1 Peter 1:22

1Pe_1:22-23

Seeing ye have purified your souls

The individual and social influence of religion

I.

The individual influence of religion. Ye have purified your souls. This implies that personal corruption is an obstacle to beneficial influence over society, and that, in order to benefit others, we must first become pure ourselves. This purifying process is brought about-First, by the influence of the truth. Sanctify them through Thy truth. The Word of God is like the sun, showing everything in its true colour; and its whole tendency is to purify the heart, by opposing all evil and promoting all good. Secondly, by the influence of the Spirit. Through the Spirit. Thirdly, by the influence of obedience. In obeying. This combines the work of man in union with the truth and Spirit of God in the purification of his heart.

II. The social influence of religion. Ye have purified your souls … unto unfeigned love of the brethren. The spirit of love is essential to the welfare of every society. There is no unfeigned love of the brethren but from the purified soul. First, the spirit of selfishness is obliterated from the purified soul. Secondly, the purified soul is God-like in its nature and influence. Be ye holy, for I am holy. God is love. Thirdly, the feelings of the purified soul are always loving and compassionate. (H. E. Thomas.)

Love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Brotherly love

The obedience and holiness mentioned in the foregoing verses comprehend the whole duties and frame of a Christian life towards God and men; and having urged that in the general, he specifies this grace of mutual Christian love as the great evidence of our sincerity and the truth of our love to God, for men are subject to much hypocrisy this way, and deceive themselves. They can come constantly to the church, and pray, it may be, at home too, and yet cannot find in their hearts to forgive an injury.

I. The due qualifications of brotherly love.

1. Love must be unfeigned. It appears that dissimulation is a disease that is very incident in this particular. St. Paul hath the same word (Rom_12:9), and St. John speaks to the same effect (1Jn_3:18). He requires that our love have that double reality which is opposed to double dissembled love; that it be cordial and effectual; that the professing of it arise from truth of affection, and, as much as may be, be seconded with action; that both the heart and the hand may be the seal of it rather than the tongue. When after variances men are brought to an agreement, they are much subject rather to cover their remaining malices with superficial verbal forgiveness than to dislodge them and free the heart of them. This is a poor self-deceit. As the philosopher said to him who, being ashamed that he was espied by him in a tavern in the outer room, withdrew himself to the inner, That is not the way out; the more you go that way, you will be the further within it; so when hatreds are, upon admonition, not thrown out, but retire inward to hide themselves, they grow deeper and stronger than before.

2. It must be pure, with a pure heart. Call it good fellowship or what you will, all the fruit that in the end can be expected out of unholy fellowship in sinning together is to be tormented together, and to add each to the torment of the other. The mutual love of Christians must be pure, arising from such causes as are pure and spiritual, from the sense of our Saviours command and of His example (Joh_13:34). They that are indeed lovers of God are united; by that their hearts meet in Him as in one centre: they cannot but love one another. Where a godly man sees his Fathers image, he is forced to love it. And as the Christians love is pure in its cause, so in its effects and exercise. His society and converse with any tends mainly to this, that he may mutually help and be helped in the knowledge and love of God.

3. We must love fervently, not after a cold indifferent manner. Let the love of your brethren be as a fire within you, consuming that selfishness which is so contrary to it and is so natural to men. Let it set your thoughts on work to study how to do others good. Let your love be an active love, intense within you, and extending itself in doing good to the souls and bodies of your brethren as they need and you are able.

II. Love of the brethren. In this is implied our obligation after a special manner to love those of the household of faith, because they are our brethren. There is in this fervent love sympathy with the griefs of our brethren, desire and endeavour to help them, bearing their infirmities, and recovering them too, if it may be; admonishing and reproving them as is needful, sometimes sharply, and yet still in love; rejoicing in their good, in their gifts and graces, so far from envying them that we be glad as if they were our own. You are brethren by the same new birth and born to the same inheritance, and such an inheritance as shall not be an apple of strife amongst you, to beget debates and contentions: no, it is enough for all, and none shall prejudice another, but you shall have joy in the happiness one of another, seeing you shall then be perfect in love, all harmony, no difference in judgment nor in affection, all your harps tuned to the same new song, which you shall sing forever. Let that love begin here which shall never end. (Abp. Leighton.)

The life of love and purity

I. Mutual love the duty of the pure.

II. Purity, obedience, love are the signs of a new life which the Christian is living.

III. The forces out of which this new life grows are deathless.

1. Seed-

(1) Appears insignificant.

(2) Is often hidden,

(3) Is vital and vitalising.

2. Incorruptible. Truth itself never dies, nor love.

IV. The Word of God is the imperishable means by which these forces of life are brought into the very soul of man. (U. R. Thomas.)

Christian brotherly love

I. Brotherly love illustrated.

1. The objects and elements of this love.

(1) It is called the love of the brethren, brotherly kindness, as contradistinguished from that charity which has for its object the whole race of man (2Jn_1:2).

(2) This circumstance, which necessarily limits this principle as to its range, gives it greater comprehension of elementary principles and greater intensity of influence and activity of operation. It includes goodwill in its highest degree; but to this it adds moral esteem, complacential delight, tender sympathy.

2. The distinctive characters of Christian love.

(1) With a pure heart.

(a) The leading idea here is genuineness-sincerity. It must be real love, not affected or put on (Rom_12:9; 1Jn_3:18).

(b) It includes freedom from all low, selfish motives and ends.

(2) Fervently.

(a) This term conveys the idea of constancy. A Christian brother, when he acts like himself, loves at all times. No change of circumstances, especially to the worse, on the part of its object, should affect it except in the way of increasing it.

(b) The word also conveys the idea of intensity and power. Our Christian love should be so fervent as that many waters of neglect, infirmities, offences, petty injuries, shall not quench it, or even damp its ardour. And it should manifest its strength, not merely by overcoming opposing obstacles, but by making exertions and sacrifices.

(3) There is one character which it is of peculiar importance that our mutual affection as Christians should be distinguished by-it should be love like Christs (Joh_13:34). His love was free and ready, considerate and wise, laborious and expensive, generous and self-sacrificing; looking to all their interests, but chiefly to their highest interests; not forgetting that they had bodies, but chiefly concerned about their souls; and such should be our brotherly love.

II. Brotherly love recommended.

1. The intimate and indissoluble mutual relation between Christians as brethren, arising out of their intimate and indissoluble common relation to God as their Father, is a strong motive to the cultivation and exercise of Christian brotherly kindness.

2. The common character to which all Christians have been formed by the agency of the same Spirit, and the instrumentality of the same Word, is another strong motive. (J. Brown, D. D.)

Catholic charity

I. Its necessity.

1. The injunctions of Christ (Joh_13:34-35; Joh_15:12; Mat_5:24; Mat_25:34-35; Mat_25:41-42).

2. The teachings of His apostles (Rom_13:8-10; Gal_5:22; 1Co_13:1-13.; 1Jn_4:7; 1Jn_4:16; 1Jn_4:20, etc.).

II. Its extent.

1. To all mankind. The more general it is, the more Christian and the more like Gods love.

2. The more special objects of our love ought to be those who agree with us in a common faith (Gal_6:10)-i.e., all Christians, as Christians, and because such. To love those that are of our way, humour, and opinion, is not charity, but self-love; tis not for Christs sake, but our own.

III. Its excellence.

1. It is the image of God, and of all the graces renders us most like our Maker, for God is love and the lover of men. And is it not a glorious excellency that makes men like the fountain of all perfection?

2. It is the spirit of angels, glorified souls, and the best of men.

3. Love is an eminent branch of the Divine life and nature (1Jn_4:7-8).

4. Love is the bond and type of Christian communion.

5. Love is the most Catholic grace, and upon that account the most excellent, since that which promotes the good of the whole is better than any private perfection.

6. Love commends Christianity to those without, and cleanseth the profession of it from many spots it hath contracted.

IV. The means of attaining this excellent and catholic temper.

1. Directions.

(1) Acknowledge worth in any man. Whatever is good is from God, and He is to be loved and owned in all things, as well in the paint upon the butterflys wing as in the glorious uniform lustre of the sun; in the least herb under our feet as well as in the stupendous fabric of the heavens over us. And moral perfections are to be acknowledged, as wall as these natural ones. And we must take care that we make not our relish the measure of worth and goodness. Say not this is excellent because it is agreeable to your particular palates, and that on the other hand is vile because it is distasteful to your genius. Let us, then, be so ingenious as to own the virtue and the goodness that is in all parties and opinions; let us commend and love it.

(2) Be much in the contemplation of the love of God. He that knows how much God hath loved him, hath a mighty reason to love his brother (1Jn_4:11).

(3) Make the great design of religion yours; and know that the intent of that is, not to teach us systems of opinion, but to furnish our minds with encouragements of virtue and instances of duty; to direct us to govern our passions and subdue our appetites and self-wills, in order to the glory of God, the good of societies, and our own present and eternal interests.

(4) Study the moderate, pacific ways and principles, and run not in extremes. Both truth and love are in the middle. Extremes are dangerous.

2. Considerations.

(1) Love is part of religion; but opinions, for the sake of which we lose charity, are none. The first I have proved already, and for the other we may consider that religion consists, not in knowing many things, but in practising the few plain things we know.

(2) Charity is certainly our duty, but many of the opinions, about which we fall out, are uncertainly true; viz., as to us. The fundamental points of faith are indeed as firm as the centre, but the opinions of men are as fluctuating as the waves of the ocean. The root and body of a tree is fast and unshaken, while the leaves are made the sport of every wind. And colours sometimes vary with every position of the object and the eye, though the light of the sun be an uniform splendour. The foundation of God standeth sure, but men often build upon it what is very tottering and uncertain. The great truths of religion are easily discernible, but the smaller and remoter ones require more acuteness to descry them; and the best light may be deceived about such obscure and distant objects. The apostle tells us that we know but in part (1Co_13:9), and makes confidence an argument of ignorance (1Co_8:2).

(3) Christian love is necessary, but agreement in opinions is neither necessary nor possible.

(4) Errors of themselves are infirmities of the understanding, and not enormities of the will, for no man is willing to be deceived. So that they ought not to be the objects of our hatred but our pity. We all are pilgrims in our way to the Jerusalem that is above. If some will go in this path, some in the other, these in a circuit, and those amongst the rocks, we may be sure it is because they know not the danger and inconveniences which they choose.

