The Living and Abiding Word, Part 2

In 1 Peter 1:22-2:3, Peter makes five assertions about the Word of God which help us appreciate its value. We’re on number two:

THE WORD PRODUCES LOVE.

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… 1 Peter 1:22-23

Notice the several qualifiers Peter uses to describe our love here. He calls it “sincere” love, non-hypocritical love. Apparently, it’s quite possible to fake love, to try to get by with the mere appearance of love, or to offer an empty profession of love. We might think of toleration or bare acceptance. But Peter is talking about something much deeper and more real.

The term for love he uses is also significant: “philadelphian” – i.e., brotherly love. Probably the closest idea in our culture is affection. Coupled with “sincere,” it means genuine fondness. The love Peter commends is sincere, it’s affectionate, and thirdly, it’s intense: “love one another earnestly.”

Where does this kind of sincere, affectionate, earnest love come from? It has to originate somewhere, and it’s sure not going to start within our own heart! People can be so annoying! All it takes sometimes is one comment, one action, and the warm feelings of sincere, earnest, brotherly love vanish in a puff of irritation.

This kind of love grows through the Word. Peter makes a crucial connection between obedience to the truth and sincere love. The ESV captures it with the word “for” – “obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.” The NIV clarifies it a bit with the conjunction “so that” – “obeying the truth so that you have love.”

In other words, obedience to the truth aims at producing love for others. As you apply the Word, as you change and grow, God’s purpose is not to make you more withdrawn from people. What does purity in our personal lives and our community look like? Contrary to what we might think, it looks like love. Pure hearts produce loving people, not detached, isolated, “don’t-want-to-get-contaminated” people. “Holier than thou” is actually not real holiness at all; it’s pride.

Some might say, “I’m just not a real gushy, loving person. My spiritual gift is prophecy, not mercy.” To which Peter would reply: “Be glad the power of the gospel can change personalities. Repent, and start loving.”

The point is that Christians have been set apart through the gospel from how they used to treat people. Note the next clause in verse 23: “since you have been born again… through the word.” The word “since” (or “for” in the NIV) is critically important to follow Peter’s reasoning. His argument is that his readers should love one another because they have been begotten by God.

Christian love is born the same way Christians themselves are: through the truth of the gospel. What we must do for others is always grounded in what God has first done for us. The gospel tells us that we Christians are the most loved people in the universe; it’s only reasonable that we should also be the most loving.

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