Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:22-25

1Pe 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,  (23)  since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;  (24)  for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,  (25)  but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Peter continues with an application for all he has written prior to this:

“love one another earnestly from a pure heart”

But notice, this is placed right in the middle of “how” we are even able to hope to do it.

It is not some feeling or affection we take on or put on, but rather something that can only be done because of what He has done.  It is smack dab in the middle of “purified your souls,” and “born again.”  There is no place else we can ever hope to follow Peter’s admonition.  It is only “in Him” that we can have a sincere love for one another.

This love, this sincere love is a love without pretense.  It is unfeigned, not an act, soundly based, real.  It is based upon His love for His redeemed. 

1Jn 4:10  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This is the foundation and power of our loving.  If God so loved our brothers and sisters, can we ever be satisfied with loving them less?

Joh 17:20-21  "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  (21)  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

This love we are called to is His; He has poured it out into our hearts and we are to recognize it in and give it to one another.  Oh, our flesh makes it so hard at times.  We are all struggling with our “me-ness.”  But this love can and will over-ride that [“selfness”], if we will diligently seek His grace and mercy for that to happen.  This love is absolutely impossible if it is not sought and received from the throne of grace, from the scarred hand of the Savior.

Pray, pray and pray again that He will take from you anything that prohibits you from loving your brothers and sisters in the same way and with the same love as He always loves you .