The Precept Mandating Brotherly Love

Introduction: The Context of Peter's Exhortations

0:03 The following sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 9, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, as I've already indicated, we will return this morning to our studies in 1 Peter. So I would ask you to turn with me to 1 Peter, chapter 1, and I shall read in your hearing the last paragraph of that chapter. It begins at verse 13, 1 Peter, chapter 1, and verse 13.

0:45 Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance, but like as he who calls on you. All you do is holy. Be yourselves also holy in all manner of living, because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work,

1:30 pass the time of your sojourning in fear, knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with, silver or gold, from your vain manner of life, handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ, who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through him are believers in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so, that your faith and hope might be in God.

2:13 Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently, having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof is the flesh, and all the glory thereof is the flesh, and all the glory thereof is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word of good tidings, which was preached unto you.

2:56 Let us again seek God's face in prayer, asking his special blessing upon the study of his word together. Let us pray.

3:08 Our Father, we thank you. You are not weary with our coming again and again. While we have already pleaded, that the Spirit would be present to instruct us, we come pleading again, that he may rest in power upon preacher and listener alike, that we together may be conscious that our Lord Jesus is in our midst as our true prophet, taking his own word by his own spirit, and giving us illumination, grace to receive, to believe and to obey, all the way, that he will say to us through the word.

3:48 Meet with us, then we plead for our good and for your glory. Amen.

The Christian as an Elect Sojourner and Traveler's Guide

4:00 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

4:42 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,

5:27 he sets out before them that which God has already made them by His grace, that which God has done through His grace, and that which God is committed yet to do in the fulfillment of His purposes of grace, as they have come to fruition in the person and work, of the Lord Jesus. Only after he has, as it were, laden down these pilgrims, these resident aliens, these sojourners, with the wealth of what they are in Christ, does he begin to lay before them how they are to walk in the light of their redemptive privileges.

The First Cycle of Imperatives: Life Before God

6:12 So in verse 13, he begins his first series of exhortations. And if we are to understand what Peter has written by the guidance of the Spirit, we ought to circle in our minds those central imperatives which are the pegs on which Peter hangs his exhortations. And the first group of those imperatives, roughly speaking, have to do with how the Christian life is to be lived primarily before God. It is to be first of all a life of steadfast hope, verse 13.

6:52 They are with a concentration of mental and spiritual energies in a spirit of sobriety. Here is the first imperative. They are to set their hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ. But secondly, they are not only to have a life of steadfast hope, but a life in the pursuit of universal holiness.

7:20 For the second imperative is, be ye yourselves holy in all manner of living. And then the third characteristic of their life before God, it is not only to be a life of steadfast hope in the pursuit of universal holiness, but a life of appropriate fear. Pass the time of your sojourning in fear. A fear rooted on the one hand in the fact that they call upon God as Father, who is also an impartial judge.

7:55 And on the other hand, by the knowledge that they have been redeemed at a tremendous price. They are to pass the time of their sojourning in fear, knowing that they were redeemed. But then it is as though Peter pauses and says, but now you elect sojourners. You who are on your way to your glorious inheritance.

The Fourth Imperative: Brotherly Love Among Fellow Travelers

8:18 You must not only be concerned to live out your life before God as a life of hope, a life in the pursuit of universal holiness, and a life lived in appropriate fear, but you are to look around you and recognize you have fellow travelers. You have others who are on their way to the possession of that same inheritance. They have known the blessings of that salvation described in verses 3 through 12. And therefore, his imperative with respect to the believer's life in relationship to his fellow believers is couched in the words of verse 22,

9:00 Love one another from the heart fervently. That's the fourth imperative in this first cycle of pastoral exhortations to these believers. And in our last study, three Lord's Days ago, we considered what I call, the prerequisites to brotherly love. As Peter writes to these people, he is assuming that they are a people who have experienced what is described in verse 22 as the purification of their souls, and in verse 23, as the divine begetting.

9:41 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.

10:25 Behind that is the sovereign, gracious work of God, begetting us again by means of His own word unto new spiritual life. So in that previous study, we considered together what I call the prerequisites to brotherly love. Now we come this morning to consider the precept mandating brotherly love. Having looked at the prerequisites, the purification of the soul, having been begotten again, now we come to the precept itself that mandates brotherly love.

The Precept Mandating Brotherly Love: Specific Objects

11:04 And I've chosen the word precept deliberately. A precept is defined as a commandment meant as a rule of action or conduct. A commandment meant as a rule of action or conduct is a precept. And here in this fourth imperative, in this first cycle of pastoral exhortations, Peter lays before us a precept mandating brotherly love.

