BACKGROUND:
In contrast with the blessings the Lord extended to Israel (v. 12), the sixth oracle charged the people with speaking harsh things against the Lord. Again, typical of Malachi’s style, the spiritually insensitive people were portrayed as ignorant of the sin. They asked God, What have we said against You?
Questions concerning God’s justice, because of the suffering of the apparently righteous and the seeming prosperity of the wicked now reached a climax.
The people said, It is futile to serve God. Ironically the people, in a sense, were indicting themselves, saying their own worship and service of the Lord was empty, useless, and without result. Hence they felt they gained no benefits from serving Him. They asked, What did we gain... ?
They presumed they had been faithful to God, carrying out His requirements. And they presumed they had repented of their misdeeds, going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty. They thought all that remained was for God to fulfill His part of His bargain and bless them. They were subtly suggesting that God was not keeping His promises.
The problem, of course, was not on God’s side. Malachi had already demonstrated that God was responding to them in accord with the covenant. However, His response was not in the form of blessing, which they desired. Two reasons explain this: (1) The people’s hearts were not right with God; they were disobedient. (2) Some of the people who made the complaint (3:14) were guilty of the myopic legalism that eventually led to Jewish pharisaism in the first century a.d. This legalism concentrated on performing certain rigorous activities and not doing other things as the means of vindicating themselves before God. But this actually stifled the full expression of inner righteousness required by God (Matt. 5:20-48; 23:1-36).
Thus their works would not be accepted as proper covenant obedience. God requires external obedience, but it must stem from the heart, and this obedience is not to vindicate one’s own righteousness but to manifest God’s righteousness. Believers today are in a much better position than Old Testament saints because those in the body of Christ have received the permanently indwelling Spirit who can overcome the flesh in manifesting the righteousness of God (Rom. 8:1-17; Gal. 5:16-26; Phil. 2:12-13).
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
I've often thought, wouldn't it be great when we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, if He would just take us to Heaven right away. If that were to happen we wouldn't live in this tension between the old and the new. But for some reason God has decided to keep us here. He's left us on earth to figure out how to live for Him in what Phil. 2 calls, "an evil and perverse generation." To live in a time that is opposing God's will, to live in a time that is anti to God, how is it that we can live God's way in this evil and perverse generation?
A friend called me about a story on the radio about a school teacher who passed up free tickets to take her class to see Romeo and Juliet. The teacher said she did not want to take her students there because Romeo and Juliet do not model a lifestyle of choice, that all the models there were of heterosexual relationships -- too normal. And she wouldn't take her children there. My friend said "Doesn't that surprise you?"
No, it doesn't. I'm bothered by it, but I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised by sin. The Bible tells us in I John 5:19 "We belong to God but the evil one controls the world." We shouldn't be surprised by sin. Should we be shocked and saddened? Yes. Shouldn't we want to change the world? I do. But we shouldn't be surprised. "We belong to God, but the evil one controls the world." The world system lies in the lap of the evil one who nurtures and drives this way of thinking, cultivates evil and motivates it and gives it nourishment. The evilness is designed to appeal to us, to appeal to our fleshly desires, to make life easy and comfortable, and tempting us to go the way of the old. Basically, to seduce us from God.
That's the background I want you to hear and see and recognize this tension as we dig in to what Peter says in this first chapter where he challenges Christians to be different.
#1. Remember, You have been made brand new.
I Peter 1:14 says, "Don't lazily slip back into those old groves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourself be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness."
He says don't slip into the old grooves of evil. You know better. "As obedient children let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, energetic and blazing with holiness." Also 2 Cor. 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come." You have been made new. If you have a relationship with Christ, you've been made new.
Peter takes it a step further and uses the word "holy". Being made new is one thing... I first understood this the best when our first child was born (Kelsey). She came out new -- looked a little bit like E.T. :) -- but new, undefiled, pure, but born into a world of wickedness. Peter adds on, not only are we made new, but now we live God's way blazing with holiness.
Holiness is a scary word. The church I grew up in, that's all I heard -- holy, holy! But holiness has a simpler definition "To be set apart." Holiness is to be set apart from the ways of the world, from the ways of the flesh, from the ways of the wicked, from the ways of darkness. That's what Peter is saying, "You've been made new, now be holy, be set apart."
Folks, choosing to be different is a discipline. It's tough. Living God's way and following His plan is not easy. We have this tendency to be tempted to the old.
Being disciplined is tough. It's easy to drift. To drift into the temptation of the old, always being tempted by the old. "Opportunity may only knock once but temptation leans on the doorbell." We're always being tempted to be brought into the old, to live in the wicked, to live by the flesh, and Peter knows this. This is why he gives us such strong words in v. 13. "So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives."
