I have been studying through 1 Peter, very slowly. I have reasons for going slow. One is that I want to read it and research the passage and ask questions when I need to. The other one is that working 12 hours a day leaves not a whole lot of extra time to get studying done......and I get tired....and sore...and thankful. :)
Anyway, in reading through the beginning of this great book, I came upon chapter 1 and in verse 22, there are words like purified, obey, sincere, love one another deeply. I had to look up some words in this passage.
Purify means to cleanse; make free from something. I know this is referring to sin, but we can be purified in many ways. We take a shower and get purified from all the germs on ourselves. We purify our body from illness by taking medicines when we get sick, but this passage is referring to the sin in our life. When we are purified by Jesus (after accepting Him) we are cleansed of all our past, present, and future sin. It's like being washed cleaner than we have ever been in our life.....even after a wonderful day at the spa. What am I saying? I've never been to the spa, but hear it's wonderful.
Next we see the word obey. We all know what obedience is. When our kids were small, they knew to be obedient. I must say they were much more obedient to their father than to me, but when he talked, they knew to pay attention and do as he said. They also knew not to back talk or ask "why". That did no good. When my own dad would tell my brother and I to knock off the fighting or else, we knew he meant business. Obedience is essential for a parent/kid relationship. But, the type of obedience talked of here is obeying God. We obey Him by living by His Word, praying, and loving one another....among other things.
When we are sincere in life, we are not fake. We can usually spot people who are sincere. I've gotten to know a dear lady and now friend at my work, named Ruthie. She is the sweetest lady and always has a smile for me when I see her. She recently went to the beach and brought my family and I a tub of caramel corn from Fischer's. She knows we don't get to the beach much and also knows its a favorite in our house, so she made sure to bring a tub back for us. She is sincere in her love for not only me, but everyone she comes in contact with. She is one of those people you can't help but want to be around. She called me yesterday and told me I better get to pick up my popcorn or else.....haha. Being sincere means you hurt when someone else is hurting and feel empathy for them. Ruthie is one of those people in my life. I can tell her anything and she prays and encourages me.
Loving one another deeply isn't easy, but all over the Bible we are commanded to love others. God loves and forgives us, so we are to do the same, if we call ourselves a Christian. This is not always easy to do as we get hurt by people so often. It takes a lot of prayer and concern for others to love them in this way. It means looking past the way they hurt you to get to the reason behind the way they act the way they do. It may mean apologizing for our own actions in a situation, even if we aren't guilty of anything. It's being a peacemaker to restore the broken relationship. It's loving people despite our feelings. It's putting their need for Jesus above our own. I could go on and on.....but you get the idea.
So....to sum up all this, verse 22 tells us that....
We are purified by obedience to God's Word, and in turn we have sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ by loving them deeply from the heart.
:) God is good!!
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