A Holy Communion (1 Peter 1:22–2:3)

I recently received an email from the daughter of a friend, Brian, who died in 2003, at the age of 47, of bladder cancer. Brian was a hippy in the 1970s, living according to his own dictates and a godless worldview. One day, inside a phone booth, he found a gospel tract lying on the stand. He picked it up, glanced at it, and put it in his pocket. Later, when he got home, he took it out and read it. He put it on his dresser and tried to sleep. He couldn’t. He read the tract again, perhaps several times, then got on his knees and repented of his sins as he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was gloriously born again that night, his life forever changed now that God was his Father. He joined a local church and eventually answered to the call to preach. That is how we met.

Brian, like all believers, was born again by the power of the word. This power saved him permanently, which is why I fully expect to see him again at the resurrection of the dead at the end of history.

It is one thing to say that one has been born again by the word of God and another thing to evidence that profession by one’s life. I was privileged to see evidence of Brian’s profession for the three years that we studied and worked together at university. I witnessed Brian’s love for God, for God’s holiness, for God’s word, and for God’s people. His appetite for God, his addiction to God’s word, and his affection for God’s people impacted many, including myself. Most importantly, it wonderfully impacted his wife and six children. So it is to be for every Christian.

Brian was a real-life example of what Peter has been writing about, and what he writes about from 1:22–2:10. Having been instructed about the believer’s responsibility for a life of holy conduct (1:1–21), we now turn our attention to our responsibility to live a life of holy communion (1:22–2:3). As I trust we will learn, a holy communion—a holy fellowship—is a loving communion, a loving fellowship of believers. Love and holiness are inseparable. Jesus taught this when he reminded his listeners that the great commandment is to love the Lord God with the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love God is to obey God.

Jesus then said that the second greatest commandment is to love one’s neighbour as oneself. To summarise, holy living is inseparable from holy loving. This is Peter’s point in the text before us. We will learn next time that such holy and loving living is necessary for our responsibility to participate in the building of the holy community (2:4–10). For now, we will study the present text under the following headings:

1. The Responsibility for a Holy Communion (1:22)
2. The Resource for a Holy Communion (1:23–25)
3. The Resolve for a Holy Communion (2:1–2)
4. The Reason for a Holy Communion (2:3)

The Responsibility for a Holy Communion

Our text begins by highlighting the responsibility for a holy communion: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1:22).

Each section of 1 Peter is related to what precedes it. In each section, Peter exhorts those who have been born again to live like it. That is, they are to live holy—distinctly different—lives in the midst of an unholy society. This theme continues in 1:22–2:10 (and what follows).

You’ve perhaps heard the saying, “Charity begins at home.” For our purposes, allow me to suggest that “holiness begins at home.” If the believers dispersed throughout what is modern day Turkey would live lives different in the marketplace, the workplace, and the community, they must first do so in “God’s place”—in his new covenant temple, the local church. Believers are to be holy, that is different, in how they relate to fellow believers. Holy living includes holy loving Those born again love differently than those not born again. The evidence that one is “born again” is love for those who have also been born again (1 John 5:1–2).

I wonder Peter was thinking of Jesus’ exhortation in John 13 when he wrote this section: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

The Believer’s Privilege

Peter writes of those who had “purified [their] souls by obedience to the truth.” Stated another way, he writes to those who had obeyed the gospel (see 1:2, 14; Romans 1:15; 15:18; 16:26). The verb tense points to a past action with abiding results and responsibilities.

Those born again are privileged to share in communion with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Believers share the privilege of having been ransomed by the Father through the work of the Son and to be members of his holy family. But with all privileges there are responsibilities. Peter was concerned that these believers grasp this.

The Believer’s Responsibility

Note the consequence of obeying the gospel: It produces “sincere brotherly love.” It produces genuine, non-hypocritical love for other believers. In fact, “the goal or purpose of their conversion is genuine love for fellow believers” (Schreiner) (see 1 Thessalonians 4:9–12).