11:37 And that's precisely what we have set before us as Peter addresses these elect sojourners now in terms of the Christian life, not so much in relationship to God, but in relationship one toward another. As they seek to keep their hope fixed on the inheritance to come at the revelation of Christ, as they seek to pursue a life of universal holiness, as they seek to live in fear, a fear conditioned by the fact that God is their Father, an impartial judge, and a constant remembrance of the awful price paid for their redemption, they are also to remember

12:22 I have fellow travelers and I am to love them from the heart fervently. And that's the precept mandating brotherly love. Now we'll consider the precept under three headings. First of all, note the specific objects of the precept.

12:42 The specific objects of the precept. It's important to ask the question, who are the ones commanded to love one another? In the original, the word, we need two English words to translate the one Greek word, one another, it is placed forward even before the verb. If we were to give a wooden translation from the original, it would be this.

13:08 One another love. One another love. And who are the one another? Well, the one another's in this passage are obviously those who in the immediate context have all together purified their souls in their obedience to the truth, have together experienced the divine begetting.

13:37 The one another is not all men in general, but the people of God in particular, and even in a more narrow sense, the people of God bound together in common church life and fellowship. For remember, though these believers were scattered throughout those provinces of Asia Minor, current Turkey, they were nonetheless found in church fellowship. This is clear from chapter 5, where he exhorts the elders among you, I exhort, who am also a fellow elder, and gives directions that make no sense in any other setting than an organized, visible expression of the church

14:21 of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Peter is concerned that these distinct people, these who have experienced purification of soul, these who have experienced the divine begetting, and who are bound together in common associations of church commitment and fellowship, understand their duty to love one another. Now why do I begin there? Well for the simple reason that the Bible does teach that all men as men, all women, all boys, all girls, all of God's creatures are under a solemn obligation

15:05 not only to love God with all the heart, mind, soul and strength, but to love their neighbor as themselves. This is God's law. That imposes itself justly and righteously upon all of God's creatures, regardless of where they are spiritually. God's law mandates that you love Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and if you do not, you are guilty of sinning against the law of God, and you will pay for that sin in your person, for you will know the blessed remission of that sin in the person of God's only substitute for sinners, the Lord Jesus.

15:49 And in the same way, at every point where you and I have failed to love our neighbor and our neighbor is any fellow human being in need according to Jesus, if we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are guilty of breaking the law of God, and we stand culpable before that law and condemned, and we will be judged for sinning against that law of God if we do not find remission in the one way of God's appointment. And so there is this universal obligation upon all of God's creatures to love one's neighbor as oneself, and in no way am I suspending

16:33 or negating that, nor is Peter. But in this context, we must not import that generic duty into the text. When Peter writes, one and other, beloved, he is writing to these elect sojourners of the dispersion who can bless God with him that they have been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. They are a people of whom Peter could write, whom, having not seen, you love, though you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

17:12 He is speaking particularly to the people of God because the Bible teaches with equal clarity that not only is there a universal obligation upon all of God's creatures to love their neighbor as themselves, but there is a unique obligation upon the people of God to love their fellow believers with a distinct and special love. And the one duty does not negate or cancel the other. Listen to John Brown's comments on this fact. The duty enjoined in this passage, and he is commenting on this very precept, is love.

17:56 There is a love which every man owes to every other man without reference to his spiritual state or character merely because he is a man. It is comprised of a sincere desire to promote his true welfare. We are to have that to every creature of God. This is the love which the apostle with obvious propriety represents as fulfilling the law in Romans 13, 8 to 10.

18:24 So far as it refers to our duties to our fellow men, for he who is under its influence can do no ill to any man. The Bible says love works no ill to another, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. He cannot intentionally injure his person, property, or reputation, but on the contrary must, as he has opportunity, do good unto all men, Galatians 6 and verse 10. Goodwill is the essence, the sole component of this love.

18:55 That is the love we are to bear to all men in obedience to the law of God. The essence of it is goodwill. The love enjoined in our text is obviously much more limited in its meaning and its range and much more comprehensive in its elementary principles. It has already been hinted at in verse 22a as that towards which the purification of the soul tends.

