With thanks to Mark $ for this message
So far in 1 Peter 1, we have been reflecting on the words: “Be holy, because I am holy”
We have seen that “being holy” in the New Testament begins and ends with our union with Christ. It is in union with Him that we can know His strength in our weakness. We can know that through His grace and mercy, we are accepted, welcomed, and loved.
“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so” That’s the title of a chorus I remember so well from Sunday school.
And it’s this same love that empowers us to love others. 1 Peter 1: 22 tells us that living holy lives means loving “one another deeply, from the heart”. Peter calls us to a “sincere love for each other”
Where does the strength for this love come from? From God’s love for us.
When Jesus washed Peter’s feet He was showing Peter not only His love for him, but the fact that he was cleansed and forgiven. Peter had a new identity and a new calling, the calling to love as Jesus loved.
This doesn’t mean we’ll love perfectly by any means (we’ve seen already how Paul blows that thought out of the water in Romans 7). But it does mean we’re called to forgive as Christ forgive us, and to love sincerely and deeply as He loved us.
So we end where we began, with the motivation for “being holy”, with Jesus Himself and our union with Him.