While he acknowledged that they were loving well, Peter at the same time offered an imperative to keep doing so. They were to do so “fervently” (and constantly) from a pure heart. Their love was to be heartfelt, not merely theoretical.

Those who have experienced liberty from sin, Satan, and self—that is, those privileged with having been ransomed (1:18)—are given the responsibility to love others who have been ransomed. “Peter thus expects that growth in holiness will lead to deeper love among Christians” (Grudem). Those who have been born again have the responsibility for a holy communion with one another. Believer, we are responsible to love the church and to love our fellow church members. This is a huge part of what it means to be holy (1:15–17).

I am thankful to be a member of a church that seems to understand this, but there is always room for improvement. The indicative means that we do love one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12). The imperative indicates we need to work on it. Don’t ignore the imperatives!

The Christian life includes both indicatives (statements of fact) and imperatives (commands). That is, the Christian life includes both explanations and exhortations. When we ignore imperatives, it may be because we have not experienced the indicative. Works are the fruit of faith. Love is a major fruit. When suffering, we are tempted to look and love inwardrather than outward. We need this imperative.

God saves individuals to corporate implications. Take these responsibilities seriously. God does. Do to others as you would have done to you.

The Resource for a Holy Communion

We next find the resource for a holy communion:

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding 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 1:23–25)

Verses 22–23 are one sentence, yet we are separating them to focus on the truth that believers are not left to their own devices concerning their responsibilities. God has provided the necessary resource for us to fulfil the imperative. God commands what he wills, and he gives what he commands, as Augustine said.

The Resource is Powerful

Peter notes that “you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living [active, powerful] and abiding [permanent] word of God.” The believer has been begotten by the Father through the seed of his word. The word of God (through the ministry of the Holy Spirit) is planted in the life of the sinner, who is born again (James 1:18). And God continues—forever—what he begins. The believer, therefore, has everything he or she needs to maintain and to mature in holy communion and fervent love for the church.

The believer has experienced a supernatural transformation/regeneration and therefore has no excuse for not doing what the Lord commands, including the responsibility for a holy communion. We can’t blame our personality, circumstances, upbringing, or suffering. Since the word of God remains within us, and since it remains unchanged, the believer willpersevere in commitment to principally and practically pursuing a holy communion. The word of God powerfully transforms those once hostile to Christ and the church into those who love Christ and the church.

The Resource is Permanent

In 1:24–25, Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6–8 to undergird the encouragement of v. 23.

Isaiah wrote these at the beginning of the second half of his prophecy, which focuses on the promised Messiah who would come and establish his kingdom. The point of his words is that oppressive nations may come and go, but God’s promises abide dependably because God is faithful. God’s promises are powerful to overcome any obstacle to his purposes. Neither the Assyrians nor the Babylonians nor the Medes or Persians could or would thwart God’s plan. The dispersed, temporarily exiled believers to whom Peter wrote needed this encouragement. As these believers suffered, they needed to remember that, like grass and flowers, the times, seasons, and circumstances—including Jewish and Roman persecution—change and fade away while God’s powerful promises are permanent. Here is the main contextual connection: By clinging to God’s powerful and permanent word, believers can supernaturally love one another rather than becoming self-absorbed in their sufferings.

The closing words of 1:25 quote Isaiah 40:9. There, Isaiah wrote that those in Zion were to herald to one another the good news: “Behold your God!” In other words, amid the hardships of their own sinful failures, and amid oppression from others, God’s people were to persevere because of the good news that God is King. They were to persevere through the gospel.

Peter likewise told his readers, “You are to pursue a holy communion—to love the church—and you can do this because of the good news that was preached to you: the good news that Jesus Christ is King!”

Let me try to make this practical.

