First Peter 1:22-25 The New Life of Love

Alright so we are in first Peter we are at the end of chapter one today and the the title that uh... roger had assigned is that the new life of love and it was business is perfect very uh... well suited to what we're talking about here uh... but in part because this is my first time up here in first peter on and because swell sis kind of my norm i wanted to start with a review of uh... what we have seen so far in first peter and so what are some of the themes that we've seen.

It's quite interesting and I considered a study technique that I use quite regularly and we've actually done it back when we did James. I did a little bit of this together in class where I gave you each a printout and we just, you know, marked things and connected thoughts within a text and that can be very, very helpful. Even just as simple as finding where the same word occurs within this chapter, you realize, hey, he's talking about this quite a lot. And so what will happen as you do that is that you'll see certain themes emerge from the text.

So here's one of the themes is that there's an emphasis on the fact that Christians are temporary residents.

So we see in verse, verse, yeah, getting a cheer from the, yeah. as as christians we're temporary residents and so we see a number of verses that pull this out right right the first verse to those who reside as aliens and then he lists all these earthly locations so that's where we are we are aliens here on the earth uh... verse six in this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you've been distressed by various trials but he'd be kind of notice oh even though now for a little while that's the same thing this is short term this is temporary uh... then verse seventeen uh... and uh... it is as conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your state on earth uh... or or exile or sojourn depending on your translation and so again is this temporary state on earth and now i were gonna jump jump ahead for one verse here because uh... you did that you'll see that these themes continue on throughout the book and this was a really what's all you know i didn't put it on the screen but if you look ahead at that too verse eleven if you have a bible which is a good idea uh... if you look forward to eleven uh... his beloved i urge you as aliens and strangers uh... so again same language so it continues on so this is one of one of peter's by the way if i say paul is because that's what i'm going to get a sense of peter paul and then and if i say i say paul said this or paul said that and marriage if i say i say mary please raise your hand uh... if i if i say paul just interpreters bureau so that's the first thing temporary residence second theme is uh... that there there's a view to our future hope was a sure exactly how to summarize that but it was the term future hope uh... and we'll see that in verses three through five pretty significantly here said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

Okay, and hope is something that is future, something that is sure, but it's something that is future. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you so it's reserved again points to the future who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time so again we have this this future hope verse seven So that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, a future event. And then verse 13, therefore prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. same phrases in verse 7. So that we have the revelation of Jesus Christ, this future event, and our hope is wrapped up in that event.

So that's the second theme that I pulled out. The third one is that there's a contrast between what is precious and what is perishing. Has anyone noticed that throughout the study of chapter 1 here? again for seven of some of these verses we're using the same verses because you know what kind of looking a different portion of it right so we just read this but um... but for verse six uh... is about is about trials right trials of sufferings we face and then uh... verse seven kind of explains that what the point of trials is so that the proof of your faith uh... or we say testing or the proving out of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable so we have precious faith perishable gold. Verses 18 and 19, knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold, see the very close parallel between these verses, but with precious blood as of a lamb. So here what's precious is the blood of Jesus Christ.

So again the contrast between precious and perishable and then this is going to be in today's verse today we're in verses 22 through 25 it says for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and enduring Word of God so that the precious and perishable theme. The fourth theme that I noticed is that there is an introduction to the suffering and trials of the believer and the importance of faith being tested and the results of that. So again, six and seven. Six and seven are pretty significant in terms of, I mean, they keep coming up in these themes, right? He sort of pulls a lot into them. So like we said, verse six, you've been distressed by various trials.

Again, so the proof of your faith. And what does it result in? Right there at the end, results in praise and glory and honor. So we have the significance of trials in a Christian's life. the the proof of your faith through those trials or the testing out of your faith approving or approving of your faith and then the uh... resulting in praise and glory and honor in verse eleven now this may seem a little bit uh... different because here in verse six we're talking about our trials but in verse eleven peter brings up this he says uh... the sufferings of christ and the glories to follow okay so you say well that's the sufferings of christ that's not our sufferings but if we jump ahead and i would recommend when you're we're going to waste days read through the whole book you know as as we go at least a few times because you'll see that that peter brings this back in chapter four the sufferings of christ he says therefore since christ has suffered in the flesh arm yourselves also with the same purpose he's so like he suffered with a seven out to go down to four twelve and thirteen you really see and this is such a great Such a great verse. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you.

