From The Heart

Read: 1 Peter 1

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

IN WORD

Jesus told parables about what loving one’s neighbor should look like. He declared a commandment from Leviticus about loving others to be one of the two greatest commandments God had given. He urged His followers to love even their enemies. So when Peter writes that we should have a sincere, deep, heartfelt love for one another, he certainly isn’t coming up with a new concept. It’s as old as Scripture itself.

So why does Peter reiterate an oft-iterated command? Because the question isn’t whether we know it; the question is whether we do it. And both in Peter’s time and today, most Christians don’t. At least not to the extent that Scripture urges.

That’s where an eye on the future Kingdom helps. If we base our love on the present condition of those around us, we won’t be very motivated to love. But if we see the Kingdom condition—or at least the potential Kingdom condition—of those around us, we should be highly motivated. Every person is either a child of the King or a potential child of the King. Everyone is created to experience and to reflect His glory. Seeing a person in his or her pettiness or problems today may not be very inspiring. But if you got a glimpse of that person’s future glory? Love would be the only appropriate response.

That’s why the biblical command to love is not anchored in the here-and-now, visible realm. This can’t be the kind of love that flows naturally as a spontaneous affection. No instruction would be needed for that. It has to be the kind of love that is chosen, a decision to act in the best interests of each other whether we feel like it or not. It makes sense that our love would be prompted by our vision of the coming Kingdom. That’s the only context in which this kind of love makes perfect sense.

IN DEED

If you want to love well, learn to see well. See the redemptive stories that surround you. See people as everlasting lives. Then love radically. From the heart.

ADDITIONAL READING: Romans 12:9

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

TERESA OF AVILA