Family Matters
There is a play-on-words in 1 Peter 1:22:
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. (1 Peter 1:22-23)
As you will hear in this PODCAST, an insightful play-on-words that we miss to our peril.
Coming as it does from Peter’s pen, I can assure you that this play-on-words is most-intentional. Pregnant with meaning poignantly personal to Peter, and to us as well.
This play-on-words is a bit of a pun—not humorous at all, but serious in the extreme—that goes straight to the heart of what it means to be committed-Christ-follower now, today, in our current Christian culture.
More literally, Peter’s original words conveyed two different types of love: phileo and agape.
Peter had intentionally done this once before on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after walking away from His life of following Jesus (after the crucifixion) and ran back to his life as a fisherman.
14 This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.
15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.
16 Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.
17 A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep. (John 21:14-17)
When Jesus first asked Peter if he loved Him, Jesus used the word agape – an undying, ever-sacrificing love conveying total commitment. And Peter answered honestly, changing the word to phileo – a familial love, as between brothers, demanding no commitment whatsoever. Then, Jesus again asked if Peter agape loved him, and once again, Peter said phileo.
But, the third time, Jesus played along and used the word phileo, asking, “Peter, do you even love me, just as a brother… a fellow Jew… someone who you are not committed to, but are simply friends?”
And Peter answered that yes, he did love Jesus as a brother… a fellow Jew… but that’s the extent.
Then, fast forward thirty years or so, and Peter is writing his letter, with his own play on the words phileo and agape… writing to a group of people who were being persecuted by the Romans and in dire need of one another, needing sincere phileo between one another. Peter is imploring his brothers and sisters in Christ to sincerely take care of each other with a bumped up phileo, to the point of agape.
When Peter wrote this plea, he knew that he was invoking what has been the basic foundational epic that defines the thinking of the Jews, dating back to the beginning of the Torah.
“All Jews are responsible for one another.”
Dating back to Abraham, it is a Jew’s responsibility to take care of his brother, and as Christ-followers, it is our responsibility today to take care of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We see this played out in the story of Joseph and his brothers. After Joseph had risen to the rank of number two, behind only Pharaoh, himself in Egypt, his brothers had come to beg for food. Not recognizing their own brother, Judah, referred to Joseph as merely “the man”.
But the famine continued to ravage the land of Canaan. 2 When the grain they had brought from Egypt was almost gone, Jacob said to his sons, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
3 But Judah said, “The man was serious when he warned us, ‘You won’t see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you send Benjamin with us, we will go down and buy more food. 5 But if you don’t let Benjamin go, we won’t go either. Remember, the man said, ‘You won’t see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
6 “Why were you so cruel to me?” Jacob moaned. “Why did you tell him you had another brother?”
7 “The man kept asking us questions about our family,” they replied. “He asked, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ So we answered his questions. How could we know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8 Judah said to his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will be on our way. Otherwise we will all die of starvation—and not only we, but you and our little ones. 9 I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don’t bring him back to you. Then let me bear the blame forever. (Genesis 43:1-9)
Much later, in the history of the Jewish people, Haman tricked King Xerxes to sign a decree that would have led to the extermination of all the Jews. However, the king’s wife, Esther, was a Jew and the adopted daughter of Mordecai…
8 Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued in Susa that called for the death of all Jews. He asked Hathach to show it to Esther and explain the situation to her. He also asked Hathach to direct her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people. 9 So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.
10 Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.” 12 So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.
13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. 14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” (Esther 4:8-16)
Esther literally put her life on the line to lobby for the protection of her people… because she was a Jew and Jews are responsible for one another.
Jesus knew this and felt this keenly when he said that the greatest commandment was:
“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love [agape] your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-38)
Meaning that all Jews and all Christ-followers are responsible for one another.
That is the epic that Peter calls us to in 1 Peter 1:22.
We must remain united, not tribalized… and I don’t me mere denominational differences, but doctrinal schisms, social justice battle lines… and even worse, the questioning of the salvation of those who are in a different “tribe” than whatever our own may be.
Whatever happened to, “We simply disagree”? (When we, of course, agree on the essentials: 1) Jesus is God; 2) The Bible is true; 3) We are saved by grace through faith.)
In my opinion, everything else is up for discussion.
We are brothers and sisters, engaged in sincere phileo. We are commanded by Jesus, Himself in John 13:34-35,
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
We are brothers and sisters… a family with God as our Father. And family matters!
(This podcast is by Dewey Bertolini. discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)
