Our Love for One Another I Peter: 1:22-2:3 February 10, 2013

1 Peter 1:22-2:3 (NRSV) Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” That word is the good news that was announced to you.

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Green Spring Attendance: Year End  2009: 211  2010: 183  2011: 139  2012: 87

Loving One Another I.The Fuel for loving one another a) It is so hard we must be born again AND growing in our walk with Christ

4 choices when people hurt us 1.Go after them and make them pay 2.Don’t go after them and make them pay 3.Go after them and pretend there is no cost 4.Go after them and YOU pay the price

The Christian ethic of love is the abused paying the price for the abusers. The abusee becomes the way by which the grace of God comes to the abuser.

Loving One Another I.The Fuel for loving one another a) It is so hard we must be born again AND growing in our walk with Christ b) The car must go. This becomes a necessary element of a Christian’s life.

Christian Signs: A.Doctrinal Signs B.Behavioral Signs C.Relational Signs

1 John 4:8 (NRSV) Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:11 (NRSV) Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:20–21 (NRSV) Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Our love for one another is THE proof of our new birth. This is how YOU know, not how you judge someone else.

Luke 6:32–35 (NRSV) “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.

Loving One Another I.The Fuel for loving one another II.The Form for loving one another

The Form of Loving One Another 1.Sincere Love (vs 22)“so that you have genuine (sincere) love for one another” 2.Deep Love (vs 22) “love one another deeply, from the heart.”

Deeply = “extenoce” = stretched out to the breaking