Like the grass and the flowers of the field, problems come and go in the life of the church, yet our commitment to a holy communion—to permanently loving one another—remains. A fallen world, in many ways, tempts the church to lose sight of Jesus who rules and reigns. But the gospel of the grace of God empowers the church to remain lovingly unified as it believes the promises of God.

The gospel empowers the church to maintain and mature in holy communion through all kinds of seasons. The gospel equips the believer and the church to rise above being fair-weathered. As the Christian remembers the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he is not side-tracked by temporal, fading opposition. While facing various problems and challenges, the gospel-empowered Christian perseveres.

The gospel, having brought us into the family of God, equips us to look to the Father, which enables us to continue to grow in our love for those who also call on God as Father (1:17)—even those who sometimes seem unlikeable, if not unlovable!

The gospel produces a holy communion of believers. It always has. It always will. Acts 2:42–47 was not unique to those days!

There is a very real sense in which, after AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem, the church was no longer in exile. We may be outnumbered, but we are not out-gunned. Rather, the church has the powerful and permanent gospel that transcends every society, political rule, and cultural chaos. To the degree we plant that word in our hearts, and in the ears of others, we will see change. In other words, the gospel-focused local church will have such a holy communion that it will not only survive the chaos, but will conquer much of it. That is how powerful God’s word is! Small wonder that Peter spoke about hope in this book to those suffering.

The Resolve for a Holy Communion

As we move into chapter 2, we find the resolve for a holy communion: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:1–2).

Knowing our responsibility and our resource for the responsibility is one thing. Fulfilling that responsibility is quite another. And a means towards fulfilling our responsibilities is specific commandments and our resolve to obey. We see this here in 2:1–2.

We Must Resolve to Put Off

First, we find the command to put off (2:1). Allow me to paraphrase: “So, because of the gospel’s power and permanence, resolve to fulfil your gospel responsibility of pursuing a holy communion (loving the church).” Resolve to continue to put off every kind of malicious behaviour and attitude, every kind of deception and falsehood, every kind of hypocrisy, and every kind of jealousy and backbiting-slander. In other words, resolve to practically engage in the holy communion commanded in 1:22!

This opening verse may strike you as surprising. After all, these are serious and sinful defects among God’s people. At first glance one might wonder, do believers actually commit such sins towards one another? If you have been in a local church for as many years as I have, you will know that, lamentably, this is the case. In several of Paul’s epistles, he records being a victim of such sinful behaviour and he also mentions how churches have suffered because of this. We need to beware and resolve to put away such behaviours for we dare not scar the bride of Christ (see Galatians 6:17).

Peter uses a tense of the verb indicating that they had already put away such sins but they must continue to do so. We all remain vulnerable to this sinful and often scarring behaviour. And perhaps we are most tempted when we are under the pressures of affliction, as Peter would personally testify. In fact, I wonder what Peter thought as he wrote the word “hypocrisy,” given the account in Galatians 2:11–14? He dissimilated when peer pressure got to him in Antioch. If he could fail in this way, why would we think we could not?

Church life can be ugly at times. We all have the ability to contribute our own ugliness. Be careful. And be repentant.

We Must Resolve to Take In

We see, in 2:2, the resolve to take in. A biblical principle and pattern is before us in 2:1–2. When the Bible commands us to stop doing something it also commands us to start doing something else (see for example Ephesians 4:22–24ff).

Having exhorted his readers to put away these ugly attitudes and actions, he exhorts them to take in the pure spiritual milk. The idea is that, by taking in this nourishment, we will push out that which is malnourishing to us and to our holy communion.

By the phrase “like newborn infants,” Peter is not suggesting that his readers were new converts. If this book was written in the mid-to-late 60s, perhaps some of these readers had been converted for some thirty years. What he is indicating by this language is that they were to be like newborn infants when it came to their appetite. Whether saved thirty years or thirty days, they were to “long for the spiritual milk” as a newborn infant longs for its mother’s nourishing milk.

