The Love-Truth Cycle | 1 Peter 1:22-2:3

Peter presents three perspectives to help us understand the connection between love and truth. He shows love to be (1) the point of purification; (2) the fruit of regeneration; and part of (3) the process of maturation. This sermon is part 9 of "A Fisherman's Hope," Bryan Craddock's series on 1 Peter 1:1-2:10. 

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The first time a child rides a bike is a thrilling moment. The pedaling motion can be hard for them to figure out. But once they do, they’re off! Rolling along, they experience a new sense of freedom. It is faster than walking or running, and easier too. In time as they grow, they can develop the strength to ride dozens of miles. They just need to keep the up-down, left-right cycle going.

God has designed a similar dynamic in spiritual life: a love-truth cycle. Our love for others and our commitment to learn and speak biblical truth are supposed to work together like two pedals that keep each other going. Yet we are all tempted to focus on one side and neglect the other. Some show love without discernment. Others speak truth without compassion. Both sides assure themselves that they are obeying God, but they’re not.

Such one-sided efforts do not amount to half-obedience. There really isn’t such a thing. Neglecting love or truth is like pedaling a bike with one leg. It is awkward, inefficient, and powerless. It won’t get you anywhere. You’re bound to veer off course spiritually and crash relationally.

Peter had first-hand experience with this problem. He was a gruff fisherman when he started following Jesus. He and the other disciples were passionate about proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, but they often failed to reflect or even understand his compassion. They marveled, for instance, that he spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4:27). Then Jesus was indignant when they rebuked parents who wanted him to bless their children (Mk 10:13-14).

So, three decades later as Peter writes to his fellow believers, he addresses this issue. As we have seen, he celebrates the confident hope of salvation enjoyed by every born-again believer. In response to this hope, he says that we should be holy and should conduct ourselves in fear. Then as he comes to the end of the chapter, he shifts from our vertical relationship with God to our horizontal relationships with other people.

In 1 Peter 1:22-2:3, he presents three perspectives to help us understand the connection between love and truth. He looks at it from different angles, and each one reveals unique insights about love, truth, and spiritual change. So, as we walk through this passage, I encourage you to examine your spiritual life. Identify ways that you have slipped away from God’s design and renew your commitment to move forward in the love-truth cycle.

The Point of Purification

Cars are made to be driven. But some people, particularly collectors of classic cars, are more concerned about keeping them clean and shiny. They devote so much time and effort to polishing them, that they don’t want them to get scratched or splattered with mud or tar. So, rather than taking them out on the road, they keep them locked up safe in a garage. But that can cause other problems. The battery dies. The tires rot. Gaskets and brake cylinders begin to crack and leak. The engine might even seize up.

We can be tempted to take a similar approach to our spiritual lives. The desire to fill our minds with biblical truth and practice personal holiness is good. But it might lead us to withdraw from interacting with the world. Some might even avoid contact with other believers who are not at their level. This mindset distorts both our theology and our holiness, because God made us to love others. Peter asserts that loving others is the point of purification. In 1 Peter 1:22, he says, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart…”

As Christians, we should be concerned about purity. Peter mentions it twice in this verse, using two different words. The first refers to being consecrated or set apart to God. The other speaks of being clean, free from anything that would defile us in God’s eyes. But what does this mean in practical terms?

Many of Peter’s Jewish countrymen focused on maintaining ritual purity. The Old Testament Law includes several instructions about things that should not be touched and foods that should not be eaten. Some Jews also held to additional rules passed down by tradition to ensure that they would not violate those commands.

Matthew 15:2, for instance, tells us that the Pharisees and scribes were upset that Jesus’ disciples did not follow a certain handwashing procedure. But Jesus later confronted them about their hypocrisy. Matthew 23:25-26 tells us that he said,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Conforming to shiny external standards will not produce true purity. God has always been concerned about the heart, and Jesus calls us to start there. Peter stresses the same point in 1 Peter 1:22. He speaks of purifying your soul and having a pure heart. This focus is vital because true evil comes not from outside but from within. Mark 7:21-23, tells us that Jesus said,

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

Jesus was responding to the Jewish obsession with the Law’s dietary restrictions. But his statement also shows that avoiding worldly influence from people will not purge these impulses from our hearts. Peter says that purification happens by obedience to the truth. It seems significant to me that he speaks of truth rather than commands or law. To change our hearts, we must refute the lies that we tell ourselves. We must allow God’s truth to change how we think and what we value. Paul expresses a similar thought in 2 Corinthians 10:5 by saying that we must take every thought captive.

