I Peter 1:22-23

“Love fervently” in this case means continually, intently, diligently, carefully, earnestly, and perpetually. He says you have purified yourselves; in other words, you have been rendered pure in a moral sense. You are reforming from the past way that you lived to a new way of life. We are cleaning ourselves. Ephesians 5:26 says that we are being “wash[ed] of water by the word.”

We hear the voice of our Master, and we change. That is what it is all about. We are obeying the truth. We are obeying the truth from attentive listening, not just hearing the words and going off and doing what we have always done, but we listen intently. Because of that, we change.

We are sincere in our love. Sincere means unfeigned, without hypocrisy. Not just on the surface: genuinely loving, without pretending, without acting, real and true. This is what it says in I Peter 1:22.

It says, “being born again to an incorruptible seed.” This is how it might read, now that we have gone through the first part: “Since you are becoming pure morally, and changing from what you were, because of your obeying the truth of God with the help of God’s Holy Spirit, love the brethren in honesty, without pretending in any way. Love them continually, earnestly, carefully, and intently. Because you have been born again—the first time, physically, as a human being—but you have been born again, this time, to eternal life, through the Word of God, God wants us to love one another.”