1 Peter 1:23

1:17-25 Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge, agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let them reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, and Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has no heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious blood of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation is highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God had purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he made manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the supports of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Christ came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance that where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified, before it can give up its own desires and indulgences.

And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, as born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, living word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all other things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts as our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven.

Being born again (ἀναγεγεννημένοι) Rev., having been begotten again. Compare James 1:18. Of (ἐκ) seed - by (διά) the word Note the difference in the prepositions; the former denoting the origin or source of life, the latter the medium through which it imparts itself to the nature. Word of God (λόγου Θεοῦ) The gospel of Christ. Compare 1 Peter 1:25, and Peter's words, Acts 10:36. Also, Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; James 1:18. Not the personal Word, as the term is employed by John. Nevertheless, the connection and relation of the personal with the revealed word is distinctly recognized. "In the New Testament we trace a gradual ascent from (a) the concrete message as conveyed to man by personal agency through (b) the Word, the revelation of God to man which the message embodies, forming, as it were, its life and soul, to (c) The Word, who, being God, not only reveals but imparts himself to us, and is formed in us thereby" (Scott, on James 1:18, "Speaker's Commentary"). Seed (σπορᾶς) Nowhere else in the New Testament. Primarily, the sowing of seed.

1 Peter 1:23 . Ἀναγεγεννημένοι , being born again ) Hence their brotherhood.— ἐκ σπορᾶς , of sowing ) The Word of God is the seed , σπόρος : the preaching of the Word of God, the sowing , σπορά . Therefore of is not afterwards repeated, but the phrase, by the Word , is used.— ζῶντος καὶ μένοντος , living and abiding ) This is connected with the Word , 1 Peter 1:25 . The Gospel bears incorruptible fruits , and not dead works; because it is in itself incorruptible. The living Word is full of efficacy; abiding for ever , it is free from all corruption.

Being born again: this may refer either: 1. To the general exhortation to holiness, 1 Peter 1:14,15 , and then the argument runs thus: Ye are in your regeneration become the children of God, and therefore ought to walk holily as become his children. Or: 2. To the more particular exhortation to brotherly love, 1 Peter 1:22 : q.d. You are by your regeneration become spiritual brethren, and therefore ought to live like brethren. Not of corruptible seed; which is itself corrupted ere any thing can be generated out of it, or out of which nothing is begotten but what is corruptible; so that all such generations tend but to a mortal life. But of incorruptible; so the word is said to be, because containing still the same, and being immutable in itself, it changes and renews the hearts of those that by faith receive it. Or: it may be understood of its being incorruptible effectively, because it leads, or tends, to an immortal life. The word of God; the same which he called incorruptible seed, which is the instrument in regeneration, as is implied in the preposition, by, going before it. Which liveth; this and the following verb may be joined, either: 1. To God, the word of God, who liveth, &c.; or rather: 2. To the word, so our translation reads it, which word liveth, and abideth, &c.; and this agrees best with the testimony of Isaiah in the next verse. The word of God is said to be a living word, because it enliveneth the hearts of those that entertain it.

1 Peter 1:23 . ἀναγεγεννημένοι . So St. John ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους ὅτι … πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται ; cf. Ephesians 4:17 ; Ephesians 5:2 .— ἐκ σπορᾶς ἀφθάρτου , i.e. , of God regarded as Father and perhaps also as Sower ( cf. 1 Peter 1:24 ); the two conceptions are combined in 1 John 3:9 , πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἁμαρτίαν οὐ ποιεῖ ὅτι σπέρμα αὐτοῦ μένει . Compare Philo, Leg. All. , p. 123 M. Λείαν … ἐξ οὐδενὸς γεννητοῦ λαμβάνουσαν τὴν σπορὰν .… ἀλλʼ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ .— διὰ λόγου … μένοντος , the connection of ζῶντος κ . μέν . is doubtful; the following quotation might justify the abiding word and Hebrews 4:12 , the living word in accordance with Deuteronomy 32:47 — cf. 3, ἐλπίδα ζῶσαν . On the other hand the rendering of the Vulgate, per verbum dei vivi et permanentis , is supported by Daniel 6:26 ( αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν θεὸς μένων καὶ ζῶν ) and supports St. Peter’s argument: earthly relationships must perish with all flesh and its glory; spiritual kinship abides, because it is based on the relation of the kinsfolk to God living and abiding . For the word of God as the means of regeneration, cf. Jam 1:18 , βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείας . For its identification with ῥῆμα of the quotation, cf. Acts 10:36 f.

