Saturday Night Devotions

 

I Peter 1:22

     Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

     Once again we are faced with a short verse which teaches a series of remarkable truths.  First we are told that by “obeying the truth” we have “purified” our souls.  When we think of the regrettable things that we have thought and said and done, the idea that we could actually be purified from these things amazes us!  How can anything be made pure after it has become impure?  In the physical world, this can be done – but only after a deliberate process, and here in this verse the soul’s purification process is given a simple name: “obeying the truth.”  We can be pure!  What an amazing hope!  Our soul, our inner self, the real us, can be cleansed from all the sinful, stupid things we have done and contemplated doing.  What a fantastic hope!  This was Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17:17: “Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth (NLT).”  Quickly, however, we come to another dilemma when we find ourselves incapable of obeying the truth.  If we are purified by obeying the truth, but can’t seem to help ourselves from sinning against the truth, we find that the purification process doesn’t help us much.  Once again, the answer is provided: we obey the truth “through the Spirit.”  On our own we fall and fail and mess things up, but by the inner presence of the Holy Spirit, we are able to experience His sanctifying work in us – His work to make us pure.  It is not just will power that allows us to obey the truth and purify our souls – it is by the inner working of God’s Spirit who both gives us the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13).      

     Then we come to the climax of the verse – and it takes us by surprise.  What is the intended outcome of the purification of our souls?  “Love one another fervently with a pure heart.”  The purification of our soul is not the intended end – as glorious as that is.  God intends to purify our heart so that we can take our pure heart and “love one another fervently.”  Being made pure is glorious.  Our soul loves it.  But God has more in store for the godly man than just being sinless.  He wants us to be holy and pure as He is holy and pure, but He also wants us to love one another just like He loves us (John 13:34).  This was the failure of the Pharisees.  They had a passion for holiness, but no heart to love their fellow man – and in that they fell short of God’s plan for us spelled out here in I Peter 1:22.