📖Scripture:
“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. For, ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.’”
1 Peter 1:23-25
🔎Examination:
Peter grounds his exhortation to fervent love in the unshakable foundation of supernatural regeneration. The saints are commanded to love fervently because they have been “born again” (anagegennēmenoi, ἀναγεγεννημένοι, G313) — another perfect participle (denoting a completed, divine act with enduring effect), but unlike the ACTIVE voice used in 1 Peter 1:22, “having purified yourselves,” the voice here is PASSIVE. Because of our total depravity, we cannot regenerate, redeem, or save ourselves. We must be, as King Jesus revealed to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”
The means of this rebirth is “the imperishable seed” (sporas aphthartou, G4701/G862). The term sperma or spora was often used metaphorically for offspring, lineage, or the principle of life. Peter contrasts it with corruptible human descent. We are not regenerated by biology, genealogy, or anthropology (“of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,” John 1:13), but by the supernatural life of the Word — “the living and enduring Word of God.”
That Word (Logos, G3056) is both written and incarnate. The living Word is Christ Himself (John 1:1–4), and the enduring Word is His inscripturated revelation. The two are harmonious revelation never in conflict. The Spirit who inspired Scripture (2 Pet 1:21; 2 Tim 3:16) unites the saints to Christ through that same Word. Thus, any claim of “new revelation” outside the sixty-six canonical books of the Bible denies this divine unity and accommodates the Serpent’s seductive prevarication of Eden.
Peter’s citation from Isaiah 40:6-8 reinforces the point: all flesh — all human effort, glory, philosophy, and power — is transient. The Word alone abides forever. The saints’ new birth, rooted in that eternal Word, shares its imperishability. The life implanted and righteousness imputed by the Word is death-proof. This undercuts every man-made religion that depends on mutable human merit or shifting revelation.
Roman Catholicism’s traditions, Mormonism’s (LDS) “continuing revelation,” the NAR’s self-appointed prophets — all traffic in virulent and perishable seeds. Their “truth” is temporal trash as fleeting blather arising from flesh. But the saints’ life is eternal because its source is eternal.
James 1:18 affirms, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” The initiative is God’s. The instrument is His Word. The result is new life — imperishable, incorruptible, indestructible (1 Peter 1:4).
This imperishable birth produces imperishable love. Only those born of eternal seed can love with eternal affection. The world’s “love” is fickle affection for fleeting movements. Divine love for the exiled elects is our choosing to "live through Christ" (1 Jn 4:9,10), by embracing God's will, choosing His choices, and obedience through His power that endures because its life-source is indestructible.
Moreover, the “living Word” (zōntos, G2198) emphasizes vitality — Scripture is not inert abstract doctrine but God Himself speaking. Hebrews 4:12 describes it as “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” It pierces the soul, divides truth from deception, exposes idols, and animates obedience.
The Word that begets life also sustains it. Saints who neglect Scripture starve their souls. The Church that replaces exposition with entertainment forfeits power and worships idols. As Peter continues in 2:2, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” Growth is impossible apart from ingestion of the Word. This is why Satan targets Scripture. From Eden to modern liberal theology, his stratagem is constant: deny, oppose, or invent new “truth.” Cults, corrupt churches, and progressive heresies all share this root sin — adding to or subtracting from God’s Word (Deut 4:2; Rev 22:18-19). The saints’ protection is steadfast devotion to the sufficient, infallible, inerrant Word of God.
Born of imperishable seed, the saints are therefore an imperishable people. Our faith may be tested, our bodies will inevitably wither, but our new life in Christ cannot die. The Word that called creation into existence now sustains a new creation within us. This truth calls the Church to boldness and relentless courage. Cultural hostility, persecution, and apostasy cannot extinguish what God has planted. The Bride endures because her life is from above. The same Word that will one day melt the elements with fervent heat (2 Pet 3:10) will also present the elect, dressed in the righteous acts of the saints (Rev 19:8), as a spotless Bride before the Lamb of God!
🤺Action:
Examine your confidence: is it rooted in the imperishable Word or in the perishable comfort of human religion or reputation?
Recommit to daily manna, Scripture, as your soul’s sustenance; obedience cannot flourish where the Word is deficient and the Body malnourished.
Be noble-minded like the Bereans of Acts 17:11. Listen. Test. Search. Reject all “new revelations,” additions, and perversions that compete with the sufficiency of the written Word.
🧠Reflection:
Thank God that your new birth is imperishable — not dependent on emotion or performance, but on His eternal Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to renew your reverence and ravenousness for Scripture as living and enduring, to strengthen your confidence in the gospel’s permanence, and to empower your fervent love for the saints as the tangible fruit of that unending seed.
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Blessings and love,
Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
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