First Peter chapter 2, our focus will be primarily on verse number 17 this morning. honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. From our study together, we know that this verse is a summary of several major themes that Peter has been instructing us on since we began the study of his letter. And in this verse, we've acknowledged last Sunday that we have four complete statement sentences here. They're like bullet points that not only summarize his instruction, but they are given to us as imperative statements, meaning we are being exhorted to action. If we've read and we've considered his letter, then we know and understand what we're being told to do and why. To just jump into this verse without all of the information we've already gathered up to this point, it would be a real challenge. We would have to go back and read the rest to get here. But since you have been studying along, I know I don't need to do that. We've heard the apostle challenge us on the importance of our lifestyle as we live out our Christian life publicly For the world to see, that's intentional, that's God's plan. Our world is a very small part where we live, our world, compared to the whole world. And we live in a very small segment of time of living on the world compared to the length of time that people have lived upon the earth. But God has ordained our salvation And he has also arranged for our placement in the world where we're at at this particular time of human history. The place where we live out our life as light bearers showing to the world the glory of God and his plan of salvation through us. Peter has made it clear that as we pilgrimage through this world, we are identified as worshipers and as witnesses of God's great redemptive plan. This has been Peter's primary focus as we've worked up to this point in verse number 17. And Peter begins his first exhortation, which we looked at last Sunday, the one that is most connected to his immediate instructions. Peter has taught us to be aware of our lifestyle so that we do not hinder our witness, and he's focused on a common yet difficult matter that Christians must get right or they'll hinder their witness, which is the believer's relationship to human government. And as he began in verse 13, we must submit to those in authority over us, recognizing that human government is an ordinance ordained by God. We are told, as he summarizes what we have now, he's sort of moving into what he's just been talking about, that as we live in this world, we must honor all men, all people, all mankind. Our response to the established authority over us, as well as our treatment of others, distinguishes the Christian life from all other people of the earth. Our conduct must always be guarded so that our witness as lightbearers to the world is not hindered, including this response to human government. And even now, Peter takes it to another place when he says that we are to treat others, all mankind, with honor. That is, we know that everyone can be valued, as the word denotes. It's to place a fixed value on something. And we have identified what is valuable in those of the world. It's not material things that we value, it's their soul that we value. The lost around us, living in spiritual darkness, and they don't know nor understand the value of their own soul. But we are able to fix a proper value on those around us and we honor them. And this is a unique feature of God's people. We treat others as though they are valuable. We can reject their conduct and still value their soul. Everywhere we go, whenever we interact with the lost, we must see beyond their external, broken, sinful life and show that we value them. and therefore treat them as being valuable to us. We are to honor all people. The world doesn't treat others around them this way. The world is partial, shows favorites. The world honors what's successful, what's powerful, what's beautiful, and generally despises, disregards what is common. What a contrast. how we distinguish ourselves in the world. When God's people interact with the people of the world, we honor them. We recognize the value that they have, because they have a soul. This morning I want to look at the second one. My intentions were not to take a sermon for each of these, but Once I land on them and start thinking about them, it's hard to do anything else than to make a sermon about them. So love the brotherhood is the second in our imperatives that we are given here by Peter. Love the brotherhood. Heard some good songs, some good comments already made. And if you were in Sunday school, CW gave us a wonderful lesson about this. and the importance of the brotherhood, loving one another as we're working through the Gospel of John in chapter number 15. So here, Peter, in this second summary statement that is an imperative statement of something we must do, Peter turns his attention from the world we live in to the family of God. And to the special duty that we are told to do toward this family in our relationship one another is that we are to love the brotherhood. Love the brotherhood. We are a unique family. We are a conglomeration of people, personalities, backgrounds. And we are united together, not by external things, but one thing only, spiritual birth. We are made a family by spiritual birth, not by our hobbies, not by our personalities, not by our age. But by spiritual birth, we are made a family. This word brotherhood embodies this idea of passing through the same womb. And he's not referring here to a physical womb of a common mother, but a spiritual womb, as if the word and spirit that birthed us was the womb that we passed through to have new birth. We are the brotherhood and we pass through that same womb, every one of us who are believers. And we have a common father who is God. This word brotherhood that we have here, this noun, feminine gender, is a matter of we are to love this thing, this idea of a spiritual family that God has conceived of and brought forth. It takes form and is revealed as his family and makes us brothers and sisters. This thing becomes real and we are commanded to love what God has conceived of and that is a brotherhood. We fully embrace this idea that God is the author and he is the designer and he's the builder of the brotherhood. And the only way we can love our brothers and sisters is that there must be real brothers and sisters that connect us together as a family. This brotherhood is not only our family, but like Paul, Peter describes us in chapter 2 earlier, he describes us as a temple, that we together form the purpose of worship being carried out. We gather and unite, we assemble, we are constructed together as a spiritual temple of God, this brotherhood. This brotherhood, Great Like Baptist Church, is a family of regenerated people born again. People who are journeying together through this world, worshiping together. This brotherhood is constructed like a body. Every member has value and serves the well-being of the whole. We have every member. in