#2. Prepare yourself for a different life.
Peter is saying, this isn't the time to take it easy, to kick back. He bears down on his pen, and says, roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear. You are a new creation and as a new creation prepare for battle. Get ready. Don't lazily slip back into your old ways. Prepare for battle. HOW??
1) Discipline with your love.
v. 22 "Now you can have real love for everyone because your souls have been cleansed from selfishness and hatred when you trusted Christ to save you; so see to it that you really do love each other warmly, with all your hearts." Peter is saying that there is no better test than love. You've been made new, prepare yourself, now he gives us an action step -- love one another.
I would have preferred him to start off with something a little easier. Instead he goes for the juggler. Do you love other people warmly? Is love a filter that your actions go through? Do you hold other people up to high regard? Do you consider them better than yourself? Do you put them before you put yourself? Peter is saying that love is what sets us apart. Love is the display of holiness. Love is the litmus test for Christians.
I remember 6 words from my graduate school education that I learned during a story I was reading about a man who was a pagan who went to report on the early church movement. The pagan went into the compound where a bunch of Christians were living together, intending to write something bad. Instead he wrote these 6 words that had an impact on church history, "Behold, how they love one another."
I wonder if someone from the secular world came into the Christian community today would be able to say that or would they say "Behold, how they judge one another. Behold, how they criticize one another. Behold, how they fight with one another. Behold, how they hurt one another." Being set apart, being different, being holy is to love one another, warmly and with all of our heart.
A pastor friend in northern California gives a children's sermon. He gave the children an opportunity to accept Christ. A brother and sister came forward and the sister raised her hand that she wanted to have Jesus live in her heart. The next morning the boy and girl were playing and the girl got mad and smacked her brother good. The brother said, "I thought Jesus was living in your heart?" The girl said, "He is, but He's sleeping right now."
When it comes to discipline, loving one another, I think sometimes we've allowed Jesus to fall asleep, or back out, or step off the throne, or we put Him in a closet -- our reactions don't display love. Do you love one another warmly and deeply?
2) Discipline with your mouth.
"Be sure, then, you are never spiteful, or deceitful, or hypocritical, or envious and critical of each other." If we take care of the discipline of love then the words that come out of our mouth tend to have a different tone, tend to have a different direction, tend to have a different meaning. When we preform a little heart surgery our words are displayed in a different fashion.
This isn't my opinion, this is what Jesus said: "You will know a person's heart by the words that come from his or her mouth." How does your heart measure up to these? Spiteful, deceitful, hypocritical, envious, critical of others? I think if we're being real, reality says that we may think some of these things but maturity says that we keep them to ourselves. Reality says that they, these thoughts, may come and go, maturity says we keep them to ourselves. Greater maturity says that these thoughts come up less and less.
3) Discipline with your desires for God's Word.
I Peter 2:2 says, "Be like new born babies, always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up and be saved." I love that image that you're always thirsty for spiritual milk. He's not saying that you're spiritual babies. Be thirsty for God's Word.
Some of you have been believers for a long time. You've been drunk with God's Word, but you're not thirsty any more. Do you want to know how to live a different life, how to be set apart, how to be holy? Consult His guidebook. Consult the Bible, His love letter. Some of you, you come on Sunday morning and that's the only milk that you get. Discipline your desires for God's Word. God's Word is more than a good book, more than a best seller -- it's God's love letter that's available to all of us, it's a gift.
In the middle ages the Bible was chained to the pulpit. Later it was in Latin where only the educated or the priests could understand it. But now, we all have access to God's Word and it shows us how to be different.
I grew up in a church where the preacher would say, "The Bible is to show you what you're doing wrong." The more I read it I realized that the Bible was to show me how to live right.
These action steps are not easy action steps. Having discipline with our love, our mouth, our desires for God's Word -- these are not easy. Then I started to think about Peter, the man who wrote these words, obviously inspired by God. But I started to think about Peter in his earlier years when he walked with Jesus.
Peter was a big-mouthed clumsy fisherman and Jesus came into his life and said "I'm going to call you Petros, the rock." You watch Peter's life. He was instrumental in the book of Acts and the early church. He was also very real and very human. He denied Jesus three times. This gives me hope. Not only was Peter inspired by God when he wrote these words but he was also a fellow journeyman, somebody who has walked where we walk, somebody that knew what it was like to live in the tension between the old and the new. That gives me hope. He's saying "You've been born again, made new, begin to act like it." You live by a different set of rules, a whole new game, when you live God's way.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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