(5) We ought to make allowance for education, authority, and fair pretences, which have a mighty power, even over honest minds, and do often unavoidably lead them into error. For let us consider how easily we receive the first impressions, and how deeply they sink into our souls.

(6) In many things we err ourselves; and, therefore, shall have need of the charity of others.

3. Cautions.

(1) Beware of inordinate admiration and love of any sect. When we passionately admire a party, we are apt to despise them that differ from it.

(2) Avoid eager and passionate disputes. In these charity is always lost, and truth seldom or never found. If thou art desirous to prevail with thy friend to lay down his opinion, assault him not by the fierceness of disputes; for such attempts will but raise his passion, and that will make him stick the closer to his error; but shine upon him with a calm light, insinuate thy better principle by modest and gentle suggestions.

(3) Beware of zeal about opinions, by which I mean all the propositions of less certainty or consequence.

(4) Beware of censuring and affixing odious names and consequences upon the persons or opinions of others. (Joseph Glanvil.)

Christian love

What is that love of which our Lord and His apostles speak? Not only, or primarily, kind feelings or generous impulses. Not certainly the sentimentality which breathes itself out in sighs and raptures. Not merely the fond attachment which clings as the rose against the trellis. But, above all things, service-self-denial and self-giving. To put anothers well-being before our own, not because it is pleasant to do it, but because it is right. To make another the pivot around which the wheel of activity revolves. To check the hasty word, the unkind speech, the damaging criticism.

I. The marks of such love.

1. Unfeigned. Dissimulation is a disease very antagonistic to Christian love. How subtly we are tempted to maintain appearances because of some ulterior gain. Our politeness is often but skin deep. Our smiles assumed for a purpose. Our words smoother than butter, whilst our hearts are drawn swords.

2. Pure. Hearts may be cemented by impurity, by ungodly conversation and society in sin, as in uncleanness or drunkenness.

3. Fervently. On the stretch. Our love seldom gets beyond temperate, and never to boiling point.

II. The efficient cause of such low. It will come through obeying the truth.

1. We must know the truth. Put two burnished mirrors opposite each other, and there will be no glow of light on either; but if a candle stand between, the beams of light are flung to and fro, to an extent impossible to either or both alone. So the mere contact of Christian with Christian will not necessarily produce the burning heart, unless there be also between them the Truth of God.

2. We must also obey the truth. Do, and you shall know. Obey, and you will love.

3. As we obey the truth, we shall be purified by it. Young men cleanse their way by taking heed to the Divine Word.

III. The divine origin of the life within. It is not of man, or of the will of the flesh, but of God. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Christian love

I. Purity.

1. The word for purified is not that denoting the infusion of virtue, but that which signifies the expulsion from the soul of all defilement, and especially of selfishness. Worldly philosophies and religions only required external lustration-the purification of the life; Christianity inculcates inward sanctity-the purification of the soul.

2. The way to effect this is by believing obedience to the truth as revealed in the Gospel. Christian truths, different from the truths of mathematics and of art, exert a sanctifying influence on the heart. This is the main purpose of their revelation. But how do they accomplish this object? By being obeyed.

3. Truth is only the wire along which the electric current flows from the spirit of God to the spirit of man, only the vehicle to convey holy influences direct from the Holy Ghost to the human soul, which influences set up a spiritual ferment within, making the impurities rise like scum to the surface, finally to be cast off altogether. What, then, is the result of this refining, purifying process? Unfeigned love of the brethren. A new word has been ostentatiously introduced into recent literature, namely, altruism. What is its meaning? That man should think more and care more for others than for himself, that he should be ready to sacrifice himself, if need be, for the sake of others. This idea is couched in more intelligible, because simpler, language in the text.

II. Unfeignedness. Unfeigned love of the brethren-genuine love, without dissimulation, free from hypocrisy.

1. We read of faith unfeigned, that is to say, faith which is firm and solid to the core. Faith is oftentimes hollow, simulated. Faith unfeigned-faith that will move forward through all the miry bogs of infidelity, that will brave the storm and stress of life.

2. Love unfeigned-what then is this? Love which will not give way under trial, that will suffer a burden to be put on its back.

III. Fervour.

1. This implies that our love of the brethren should be powerful enough to overcome all sinful obstacles in our own nature, to burn up all the relies of selfishness in our own souls, so that we may find our supreme delight in serviceableness to our fellow men.

2. It is further implied that our love should be so intense as to overcome all national and sectarian differences. Love one another fervently, of whatever nation you may chance to be. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

Fervent love of the brethren

I. The work accomplished. See ye have purified your souls. There is the beginning of all. Many men are disposed to work from without, and not from within; but the Spirit works from within. Men think that if they whitewash the sepulchre it is enough. No, it must be cleansed. See to it then, and keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life and death.

II. The instrument of its accomplishment. Ye obey the truth. God works by instruments in the order of His providential creation and government. God has appointed, in order to the purifying of mens souls, a divinely constituted means. We have the word of truth, the incorruptible seed of which His people are born again.

III. One special result of this work. Unfeigned love of the brethren. (H. Stowell, M. A.)

Fervently

The word thus translated means extended, or on the stretch. It conveys the idea of a constant tension such as is supplied in machinery by a steel spring. In one department of a sewing machine all depends on the thread being kept constantly tight, so that the moment any slackness occurs, the loose portion is picked up instantly and without fail. If that operation were left dependent on the watchfulness and quickness of a human operator, it would entirely fail. The worker would grow weary, would forget, would hasten to tighten the thread after the time was past, and all would go to wreck and ruin. But by entrusting the watch and the work to a bent elastic steel wire, an absolute infallibility is secured. The watcher never forgets, the worker never wearies. The work is done perfectly, and always done at the right moment. The spring is always on the stretch and never misses. Though it is obliged to watch the slackening, and pull the thread instantly tight, a hundred times a minute, all day long for twenty years, it never once forgets or fails. The precept requires a love of this sort watching and working in a Christians heart. If you need to remember your duty every time that a sudden injury occurs, you will not be in time with the soft answer that turns away wrath. Before love has gathered itself up, and determined on its course, the opportunity will be past. The disciple of Christ will appear as irascible, passionate, and revengeful as other men. There must be a spring-a law of love set once for all as a faculty of the new heart, that will operate instantaneously and uniformly. (W. Arnot.)

Being born again.-

Regeneration

I. The nature of regeneration.

1. A change of qualities or dispositions: not a change of the substance of the soul.

2. A supernatural change (Joh_3:5).

3. A change into the likeness of God (2Co_3:18).

4. A universal change (2Co_5:17).

5. A lasting change.

(1) The mind is savingly enlightened. In the knowledge of God, sin, self, Jesus Christ, vanity of world (Psa_119:96). Spiritual things (1Jn_2:20).

(2) The will is renewed (Eze_36:26). Cured of its utter inability to will what is good. Imbued with a fixed aversion to evil (Gal_5:17). Endowed with an inclination and propensity to good.

(3) The affections are rectified and regulated.

(4) The conscience is renewed.

(5) As the memory wanted not its share of depravity, it is also bettered by regenerating grace. It is strengthened for spiritual things.

(6) There is a change made on the body, and the members thereof, in respect of their use; they are consecrated to the Lord (1Co_6:13; Rom_6:13), servants to righteousness unto holiness (Rom_6:19).

(7) This gracious change shines forth in the conversation. A new heart makes newness of life.

II. Why this change is called regeneration, a being born again. It is so called, because of the resemblance between natural and spiritual generation, which lies in the following particulars.

1. Natural generation is a mysterious thing: and so is spiritual generation (Joh_3:8).

2. In both, the creature comes to a being it had not before.

3. As the child is passive in generation, so is the child of God in regeneration.

4. There is a wonderful contexture of pasts in both births. Oh the wonderful contexture of graces in the new creature!

5. All this, in both cases, has its rise from that which is in itself very small and inconsiderable.

6. Natural generation is carried on by degrees.

7. In both there are new relations. The regenerate may call God Father; for they are His children (Joh_1:12-13), begotten of Him (1Pe_1:3). They are related, as brethren, to angels and glorified saints; the family of heaven.

8. There is a likeness between the parent and the child (2Pe_1:4).

9. As there is no birth without pain, so there is great pain in bringing forth the new creature. The soul has sore pains when under conviction and humiliation. (T. Boston, D. D.)

The new life

1. Unlike mans mortal life, this new moral life is independent of the earth. The productions of the earth cannot support it; the blasts and the storms of the earth cannot destroy it.

2. Unlike mans mortal life, this new moral life is ever progressive. Like the trees of the forest and the beasts of the field, mans mortal life reaches a culminating point and then dies out. Not so with this new moral life.

3. Unlike mans mortal life, this new moral life is essentially a blessing. Mans mortal life may become, and often is, a curse. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Born again

A man shall never have occasion to curse the day of his new birth. (J. Trapp.)

A new creature

In passing from nature to grace you did not pass from a lower to a higher stage of the same condition-from daybreak to sunshine, but from darkest night to dawn of day. Unlike the worm which changes into a winged insect, or the infant who grows up into a stately man, you became, not a more perfect, but a new creature in Jesus Christ. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.-

The incorruptible seed

I. Christianity must satisfy the intellectual requirements of every age.

1. In order to this, Christianity in its statements, historical and doctrinal, must be in perfect accord with the demonstrations of science in the various departments of knowledge to which it devotes itself.

2. To be perpetuated as the religion of the race, Christianity must not only harmonise with the conclusions of the intellect in other provinces, but must continue to offer new problems of its own. The moment the Bible will be an understood book, it will be a moribund book. And what it proves itself to be to individual man in innumerable eases, that it claims to be to man universal. Let the ages be yet cultivated with greater diligence and trained to a higher point in knowledge than anything we have so far witnessed, and the Gospel has its questions for them, problems which will utterly baffle the finest cultured minds. This assuredly is one element which contributes powerfully to its perpetuity, that the intellect can never minster it.

3. But in a religion which claims perpetuity you would further expect it would stimulate the understanding into greater activity, and infuse new life into all its pursuits. That is to say, it must become the prime factor in the history of the world. Christianity does exercise restraint, not upon progress but upon retrogression; not upon truth but upon sin; not upon the intellect but upon the spirit which is now working in the children of disobedience. It checks the spirit of the nineteenth century, it spurs its science.

