1 Peter 1:22-25 (NKJV) 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, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the LORD endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
V22 “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…” Have purified shows that Peter is writing to Christians. Obeying the truth is believing the Gospel. The truth is 1) we have a sin nature, 2) we have sinned (broken God’s laws), 3) the penalty for breaking God’s laws is physical death, spiritual death, and eventually eternal punishment, 4) God initiates salvation, 5) we are convicted of our sin, 6) God frees our will to make a decision, 7) we accept or reject Jesus as our messiah; we obey or disobey truth, 8) finally, we are saved (name in the Lamb’s Book of Life) or we are not. When we believe, God gives us a new heart (soul). That change must be seen is what we do, not just what we say. One characteristic would be love for fellow Christians. A pure heart is a sincere heart.
V23 “…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…” Born again is when God recreates our evil heart into a redeemed, new heart (2 Corinthians 5:17). The seed is the effector of new life. God’s new creation, our recreation, is incorruptible; it is sinless and does not die. God speaks that new life into existence.
V24 “…because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away…” This is the contrast between permanent and impermanent. The contrast is between grass which dies and the Word of God which never dies. This permanence of God’s word should make our confidence in God and His ways soar.
V25 “…But the word of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” The word is the Gospel preached to the readers. We must be careful to know the true Gospel, which Paul writes in the Epistle to the Galatians.
We learn:
- The Gospel purifies our soul (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- We believe but God saves
- This life is brief, but eternity is long