Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding 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 remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
1 Peter 1:22–25
Peter anchors everything in the new birth: “Since you have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God.”
This love is possible because a miracle has already occurred.
The Christian life does not begin with effort but with resurrection. To be born again is to receive a new origin, a new nature, and a new future. This new life comes through the Word, not merely words on a page, but the living gospel proclaimed and received by faith.
Peter contrasts human life with God’s Word. Flesh is grass, fragile, temporary, fading. Glory withers. Achievements evaporate. But “the word of the Lord remains forever.”
Love does not endure because we are strong, but because the Word that gave us life is unchanging and profoundly stabilizing. The same gospel that saved us sustains us.
The Word that brought us to life will keep shaping us until glory. When everything else fades, God’s promises stand. And because they stand, love can endure.
Living God, thank You for giving us new life through Your enduring Word. Anchor our hope in what lasts. Shape our love by the gospel that saved us. Help us live as people born again into eternal life.
Sustained by the Gospel,
eep