:2.

7. The word describing the word rendered “sincere” (1 Peter 2:2 KJV) is adolon, the opposite of the word dolon in 1 Peter 2:1 that is used to describe “deliberate dishonesty.” Thus, God’s Word can be described here as being “deliberately [emphatically] honest” (Bible Know. Com., N. T., loc. cit.; 1 Peter 2:2).

8. Peter’s readers were to grow in their “salvation” (1 Peter 2:2 NIV), the ultimate fulfillment of their salvation at the rapture (cf. 1 Peter 1:5, 7, 9, 13; Ibid.).

9. As Peter’s readers had figuratively tasted God’s grace in their new birth at justification, and found that the Lord is indeed good, they were thus to be motivated to keep partaking of God’s Word, 1 Peter 2:3 (Ibid.).

Lesson: Since God’s Word by which the believer is born again by God through believing it is imperishable, living and enduring, the believer should heed Scripture’s directive of truly, sincerely loving the brethren in putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander to continue to grow by taking in God’s Word.

Application: May we live Bible-based lives, knowing Scripture is God’s imperishable, living and enduring Word.