Why? For your testing. as though some strange thing were happening to you, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. You see how many of those major themes are wrapped up in those verses there? Right?

So the trials that we face, the testing of our faith, and the future hope at the revelation of Jesus Christ. uh... removing quickly here just trying to get uh... get these big things in place and they were going to get to our text for today so this is the last one that a pullout is that there's a focus on the new life that we have as believers you know i have a study this chapter one just kind of try to get the big picture in mind i realize you know sometimes we we give paul all the credit for having uh... the christian life you know the doctrine of the christian life roman six seven eight Peter's teaching the same thing. He's teaching the same truths.

And so there's a focus on the new life that we have as believers. And what you're going to see in verses 3 and 23, Peter uses this phrase, born again. Or you might have regenerated in your translation. But in verse 3, it says that we are caused to be born again to a living hope. down to verse 23, for you have been born again, which is part of today's text, born again not of seed which is perishable. So we'll talk about that more here in a bit. But in verses 14 through 16, This idea of a new life, a new kind of life, really is evident. It says, as obedient children, we're going to talk about that word obedient today because it's important. Peter uses it in a very kind of specific way.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance." So we have this former life, right? You had that. You had that kind of life. And, but like the, sorry, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. So there's this new life, there's this holy life that we didn't have before but now we have, and that's part of the new birth or the regeneration that has taken place.

So there's kind of the major themes. I mean, there's probably a little bit more we could pull out, but anyone else have any observations or thoughts on those things before we move into today's text? Well, I pointed out, I'm not sure this is where you're going, but obedient children sounds like law. But children of obedience is a whole different thing. Very good. Yeah, thanks for pointing.

We will deal with that, because that word obedience comes up in today's text as well. So that's why I kind of brushed over it. And that wasn't my versus, so I thank you for it. But we'll get to that again today. It's an important word in Peter. So we've got verses 22 through 25. Why don't I just read those quickly so we get oriented? Since you have in obedience to the truth... I'm just reading from the NASB here, by the way.

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. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory, like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which was preached to you. So looking at verse 22, I'm sorry, there we go, okay, there we go. What is the imperative in verse 22? What's the imperative there? Can anyone identify that?

Love. Yes, very good. So we have right there, verse 22, the last phrase, fervently love one another from the heart. hey that's that's in the imperative mood uh... we are to love one another which is who contextually brethren k love of the brethren fervently love one another from the heart so we love fellow christians does that mean that we're not supposed to love uh... unbelievers by the way uh... flip to first thessalonians three if you care to i mean it's it's this isn't i just read this this morning briefly uh... in verses twelve and thirteen it says, and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people. So we are certainly to love all people, but there is something significant about the love of the brethren. And this love is modified by the adverb fervently or earnestly. So there's a fervent or earnest love for the brethren. But think about it. Who first gave this command to love one another or the brethren or fellow believers? Does anyone? The Lord Jesus, right?

So in John 13, and we've been kind of going through this portion of scripture on Wednesdays, Jesus said, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, this is really interesting, right? By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So it's really significant, really important. And Peter is really reiterating what the Lord Jesus had already said. So love of the brethren is the heart of the Christian life, really. Everything flows out of this fervent, or really we could say a self-sacrificial love, because Jesus says, as I have loved you.

Right? But that's not law, Miles. No. This is a life. Yes, it is. which is exactly where Jesus goes two chapters later. In John 15, he says, so by the way, this commandment I've given you, and it is in the imperative, right, is to be fulfilled through what? Through abiding in the vine. That's the life source. And because we have that life connection with the vine, this is the life that can flow out and produce much fruit in the, you know, through the branches. Thank you. So what is the basis of this fervent love for the brother? What's the basis of this fervent love? Just reading that sentence, reading that verse. The last phrase is the imperative.

How does the first part read? I'll put it up there. yeah got the whole first part is the basis for that right now in the n a s p is translated since you have does anyone have a different translation of that uh... you and king james or csp uh... yes uh... Actually, the standard version says, by your obedience. By your obedience, OK. Amplified as well, by your obedience. By your obedience. OK, by your obedience.

And the grammar here, you've got these three clauses. What we're going to do is we're going to break this underlying part up into three clauses. My grammar wife can remember. help me. I should have asked for help on this before, but you know what? I looked to, I, I looked at some different translations and I found that John Darby had this is his translation. I just added those hash marks so we can separate out kind of these three clauses, okay? And, and see what you have there in the What the NASB has split up, they put this, since you have, and then they put in obedience to the truth in the middle of that, right?