II. If Christianity is to live forever, it must meet the moral requirements of every age.

1. This implies that it must accord with the distinct dictates of our moral nature.

2. Another requisite, in order to its perpetuation, is that it be in advance of the moral performances of any particular age.

3. Christianity, to endure forever, must enter into the morals of the world as a refining element. War-ferocity-butchery-is that your civilisation? demand our opponents. We answer, Certainly not; that is barbarism. That is not Christianity, but its opposite, and a cogent reason why Christianity should not be thrown aside till they at least have been exterminated.

III. If the gospel is to endure to the end of time, it must continue to meet the spiritual wants of man. If it do not this it is inevitably doomed to extinction.

1. As a sinner, man needs a Saviour. The sinner finds true inward rest in the atonement of the Gospel, the sense of guilt is cancelled.

2. As a creature he needs God. Cast a glance over the history of the world; everywhere the great want is God. What then can give us God? Science does not profess to be able to give Him. Professor Huxley says that the state of mind becoming men of science on this subject is a sort of know nothingarianism or Agnosticism. Well then, if science cannot do it, is there any religion besides Christianity that can? Mahometanism declares the unity and supremacy of God. But to say that God is, and that He is the supreme Ruler, is one thing; to bring Him to the conscious enjoyment of the soul quite another. The religion of India strives to bridge the gap; but instead of communion between man and God, it ends in the absorption of man in God. But however much we desire communion, we quite as much dread absorption. These meet only a fragment of our nature. But Christianity meets the whole man; it presents God to our contemplation in Him in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily, and to our consciousness by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. As long as man is a sinner needing a Saviour, and a creature needing a God, Christianity will live in the grateful affection of myriads of our race. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 1:22-23. Seeing you have purified your souls — By applying to this fountain which God has opened for sin and for uncleanness, and by believing and obeying the truth, which God hath appointed to be the grand means of sanctification, delivering such as obey it from the power, and purifying them from the defilement of sin, Joh 8:32; Joh 17:17; through the Spirit working by the word, unto the unfeigned love of the brethren — For the fruit of the Spirit is love to the children of God, as well as to God their heavenly Father. See that ye love one another with a pure heart — A heart purified from all earthly and sensual affections, and corrupt passions; from all selfish, interested views, designs, and desires; and that fervently as Christ loved the church; and so as to be willing, if called to it, to lay down your lives for the brethren, 1Jn 4:16. Peter’s description of Christian love here is excellent; it springs up in a heart purified by the truth of God, through the influence of his Spirit. It is sincere in its operation, it is unmixed with carnal passions, and it is fervent and increasing. Being born again — Born from above, born of the Spirit of God, and therefore his genuine children; a consideration which lays you under an indispensable obligation to love all your brethren and sisters in Christ, who are born of the same Spirit. See the note on Joh 3:3. Not of corruptible seed — Not by virtue of any descent from human parents; but of incorruptible — Namely, the truth of God, rendered effectual through his grace; which liveth — Is full of divine virtue and vital energy; and abideth for ever — Produces effects which will continue for ever, or begets in us that spiritual life which will issue in life eternal.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

d. Exhortation to fervent love to one another, 1Pe_1:22-25.

22. Purified—In a degree, at least, and by the means that the gospel provides.

By obeying—Literally, in obedience, for only so is the faith possible by which purity is wrought. Thus, Mr. Wesley teaches that the sanctifying Spirit is to be looked for, “not in careless indifference, or indolent inactivity, but in vigorous, universal obedience; in denying ourselves, and in taking up our cross daily: as well as in earnest prayer and fasting, and a close attendance on all the ordinances of God.”—Works, vol. vi, page 505.

The truth—Of the gospel. Yielded to, it subjects to itself those who receive it, and leads them to faith and the Holy Spirit, the Purifier.

Unfeigned—Without hypocrisy or pretence.

Love of the brethren—Higher and stronger than common love, from which both St. Peter and St. Paul distinguish it.

Fervently—Intensely, with all the powers on the stretch, as will be if it truly come out of a purified heart.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seeing ye have purified your souls; literally, having purified. The verb aJgnizw is used of ceremonial purification in Joh_11:55, and Act_21:24, 26 24:18. St. James and St. John, in their Epistles, give it the spiritual sense in which St. Peter uses it here. (Jam_4:8; 1Jn_3:3) In this sense it implies consecration to God"s service, and an inward cleansing of the heart from all that defiles from sensual desires, from hypocrisy, from selfishness. The tense shows that this inward purification must precede the love to which the apostle exhorts us; there can be no true love in an unclean heart. In obeying the truth through the Spirit; literally, in the obedience of the truth . Obedience is the condition of purification. God"s people are elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. While they walk in the path of obedience they are walking in the light, the light of truth, the light of God"s presence, and then the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing them from all sin. (1Jn_1:7) The genitive (thv ajlhqeiav) seems to be objective, "obedience to the truth," rather than obedience wrought by the truth. The truth is God"s truth, the truth revealed in his Holy Word. So the Lord himself said, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy Word is truth". (Joh_17:17) The words, "through the Spirit," are not found in the best manuscripts; they may be a gloss, but a true one. Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. St. Peter had not forgotten the new commandment, "That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." The word rendered "love of the brethren" (filadelfia) is scarcely found except in Christian writings. St. Peter uses it again in his Second Epistle, (2Pe_1:7) and also St. Paul (Rom_12:10; 1Th_4:9) It must be unfeigned, without hypocrisy, not in word, but in deed and in truth. (1Jn_3:18) Our hearts must be purified in the obedience of the truth before that unfeigned love can dwell in them (comp. 1Ti_1:5, which is an exact parallel) See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; literally, love one another from the heart. The word "pure" is omitted in two of the most ancient manuscripts; it may be a gloss, but it is most true and suitable. Christian love must he from the heart, true and pure. The word rendered "fervently" (ejktenwv) means, literally, "intensely," with all the energies strained to the utmost. It is interesting to observe that the only other place where the adverb occurs is in, Act_12:5 (according to the reading of the most ancient manuscripts) where it is used of the prayer offered up for St. Peter himself.

Vers. 22-25.

Christian love the test of the possession of salvation.

Christian love is the subject of this paragraph. There are no words here to show why that is dealt with in this particular place, but as the preceding verses treat of fear lest we should fail of the fruits which prove the possession of redemption, we may assume that the apostle here gives them a test by which this fear may be removed or confirmed, and no better test could be suggested than that of love. For love is such a test (John 1Co_13:1-3; 1Jn_3:14) Peter might have chosen some other test. Possibly he had reason for anxiety on this particular ground, for the Epistle contains several hints on the proper mutual relation of these Christians; e.g. 1Pe_1:22 1Pe_2:17 1Pe_3:8-10 1Pe_4:8 1Pe_5:5.

I SALVATION IS HERE SPOKEN OF AS THE PURIFICATION OF THE SOUL IN OBEYING THE TRUTH. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth;" only another way of saying, "Seeing you have received this salvation of which I speak, which issues in holiness." For:

1. This is a suitable and comprehensive expression of the fact of salvation.

the truth" is a synonym for" believing the gospel;" e.g. Thessalonians 1:8; Rom_6:17; Heb_5:9; Rom_10:16, in all of which "obey" is evidently equivalent to "believe." The word is used by Peter in that sense in this Epistle (1Pe_3:1 and 4:17). Link that with the other word, "purifying the soul;" and whether that refers to the cleansing by the atonement or by the work of the Spirit, we have the essential elements of redemption.

1. This expression with this meaning harmonizes well with what has gone before. The last two paragraphs from ver. 13 dealt largely with purification resulting from faith.

2. This particular way of speaking of salvation bears closely on the subject in hand. In each of the epistles to the seven Churches, our Lord gives himself a different title, according to the special condition of each Church. So here the apostle speaks of their redemption under this aspect of it, because this aspect of it bears on the duty of Christian love he is about to enforce.

III SALVATION NATURALLY ISSUES IN CHRISTIAN LOVE. "Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

1. Love a necessity where salvation is. That is shown as follows: "See that ye love one another, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God.

(1) Love a necessity because the Christian has a new nature. We are to love every man; but the love we are here called to is love of the brethren. But no power can make us love as a brother one who is not a brother; for that there must be a common fatherhood, and where that is it must be felt. Children of the same father, animated by the same principles, influenced by the same Divine Spirit, sharing the same hopes, joys, sorrows, conflicts, these cannot help being drawn together.

(2) But this is also spoken of as a Divine nature. "Incorruptible." The relation between Christ"s people is not a union after the flesh, such as connects Abraham"s children. They are born, not of man, but of God; God"s nature inspires them. Think of the love God has to his children! Then where God"s nature is, love of the brethren must be.

(3) This is also an ever-living nature. The human nature fades, its strongest principles and closest bonds may last but a little while; even the mother may forget the child. But, said Isaiah, "the word of the Lord endureth for ever;" and Peter adds, "This is the word which has been preached to you." That is, this new life of ours does not die out; that which has produced it liveth and abideth for ever, and is a living, operative power in us. What God has thus implanted, he does not suffer to die. "He will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ;" he will develop its hidden possibilities. Then is it not certain that the redeemed man will love? God cannot impart and train a nature of love which does not love.

2. This love is of a very high order.

(1) "Unfeigned." Peter, Paul, and John all speak of this feature of Christian love. "Let love be without dissimulation;" "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth as though an assumed affection were common. But that is not Christian love.

(2) "Love out of a pure heart." That is holy. Christian love is holy love. Holiness is its basis. Contrary to loving all men, bad and good, as brethren. There must be charity to all, but true brotherly love towards those who turn from Christ there cannot be. Or does" pure" mean "unmixed"? a love that rises from purely spiritual causes, and not because others are good to us, or give us pleasure, or belong to our Church. The publicans and sinners have that love. Christian love is due to love of God, and loves others because God does.

(3) "Fervent." The opposite of coldness. A love that lights up the features and makes the hand-grasp warm and kindles happiness. It consumes selfishness, and sets our thoughts to work for others" good. Fed from a heavenly source, "many waters cannot quench it" (waters of infirmity, neglect, jealousy, injury, yea, even wrong); that is Christian love very different from bare courtesy. How can one feel coldly where the father loves divinely?

