In my last post, we examined our desire for Jesus Christ and His unsearchable riches in light of the desire of the angels ~ which things the angels desire to look into (I Peter 1:12, KJV).

Though Peter addressed his first letter to the believers scattered in the Diaspora. The ESV combines verses 1 & 2, and renders it: "To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion." However, in this life, all Christians are, in reality, "elect exiles." "Elect exiles": a weighty phrase – reminding us that as we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, having been plucked from the fire and given Christ's robe of perfect righteousness so we might enjoy fellowship with the Holy, Holy, Holy God, we are now children of God and citizens of heaven, which makes us aliens in regard to this world and all this world has to offer. (The Greek word for "exiles" ("strangers" (KJV) / "pilgrims" (NKJV)) is parepidemos: "an alien alongside, i.e. a resident foreigner:--pilgrim, stranger" (Strong's Concordance).)

All the elect, all those who have been foreknown by God the Father and redeemed by the precious blood of the spotless Lamb of God are not only saved from God's just wrath (justification), but are also set apart by God  for obedience to God (sanctification) – that we might no longer live to ourselves but to live for Him through His indwelling Holy Spirit (II Cor. 5:14-15).

I Peter 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood... (ESV)

I Peter 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (KJV)

Later in chapter 1, Peter reminds us that because we are now citizens of heaven, we're to live as pilgrims here and to conduct ourselves in fear, not being conformed to [our] former lusts (KJV) and the passions of [our] former ignorance (ESV) – but rather to be holy as our God who has called us is holy (1:13-21). Peter continues that teaching throughout his first epistle.

2:11  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

4:1  Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2  so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3  The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4  With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you...

In other words, because we who are Christians have been made new creations in Christ (II Cor. 5:17), our desires, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds ought to increasingly reflect that spiritual reality. If the root has indeed been made new, the fruit ought to be new also! If we have been born again, if Jesus Christ has truly made His Advent into our lives, the tree has been made good, and we ought to bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

Jesus Christ described of the Kingdom of heaven and its citizens in this way:

Matthew 11:12 (KJV) And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

In Isaiah 5, the Beloved comes to examine His vineyard and laments because in place of the good grapes which He expected, He finds wild grapes. J.A. Alexander calls these disappointing grapes "acrid and unwholesome."

Are we bearing the spiritual fruit of a holy violence for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom:  an increasing and overwhelming love for God and delight in God, and an increasing and overwhelming desire and delight to do God's will? Do our desires, thoughts, words, and deeds reflect a holy zeal for our God? Are we taking His Kingdom by force? Do we show ourselves possessed with a holy violence? Are we striving to enter the Kingdom? Do our lives resemble the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon 3?

3:1  On my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not.
2  I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but found him not.
3  The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4  Scarcely had I passed them
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother's house,
and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

Or, instead, are we bearing "acrid and unwholesome fruit"? Are we lackadaisical and lukewarm toward Christ and His Kingdom? Do we bear a stronger resemblance to the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon 5?

2  I slept, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved is knocking.
“Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one,
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.”
3  I had put off my garment;
how could I put it on?
I had bathed my feet;
how could I soil them?

How does our passion and zeal for our God compare with the passion and zeal of Black Friday shoppers? (For example, read here.)

It is, beyond expression, a thing to be lamented, that so small a number of men regard God, the author of their being, that so few live to him in whom they live, returning that being and life they have, and all their enjoyments, as is due, to him from whom they all flow. And then, how pitiful it is, that the small number who are thus minded, mind it so remissly and coldly, and are so far outstripped by the children of this world, who follow painted follies and lies with more eagerness and industry than the children of wisdom do that certain and solid blessedness which they seek after! Plus illi ad vanitatem, quam nos ad veritatem:  They are more intent upon vanity, that we upon verity. Strange! that men should do so much violence one to another, and to themselves in body and mind, for trifles and chaff; and that there is so little to be found of that allowed and commanded violence, for a kingdom, and such a kingdom, that cannot be moved (Heb. xii. 28); a word too high for all the monarchies under the sun.  

~ Robert Leighton’s “Commentary on First Peter” (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1972), 397.

Matthew 11:12 (KJV) And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew Henry likens this heavenly violence to that "of an army taking a city by storm, or of a crowd bursting into a house," and he describes such souls engaged in this holy violence as...

An importunate multitude. This violence denotes a strength, and vigour, and earnestness of desire and endeavour, in those who followed John's ministry, else they would not have come so far to attend upon it. It shows us also, what fervency and zeal are required of all those who design to make heaven of their religion. Note, They who would enter into the kingdom of heaven must strive to enter; that kingdom suffers a holy violence; self must be denied, the bent and bias, the frame and temper, of the mind must be altered; there are hard sufferings to be undergone, a force to be put upon the corrupt nature; we must run, and wrestle, and fight, and be in an agony, and all little enough to win such a prize, and to get over such opposition from without and from within. The violent take it by force. They who will have an interest in the great salvation are carried out towards it with a strong desire, will have it upon any terms, and not think them hard, nor quit their hold without a blessing, Gen. xxxii. 26. They who will make their calling and election sure must give diligence. The kingdom of heaven was never intended to indulge the ease of triflers, but to be the rest of them that labour. It is a blessed sight; Oh that we could see a greater number, not with an angry contention thrusting others out of the kingdom of heaven, but with a holy contention thrusting themselves into it!

