FRIDAY September 15th
1 Peter 3:8
‘Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.’
We continue today from where we left off yesterday concerning the need to be a people of unity and sympathy toward one another and we move to the next instruction to be a people who show brotherly love.
This was also one of the supplements or qualities that Peter expected them to add to their faith in 2 Peter 1 ‘. . . and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love’ (v7). Hebrews 13:1 reads ‘Let brotherly love continue’.
The whole gospel is based around love, using scripture as examples, ‘For God so loved the world’ (John 3:16), ‘In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin’ (1 John 4:10), the next verse then continues with ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another’ (1 John 4:11).
So love is not something that we can decide whether or not we want to show, it is a requirement that is attached to our being a child of God, in fact it is more than a requirement it is commanded of us, for Jesus said ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another’, now I have stopped mid-verse, the reason is that each one of us will stop and think about what it says next! A clue is how are we to love each other? Here is the answer in the rest of the verse ‘just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.’ I am sure that you would agree with me that Jesus has set the standard or the bar very high! I can picture the pole vault in the athletics, Jesus has the bar at the highest setting, sadly each time I run to jump I fail to reach the same height! How about you? May God help our love for one another to increase so that we may love in such a way that people will know that we are his disciples (John 13:35).
A heart that has learnt to love as Jesus loves will also become a tender heart, which is Peter’s next instruction. Paul says this in Ephesians 4 ‘Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you’ (v32). Tender-heartedness is linked to compassion, it is to have a heart that is soft and gentle towards others. It is said of Jesus that he was touched with the feeling of their infirmities, his heart was tender toward those who were weak and infirmed, his tender heart went out towards all who came to him, he never turned anyone away.
May God help us all to be a people who are determined to have unity of mind or for those who use the NIV to be like-minded, to be those who are tender-hearted showing sympathy and compassion toward others and to love one another even as Christ has loved us.