III SALVATION IS THEREFORE TESTED BY THE POSSESSION OF THIS LOVE. Where the life is, the love is; where the life is low, so is the love.

1. Have we sympathy with the people of God true fellow-feeling that helps? "Whoso hath this world"s good," etc. We should if we loved.

2. Do we delight in fellowship with them? Love must be with its beloved. Is it so with us? do we love the house of God, the brotherhood, etc.? We should if we loved.

3. Are our judgments concerning them tender and charitable? "Love covers a multitude of sins;" "Love thinketh no evil," etc. Is it so with us? Do we find ourselves trying to put a favorable construction on evil reports, hushing them up, sorrowing over them, talking to God about them? We should if we loved.

4. Are we ashamed to call them brethren? C.N.

Vers. 22-25.

The life of the True, and the Word of truth.

The direct precept of this passage is, "Love one another." Many other duties are implied in the words that surround these, but the kernel of duty here is, "Love one another.

I MUTUAL LOVE A DUTY OF THE PURE AND THE OBEDIENT. "Seeing ye have purified your souls, in your obedience unto unfeigned love." The very end and purpose of becoming pure, which is only by obedience, is not to be safe or happy, but to be able in the highest sense and forever to love, and to live a life of love when it is the life of God. This love is to be unfeigned. Dissemble anywhere rather than in the region of love. It is counterfeiting the coin of the Divine mint. This love is to be deep the heart;" not of hand only, or of purse only. or of life only, but of the fontal source whence all activities and gifts will flow. This love is to be intense "fervently." The powers are to be on stretch. The harp only yields music when its strings are tightened to their fullest tension.

II THIS LOVE AND PURITY AND OBEDIENCE ARE THE SIGNS OF A NEW LIFE WHICH EVERY CHRISTIAN IS LIVING.

1. The life is indeed new, for it has a wondrous origin. "Begotten again." No stronger figure could tell of loftier thought and nobler affection of the Christly man in contrast with the meaner views and selfish aims of his old life.

2. The life has a wondrous Originator. The quickening is from God.

III THE FORCES OUT OF WHICH THIS NEW LIFE ARE DEVELOPED. The life of holiness is developed from seed. It has its origin in forces that

(1) appear insignificant;

(2) are often hidden;

(3) are vital.

IV THE WORD OF GOD IS THE MEANS BY WHICH THESE FORCES OPERATE ON THE HEART OF MAN. "Through the Word of God." The Word of God is not the seed, but the vehicle by which the seed is communicated to man. The seeds are the thoughts of God, the truth of God; and they are seeds out of which the life of holiness must burst and grow. But even the Word of God that conveys these is imperishable. "It liveth and abideth." It lives and continues to live, though men, like the grass, perish and pass away. This word of" good tidings" is preached to men. Amongst those to whom it is preached, the penitent who receives its pardon, the mourner who receives its consolation, the dying who is strengthened by its hope, all witness to us with clear, convincing tone, "The Word of the Lord endureth forever. U.R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe_1:22-25

Analysis:—Exhortation to pure and fervent brotherly love, as characteristic of those who have been born to love by the life-seed of the eternal word.

22Seeing ye have purified30 your souls in obeying31 the truth through the Spirit32 unto un-feigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with33 a pure heart fervently:34 23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.35 24For all flesh36 is as grass, and all the glory of man37 as the flower of grass.38 The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1Pe_1:22. Connection. The exhortation (1Pe_1:13) “Hope perfectly for the grace,” fully corresponds to the second leading exhortation, “Love one another fervently.” The former was founded (in a participial sentence) on the concentration of thoughts and constant sobriety; the latter is founded (also in a participial sentence) on purifying the soul in obedience of the truth. Brotherly love must be the exponent of the nature, strength and fruit of regeneration.

Purified.—Ἁγνίζειν denotes the laying aside of evil, the putting off lust, hatred, envy and hypocrisy; ἁγίαζειν, on the other hand, the positive putting on the opposite good and growing therein, cf. 1Pe_2:1. The Perfect shows that the purifying does not belong exclusively to the past but is affected by the imperative form ἀγαπᾶτε. [The German reads so (instead of ἀγαπήσατε) on the authority of the Codex Colbertinus Cent. XI.—M.], and indicates that such pure love cannot exist without the antecedent purifying of the soul. The Apostle means a constantly needed purifying, not one merely begun in regeneration. Augustine: “Chastity of the soul consists in sincerity of faith and purifying the heart from unchaste flames.”

In obedience of the truth.—By absolute subjection to the truth given in the word of God, by keeping it and causing it to work in the heart. Obedience to the faith and moral obedience are again comprised in one. Truth has a purifying and separating power, removing all obstacles to the exercise of brotherly love, such as selfishness, obstinacy, self-sufficiency, men-pleasing, ambition, flattery, in fact, all manifestations of egotism. Because true believers are the children of God, 1Pe_1:3; 1Pe_1:14; 1Pe_1:17, they should act as brethren one to another. This is one of the principal commandments of Christ Himself, and consequently one of the main ends of holiness, Mat_22:40; Mar_12:31; Luk_10:28; Joh_13:34-35; cf. 1Pe_2:17; 1Pe_5:9. But because selfishness, deceit, hypocrisy and flattery are frequently hidden under the cloak of love, the word ἀνυπόκριτος is added.

By the spirit, is wanting in several MSS. If, as is probable, authentic, it should be joined to ἡγνικότες not to ὑπακοή. It denotes the Holy Spirit, by whom alone the soul can be purified, Act_15:8-9; Rom_8:13; 1Co_12:3; Eph_5:9. πνεύματος is also without the article in 1Pe_1:2.

Unfeigned love of the brethren.—Brotherly love being thus rendered possible, its free and actual exhibition ought to follow. There being two kinds of love, pure and impure, heavenly and earthly, the Apostle expressly adds, “out of a pure heart.” Lachman strikes καθαρᾶς out of the text. Purity of heart is equally demanded in other passages, Mat_5:8; 1Ti_1:5; 2Ti_2:22. Bengel nicely remarks that purifying qualities, as antecedents to brotherly love, are also insisted upon at 2Pe_1:5-6.

ἐκτενῶς is a very pregnant addition. It denotes stretching out, straining, putting forth strenuous effort, hence (a) by straining and extending every energy, by untiring elasticity, (b) by sustained perseverance, (c) by extending it to such brethren as appear less worthy of love. Weiss: “With lasting, persevering energy, that cannot be tired out by the cumulating guilt of our neighbour,” 1Pe_4:8. The possibility of such a mode of conduct belongs to the state of regeneration, 1Pe_1:23; cf. Mat_18:21-22; see above on 1Pe_1:3. Steiger. “As natural relationship produces natural affection, so spiritual relationship produces spiritual affection.” It is lasting, because emanating from an eternal source of life.

1Pe_1:23. Of (out of) incorruptible sowing. σπορά denotes begetting, sowing, not seed, as many translate, cf. Joh_1:13. Regeneration is not the effect of a transient act of begetting, but of the power of the Holy Ghost. The means He uses is the word of God, Jam_1:18; 1Co_4:15. Paul laying claim in the latter passage to the new birth or new-begetting of the Corinthians means nothing beyond his having been an instrument of the Holy Ghost. [The full idea is brought out by noticing the force of the prepositions ἐξ and διὰ. The Apostle says, “Being born again, not of”—ἐξ, that is, out of—“corruptible seed” (like semen humanum), but out of “incorruptible begetting”—διὰ—“by means of the word of God.” ‘The ἐξ of origination rests in God himself, the Father, who begat us, of His own will: the διὰ of instrumentality moves on and abides forever.’ Alford.—M.]

By means of the word of God living and abiding forever.—Ζῶντος καὶ μέν́οντος belong to λόγου, as is evident from the sequel, 1Pe_1:25. The Apostle does not speak of the Being of God, but of the nature of the word of God. It is living, cf. Heb_4:12, because it has life in itself, is indued with eternal, with divine power and therefore begets life in its turn, cf. Act_7:38. Luther: “If I put the cup, containing the wine, to my lips, I drink the wine without swallowing the cup. Such also is the word, which brings the voice; it sinks into the heart and becomes alive, while the voice remains without and passes away. It is therefore a Divine power, yea, it is God himself, cf. Exo_4:11.” It is able to kill, Rom_7:10, and to make alive.—Μένοντος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. (The last three words are wanting in important MSS. and therefore omitted by Griesbach and others). It remains forever in its nature, power and effects. [Dean Jackson on the Creed, book 7, 1Peter 28, vol. 7, p. 1Peter 270: “If Christ’s flesh and blood be the seed of Immortality, how are we said to be born again by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever? Is this Word, by which we are born, the same with that immortal seed, of which we are born? It is the same, not in nature, but in person. May we not, in that speech of St. Peter, by the Word, understand the word preached unto us by the Ministers who are God’s seedsmen? In a secondary sense we may, for we are begotten and born again by preaching, as by the instrument or means. Yet born again we are by the Eternal Word (that is, by Christ Himself), as by the proper and efficient cause of our new birth … And Christ Himself, who was put to death for our sins, and raised again for our justification, is the Word which we all do or ought to preach. The Son of God manifested in the flesh, was that Word which, in St. Peter’s language, is preached by the Gospel, and if we do not preach this Word unto our hearers, if all our sermons do not tend to one of these two ends, either to instruct our auditors in the articles of their creed concerning Christ, or to prepare their ears and hearts that they may be fit auditors of such instructions, we do not preach the Gospel unto them, we take upon us the name of God’s ambassadors, or of the ministers of the Gospel, in vain.”—M.]

[A Lapide: “This sense is a genuine and sublime one, because in our Regeneration, Christ Himself is personally communicated to us, so that the Deity thenceforth dwells in us as in a Temple, and we are made partakers of the Divine Nature, 2Pe_1:4.” See Jam_1:18-21.—M.]