The words “long for” translate a Greek term meaning to intensively crave. The word translated “spiritual” is the Greek term for “word.” Peter’s point, therefore, is that his readers must intensively crave for the word of God. Having mentioned the word of God earlier (1:23–25), he still had this in mind. Since the word is powerful and permanent, believers are to crave it to sustain their hope and spiritual growth. The word of God is essential for one to avoid the sins of 2:1, which will otherwise tear out the soul of the church. In other words, craving and taking in the nourishment of the word is essential for a holy communion. To the degree that the believer and the corporate local church feeds on God’s word, we will feast on the God of the word (2:3).

Just as appetite is an indication of physical health, so appetite for God’s truth is an indication of spiritual health. If the only time you turn to the word of God is on a Sunday, you need to examine your spiritual condition. And in a day and age in which more and more churches are minimising the corporate teaching of God’s words, we need to pay heed to the temptation. Brothers and sisters, we need to work on our appetite. Stop filling your life with junk food and rather fill it with Jesus’ food!

Work on Your Appetite

Note again that Peter exhorts believers to develop this appetite. He does not merely assume it. Rather, they will need help with this. If we are honest, we also need this reminder. We need to work at developing the habit to take in the nourishment of God’s word. We need to take our relationship with the Lord seriously and then hungrily feed on his word. In this way, we will mature in our holy communion.

Brothers and sisters, hear Peter’s appeal. Realise your need and act! Read and study God’s word. Do so with others. On Lord’s Day.

Don’t take for granted the nourishment you receive through the ministry of the local church. Therefore, do not neglect it. If you desire to grow up, then show up to be fed up.

The Reason for a Holy Communion

Finally, we see the reason for a holy community: “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (2:3).

Fundamentally, believers should and will pursue a holy communion because we have experienced the grace of God through the gospel of God. That is, those who have experienced the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus will continually resolve to fulfil their responsibility for a life of holy communion. Those saved by the gospel of God will resolve to love the church of God.

Peter quotes here from Psalm 34 and I share the conviction of Thomas Schreiner that “Peter did not allude to Psalm 34 casually, but the themes of the psalm had made a powerful impact on him.” The evidence for this assertion is that Peter will quote this psalm again in 3:10–12. Further, the theme of Psalm 34 is that of suffering persecution, which is a major theme in 1 Peter. I won’t belabour the point except to note that, when a New Testament writer quotes an Old Testament text, it is not simply because he is proof-texting. Usually, there is a contextual connection (as we saw earlier [1:24–25], when Peter quoted Isaiah 40:6–9).

The word “if” is not intended to cause unnecessary doubt. Peter wants his readers to consider that they have experienced God’s grace and therefore should desire to be gracious and kind to others (1:22; 2:1). They should also desire to grow in grace and kindness and be dedicatedly determined to being increasingly like their heavenly Father (1:17; cf. Matthew 5:48; Ephesians 5:1).

In Psalm 34, “the Lord” referred to Yahweh. But here the context (see following) indicates it refers to Jesus Christ. He is the good news of 1:25.

Those who have experienced the grace of God in Jesus Christ are reasonably expected to express that grace to others. The local church is to be a place of grace.

Do you yet need this experience? Have you been born again by the Father through the word of God? Is there spiritual life? That is, have you repented of your sins and turned to trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone as your Saviour? If not, then all the resolve in the world will make no difference to your standing before God. Ask for God’s gift of salvation. Ask him for the privilege of forgiveness and then join us in fulfilling our responsibility to have a holy communion.

Conclusion

In a world of badness—in a graceless world of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander—the church is a supernatural people of holy and therefore loving fellowship. It is a people growing in Christ-centred communion. By the resource of God’s gospel, as found in his word, let us resolve to commit practically to our responsibility to love one another sincerely from pure hearts. After all, having been saved by the gracious work of Jesus Christ, we have every reason to do so.

AMEN