1 Peter 1:22-25: The Living and Abiding Word of God

1 Peter 1:22-25: The Living and Abiding Word of God

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Peter, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Peter 1:22-25. It says,

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, every word we find written in this passage is a priceless treasure because it’s your self-revelation. Thank you that we don’t have to guess about who you are or how we can know you or live in the realm of your blessing. You’ve already told us in your Word. So help us to understand everything we need to understand and be changed in every way we need to be changed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.  One of the things that’s involved in having children is a lot of talk about percentiles. Especially in the first few months of a baby’s life, we receive numerous reports about what percentiles they’re in when it comes to things like height and weight, and we usually appreciate having that data. Now, I have to admit that one percentile ranking I’ve never quite known what to do with is the baby’s head circumference. I’ve always found that to be rather intriguing. And I’m sure there’s some sophisticated medical reason for measuring the size of a baby’s head, but the only thing I’ve ever concluded from those measurements was the likelihood of my kids looking funny. You know, you don’t want your kid to have a head the size of a basketball before they’re even a teenager. But when it comes to things like height and weight, I’ve always appreciated being told what percentiles my children are in. Even though I don’t put too much stock in the percentiles, I nevertheless appreciate some level of confirmation that my kids are experiencing normal and healthy physical development. 

But what about a person’s spiritual development? How do we measure that? It’s not quite as easy, is it? With physical development, you can just measure height and weight and apparently head circumference and have some idea of how a person’s developing physically, but with spiritual development, it’s a bit more difficult. So, thinking of ourselves, how can we know whether or not we’re developing spiritually? And how can we know if we’re spiritually mature? 

From what I’ve seen, a lot of people seem to assume they’re spiritually mature simply because they’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge about the Bible and theology. Maybe they’ve read theology books and studied the complexities of the Trinity and perhaps even know the difference between supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism. I mean, anyone who knows fancy theological words like that must be spiritually mature, right? 

Alternatively, others might assume they’re mature because they’re very devoted in their practice of various spiritual disciplines such as reading the Bible and praying. Or perhaps they assume that the fact that they’re actively involved in some type of church ministry must mean they’re spiritually mature. 

Or maybe they think they’re mature because of their outward morality. You know, they go down their mental “holiness” checklist and are able to check most of the boxes: Not having substance abuse issues—check. Not cheating on taxes—check. Not having sex outside of marriage—check. Not swearing—check. Not gossiping—check. And if they check enough boxes, they assume they’re spiritually mature. Or one additional possibility is that people might assume they’re mature simply because they’ve been a Christian for a long time. In their minds, surely the fact that they’ve been a Christian for 30 years must mean they’re mature. 

Yet, in reality, I don’t believe any of these things are definitive measurements of spiritual maturity. Some of them certainly have more value than others, but I don’t think any of them is definitive. Instead, I’m convinced the most accurate measurement of a person’s spiritual maturity is their love. How passionately do they love God, and how fervently do they love other people? That’s the best indicator there is of their level of maturity as a Christian. 

And, of course, it’s not that difficult to find biblical support for that, is it? I imagine some of you are already thinking of Matthew 22:37-39, where a Pharisee asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is and Jesus replies, 37 …You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In addition, the Apostle Paul famously writes in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” We might say that there are three vital signs that mark a true Christian. Just as there are various vital signs that indicate physical life such as pulse and breathing and blood pressure, there are likewise vital signs that indicate spiritual life—namely, faith, hope, and love. Yet, as Paul says, “the greatest of these is love.” Love is the greatest of all spiritual virtues and, indeed, if we consider the words of Jesus, the culmination of all spiritual virtues. Everything that we’re called to be and do as Christians can be summed up in love. 

So, as we turn our attention to our main passage of Scripture today—1 Peter 1:22-25—it shouldn’t surprise us to read what Peter says. He says, in verse 22, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” So, let’s just walk through that, very briefly, phrase by phrase. Peter first reminds his readers of the foundational reality that should encourage them to love one another, and that’s the fact that they’ve “purified [their] souls by [their] obedience to the truth.” 

Now, there’s actually some debate about how exactly to interpret this. I believe the best interpretation is that the purification of our souls refers to the time when we were converted. When someone experiences conversion, God changes them on this inside. The Bible describes it elsewhere as a change of heart—or, we might say, a spiritual heart transplant. Their old sinful heart is removed and replaced with a new heart—one that’s oriented toward God and desires what pleases God. Essentially, it’s purified. That’s what Peter’s talking about when he refers to the purification of their souls. 

