The Precept Mandating Brotherly Love

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Peter's address to believers as 'elect sojourners,' resident aliens awaiting an imperishable inheritance, and describes 1 Peter as a 'traveler's guide' that first…

Martin uses the metaphor of 'resident aliens' making their way through the 'wilderness of this world' to describe believers, awaiting their heavenly inheritance, which helps the audience understand their identity and purpose.

Now those of you familiar at all with this letter will know that as Peter addresses the believers in the provinces of Asia Minor, he addresses them as elect sojourners of the dispersion. He views them as resident aliens who are making their way, through the wilderness of this world, as they await the inheritance described later on in this very chapter, as that which is reserved in heaven for them, an inheritance undefiled, an inheritance that is imperishable, an inheritance that has been secured for them

4:00 - 4:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Peter's address to believers as 'elect sojourners,' resident aliens awaiting an imperishable inheritance, and describes 1 Peter as a 'traveler's guide' that first…

Martin references John Bunyan's 'celestial city' to further illustrate the pilgrim journey of believers, making the concept of their destination more tangible.

by the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because Peter understands their identity, as elect sojourners, those who are making their way through the wilderness of this world, on their way, to use Bunyan's terminology, to the celestial city, he is conscious that they need, what one author has called, a traveler's guide. And that's the way one author has described the book of 1 Peter, as a traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims. And in that guide, Peter begins, not with telling these, elect sojourners, what they are to do or to be, but in verses 3 through 12,

4:42 - 5:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Peter's address to believers as 'elect sojourners,' resident aliens awaiting an imperishable inheritance, and describes 1 Peter as a 'traveler's guide' that first…

Martin quotes an author who describes 1 Peter as a 'traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims,' emphasizing the practical, instructional nature of the epistle for believers on their journey.

by the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because Peter understands their identity, as elect sojourners, those who are making their way through the wilderness of this world, on their way, to use Bunyan's terminology, to the celestial city, he is conscious that they need, what one author has called, a traveler's guide. And that's the way one author has described the book of 1 Peter, as a traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims. And in that guide, Peter begins, not with telling these, elect sojourners, what they are to do or to be, but in verses 3 through 12,

4:42 - 5:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the fourth imperative, 'Love one another from the heart fervently' (1 Peter 1:22), as the believer's duty to fellow travelers, building on the prerequisites of…

Martin uses the metaphor of 'sandwiching' the imperative 'love one another' between the 'two slices of assumed spirit and spiritual experience' (purification and begetting) to show how these prerequisites enable the command.

He sandwiches the imperative love one another between these two slices of assumed spirit and spiritual experience. Seeing you have purified your souls unto unfamed love of the brethren, love one another, having been begotten again. So that the prerequisites to this brotherly love are the purification of the soul that comes in true conversion, and the new birth which lies behind that conversion by which we purify our souls in obedience to the truth.

9:41 - 10:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Though we cannot obey it perfectly, we can obey it in true God-given ability so that we can say by the grace of God, yes, I do know that I've passed from death unto life because I do love the brethren.

Martin compares God's command to love with the 'taskmasters in Egypt' demanding brick without straw, to highlight that God, unlike the taskmasters, provides His people with the capacity to obey His commands.

But for those of us who are part of the brotherhood, for you who have purified your souls in obedience to the truth, you have been born again. The prerequisites for brotherly love are present within your own life. God has given to you both the desire and the power to love the brotherhood. You see, Peter, in giving this precept, love one another from the heart fervently, is not doing what the taskmasters in Egypt did, demanding brick while they withheld straw.

22:01 - 22:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Though we cannot obey it perfectly, we can obey it in true God-given ability so that we can say by the grace of God, yes, I do know that I've passed from death unto life because I do love the brethren.

Martin describes the natural human heart as a 'sinkhole dominated by envy and jealousy and suspicion and bitterness and rancor and ill will' to emphasize the transformative power of purification and regeneration.

God has furnished His people with the capacity to love one another and to love from the heart because they have purified their souls in their obedience to the truth. The heart is now no longer a sinkhole dominated by envy and jealousy and suspicion and bitterness and rancor and ill will. That's what your heart and my heart is by nature. But Peter says, having purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, God has begotten you.