this body, placed by God personally. God has set the members, every one of them in the body, as it had pleased him. And it is for this reason we must give love to every member of the brotherhood. Because the brotherhood is a family, it's a temple, it's a body, it's a community. And we know that the brotherhood provides for each member the support we need as we journey through this world. And we're all commanded to give to this brotherhood the same contribution, love. We all give the same thing. We recognize who we are, we're a brotherhood, and we understand what that means. And we all make the same contribution to that brotherhood, and it is love. And this, like the honor, love, fear, honor, these four imperatives, it's a verb. Love is often used in the New Testament as a noun, feminine gender, and it refers more to a way of thinking, a disposition, an attitude. But here Peter is describing the verb form, and it's an imperative, and it's one of action. And every member of Great Light Baptist Church is commanded by the same Father to love all of your brothers and sisters. This is not something we are called to feel like doing, but something we are to do. It's an action required of every member of the family. We make the same contribution to the brotherhood. We give love. And it's not a love that's based on convenience, sometimes It's in the face of offenses that have been committed, and there's disappointments, there's failures. Humans, we're flawed. We're not going to live up to the expectations that we have of each other all the time. But love has the capacity to deal with that. It's not going to be derailed. It's not going to be offended and wander off and say, well, I can't associate with them. They're flawed. Love overcomes flaws. That's the beauty of this contribution that we make, every one of us, to the brotherhood. It's the same exact word used to describe our Father's love. There's not a different word here. It's the same word. It's the same word that speaks of Christ's love. And it's the same word that describes the fruit of the Spirit. We are to give to every member of the brotherhood the same kind of love that is given to us by God, by His Son, and being nurtured in us at this moment by His Spirit. This is what we give to each other, what we've received. We don't withhold. We're not reluctant. We're willing, we want to give this kind of love. This is one of those communicable qualities of God, isn't it? There are certain things about God that we cannot imitate. This is one he insists that we imitate, that we love one another as we have been loved. Look, for example, at this quickly at Ephesians. Chapter 5, where Paul makes this beautiful statement of what we're speaking about when we are told previously just we are to be kind to one another, we're to be tenderhearted, we're to be forgiving, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. This is the kind of people we are to be to each other. And then he says, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. Follow in the footsteps of your Father and walk in love." Walk in love. Walk that we're just simply denoting as we go about life. We go here, we go there, we're going about. As we go about life on our journey as pilgrims together, as we go about, walk in love. Follow in your father's footsteps. This is your father's disposition and his action toward you. He loved you, and now walk in your father's steps. And he gives us something light to see with our eyes as Christ also hath loved us. The same way Christ has loved us, and here he gives us a little bit of a peek into what our love ought to look like toward our brethren. as Christ hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. can follow in the steps and be as Christ in this matter, follow our Father's steps and be as Christ is and be sacrificial in the giving of our life for the benefit of others. We generally live life focused on self. And a lot of that, some of that is necessary. I'm not saying we ignore self, but that shouldn't be the thing that preoccupies us and consumes us. We're not to be self-centered, selfish people. There's certain responsibilities we have to care for ourself. But are we willing to make a sacrifice of ourself for the benefit of our brethren, as Christ did? That's the kind of love that we are to walk in. Verse 17, going back to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 17, this is not the first time that Peter has spoken of love. You heard Noah read out of chapter 1, verse 22, There's one that precedes that, that really kind of filled in with what C.W. was teaching on this morning, uses some very similar language that we found in John's gospel. Remember, Peter was there listening to these words. He was listening to Jesus, teach on these things. And then he had to learn to try to live those things, and he struggled, but he learned how to live. these things, and now he's writing about these things that he heard and has begun to practice in his life. Look at verse number eight, for example. Peter writes, whom having not seen, speaking of Christ God, we have not seen them with our eyes, whom having not seen, you love. Steve's going to deal with that in 1 John. You know, if you say you love God, whom you haven't seen, but you can't love your brothers who you do see, something's wrong. But Peter says, having not seen, you love in whom though now you see him not, yet believing by faith you rejoice with joy unspeakable. Those ideas are contained in what Jesus was teaching in John 15. Faith. We believe. Why do we love? Because we believe. Why do we believe? We believe God and what he has said to us. And if God has said to us, love your brother, by faith we believe that. It's by faith we love. And when we love, there is joy unspeakable that is the result and the fruit of that experience, both to you and to your brethren. There is great joy that will be found. And if there is a lack of real joy in our life, it could be as simple as this. We're preoccupied with ourself, and we're not living in love toward our brothers and sisters. And the fruit of the Spirit, which gives that love, also gives the joy. And if we're not loving, we're probably not receiving the joy. They go together, you cannot separate them. And so we are given this commandment to love the brotherhood, and it's by faith that we do this. And when we do it by faith, the joy is the benefit, the joy of our Christian life, the joy of our relationship. and the peace that will follow that as well, love, joy, and peace. Noah mentioned verse 22. I want you to look quickly just at this verse with me again that he read for us. Verse number 22, we have the imperative phrase again, love the brethren. Seeing, in verse 22, This is an idea of people who have been actively engaged in the process of sanctification. They are purifying their own souls. They're not lazy about the sanctification of their life. He's looking at people who are obedient in the purification of their souls. in obeying. The purification of the soul is not done apart from obedience to God. You can think you're okay, but if you're not obeying the truth, purification is not being advanced. And we're deceiving ourselves. And so Peter is making it clear, saying, you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. And here he's acknowledging this is not just a fleshly activity. It is through the energy and the support of the Spirit of God, through the Spirit. Notice where this all takes us. All of this energy that we see that has just been written, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. That's where it takes us. And unfeigned. It's not hypocritical, it's not pretending, but it's sincere, it's real, it's authentic love for your brethren. And so we see people who are actively engaged. Peter, this is the second time he kind of works this out for us. People who are actively engaged in a faith life which is obedient living. These are the people who are able to love not only God, but to love their brethren properly. You can have a form of love, I guess, that you might be satisfied with and be okay with, But the only kind of love that is acceptable to God is a love that has been worked out from a life that has been obedient, sanctifying its life through the truth. This is the life that knows how to love the brethren genuinely without unfeigned love, but genuinely love the brethren. Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. And then he says, see to it. There's a personal responsibility. See to it that you are responsible to make sure that you manage your heart, your life, so that it's pure, unmixed with selfish motives, and that it's fervent love. And remember, the strange, this Greek word gives us an unusual picture. It means something that has been totally stretched out, expanded as far as it can go. This is how we are to love the brethren. We're not just to manage it with what is easy and convenient. Loving the brotherhood is we're willing to be stretched out to the maximum with a love that is pure and genuine. Go back to Ephesians. I want you to see another beneficial thing of loving the brethren that Paul mentions in chapter 4 where he's dealing with body life. He makes this observation here in verses 15 and 16 about the Word of God that has been ministered and taught as it goes forth from those who are appointed to positions of spiritual offices in the church, wonderful things happen as the Word of God is being ministered to the sheep. And we get to verse 15, but speaking the truth in love, So even truth has been here communicated in the same love, the same disposition, that we may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. So somehow, as the Word of God is being ministered, and we are ministering that Word to one another, there is something happening in this body. from whom, he says, the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint is supplying according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. When we obey the command to love the brotherhood, we release, as it were, into the body. We, each of us, release into the body a spiritual fuel that nourishes and strengthens the body so that it is able to grow. Everyone benefits. Everyone benefits when we obey God's command to love the brotherhood. The members of the family of God are blessed when we give love. This action whereby we show that we love the brothers and sisters of our church, our family. The body is nurtured by the actions of real genuine love. The body benefits when you give love. Do you believe that? This is an act of faith. Do you believe that? The body will profit from your contribution of your love to them. It's a faith act. That's why we do it. That's why we obey it. And that's why God blesses it. The members of the family will be blessed. The person who gives love will be blessed. When we choose to obey his command, It is an act of our faith that God blesses our faith with joy. He gives us joy. We are recipients of the effort that we make to bless the body by loving the brethren. We are blessed. The world is blessed. In John 13, Jesus says that very clearly, the world is going to know that you are my disciples because you love one another. The witness of the church on the world is being expanded and shown to the world by our conduct and treatment of one another. our love for one another, the world is going to see. They will be blessed. And I believe it's appropriate to add that the triune God is blessed by his children when they imitate him. as our Father God and follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and submit to the Holy Spirit who is actively at work at this very moment in us to produce the fruit of love. We know that the commandments of God are to be obeyed, not as a means for our justification. The obedience of Christ accomplished our perfect obedience. We are justified through him alone. But we know that there's accountability concerning our obedience and our obedience and with our obedience. We grow in our own personal sanctification and we grow in our blessing upon the people of God. We need to hear these four imperatives as commandments that God's children are accountable for. This morning, the duty to love our brethren, this commandment, doesn't come without some kind of accountability. There's no expiration date on this commandment. Not until we leave this earth or Christ returns, nor are they based on circumstances or personal preferences. Every day and all day, we must honor all men. the world around us, and we must love the brotherhood, your spiritual family that God has chosen and connected you to. Tremendous benefits for being obedient. But at the same time, we want to be sure that we remember that these are imperatives, they are commandments. And with commandments comes accountability. And we must make the decision, a conscious decision. Noah was sharing, and I appreciate the conscious decision of thinking about honoring all men as he lives his day. And so we must do the same with this imperative. We must love the brotherhood and we must learn to think of this and respond accordingly as we interact and we deal with each other that we show love to one another, an unusual kind of love that is like God's love, demonstrated in Christ's love, nurtured by the Spirit in our own soul. This is the love. that we are to give to one another. Brethren, love the brethren. That is God's will and desire for us. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the constant reminder of the kind of men and women we ought to be and how we ought to live together as a family. What brings you great joy from your children? And I pray that as we learn these basic, simple directives, that we would not diminish them in any way, but take note of them, think about them, meditate on them, and learn each day to practice these things. that we would show, demonstrate genuine love to our brothers and sisters as we go through life together as pilgrims. Help us to be mindful of the important value of this contribution to body life. I ask these things, Father, in Christ's name, amen.