Now Peter speaks of this purifying obedience as if it is a completed work. The tense of the verb has led some commentators to say that he is referring to baptism, conversion, or a moment of spiritual enlightenment. But I think that Peter is simply laying out a sequence. It is like one push of the pedal that sets up the other side--love.

He speaks of being purified for love. That is the point. Purification is only half of the cycle. As we use God’s truth to resist our heart’s evil impulses, we must follow through with biblical love. Peter uses two different words for love. The first is philadelphia, brotherly love. It speaks of familial commitment and affection, and he says that it should be sincere, a more literal translation would be unhypocritical.

The main verb of the sentence speaks of agape love. This is the same word that is used in John 3:16 to describe God’s love for the world. We should reflect his love in how we relate to one another, and we should do it earnestly. The Greek term for earnestly is the one from which we get our word extend. This love extends itself, taking the initiative in reaching out.

So, purity without biblical love is not true purity. It misses the point. It quickly degenerates into a vain, empty show of self-righteous piety. True purity is driven by biblical truth that leads us to relate to one another with the unhypocritical, affectionate, initiative-taking love of God.

Is this achievable? How is it even possible for us to purify ourselves with the sinful condition of our hearts? As Peter continues, he shows us another perspective on this love-truth cycle.

The Fruit of Regeneration

One little seed has amazing potential. Think of an apple seed. When it is planted in good soil and well-tended, it sprouts and grows into a tree. In time it may bear dozens, if not hundreds of apples per year. The abundance of fruit from that one tiny seed is astounding.

We have seen in 1 Peter 1:22 that Peter emphasizes the effort that we must exert to show love. He commands us to love one another as a result of purifying ourselves in obedience to the truth. But in verses 23-25 he pivots to a different perspective. He presents love as the fruit of regeneration.

Through no effort of our own, a seed has been planted in our life that causes us to be born again, so that we can show love. Peter tells us to love one another,

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Back in verse 3 of chapter 1, Peter explained how regeneration happens from God’s standpoint. We are born again according to his mercy through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In looking at that verse, we saw that our connection with his resurrection through faith makes it possible for us to be justified before God and to have the hope of being physically resurrected to live in the glorious presence of God forever. We also saw that it imparts spiritual life to us here and now. Apart from him, we are not able to obey. We are spiritually dead, but Jesus gives us life.

Here Peter explains how regeneration comes about from a human standpoint. As he says in verse 25, it begins with the preaching of the good news, the gospel. What is that message? You could argue that everything in the Bible contributes to our understanding of the gospel.

But as we survey the New Testament, we find several key ideas that are highlighted in relation to the gospel. Matthew 4:23 says that Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. He announced that God’s Old Testament kingdom promises were being fulfilled. Mark 16:16 links it to the hope of personal salvation for those who believe and are baptized. Acts 8:35 describes it simply as the good news about Jesus. The best summary may be the one that Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. He says,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

So, those who do not know the gospel need to hear it. The ESV speaks of preaching, but a more literal translation of the Greek term would be evangelism. This communication of the message is not necessarily formal. It may happen in bits and pieces over multiple conversations. Sometimes people know the basic ideas, but they need more explanation. Sometimes they just need encouragement to respond. In this sense, everyone who follows Jesus is called to be a preacher, a sower of truth.

However it happens, the seed of biblical gospel truth that is sown in someone’s life is powerful. It is life-giving. As the word of God, it carries his creative power. In Romans 1:16, Paul says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Here Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6 and 8 to emphasize the idea of permanence. God’s word does not perish or wither. It abides and remains. So, when it takes root in someone, it produces a permanent change of life.

Love is the core expression of this new life. Peter says love one another since you have been born again. No one can obey that command without being born again. The Apostle John highlights the same connection. In fact, he goes further and says that if you do not show love, then you must not be born again. In 1 John 4:7-8, he writes,

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

So, how should we show biblical love for one another? Some say that we do so by speaking the truth, as if that is all there is to it. Again, that’s like pedaling with one leg. Paul mentions the connection between love and truth in 1 Corinthians 13, but he also lists several other characteristics of biblical love. In verses 4-7, he says,

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The new life that we receive through the gospel enables us to live this way. So, why do we find it so hard to do? Why do we fall so far short? How do we become this type of person? Peter answers those questions by giving us a third perspective on the love-truth cycle.

