Let’s Talk About Being Born Again (anew)

1 Peter 1:23

You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Oh how I love this verse! I have spent far too much time and effort in attempting to move the church off of its perseveration on being ‘born again’ and looking off to the distant heavenly eternals while brushing off the present and the immediate.  Thank you Peter!  He does not forget about the born again, in this case, born anew, line.  The defeat of death is a really neat feature of the Christian religion.  But it is led into play by the command that we love one another with a genuine, mutual love!

Context is everything, even in Scripture.

You have been born anew,--Such is the promise of John 3, born again, born anew, born from above.   

not of perishable but of imperishable seed,--Peter returns to the agrarian roots of his teaching.  Jesus was strong about the farming metaphors in his teachings.

through the living and enduring word of God.—This renewal does not crawl out of the ether.  There is power, great power behind it, the power of the Word of God.