And this happens, Peter says, at the point in time when we’re obedient to the truth—that is, the truth of the gospel, the truth about Jesus and what he’s done to save us. Now, the Bible usually speaks of us “believing” the gospel, but there are several occasions when it speaks about us “obeying” the gospel. In 2 Thessalonians 1:8, Paul says that Jesus will punish “those who do not obey the gospel.” And in Acts 6:7, we’re told about people becoming “obedient to the faith.” The reason for this is that true belief—true faith—includes an element of devotion to God and a purposing in our hearts to start pleasing God and obeying God. Therefore, saving faith is referred to not just as belief in the truth also as “obedience to the truth”—as we see here in 1 Peter. 

So, Peter talks about his readers “having purified [their] souls by [their] obedience to the truth,” and then he says, “for a sincere brotherly love.” That word “for” indicates that a purpose is being identified. One key purpose for which our souls have been purified at conversion is “for a sincere brotherly love.” Essentially, we were saved so that we can love one another. If you’re a Christian, God didn’t save you so you can go on living a selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed life but rather so you can start being more oriented around the interests and welfare of other people than you are even around your own interests and welfare. You were saved so that you can love. 

And Peter describes it here as “a sincere brotherly love.” Our love should be “sincere” in that it should be unfeigned. I’m sure we’ve all had people who acted nice to our face but who didn’t act quite as nice behind our backs. Peter says not to do that but instead to make sure the love we display is a sincere love. He also says to make sure it’s a “brotherly” love. This speaks of the fact that Christians are called to have a unique family love for one another. Even though we’re certainly called to love everyone in the world, we’re called to have a unique and higher love for other Christians—a “brotherly” love.

After that, Peter goes on to give a direct command. He says, “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” One commentator explains that the Greek word translated “earnestly” there is a physiological term that refers to stretching a muscle to the furthest limit of its capacity. I remember one time, when I was in high school, running at a track meet and truly giving it everything I had. I was competing in my best event—the 2-mile race—which consisted of 8 laps around the track. And that might not sound too bad, but trust me: if you’re running at a decent pace, it can be pretty brutal. 

So, there I was, running the 2-mile race. And this was actually the district track meet—the championship track meet for all the schools in our district—so, I ran with everything I had. And toward the end of the race, I was pushing myself so hard that the entire final lap was just a blur. I remember using every last ounce of energy I had to make it across the finish line. And once I crossed that finish line, I didn’t pass out, but I do remember becoming very dizzy and rather disoriented. I actually couldn’t even stand up. I just laid in the field inside the track with my chest heaving and trying to recover from my immense exertion of energy. And in case you’re wondering, no, I unfortunately didn’t win the race, but I did come in fifth or sixth, which qualified me for regionals. 

So, that’s what comes to my mind when I read the word “earnestly” here in this verse—pushing your body to the furthest limit of its capacity. And according to Peter, that’s the way we’re supposed to love one another. We’re called to have a love for one another that doesn’t hold anything back but that extends itself to the fullest extent possible in promoting the welfare of everyone and especially of our brothers and sisters in the faith. So, how earnest is your love? And how is it currently being expressed in your life? If an outsider were to look at your interactions with other people in this church, would they conclude that you’re loving others “earnestly”—and, if so, on what basis would they conclude that? 

Then, as we cross over into verse 23, we see the grounds on which we’re told to love one another, and that is the fact that we’ve been “born again.” Peter says to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” The phrase “born again” is a metaphor that speaks of what happens spiritually within a person’s heart at conversion. In the previous verse, Peter referred to it as a purification of the soul. I also said earlier that the Bible speaks of it as our old sinful heart being replaced with a new godly heart. 

Yet, I really like the phrase “born again” because it emphasizes just how radical this change is. It’s so radical, it’s as if a new person has just entered the world. Because that’s what happens in a physical birth, right? When someone’s born physically, a new person enters the world. Likewise, when someone’s “born again,” a new person has just entered the world all over again. The individual now has new desires, new priorities, and an entirely new perspective on life. And it’s only because those of us who are Christians have been changed in this way that we’re capable of loving one another earnestly, as Peter tells us to do. Left to our own devices, we can’t be loving people. It’s only through God and God’s power at work in our hearts that we can have this kind of love. 

Now, let’s just pause for a moment and recognize that Peter could have stopped right there. He could have exhorted his readers to love one another because they’ve been born again, and that would have been a complete thought. Yet Peter doesn’t stop there but instead spends the rest of this verse and the subsequent two verses emphasizing not just the fact that we’ve been born again but also the means by which we’ve been born again. And due to Peter’s extensive elaboration on the means of this new birth, I believe this is where the emphasis of the passage is. Peter says we’ve “been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” and then spends the next two verses describing the enduring and eternal nature of that Word. 

So, with that in mind, we’re now able to identify the main idea of this passage, which is that Christians should love one another because of the radical way the Word of God has changed them. Again, Christians should love one another because of the radical way the Word of God has changed them.

