Day Five: That we would love one another deeply from the heart
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, (1 Peter 1:22 ESV)
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8 ESV)
When we read something like “love one another deeply from the heart” our minds might be a bit too informed by Hollywood. But Hollywood doesn’t give us our best image of this “earnest love”. The word Paul uses here is the same word used of Jesus when he is praying earnestly and sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is with this type of passion and intentionality that we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. This deep love is not original with us. It is, as we read in 1:22, one which comes to us by having purified our souls. The gospel is what gives us a new heart. It is from this new heart that we are able to love each other with a love modeled for us in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Father, we thank you for your deep love for us. We thank you that you have given us new hearts which are able to love with your cruciform love. We also confess that at times our love is shallow. We are asking that you would strengthen our love for one another. Help us to love one another deeply from our Christ-purchased hearts. Give us the passion and intentionality for one another that was modeled for us in the Garden of Gethsemane.