So it's modifying it, but it's saying, but the phrase is really, having purified your souls. This is actually the Greek word order, the way Darby has it, more or less. He's much closer to the Greek word order. So it's a participle in the beginning, having purified your souls, which a lot of English translations have tried to Help us out by saying, since you have, or by having purified your souls. But having purified your souls, I frankly find this a little easier to understand.

Having purified yourselves by obedience to the truth. It's the perfect tense, and it's the active voice. So the active voice means that this is something you did actively. And the perfect tense means that it was completed in past time with abiding results. So this is past completed action with results that continue into the present time and on. how do you how did you how did you do that how do you purify your soul right well the answer for just to go to texas is by obedience to the truth uh... and uh... the now the nsb has that uh... in obedience to the truth now when i read in obedience to the truth that makes it sound like uh... the truth whatever that is told me to purify my soul so so i obeyed it and did and did something to purify my soul What that would mean, I really don't know.

But the preposition here that Darby is translated by and NASB is translated in is the Greek preposition n, which is very common. Prepositions are tough because they have a whole variety and range of uses depending on context. But sometimes they get a little tricky. You get kind of stuck on them, especially when you're translating from another language. It's probably more commonly in than it is by, but that doesn't mean that it always has to be in. It's also very commonly by. And I think that contextually, by actually fits the best.

So that as Christians, we purified our souls at a point in the past when we obeyed the truth. By obedience to the truth. So when we obeyed the truth, we quote unquote purified our souls. We'll talk about that obedience to the truth more in a second, don't worry.

But then we have the last clause, for a sincere love of the brethren or, as Darby has it, to unfeigned brotherly love. Now, again, a preposition, right? For or to, here the preposition is eis, like E-I-S if you translate it, eis. And it means toward, unto or resulting in. And so I really think that the two unfeigned brotherly love or unto brotherly love is a good translation.

So the idea I think in this verse is that the result of the purifying of our souls was a sincere love for the brethren. Okay, and then on that basis, we're instructed to love one another from a pure heart. So the idea, well, maybe I'll just, I might say, I kind of put it into my own words.

As a new creation in Christ Jesus, you have been given a sincere love of your fellow believers. Therefore, because you have that love abiding in you, exercise that love toward one another. You're free to, because you have this life. You're free to exercise that love because you have that love.

Connect it back to what Bob always reminds us, that's Christ's life. And that's Christ's life. I have Christ's life, so let that... So let it go, let it flow. Let it flow. Yeah. But it's important, Roger, because before you come to this truth, this idea of loving your brothers, yourself, or your neighbor... How do you do it? It's just an impossible task.

But when we live by faith, by obedience to the truth, then that love is of the Lord. And don't you love how he sets that up in the first part of the verse? Since you have, because of this obedience to the truth, which we'll get to, you have been given, you have unto a sincere love of the brethren. Therefore, you know what's what's stopping you now we want to clarify a couple of things first of all what is obedience to the truth and secondly just a little moment on what does sincere love look like so first of all what is obedience to the truth and and we've been kinda It hangs heavily on the word obedience.

It really does. This is really important for us as modern day English speakers because we see the word obedience and what do we automatically think of? We think of obeying a command. And it certainly can mean that in places in the scripture, but it's not what Peter's talking about here. So we just want to make a couple observations about the word obedience, the word and the way that Peter uses it.

So first of all, the word obedience is hupaka'e. We won't spend the time right now to talk about Greek pronunciation, but hupakae. Now, you might recognize the verb form a little better, which is hupakuo. And yeah. Bob, you're so sorry. I know Ahmet knows. He knows. Okay, let's try this.

So what word in English do we get from the word akuo, or ak... to hear? Okay, we get the word acoustics. In modern English we get the word acoustics from the Greek word akuo, which is the word that's here in the noun form. It doesn't sound as much like it in the noun form. In the verb form, you know, hupakuo, you hear that, akuo, or acoustics. Here you have It doesn't quite sound like it, but it is where we get our English word for acoustics or to hear. It's related to hearing.

Okay, so the word, and then of course at the beginning we have this preposition, a prefix preposition, which means under. So we have to listen under. which is interesting. Now the etymology of a word doesn't necessarily give you the definition of the word, but it does sometimes help a little bit just to know what's the building blocks of this. So it's really under to listen or to listen under. And you can look up the definition, but again, the dictionary definition gives you the possible uses. Context really decides how it's being used.

