The Key Feature of the Church

Let’s turn to 1 Peter 1. No big
surprise, huh? 1 Peter 1. We have been studying this incredible
passage. The passage that we’ll look at
this morning is in your bulletin with places for notes. We have been looking at chapter
1 and have noted in weeks past that it is about, all about,
and in almost the most thorough fashion of any one chapter of
all of Scripture, it is about salvation. We have seen from
the earliest words elements of salvation being mentioned and
some having gone into great detail. We saw the unmistakable features
of the church. We saw the blessings of new birth
in Christ in verses 3-6. the anatomy and end of Christian
faith in verses 6-9. We went on and pressed into prophecy
and the message that God has for the church in verses 10-12.
Things that were so astounding that angels and prophets longed
to know more of them. So, all about salvation is what
Peter’s main focus has been in this chapter. And in verse 13,
what Peter did, as you know, as we have seen, Peter began
to turn and to say, OK, if this is the nature of salvation and
if it is this great and grand thing, then what must the saint’s
response be? And I propose that looking at
the chapter quite simply, that there are four expected responses
from the believer. There are four things that ought
to characterize the saint of God, those who have placed their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, verse 13, a Christian
ought to have a grace filled confidence. Peter said, therefore,
gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope. Place it there and do not let
it be moved. Fix your hope completely on the
grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. A Christian ought to be hopeful. He ought to have great confidence
in the future and in what God may accomplish. Not only that,
but we should have a God-like holiness. God is our standard,
not men. Not even the most godly of men. God Himself is our standard,
and the Lord Jesus Christ specifically. Verse 14, As obedient children,
do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance,
but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all
your behavior. And we consider the comprehensive
nature of that call, that we are to be godly, godlike in all
that we do. Not only that, not only should
our response to God be one of a grace-filled confidence and
a godlike holiness, but thirdly, a Christ-bought reverence. We
should be so worshipful in all that we do because of the recollection
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did for you, did for me, accomplished
for us on the cross. Verse 17, if you address His
Father, the One who impartially judges according to each man’s
work, conduct yourselves in fear. And it doesn’t mean a cowering
dread. We saw that that meant a reverent life in every aspect
of it. Every aspect of your life can
and should be an act of worship. Conduct yourselves in fear during
the time of your stay upon earth. We are only passing through.
This is a temporary visit for us. And all of our life, in response
to what God has done for us, is to be in active worship. But
there was a fourth response. We’ve mentioned it in weeks past,
and now we’ll focus on that this morning. The fourth response
that God expects from every believer to the salvation that God has
provided by His grace is a born-again affection. A born-again affection. When you hear the word church,
what comes to mind? I remember one ad campaign that
went around recently. It had the picture of just an
idyllic little white country church, complete with a steeple,
the whole deal. White, painted white, beautiful
little church, sitting off, nestled in the trees. And for most people,
that conjures up the image of church. That’s what you think
of when you think of church. The sad thing with this is it
had a round circle with a red line through it. And the ad campaign
went along these lines, not your parents church. It was one of
these, you know, rock and roll styled modern day Gen X churches. I’ll save my comments on that
for another day. But what images come to your
mind when you think of church? What are the distinctive features
of the local church. Perhaps a steeple, a church,
a white painted church complete with a steeple is exactly what
comes to your mind when you think of church. Maybe it’s the feature
of the stained glass windows that is part and parcel of what
a church is in your mind. Maybe it’s the impressive and
inviting architecture. churches throughout centuries
have been among the most ornate and beautiful pieces of architecture
of any town. Maybe it’s the modern day desire
of a multifunctional building. Maybe that is the most distinctive
feature of a church. Some would even wax spiritual
in their attempt to describe the local church and the distinctive
feature of the church. And they would say that it’s
doctrine. Doctrine is the most distinctive feature of the church.
