This Day in History: 0000-02-10

February 10 – 1 Peter 1:21-25 

Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory.
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 hearts.
For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living Word of God. As the Scriptures say,
“People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the Word of the Lord remains forever.”
And that Word is the Good News that was preached to you. 

I love the way this passage puts a new little twist on several concepts we’re very familiar with from other parts of Scripture by connecting the dots between them, making a new point. 

We already know that we were given new life in Christ when we believed. We know we’re called to love each other within the body of Christ. We also know that our life here on earth is short, and as part of the whole story it is “but a breath.” And we know that this life is not all there is for us, because as followers of Jesus we’ve been given eternal life with Him, having been united to Him. Finally, we know that the message of the Gospel – the Good News – is eternal, unchangeable, and inerrant, and that Christ Himself IS the Word of God – the Good news that will remain forever. 

But what this passage is saying, that maybe we don’t know, or haven’t put together is this: BECAUSE we all, as the body of Christ, have been united to Him through faith, we ALL have been made new. No longer are WE – the body – withering grasses, or fading flowers. Rather, we are part of the eternal Word, which remains forever because we have been united to Him! And because that’s true, we’re also going to be united together forever and ever as one body. So, it matters how we treat each other! Because we understand the permanence of our relationship with one another, we MUST love each other deeply. Our love needs to be sincere. It should be natural, almost involuntary, like the love between brothers and sisters who are inseparably knit together within the same fabric. Are we living in obedience? Let’s start today!