So the dictionary definition says to listen so as to heed or conform. But if you think about that, that's not just obedience, like obeying a command. That could also encompass faith or belief, to listen so as to heed, or we might say so as to believe. and you know sometimes the gospel is given as a command act sixteen thirty one believe on the lord jesus christ and now shall be saved i was a class imperative believe alleges christ do you heed that's command So that's the first thing we want to notice about the word obedience. It's just what it means. It doesn't always mean to obey some command. It means to listen or heed something that's been said to you.

Now, the other thing we want to really point out, and this is probably more instructive, is that Peter consistently uses this term to describe faith in the gospel. Okay, so I'm not going to put these verses on the screen, but you could flip to them. In chapter 4 verse 17, peter says for his time for judgment to begin with the household of god and it begins with us first what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of god so here you have us believers contrasted with those who do not obey the gospel god or unbelievers and then in in that chapter two verses seven through eight and this this year i'd I encourage you to turn to this one, 1 Peter 2, 7 through 8.

It says, this precious value then is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumble because they are what? Disobedient to the word. And to this doom they were also appointed. So we have this term disobedient used to identify unbelievers, those who disbelieve. So you have those who believe and those who disbelieve, and those who disbelieve are the same as those who are disobedient to the word.

And then another interesting one is 1 Peter 3, verse one. This is all in the same, letter, same book, it says, in the same way, you wives be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives. So the context here is saved wives who have an unbelieving husband or an unsaved husband.

Now, yes, Jim? You know, another word hupaka'e is used as submission or compliance. Yeah. And that kind of reminds me of Newell's definition of grace, where he says, submitting to, you know, I can't remember now exactly how he says it, but he kind of uses a word like that. Just submitting to God's grace, allowing him to extend his grace, you're receiving it, right? Receiving this let's not forget what's interesting this isn't just peter paul and i do intend to see paul also uses the term obedience in reference to uh... faith and you could just john these references down uh... but he what he does he actually talks about uses the phrase the obedience of faith uh... and so Romans 1 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles for his name's sake So again, and then and then in 1626 But that's hard to okay, I'll just it'll be a little out of context but God has basically the gospel fifties has been made known to all the nation's leading to the to obedience of faith so obedience to the truth inverse twenty-two really is talking about the the moment that you trusted the gospel the moment you put your faith in the gospel uh... that is what purified your souls onto a sincere love of the brethren and that's why Having purified is in the act of voice.

That's something you did. Now you might think, oh, I can't purify my soul. But your responsibility was to exercise faith in the gospel. And so you did have an active part in that. And of course, God is the one who purified your soul. But you responded to the message. And so our personal act of faith is what resulted in having a purified soul.

Any questions on that? Hopefully we've clarified what Peter is saying with the word obedience to the truth. This is talking about faith in the gospel for salvation. Well, he's not saying, go off and do something special here. He's saying, just remember what happened to you when you leaved. He's giving you the, he's fleshing out the details. And that's, yeah, go ahead.

Well, I was going to say, and that's why that perfect tense, you know, contextual, that really fits and makes sense, is that this is something that happened at a point in time, and it remains this way. And that really fits with the new life, the new birth, being born again. So, okay, so then let's just talk briefly about what does a sincere love look like.

Okay, so the word sincere or unfeigned is Anupakritas. Anupakritas. So usually, often, when you have an A, alpha, at the beginning of a Greek word, often that's a negation. So it means the opposite of this. So you recognize the last part, right? Hoopakritas. Hoopakritas. What word do we get from that in English? hypocrisy or hypocrite, right?

So this is without hypocrisy. So this sincere or unfeigned, this is, we could say, a love that is not fake or put on. It has no ulterior motives. And this one came to mind. It's not the obligatory cultural signs of respect. Because we have certain things culturally that we just you know, we respect you, you know, and so I shake your hand and smile and say, how do you do? That's not necessarily love, though it's friendly, it's kind. But this is more than that, okay? It's also, like I said, it's not fake or put on. And that's hard, because sometimes we don't actually feel love for the brethren.

