An All Encompassing Command to Love

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces Peter's first letter as fulfilling his recommissioning to 'feed his sheep,' focusing on instruction. He sets the immediate context of 1 Peter 2:11-16, which…

Martin recounts Peter's denial of Christ, his bitter repentance, and Christ's subsequent recommissioning to 'feed his sheep and lambs,' establishing Peter's pastoral authority and the context of his letter.

written by the inspiration of the Spirit of God through the very man of whom we read this morning, who in a moment of weakness took upon himself solemn oaths and maledictions, saying that he had no relationship to Jesus. Yet the passage we read this morning ended with Peter weeping bitterly in deep and true repentance. A few days later, after the Lord Jesus died and rose from the dead by the sea, the Lord has very deep and tender dealings with this very same Peter and, as it were, recommissions him. To his task, telling him to feed his sheep and to feed his lambs. And here in his letter to the...

0:20 - 1:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Be committed to constantly loving the brotherhood, understanding their created dignity and redemptive potentiality.

Martin uses the analogies of catching the flu or a hawk seizing a field mouse to illustrate the generation's misconception of love as something that happens to you, rather than a commanded act of will.

It is a command, and it's a command that carries with it the idea of continuous action. Be continually loving the brotherhood. Now in the mindset of this generation, the whole idea, the idea that love is commanded, is a strange notion. We live in a generation that thinks that love is sort of like the flu.

14:21 - 14:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Be committed to constantly loving the brotherhood, understanding their created dignity and redemptive potentiality.

Martin quotes John Brown's commentary on 1 Peter, defining the church as a 'happy, holy fellowship' formed by Christ to unite believers in worship, mutual improvement, and promotion of God's honor, emphasizing its corporate identity as the brotherhood.

And surely as the people of God at any given point in my life I can stand in relationship to any of my fellow creatures and know that it is the will of God for me to honor all men, at all times, in all circumstances. I am to honor all men so I can stand at any place, at any time, in any set of circumstances and know it is the will of God that I love the brotherhood. I love the brotherhood. John Brown in his excellent commentary on 1 Peter writes, with respect to this matter of the brotherhood being the people of God, what we call generally and use the biblical terminology the church, it is imp...

18:59 - 20:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second pattern is Paul's description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, highlighting its supremacy over spiritual gifts. Martin details love's characteristics: long-suffering…

Paul's metaphor of 'sounding brass or a clanging cymbal' is used to describe a person without love, likened to beating a mixing spoon on a garbage can lid, emphasizing the emptiness of gifts without love.

He begins by saying, If I were to speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. I'm just like someone beating with a mixing spoon on the lid of a garbage can. That's what I've become. If I don't have love, and if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all things, and all thi...

27:52 - 28:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second pattern is Paul's description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, highlighting its supremacy over spiritual gifts. Martin details love's characteristics: long-suffering…

Martin uses the metaphor of love not being 'one big sore toe waiting for someone to step on it' to illustrate that love is not easily provoked or quick to take offense.

No, love does not seek its own. Love does not seek its own. It's not provoked. Love is not one big sore toe waiting for someone to step on it.

31:01 - 31:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God for grace and power to love the brotherhood in specific areas where you have known defeat, according to the patterns and descriptions given in Scripture.

The metaphor of love not keeping a 'ledger book' of others' faults illustrates that love does not constantly account for or remember the sins of others.

Love. Love is not provoked, takes not account of evil. Love doesn't keep a ledger book to remember until one's grave the faults of others. Love doesn't make someone a constant accountant of the sins of others.

31:26 - 31:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God for grace and power to love the brotherhood in specific areas where you have known defeat, according to the patterns and descriptions given in Scripture.

Martin gives the example of inwardly gloating over a 'juicy tale' about another believer to illustrate what it means to rejoice in unrighteousness, which love does not do.

Love rejoices not in unrighteousness. It isn't love. It's love that makes someone inwardly gloat when they hear a juicy tale of another believer within the brotherhood. That's not love.

31:53 - 32:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin applies the sermon to unbelievers, arguing that God made humanity social beings with a yearning for true relationships, a yearning fractured by sin. He asserts that only in…

Martin reverently describes God as a 'social being' within the Trinity, with communion between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to explain why humans, made in God's image, yearn for social relationships.

I say it reverently, God is a social being.

40:22 - 40:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin applies the sermon to unbelievers, arguing that God made humanity social beings with a yearning for true relationships, a yearning fractured by sin. He asserts that only in…

Martin recounts God's assessment of Adam alone as 'not good' before Eve's creation, illustrating humanity's inherent need for fellowship with other human beings.