And I would even say that that’s not even accurate. Some would
get sentimental in identifying the most prominent feature of
the church as being the people. And perhaps they’re a little
closer yet. But you know what? Not even the
people of a church are presented in Scripture as being the most
important feature of it. Rather, it is the love of the
people for one another that is the most distinctive feature
of the local church. We are called to so love one
another that we become as a beacon in a very dark land We become
known among that land as being different and distinct from the
world around us because of the love and care and affection that
we have for one another. Before we even start this morning,
I’ll ask you, who have you loved? Who have
you really shown Christian affection for? As we begin this morning,
I’m sure that there are many who would say that varying degrees,
we have loved others in our body. And I think the closer we draw
to God’s word this morning, you will see that there are very
few. You will see that we have loved very poorly. And that it
is not a distinctive feature, not only of the church in America,
it is not even a distinctive feature of Providence Bible Church
in great degree. We are to have a sincere love
for one another. We are to have a genuine love
for one another. We are to have an active, vigorous
love, a self-giving love, a self-giving affection for one another, a
self-denying affection, much like Christ. And we fall woefully
short, don’t we? When you begin to look at Christ
as the standard, we know we’ve fallen short. John Brown, the eminent Puritan,
said he spoke of the opposite of what is so often found in
churches. When he mentioned envy, wrath,
selfishness, the love of the world, with coldness in all the
concerns of religion have replaced the place of love. And in vain
shall men wrangle and contend about their differences in opinions,
their faith and worship, pretending to advance religion by an imposition
of their persuasion on others.” He says, this has been a common
feature of the church. It was true in John Brown’s day.
And it’s true in ours. That we think that we’re going
to advance the cause of Christ by arm wrestling and twisting,
even murdering other people in the name of Christ. pretending
to advance religion by an imposition of their persuasion on others.
You see, that’s our thought process. If we could only get everybody
thinking like me, there would be harmony. He goes on and says,
unless this holy love again be reintroduced among all those
who profess the name of Christ, all the concerns of religion
will run more and more into ruin. says it starts here, and if you
don’t foster love, genuine love among the body, it will degenerate
into nothingness. He says the very continuance
of the church depends primarily on faith in Christ and secondarily
on the continuance of this love. Where there’s faith and love
are not, there is no church. And I would cause you to Look
out on the land or the landscape of our country. And I would say
that a lot of places that call themselves church by virtue of
this very statement are not churches. If they are not characterized
at the core of their being by a love for one another, they,
by his standard and I believe by scriptures, are not churches.
It is the distinctive feature. It is to be the distinctive feature
of the church. Charles Bridges, another hero
of mine, said likewise of hatred. He said, hatred, which is sadly
what characterizes when you begin to know what hatred is. Hatred,
however varnished by smooth pretense, is the selfish principle of man.
Do you know what he’s saying there? He’s saying we can put
a decent coat of paint on it, we can smile our way through
it, we can even act friendly and kind and nice to one another,
but deep down, really and truly, we don’t care, we don’t love
them, and what he calls that is hatred. That if you are not
actively loving one another, call it what it is. That’s what
he says. Hatred, however varnished by
smooth pretense, is the selfish principle of man. Like a subterraneous
fire, it continually stirs up mischief, creates or keeps alive
a rankling coldness, disgusts, dislikes, it carps at the infirmities
of others, it aggravates the least slip, and resents the most
trifling or even imaginary provocation. Now, read or listen through his
Elizabethan language. What he says is, you’ve got somebody
with their nose bent out of shape and they will not let it go.
And what he calls that is not love. Hatred. It’s hatred. I mean, let’s be at least honest
enough to call it what it is, because we will never embrace
the love of Christ for one another until we deal first with the
hatred That’s exactly what Peter does.
And I want to take you to 1 Peter 1, verse 22, for the fourth expected
response of the saint. Peter writes, since you have,
in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love
of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For
you have been born again, not of a seed which is perishable,
but imperishable. That is, through the living and
abiding Word of God. For all flesh is like grass,
and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers. The flower falls off. But the
Word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the Word which was
preached to you.” It shouldn’t surprise us that
there are mean people out there. It shouldn’t surprise us that
there are hateful people out there that treat us unkindly
and treat others unkindly. That shouldn’t surprise us. The unconverted, those who do
not know Christ, are incapable of truly and genuinely loving
one another or loving you. So don’t think that they’re acting
strangely when they treat you in that way. Scripture calls
out that they are going to. They are going to be characterized
by that kind of behavior. They are unloving by nature,
Paul says. But the command, the command
is a surprising one for Christians. The simple sentence in the passage,
it couldn’t be any simpler. Love one another. It’s simple,
it’s plain, but it’s powerful and it’s strange. It’s strange
that Peter has to say this to the church, isn’t it? Peter even
acknowledges that you’ve already, in obedience to the truth, purified
your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. It should be
the natural outflow of our lives to love one another. But it isn’t,
is it? And that’s what’s strange. That’s what’s surprising. The
command is simple, love one another. And the word here is the word
for brotherly love, Philadelphia, and it’s used by the apostle
and it expresses a strong, natural affection, typically between
parents and children. One of the most absurd things
of our day and age is when we have seen over and over again
just unnatural acts by parents toward their own children. Far
beyond physical abuse. The natural thing is for a parent
to love and embrace and care for that child. to tender affection that is within
the church for one another. Christians are called to love
each other with the same sincerity and the same tenderness, the
same eagerness as if they were the nearest relatives. That’s
what’s to characterize the church. We see it repeatedly throughout
the New Testament. At one point, Christ introduced
it as it were a new commandment. Now, this wasn’t a brand new
commandment. Christ was reiterating it. Israel had been called upon
to a life of righteousness. Remember even the Ten Commandments,
the Ten Commandments, five of which point distinctly to their
relationship with God. But the other five. The other
five speak specifically of their relationship with one another.
