- Brief review of 1 Peter 1
- Purpose – Strengthen brothers and sisters
- V1-12: God’s work, salvation of soul
- V13-25: Man’s responsibility, four commands
- 1 Peter 1:22-25’s structure contains 1 central point and 2 supporting points:
- Central Point: Love each other earnestly
- Loving each other earnestly is the progress of a believer’s spiritual maturity
- Loving each other earnestly is the church’s testimony in the world
- Two support points:
- Being born again is a prerequisite for being able to love each other truly. It connects us to the source of love, making us brothers and sisters.
- Obeying the truth and purifying the heart is the only way forward to loving one another. Doctrinal truth must not only be understood but also but submitted under. Submission can purify our own hearts, to the point of loving brothers and sisters without hypocrisy.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.