Reviving The Aim (1 Peter 1: 13-25)

1 Peter 1:13-25

"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.' And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your AIMLESS conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you WHO THROUGH HIM BELIEVE IN GOD, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, LOVE ONE ANOTHER FERVENTLY with a pure heart, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD which lives and abides forever, because...


'All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.'”(Psalm 103:15)


"Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you."


At the beginning of Chapter 1, Peter describes these pilgrims as 'elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ'. These are not novice in their understanding; yet Peter does remind them to love one another fervently, through the word of God, which by the gospel was preached to them. By the gospel of Jesus Christ, not the aimlessness of their father's tradition. Peter was reminding them as Jesus was reminded by the Holy Spirit in the garden of Gethsemane. The Lord said, 'O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.' We must remember that 'the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God’ (Romans 8:19). That is the aim.

The Prayer Of Faith That Saves

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And THE PRAYER OF FAITH WILL SAVE the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (James 5:13-16)

"Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine (faith in Jesus Christ, believing in Him). Continue in them, for in doing this YOU WILL SAVE BOTH YOURSELF AND THOSE WHO HEAR YOU."(1Timothy 4:15,16) Paul writes this to Timothy, "a true son in the faith", and a pastor and overseer of churches!

"Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principal and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Ephesians 1:15-23)

Whether one is suffering (according to the will of God committing their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful Creator; 1 Peter 4:19), or cheerful, or sick, the prayer of faith in Christ Jesus is the awakening, reminder and quickening for salvation. Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church explains that as we decide to "trust in Him" and are "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise", we must be enlightened by God to understand "what is the hope of His calling". The initial chapter of Ephesians reminds and blesses when we are in the midst of, overcoming in, unaware of, or have taken steps away from His will for us in Christ.

Your Performance Of His Commandments

"Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him." (Deuteronomy 8:1-3,5,6)

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."(John 13:34,35)

"I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, SO I DO. Arise, let us go from here." (John 14:30,31)

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in Me love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if 

you DO whatever I command you." (John 15:9-14)

"Little children, let no one deceive you. He who PRACTICES righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous."(1 John 3:7)

"In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not PRACTICE righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.(1 John 3:10)

Lately I am hearing ministers proclaim that this new covenant, by the blood of Jesus Christ, is not based on our performance. For sure, God's plan for the salvation of man came without His inquiring of man for an opinion. Salvation is the gift of God to man. He knows how to accomplish it in us. But, we have to submit to it. In the book of Revelation (chapters 2,3) Jesus commands His the messengers to the seven churches to write: "I know your works". So, your performance, according to His words, displays who He is to mankind. What kind of offering are your works in Him displaying?

Are You Gathering For Assembly, Or Just Gathering?

"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, LET US DRAW NEAR with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the ASSEMBLING of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:19-25)

Assembling ourselves together, according to His will for His body, results in His testimony being clearly understood/seen. The manner of some is to gather around principles that bring very little fruit to maturity. They gather, unknowingly or unwillingly, apart from His narrow way.

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head- Christ- from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:11-16)

All the works of the ministry discussed in Ephesians should be in attendance, at various times, in every fellowship for appropriate assembly according to the measure of Christ's gift!

In The Way Of Cain

"But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who DID NOT BELIEVE. And the angels who did not keep THEIR PROPER DOMAIN, but LEFT THEIR OWN ABODE, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!' But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone IN THE WAY OF CAIN, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. (Jude v.5-11)

We understand that Cain's offering to the Lord was not respected. The Lord brought correction, saying, 'If you do well, will not you be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.' (Genesis 4:1-7) Cain decided what to bring as an offering and would not be corrected.

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the power of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again FOR THEMSELVES the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." (Hebrews 6:4-6) They, like Cain, decide what type of offering to bring. It always results in a shameful representation relative to the purity of the Way of His cross.

Turning To Righteousness

 "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul." (Ezekiel 3:20,21)

"And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. AND EVERYONE WHO HAS THIS HOPE IN HIM PURIFIES HIMSELF JUST AS HE IS PURE. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. “ (1 John 2:28,29; 3:1-8)

"Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever desires to save his life will lose it, BUT whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."    (Luke 9:23,24)

In order to "practice righteousness" we must understand that we are called to our own cross through faith in Jesus Christ. Many have desired to have a "saved life" but unknowingly (in some cases defiantly) retain lordship over it and are losing the fight. Those who lose their life FOR HIS SAKE, who have the testimony of Jesus, will save it. Don't remove yourself from your cross in Christ. I believe this the sin of which John speaks. Our place in this purification is to understand and endure, counting it all joy throughout the process!

Concerning The Righteousness Which Is Of Faith, Blameless

"Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the 
same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If 
anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; CONCERNING THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS IN THE LAW, BLAMELESS."

"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, BUT THAT WHICH IS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS FROM GOD BY FAITH; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH, if, by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."  (Philippians 3:1-11)

Why would I say that Paul was blameless concerning the righteousness of faith?

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me".  (Galatians 2:20)

With the same zeal that he strove to fulfill the law, Paul strove to become the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He walked by what he had attained through faith in Christ and became blameless in it.