1Pe_1:24. διότι introduces the proof of the difference between corruptible begetting and incorruptible. The begetting is like the instrument of begetting. The words quoted by Peter are found Isa_40:7, etc.; his citation is free, not literal. Flesh signifies here the whole living world, inasmuch as it is under the power of transitoriness and surrounded by weakness. Bengel: “The old man, man of the old birth, especially self-righteousness, on which man is wont to found his confidence.” Calvin: “Whatever is highly esteemed in things human, beauty, bodily strength, learning, riches, posts of honour.” It includes also the life of the natural mind, as long as it remains unoccupied and without the animation of the Spirit of God. Hence the Scripture speaks of fleshly-mindedness, Rom_8:5-7, and reckons also hatred, anger and pride among the works of the flesh, 1Co_3:3; Gal_5:19; Eph_2:3; Col_2:18. The flesh as well as the spirit, has its glory and flower. It appears robed in the forms of beauty, wisdom, nobleness, patriotism and even of holiness. It develops itself in forms of government, in art and science, in philosophical systems and theories of religion, so far as they are not penetrated by the Spirit of God. Hence they vanish as fast as they grow, yea faster—like the flower of grass (Griesbach and others read αὐτῆς after δόξα. See Appar. Crit. above), whose leaves fall asunder, cf. Psa_103:15; Psa_37:2; Jam_1:10; Isa_40:6-7. Peter refers to the last passage as given by the LXX., where the past tense is used, which describes with graphic effect the rapidity of the change.

1Pe_1:25. But the word of the Lord endureth forever, ever green and in vigour of life; it is continually valid and efficient, enduring to eternity, and so is whatever emanates from or originates in it, cf. Psa_119:89; Luk_21:33. Luther: “You need not open your eyes wide how you may get to the word of God; it is before your eyes, it is the word which we preach.” Deu_30:11; Rom_10:6, etc. The word of the Gospel preached to Christians is essentially one with the kernel of the word of the Old Testament, cf. Rom_16:26; Eph_2:20; Eph_3:5.—Εἰς ὑμᾶς, it has been brought unto you and implanted in you. The circumstance of Peter taking for granted that his readers are familiar with the word of the Old Testament, furnishes a hint that he writes to Jewish Christians. [Wordsworth: The transition from the Incarnate Word to the spoken and written word, and vice versâ, is, as might be anticipated, of not unfrequent occurrence in Holy Writ: see Heb_4:12;. Jam_1:18-23.—Observe, also, that St. Peter here returns to the principal person, Christ, and speaks of Him, who is the Living Word, as being also the Living Stone, ii. 4.—M.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1 The necessity of purifying the soul was recognized even in the systems of the philosophers, e. g., in the Platonic and Neoplatonic schools; but the only means of accomplishing it was unknown to them: subjection to revealed truth, appropriating and practising it.

2. Purification must begin and without interruption continue in the soul, the stronghold and seat of sin.

3. Essential unity of the message of salvation in the Old and New Testaments, 1Pe_1:25.

4. Regeneration or new-birth, the first implanting into the new, spiritual life, must be distinguished from quickening and conversion. The Scripture clearly teaches that regeneration takes place through Baptism by means of the word and through the Spirit who animates it, Joh_3:5; Tit_3:5; Rom_6:3; Gal_3:26-27; Eph_5:25-27; 1Pe_3:21. Compare the lucid exposition of Kurz in Christ. Religion (Christliche Religionslehre) p. 196, 197, 5th ed.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Incorruptible sowing or generation yields incorruptible fruit, a new man. As is the origin of life, so are the effects that flow from it.—While the non-christian loves in Adam, the believer loves in Christ. The former passes off carnal inclination for true love.—Regeneration is not the completion but the beginning of Christianity. The word of God, which is intrinsically spirit and life must also become alive in us. It is a fire, but it cannot prove its power, as long as it touches us only superficially.

Starke:—Hearty brotherly love comprises also brotherly correction, which should take place in a loving and gentle spirit, Gal_6:1.—The analogy between the word of God and seed in the field exhibits the following particulars: 1. The seed has in itself the power of growth, and does not receive it from the field. The word of God has power within itself and manifests itself as a spiritual growth. 2. The seed requires a well-prepared field; the word of God a soul ready to be qualified for receiving it and bearing fruit. 3. The seed needs a sower to scatter it in due season and in the right manner; the word of God needs the office of teachers, or spiritual husbandmen. 4. The scattered seed must be harrowed in, in order to be thoroughly mixed up with the soil and in order to grow above to strike root below; so the word of God, which is therefore called the implanted word, Jam_1:21; Jam_1:5. The seed bears no fruit unless it be quickened by warm sunshine and fertile showers from above: so also the word of God, which although it has living power in itself, requires the supply of grace by the Holy Ghost. 6. The seed of one kind, scattered on differing soil, good, bad and indifferent, owing to the inequality of the soil, does not yield the same fruit: so it is with the word of God.—Christianity insists not so much on a mere externally blameless conversation as on regeneration, Gal_6:15; Php_2:5.—We know no other word of God than that which was preached by Christ and the Apostles throughout the whole world, is put on imperishable record and still continues before, our eyes.

Lisco:—Of what passes away and of what remains.

[1Pe_1:22. The properties of brotherly love. 1. It is unfeigned, more of the heart and the hand than of the lip. 2. It is pure, beginning and ending in God. 3. It is fervent with all the energies of the soul on the stretch. The sympathy of the whole body with any injured or diseased member a Scriptural illustration.—M.]

[Leighton:—The true reason why there is so little truth of this Christian mutual love amongst those that are called Christians, is, because there is so little of this purifying obedience to the truth, whence it flows; faith unfeigned would beget this love unfeigned: men may exhort to them both, but they require the hand of God to work them in the heart.

1Pe_1:24. The philosopher said of his countrymen … “that they eat as if they meant to die to-morrow and yet build as if they were never to die.”—Archimedes was killed in the midst of his demonstration. Cf. Psa_146:4.—We in our thoughts shut up death into a very narrow compass, namely, in the moment of our expiring; but the truth is, as the moralist observes, it goes through all our life; for we are still losing and spending it as we enjoy it, yea, our very enjoying it, is the spending it; yesterday’s life is dead today and so shall this day’s life be to-morrow.—M.]

[What is the great defect in all human greatness and beauty—in earth-born riches and pleasures?—Transitoriness.—M.]

[Macknight:

1Pe_1:25. This is a quotation from Isa_40:6-8, where the preaching of the gospel is foretold and recommended from the consideration that every thing which is merely human, and among the rest, the noblest races of mankind, with all their glory and grandeur, their honour, riches, beauty, strength and eloquence; as also the arts which men have invented and the works they have executed, shall decay as the flowers of the field. But the gospel, called by the prophet the word of the Lord, shall be preached while the world standeth.—M.]

[Leighton:—As the word of God itself cannot be abolished, but surpasses the endurance of heaven and earth, as our Saviour teaches, and all attempts of men against the Divine truth of that word to undo it, are as vain as if they should consent to pluck the sun out of the firmament, so likewise is the heart of a Christian, it is immortal and incorruptible.—M.]

Footnotes:

[30]1Pe_1:22. [ ἡγνικότες, having purified; castificantes, Vulg., making chaste, Wiclif.—M.]

[31]1Pe_1:22. [ ὑπακοῇ = in obedience of, Germ.—M.]

[32] 1Pe_1:22. [ διὰ πνεύματος omitted in A B C. Cod. Sin., inserted in Rec. K. L.—M.]

[διὰ = by, nor through, see 1:33.—M.]

[33] 1Pe_1:22. [ ἐκ καθαρᾷς. ἐκ, out of, from, Germ.; omitted in A B, inserted in Rec. C. K. L.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. **καρδ. ἀληθινής.—M.]

[34]1Pe_1:22. [ ἐκτενῶς = intente.—M.]

[35] 1Pe_1:23. [ ζῶντος Θεοῦ καὶ μένοντος = by the word of God living and enduring.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. omits εἰς τὸ* αἰῶνα.—M.]

[36]1Pe_1:24. [ διότι = because.—M.]

[37]1Pe_1:24. [ ἀνθρώπου in Rec. for αὐτῆς. If the latter reading is preferred, we must render “and all the glory of it,” i. e. of flesh. So Wiclif and Reims.—M.]

[38] 1Pe_1:24. [ ἐξηράνθη, ἐξέπεσεν, aorists, statement as in a narrative; viz.: the grass hath withered and the flower thereof is fallen away; Wiclif and Reims: Exaruit fœnum et flos ejus decidit. Vulgate. German.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. ὡσι (**improb.).—ἡ δόξ. αὐτοῦ.—**δόξ. αὐτῆς. ἀνθ.—Without αὐτοῦ.—M.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Peter

PURIFYING THE SOUL

1Pe 1:22.

Note these three subsidiary clauses introduced respectively by ‘in,’ ‘through,’ ‘unto.’ They give the means, the Bestower, and the issue of the purity of soul. The Revised Version, following good authorities, omits the clause, ‘through the Spirit.’ It may possibly be originally a marginal gloss of some scribe who was nervous about Peter’s orthodoxy, which finally found its way into the text. But I think we shall be inclined to retain it if we notice that, throughout this epistle, the writer is fond of sentences on the model of the present one, and of surrounding a principal clause with subsidiary ones introduced by a similar sequence of prepositions. For instance, in this very chapter, to pass over other examples, we read, ‘Kept by’ {or in} ‘the power of God through faith unto salvation.’ So, for my present purpose, I take the doubtful words as part of the original text. They unquestionably convey a true idea, whether they are genuine here or no.

One more introductory remark--’Ye have purified your souls’--a bold statement to make about the vast multitude of the ‘dispersed’ throughout all the provinces of Asia Minor whom the Apostle was addressing. The form of the words in the original shows that this purifying is a process which began at some definite point in the past and is being continued throughout all the time of Christian life. The hall-mark of all Christians is a relative purity, not of actions, but of soul. They will vary, one from another; the conception of what is purity of soul will change and grow, but, if a man is a Christian, there was a moment in his past at which he potentially, and in ideal, purified his spirit, and that was the moment when he bowed down in obedience to the truth. There are suggestions for volumes about the true conception of soul-purity in these words of my text. But I deal with them in the simplest possible fashion, following the guidance of these significant little words which introduce the subordinate clauses.

First of all, then, we have here the great thought that

I. Soul purity is in, or by, obedience.

Now, of course, ‘the truth’--truth with the definite article--is the sum of the contents of the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ, His life, His death, His Glory. For to Peter, as to us He should be, Jesus Christ was Truth Incarnate. ‘In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ The first thought that is suggested to me from this expression--obedience to the truth--is that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is, as its ultimate intention, meant to be obeyed. There are plenty of truths which have no influence on life and conduct, for which all is done that they can demand when they are accepted. But the truth is no inert substance like the element which recent chemical discoveries have found, which is named ‘argon,’ the do-nothing: the truth is, as physiologists say, a ferment. It is intended to come into life, and into character, and into the inmost spirit of a man, and grip them, and mould them, and transform them, and animate them, and impel them. The truth is to be ‘obeyed.’

