1 Peter 1:22-25

5. Brotherly Love 1:22-25

1 Peter 1:22-23 Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently: having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incurruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.

Expanded Translation

Having purified and cleansed your souls in your hearkening, submission, and obedience to the truth that issues into undisguised (i.e., real, sincere) love of the brethren, you must love one another out of your heartintensely and fervently; having been begotten again (regenerated), not from corruptible or perishable seed, but from incorruptible or imperishable, through the Word of God which keeps on living and keeps on abiding.

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Seeing ye have purified

All one word in the original. The perfect tense is used here, indicating action in the past with presently existing results. They had been and were now cleansed, and are to continue living in such a way as to remain pure.

your souls

i.e., their lives, beings, selves.

in your obedience to the truth

This is how the purification was accomplishedby responding to and submitting to the truth of God's Word. Souls are not purified when one submits to false teaching or deceitful doctrines. If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32).

unto unfeigned love of the brethren

That is, one of the results or effects of a purified life is brotherly love. The word unto (eis), may signify here, into the realm of. Peter, it seems to me, is saying that one of the natural outcomes of a life given over to Jesus IS brotherly love. The purified life issues into the realm of brotherly affection.

love one another

Imperative: You must love one another. But why do we have here a further exhortation concerning brotherly love, when the Apostle had just complimented them for possessing this virtue? Some say the reason for the second exhortation is found in the two different words rendered love. In the first (philadelphia) we find philos, from the verb phileo, a word that is supposed to have personal pleasure or joy as a motive of the lover. In the second love (agapao), we have a nobler word, where the lover loses his affection on the worthiness and preciousness of the thing or person loved. If this be a clear-cut distinction which holds true here, Peter's exhortation is to further develop and grow from a phileo type of love to an agapao type.[2]

[2] See W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, under love. He states that phileo (the first love) more nearly represents tender affection, and that the two verbs are never used indiscriminately in the same passage.. if each is used with reference to the same objects. each word retains its distinctive and essential character.

from the heart

Literally, out of the heart. Such love must be from within one. How needful is this virtue among God's children!

fervently

An adverb defined as earnestly, fervently, intensely. The adjective occurs in 1 Peter 4:8 (being fervent). The root verb from which this word is derived signifies to stretch out or stretch forth, as when one is reaching out to acquire something. Effort is involved in true Christian brotherliness!

having been begotten again

See 1 Peter 1:3, notes. The phrase looks to the whole process of regeneration.

not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible

On corruptible see 1 Peter 1:18, on incorruptible see 1 Peter 1:4, God's Word has a permanent, imperishable, nondecaying quality. It shall never fade away (Matthew 24:35), and neither will those in whose hearts it is planted and in whose lives it is continually retained.

through the Word of God, which liveth and abideth

In our first birth the begetting was with perishable seed. Not so with the new birth!
The last two verbs, liveth. abideth, are present participles in the original: ... the continually living word and the continually enduring word. Note the Expanded Translation. These verses, then, are inseparably connected with those that follow.

1 Peter 1:24-25 For,

All flesh is as grass,

And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower falleth;
But the Word of the Lord abideth for ever.

And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you.

Expanded Translation

Inasmuch as,
All flesh is like grass,

And all of its glory (splendor, brightness) is like the flower of grass.
The grass withers and dries up, and the flower falls off,
But the Word of the Lord remains and abides into the agesforever.

And this word of good tidings is the very word which was preached unto you.

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The passage here referred to is Isaiah 40:6-8, but this is not an exact quotation. New Testament writers sometimes take their thought from an Old Testament passage without attempting to quote verbatim.

For

Or inasmuch as or because. In these verses, then, we have added confirmation concerning the eternal nature of God's Word, which liveth and abideth.

All flesh is as grass

Both are temporal and transitory in nature.

And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass

The word thereof, autes, is feminine and must, therefore, refer back to the word flesh, which is the same gender. The glory of man is, like the glory of the flower, short-lived! The Psalmist remarked concerning our days, Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow; for it is soon gone (A.V. soon cut off), and we fly away (Psalms 90:10).

The grass withereth and the flower falleth

i.e., they both come to an end after a short life. The same is true of man, and also of man's word and wisdom.

But the Word of the Lord abideth forever

In view of what is stated in the latter part of the verse, it seems this prophecy, though in all likelihood having immediate application to God's message to Israel through the prophet, had a future reference to the Gospel Age and the teachings of Christ. Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matthew 24:35). Note that the prophecy just preceding this one in Isaiah is also Messianic (Isaiah 40:3).

Do not miss Peter's point! In 1 Peter 1:23 he speaks of our being begotten again, not with perishable seed as we were the first time by our human parents, but with the imperishable seed from our Heavenly Father by His Eternal Word. 1 Peter 1:24 illustrates this truth, by likening humanity to the grass of the field and its flower. All flesh (including human flesh with which we were first begotten), is such as quickly perishes! Not so with the Word of God![3]

[3] A similar thought is found in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you

The term good tidings, evaggelidzo, means, basically, to address with good tidings or news. But its most frequent use in the New Testament is in reference to the Gospel Message, the message of salvation through the Son of God.[4]

[4] See further comments under 1 Peter 4:6.

This last phrase brings the whole subject of the Apostle's discussion to bear with great force upon the Christians. The eternal word was not just the Old Testament message, but the Gospel that had been preached to them, and by which they had been begotten! We are begotten when we believe the Gospel, the good tidings of the New Testament.

Having been begotten again by such as the Word of God is, it should truly cause us to love one another, 1 Peter 1:22.