Next Level Love
Pastor Don Carpenter / General
Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner. / Agape; Love; Power / 1 Peter 1:22–25
John 15:13 KJV
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Various persons have observed that no one has any more religion than he or she can demonstrate in an emergency. This was certainly true of Arland D. Williams, Jr., a bank examiner with the Federal Reserve System in Atlanta, who was aboard the ill-fated Boeing 737 that crashed in the frigid Potomac River shortly after taking off from Washington’s National Airport, January 13, 1982.
Identification of the hero was announced in June of 1983. Representatives from the Coast Guard said when a helicopter lowered a line to survivors, Williams indicated he was trapped (it was later discovered his seat belt was jammed) and passed “the line on to other injured persons.” By his not grabbing the rescue line, thus saving valuable time, other passengers were saved.
In presenting the medal to Williams’s mother, Virginia L. Williams, Mattoon, Illinois, his teenage son, Arland D. Williams, III, and daughter, Leslie Ann Williams, President Reagan said: “You can live with tremendous pride in your father.” (Read John 15:13).1
1 G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 49.
How does one cultivate the unnatural act of selfless love? Sure we know that Christians should love selflessly, but how can we reprogram our minds to have that kind of self sacrificial love?
We have been studying 1 Peter chapter 1 and discovering that we believers in Jesus are sojourners. We are called by a higher calling, to an inheritance that is reserved, guarded by God Himself.
We saw that since we were redeemed with the Blood of Jesus we should live as stewards of that salvation.
Tonight we discover that since we have been Born Again, by the Power of the Word of God, we need to take our love to the next level.
(Show the two words for Love in 1 Peter 1:22)
Brotherly Love Is A Natural Result of Salvation.
1 Peter 1:22 KJV
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
You have already purified your souls through obedience.
James 4:8 KJV
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
1 John 3:3 KJV
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
In Old Testament purity laws, people purified themselves from defilement by ceremonial bathing; although Judaism continued to practice literal ceremonial washings, it often used the image of washing figuratively for spiritual or moral purification (as occasionally in Old Testament prophets, e.g., Is 1:16; Jer 2:22; 4:14).1
1 Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 1 Pe 1:22.
The words “have purified” are from a perfect tense verb in the Greek. That is, a past completed process, that of a consistent, habitual obedience to the Word, had resulted in the purifying of their souls as they obeyed, with the result that their souls were in a present state of purification. They also rectified an existing evil practice in their lives, that of a hypocritical affection for their Christian brethren. The lesson for us is that when we obey God’s Word, our heart-life is being purified, and this purification puts sin out of our experience.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 47.
Brotherly Love is a Natural Response to this Obedience.
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
The recipients of this letter had purified their souls with the result that they came to love their Christian brethren with an unfeigned love, the implication being clear that at one time these Christians were guilty of feigning love for certain of their brothers in Christ. The word “unfeigned” is the translation of the Greek word from which we get our word “hypocrite,” with the letter Alpha prefixed which makes it mean “not a hypocrite.” The Greek word for “hypocrite” was used of an actor on the Greek stage, one who played the part of another. The word means literally, “to judge under,” and was used of someone giving off his judgment from behind a screen or mask. Some of these to whom Peter was writing, had put a mask of feigned love over their usual countenances when associating with certain others of their brethren.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 45.
Believers are Commanded to Practice Agape Love without Hypocrisy.
…see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
To those who were now loving their brethren in the sense of a fondness and affection for them, God gives the exhortation, “See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” The question arises, “Why does God exhort those to love one another who are already loving one another?” The answer is found in the use of another distinctive word for “love,” agape (?????), which Peter uses. This word speaks of a love which in its classical usage refers to a love called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the person loved, which usage is carried over into the New Testament, but which word has an additional content of meaning poured into it by the way it is used in certain contexts such as John 3:16, where the idea of self-sacrifice for the benefit of the person loved is added to its classical meaning, I Corinthians 13, where the constituent elements of its Biblical usage are listed, and I John 4:8, where it is said to refer to the love that God is.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 47.
Pure Love Comes From The Pure Word
1 Peter 1:23–24 KJV
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
John 15:12 KJV
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
John 13:34 KJV
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Born Again Through an Incorruptible Word
• God has protected His word from corruption.
• Your salvation is based on that perfect word.
• All other flesh fades and dies… the Bible you based your faith on remains perfect.
Isaiah 40:6–8 KJV
The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: Because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: Surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: But the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Psalm 12:6–7 KJV
The words of the LORD are pure words: As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Agape Love Comes From The Everlasting Word
1 Peter 1:25 KJV
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Psalm 119:89 KJV
LAMED. For ever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven.
Because your salvation comes from an everlasting Word, you can have everlasting love.
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Selflessness is an art. By nature none of us are really into it nor do we really aim to master it. It requires a change in us, something that puts away the old nature of selfishness and takes on a new nature of selflessness. Our nature is to keep “us” for us. Or, at the very least, share some but keep some. But, like that carbonated drink, sharing implies using, not retaining. To truly deny oneself, to die to oneself, requires an all or nothing effort.
In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp, Through the Valley of the Kwai, there is a story that never fails to move me. It is about a man who through giving it all away literally transformed a whole camp of soldiers. The man’s name was Angus McGillivray. Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps filled with Americans, Australians, and Britons who had helped build the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. The camp had become an ugly situation. A dog-eat-dog mentality had set in. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other; men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from under their heads. Survival was everything. The law of the jungle prevailed…until the news of Angus McGillivray’s death spread throughout the camp. Rumors spread in the wake of his death. No one could believe big Angus had succumbed. He was strong, one of those whom they had expected to be the last to die. Actually, it wasn’t the fact of his death that shocked the men, but the reason he died. Finally they pieced together the true story.
The Argylls (Scottish soldiers) took their buddy system very seriously. Their buddy was called their “mucker,” and these Argylls believed that is was literally up to each of them to make sure their “mucker” survived. Angus’s mucker, though, was dying, and everyone had given up on him, everyone, of course, but Angus. He had made up his mind that his friend would not die. Someone had stolen his mucker’s blanket. So Angus gave him his own, telling his mucker that he had “just come across an extra one.” Likewise, every mealtime, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, stand over him and force him to eat them, again stating that he was able to get “extra food.” Angus was going to do anything and everything to see that his buddy got what he needed to recover.
But as Angus’s mucker began to recover, Angus collapsed, slumped over, and died. The doctors discovered that he had died of starvation complicated by exhaustion. He had been giving of his own food and shelter. He had given everything he had — even his very life. The ramifications of his acts of love and unselfishness had a startling impact on the compound.
As word circulated of the reason for Angus McGillivray’s death, the feel of the camp began to change. Suddenly, men began to focus on their mates, their friends, and humanity of living beyond survival, of giving oneself away. They began to pool their talents — one was a violin maker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinet maker, another a professor. Soon the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and a church called the “Church Without Walls” that was so powerful, so compelling, that even the Japanese guards attended. The men began a university, a hospital, and a library system. The place was transformed; an all but smothered love revived, all because one man named Angus gave all he had for his friend. For many of those men this turnaround meant survival. What happened is an awesome illustration of the potential unleashed when one person actually gives it all away. (Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, 1987, Word Books Publisher, pp. 146-147.)
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:38 PM March 25, 2020.