Love Your Neighbor
1 Peter 1:21-25
“…love one another deeply, from the heart.” vs. 22a
Because God Loves You, I Love You
Now I know we have had our greeting time and that is always such a good time. It’s always hard to get you back to your seats. In some ways, that is one of the highlights of our worship time, the greeting and being with each other. But I am going to ask you to stretch yourself right now and do it again. This time though I am adding a twist. As you get up and move around and greet each other, you tell each other “Because God loves you, I love you.” I know this will be tough for some of you but please give it a try. Ready? Go!
Wait for a few minutes for everyone to practice the activity. Corral them back.
Now, I am hoping you’ll share with me your experience. How did it go? What went well? Anyone feel uncomfortable or awkward? Why? What was hard about this exercise?
A theme that runs through the Bible is that we are called to love one another. In our 4 part series on the things that Peter urges us to do in 1 Peter chapter 1, this is the final thing. First he urged us to live with hope, then to be holy, then to fear God, and finally this: to love one another. If you are able, please stand as we read the Word of God from 1 Peter 1:22–2:3.
Read Passage – 1 Peter 1:22-2:3
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. 2 1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Fighting In the Church?
It’s difficult to say “I love you” and be honest, be real and to do it without smirking or feeling awkward. It’s also difficult because what do you mean when you say “love.” We have romantic love, brotherly love, erotic love, friendship love, etc. and what you say and how you say it can be misunderstood.
Another reason is that we as people tend to hold grudges, focus on differences, and even the struggles in our relationships so we don’t say “I love you” probably as often as we should. Remember James touches on this in James 4:1 when he says:
“What causes fights and quarrels among you?” James 4:1
What defines the church? What defines our church? Some churches are defined by their push for money, some for size, and some for a certain program. Interestingly enough much of the world looks at the church as a place where there are a lot of disagreements and, yes, fights. Not all out brawls, but arguments and disagreements an sometimes they see the church as a place where people don’t love each other.
Peter is writing to Christians, and he’s saying, “Love one another.” He is saying that love, the love of Christ should be the thing that defines the church.
Ex. Recently in the news there was a church in Washington State where the pastor of the church was accused of being overbearing, abusive, and manipulative and it ended with the pastor resigning and the church being torn apart. It was an ugly scene and one that played itself out in the newspapers and media.
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What defines the church?
Loving In the Church
Peter makes a statement in verse 22 where he says:
“…love one another deeply, from the heart.” vs. 22b
Remember he is writing to the Christian church and to Christian people here. Again, let me reiterate that what Peter is stressing here is that love, the love of Christ should be the thing that defines the church.
The challenge here for us might be to really change the way we live and work together as a church so that when people walk through these doors they truly experience the love of Christ. One of the great things about our church is that I believe that people truly do feel loved here. They feel that and they see it in the way we treat one another, the joy that we have in being together and spending time together, and in the way we are inclusive, welcoming new people as if they are old friends we are so happy to see again, even though we just met them.
I do want to point out that Peter urges us to “love one another deeply.” That can take work, that can take time and that can be difficult, but it can happen. Deep means that t can’t be fake, it can’t be superficial, it takes effort, and it’s felt down to the core of who you are, your heart. Now Peter doesn’t just tell us to love one another and then leaves us to figure out how to do it. He lays out some principle for us to follow and then gives us some practical ways to work on it in our life.
Two Basic Principles
First, we are going to look at two principles that we need in our life if we are going to love one another deeply but let me set some bases for what Peter is urging us to do. Peter says in verse 22a:
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other …” vs. 22a
What he means when he says that “you have purified yourselves” is because you’ve been born again, because you have realized that Jesus is the only way to real salvation and forgiveness, because you have given your life to him, because you’re having your very insides purified by connecting with the truth, you have the ability to love one another sincerely. The building block for sincere love among Christians is Christ. That has to be the place to start and that has to be the place from which our love will flow. That comes out in two principles.
1. Love As Family
The first principle is that we are to love as family. A theme that runs through the Bible is the idea that we are family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Some churches stress this by calling each other “Brother —“ and Sister —.” That is one way to always keep in mind that we are family. Paul uses these terms often too and in Eph. 6:23 he says:
“Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph. 6:23
Notice that Paul calls the church brothers and sisters and that he stresses that it is a love that comes from God. Here is the thing about family, you don’t get to pick your family. None of us have the ability to pick where we are born and who we are born to or even how big our family is. There is a saying:
You can choose your friends but not your family.
That is true and it is somewhat true of the church as well. You can choose where you worship, but technically you cannot choose who else worships there. We are called to love another as family. It’s easy to love friends because you choose them. You choose people you like, people with similar interests and temperaments, and people who usually like you. Family is different. Loving family is a big task. With family, you have to be more understanding, more tolerant, overlook some things, be more forgiving in some ways, and you end up doing things that many other times you would choose not to.
Ex. As an example, I have a relative who for the sake of my family (and health) we will call Joe Smith. If I had a choice, he would probably not be someone I hang out with, be around, or visit. But he is family. So when I go to family reunions I am cordial. I talk with him, joke with him, sometimes laugh at his jokes (sometimes), and even take pictures with him. But…if I had the choice, he is really not my cup of tea. He nitpicks things, criticizes, and says a lot of things I don’t really agree with. Now I am not being insincere around him but I really don’t spend a whole lot of time with him either. Here is the thing: I don’t necessarily like him but I love him. He is my family.
