How then do we react to Peter’s command to ‘love one another deeply, from the heart’ (1 Peter 1:22)? The kind of love he is referring to is in response to the truth that he writes about before this that through Jesus, who was ‘chosen before the creation of the world’ we are able to believe and put our hope in God.
Being able to love one another from the heart is only possible if our hearts have first been captivated by Jesus. A knowledge of his sacrifice for us that was made in order that we would know God, will resonate so deeply within us that we will be changed from the inside out and better able to love our brothers and sisters.
What does love look like? We need only look at Jesus for an example of how we are called to love. He gave himself up for us, in the same way love means making sacrifices for one another. He forgave our sins so that we never have any excuse for holding a grudge against someone else.
He opened the way for us to be in relationship with God and from this, and so many other examples in scripture, we can see the importance he puts on relationship. Not only are we to ensure that our relationship with God is good, we must also invest in one another, be honest, share our hearts, encourage, submit to and keep one another accountable in our spiritual journeys.
Post published in: Faith