LOVE BORN OUT OF CLEANSING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

1 Peter 1:22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When a person chooses to believe in Jesus, automatically gaining the free gift of salvation god gives out of sheer grace and mercy, they become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), new because their whole way of living is to change. Before believing, the Christian was invested in their own desires and/or the desires of the world which would lead to sinfulness and a separation from God a majority of the time. But after professing trust in Jesus as Savior, the new Christ disciple is to exchange their old ways of iniquities for the divine and holy ways of Jesus.

To put it simply, a Christian is to strive to be like Jesus, or Christ-like, in every aspect.

Given this, we need to look at what defined Jesus at His very core, at the thing that formed His essence. When we do, we will find love.

Consider Jesus’ own words on this matter in these verses from the Gospel of John regarding His love for all those who believe in Him:

“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command.

This is My command: Love each other. John 15:9-14, 17

Jesus willingly laid down His life to atone for all the sins of mankind. Through His incredible, selfless sacrifice, we see first-hand the greatest love one can ever display, the “agape” love which is willing to lay down one’s life out of love for another.

This is the depth of love Jesus calls all Christians to, a depth of love grounded in His redeeming work on the cross of Calvary where His blood flowed to wash all sinners white as snow. It’s this reference to sacred cleansing that we find in our verses today as Peter implores his readers, “God’s chosen people” who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1), to love one another. Look again at his words here:

You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. 1 Peter 1:22

Coupled with Jesus’ words from John, Peter here is calling his brothers and sisters in Christ, then and now, to remembrance. All Christians are to always keep the cross in mind and never forget the love Jesus showed there to lay down His life for us, His friends.

We are to then remember that He has commanded us to love one another as He has loved us. Perfect love will beget perfect love when we do this and only when we do this because left to our own devices, we will never show the kind of “sincere love to each other” that God’s Word calls us to. The deep love the Lord expects us to extend to others is the very deep love He has already shown to us.

For when we do this, when we show the incredible love of Jesus which is born out of the sin atonement and cleansing He brought to us at the cross, then we will let all see their Savior in His purest sense as we behave in Christ-like ways, just as we should.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.