Now I am not saying we have to be that way in church. Remember Peter says to love each other deeply. Love runs deeper and thicker with family. I love my family. I love my church family because our bond is in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. John says in 1 John 4:7-8:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8
Look around you. This is your family. Your spiritual family. We are called to love one another as family with God being our Father.
2. Grow in Love
The second principle we are urged to commit to is to grow in love. Are you committed to growing? One of the basic definitions of growing is to increase. Applied to the ideal of love: we need to increase our love for one another. Peter uses an example for us in 2:2:
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…” 1 Peter 2:2
This is an interesting example that I want to expand on for just a moment. A newborn doesn’t really know too many things. It knows what bothers it, it knows that it likes pleasant quiet and simple things, and it knows when it is hungry. It’s hungry because it needs nutrition, it needs vitamins, and it needs sustenance because it wants to grow. It doesn’t know that it wants to grow but everything in its body says I need milk to grow.
Ill. Show picture of Kal-el
As believers, we don’t always know what we want but we should commit to continual growth. We need to grow. Again, I believe this is a theme that runs through the Bible. As followers of Jesus, we need to commit to growing and especially growing in love. Growing is tough though. You’ve heard for things like growing pains. Though it has been a while, I remember growing and getting taller and having to get used to my body. I would trip on the weirdest things and it got strange when I didn’t fit in some of the same places I used to or clothes that didn’t fit anymore. But your “grow” into it. (Sorry for the pun) 1 Peter 3:18 says:
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:18
Ex. My tax preparer. We have just come out of tax season. I don’t know about you, but I want a tax prepare that is up to date on the laws and exemptions so that I pay what I am supposed to but also so that I get back what I am supposed to. I don’t want someone who went to school 20 years ago and said “Oh, that ’s good enough! I don’t need more training and updates.” A good tax-preparer goes to training and updates regularly so their clients benefit the most.
So those are the two basic principles for loving one another.
Two Practical Principles
So how do we do that? Let’s look at two practical principles for us. Things you can do to a daily basis to stretch yourself to love one another deeply.
1. Practice Purity
First, Peter stresses in the first part of verse 22:
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth…” vs. 22a
Now I stated it this way on purpose. I say practice because it is a continual process of cleansing that we are in. we have committed our lives to the saving work of Jesus Christ. We know that that cleanses us from our sins, but, we are not perfect. We continually struggle with sin and it is important for us to regularly cleanse ourselves from that sin. That is one of the great things about communion. It’s a time to stop and remember the work of Christ and confess our sin and start fresh. We only have so much room in our heart and our being. What helps us more than we can imagine is cleansing ourselves of the bad stuff to make room for the good stuff; love. Peter stresses this in 2:1:
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” 1 Peter 2:1
This verse really hits home. We all struggle with sin. We all need to confess our sin and ask God to purify us. So Peter lists sins that not only we struggle with, but sins that break apart our relationships and stop us from really loving one another; things like envy, malice, deceit, etc. All of those this hinder us from loving each other.
How: Build in times of confession. Commit to communion Sunday. Commit to pray and times of confession. Maybe even commit to confession daily )(or more often if necessary.)
2. Practice Sincerity
The second practice is to be sincere. This can be tough as well. Peter says in 22a:
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other…” vs. 22a
Once we have purified ourselves, that love that we express needs to be sincere; truthful, and honest. There is a verse that tells us to speak the truth in love. Real love is not over exaggerating the situation or saying something you don’t really mean. Honest and truthful love is sincere and honest. It speaks the truth but only in love so that we don’t hurt and abuse others with our words. I am not saying to lie. I am saying that we can be honest and yet be affirming and encouraging.
Let’s face it; there are things about people we don’t like; things that bug us. Loving as family means we focus on what is good and right and love them because we are called to love them truthfully and whole-heartedly. You might think this is impossible. It’s not. Let me use a verse from Philippians 4:8 on how to do this:
“…whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Phil. 4:8
If we are willing, we can choose to focus on the things that are good ab out people and the things we can affirm.
Ex. I worked a job once where we had performance reviews once a year. Here were the requirements for the reviews. If you said something negative; say it gently. You couldn’t say more than 3 negative things because it would overwhelm the employee and they wouldn’t remember more than that anyway. And, you always had to have at least one positive thing to say. They taught us that everyone has at least one good thing you can point out.
Challenge: What if you applied these principles to your life.
1. If you say something negative, put it gently
2. Commit to not saying too many negative things.
3. Always point out one good thing about someone
Jesus Loves You
So let me end with this final thought; We are called to love because Jesus loves you. He didn’t just die for some, he died for all. All includes you. Jesus loves you. We are called to be more like Jesus and to do what he did. He loved so we are called to love. I mean, let’s face it; we all have difficult things about us to love. We all have our issues. We all have things that some people don’t like about us. We are never called in the Bible to point out others flaws and difficulties. We are called to love. Tim Keller, pastor and author, put it this way:
“The gospel says you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, but more accepted and love than you ever dared hope.” -Tim Keller
So here is the bottom line: Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. (Verse 22)
