1 Peter 1:22-25

1 Peter 1:22-25 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you (NIV).

   Peter definitely packed much into the first chapter of this book! I think we can take a deep breath now that we are concluding the first chapter, I think the commentary will get even more concise for the following chapters, and I know we can say a prayer of thanks to God for His revelations within the first chapter of the book of 1 Peter.

   I have to begin by sharing a beautiful story my dad told me this past Sunday on this phone. He was talking with someone in the hall near the children’s Sunday school rooms that morning. Looking down the hall, he saw a group of about ten children who were only three years old at the most. They were each holding her or his respected edge of a blanket, and slowly making their way down the hall. Of course there was a Sunday school teacher right behind them. When they reached my dad, he asked them why they were carrying a blanket. One of the young girls said they were carrying a guy who could not walk. My dad showed much interest, and he asked if he could see the “guy” who was on their blanket, who was wrapped in another small blanket. They unraveled the blanket revealing a doll. Some of the children told my dad he could not walk, so they were looking for Jesus since they were going to bring him to Jesus so he could walk. So my dad encouraged them to keep looking for Jesus, and they said they would because they wanted the guy to walk. Then they continued trekking down the hall.

   All I can write in this moment in response to that is: God bless the children.

   I was in a church for a number of years, where there was a liturgical response by the congregation following Scripture reading.  The reader would conclude by saying “The Word of the Lord.”  Then people would say, "Thanks be to God."
  Yet a question arose for me.  At the beginning of John, he speaks of the Word, which is a metaphor for Jesus.  Yet people in church often refer to the Bible as the Word.  Does this mean that the terms have two different meanings, thus there is the need to discern which definition is used in each context? The answer is yes. The big difference is that when Jesus is referred to as the Word, “Word” is capitalized. Whereas when the word is used to describe Scripture within Scripture, it is not capitalized, and it is often part of a phrase such as “the word of God,” of which you can find an example in 2 Corinthians 2:17. Or “the word of Christ” is another phrase, an example of which can be found in Colossians 3:16. In this passage, in verse 24 and 25, Peter is quoting a verse from Isaiah 40:6 and from Isaiah 40:8!

   Even though these two terms, “word” and “Word” are distinct, they are on intersecting paths, because the word of God, Scripture, testifies to the Word, Jesus. That is why Peter can say that the word of God, which was preached to his readers, contributed to their state of being born again.

   Dr. Karl Barth and Dr. John Stott are two men who have been discussed previously in this commentary, and two men who have both passed on to heaven. Having read about eight John Stott books, I can say Dr. Stott had a great reverence for Scripture being inspired by God, and I have read that Barth did also. Now both advocated a view of Scripture being the Word of God and the word of humans, but this is wrong as phrased, because a word is given to convey a message, and the messages of Scripture are from God.  It cannot be both! I do not think it is getting caught up in semantics to say I agree God allowed people to use their wording, and even their own style which reflected their selves. And of course they were writing by their own free will. However, just because Scripture contains the wording of people, it cannot be the “word” of people, like Barth (1) and Stott (2) said, otherwise Scripture messages would be flawed, because people are not perfect. God is perfect, and His messages have been perfectly contained in Scripture, which would require intervention to ensure that His message was conveyed.

   On the flip side, Scripture was not dictated by God. Folks who believe this are wrong, because there is no indication of this within Scripture, plus there is evidence to the contrary. In my Evangelical Theology class at CCU, I did not see how advocates of plenary, verbal inspiration could claim they were advocating anything less than dictation. For example, you can read what I read in one of my textbooks for that class (3). Regarding that textbook, I add I was interested in the collaboration of an Arminian author writing for a Calvinist publisher. I was not slacking with my reading assignments at CCU, and I caught the self identification of Roger Olson within the listing of Arminians in that same textbook (4).

   Now sometimes Biblical writers did quote God, and it often specifies this in the Old Testament. And hey, Jesus was God with us, and his words are in red ink in my NIV Bible. Yet there is more than God quotes in the Bible, and rather than being dictated, Scripture was inspired by God, and people conveyed his messages in human language. Language does have an innate aspect. Did you ever notice that Adam and Eve were created being able to talk? But even innate human abilities have been marred due to the Fall of human beings. This subject calls for great humility, because God’s exact methods of inspiring all of the various authors of Scripture is known only by God! I think we simply need to recognize that Scripture authors were people who were submitting to God, listening to God, and inspired by God to write His message.

   Now those messages need to being properly extracted, just as any writing needs to be interpreted. All reading requires understanding the definition of words, including if words are being used as metaphors or such. And all reading requires an understanding of the context for which the material is being presented. And reasoning must be applied to gain the messages. In other words, in order to learn from what you have read, you must think.

