Thursday, January 26, 2006
1 Peter 1:22-23 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF CHRIST
Notice that the apostle Peter calls this purifying of our souls by another name also. He calls it being "born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever." We come into the world as flesh born of flesh, dead in sins, and inclined only toward evil. But God gives us the new birth through His Word, for His Word is the ever-living Word, the everlasting Word, the incorruptible Word. Many of us were first born again through Baptism, the "washing of regeneration." Not that the water of baptism can make us clean and purify us. It is the Word of God which is in and with the water, and through that Word God creates faith, which trusts this Word of God in the water. In this way we are born again and have our souls purified. We have our sins forgiven, and there is a new spiritual life at work within us.
Of course our infant baptism can be rejected by us in unbelief, and then we lose its benefits. But God is always eager to win us back, to give us a new birth all over again through the powerful Word of His Gospel.
Who knows? There may have been some among us who have been born again right here as they read these meditations. For surely the good news of Jesus that we proclaim here is God's power to create faith in Christ and sustain that faith during the years we live here on earth.
This Word also has the power to produce in us true love for one another. In fact, it is the only thing powerful enough to produce such love. The Word that tells us of Jesus' love for us that led Him to the cross to suffer and die for our sins is the Word that purifies our souls and moves us to love one another fervently. As our Lord Jesus said: "Love one another, as I have loved you." Even as it is written: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." It is true. "We love Him (and we love one another) because He first loved us."
