1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 1:24 For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, 1:25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.As I have spent a few minutes studying this over the past few days, I've learned some things that are pretty cool. Any time you see the word “since” in the Bible, you need to automatically check to see if you might be dealing with the result of some previous action. In this case, he clearly states the cause. Let me strip away all the modifying clauses and phrases and get to the basic structure of the sentence. Peter says, “…you have…purified your souls…for you have been born again…through the …word of God.” Sometimes in English it helps to say it in the opposite direction in order to clarify what is really being said, “You have been born again through the word of God, [THEREFORE] your obedience to [that] truth has purified your souls…”
So, coming to Jesus cleanses us. But it doesn't just cleanse us so we can be clean and pure. The cleansing is for a purpose beyond our own need. Peter says that believers have purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. The point of the purification is to create a pathway for love. You have been obedient to the truth – that obedience has purified your souls so that you can have sincere love for the brethren – so that you can love each other from the heart.
Too many Christians think they came to Christ - they got born again - just to avoid going to hell. But here we find that one of the major purposes of that born again experience is so that we can learn how to love. More later.
3 comments:
Thanks, Tom. This helps in understanding what Jesus said to His disciples 3x... Love one another. I was just discussing this with someone tonight. How do we do that? what does it look like? We need more understanding of this command.
Hey, I just looked at my clock and it said 11:11... I wonder if that means anything. ;) Hmmmm
Esther,
My clock just said 9:11 does that mean anything?
@Chris & Yvette: haha, no it doesn't mean anything. I was just being a bit cheeky in refering back to Tom's blog about numbers and Biblical meaning. My mind goes in strange ways sometimes.
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