O, LORD our God, we confess that we often bear "acrid and unwholesome" fruit, for which Your Spirit is grieved and for which Your name is blasphemed among the nations. What more could You have done for us? Holy Father, we come to You in Jesus' name, and ask that You forgive us that we live so far below our blessed privileges as Your children and citizens of heaven. Forgive us for forgetting Whose we are! Forgive us, Father, for not giving earnest heed and neglecting such a great salvation which You wrought for us by sending Jesus Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners! Forgive us for receiving Your glorious grace in vain. Forgive us for thinking so lightly of Christ's precious blood. Forgive us for grieving Your Holy Spirit. Forgive us that our desire for You and for Your Kingdom is so weak and faint, while our desire for the earthly and temporal is often so strong and resolute. Forgive us for our spiritual sluggishness – so often we end up like the Shulamite woman, who would not be bothered to put on her robe or dirty her feet to get up to open the door to her Beloved as He knocked for her! How pathetic that our desires for You pale in comparison to the world's desires for trinkets, toys, and trivialities! Open the eyes of our hearts so we might see You for who You really are! O! LORD! Incline our hearts to fear Your name, and give us whole hearts to run after You and to open widely to You and to no other lover – for You are the chief among 10,000! Forgive us that we are so often put to shame by the zeal, activity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness of the children of this world. Forgive us for not valuing and treasuring You and Your Kingdom as we ought, for if we did, we would certainly explode and overflow with an unquenchable holy violence for You and Your Kingdom! Forgive us for wasting so much of our time running in the ways of the world and living for the lusts of men, rather than living to Your will. You know our frame and remember we are dust. Though we are Yours, our flesh continues to lust and battle against Your Spirit. Have mercy upon us, for the sake of Your New Covenant in Your Son's blood. Be gracious to us, strengthen us by Your Spirit, and enlarge our hearts that we might glorify You by showing ourselves to be children of wisdom and light. May we be filled up to overflowing with a holy violence that shows itself by resolutely setting our minds on things above, running in the way of Your commandments with a holy fervor, loving You supremely, and delighting to do Your will as our Savior did. May Your love constrain and compel us to a joyful, whole-hearted, single-eyed, complete, and zealous obedience. May Your Holy Spirit impart to us a holy violence for You that has no parallel or rival in the world, that we may show ourselves to be Your holy bride, sanctified by Your Holy Spirit and washed by the water of Your Word, bearing sweet and wholesome fruit to Your glory, for Your joy and for our joy! God forbid we be ashamed at Your coming, but rather when You return, may we be found neither sleeping nor sluggish, but violent and importunate, taking Your Kingdom by force! May we be diligent to make our calling and election sure! Work in us that holy contention that is well pleasing in Your sight, that we might be inflamed with a holy fire to run after You and Your Kingdom to the praise of Your glorious grace!

"A sight of Christ gains the heart, makes it break from all entanglements, both of its own lusts, and of the profane world about it." ~ Robert Leighton’s “Commentary on First Peter” (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1972), 396.

Romans 6:22  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7:1  Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2  Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3  Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4  Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5  For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6  But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

I John 2:28  And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29  If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Psalm 119:32  I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! (HT: Leighton for the Scripture reference, p. 398)

Excerpt from Maurice R. Smith's "The Welsh Revival - Longing And Preparation," accessed 12/1/2013 from http://sentinellenehemie.free.fr/mrsmith1_gb.html:

At the outset of the Welsh Revival Joseph Jenkins was the pastor of New Quay (pronounced "key") Church in Cardiganshire. He was deeply concerned about the spiritual state of the young people in his church and had begun spending prolonged times in prayer for them. He was concerned that his youth group had become more social than Christian. One Sunday morning in February of 1904 he challenged the 60 youths in his Christian Endeavour movement. "What does Jesus Christ mean to you?" he asked. The question was embarrassing to them. There was a prolonged silence. One boy eventually spoke up and said, "Jesus Christ is the hope of the world." Jenkins responded, "Never mind the world. What does Jesus Christ mean to you?" Finally, young Florie Evans, who had been converted by Jenkins only two weeks before, testified to the cold youth meeting, "I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart." This simple statement of personal faith deeply moved the Christian Endeavour movement. The effect was startling, and resulted in an overpowering sense of God’s presence in the church. The fire of revival had been lit. The young people soon began visiting other local churches carrying the fire and sharing the blessing.