And they were called to righteousness. They were called to a just living
among one another that was a testimony to all the other nations. Nevertheless, Christ said in
John 14, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another,
even as I have loved you, that you love one another. And he
says this, and this is why I say this is the most distinctive
feature of the church. In verse 35 of John 13, by this
love, this love you have for one another, by this, all men
will know that you are my disciples. So far, so good. If you have
love for one another. You want to have an evangelism
program in the church? That’s fine. You want to have
a door-to-door thing where we go around and tell people about
Christ? That’s fine. You want to advertise in the
local paper? That’s fine. Want to have a website?
Great. But there is nothing, there are
no earthly methods, even all of them combined, that will do
more to advance the cause of Christ in this local place than
genuine love for one another. That’s what Christ said. That’s
what Christ said. By this, all men will know that
you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The new commandment here was,
in a sense, narrower in range. But it wasn’t altogether different
than anything that Israel had been called to do. Jesus required
that His disciples, in a new way, with a new intensity, love
one another just as He had loved them. It was to be a constant
love, a self-sacrificing love. It must be the pattern for their
attitude and relationship with one another. Those twelve, it
was going to set a pattern for the churches in the first century. And they are to love one another.
You know what? It’s easy to love God, isn’t
it? It’s easy to love God. And the strange thing with Christianity
is that we think that all we’ve got to do is love God, and we’ve
got some pretty decent Christianity. And people, I’ll tell you, that’s
not Christianity. To love God, that’s easy. Because He’s perfect. And He’s lovable. And He’s merciful. And He’s the one that saved your
soul. He’s the one that sent the Lord Jesus Christ to die
on your behalf. It’s easy to love Him. It’s hard to love the person
next to you. It’s hard to love the person across the aisle from
you. It’s hard to love the person who differs in doctrine from
you. It’s hard to love other people. It’s hard to love people
who live differently and function differently than you do and have
a different level of giftedness and have a different level of
success. It’s hard to love them. And that’s why it’s a distinctive
feature in the church. And now I’ll ask you again, who
have you loved? Because it’s easy to love God. We could all
say we’ve loved God and expect some kind of adulation for that. A.W. Pink said, love is the badge
of Christian discipleship. You know, I have always taken
this position. I’m not against Christian T-shirts.
If you wear them, that’s fine. That’s great. I’m not against
Christian bumper stickers. I’m not against all that demonstrative
stuff. I’ve just always said this. We
shouldn’t need that to have a testimony in the world.
We shouldn’t need that to be our testimony in the world. Love,
A.W. Pink said, is the badge of Christian
discipleship. That’s the t-shirt that we wear. It’s how we treat one another.
How we function towards one another. It isn’t knowledge, he says.
It’s not orthodoxy. And see, that’s our pitfall,
isn’t it? We think all we’ve got to do, and we’re pretty close
to having perfect doctrine here in this church, you know, and
all we’ve got to do is have our doctrine in order. And the next
thing for us is heaven, right? It’s not knowledge, nor orthodoxy,
nor fleshly activities, but supremely love, which identifies a follower
of the Lord Jesus. The mark of a true Christian
is love, and that, a genuine, active love, not in word, but
in deeds. I’ve met some affectionate people
in my day. I’ve met people that almost every
time they meet you, they say, oh, I love you, brother. Love
you. I mean, haven’t we all met those
kinds of people? But that isn’t even what he’s
talking about. It’s not people that express their love to you
in words. It’s people that show their love
to you in forgiveness, in prayer, in self-sacrifice, in service
to you. We are to love as Christ loved. How did Jesus love His disciples?