Now that altogether throws over two card-castles which imperfect Christians are very apt to build. One which haunted the thoughts of an earlier generation of Christians more than it does the present, is that we have done all that ‘the truth’ asks of us when we have intellectually endorsed it. And so you get churches which build their membership upon acceptance of a creed and excommunicate heretics, whilst they keep do-nothing and uncleansed Christians within their pale. But God does not tell us anything that we may know. He tells us in order that, knowing, we may be and do. And right actions, or rather a character which produces such, is the last aim of all knowledge, and especially of all moral and religious truth. So ‘the truth’ is not ‘argon’, it is a ferment. And if men, steeped to the eyebrows in orthodoxy, think that they have done enough when they have set their hands to a confession of faith, and that they are Christians because they can say, ‘all this I steadfastly believe,’ they need to remember that religious truth which does not mould and transform character and conduct is a king dethroned; and for dethroned kings there is a short step between the throne from which they have descended and the scaffold on which they die.

But there is another--what I venture to call a card-castle, which more of us build in these days of indifference as to creed--and that is that a great many of us are too much disposed to believe that ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’ has received from us all which it expects when we trust to it for what we call our ‘salvation,’ meaning thereby forgiveness of sins and immunity from punishment. These are elements of salvation unquestionably, but they are only part of it. And the very truths on which Christian people rest for this initial salvation, which is forgiveness and acceptance, are meant to be the guides of our lives and the patterns for our imitation. Why, in this very letter, in reference to the very parts of Christ’s work, on which faith is wont to rest for salvation,--the death on the Cross to which we say that we trust, and which we are so accustomed to exalt as a unique and inimitable work that cannot be reproduced and needs no repetition, world without end--Peter has no hesitation in saying that Christ was our ‘Pattern,’ and that, even when He went to the Cross, He died ‘leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps.’ So, brethren, the truth needs to be known and believed: the truth needs not only to be believed but to be trusted in; the truth needs not only to be believed and to be trusted in, but to be obeyed.

Still further, another thought following upon and to some extent modifying the preceding one, is suggested here, and that is that the faith, which I have just been saying is sometimes mistakenly regarded as being all that truth calls for from us, is itself obedience. As I have said, the language in the original here implies that there was a given definite moment in the past when these dispersed strangers obeyed, and, by obeying the truth, purified their souls. What was that moment? Some people would say the moment when the rite of baptism was administered. I would say the moment when they bowed themselves in joyful acceptance of the great Word and put out a firm hand of faith to grasp Jesus Christ. That is obedience. For, in the very act of thus trusting, there is self-surrender, is there not? Does not a man depart from himself and bow himself humbly before his Saviour when he puts his trust in Him? Is not the very essence of obedience, not the mere external act, but the melting of the will to flow in such directions as His master-impulse may guide it? Thus, faith in its depth is obedience; and the moment when a man believes, in the deepest sense of the word, that moment, in the deepest realities of his spirit, he becomes obedient to the will and to the love of his Saviour Lord, Who is the Truth as He is the Way and the Life. We find, not only in this Epistle, but throughout the Epistles, that the two words ‘disobedience’ and ‘unbelief,’ are used as equivalents. We read, for instance, of those that ‘stumble at the word, being disobedient,’ and the like. So, then, faith is obedience in its depth, and, if our faith has any vitality in it, it carries in it the essence of all submission.

But then, further, my text implies that the faith which is, in its depth, obedience, in its practical issues will produce the practical obedience which the text enjoins. It is no mere piece of theological legerdemain which counts that faith is righteousness. But, just as all sin comes from selfishness, so, and therefore, all righteousness will flow from giving up self, from decentralising, as it were, our souls from their old centre, self, and taking a new centre, God in Christ. Thus the germ of all practical obedience lies in vital faith. It is, if I might so say, the mother-tincture which, variously combined, coloured, and perfumed, makes all the precious things, the virtues and graces of humanity, which the believing soul pours out as a libation before its God. It is the productive energy of all practical goodness. It is the bottom heat in the greenhouse which makes all the plants grow and flourish. Faith is obedience, and faith produces obedience. Does my faith produce obedience? If it does not, it is not faith.

Then, with regard to this first part of my subject, comes the final thought that practical obedience works inwards as well as outwards, and purifies the soul which renders it. People generally turn that round the other way, and, instead of saying that to do right helps to make a man right within, they say ‘make the tree good, and its fruit good’--first the pure soul, and then the practical obedience. Both statements are true. For every act that a man does reacts upon the doer, just as, whether the shot hits the target or not, the gun kicks back on the shoulder of the man that fired it. Conduct comes from character, but conduct works back upon character, and character is largely the deposit from the vanished seas of actions. So, then, whilst the deepest thought is, be good and you will do good, it is not to be forgotten that the other side is true--do good, and it will tend to make you good. Obedience purifies the soul, while, on the other hand, a man that lives ill comes to think as he lives, and to become tenfold more a child of evil. ‘The dyer’s hand is subdued to what it works in.’ ‘Ye have purified your souls,’ ideally, in the act of faith, and continuously, in the measure in which you practically obey the truth.

We have here

II. Purifying through the Spirit.

I have already said that these words are possibly no part of the original text, but that they convey a true Christian idea, whether the words are here genuine or no. I need not enlarge upon this part of my subject at any length. Let me just remind you how the other verse in this chapter, to which I have already referred as cast in the same mould as our text, covers, from a different point of view, the same ground exactly as our text. Here there is put first the human element: ‘Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth,’ and secondly the Divine element; ‘through the Spirit.’ The human part is put in the foreground, and God’s part comes in, I was going to say, subordinately, as a condition. The reverse is the case in the other text, which runs: ‘Kept in the power of God through faith’--where the Divine element is in the foreground, as being the true cause, and the human dwindles to being merely a condition--’Kept by’ {or in} ‘the power of God through faith.’ Both views are true; you may take the vase by either handle. When the purpose is to stimulate to action, man’s part is put in the foreground and God’s part secondarily. When the purpose is to stimulate to confidence, God’s part is put in the foreground and the man’s is secondary. The two interlock, and neither is sufficient without the other.

The true Agent of all purifying is that Divine Spirit. I have said that the moment of true trust is the moment of initial obedience, and of the beginning of purity. And it is so because, in that moment of initial faith, there enters into the heart the communicated Divine life of the Spirit, which thenceforward is lodged there, except it be quenched by the man’s negligence or sin. Thence, from that germ implanted in the moment of faith, the germ of a new life, there issue forth to ultimate dominion in the spirit, the powers of that Divine Spirit which make for righteousness and transform the character. Thus, the true cause and origin of all Christian nobility and purity of character and conduct lies in that which enters the heart at the moment that the heart is opened for the coming of the Lord. But, on the other hand, this Divine Spirit, the Source of all purity, will not purify the soul without the man’s efforts. ‘Ye have purified your souls.’ You need the Spirit indeed. But you are not mere passive recipients. You are to be active co-operators. In this region, too, we are ‘labourers together with God.’ We cannot of ourselves do the work, for the very powers with which we do it, or try to do it, are themselves in need of cleansing. And for a man to try to purify the soul by his own effort alone is to play the part of the sluttish house-wife who would seek to wipe a dish clean with a dirty cloth. You need the Divine Spirit to work in you, and you need to use, by your own effort, the Divine Spirit that does work in you. He is as ‘rushing, mighty wind’; but, unless the sails are set and the helm gripped, the wind will pass the boat and leave it motionless. He is Divine fire that burns up the dross and foulness; but, unless we ‘guard the holy fire’ and feed it, it dies down into grey cold ashes. He is the water of life; but, unless we dig and take heed to keep clear the channels, no refreshing will permeate to the roots of the wilting flowers, and there will be dryness, thirst, and barrenness, even on the river’s banks.

So, brethren, neither God alone nor man alone can purify the soul. We need Him, else we shall labour in vain. He needs us, else He will bestow His gift, and we shall receive ‘the grace of God in vain.’

Lastly, we have here--

III. Purifying ... unto ... love.

The Apostle was speaking to men of very diverse nationalities who had been rent asunder by deep gulfs of mutual suspicion and conflicting interests and warring creeds, and a great mysterious, and, as it would seem to the world then, utterly inexplicable bond of unity had been evolved amongst them, and Greek and barbarian, bond and free, male and female, had come together in amity. The ‘love of the brethren’ was the creation of Christianity, and was the outstanding fact which, more than any other, amazed the beholders in these early days. God be thanked! there are signs in our generation of a closer drawing together of Christian people than many past ages, alas, have seen.

But my text suggests solemn and great thoughts with regard to Christian love and unity. The road to unity lies through purity, and the road to purity lies through obedience. Yes; what keeps Christian people apart is their impurities. It is not their creeds. It is not any of the differences that appear to separate them. It is because they are not better men and women. Globules of quicksilver will run together and make one mass; but not if you dust them over. And it is the impurities on the quicksilver that keep us from coalescing.

So then we have to school ourselves into greater conformity to the likeness of our Master, to conquer selfishness, and to purify our souls, or else all this talk about Christian unity is no better than sounding brass, and more discordant than tinkling cymbals. Let us learn the lesson. ‘The unfeigned love of the brethren’ is not such an easy thing as some people fancy, and it is not to be attained at all on the road by which some people would seek it. Cleanse yourselves, and you will flow together.