Right? And that's... I always say, you don't have to like everybody, you just have to love them. Right. And that goes back to what we talked about earlier. Well, whose love is this? Where does this love come from? Right? And it's not my love, you know? I just brought back a memory of a story that Hal told. I never met Hal, but I've listened to a lot of his teaching and he talked about when he was in the hospital and his roommate witnessed him off you know almost died yet is this kind of afters surgery event and and um... and anyway it is for a real deep conversation with his roommate and and afterwards the roommate taking back to me said you know i i s consents two things the one is that you really love me and and how's response is to the effect that it first of all it's not my love it's christ's love You know, which again, I mean, this was an unbeliever.

So this wasn't brotherly love, but as we read in 1 Thessalonians, there is a love for the world. There's also the love of Christ. So it's not fake or put on. Even if we don't feel it in our emotions, it's a love that we have because Christ lives in us. And it has no ulterior motives.

And that's a really important one because, you know, in our flesh, we're constantly looking for what can I get out of this? Yeah, one thing that helps is realizing what put you on the cross, right? When you realize that, then you realize Paul stated it near his death, he's the greatest among all sinners.

So that love for somebody else, we can personalize. Yeah, see when we have, you know, what impedes our love for others is kind of rooted in our pride. We think that I'm above or too good for this. So what we really have here is sincere love of the brethren. It's a genuine care and concern for fellow believers. It means that we have their best interest in mind. Which doesn't, you know, sometimes that's, we call it tough love, right? Sometimes that's involved as well. We have to have some hard conversations with people because we care about them.

You know, but we're willing to sacrifice for someone else. It's laying down our own lives as Christ laid down his life for the church. You know, so there's a sincere love. Now let's move on to verse 23 because we've covered one verse and we've got 15 minutes left. No, are we almost out of time? What does it mean to be born again? Okay. And I said this is the new creation work of God in believers. Okay.

This is what's interesting here. in verse 23 is that this is a perfect passive participle. So same perfect tense, which means it's completed in past time with abiding results, but this time it's passive. And it's a participle so we could translate this having been regenerated. Okay, so it's the same tense as this having purified your souls, right? But it's passive. That was active. This is passive, which means that this work was done to you, not by you, right? So this is the regeneration or rebirth. This is God's work in you. So God is the one who took care of this.

What is the imperishable seed? Well, the last part of the verse defines that for us, right? Through the living and enduring Word of God. The Word of God is the imperishable seed by which we have been born. Okay, so how are we born again through the Word of God? well well you know this is this is really interesting in the word of god is like a seat if you just visualize this i mean you really jesus did this for us he did a parable of the seat right in the solar and and the seat is this message that's you know cast uh... on on the ground and that message hits the soil of your heart we could say and um... The thing is, whether or not the seed springs up and bears fruit depends on whether the message is received by those who hear it.

That whole obedience to the truth thing, responding to the truth. So we are born again by faith. in the gospel, faith in the word of God, believing the message. And so this all kind of ties together, right? So obedience to the truth in verse 22 is man's response to the gospel, which is the response of faith. And the regeneration or the new birth is God's work in those who believe.

So notice in verse 23, that we come back to the contrast between what is perishable and what is precious. This is one of our major themes, right? The word of God is precious because it offers life. John 6, 88. I always love this, right? Simon Peter's response. It's Peter, right? The guy who's writing this letter. He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Your words are eternal life so only the word of god offers like it met because that this because the message it contains the message that the word of god contains uh... is what offers provides eternal life you know so People are always seeking to find fulfillment from earthly pleasures, whatever they can gain here in this world. And Peter's talked about that, right? All these futile, perishing things. And it's always gonna fail. It's always gonna leave you empty, and it's passing away. Nothing on this earth is gonna last. The only thing that provides eternal life is the message of the gospel.

And that's what Peter goes on to emphasize in the next couple of verses. Kind of the closing part of this chapter, Peter wants to emphasize the preciousness of the word of God and the enduring nature of the word of God. And so he's quoting here from Isaiah 40. It says, for all flesh is like grass, and all is glory like the flower of the grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls off. And just such a picture of all of man's glory just fading away and perishing, falling off. But the word of the Lord endures forever. I mean, we've got some roses in front of our house, right, that we didn't plant. They're just perennials. And they've had beautiful blossoms already this spring. There's still some, but then they wither up and fall off. But the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word which is preached to you. So this is actually a quote from Isaiah 40. for the sake of time we're not going to read all of this but I'd encourage you to go to Isaiah 40 and just just read if you read through this in the Isaiah 40s and I'll kind of on through towards the end of the chapter most of Isaiah from Isaiah 40 on is about the the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he's talked about here, the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is about Jesus' return to the earth to reign in glory. And look there in verse 5 where I've got underlined, then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together. And then down in verse 6 is, you know, it says, a voice says, call out. Then he answered, what should I call out? And then the quotation, and so peter is kinda he's he's fulfilling this role i'm gonna i'm gonna cry out or call out and he quotes this all flesh is like grass and so uh... this quote from isaiah comes in the context of the glorious return of the lord jesus christ to the earth when in in light of the you know coming in bringing in of his his glorious kingdom everything else is just you know fading away passing away and um...