19:24 You have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto non-hypocritical love or kindly affection to your brethren. That towards which the purification of the soul tends is this love of the brethren, those who are part of the brotherhood. And now he says to the brotherhood, love one another, you who are a part of that brotherhood from the heart fervently. Now having considered the specific objects of the precept, do you see how practical that is

20:08 as we work our way through our study of that precept this morning and God willing again this evening? The fundamental directive love one another is that which God lays upon those of us who are the people of God, the children of God. You who are not God's children, you have an obligation to love your neighbor as yourself. But God does not tell you to have that distinctive love of brethren toward other brethren.

20:38 The precept that God lays upon you this morning is not one another be loving, but it's the precept articulated by the Lord Jesus in Mark 1 in verse 15. Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel. That's the precept God lays upon you if you're not a Christian, if you're not part of the brotherhood, if you're not part of that family that is brought to birth by the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit in what Peter here calls having been begotten again. If you are not part of that brotherhood, the precept that should occupy your mind this morning is not the precept love one another,

21:23 directing God's people to a distinctive love to those within the brotherhood. But the precept that God lays before you is own your sin of failing to love God and love your neighbor and repent of it and believe in the gospel. Lay hold of Christ who died the just for the unjust that there might be a just basis upon which God could pardon and accept guilty sinners such as yourself. The mandate to you is not love one another but the mandate is repent and believe the gospel.

The Capacity for Brotherly Love and the Unbeliever's Mandate

22:01 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.

22:44 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.

23:29 And John says, whoever loves Him that begat loves Him also that is begotten. Why? Because the Spirit He has placed within you does not lie dormant within your breast. The fruit of the Spirit is, and what's first mentioned, love.

23:46 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

24:30 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. And I can say I'm part of that community concerning which Christ spoke when He said, by this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you have love one to another. So we've considered then the specific objects of the precepts. Now secondly, note with me the fundamental directive of the precept.

The Fundamental Directive: Agape Love and its Repetition

25:02 Having stated that in purifying their souls, they were disposed to unfeigned or non-hypocritical brotherly love, and Peter uses a word that has as its root the word phileo or phile, which is brotherly affection. Peter moves from that and says, now I'm calling you to this higher, more expansive understanding of love. You are to love one another. And he uses the word agapao.

25:39 You've heard agape, love. And while it is bad Greek and bad theology to set these two words in ironclad categories because scripture simply will not allow us to do that, there is an overlapping of phileo and agapao. But with that overlapping, surely there is this distinction that the love which is the heart of this precept goes beyond mere brotherly affection, which focuses primarily on what we might say the emotive elements of love. And this kind of love focuses more upon an intelligent perception

26:24 of those whom I love and a commitment of heart to love them. Whether or not there is at any given point any felt sense of warmth from brotherly, sisterly affection or not, it certainly includes the affections. But it rises above and beyond the affections into that love which has its clearest expression in that which God did in the sending of His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And that love manifested in the Savior Himself who loved the church

27:06 and gave Himself up for it. There was nothing lovely in us that gave Jesus the fuzzies that He wanted to die for us. He saw us in all our native undoneness, in our naked vileness, and yet He set His love upon us and determined to give Himself for us. And so in the fundamental directive of the precept, Peter by the Spirit of God is calling these Christians to the duty of loving one another.

27:41 A duty that he will repeat three more times in this very letter using some different terminology. But note how he comes back to it in chapter 2 and verse 17. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood.

27:57 You see the narrow focus of this particular love? Love the brotherhood. Love those bound together in phileo, in kindly, brotherly affection. You are to love them with agapao love.

28:14 Love the brotherhood. Those bound together in the fellowship of belief and commitment to Christ and to a life of holiness and hope and living in the fear of God. Love the brotherhood. Chapter 3 and verse 8.

28:31 Finally, be all like-minded. Compassionate. Loving as brethren. You see again the narrow focus.

28:43 Loving as brethren. Loving with a love that is distinctive to the family of God. And then again in chapter 4 and verse 8. Above all things, being fervent in your love among yourselves.

29:04 You see the limited focus again. Fervent in your love among yourselves. And then when he writes his second letter and he exhorts believers to increase in these various virtues, notice what he puts as the capstone virtue in 2 Peter 1 and verse 7. And in your godliness supply brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness that's the phileo love.

29:36 In your love of the brethren supply love. Agape. And that's the capstone grace. So Peter is not tired of coming back to this fundamental directive to the people of God to love one another.

Echoes of the Lord and Apostles: A Litany of Love Commands

29:56 And in so doing, Peter is simply echoing the constant emphasis of our Lord and of the other apostles. And I want to do something now that I rarely do. I'm going to read a litany of text, eight of them, without comment. So that you feel something of the cumulative effect of this central emphasis in the word of God that comes to the people of God gathered in church fellowship in particular, mandating that they love one another.

