01-03-10 The End Is Near Pt. 3

1PE 4:7-11 The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We began our study of these 5 verses from 1^st Peter chapter 3 before Christmas,

but we only made it part way through the passage,

so I want us to continue what we started today.

Last week we did lay some groundwork for what we’ll look at today,

but its been several weeks since we were actually in the passage,

and they have been several weeks of the holiday season

with all of the distractions, and turmoil that so often comes with this time of year,

so we’ll need a little review to help us get back into our study.

When we were in this study three weeks ago

we spent quite a bit of our time

looking at that opening phrase in which Peter tells us that the end of all things is near.

We looked at it from Peter’s perspective,

from God’s perspective,

and then we brought it home to ourselves

and looked at why our Lord wants us to live with an end times mentality

no matter where or when He may have placed us in the flow of history.

Peter wants us to live

with the understanding that life on this planet

is a brief loan from God

and it always comes to an end.

During the time we spend on this earth

we are each given our own unique stewardship.

It begins with the number of days allotted to each of us.

We don’t know how many,

but we do know that the number is finite

and each day we are given is a trust.

Beyond that we have our own unique set of gifts and abilities,

our own unique personalities,

and our own God-given group of people to love and care for.

And when Peter begins this section of his letter

by telling us that the end of all things is near...,

he wants us to embrace our life

not as an endless right, but rather as a brief stewardship.

And what we do

with the time allotted to us

matters so much more than we could ever imagine.

But that does not mean

what we are so often told it means

by so many of the religious voices around us.

It doesn’t mean we are to attempt to add to our lives

a list of activities

that we think God would like -

things to cram into our already busy schedules

so that we will not be accused of wasting our time on this earth

when we stand before our Maker.

I mentioned three weeks ago that one of my greatest life discoveries during the past 40 years

has been a growing awareness of the simplicity of the truly power-filled life God has called us to.

And by power-filled

I don’t mean some sort of signs-and-wonders religious facade,

I mean approaching life in a way

that literally has the power to change both our own life

and the lives of those God has given us.

And once again Peter is our perfect guide into the truth.

All we need to do

is to listen carefully to what he asks from us

in view of the fact that the end of all things is near.

In these 5 verses

he gives us 4 specific instructions.

We’ve already looked at the first one,

his call to us that we learn to live in the presence of our Lord each day.

I know that isn’t exactly the way he words it.

What he offers us is a simple call to prayer.

But we can only correctly understand that call

when we correctly understand what prayer really is for the child of God.

It is not a tacked-on religious exercise,

it is simply learning to live with the understanding

that we are always with Him, in His presence,

and He is always with us.

Paul said it perfectly when He was talking with the philosophers in Athens.

ACT 17:28 ...for in Him we live and move and exist...

And the first thing Peter wants us to know

about living truly effective lives in the end times

is that we are to approach each new day

knowing that we live this day once again in His presence,

and our sharing our lives with Him through an endless open dialogue

is the first huge step towards finding a solid foundation for our lives.

OK, that’s where we stopped our study,

but it is not where Peter stops.

Following his call to us

to share our lives with our King on a continual basis,

he then goes on to offer us 3 more instructions.

And when we see what they are

we will once again also see the difference

between the true life of God through us

and all of the religious side-shows Satan seeks to offer us as alternatives.

And nothing illustrates this more powerfully

than the second thing on Peter’s list.

The next thing he says is, Above all...

And with those two words

he is obviously wanting to set this next request

as the highest priority in our lives.

This is our highest calling,

it is what defines the true life of both power and faithfulness for the child of God.

And what he places in that position in our lives

will, I think, not surprise many of you

because it is the same thing we long for in our own lives.

He says, Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

And just to clarify before we go any farther with this,

Peter is not saying that our loving others in some way atones for our own sins.

There is only one thing that ever has or ever could atone for our sins -

the death of Jesus Christ.

