True Love is Easily Seen
July 30, 2020
Commentary
Our love for God is demonstrated by our loving the brethren (v.22). An example of this is found in I John 4:20-21. Love toward God is hard to measure, however love toward the brethren is easily seen. This love is to be a “fervent” love which is real and not a pretense love.
Why should the Christian manifest this kind of love? The answer is because the believer has experienced the new birth through the Word of God which is an incorruptible seed that abides forever (v. 23). God has demonstrated His love and His children are to love as He does. The Word of God is eternal (vv. 23-25). It will last forever but the things of this life are temporal and they will pass away. The eternal Word shows the love of God and that expression of love is part of the believer’s life. See Mark 12:30,31.
Men’s hopes are dead hopes which are like cut flowers that bloom awhile and then they fade and die. The Christian’s hope is fresh and fruitful because it is a “living hope” (v. 3), purchased by “the living Christ” (v. 3) and promised in “the living Word” (v. 23). When Jesus comes again He will be the completion of this hope as we will be with Him throughout all eternity. This is what under stress and the circumstances of life helps us to set our hope fully on the grace of God, rather than on our self.
Application
Is God’s love being shown in my life? To believers? To unbelievers? What examples can I give as proof of this fact?
1 Peter 1:22– 25 (NET)
22 You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 23 You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass withers and the flower falls off,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.