“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart…” (1 Peter 1:22 NASB) When we obeyed the truth of the gospel, God purified our souls. He washed us and cleansed us from our sins through the death of Jesus Christ. This grand reality should have major effects in our lives! One of the things that purification of our souls should produce in us is a sincere, fervent love of the brethren.
How do you feel about your brothers and sisters in the Lord? If there is little love, little care, and little concern for them, it could be (considering the verse above) that there is little obedience to the truth and little striving for purity in your life. Obedience to the truth and a purified soul naturally lead to a love of God’s people—a real, genuine, unfeigned love. I think this is because as we walk with the Lord, we begin to realize in deeper ways how precious each member of the church is to Him. We begin to realize in a greater way that we are in this together. We begin to realize that we need one another, and fervent love begins to grow.
I want to encourage you today to take steps to build that fervent love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Make a renewed effort to reach out and build relationships with the members of your spiritual family. Reach out today to someone who you may not have met yet, or who you may not know well. Reach out not only to those who are in a similar stage of life as you, but also to those who may be much older than you, or much younger than you. Reach out to our new members and show hospitality to them. Reach out and introduce yourself to those who may be visiting our assembly. If you sit in the front, try to meet someone who sits in the back, and vice-versa. Don’t worry about not having anything in common. We have everything that is important in common! The love of God and Christ Jesus, and the love of His truth bind us together! Getting to know one another is a great first step in expressing our brotherly love for one another.
—Scott Colvin
while today 