Selflessly. Sacrificially. Understandingly. Forgivingly. How do we love one another? One of the last charges Jesus
gave to His disciples, John 15, He repeated this command. Love
one another. You almost can’t make a more
profound argument for the high calling or the high position
that one another kind of love is than that. The parting words
of the Lord Jesus Christ from this earth. Love one another. And speaking on that last time
and giving that admonition to His disciples. The great duty
that we have in loving one another in the same patient sense that
Christ loved us. That is the argument. Because love had now been personified. They had seen love like nobody
else had ever seen it. They had seen Christ in the flesh
and Christ had displayed a love beyond any that anybody on earth
had ever seen. Who are we to love? We’re to
love one another. We’re to love the brethren. We’re
to love the saints of the church. We’re to love the ones that Christ
loved. Hebrews 13.1, simple statement,
let the love of their brethren continue. One Puritan said it
this way, wherever you see the image of the Lord, wherever there
is a consistent profession of faith in Christ, there we ought
to fix our Christian affections. And having fixed them, we are
not easily to allow them either to abate or to be transferred.
Now, let me interpret. He says, wherever you hear a
testimony of Christ, wherever you have believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ gathered, there, the love that you have should
spill forth like nowhere else. And when He says that it should
not abate, don’t let it dry up. Don’t cut off that well and don’t
transfer it anywhere else. Don’t love your friends more
than you love your church. Don’t love your unbelieving family
more than you love the saints of God. Matthew 12, Jesus said it similarly. While He was still speaking to
the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside
seeking to speak to Him. And someone said to Him, behold,
Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking
to speak to You. But he answered the one who was
telling him and said, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand toward
the disciples, he said, behold, my mother and my brothers, for
whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother
and sister and mother. Jesus said, there is a more intimate
bond between us as having faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that
common bond of Christ, than there is even among your most dear
relatives, if they are not a Christian. This is your family. This is
your spiritual family. And there is a deeper bond here
than any earthly bond. Earthly relationships will perish. They must. But this spiritual
bond continues and abides. And so we are to love one another. What does it look like? You know,
Peter speaks pretty plainly, and he’ll get into some detail
in a moment. We’ll touch on some of that.
He lays the groundwork and he gives us some color, if you will,
and we’ll get there. But I want to go to another passage
just briefly that characterizes this kind of brotherly love that
we are to have for one another. I’d like you to turn to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. I Thessalonians 4. I just want
to pick up a few pieces of detail so that we can know what is this
brotherly love to be like. Is it just standing in a circle
with warm affection for one another, holding hands and singing kumbaya?
Because that’s what a lot of people think of the brotherly
love. You know, we’re just togetherness. I Thessalonians 4. Look at verse
9. As to the love of the brethren, here we are again. Peter isn’t
the only one who sees this as the distinctive feature in the
church. As to the love of the brethren, you have no need for
anyone to write to you. What Paul says there is that
the Thessalonians were so loving one another. that they didn’t
need any more exhortation. This was a solid church. A church
that had ministered to Paul, had ministered to saints abroad.
They were ministering to one another. They didn’t need any
exhortation from anybody, not even the Apostle Paul. It’s an
astounding statement. As to the love of the brethren,
you have no need for anyone to write to you. There were many
other things that Paul could have said to the Thessalonian
believers and did But regarding the love that they had for one
another, that just wasn’t one of the things he had to address.
But Paul’s fear is that having had this great, incredible start
in loving one another, that it was going to, as we talked about
a moment ago, begin to abate, begin to dry up and shrivel up.
As to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to
write you. For yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
You know, whenever I’m counseling somebody and they, oh, well,
I didn’t have a good model. You know, I was raised in this
home by this mean guy and I didn’t have a good model growing up.
That’s hooey. That’s in the Greek here. You yourselves are taught by
God to love one another. When we become a Christian, The
Holy Spirit Himself begins to instruct us in a new way, a new
pattern of living. For indeed, you do practice it
toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia, and He acknowledges
what the Thessalonian church had done so abundantly in loving
one another. But we urge you, brethren, to
excel still more. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t plateau. Don’t level off.
Certainly don’t let it fall by the wayside. love one another. And then he adds these little
details. And this is why we’re here. I
wanted to show you what this Christian love looks like. And
Paul does an excellent job of it. Excels still more. No matter
how good you are at it, you can be better. That’s what Paul says. Maybe you’re the most loving
person that any church has ever known. Paul says to you, there’s
room for growth. You’ve got room to grow. And
here’s where. He says, we urge you, brethren,
to excel still more and make it your ambition to lead a quiet
life. What? This is what it is to love
one another? Lead a quiet life? I mean, this
is head-scratching material here. What does he mean by that? One
person characterized it in this term. Make it your ambition to
have no ambition. It’s an interesting thought.