As we anticipate celebrating Christmas and count down the weeks to Christmas, many of us may light candles that symbolize love, peace, joy, hope, etc. We may hear sermons preached on those themes – including the truth that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world (see Matthew 12:21; Romans 15:12). But what do these words mean to you? Have you tasted and savored their sweetness in your heart? What does Jesus Christ mean to you?  Has the person of Jesus Christ become a living reality to you? Have you supped with the Beloved (Rev. 3:20) and become "drunk with love" (Songs 5:1)? Has the Holy Spirit put these truths of Scripture into your mind and written them on your heart – or are they lifeless words on the written page:  cold, empty, external constructs that have never warmed, delighted, rejoiced, and filled your soul to overflowing with a holy intoxication?

Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

8 For finding fault with them, he saith,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord;
I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Is your hope a lively hope?

. . .

 Or, is your hope, for all intents and purposes, a dead hope?

"Religious knowledge is not, alas, at all the same as spiritual life, and it is not infrequently found in an unnatural separation from it." ~ K. Moody Stuart in "Brownlow North: His Life and Work" (London: Banner of Truth, reprinted 1961; 1st edition 1878), 51.

I Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

It is a cold, lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things upon mere report: but they that speak of them as their own, as having share and interest in them, and some experience of their sweetness, their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief, and ardent affection, they cannot mention them, but their hearts are straight taken with such gladness, as they are forced to vent in praises. Thus our Apostle here [Peter], and St. Paul, and often elsewhere, when they considered these things wherewith they were about to comfort the godly to whom they wrote, they were suddenly elevated with the joy of them, and broke forth into thanksgiving; so teaching us, by their example, what real joy there is in the consolations of the Gospel, and what praise is due from all the saints to the God of those consolations. This is such an inheritance, that the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest griefs and afflictions. What then shall the possession of it be, wherein there shall be no rupture, nor the least drop of any grief at all? The main subject of these verses is, that which is the main comfort that supports the spirits of the godly in all conditions. ~ Robert Leighton's (1611-1684) "Commentary on First Peter" (Grand Rapids: Kregel,1972), 28.

Psalm 36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

Scripture quotations are taken from the KJV.

Related:

“The honeycomb I lift!” ~ Will you join me? I Samuel 14:24-30
“The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it…” | the Father’s assurance
come sinners, make consideration of Israel’s Consolation ~letter 132 on assurance & fighting for joy

The doctrine of justification by faith –– a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort –– has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.

All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.". . .

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

. . . How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of "accepting Christ" (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need nor more seek Him...

. . . Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.

Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.

~ A.W. Tozer, excerpts from Chapter I, Following Hard after God in "The Pursuit of God," first published in 1948.

* * *

Psalm 63:8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

Is your soul following hard after Him – or are you ensnared by the deadly foe complacency and tangled in the web of religious complexity?

"Those who think they have grace enough give proof that they have little enough, or rather that they have none at all; because, wherever there is true grace, there is a desire of more grace, and a pressing towards the perfection of grace." ~ Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Philippians 3:13.

O LORD our God, incline our hearts, souls, minds, and strength to follow hard after You, to cling to You, to hold fast to You, and not to let You go. God forbid we be too-easily-satisfied religionists at ease in Zion –– but rather may we be diligent to make our calling and election sure, and show ourselves to be Your purchased possession – children of the burning heart. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us that we might be found in the company of the Shulamite woman:– zealously and jealously pursuing, panting, and pressing on for You with a holy violence!

Song of Solomon 3:1  By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2  I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3  The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4  It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 

"Note, They who would enter into the kingdom of heaven must strive to enter; that kingdom suffers a holy violence; self must be denied, the bent and bias, the frame and temper, of the mind must be altered; there are hard sufferings to be undergone, a force to be put upon the corrupt nature; we must run, and wrestle, and fight, and be in an agony, and all little enough to win such a prize, and to get over such opposition from without and from within. The violent take it by force. They who will have an interest in the great salvation are carried out towards it with a strong desire, will have it upon any terms, and not think them hard, nor quit their hold without a blessing, Gen. xxxii. 26. They who will make their calling and election sure must give diligence. The kingdom of heaven was never intended to indulge the ease of triflers, but to be the rest of them that labour. It is a blessed sight; Oh that we could see a greater number, not with an angry contention thrusting others out of the kingdom of heaven, but with a holy contention thrusting themselves into it!" ~ from Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Matthew 11.

 (Scripture quotations are taken from the KJV.)

What is a nominal Christian?
Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from Jonathan Edwards
Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from George Whitefield
How’s your spiritual appetite? (Jonathan Edwards)
consider … our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony
Amazing Grace . . . upon Grace ~ the 240th anniversary
Thank Him for a little grace, and ask Him for great grace ~ Spurgeon | letter 158 on assurance & joy