To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:22-23 “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.”

The Bible tells us that when someone becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, he or she “is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Among the things that this statement points to is that that person receives new desires.  Rather than having a heart set on fleshly lusts, hostile to God, and headed for death, they receive a heart set on spiritual desires, a heart at peace with God, and a future destined for eternal life (Romans 8:6-9).  This is perhaps no better seen than in the way a Christian comes to understand the meaning of the word “love.” 

“Love” is one of the most used words in world today, and perhaps one of the most misused, at least as exemplified by the One Who alone is Love in His very essence (1 John 1:8).  You see, in the world “love” is used as the overarching justification for all manner of sexual sin.  In one popular song after another the word “love” or “make love” is repeated over and over again, but in so many instances it’s not speaking of anything remotely related to the love of God. Rather, it refers to a synonym for sexual activity that grieves God.  And because a love for God is fundamental to loving our neighbor as ourselves, the world’s understanding of love is the opposite of what true godly love is. 

You see, God’s love is revealed to us by way of the Scriptures. It’s not something we naturally understand, for it has a supernatural source.  One of the passages to which we can turn to understand godly love is the one above from 1 Peter 1.  It tells us that the ability to love others with God’s love is solely the result of a heart being purified.  And how does that purification occur?  It is by obedience to the truth.  The “truth” that is being referred to here is the truth of the gospel message that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  In this message we see that God didn’t love us because of who we were, but in spite of who we were.  We have been told that it is “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  It was in the face of our opposition to all that God is and does that He loved us with the greatest act of love that was ever demonstrated anywhere at any time.  It was by way of His incredible sacrifice on the cross that He freed us from our sin, in spite of the fact that we were glorying in that sin.  It was while men raged against the Savior of the world with their venom and outrageous hatred that Jesus prayed in His agony, “Father forgive them, for they know now what they do” (Luke 23:34).  It is when one obeys the gospel to believe on the One who died for us that we enter the brotherhood of those who have likewise had their eyes opened to their own sin in contrast to the selfless love of Christ poured out on us in spite of that sin.  And the evidence that one has believed and obeyed this truth is first and foremost seen in the transformation of a heart from one that is at enmity with God and our neighbor to one that loves both God and our neighbor. 

The Bible tells us that “we love because he (i.e., Christ) first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  Like Christ, the believer loves others not because of who they are (for anyone can love those who love them) but regardless of who they are because of how the Lord has loved them.  It’s as Jesus said in Luke 6:32-35, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” 

However, because the temptation is always great for a believer to turn back to his or her old ways, we are constantly reminded throughout the Scriptures to keep on loving with the love of Christ.  As we are urged by Peter in the verses above, we are to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since (we) have been born again.”  “Earnestly”: it’s a word that has also been translated “fervently.”  It implies intentionality.  It’s a heart set on love, looking for ways to love others, no matter who they are.  It’s a mindset that asks God to open our eyes to the needs of others around us with a sensitivity to know how we might be used of God to love them with His love through our words and actions. 

How different this is from the love of this world. How foreign to the “love” so many are talking and even singing about.  As John, who called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” has told us in these words: “By this we know love, that (Jesus) laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:16-18).

May the Lord help us who believe in Him to love those whom God has sovereignly placed in our lives with a love like that.