“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“’All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.’
“And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-25 ESV)
“A voice says, ‘Cry!’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8 ESV)
As followers of Jesus Christ, if our faith is genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus, we should be those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Then, as those who are walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, we are no longer to be conformed to the ways and patterns of this sinful world, but we are to be holy in all our conduct.
And to be holy means to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus in heart, mind, will, and character (if we are). Our lives are to be patterned after the ways of God and according to the teachings in the Scriptures under the New Covenant that God has with his people Israel (both Jew and Gentile by faith in Jesus Christ). We are to live morally pure, upright, godly, honest, and faithful lives to God in obedience to his commands in everything we are and do and say.
For Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross to put our sins to death with him so that, by genuine God-persuaded faith in him, we will deny self, die daily to sin, and walk daily in obedience to his commands under the New Covenant. He shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of slavery to sin so that we will now serve him with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living. So we are no longer to walk in sin, but now in obedience to God’s commands.
And, as those who have purified our souls by our obedience to the truth of God’s holy word, which includes dying with him to sin, we are then to love one another with the (agape) love which comes from God and which prefers what God prefers, which is that we walk in obedience to his commands in holy and righteous living, in moral purity, honesty, and uprightness, and no longer in sin according to what our flesh desires. Therefore, when we love others with this love we will not deliberately and habitually sin against them.
But sadly, many people today who are professing faith in Jesus Christ are not following those teachings. Many of them are being convinced that if they make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ that now God does it all for them and that nothing is required of them. For they see their salvation more like how some people might view retirement from a job, more like one big vacation where one can live to please the flesh and just do whatever brings them joy and happiness, but it is all flesh driven.
Instead of feeling as though they must obey the Lord and do what he says, and make sure they do not deliberately and habitually sin against the Lord, they now console themselves that their Christianity is more like retirement, and now they can just relax and have fun and do whatever brings them pleasure, even if it is against the expressed will of God, and even if it is in direct defiance to God’s laws, and even if it means hurting other people by sinning against them, for they feel they are no longer under any law.
Many of them with this mindset that salvation = retirement, and no longer is any work required of them, because “God does it all” for them, may become idle, slothful, withdrawn, secretive, and hiding what they are doing in secret from the ones they are supposed to be loving, instead. If they were “struggling” with sinful addiction, they may now take a more relaxed approach and decide that God’s grace covers it all regardless of how they live. And if they begin to feel guilty for their sin, they are being told to just “claim who you are in Christ.” But if we are living in sin, we aren’t in Christ.
So, what this passage is teaching us is that our human flesh is not what we are to be depending upon. We should not be feeding the flesh nor living to please the flesh, for if we do, we will fall. And if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, we will not inherit eternal life with God. For God is not in the business of providing us with retirement benefits, in a spiritual sense. Our work for the Lord on this earth is not done until the day that we die.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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