And, again, Peter emphasizes the enduring and eternal nature of this Word. He says we’ve been “born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable.” Typically, of course, seeds are perishable. They don’t last forever. If a farmer has seeds and doesn’t plant those seeds, I have no idea how long they’ll last, but I do know that they’ll eventually go bad. And even if the farmer plants them, the crops they produce will eventually die. So, every earthly seed is perishable. But we’ve been “born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable.” 

Peter then identifies this “imperishable” seed as “the living and abiding word of God.” God’s Word is “living” in the sense that it’s powerful even to the point of imparting new life to people. We also read that it’s “abiding.” When God’s Word gets into someone and changes their heart and brings about the new birth, it never leaves. It takes up permanent residence in their heart. 

In addition, God’s Word is also “abiding” in the sense that it’s eternal—eternally true, eternally powerful, and eternally relevant. This is the sense Peter focuses on in verse 24 and the beginning of verse 25. Quoting Isaiah 40 verses 6 and 8, he writes, “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.” The thing about grass and flowers is that they’re here today and gone tomorrow. Think about the nicest bouquet of flowers you’ve ever seen. No matter how beautiful or fragrant those flowers were, I can guarantee that their beauty began to fade within a matter of days and that they eventually shriveled up and were no longer beautiful at all. That’s just what happens to flowers. Even the nicest bouquet will soon wither and die. 

Yet, in striking contrast to that, Peter says, “the word of the Lord remains forever.” God’s Word is and will forever be the supreme standard of all truth. There won’t ever be a time when it’s not true and powerful and relevant. You know, we live in a world where lies and misrepresentations abound. And it seems to be getting worse. With the so-called “deepfake” technology that’s out there now and the ways people can use AI to create just about anything, we’re quickly approaching the point where we can’t even believe our eyes anymore. We just don’t know—especially at first glance—whether a picture or video is real or not real. So, we might wonder, is there anything we can trust? Is there anything out there that we can be sure won’t be shown tomorrow to be a farce? Yes, there is—the Word of God. The ground might be shifting beneath our feet in every other area so that we’re not even sure what we can trust any more, but one thing we’ll always be able to trust is God’s Word. “The word of the Lord remains forever.”

“And this word,” Peter says at the end of verse 25, “is the good news that was preached to you.” So, strictly speaking, the “word of the Lord” refers to the gospel message—spoken of here as “the good news that was preached to you.” The word “gospel” literally means “good news.”

This “good news” is that when we were enslaved to the sinful desires of our hearts and thoroughly deserving of eternal punishment and helpless to save ourselves, Jesus came to our rescue. He did this by becoming one of us—a real flesh-and-blood human being—and living a life of perfect obedience to God’s law. Jesus then voluntarily allowed himself to be crucified in order to make atonement for our sins. That means Jesus dying on the cross was the sacrifice that was necessary in order to appease God the Father’s righteous wrath against our sins. Essentially, Jesus suffered that wrath so we wouldn’t have to. He then demonstrated that the Father had accepted his sacrifice by rising from the dead three days later and, as a result, now stands ready to save everyone who will put their trust exclusively in him for rescue. So, Jesus does for us what we could never do for ourselves. He rescues us from both the guilt and power of sin and brings us into a close relationship with God and gives us the gift of eternal life. That’s what I’d call good news! God didn’t leave us in our sins but instead sent us a Savior!

So, strictly speaking, “the word of the Lord” refers to that gospel message. Yet, it’s also important to recognize that God’s caused this gospel message to be written down in what we now know as the Bible. In a sense, the entire Bible actually tells the story of the gospel—a very full rendering of the story from the very beginning all the way back in Creation to the very end and consummation of the gospel message in which God’s people are forever reunited with him in the new heavens and new earth. So, “the word of the Lord” here refers not just to the summary gospel message that we can share with someone in 5 minutes but also to the full and fleshed-out message of the gospel that comprises the entirety of Scripture—perfectly and eternally preserved in the pages of the Bible. So, it is appropriate to think of the “word of the Lord” as the Bible. 

And Peter’s point in this passage is that, for those of us who are Christians, it’s this Word of God that’s changed us and made us into the people we are today. God’s Word is his instrument of change and transformation in our lives. As we see in verse 23, it’s the means by which we’ve been “born again” and also the means by which we continue to be transformed throughout our lives as God’s Word continues to “live and abide” in us. Nothing else can impart life to us and transform our hearts and shape our desires the way God’s Word can. 

So…how, then, should we respond to this? Let me suggest four responses. I could certainly go on and on about each of these, but I’ll have to make them as brief as possible. 

First, get into the Word until the Word gets into you. Get into the Word until the Word gets into you. Read it, study it, meditate on it, memorize it. Let it shape your heart, guide your prayers, stir your affections, inspire your worship, and inform your obedience. And we’ll actually discuss the importance of reading and studying the Bible pretty extensively in a couple of weeks when we look at 1 Peter 2, so I’ll hold off saying anything else about that for now. Just know that it’s absolutely foundational for our spiritual health and growth. 