Make it your ambition to not be the one in the church that
has an agenda, that’s pressing things to go their way. Another
one said it this way. Strenuously seek to be still. What ever happened to that? My
grandmother, that was a favorite word of my grandmother. Be still.
You know? And it meant be quiet. Cool it. Chill. Strive to be calm. Elizabeth Elliot said it this
way one time, never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut. That’s
what it is to love in the church. That’s what Paul says. He says
that’s the first means of showing love in the church is not being
the one that rocks the boat. Not being the one that stirs
things up and brings things up all the time. Not only that,
but attend to your own business. Oh, go get a job, he says. No. He’s not talking about your
career. He’s not talking about the store.
He’s not talking about the shop. He literally says here, mind
or attend to your own things, your own affairs. The problem
in the church, the unloving problem in the church, is that there’s
too many people involved in too many other people’s business.
And Paul says, knock it off. I have a favorite from one of
the churches in which we ministered, a favorite lady who almost every
time we ever did something, I found her in the kitchen. And I went
to her one time and I said, you know what? I always see you in
the kitchen. Why is that? And at first she didn’t want
to tell me. And I pressed her. And she said, because if I go
out there, I know I’ll talk. And I know that if I talk, I’ll
sin. She saw the tendency to sin so great, and she was so
aware of her own weakness in that regard, that it was easier
for her to roll up her sleeves and just serve quietly and patiently,
serve taking care of her own business, so that she wouldn’t
gossip, she wouldn’t slander, she wouldn’t criticize. What
a model. Make it your ambition to lead
a quiet life, attend your own business and work with your hands
just as we commanded you. That is a mark of love. You want
to love the church? Work. Roll up your sleeves and
work just as we commanded you. They call it the Puritan work
ethic. They maybe advanced this cause, but it wasn’t the Puritan
work ethic. It is the Christian work ethic.
Why? So that you may behave properly
toward outsiders. What does he mean by that? The
ability to give, the ability to minister to other people.
Roll up your sleeves and work so that you can make something
to give. Minister to somebody else with
what God has given you and not be in any need. I’ve said it
before, the Christian parasite is an oxymoron, right? We are
to roll up our sleeves. We are to work not only so we
can provide for ourselves, but so that we’ve got something else
to lovingly give others. It’s a beautiful passage, someday
I’ll preach it. I want to go back to our passage,
if you will, though. First, Peter. I want to go back. I want to look at first these
four distinct elements of the nature of Christian love. Peter
gives us some help. Peter does characterize it. We’ve
certainly gained insight into what love is like from Paul,
but let’s go back and see what Peter has to say. Peter gives
us four distinct elements here of the nature of Christian love.
What is it like? What is this love like? First
of all, Let’s look at the groundwork of brotherly affection. The groundwork
of brotherly affection is there in verse 22. Since you have,
in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love
of the brethren. And he takes that at face value. He sees it in the life of people,
much like what Paul saw in the Thessalonians. This was your
purpose. This was your cause in Christ.
These are the second half of the Ten Commandments working
themselves out in your life. You are loving others. You have,
in obedience to the truth, purified yourself for that very purpose. This true brotherly love is a
result of our purification in Christ. And don’t misunderstand. He’s not saying that we purify
ourselves. But it’s coming to the truth
The truth of the gospel, the truth of Christ, the truth about
who Christ is and what He’s done in coming to Christ. We repudiate
the old life, which is a life of self service, selfishness. It’s all about me in the old
life and in the new life. It’s all about Christ and it’s
all about others. It’s not about me. We are purified from that. This
begins the process not only of salvation, it begins the process
of sanctification in the believer’s life. Not only are the Ten Commandments,
half of which about our relationship to others, but even consider
the fruit of the Spirit. When the Spirit begins the work
of sanctification in our life, He begins a life of changing
how we relate to one another. Necessarily. Listen, Galatians
5, 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love. I mean, do I even need
to go any further? He starts there and says that
this is to be the key change in a person’s life when the Spirit
comes into their life. When they come to Christ, the
first work of the Spirit is to begin to change how we relate
to one another. Love, joy, peace. Not only peace with God, Because
peace in Scripture so often is spoken comprehensively. It’s
peaceableness. Peaceableness in the church.
Peaceableness at home. Patience. It isn’t patience.