ISA 53:4-6 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

When Peter says, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins,

he is saying that true love,

the kind of love that God calls us to,

the kind of love that He equips us for and asks us to show to others

is a love that causes us to cover or overlook... to not take into account

a multitude of their sins against us.

Now, there is a great deal happening in this one sentence,

one of which is that Peter is giving us

a strong confirmation of what real love looks like.

Did you think love was that warm, gushy feeling you have at times felt for another person?

And please don’t misunderstand me here.

I’m not making fun of that warm, gushy feeling,

I’m just saying it’s not love.

That warm, gushy feeling is a part of the way God has wired us emotionally,

and it can be a very enjoyable part of our human experience

so long as we understand that it is simply a warm, gushy feeling,

unconnected in any way to truth, or reason, or logic.

If that warm, gushy feeling happens to line up with truth, and reason, and logic,

it’s great!

If it doesn’t,

then the only safe, sane approach

is to bring it under the leadership of truth and reason and logic in our lives.

To do otherwise

is to open ourselves up to a terrifying life experience

in which we are forever driven by our feelings,

wondering why relationship after relationship turns to ashes,

bringing pain to all involved.

Do you know what those warm, gushy feelings really are?

They are not love,

but rather they are the hope within us

that this other person can meet our love needs.

And if those feelings

then lead us into an endless series of love choices

in which we step-by-step, day-by-day

build a strong, healthy, secure love relationship

those feelings can open the doorway to true love.

But most of the time

most people are too selfish, or too frightened, or too wounded, or too morally weak to make those choices,

and once the emotions have run their course, as they always do,

the relationship disintegrates.

But my point is that there is nothing wrong with feeling that warm, gushy feeling

so long as we do not fall into the cultural trap of believing that it’s love.

Love in its purest form is not a feeling,

it is a choice we make,

or rather an endless series of choices we make

in our relationship with another person.

It includes choosing to act toward them with absolute moral purity and integrity,

even when our feelings may be screaming at us to do otherwise.

It includes choosing to honor the other person,

to show them respect as a fellow creation of God,

no matter where they may be in the social standing created by our world system,

or whether they happen to be of any value to us personally.

In the world in which we live today

most people we come in contact with

have grown accustomed to being used, even abused by others.

It is what we expect.

Everyone has something they want from us,

and they all have their own series of social filters they run us through

in order to pass judgment on our value or importance,

just as we do with them.

And because of that

there are few things we can do

that will have a more powerful impact for good on those we meet

than our choosing to relate to them with respect and dignity,

no matter how old or young they are,

no matter where they may fit in our social landscape.

Have you ever tried relating to a store clerk

as a person worthy of respect and dignity

rather than simply as someone who’s paid to serve you?

That’s part of choosing to love.

And I got into all of this because, as we read Peter’s instructions to us here,

we find him giving us another crucial aspect of love,

love covers a multitude of the other person’s sins.

And what I share with you now

is going to sound very familiar

if you’ve been involved in our study of 1^st Peter during the past few months

because Peter has been here before.

Just a few weeks ago

when we were looking at 1^st Peter 3:9

we heard Peter saying to us,

1PE 3:9 ...not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

He was coming at it from a little different perspective then,

but the basic concept was the same -

to love another person

is to choose to give them what they truly need, not what we think they deserve.

And I want to try to explain what’s really going on here.

What God is seeking to do through us

when He calls us to be...fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins...,

is to break the power of the most common

and most destructive lie about love in existence.

It is a lie that is virtually universal in our initial attitude toward God,

and nearly as universal in our relationships with one another.

It is the belief

that love is something we give to another person

or receive from another person

in exchange for right behavior.

When we give others what they want

they give us “love” in return.

When we fail to deliver what they want or expect

they withhold their “love”, their acceptance of us

until we bring our performance up to their expectations.

It is the foundation upon which we relate to one another,

with it’s roots all the way back to our birth.

The first thing we learn as human beings

is that mom and dad like us when we obey

and get really upset with us when we don’t.

And even if they tell us that they always love us,

we can read their faces,

and their voices,

and their actions toward us

and it sure doesn’t feel like they love us unless we’re doing what they want.

