Love Fervently (Our High Calling Part 3)

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of you stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct - 1 Peter 1:17-18

Redemption is not metaphorical, it is real. God offered a supremely infinite and precious payment for sin, which speaks to the vileness of sin, the merit of Jesus Christ, and how serious the call to be holy as I am holy truly is.

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. - 1 John 1:5-6

The fact that Jesus is the only one sufficient to redeem us, God testifies, not only of how perfectly righteous and pure Jesus is but also of how bad our sin actually is; mainly that our sin is evil and we are deserving of his wrath.  God has a full understanding of our hearts and, because of his holy nature, he cannot have a relationship with us as unredeemed people; rather, his holiness shines a light on our fallenness.

For those in Christ, God has redeemed us with the precious blood of Jesus.  Jesus had the perfect righteousness that God requires, and his blood was (and still is) sufficient to cleanse us from all sin.  It is not a partial cleansing, but a full one.  Deserving to go to Hell, God has, by his mercy, chosen to deliver those who believe in Jesus; putting forth the sufficient sacrifice himself, so that we might be forgiven, reconciled, and redeemed.  The call to be holy and conform to Christ is strong, because of the payment offered to secure it.  I believe this also shows God's delight in holiness; that, notwithstanding our guilt, he has preferred mercy, and given us hope and life in Jesus Christ.

God's love in offering Jesus is not only a testimony to his passion for his glory, mainly in that he has redeemed a people for himself to be built up as a spiritual priesthood and offer sacrifices acceptable to him through Jesus Christ, but also testifies to the greatness of his love.  Indeed we were far off, without any hope, ignorant and living out our lives with aimless conduct.  Knowing that we deserve wrath, how pleased is God with his holiness, that he would show mercy and call us to be like him (Ezekiel 36:22-23).  This is why I believe the call to be holy as he is holy is also a call to have joy in God.  Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).

I find it very encouraging and motivating to see just how much God has done to bring me to himself.  If so much was done to redeem us from our aimless conduct, how much more diligent we ought to be to walk by the Spirit, and abstain from our former passions; it took the precious blood of Christ to redeem us.  We have been thoroughly cleansed by the blood of Christ, having purified our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.

These truths make me want to draw near, and love God.  I pray that they do the same for you.  When I consider how perfect my savior Jesus is that such a thorough cleansing and purpose have come to my life, I cannot but give thanks.  If you are alive with Christ, there is no other way to live, than to live for Christ.  What a tremendous comfort to the soul; having died with Christ, I now live with him, being alive in him.  This is both the reason and the power by which God calls Christians to be holy, and that is joyful (Ephesians 1:19-20, Romans 8:11).

Therefore lay aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. - 1 Peter 2:1-5

The first instruction given is to love one another fervently with a pure heart. Put off old ways of the flesh, which are hostile to God, and put on Christ. Do not conform to your old passions, but love the brothers fervently. Being born again through the living, true, and enduring word of God, love the brethren fervently. Jesus made it clear that loving the brothers is very important for being his disciple, and also the mark of his disciples:

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Fathers' commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. - John 15:9-14

And again after washing the feet of his disciples, he said to them:

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. - John 13:-15

And:

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. - John 13:35

All throughout scripture, you will see the importance of loving brothers in Christ emphasized, and this is not by mistake.  The second chapter of 1 Peter opens immediately with the command to put off malice, deceit, envy, hypocrisy, and evil speaking, which are contrary to Love.  These works of the flesh are rooted in selfishness and lies.  These are bad fruits of aimless conduct and ignorant passions that we formerly lived by, regarding such James 3 has very sobering things to say:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. - James 3:13-17

If, however, you are in Christ, you have been born of the truth. Put away the old ways, and love the brethren; love covers a multitude of sin (1 Peter 4:8).

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love does not envy, it is not malicious, hypocritical and deceitful, and evil speaking. A loving brother will seek the spiritual good of his brothers and sisters in Christ. He will rejoice when they rejoice, not envy; he will weep when they weep, not speak evil; he will be truthful and sincere toward them, not hypocritical. Where the works of the flesh such as these are manifest, as James 3 says, confusion and every evil thing are there. Brothers and sisters in Christ: I urge you to love the brethren fervently from a pure heart.

As always, I would like to end with a relevant quote from an old saint, this time it will be Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest.  This is a much longer quote than usual, but it is certainly worth it:

Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2 Peter 1 to see them worked out in our lives. 

The first thing God does is forcibly remove any insincerity, pride, and vanity from my life. And the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying, “…love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He is saying, “I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you.” This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable— it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight. Some of us may have tried to force it, but we were soon tired and frustrated.

“The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish…” (2 Peter 3:9). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. 

The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God! Am I prepared to be identified so closely with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness will be continually poured out through Me? Neither natural love nor God’s divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline.