SWEET FRUIT OF OBEDIENCE
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Opening Prayer
Lord God, thank you that I can begin each day with thanksgiving and hope because of your great love for me, for the grace and mercy that you offer me each moment.
Read 1 PETER 1:22–2:3
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Reflect
In what ways is your walk of faith different from what it was a year ago?
Obedience to the truth is a major hallmark of our continuing transformation in Christ. Peter invites us to consider the fruit of this transformation, summarized in the two great commandments, to love our God and our neighbors as we love ourselves. The seed of the Word of God invariably produces fruit. Jesus appointed us to produce ‘much fruit.’1 We would fail if we tried to do this by ourselves, but what human resolutions cannot achieve, God’s Word can—if its truths are received with humility and obedience. Obedience is concrete action. Understanding by itself can be merely psychological. Obedience is also verifiable. Peter invites us to aim high, to produce fruit from the eternal seed that never fails.
Our faith is not about religious talk. Peter specifically lists the ‘before’ and ‘after’ indicators of any genuine conversion. Christians are invited to renounce malice, deception, and hypocrisy (2:1). You read that correctly—it’s not a proofreading error! The apostle is calling us hypocrites, self-deceived, and malicious—terrible words, but accurate. The Bible’s language can seem harsh, but its purpose is diagnostic: we are invited to accept it and jettison bad patterns. That means accepting responsibility: Peter tells us to ‘put away’ such behavior (2:1, ESV). That’s our responsibility: day by day, prayer by prayer, hour by hour: biting our lip, writing that apology, watching a little less TV, or paying off our debts (financial or otherwise).
This is the key to growth—obedient action. It is not easy, but not impossible. Try it today—it works!
Apply
Invite the Lord to search you and test you;2 for your part, commit to obey him as the Spirit brings the Word of God to your remembrance.3
Closing prayer
Father, help me to trust in your ability to do great things and have the courage to ask you to do the things only you can make happen.
1 John 15:5. 2 Ps 139:23, 24. 3 John 14:26.
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