Spiritual Life

1st Peter 1:23,

For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and abiding word of God. NASV.

Here the Apostle Peter is writing to New Jewish believers that have been scattered because of persecutions. In the first verse of the same chapter he refers to these new christians as aliens, because they were strangers in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; Some no doubt were also gentiles.

Peter says that "they have been born again". Our Savior Jesus Christ used the same expression when talking to the Pharisee Nicodemus as they were talking about spiritual matters in St. John 3:3. "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Of course the man referred to that must be born again is what Peter calls in 1Pet.3:3 " the hidden man of the heart." The man that we cannot see with our physical eyes. He is hidden because he is clothed with a body of flesh. This is the real person, who is made of spirit; so we are speaking in connection with a spiritual rebirth, called being born again.

It does not come by the will of man, or any physical agency of man. He can't produce it. It comes by God through the agency of the Word, which here Peter says is "imperishable." Not only is it imperishable, it is living. It is a living seed. A living word. Why? Because as a seed it has the life of God in it. Just like an apple seed will produce an apple tree, because that's the life that it carries. Once a person is born again, he or she carries the very life of God in him or herself! Here in this passage the metaphor, "seed " is used in relation to Divine Life. Peter continues, with other metaphors which relate to spiritual truths. For example, milk in chapter 2 verse 2 for growth, and Living Stone and living stones which relate to building the habitation or superstructure of God.

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