30:30 I've already made it clear. I give unto you that you love one another. Even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.

30:53 Romans chapter 12. After setting out the great salvation that is ours in Christ, when Paul turns to practical directives to the people of God, in Romans 12 and verse 10 he writes, In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned. In that principled, intelligent, volitional commitment of love, let it be filled up with tender affection one toward another.

31:32 Chapter 13 and verse 8. O no man anything save to love one another. I need only mention 1 Corinthians 13. He's treating the subject of spiritual gifts in chapters 12, 13 and 14.

31:48 And right in the middle of it he says, But I show you a more excellent way if you have all of these gifts and all of these other apparent graces and have not love. He says there is nothing. And he concludes the chapter by saying now abide these three, faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is what?

32:07 The greatest of these is love. For faith will be turned to sight. Hope will issue in fruition. But love will abide is what Jonathan Edwards calls the very life of heaven itself.

32:20 And then in Galatians 5 and verse 13, notice the emphasis coming through again very, very clearly. You brethren were called for freedom. Only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. Slave one another.

32:45 Take the posture of being as responsive to the needs and concerns of your brethren as though those needs were a master barking orders to a slave. That's what he says. And it's love and love alone that enables us to take that posture one toward another. The book of Ephesians in the most marvelous chapter on Christian growth in the context of the life of the church furnished with Christ given gifts for its maturation.

33:18 That maturation according to the apostle is bounded by love. Verse 15 of chapter 4. Speaking truth in love may grow up into him in all things. And then at the very end of that section verse 16.

33:33 The body makes the increase of itself unto the building up of itself in love. Here is corporate maturation bounded by love. Truth in love. Built up in love.

33:47 Chapter 5 verses 1 and 2. Be therefore imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love. Even as Christ loved you in the first place. Christ loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.

34:07 Colossians chapter 3. The apostle has given directions to put off certain vices. To put on certain virtues. And then he says in verse 14.

34:18 And above all these things. Overarching all of the virtues that he has directed the people of God to put on as they put on a garment. Above all these things put on love. Which is the bond of perfectness.

34:35 It binds all of the other graces together. Into that kind of Christian perfection that God has set before us as his standard for all of his people. First Thessalonians chapter 3. Paul writing to this relatively infant church.

34:55 And he lets them know what he is praying for them. Verse 11. First Thessalonians 3. May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

35:06 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another. There is the distinctive peculiar love of believers that he brings in the broader more generic love. And toward all men. He is conscious there is the duty to love one's neighbor as himself.

35:27 But he puts at the head of the list of the things for which he prays. That they may increase and abound in their love one to another. Chapter 4 and verse 9. Concerning love of the brethren.

35:39 You have no need that I write unto you. For you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed you do it to all the brethren that are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you brethren that you abound more and more.

35:54 I don't need to write to you. You are taught of God. You are taught of God. But I exhort you.

36:00 Abound more and more. And I don't make any reference to first John. We read those many passages. I dare say if John were to have sent that letter to the average evangelical and reformed church in our day.

36:15 People say John is really getting old. Do you notice how he keeps repeating himself? I wouldn't be surprised if people did not recognize that that letter came by the inspiration of the Spirit of God and with unique apostolic authority. If someone said there is an old lovely saint who has written a letter to us.

36:36 The average person. Perhaps the average member in Trinity Church would have heard it and said you know the poor guy really is old. He keeps saying the same thing chapter after chapter. Love one another.

36:50 If you don't love you don't know God. If you don't love you are not born of God. You can know you are born of God. In this repetition the Holy Ghost knows we need to have that word thundered in our ears again and again and again.

37:07 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

37:51 from saints of God especially as they are joined in Christ. And in that sermon he said love and its exercise is the principal grace and duty required among and expected of the saints of God. Would you want to debate that statement and prove it wrong? I wouldn't.

38:22 Just this survey of these passages when in epistle after epistle the injunction comes to God to love one another. So the fundamental directive of this precept is to love one another. That is to possess and to exercise that spirit wrought affection for one another that will constrain us both desire and to seek each others well being even at personal cost. It is to exercise that love that mirrors the self giving of the Son of God.

39:01 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.

