FRIDAY August 18th
1 Peter 1:22–25
‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’
In this chapter Peter has already highlighted some of the thing that should take place in the heart or life of a person who has been born again, or as he puts it here in our verses today, had their soul purified, and firstly from verse 13 ‘Prepare your minds for action’, ‘be sober-minded’, ‘set your hope fully on the grace’. Then verse 14 ‘do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance’, then from verse 15 ‘be holy in all your conduct’.
Here in verse 22 he tells us to ‘love one another earnestly from a pure heart’. Real, genuine love can only flow out from a pure heart. We know this because the greatest and purest example of love came from the heart of God himself. To love one another is as important as the command found here in 1 Peter 1:16 ‘You shall be holy for I am holy’.
You will recall when we were going through the epistles of John he continually spoke of the need for the children of God to love each other and he heard it from the lips of the Saviour himself, he records what he had heard in John 13:34 ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another’ (see also John 15:12 & 17, 1 John 3:23). Jesus then expressed why our love for one another is so important ‘By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (v35).
I know that every one of us would have to admit that we find it easier to relate with some people than with others, even to spend time talking with some than with others, after all we are all different in so many ways, but within the body of Christ, despite all those differences we should still have the same love and concern for each one. I wonder if a good exercise would be that over the next few weeks even maybe months when we are gathered together that you make the opportunity to speak with someone in more depth than what you normally would do, instead of just the cursory how are you, allow the conversation to develop into something more so that we may all together be a people who show we care and love for each other. Care and love which is demonstrated in our concern toward and mutual interest in one another.