Here, then, we have Peter’s conception of a pure soul and a pure life. It is a stately building, based deep on the broad foundation of the truth as it is in Jesus; its walls rising, but not without our effort, being builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, and having as the shining apex of its heaven-pointing spire ‘unfeigned love to the brethren.’ The measure of our obedience is the measure of our purity. The measure of our purity is the measure of our brotherly love. But that love, though it is the very aim and natural issue of purity, still will not be realised without effort on our part. Therefore my text, after its exhibition of the process and issues of the purifying which began with faith, glides into the exhortation: ‘See that ye love one another with a pure heart’--a heart purified by obedience--and that ‘fervently.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

II. THE BLESSINGS AND PRIVILEGES OF ALL BELIEVERS

CHAPTER 1:22-2:10

1. The new birth (1Pe 1:22-25)

2. Spiritual growth (1Pe 2:1-3)

3. The privileges of believers as the holy and royal priesthood (1Pe 2:4-10)

1Pe 1:22-25

The relationship of those who are thus redeemed, whose faith and hope is in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, whose souls are purified by obedience to the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, is stated first: “Love one another with a pure heart fervently.” All the elect through the foreknowledge of God the Father are covered by the same love, are redeemed by the same Lamb, washed in the same precious blood, have the same Father. They are one; they are brethren and as such love must characterize them. But this love, loving one another out of a pure heart fervently, is the fruit of the new nature which all possess who have believed and are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” The Word of God, living and abiding, under the operation of the Spirit (the Word is “the water” of which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus) is the agent of the new birth. It is not corruptible seed, but incorruptible, hence the nature is an incorruptible, a holy nature. There are three incorruptible things mentioned in this chapter. An incorruptible inheritance, an incorruptible redemption price, and an incorruptible seed giving an incorruptible nature. And that new nature must love that which is of God, therefore the exhortation of loving one another, which is more fully developed in the great “family Epistle,” the first Epistle of John.

But the new birth carries with it another blessing. “For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of it as the flower of the grass. The grass hath withered and the flower fallen, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

The old creation is left behind, the world with all its glory and boastings, is judged. All is as grass and the glory of man as the flower of the grass. Those born again do no longer belong to this world, as He prayed: “They are not of the world, as I am not of the world.” The words concerning the grass and the flower of the grass are a quotation from Isaiah (Isa 40:6; Isa 40:8). But the quotation is changed a little. In Isaiah we read: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,” and here it is, “The grass hath withered and the flower fallen,” that is how faith must look upon the world and all its glory, as withered and fallen, with no more attraction for the heart which knows God. But those who are born again are linked with that which abideth for ever, the Word of the Lord, preached in that ever blessed Gospel.

1Pe 2:1-3

“Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil-speakings as new born babes desire earnestly the pure milk of the Word that ye may grow by it unto salvation, if ye have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Those who are born again of incorruptible seed, in possession of a new nature, are still in the world, though they are no longer of it. Evil is on all sides and there is still the old nature, the flesh, in every child of God though believers are reckoned as being no longer in the flesh (Rom 8:9). The old things of the flesh must be put off, completely laid aside. This is the necessary thing for spiritual growth; if there is no putting off of these there can be no progress. Peter speaks of believers as “new-born babes.”

The sense in which this expression is used here differs from the use of it in 1Co 3:1: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” The spiritual growth of the Corinthians had been arrested and dwarfed; they never developed, but remained babes, a spiritual monstrosity. But the meaning here is entirely different. Believers should be at all times like new-born babes hungering for that which the Lord has provided for spiritual growth, the milk in all its purity as found in His Word. The mother by which we are begotten again, that is the living and abiding Word of God, has also the nourishment for the life we have received. In this sense the child of God must always be like a healthy babe, always craving, hungering and thirsting for the pure milk as provided in His Word. All that we need, yea, every need is provided there, and as we go to that fountain which never runs dry, which never fails nor disappoints, we shall grow thereby.

One of the most subtle delusions is found among some Pentecostal sects, who imagine that they are so filled with the Spirit that they can dispense with the reading of and feeding on the Word. In the Authorized Version two words are missing which belong in the text; they are the words “unto salvation”... “that ye may grow thereby unto salvation.” They were omitted in some manuscripts, but belong here. Salvation here has the same meaning as in the first chapter, it looks forward to the end in glory.

And if we have felt that the Lord is gracious, have tasted of His loving kindness, we shall desire more and more of it, crave for still more. Peter surely had tasted that the Lord is gracious. We think of his denial, and when the Lord turned and looked upon him, Peter went out and wept bitterly. He had tasted that the Lord is gracious, and more so, when the Lord dealt so graciously with him at the meal His blessed hands had prepared for His disciples on the lakeshore (Joh 21:1-25), and His loving voice asked: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?” The sentence, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” is a quotation from the Psalms (Psa 34:8). David, like Peter, had shamefully failed and like Peter he had tasted that the Lord is gracious. All His saints have had the same experience of the graciousness of the Lord.

1Pe 2:4-10

The testimony of Peter which follows is of great importance. The fisherman of Galilee knew nothing of what would happen centuries later. He did not know that ritualism would exalt him to a position of supremacy, claiming that he was and is the rock upon which the Church is built, that he was a bishop who communicated in Rome his apostolic authority to another, as it is claimed to one by name of Linus, and Linus handed over the same authority to Cletus and Cletus to Clemens, Clemens to Anacletus, Anacletus to Sixtus and so on from one generation to the other, each adding a little more till the harlot system of the mystical Babylon, the papacy became what it is today. But while Peter did not know the future, the Holy Spirit knew and He inspired his pen to write that which is the complete refutation of popery and a man-made priesthood.

Not Peter is the living stone upon which everything rests, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the rock foundation, the Stone upon whom all is built. Not Peter was rejected by men, then chosen of God and precious, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures had announced this fact beforehand. Isa 28:16 is quoted in Verse 6. This is followed by a quotation from Psa 118:22 and Isa 8:14. The Lord Jesus while on earth had made use of these prophecies given by His Spirit (Mat 21:42). The Holy Spirit after Pentecost reminded the rulers, elders and scribes of the people once more of this great prophecy concerning the rejection of the Messiah by the nation (Act 4:9-12). And when the Lord Jesus quoted this prophecy from Psa 118:1-29 He added, what is cited here in 1Pe 2:8, whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken,” that is what happened to the nation Israel.

The second half of this statement of our Lord in Mat 21:44 is still unaccomplished-”but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” This will happen at the close of the times of the Gentiles, when the stone strikes the feet of the prophetic image (Dan 2:1-49). Israel had rejected the Stone and therefore was unfit as a nation to build the spiritual house, as the Lord had likewise announced: “the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof.” They had as a nation a house called “The House of the Lord,” where He delighted to dwell, but it was not a spiritual house, but a house made with hands, a shadow of the better things to come.

When Israel rejected the Messiah and the kingdom He had offered, when they had delivered Him up and He died, after His resurrection from among the dead and His exaltation to the right hand of God, the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, came to earth for the purpose of building amongst men the habitation of God, a spiritual house, and that house is the church. Thus Peter bears witness to Christ as the Living Stone, the rock upon which the Church “the spiritual house” is being built. He with all other believers, including ourselves, are the living stones. As mentioned in the introduction, Christ is the Petra, the Rock, Peter and every other child of God is a petros, a little rock, a living stone with Himself (Mat 16:17-18). And His Son whom man dishonored and rejected is precious to God; He is His delight; He is precious to those who have believed; He is our delight. While God says that His delight is in Him, we too confess that all our delight is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, all believers constitute a holy priesthood. Peter does not claim an exclusive priesthood vested in him, but his inspired testimony is that all members of the body of Christ, the living stones, are a priesthood. In the Old Testament the priesthood of Christ was foreshadowed in Aaron and the priesthood of believers by the sons of Aaron. (See annotations in Leviticus.) No longer are needed sacrifices of animals, for He has brought the one sacrifice, by which he has made the new and living way by His blood into the Holiest, so that every believer can draw nigh with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:19-22). This completely disposes of the ritualistic priesthood, vested in “ordained” men, that system which has been and still is and always will be, the corruption of Christianity. It also answers the blasphemous mass, which is an act of idolatry.

The function of the holy priesthood of believers consists in bringing spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name” (Heb 13:15). It is worship in the spirit and truth; it is praise and adoration as well as the ministry of intercession.

Once more Peter mentions the fact of the Christian priesthood. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the excellencies of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (Hos 2:23). Israel was chosen, Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, they were called “to show forth His praises.” They never attained it, because they were not a holy nation, though constituted a separated nation by God’s calling. But these believing Jews through grace in Christ had become a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. As a remnant of the nation they possessed now what the nation never possessed. Of course that remnant was embodied in the church, and is a part of the body of Christ. Yet the application to them as a remnant must not be lost sight of.

Nor must we forget that there will be a future remnant of the nation, the nation which is now dispersed, which will become a holy nation, a royal priesthood in connection with the other nations. The promises, the gifts and callings of God, will all be accomplished, and those who had not obtained mercy will yet obtain mercy; that will be when He whom they pierced comes again and when they shall look upon Him in that day. Apart from this application to them as believing Jews, to whom the Epistle was addressed, all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, have a royal priesthood. Christ is a holy Priest and a royal Priest; both aspects of His priesthood believers share in Him. We are holy priests to go in to God to represent man before God; we are royal priests to represent God before man, to show forth His excellencies. The royal priesthood of Christ, is the priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. He was the King-Priest who came to Abraham and made known God and His glory to Abraham. Thus in Christ we behold the glory of God and as identified with Christ, indwelt by Him, our royal priesthood is to make Him and His excellencies known among men.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Division 2. (1Pe 1:22-25; 1Pe 2:1-10.)

New Testament relationships, in place of the Old Testament ones forfeited and broken off.

We are still led on by the apostle to contemplate these New Testament relationships which are ours in still fuller contrast with those Old Testament ones now broken off. Between the new covenant and the old, all, as we know, is contrast; and the apostle now goes on to dwell upon that rejection of Christ as the Living Stone, the Foundation of all that abiding nearness to men which a house amongst men implies -a rejection which necessarily set aside the Jewish builders as entirely incompetent. But Israel had failed long before this, and even from the beginning, as their priesthood in one family only constantly bore witness. Instead of being nationally brought near to God, as He would have it and as His very speech with them at mount Sinai bore witness, they had chosen a place of distance from Him, and had to be left, as a consequence, in that place which they had chosen. God has now come in to fulfil all these things in a better and more perfect way.