Then a second response to the transformative power of God’s Word is to recognize the value of expository preaching. Expository preaching refers to preaching that brings out the meaning of a particular passage of the Bible. The goal is for the main idea of the sermon to match the main idea of the biblical passage being studied and for the sermon to be thoroughly saturated with that passage. An expository sermon does more than simply refer to the passage or be inspired by the passage. It actually preaches that passage. 

One analogy I’ve heard and found helpful is that of a swimming pool. Preachers generally use the Bible in one of three ways. Sometimes they use the Bible as a diving board. They read a biblical passage but then…wander away from it and never quite get back to it. Other times, preachers use the Bible as patio furniture. They read a biblical passage but then return to it only occasionally. However, an expository preacher will use the Bible as a swimming pool and actually take their listeners for a prolonged swim in the biblical passage they’re preaching. Expository sermons swim in the Bible and are thoroughly saturated with the biblical text. 

So, hopefully you can see the connection I’m making. If we really believe what Peter says in our main passage about the power of the Word of God and how it’s the Word of God that transforms us, expository preaching is absolutely the way to go. And to be candid with you, that’s a key reason why we started this church. We believed and still believe there’s a significant need for expository preaching in the South Hills area—preaching that’s faithful to the biblical text, that swims in the biblical text, and that helps people connect that text to their lives. 

You know, it’s one thing to say you believe in the power and authority of the Bible. Anyone can say that. But if we really believe that the Bible is powerful and authoritative, I’d think that we’d want our sermons to be framed not around a bunch of entertaining stories or religious platitudes or self-help advice but rather around the Word of God. And expository preaching does that. 

Then, moving forward, a third response to what we see in 1 Peter about the transformative power of God’s Word, is to be steadfast in standing on biblical truth. Stand on God’s Word unapologetically and without compromise. And that includes the biblical teachings that aren’t very popular in our society, such as the teachings that Jesus is the only way to heaven, that hell is a very real place, that any sexual relationship outside the covenant of marriage is sinful, that the Bible only permits divorce in cases of adultery or abandonment, that any LGBT lifestyle is contrary to God’s design, and that abortion is actually murder—just to name a few controversial teachings. In fact, our willingness to stand on what the Bible says about these controversial issues and other issues like these is a key measure of our faithfulness to the Bible. 

I appreciate the way the great reformer Martin Luther said it back in the 1500’s. He said, “If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the rest of the battlefield, is mere flight and disgrace if the soldier flinches at that point.” Isn’t that good? “Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.” This means that, if there are ten doctrines, and one of them is under attack, faithfully teaching the other nine while remaining silent about the one that’s under attack doesn’t constitute faithfulness to the Bible. So, we have to be clear about our convictions both as individuals and as a church. 

Now, of course, as I mentioned, we’re also committed to expository preaching, which means that we follow the biblical text wherever it goes during our times together on Sunday morning. That means we’re not going out of our way to address as many controversial topics as we possibly can each and every Sunday. Our primary focus is the message of the gospel—since that’s the message that’s central in the Bible. However, at the same time, we need to be very clear about our convictions and not afraid to stand on those convictions regardless of what the consequences may be. Regardless of what happens to us, we need to be led not by our godless culture but rather by the Word of God. 

So, perhaps a good and balanced way to describe what our goal should be is to be clear where the Bible is clear and yet also focused where the Bible is focused. We want to be clear about what Scripture says about controversial issues and yet also focused on the message of the gospel. 

And then, one final response to what Peter says about the transformative power of God’s Word is to put your confidence in God’s Word in your evangelistic efforts. Jesus calls those of us who are Christians to a life of evangelism— sharing the gospel with the people around us with the hope that they’ll become Christians as well. And as we do that, our confidence shouldn’t be in any particular evangelistic technique, or in our own charisma, or in any other human device but rather in the Spirit of God working through the Word of God to change people’s hearts. 

Never forget that, as Peter clearly reminds us in verse 23 of our main passage, it’s the Word of God that causes people to be born again—not our intelligence, not our ability to be persuasive, not this or that clever technique we employ, but the Word of God. That’s what changes people’s hearts. And if you notice in verse 23, God’s Word is compared to a seed. And the thing about a seed is that, when you plant it, the results aren’t immediate, are they? It takes time to see something come up out of the ground. Likewise, when we plant the seed of God’s Word by sharing it with someone else, it's not uncommon for it to take some time before it has any visible result in their life. So, we just keep praying for them and sharing with them and loving them with the confidence that God will use his Word in a powerful way in that person’s life. Again, our confidence is in the Word to bring about change and transformation in their hearts.