23. Christian brotherhood flows from our new birth of an imperishable seed, the abiding word of God. This is the consideration urged here to lead us to exercise brotherly love. As natural relationship gives rise to natural affection, so spiritual relationship gives rise to spiritual, and therefore abiding love, even as the seed from which it springs is abiding, not transitory as earthly things. of … of … by—"The word of God" is not the material of the spiritual new birth, but its mean or medium. By means of the word the man receives the incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit, and so becomes one "born again": Joh 3:3-5, "born of water and the Spirit": as there is but one Greek article to the two nouns, the close connection of the sign and the grace, or new birth signified is implied. The word is the remote and anterior instrument; baptism, the proximate and sacramental instrument. The word is the instrument in relation to the individual; baptism, in relation to the Church as a society (Jas 1:18). We are born again of the Spirit, yet not without the use of means, but by the word of God. The word is not the beggeting principle itself, but only that by which it works: the vehicle of the mysterious germinating power [Alford]. which liveth and abideth for ever—It is because the Spirit of God accompanies it that the word carries in it the germ of life.

They who are so born again live and abide for ever, in contrast to those who sow to the flesh. "The Gospel bears incorruptible fruits, not dead works, because it is itself incorruptible" [Bengel]. The word is an eternal divine power. For though the voice or speech vanishes, there still remains the kernel, the truth comprehended in the voice. This sinks into the heart and is living; yea, it is God Himself. So God to Moses, Ex 4:12, "I will be with thy mouth" [Luther]. The life is in God, yet it is communicated to us through the word. "The Gospel shall never cease, though its ministry shall" [Calovius]. The abiding resurrection glory is always connected with our regeneration by the Spirit. Regeneration beginning with renewing man's soul at the resurrection, passes on to the body, then to the whole world of nature.

23 . being born again ] Better, having been begotten again , the verb being the same as that in 1 Peter 1:3 . The “corruptible seed” is that which is the cause of man’s natural birth, and the preposition which St Peter uses exactly expresses this thought of an originating cause. In the second clause, on the other hand, he uses the preposition which distinctly expresses instrumentality. The “word of God” is that through which God, the author of the new life, calls that life into being. by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever ] The Greek order of the words leaves it doubtful whether the two predicates belong to “the word,” or to “God,” but the sequence of thought is decisive in favour of connecting them with the former. They are used to shew that the word of God, which is the seed of the new birth, is, as has been said, incorruptible. They prepare the way for the emphatic reiteration in 1 Peter 1:25 , that the “word of the Lord” endureth for ever, the same word being used in the Greek as for the “abideth” of this verse. It is obvious that the word of God is more here than any written book, more than any oral teaching of the Gospel, however mighty that teaching might be in its effects. If we cannot say that St Peter uses the term LOGOS with precisely the same significance as St John ( John 1:1 ; John 1:14 ), it is yet clear that he thinks of it as a divine, eternal, creative power, working in and on the soul of man.

It was “the word of the Lord” which had thus come to the prophets of old, of which the Psalmist had spoken as “a lamp unto his feet,” and “a light unto his path” ( Psalm 119:105 ). St Peter’s use of the term stands on the same level as that of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who speaks of “the word of God” as “quick and powerful … a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” ( Hebrews 4:12-13 ). It is, i.e., nothing less than God manifested as speaking to the soul of man, a manifestation of which either the preached or the written word may be the instrument, but which may work independently of both, and is not to be identified with either.

Verse 23. - Being born again ; rather, having been begotten again . St. Peter repeats the verb used already in ver. 3. It is the highest argument for brotherly love; the children of the one Father are all brethren; they should "love as brethren" ( 1 Peter 3:8 ). Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. The word used here ( σπορά ) means, properly, "sowing;" but, like σπόρος ( Luke 8:11 ), it stands also for the seed; and here the epithets "corruptible" and "incorruptible" seem to necessitate this second meaning. In the passage quoted from St. Luke, the seed ( σπόρος ) is identified with the Word. "The seed is the Word of God." Here there seems to be a distinction. God's elect are begotten again of incorruptible seed through the Word. The use of different prepositions, ἐκ and διά apparently implies a difference between the seed and the Word. In the conversation with Nicodemus the Lord had said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." And he continues, "That which is born of the flesh [ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός , which seems to correspond with the ἐκ σπορᾶς φθαρτοῦ of St.