Continuity in Change…

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.
1 Peter 2:2

TODAY AT MOODY

Lloyd Dodson, Vice President of Corporate Projects and Human Resources, has a big job in serving management and employees at the Institute. Lift him up in prayer, that the Lord would use him to further increase Moody’s work as a family of God.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Read: 1 Peter 1:22-2:3

TODAY IN THE WORD

The word love is common today. From glib declarations in a Hallmark card to the newest pop song’s promise, “I will love U 4ever,” the idea of love has become devoid of meaning. A mere sentimentality, contemporary notions of love often express infatuation, lust, or need-driven feelings. So when we come to the call in today’s passage to “love one another,” it’s easy to miss the challenge in Peter’s exhortation.

Earlier, holiness was urged through self-control over evil desires (1 Peter 1:13—16). Now the exhortation to holiness continues with a call to love. The Christian life is not just internal; it is also about relationships with others. The call is explicit: “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1:22). And it’s worth noting that the word “deeply” might better be translated “extensively” or “earnestly.” It’s the same word used to describe Jesus’ longing prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44).

This positive call to relational love is then repeated from the negative side in 2:1. All the named vices that we are called to extinguish from our lives are nothing less than attitudes and behaviors that lack love. Where there is “malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander,” there can be no love in the community (2:2). This is no superficial call to niceness or civility, but rather to an earnest, sincere attitude and action of care among the Christian family.

Scripture also reveals the foundation of this new life of love. Our reading begins with a reminder that we have been purified already through obedience to the truth (1:22). The remainder of our passage makes it clear that the obedience Peter has in mind is the believer’s faithful response to the gospel proclamation, the “word that was preached to you” (1:25). Compared to all other living things, which eventually wither and die, God’s word is “living and enduring” (1:23). That creative, life-giving word of God which brought all things into existence is the same word now in us. It purifies, renews, and empowers us to live a life of true love.

TODAY ALONG THE WAY

The call to love is not static; it requires attitude and action. But today’s passage adds another ingredient necessary for Christian growth: nourishment, what Peter calls “pure spiritual milk” (2:2). So important is this spiritual food that he compares us to a hungry infant craving to be fed. Do you see the growth of true love in your own spiritual life? If not, perhaps you need to recommit yourself to the regular spiritual nourishment of God’s Word. Don’t just taste it; feed on it, and grow!

2009 Copyright Moody Bible Institute • www.todayintheword.org

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