When our daughter, Joni, was just 4 years old

she was in the bedroom and Sandee called out to her from the kitchen, asking her to do something.

And she called back, “Would you say that again, Mommy. I couldn’t tell if that was a mad voice, or a sad voice, or a glad voice.”

She didn’t know how to respond

until she knew how mommy was feeling about her at that moment.

Have you ever wrapped your arms around your child

and hugged them when they’re doing something wrong,

or when they’re messing up,

or when they’re responding in a way that you don’t like?

Try it.

It’s probably the best opportunity you’ll ever have

to help break the power of the lie

that love is something we receive from others

in exchange for giving them what they want.

And of course we take this same “love” concept

and transfer it directly into our relationship with God,

believing that God loves “good” people and hates “bad” people,

and that He likes us more when we do good things

and likes us less when we do not.

The problem with this whole twisted concept of love

is that the very thing that makes love genuine,

the thing that makes our actions and responses,

or God’s actions and responses LOVE

is the fact that they are NOT motivated in any way by our actions.

True love is never ever payment given for services rendered.

ROM 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1CO 13:5 love... does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered...

You see, that’s what makes it LOVE.

It is not acceptance offered in exchange for performance delivered,

it is acceptance given

no matter whether the other person has measured up to our performance standard or not.

It is acceptance of them

not on the basis of what they have done or not done,

but solely on the basis of who they are as unique creations of God.

And here is the fascinating thing,

the thing we find it so hard to grasp -

being loved or giving love has the power to change performance, to change behavior

in a way that offering acceptance for performance can never ever do.

It works that way in our relationship with God -

when we finally begin to recognize what’s going on between us and Him through Christ,

and it works that way in our human relationships as well.

Do you want to impact another person’s life for good?

Offer them a love that is in no way tied to their behavior or their performance

and you will gain influence in their life

beyond anything you could ever imagine.

And what Peter is seeking to accomplish through us

when he says, Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins...

is to bring true love

and the healing power of true love

into our relationships with our fellow Christians.

Do you have a friendship with a fellow Christian

that you’ve thrown away because of their actions toward you?

Interesting, isn’t it, that Peter assumes that even within the family of God

there will be a multitude of sins

that find their way into our relationships with one another.

We are all in process,

and we’re all learning how to trust,

how to forgive,

how to love.

And Peter makes it clear

that the harder life gets

the more we need one another.

We need to know we are not going through

whatever it is we’re going through alone.

We need to know that there are those near us who know,

and who care,

and who pray,

and who will not turn away from us even when we say stupid things

or do stupid things

that give them every reason to leave.

I was with a friend some time ago

when he was going through a extremely painful experience,

a painful experience caused in part by his own actions.

He risked letting me into his pain,

sharing with me what was happening

and how he felt about it.

He talked with me sometime later

and said, “I realize now that you didn’t have any answers for me,

you were just there. And you cared. And it helped so much.”

That’s a big part of what we’re after, you know,

and a big part of what we need.

We need a few people in our life

who won’t go away when we mess up,

who won’t turn away when we don’t do it right or say it right,

a few people who will bathe their friendship with us in grace.

Peter chose an interesting word with which to describe

the way he wants us to love one another.

The New American Standard Bible translates it as fervent... keep fervent in your love for one another...

It’s the only time this word is used in the New Testament

and it literally means “stretched”.

Keep stretched in your love for one another...

It’s a great word

because that’s exactly what it does for us

when we accept the calling Peter has given us.

It stretches us.

It stretches us beyond our comfort level,

beyond our natural human responses,

beyond what would reasonably be expected from us.

It stretches us into that approach to one another

that can only become a reality

through the life of our Lord through us.

But the end result

when we choose to allow our Lord to stretch us in this way

is not just what the other person needs and wants,

it’s also what our spirits hunger for

because most of the time

the quality of relationship that results from grace and compassion and forgiveness

meets our own love needs

in a way that performance-based relationships can never do.