   Take one of my favorite books, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. I love this book. Yet I would not enjoy it at all if I failed to properly interpret the book. That starts first with knowing that it is a fictional book. I hope I am not offending anyone, but Sam is not real. The literary genre must be further understood, and this particular book was written for children. Children light up when you ask them if they want to read this book! If I failed to get the literary genre of this book, I would never be able to enjoy this book. My diet contains numerous eggs, and even after I have read that book countless times, I in all honesty think green eggs are disgusting. I would never have even gotten through the book the first time if I did not accept the fact that the book is for fun.

   Different Scripture books have different literary genres, and you have to recognize that, and you have to apply reasoning in order to gain God’s message. However, people who come to any historical book of the Bible thinking that historical writings are mythology are going to miss God’s messages. Any person who comes to the Bible thinking the Bible is the product merely of men, and not inspired by the Holy Spirit, are going to see no need for assistance from God for interpretation, and they are going to miss God’s messages. In fact I would argue that you need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to gain the messages of Scripture!

   The word of God being preached which Peter is talking about contained the message of Jesus. Jesus is the central message of Scripture. Any person who claims that the central message of Scripture is anything else distorts the Bible.

   Once I was reading a commentary on the book of John by J. Vernon McGee. He was discussing John 5:45-57; “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”(NIV). J. Vernon McGee stated, “Friend, that is so important. Back in the books of the Pentateuch which I have recently taught, I have attempted to point out the Lord Jesus. Although I don’t find Him on every page, I believe He is on every page of the Pentateuch. He says, ‘Moses….wrote of me.’ I think He is on every page of the Bible” (5). I always liked how Pastor McGee would say “friends” in that nasal voice.

   When I read this, I thought of the fact that Jesus did not say that He was on every page of Scripture, rather, Jesus said that Moses wrote about Him. But then I pondered, where did Moses write about Jesus?! I searched for the answered, and I was given the answer, and that answer can be given in one word: sacrifice.

   Memories come back of being a young Christian sitting on a subway train riding on the track above ground heading into Alexandria, Virginia as I was on my way to work at the National Rehabilitation Association, an association that advocated and supported vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. I was in the midst of daily morning reading of Exodus through Deuteronomy, and I was finding the reading rather cumbersome. What I would come to learn was that the reading was actually a blessing, since God’s patient work was leading to the sacrifice that Jesus would make on the Cross. The animal sacrifices that God so diligently made a part of the Mosaic Law were truly foreshadowing the sacrifice by Jesus on the Cross that was mandatory so people could be permanently united with God.

   In taking Contemporary Approaches to Theology at Colorado Christian University, I learned the methodology that many German theologians applied in the wake of the teachings of Friedrich Schleiermacher, which began what is now known as “modern theology.” The German theologian Schleiermacher trashed the Old Testament. Following suit, “modern theology” methodology was to give little attention or to ignore altogether the Old Testament. By such neglect of the Old Testament, many German theologians following Schleiermacher’s lead, and then eventually a number of theologians worldwide, were able to slyly distort the New Testament. You see, the foundation of the New Testament is the Old Testament. This is precisely what J. Vernon McGee continues to say there on page 94. Thus if a person disregards the Old Testament, or if he or she makes it into mythology, which became more common in the 20th century, then that person can easily extract from the New Testament whatever messages he or she wants, because it is like a house without a foundation which can be slid onto a trailer and carted to another state.

   Peter was no “modern theologian.” In one sentence Peter is talking about the teaching of Jesus regarding being “born again,” and in the next sentence he is quoting Isaiah. Regard the Old Testament as containing the word of God, just as Peter did, and you will find the intended core of the sacred writings: Messiah.

   So, how do we respond to this core message of Christ? (Christ is the Greek equivalent of Messiah I add.) Believe in Him! That is how you are born again! So Peter was going in reverse chronological order. To take what he said in chronological order, when the word of God is preached, the messages of Scripture, then a person can know that she or he needs to believe in Jesus, and when she or he does, she or he will be born again. And the result of being born again is that a person will have his or her heart indwelled by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, thus that person will become more and more loving, since she or he is now capable of living by the love of God. The love of a born again Christian is the true love of God.

   Whew.

+ : This first chapter has been much to digest. Thank You Holy God for enabling me to persevere with the commentary through it. Thank You.
Hunter Irvine

(1) Stanley Grenz and Roger Olson, 20th Century Theology; God and the World in a Transitional Age (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1992), 71-72.

(2) John Stott, Evangelical Truth; A Personal Plea for Unity, Integrity and Faithfulness (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 49-50.

(3) Roger Olson, The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 215-219.

(4) Roger Olson, The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 169.

(5) J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible commentary series; John Chapters 1-10 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), 94.