1 Peter 1:22-25

Happy New Years! Okay, am about 10 days late...

Anyway, back to the lifetime project of blogging through the Bible...

Coming up on the end of Chapter 1 ...

The Bible does contain elements of "deep thought." But I think foremost there is a linkage between theology and living life.

Here in the latest part of chapter one is a very practical challenge:

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

There is the truth of a holy God and what God has done in sending Jesus.

Then there is a response that is called for ... love.

This isn't intellectual rocket science!

But it does require a transformation ...

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

Do we naturally love without God changing us?

Parental love for children is real. The love of friends is real.

These are beautiful expressions of love and reflect God's desire for how we are to live.

But of course, we have a connection in both cases ... a family tie and some common ground that provides emotional affinity for our friends.

How hard is it love a stranger?

This is where the church as a community can rise or fall. The people listening to this letter from Peter might have some family ties to each other. Some might have friendship connections from daily life. But I would guess that some (many?) would be strangers to each other.

Will they live up to this call to love?

Will having the desire to follow Jesus in common spur a love beyond family and friends?

And, of course, will the call to love extend beyond their own church community?

Indeed, one can marshal evidence of how Christians have failed to love. All too true.

But one must also look at the schools, hospitals, orphanages, support groups and other things that people of faith have started.

And hopefully, my transformed life will be evidence that God is alive as well.

Lord, thank you for Jesus and the transformation he has brought. Help me to live out the command to love. Clear out the hardness of my heart and replace it with a new heart that sees with your eyes and hears with your ears. Amen.