The Process of Maturation

As much as we love newborn children, it is not a compliment to call someone a big baby. Let’s be honest. Infants can be demanding. When they’re hungry, they make it known that they want milk, and they want it now. They cry and get worked up, and we think that it’s cute. But when someone older acts that way, we are not so amused.

We find this attitude toward spiritual immaturity in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 and in Hebrews 5:11-14. Both passages challenge people to grow up and move on from milk to solid food. But Peter uses the picture of babies and milk in an entirely different way in 1 Peter 2:1-3. He describes the process of maturation by saying,

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

What is pure spiritual milk? The Greek term translated spiritual is the one from which we get our English word logical. So, this milk is for the mind not the belly.

Peter just used a different form of that term back in verse 23 when he spoke of the word of God. Several translations use the phrase “milk of the word”. But if you read it that way, you might think that Peter is talking about part of the word as milk versus other solid parts as in 1 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 5. There is no indication that he is making that distinction here.

In Peter’s analogy, all of Scripture is milk, and all born-again believers should long for it like newborn babies. Of course, infants have an instinctive desire for milk. They feel hunger, and they cry for something to satisfy it. No one must tell them to do it, but that is not the case with us.

The world tells us that we have no control over our desires and that we should just follow them wherever they lead. But as born-again believers we can cultivate godly desires. So, Peter commands us to long for God’s Word. Other translations say desire or crave. So, we must do the very adult thing of persuading ourselves to have this infant-like longing. Peter gives us two reasons. One looks ahead and the other looks back.

First, he says at the end of verse 2 that we should long for the word because it will enable us to grow in salvation. To be clear, he does not mean that we grow to a point of earning salvation. In chapter 1, he described salvation as a gift of God’s mercy received by faith. But this new life that we receive in Christ needs to be worked out in every part of life. As he said, we need to become holy, to conduct ourselves in fear, and to love one another. The key to growing in this kind of life is to keep longing for the nourishing truth of God’s word. In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul explains how the word helps us grow by saying, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

So, focus on the future growth that the word brings. But 1 Peter 2:3 shows that we should also convince ourselves to long for the word by looking back to the experience of tasting that the Lord is good. We find a similar phrase in Psalm 34:8, where David invites his readers to taste the Lord’s goodness by taking refuge in him.

I think that Peter has in mind the wondrous moment when we first grasp that God loves us and that Jesus gave himself for us. Don’t forget that sense of awe. Remind yourself of it, so that you will keep hungering to know more.

But there is a prerequisite to cultivating this infant-like longing. In verse 1, Peter says that born-again believers must put away the behavior of the old life: all malice, all deceit and hypocrisy and envy, and all slander. Malice is a general ill will toward people. Deceit and hypocrisy cover it up. Envy of others is often the motivation beneath it all, and slander is the verbal expression of it.

These behaviors stifle our desire for the Word. Why would you look to the Scriptures, if you know that they will only expose your sin? What is worse is that these behaviors can also distort our desire. We might seek knowledge for personal pride or to keep up a better appearance. That desire is nothing like the infant’s innocent longing for nourishment.

These behaviors are the exact opposite of love as Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 13. So, we see the love-truth cycle in action. In the first two perspectives in chapter 1, truth preceded love. But from this perspective, the effort to lovingly put away these behaviors prepares you to long for the truth. To move forward we must keep pedaling--truth, love, truth, love.

__________

So, Peter shows us these three perspectives of the connection between love and truth. Love is the point of purification in obedience to the truth, the fruit of regeneration by the truth, and part of the maturation process that keeps us longing for nourishment from the truth. Are both sides of the cycle present in your life?

Perhaps you are trying to love, but your efforts are falling short. Have you been born again? If not, then you don’t have the ability to show true biblical love. As James 1:21 says, receive the implanted word which is able to save your soul. Heed the gospel and believe it! If you would like to learn more about this connection between love and truth, 1 John 3 and 4 would be good chapters for you to read.

If you are a believer, then you probably lean one way or the other. Some of us emphasize truth and need to grow in love. Others of us emphasize love and need to grow in truth. Be humble. Confess your sin and seek the Lord’s help to change.

May we move forward in love and truth!

Reflect

Do you tend to focus more on love or on truth? Why?

Which of these perspectives have you relied upon most? How has it helped you in your spiritual life?

On which of these perspectives do you need to focus more? How do you think that it will help you?