A God-Lived Life Is One that Craves God’s Word
The Pharisee never missed his time in the temple. Like clockwork, he was there for prayer. He brought his offerings. He wore the right clothes, said the right prayers, did the right things. Every box was checked on his religious resumé. He was doing it. He was living the God-lived life!
Or so it seemed. There was something missing, wasn’t there? He was living the God-looking life. When, counterintuitively, it was the tax collector, who had cheated people out of their money but who was forgiven, who had a relationship with God. It was the children, the ones who didn’t seem to be worth the time, who receive the kingdom of God. The God-lived life is the one whose relationship with God is based on his mercy, not on our merit.
So, where do you fit in? Do you seem to live a God-lived life, or, by the grace of God, do you live a God-lived life? The God-lived life is not just doing the right things. It’s being who God has made you—not someone who lives to gain God’s favor, but one who lives because of God’s favor. It’s doing things not because you are supposed to, but because it’s who you are. It’s the difference between going through the motions and experiencing the fulfillment of living your purpose. The God-lived life is a life lived in relationship with God, in reaction to God’s love and his life for you.
And so we could say that the God-lived life starts with being a disciple, a life that wants to learn more about God, that wants to grow closer to God. The God-lived life is a life that craves God’s Word. Our text is 1 Peter 1:22-2:3. In it, Peter encourages our good behaviour by reminding us that we have been born again, through the living and enduring word of God.
23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
Peter’s going to talk about what it means to be born again in a second, but first let’s spend a second thinking about the agent of our rebirth. Peter calls it the living word of God. It’s alive and active. It does something. God’s Word is not dead or powerless. It makes a visible, tangible difference in our lives. It gives you a new life. Again, more on that new life in a second.
Peter also calls it the enduring word of God. Long after you are gone from this world that Word will still endure. Peter quotes Isaiah who had prophesied eight centuries earlier to make the same point. Isaiah was long dead and gone, but the Word he wrote endures:
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.”
We are here and then gone, but God’s Word endures. It lasts forever. It’s the same word that for you as it was for your grandparents and great-grandparents, just as it will be for your children and grandchildren. God’s Word endures.
And then Peter says:
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Imagine that! The living Word that gives life – the word that God used to create the world – he gives to you. He puts that power in your hands. The enduring Word of God that offered the same comfort to Adam and Eve as it does for you and me he gives to you. He puts that legacy and heritage in your hands.
If you had access to something that powerful, that lasting, that important, what should you do with it? You should cherish it! You should use it! You should take every opportunity to be connected to that power and purpose.
But let’s be real. There’s probably a part of you today that came to church or tuned in out of duty or habit instead of eager excitement. You’ve had more than one day when a daily devotion wasn’t what you were looking forward to, but what you had to get done…or didn’t want at all. That Bible on your shelf or the app on your phone doesn’t always register in your mind when you think of your most prized possessions.
If you sacrificed and went above and beyond to give someone you love a precious gift and they acted like it didn’t matter that much to them, you’d be offended, right? If you saw a guy get down on his knee and give his girlfriend a diamond ring—and then you saw her toss it to the side like it was nothing—you’d be appalled. What does God feel when he sees our attitude toward his Word, that precious gift he has given us? What does he feel when he sees our attendance at Bible study, our faithfulness in daily devotion? Some days I don’t want to know the answer to those questions.
But in the living and enduring Word that God has given us, he shows us Jesus – “the Word made flesh,” as John called him – doing what we often fail to do. Even as a 12 year old in the temple, Jesus cherished the Word. He studied it and discussed it every chance he got. He used it to fend off the devil’s temptations, to perform miraculous signs and wonders, but above all to give you salvation.
The living and enduring Word of God tells you of God’s love for you; tells you of the sacrifice God made for you, the forgiveness Christ won for you through his perfect life and innocent death on a cross. It is precisely and only through this living and enduring Word of God that God makes you alive through faith in Jesus.
And now you are reborn! Peter goes on:
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
Since you’ve been given new life through the death of Jesus, you have a chance to put your old ways behind you. And to learn new ways too…
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.
Could the picture be more vivid? Maybe it’s just me because I have a newborn, but when he is hungry, there is nothing in this world he wants more than milk. No silly faces, no hugs from dad. All he wants is milk. And if I interrupt him, do you know what he does? He screams! His face gets red. He starts throwing his fists around. Why do babies do that? Well, first, they like milk. It tastes good to them. But, more than that, they need it. They need it to grow. Without it, they die. It’s a matter of life and death.
Now translate that picture to your reborn, newborn life in Christ. God’s Word is just as necessary for our faith as milk is for newborn babies. Without regular feedings in God’s Word, our faith gets weaker and would eventually die. But God’s Word tastes just as sweet as milk to a baby. What could be better than to hear that you are loved by God every day? So of course, Satan wants to spoil that for you.
Have you ever heard of post-Bible Basics syndrome? Bible Basics is usually the first Bible study people get involved in when they’re new to Christianity. I don’t know how many people have told me that their 12 weeks in Bible Basics were the best thing that ever happened to their faith. As a new Christian or someone coming back to it after a while, that regular commitment to Bible study, digging into God’s Word, strengthened their faith more than anything they had ever done. And that’s good! That’s proof that you’ve tasted that the LORD is good.
But then what happens? Satan tries to convince you that you don’t need it anymore. He wants you to celebrate your “graduation” and put Bible study behind you. And if you think that sounds silly then I invite you to look at our Bible study statistics. We haven’t had Sunday morning Bible class in a while, but the last time we did – pre-COVID – we were averaging just about half of worshipers in Bible study afterward. You look at Sunday School for our children – you know, the ones about whom Jesus said, “The kingdom belongs to such as these; let the little children come to me.” – you look at Sunday School and there were only kids to teach 2/3 of the time. 1/3 of the Sundays there weren’t any children to bring to Jesus.
That’s not exactly what you’d hope for from people who have tasted that the Lord is good, who have promised at youth or adult confirmations to be faithful in worship and Bible study. But that’s why Peter reminds us who we are and encourages us: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,” and notice why— “so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”
It's the living and enduring Word of God that God uses to rescue you from the punishment deserved for every time your life wasn’t the God-lived life he looks for. It’s the living and enduring Word of God that strengthens you to fight against every temptation. It’s the living and enduring Word of God that tells you of God’s love for you in Christ. So, crave it. Realize its value and don’t let anyone take that away from you.
By God’s grace, commit to living a God-lived life in this aspect. On your challenge cards for this month, there are challenges for several aspects of craving the Word. Commit to coming to worship and Bible study—and let your brothers and sisters in Christ hold you accountable. Challenge yourself to a daily schedule of Bible reading, to devotions with your family, to finding ways to be in the Word and protecting your time for it. Crave that pure spiritual milk and grow up in your salvation. Amen.