Evening, May 4, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable.”  — 1 Peter 1:23

Peter most earnestly encouraged the scattered saints to “fervently love one another from the heart” and he wisely derived his argument, not from the law, from nature, or from philosophy, but from that high and divine nature which God has implanted in his people. Some judicious tutor of princes might labor to raise and foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behavior, finding arguments in their position and descent. So, Peter, looking upon God’s people as heirs of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth’s truest and oldest aristocracy, said to them, “See that you love one another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed; because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things; and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall cease.” It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king’s royalty often lies only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his innermost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man is above the beast that perishes. Surely, he ought to carry himself, in all his dealings, as one who is not part of a multitude, but chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, written among “the special people” and who therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to embrace holiness, and to avoid the very appearance of evil.