1 Peter 1:22-25 - Like grass

1:22

We have been purified by obeying the truth? What does this mean? Well let’s first look at the lie we previously believed. We thought we could manage on our own. We thought we could manage materially on our own, we thought we could manage morally on our own. Both of these are a lie. When we choose our own way, become lord of our own life, things quickly start to head towards disaster. This applies to us as individuals, and on a corporate level as well. Some think they are righteous, this is another lie. The gospel tells us that we have sinned against God and are helpless to do anything about it in our own strength. Instead we need to trust in Christ, to rely on His sacrifice to justify us, and to rely on the Holy Spirit to transform us. Believing the gospel is a matter of obeying God. So often it is presented as a choice, but it is a choice of whether or not to obey the Lord.

We can now have a sincere love for one another. We are not trying to prove anything, we are free to give and free to forgive. So we should live out of this freedom and love one another deeply.

1:23

We have been born again. Life is different, we are different. We are a new creation, and we need to live out of this new creation, not the old self. And we were born not of perishable seed, but imperishable seed. Why does he say this? Well, how were we first born? We were born naturally, but this was of perishable seed. Everyone who is born is destined to die. This is not very encouraging, but it is a fact. Death and taxes, as the old saying goes, are the only certainties in life! To be perfectly honest life is a struggle. However, we were born again of imperishable seed. This new life is not a life of decay, but one of renewal, of transformation from one degree of glory to the next. In our lives we see both the old and the new at work, and we can become depressed if we focus on the old, Instead we need to learn to live increasingly out of the new life.

How did this new life come about? It was through the living and enduring word of God. We will focus on this aspect when we look at the next couple of verses.

1:24,25

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 40:6-8. We need to appreciate the life giving power of the word of God. Jesus told the devil, quoting from Deuteronomy, that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The world was created by the word of God, and we were recreated by the word of God. We can look around us and sometimes be intimidated or overawed by others or by some aspect of the world, but all the glory we see around is fleeting, it will not last forever. To put it bluntly it will decay in the grave. But the word of the Lord endures for ever, and the gospel is the enduring word of God. We need to learn to rely on this word, to live out of it, and to rejoice in it.