39:29 He loved and gave himself for us. That is the love that God enjoins upon us. A love that is manifested not in word only but according to 1 John 3 in deed and in truth. And it is so fundamental a Christian grace and duty that the absence of it is an indisputable irrefutable evidence that we are devoid of grace.

Qualifying Aspects of the Precept: Source and Quality of Love

39:58 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. I didn't make that harsh judgment God has. This is the heart of the precept in our text to love one another but now having noted the specific objects of the precept the fundamental directive of the precept note with me thirdly and finally the qualifying aspects of the precept

40:40 the qualifying aspects of the precept and don't let your mind be distracted my voice box is not hurting I haven't used it in preaching in three weeks and it is just a little temporary laryngitis so if you are thinking or wincing I am not hurting and with the help of this microphone we will get through. The qualifying aspects of the precept you see Peter does not merely write love one another but by the guidance of the spirit he qualifies this basic precept with the words love one another from the heart fervently and in the original the imperative to love

41:23 is bounded by a prepositional phrase on the front end out of the heart love one another and on the other side by an adverb fervently. The adverbial rendering would be out of the heart love one another fervently and so there are two qualifying aspects to this precept one points to the source of this love and the other to the quality of this love he could have said as so many of the other similar precepts that I read in your hearing simply love one another but he didn't say that he wrote out of the heart love one another

42:07 fervently let's spend a few moments on considering the source of this love as the first qualifying aspect the words out of the heart point to the heart as the center and source of the whole inner life with its thinking with its feeling and with its choosing when the bible speaks of the heart most frequently that's what it's pointing to it's using the term heart to point to the very citadel of the soul the center of who and what we are and we must not make this dichotomy between heart and head the bible doesn't make that kind of distinction

42:52 out of the heart means the seat of where we think and feel and choose and often when the bible points us to an activity out of the heart it is in contrast to a mere external wooden non-involvement kind of activity remember what jesus said this people draws near to me with their lips but their heart is far from me you see them engaged in what seems to be an activity of drawing near to god but jesus said no it's a mere external activity the lips are active

43:36 the mind is framing words there is no going out to god in genuine worship john emphasizes this when he says let's not love in word only but in deed and in truth that is let's love from the heart what has the heart has the whole man and so peter is qualifying the precept by saying to these sojourners as you look around you and see your fellow travelers you are not merely to be satisfied with the semblance of love with some of the things that others might interpret as the tokens of love you are out of the heart

44:21 to love one another you're never to be content with anything less than the outflow of your heart in the affection and the expressions of that affection to the brotherhood now some manuscripts add the word pure they have in the new king james version pure heart to modify the word heart and it's debatable whether peter wrote that it certainly is a truth taught elsewhere first timothy 1 5 paul speaks of the end of the commandment is love out of exact same construction of pure heart in second timothy 2 22 he says call on the lord with them

45:05 that call on him out of a pure heart but it's doubtful in my judgment whether peter included if he did then it would simply underscore what he'd already referred to in verse 22 you now have the capacity to love out of the heart why because your heart has been purified you have purified your soul you've not gone through a mere external purification in the waters of baptism but by the blood and spirit of christ you've experienced an internal soul heart purification the cauldron of bitterness and envy and anger and hatefulness has been purified by the grace and power of god's

45:50 salvation love one another out of a pure heart so the source of the love is the heart now by bringing in this qualifying aspect you see what peter is doing he's underscoring that real vital saving christianity is never a matter of forms of rituals of mere external behavior and activities jesus said make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things

46:34 you can't bring forth the good thing of true brotherly love from the heart when your heart has never been purified when your heart is still in love with yourself when your heart is full of bitterness and envy and anger and jealousy and rivalry how can you ever out of such a heart love fervently it's impossible peter says love one another out of the heart but then he points us to the quality of this love and the word is translated in most of our versions fervently it's a word used again basically the same word in chapter 4 and verse 8 above all things

47:17 have fervent love among yourselves this word in its verbal form literally means to stretch out the hand to be on the stretch it's rendered that way in a number of passages when paul stretched out his hand when jesus said to the man with the withered hand stretch out your hand it's the idea of something being stretched out it's on a stretch it is not relaxed and laid back and half hearted it points to the matter of intensity of constancy of fervency of earnestness and peter says you are to love one another out of the heart and with the heart so fully

48:02 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

48:46 more earnestly luke chapter 22 in verse 44 how earnest was he so intense was he that he ruptured the blood vessels near the surface of his skin and sweat came down as it were as drops of blood love one another with intensity because everything about us is lovable no just the opposite there is much about us in the brotherhood that is not lovable i am sure without thinking you could come up with a list of ten things of all of your brothers and sisters starting with your pastors