I cannot fathom it, but it's a wonderful, glorious truth. And when God made man in his image, he made him an image-bearer, a creature who could not only hold communion with his God, but made to have communion and interplay of thought and heart and affection with fellow creatures. That's why God, who had made Adam upright and perfect, looked upon Adam without Eve and said, He is not good. He is not good.

40:55 - 41:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Christ, not only for a right relationship with God but also to experience fulfilling relationships with others within the community transformed by God's power.

The story of Cain murdering Abel is used as a tragic symbol of how sin utterly destroys social instincts and the possibility of true love and acceptance between humans.

Instead of the man running to meet God, he runs to hide from God among the trees of the garden. But the first two children born, Cain and Abel, what happens? One rises up and murders the other. What a tragic symbol of the utter destruction of those social instincts, of love and acceptance and goodwill.

41:58 - 42:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Christ, not only for a right relationship with God but also to experience fulfilling relationships with others within the community transformed by God's power.

Martin describes the diverse backgrounds of believers in Asia Minor (Jews and Gentiles) who, despite former animosity, were brought into communion by the gospel, illustrating the power of grace to unite.

That's why Peter could write, Love the Brotherhood. There was a brotherhood in Asia Minor, groups of the brotherhood, from totally diverse backgrounds, Jews who had all their lives despised the Gentile dogs, and Gentiles who had looked down upon the Jews for all of their weird religions, with no temples that had idols in them, etc. And idolaters looked askance upon the Jews, and the Jews looked upon the Gentile hordes as dogs and unclean. And now they are all part of these little enclaves of the brotherhood here, and the brotherhood here, and the brotherhood here.

42:46 - 43:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Christ, not only for a right relationship with God but also to experience fulfilling relationships with others within the community transformed by God's power.

Martin describes the 'unconverted brotherhood' as having unwritten rules of mutual non-exposure and shared defiance of God's laws, but with a 'worm' of conscience that undermines their pleasure.

that in this area and that area you will be content to violate God's laws together. And the unwritten rules of your commitment to one another is don't you expose me and I won't expose you. But the problem is you all have a conscience. You all have a conscience.

44:58 - 45:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to Christ, and then come to us (the church); give yourselves to Him and then to us by His will, to be put among the brethren and receive the brother's inheritance.

Martin shares the common experience of true children of God, who once viewed God's people as 'dull, restricted, restrained, funny,' but after salvation, found themselves 'bitterly happy' to be part of them.

But as you purify your soul in obedience to the truth of the gospel, as God is pleased to transform you by the renewing work of His Spirit, then it is unto unfeigned love of the brethren you will now have the capacity and the disposition truly to love the brotherhood. It's one of the things that is an amazement to the true child of God, of what happened to his most visceral attitude to the people of God after God saved him. We thought God's people were the most dull, restricted, restrained, funny group on the face of the earth until God was pleased to save us. And we've been bitterly happy tha...

47:33 - 48:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Allow the command 'Love the brotherhood' to be a sentinel in your conscience, preventing attitudes of ill will, suspicion, envy, unforgiveness, or indifference to perceived need.

The metaphor of the 'eyelash of God' brushing over the 'soft, sensitive tissue of the soul' is used to describe the deep, internal working of conscience, where moral and ethical sensitivity registers.

When you're contemplating something, when you've thought something, when you've said something in that deep place where the eyelash of God, as it were, brushes over the soft, sensitive tissue of the soul and says, and there's either excusing or accusing of conscience, I trust in that place this text has set itself up like a sentinel. Honor all men. The moment we are tempted for whatever reason to think, to act, to speak in a way that is demeaning, in a way that is degrading of another fellow human being, I trust this text will come thundering into our...

51:16 - 52:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Formally commit yourself to the brotherhood by openly declaring your new birth and desire to be part of a visible community of God's people.

Martin uses the example of the Apostle Paul, who, despite his unique conversion and commission, made 'repeated serious efforts' to join the disciples in Jerusalem, emphasizing the importance of formal church membership.

And for some perhaps who've not reflected upon this, let me just turn you for a moment to Acts chapter 9. If there was ever someone who could consider himself as privileged to such a degree as to be lifted above the necessity of a mundane issue such as formal church membership, it was the Apostle Paul. In Acts chapter 9, in the first 18 verses, you have an account of Paul's conversion. Saul of Tarsus breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church.

54:53 - 55:25 Read in full sermon