Seeing
ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart
fervently.
1
Peter 1:22
The love you have for
Christ is best shown through the love you extend to others… In Paul’s first
epistle to the church of Corinth, he speaks about the importance of love in the
13th chapter… The words recorded in that letter are confirmed
through this passage taken from 1st Peter… Love is the key to your
success in the work of God’s kingdom… This is why Peter says that even with a
purified soul you must love fervently… There are a lot of okay people in the
world; these people don’t necessarily call attention to themselves in a
negative light nor do they hurt people with there tongues… Even if you fit this description, you must go deeper in Christ and
learn to love… Love is the cornerstone to your foundation in Christ… A lot
of us have built a respectable foundation in Christ; however, the cornerstone of
love has been omitted which will allow the foundation to be crushed when love
needs to be displayed… This is the very reason why the rich you ruler in the
gospel of Mark could speak to Jesus with assurance that he had lived the right
life, but ended up walking away grieving when his love was called to be shown…
Ask yourself today, how hard is in to
lend to someone who you feel doesn’t deserve it? How hard is it to speak a
kind word to someone who despises you? How hard is it to turn the other cheek
and walk away? On the contrary, how easy is it to speak you mind? How easy is
it to wish bad on someone? How easy is it to retaliate and turn the other
person’s cheek…? These are the questions that we must answer within ourselves
today… These are the things that we face on a daily basis and these things show
where we are currently in our spiritual walk and how much further we still have
to go… Taking on a mind of Christ leads us to extend a helping hand and not dig
a pit for another to fall in… In today’s study verse Peter speaks about the
love and desire we should have as a child of God walking under the influence of
the Lord… Notice that this passage says that you have purified your souls
through obeying the truth by the Spirit. Before we can walk we must first stand
up, before we can speak we must first open our mouths; Peter reminds us today
that we are called to love one another, we are called to exalt one another, and
we are called to have unfeigned love one for another as a child of God… Your displays
of love show the signs of progression in your life… When you walk in love you
are obeying the spirit and therefore you have not only stood up, but are taking
steps… The love that Peter talks about
is instilled in us by God and only can be placed within us when we first turn
unto Him… We are purified through the Spirit which guides and directs our
lives; to be purified means that you have been cleansed, sanitized or filtered…
Through the accepting of Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit our
purification process has begun, we have been cleansed from the sin that chained
us to death, we have been sanitized by the blood of Jesus and filtered through
His love and sacrifice…
Without the presence of the Holy Spirit residing within
you, you cannot accomplish anything. We
have to be lead by the spirit; we have to have the Holy Spirit abiding within
us. Remember
Christ spoke to the disciples prior to His departure and said that you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes; we through the Spirit have the
ability to overcome and be victorious on this earth. It is also through the
Spirit that we can love unconditionally; we can help our enemies, and be kind
to those who show no kindness towards us. Understand today that this is not
possible until you have “purified your souls…” If you are still living
the life of sin and focused on the desires of the world than you will not be
able to love your brother/sister or love with a pure heart… In the world
everything is done for personal gain or exposure, in the spirit everything is
done to glory God and life up one another… In order to focus on lifting one
another as oppose to tearing one another down you must first acknowledge where
you stand and in which direction you want to go… We all must be purified; however, this cannot be done if we believe
that we are already clean… This is why Peter says these things contained in
this verse… The only way to love fervently is through the Lord, the only way to
have unfeigned love for your brethren is through the Lord… You must purge the
evil that is born within you in order to receive the spirit of God that will
guide you to know heights and have you doing things you never thought possible…
Jesus gave us a New Commandment prior to leaving the earth, “A new command I
give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” The greatest command we have as a child of God is to love
one another, Jesus gave this command because if we are doing things out of love
we will abide within the will of God and also the laws instituted by God and
the world we live in… Peter says that we are not only to love, but to love
fervently; we must have a passion to love, zeal to love, an excitement to love
and a (n) eagerness to love… The love
that Peter is speaking of isn’t gained overnight, but is learned through the
experiences we go through and the mindset that we have… Again, before you
can walk you must learn to stand; before you can love fervently you must learn
how to simply be kind and overcome evil with good… Love is a word that is
better described and defined by actions… When someone has zeal, they have willingness,
a (n) excitement or passion for something; and it is shown by how they approach
a task or mission… When we talk about loving as Christ loved, I should be able
to see all those traits in your lifestyle as a Christian. Remember, greater
love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends!!!!!! That is Jesus showing His fervent love for
us! HOW ABOUT YOU!
BE BLESSED!!!
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