49:29 that is not lovable but you see 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 we are part of the family of god and god says we are to love one another out of the heart fervently doesn't say love those who are lovable love those to whom you have a natural affinity temperament and personality no we are to love one another all who are part of the one another community we are to love out of the heart

Summary and Application: The Indisputable Mark of Discipleship

50:13 and that fervently well as i seek to summarize and bring home a final application we come around full circle to where we began Peter is exhorting these elect sojourners about how they are to live in the light a great salvation having exhorted them to a christian life marked by a fixed hope by the pursuit of holiness and by an appropriate fear he now says as you make your sojourner in company with your fellow travelers here is your responsibility at the horizontal level you are to love one another out of the heart and that

50:57 fervently you are to be marked as the community who not only have their hearts fixed on all the grace that is yet to be brought to you at the coming of christ a people determined to please your lord by a life of universal holiness lived in appropriate fear that you are to be marked as that community who do have the distinguishing mark of christ's disciples now let me ask you a question what would you think of someone who said well i am a christian i have trusted in christ for the pardon and forgiveness of my sins

51:41 i have been born of the spirit of god i believe i have been marked out for an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fades not away reserved in heaven for me but whose life manifested no indication that he was living in the light of the age to come he was an utter worlding in his perspectives in his goals in his ambitions there was no evidence that he was living in hope of the salvation that would yet be brought in its fullness at the revelation of christ what would you say of a person in whom there was little or no evidence that he was living in hope and yet he claimed to be a christian you would say there is something wrong with you

52:26 something deeply badly astray and askew in your whole perspective what about the person who says yes i have been redeemed with the blood of christ blood that was shed to redeem me from all iniquity and purify me unto god zealous of good works but i care nothing for the pursuit of holiness what would you say of someone who professed to be saved by christ and yet in whom there was no evidence of a pursuit of holiness you would say something is bad bad wrong something is fishy something is not right what about the person who says yes i am saved by christ but who lives a flippant careless cavalier life with no sense that he is on his way

53:11 to stand before an impartial judge he doesn't pass the time of his sojourning in fear the thought that he is redeemed by the blood of christ produces no appropriate fear and deep concern to please so gracious a god you see where i am going anyone living devoid of hope holiness and appropriate fear in the name of christ say that person is living in la la land self deceived well i am prepared to say on the basis of the word of god if you are not committed in heart to loving one another your profession of faith

53:54 is very suspect for he that loves not knows not god on the positive side john says he who loves him that begot loves him also that is begotten of him and if god has put you in the community of those begotten of him you will love them for what you see of him in them and if you don't love what you see of him in them and because of what he has imparted to them in his grace then john says you are self deceived in saying you love god and know him in a saving way but blessed be god there is in the heart of every

54:39 true child of god that which paul could say of the thessalonians i don't need to write to you to love one another you are taught of god to love one another there was a disposition implanted with their regeneration that reached out to all who shared in that common life in christ and i am confident that that disposition is present in many of you this morning yet its presence by the grace and power of the spirit does not negate the necessity of our being commanded by a precept to love one another out of the heart and that

55:21 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 lets push them to one side for this morning and just sit before god in the light of this text

56:04 and 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 the brotherhood and that fervently what does it mean to love them in particulars we will touch on that some of that god willing tonight what do i do if i am not loved there are a thousand questions but push them to one side and sit before god with this text and ask yourself this question am i committed not in abstraction

56:48 not to my unseen brothers in the philippines and in pakistan and the rest but to my brothers in this brotherhood am i committed to love them out of the heart and that fervently thats a precept thats a commandment of the lord jesus through his holy apostle and he said if you love me you will keep my commandment not in your strength no the fruit of the spirit is love but inside your souls having been begotten god has furnished you the issue is your heart committed by his grace to love one another

57:31 fervently let us pray our father we thank you for this very clear precept of your word repeated times without number that we might not in any way miss the point of your will for us your people we pray that by the enabling grace of the spirit we will know in days to come heightened measures of this fervent love out of the heart one toward another we pray for those who sit among us who cannot

58:16 love the brotherhood because they do not love you they do not love you because they never repented of their sin and fled to the lord jesus oh god may they realize by your spirit's work through the word their deep need of your grace and give them no rest till they lay hold of that grace in christ seal then your word to our hearts and may its fruit be manifested in our life together we ask in jesus name amen