A PURE HEART FERVENTLY

1 Peter 1:22 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.

What a wonderful message we find in this text. And what are we to do fervently with a pure heart? We are to love one another. And how are we to love one another? Our love of the brethren is to be unfeigned love. We demonstrate this love for one another by obeying the truth obtained through the Spirit by which our souls are purified.

At the outset, this verse reminds us of the sinful, impure nature of mankind. We need to be pure, but we are not. We are sinners living in a sin-filled world. Just as raw gold and silver ore is impure and needs refinement to purify it, so are the sinful souls of all men and women. Purity is an essential characteristic of obedient Christians. David recognized the need for purity in service to God. In the 24th Psalm he wrote that only those having clean hands, and a pure heart would receive the blessing from the Lord (Vss. 4-5). Peter noted that his fellow Christians were to have pure minds (2 Peter 3:1). Paul instructed Timothy to be charitable, by telling him that charity comes out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned (1 Tim. 1:5). In many other places in the bible we find purity being necessary in righteous service to God, and in demonstrating our love for mankind. God expects purity from His children.

God also expects obedience from each follower of Christ. In the lesson text, Peter says that we are to obey the truth. The truth, in this verse, refers to the Gospel message of salvation - God's will as it is revealed in the New Testament. In His word, God tells us about His plan of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. He tells us that we need to be Christians, how to become Christians, and how to live a Christian life. He tells us about the eternal rewards available to His faithful children, but also, about the eternal punishment reserved for those disobedient to His will. These things, as well as many others, are revealed to us by God's word. God's word is the truth. The apostle, Paul, confirms God's word in his writing to Titus by saying that truth is the ...hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began (Titus 1:2). It is these truths that God expects each of us to obey.

In the lesson text, we find one of God's commandments that we are to obey - we are to have unfeigned love of the brethren. Notice what Jesus tells us about true, scriptural love: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37b-40). In John 13:34, Jesus restates this second commandment by saying, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye love one another.

Love for our brethren is essential in obedience to God. It is to be an unfeigned love. Our love is to be sincere, real, genuine, and from the heart. To be acceptable, it must be free from hypocrisy. Paul told the Christians at Corinth that they are able to live a good life, and do much good for others, such as feeding the poor, but unless it is done out of a sincere, unfeigned love for others that are in need, it profiteth me nothing (I Cor. 13:1-3).

The love that we are to have for fellow Christians - the love that comes from a pure heart, is to be a fervent love. What does it mean to love fervently? Fervent love is always given generously and willingly. It is not given from necessity, but from a sincere desire to fill both the physical or spiritual needs of our brethren in Christ. It is ardent and filled with the warmth found in true, intensely earnest love.

Although the lesson text teaches us how we are to love our brethren, or fellow Christians, the question remains: how can we deny this same love for all mankind? Where, in this instruction by Peter, can we afford to withhold any portion of our love for our neighbor, that we normally give to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and would God be satisfied with us if we did? Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (1 John 4:7-8). God forbid that we limit our love to only our brethren and, with the ability to do so lying in us, deny the same love to all mankind!