And I just, down in verses 9 and 10, there's this declaration, here is your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, and with his arm ruling for him, and so on and so forth, all describing the Lord Jesus. I love verse 11, like a shepherd he will tend his flock. In his arm he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

So this whole chapter, Isaiah 40, is about the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is one of Peter's major themes. And we looked at that already. But this fits with the whole idea that Peter's trying to convey here, that as Christians, we're to have our hope fixed on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the future revelation of Jesus Christ. And in context, the word of the Lord that endures is God's promise, His word, that He will bring this to pass. This is where everything is heading. This is where it's all headed. And this promise will be fulfilled for all eternity. This is never going to come to an end. What Jesus Christ is going to return and bring in never passes away or fades away.

So just looking at the last phrase there, verse 25, why does Peter add this reminder? This is the word which is preached to you. So really what Peter wants to remind his Christian audience, his believers, is that the word or message that was preached to them holds eternal promise. Because his goal, his significant goal in Peter is to encourage believers in the midst of trials. And that was one of his major themes and we'll see that continue on throughout the book, right?

And he's calling them to a holy life, which is the life of Christ that we've been given. Because we have that life, we're not to be engaged in the worldly pursuits. We don't have the same goals and aims and desires as the world around us. We're called to the life that is the life of Christ. The life is focused on the eternal promises of God. And so Peter reminds these christians about the message that was preached to them when they when they first believe it wasn't a message about uh... health and wealth in this lifetime rate it was a message about eternal salvation the promise of uh... not Just not blessings for here and now in this lifetime. This lifetime is a time of really trials and sufferings. The hope, the salvation to be revealed is this eternity, this glorious eternity together with the Lord.

You know, but it's easy as believers to get our eyes fixed on earthly things, right? Just to kind of go with the flow of the world. Well, you know, that's what everybody else is interested in, right? But we're called to this holy life, this set-apart life. We're not to be attached to the world system that's perishing. We're supposed to be looking to Jesus, waiting for his soon arrival, right? And that's where our hope is.

Not on anything in this world, and we really need to be reminded of that. Because if our hopes are set on earthly things, then we're going to be very disappointed. We're going to be very discouraged about the way that things are going, right? But if our hope is set on Jesus and the glory that's to be revealed, then the things here, You know, they don't ultimately matter.

I mean, they're important and that God is using all of these things to accomplish His eternal work in us. But we can let go. We can let go of the things that are that surround us here. And we can really be at peace in whatever the Lord is walking us through. So as verse 6 says, these trials are just for a little while. This is just a little while. And God's using all these things to prepare us for sharing in Christ's glory.

So the point here is keep our eyes fixed on that goal. And that's why the reminder. This is the word that was preached to you. Not a life of ease and pleasure, but an eternal hope, a very glorious future. Any comments or thoughts before we close? All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. There's so much in it, and we have so much to learn and understand. But I thank you for the encouragement that we've received from it this morning. We thank you for the new life that we have in your son, Jesus Christ.

We pray that we would be reminded of the fact that our life is hidden with Christ in God, that Jesus Christ is our life, and we're waiting for his revealing on this earth, knowing that in the meantime, his life is operational in us, so that we live as those who belong to that that future state, not to this world.

We're strangers and aliens here. And I just pray that that would be the framework within which we think. It's so easy for us, Lord, to get wrapped up in the things of here and now, and to just focus on that. And certainly we have responsibilities here, and you have a purpose for us here, and you have work to accomplish. in and through us here, but all of that with our eyes to your eternal work.

And so we just pray that you would continue to teach us along those lines, that we would come more and more to know your Son Jesus Christ and the life that we have in Him, that He would be glorified through us, that people would see that life in us, this life of love, and would know that we are your disciples and that they would glorify you for it. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.