“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.” 1 Peter 1:22-23
Beloved,
There is tremendous truth held in those two verses. First, we are purified by obeying the truth. All of our sin has been cleansed as we have responded to the truth of the gospel. All of our sin has been nailed to the cross. All of our past sin, present sin and future sin will no longer be held against us as we have been cleansed through the blood of Christ. As we are in Christ, God now looks at us as pure, holy and blameless. When He sees us, He sees us through Christ. We are pure because Christ is pure and we are in Christ.
Secondly, one of the marks that we have been purified is that we have a sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is interesting that Peter encourages the church that already has a sincere love for the brothers to love one another more deeply. We are never hit the bottom of the well in our love for one another. As we grow in the knowledge of the truth, we should also grow in love for our brothers. Our love for each other is a sign that we are Christians. If we do not love each other how do we know if we have obeyed the truth? If we have not obeyed the truth, how do we know if we have been purified?
Our love for others doesn’t bring the new birth, but our love is a sign of our new birth. Beloved, we must be born again. God does not want only to change our behavior; He wants to change our hearts. He plants a new seed in our hearts and that seed grows to reflect the reality that we have been born again. So how is one born again? We are born again through the living and enduring Word of God. When we hear the Word and respond in faith to the Word, the Lord plants the imperishable seed of the Holy Spirit. And that seed will continue to grow until it reaps eternal life.
So Beloved, if we are saved through the living and abiding Word of God, let us share that Word with our world. Pray that God would open a door for the ministry of the Word in our community. Pray that God would use us to help people experience the new birth through our love for each other and through our sharing of God’s Word.
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