By CHARLES N. ANDREWS Pastor of the Fredericksburg Pentecostal Church, Fredericksburg, Va.
SEEING YE HAVE PURIFIED your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever . ... Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the s'incere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious (1 PET. 1: 22, 23; 2: 1-3). THE THIRD VERSE of I Peter 2 is a key verse to the above passage, for it shows how the Lord works. First of all, He gives us a taste of Himself, of His grace and love, and then He provides the means by which we may have more of Himself-His Word. As we desire the Word, receive it, and obey it,' we grow in our knowledge of Him and our likeness to Him, and our souls are purified. The result of this is that we love one another with an unpretended, fervent love. Most of us need look no further than our own hearts to see that we have not grown very fast in this way, even though we have heard and read much of the Word of God. If this is true, then we should recognize that something is making the Word we hear and read of none effect to us. Everyone who is truly converted has experienced an a wakening of his heart to the reality of Jesus and has received a desire for more of Him and to know Him better. In other words, in the beginning of our experience we have tasted of Jesus and that taste has made us want more. This was true of my own experience after surrendering to the Lord, Jesus became very real as my indwelling Lord and King. I wanted more of Him and sought Him earnestly. One night in a young people's meeting of which I was the leader, I spoke glowingly of Jesus dwelling within and how our main need was simply to recognize Him within. , a brother arose and said bluntly that we also needed to deny ourselves. Needless to say, I neither liked nor understood that word. It stuck with me, however, until I realized that though Christ is dwelling within me, His power to change and give victory is made void unless I am willing to let go of and turn away from my own desires, attitudes and feelings, in order that He may be manifested. Peter shows us that even though we have tasted that the Lord is gracious and want more of Jesus, our growth will be arrested if we do not lay aside such things as malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings. In other words, if we permit any ill-feeling, or hatred, or envy to come into our hearts; and if we show guile and hypocrisy by pretending to love while we inwardly hate and let this feeling finally result in evil speaking, we make the Word of God of none effect in our lives. So our growth is stunted. Our souls can be purified of these things only as we lay them aside by obeying the Word of God. . Thus we will grow to be fervent lovers, not only of Jesus but of one another.
Bread of Life, May, 1957
http://www.breadoflifemagazine.com/pdf/195705.pdf |