22:44 - 23:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Though we cannot obey it perfectly, we can obey it in true God-given ability so that we can say by the grace of God, yes, I do know that I've passed from death unto life because I do love the brethren.

Martin uses the metaphor of a 'mountain that's 30,000 feet high' that we've never climbed to illustrate the perceived difficulty of obeying the command to love, contrasting it with the God-given ability to obey.

So that if you are one of God's people, you have both the desire and the capacity. God is at work in you to will and to work for His good pleasure, giving you both the inclination of will and the power to do what is pleasing in His sight. So that when we come to this precept, love one another from the heart fervently, we must not look upon it as some mountain that's 30,000 feet high and we've never climbed a hill in the local park. Though we cannot obey it perfectly, we can obey it in true God-given ability

23:46 - 24:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Love and its exercise is the principal grace and duty that is required among and expected from saints of God especially as they are joined in Christ.

Martin recounts John Owen's sermon preached when two churches merged, where Owen emphasized love as the 'principal grace and duty' among saints, lending historical and theological weight to the sermon's theme.

That we have a solemn responsibility to love one another. In commenting on this very duty of mutual love among the brethren John Owen in a very moving sermon that he preached when the church he was pastor of that had 36 members was joining with another church that had 136 members and John Owen was being recognized as the pastor of the newly joined two churches and he preached a sermon on the duty of brotherly love and in that sermon he said love and its exercise is the principal grace and duty that is required among and expected

37:07 - 37:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He that loves not knows not God. He says I love a God whom I have not seen I love a Christ whom I have not seen and doesn't love the brotherhood whom he can see John says such a person is a liar and self deceived.

Martin contrasts an 'ocean of words' with 'impalement upon an instrument of horrible death' to vividly illustrate the measure of Christ's love, which is self-giving sacrifice, not mere verbal affirmation.

He said this is the new commandment not to love but it is new in that it has a new measure and standard as I have loved you. What is the measure of Christ's love? Not an ocean of words but impalement upon an instrument of horrible death. Crucifixion.

39:01 - 39:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Your duty to love one another my duty to love you and yours to love me has nothing to do with whether we are lovable it has to do whether or not we are in the brotherhood.

Martin quotes John Brown's commentary on the word 'fervently,' noting its connection to 'intensity and power,' and then uses Jesus' Gethsemane experience to illustrate this intensity.

engaged that you can call it love on a stretch love stretched out love that is intense that is fervent that is earnest not all always as a feeling but as a fixed principle of the heart love one another out of the heart fervently again john brown comments besides the idea of constancy the word conveys the idea of intensity and power a similar word from the same root is used of our lord's gethsemane experience being in an agony he prayed

48:02 - 48:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Your duty to love one another my duty to love you and yours to love me has nothing to do with whether we are lovable it has to do whether or not we are in the brotherhood.

Martin uses Jesus' earnest prayer in Gethsemane, where he sweat drops of blood, as an example of the intense, fervent quality of love and commitment that the precept calls for.

engaged that you can call it love on a stretch love stretched out love that is intense that is fervent that is earnest not all always as a feeling but as a fixed principle of the heart love one another out of the heart fervently again john brown comments besides the idea of constancy the word conveys the idea of intensity and power a similar word from the same root is used of our lord's gethsemane experience being in an agony he prayed

48:02 - 48:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask ourselves the question does my heart rise up in the presence of this precept does it see the reasonableness and the rightness of it and does my heart say oh god with all my heart out of my heart i do desire to love t…

Martin uses the metaphor of 'homiletical hash' to describe the format of the evening sermon, where he will take 'good food' (doctrinal points) and 'chop it all up' to address various aspects of brotherly love, preparing the audience for a different style of teaching.

fervently god willing tonight we are going to come back to some observations its going to be what i sat at my desk last night its going to be homiletical hash now you know what hash is its taking good food not rancid but good food chopping it all up and throwing it in the skillet its good and nourishing but we are going to have homiletical hash with some of the aspects of this central duty that i could not introduce in trying to expound the text this morning but that i trust will be helpful to us but as we seek to answer some of the questions that i am sure have risen in some of your minds let...

55:21 - 56:04 Read in full sermon