1. The apostle first of all speaks here of the company into which faith introduces the soul. The only purification of it is "by obedience to the truth," a truth which disperses the shadows and sets aside all the perversions of the adversary and deceiver. Thus they had come into connection with those who had been begotten by the same truth, "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible," by the living and abiding word of God. Here, indeed, was a brotherhood which had never had in Israel -could not as yet have -its proper recognition. The children of God were by the legal system scattered abroad." Even in Israel they were so; while, of course, outside of Israel there were still souls that sought God according to the light they had. Israel could not gather these. It was itself but a mixture of the true and the false, and thus it could not gather to itself the true out of the false. There was no power as yet for any proper discrimination. This is the misery of all mixtures, and which the confusion which obtains in Christendom at the present time should make us, indeed, realize. How blessed a company of those drawn together by ardent desire for the same things, by the enjoyment of the same blessings, by their allegiance to the same revelation, to God perfectly revealed as He is now revealed, so as to attract and fill the heart with Himself! Here love can indeed flow out. There is nothing to check it. There is no matter, so far as this character is retained, for selfish strife with one another. The objects enjoyed are the possession of all alike, and the enjoyment of them by one only enhances, and cannot hinder, the joy of others. Here, then, was indeed an essential difference between the company of Christians and the nation of Israel. We have gone back indeed, in various degrees, to that old company, as if, after all, we had tasted the new wine but to say, the old is better." We have even taken, in measure at least, the Israelitish community (with, more or less, its ordinances as well) as that which God has designed for His people all the way through. We have introduced a fancied regeneration by baptism to manufacture fictitious children of God, who have none of the reality; and then we have invoked the judgment of charity not to distinguish between the manufactured Christians and the true ones! The effect has necessarily followed; and "because iniquity abounds" in consequence "the love of many," even among the true children of God, has "grown cold." There is a lack of communion amongst the people of God; for communion with the world is absolutely incompatible with this. The true birth, -as Peter shows us here, -the true entrance into the family, is by the reception of the living and abiding word of God,* "the word which by the gospel is proclaimed." There can be no possibility, one would say, of confounding this with any result whatever of an ordinance. Here alone is the secret of that which, as eternal life, abides. Those who receive it belong no more, in this way, to that flesh which "is as grass, and all the glory of it but as the flower of grass." That which is merely natural withers and its flower falls, "but the word of the Lord abideth forever." Thank God for Peter’s testimony! Let those who profess so much obedience to Peter listen to it! They will find here not only an authoritative Word, but that which finds, most of all, its authority in the sweetness of the truth which is proclaimed. Born again by the gospel good-news, what gladness and happiness does this infer for the life into which we enter!*

{*Let it be noted what light this verse throws upon the subject of new birth -it is "by the word of God." That it is a sovereign act of God, by His Spirit, none can question. But this verse forbids us from separating, as has sometimes been done, new birth from faith in the gospel. It has been taught that new birth precedes faith; here we are told that the word of God is the instrument in new birth. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God," "the word which by the gospel is preached." Thus while we can distinguish between faith and new birth, we cannot separate them. Joh 3:3; Joh 3:16, must ever go together. There is no such anomaly possible as a man born again, but who has not yet believed the gospel. -S.R.

{*It is interesting to note the three "incorruptible" things we have in this first chapter -an incorruptible inheritance (ver. 4), an incorruptible redemption (vers. 18, 19), and an incorruptible word by which we are born (ver. 23). Thus we have a nature which is taintless, fitted for the enjoyment of a taintless inheritance and on the basis of a redemption which never can lose its value. How the stamp of eternal perfection is upon all, and what a fitting companion to these is that "incorruptible" ornament of a meek and quiet spirit (1Pe 3:4). -S.R.}

2. The apostle goes on, therefore, to insist upon this word of God, to which we owe everything, as still being the essential need for us, that we may "grow up by it," as the expression is here, "unto salvation." It is a strange expression apparently, as we first think of it -a growth unto salvation; but the salvation here is, of course, that final salvation of which he has already spoken, as what is ready to be revealed in its fulness in the last time. There is a salvation which the gospel brings, and with which we begin; but salvation is needed also all along the road; and as long as we are in the body, by that very fact, we need salvation still. "We look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall change our body of humiliation into the likeness of His own glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue even all things to Himself." But still, a growth unto salvation deserves serious consideration. Growth is that which is proper to life. The accretion of matter in a stone, for instance, is not "growth." Salvation, in the thought which we are getting of it here, is, in fact, more and more known as we grow in the apprehension of the things which are revealed to us, and which separate us more and more, therefore, from everything that is inconsistent with them. Thus, at the outset we are called to lay aside "all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies and all evil-speakings" -things which cannot possibly consist with the enjoyment and pursuit of the truth; and we are always to be, as to the word of God, like babes just born, who crave, as the one thing necessary to them, the milk which God has provided for them. Here we must remember that we are not in the line of that which Paul says to the Corinthians, where he reproaches them as being such that have need of milk only, in opposition to solid food. The Corinthians were babes indeed, but they were babes when they ought to have been far beyond this. They were babes because growth was stunted with them through their carnality. A true babe is not "carnal," and can never be; but here we are to be only in one character like babes, and, indeed, babes "new-born." Even the Corinthians were not babes "new-born." That was the evil of it, that they were babes that were not new-born; but we are to be always, "as new-born babes," just in the simplicity of our craving for that which as milk God has provided for us in His own precious Word, to sustain a growth which is continual in one who is the possessor of eternal life. While we are here, if Christians and in a right condition, we are continually growing. We have to grow up, all of us, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Which of us has attained it? In this sense we are, after all, all of us but as babes "new-born;" and in this character God has provided for us, in His word, that which has all the elements proper for nourishment in it, as milk has. The Word, the whole of it, the deepest things in it, is thus pure milk, and only milk. There is nothing to be rejected; there is only that which enters into the constitution of the Christian -as we may say, becomes really part of himself. How beautiful in that way this figure of milk, and how earnest the craving which is here implied, and which we are exhorted to, for that which can thus minister to all the necessities of our nature! Let us desire it earnestly, says the apostle, if we have tasted that the Lord is good. Have we tasted this? If so, can we make light of the precious Word, which is indeed the provision which God has made, in His goodness, for our souls?*

{*We are to "lay aside," -as in Heb 12:1-29, where it is the weights which would hinder progress, -what is contrary to the new nature we have received, and what unfits for the enjoyment of the mutual family relationships. Malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil-speaking all have reference to our attitude toward others and are the opposite of that "fervent love" already enjoined. It will be noted that they refer largely to the state of heart, rather than grosser forms of immorality. Alas, they are not upon the list of the world’s forbidden things and are all too easily indulged in by the Lord’s people, without their losing caste in society. Note also that "evil-speaking" is not necessarily wicked speech in the way of falsehood or profanity. It is really "speaking against," and refers to occupation with another’s ways in a spirit that does not desire his help. This is most important for our conscience. -S.R.}

3. We come now to that rejection of the Living Stone on the part of Israel, which disqualified them as the builders of God’s spiritual house. It was about those who were prominently builders that the Lord spoke at the time of His last proffer of Himself to them as Israel’s King, as well as of their foreseen rejection of it. In a matter of such fundamental importance it was necessary that God should have provided for His people the assurance of what was coming with regard to those to whom they looked as their spiritual guides. "The house of God" was that which distinguished Israel from all the nations of the earth. It was that dwelling-place of God with man which, although as yet only in type, declared the desire of His heart to be with man abidingly. Thus it was the place of that glory which, though already unseen by man, yet Ezekiel saw, as having lingered with them in love as long as possible, until finally forced out by their abominations. Yet their house, as we know, was not, after the manner in which the apostle speaks here, a "spiritual house." It was "a house made with hands," which could not, therefore, set forth God’s design in the full way in which He desired. Forsaken of God, it became, like a vacant tomb, the witness only of the life which had departed. Yet God could not give up His thought. Thus, He who came seeking God’s treasure upon earth always proclaimed that house (though in the idea of it, not the then reality) His Father’s house; and it was there that He presented Himself when He came as King to His own, and His own refused Him. It was then entirely their own house (Mat 23:38) which He had to leave desolate. But God had not given up His thought; and, driven back in His love, He only, according to His constant manner, declared that love, and the purpose of it, in a fuller way than ever. Thus the Lord could say to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up; but He spake of the temple of His body." In Him was indeed the perfect Witness of what was in the divine heart, and that for man; and in Him God really possessed a dwelling-place among men that could not be set aside. He was indeed rejected, and as such went back to the Father; nevertheless, the divine thought was not thus frustrated, but as the fruit of His own work the Spirit of God came down upon earth to build a habitation for God which should never cease to be this. The house was now "a spiritual house." The Lord had spoken of it to Peter when He said that upon that Rock which Peter had confessed, He would build His assembly; but as yet the thought of a habitation of God could not come fully out. Peter now explains the Lord’s word to him, as we see here, in the clearest way. He sets aside all possibility of men saying, with any real semblance of truth, that Peter was himself the foundation of what the Lord spoke. It is Christ, he says, who is the Living Stone, the Foundation upon whom alone the living stones (of whom was Peter himself, according to the meaning of his name) are built up. The living stones here are the assurance of the Lord’s promise that the gates of Hades should not prevail against that which He would build. They live in a power of life which cannot be touched of death; and of Himself also was this true, who, if He went down into death, was only to lay there the foundation of all blessing, and to reveal in Himself that which abolished death and brought "life and incorruption to light through the gospel." Thus, the whole building stands upon this Foundation, which is that from the beginning, "chosen of God" as "precious," and now in the present time revealing, as the apostle says directly, its preciousness. The house is "a spiritual house," the fulfilment of the promise by the prophet: "I will dwell in them and walk in them:" the Spirit of God filling and energizing that in which He dwells, so that it is not a mere shrine of the Spirit, but itself a spiritual reality; and this connects, according to the thought which we have already traced in Hebrews (Heb 3:1-19), of a "spiritual house," with a "holy priesthood." Here we have the activity of those brought near to God in this way. They are revealed as those who, while God manifests Himself in them, have themselves, as one may say, their faces Godward and in their hearts the Spirit of relationship -a holy priesthood, capable, therefore, of this, with spiritual sacrifices now replacing the sacrifices of old, acceptable to God by Him who has made, once for all, that which was the true sacrifice in atonement for sin. Thus, the altar stands only inside the house now, the antitype of that golden altar which was in Israel’s sanctuary. The brazen altar has had its fulfilment, and has thus disappeared, while the power of that acceptable sacrifice, which abides ever in its value before God, is that by which all spiritual offerings alone become acceptable. The incense upon the unbloody altar is the witness of One come up out of death, who is before God for us, in whom we stand, and in whom all acceptance is. Here, says the apostle, is the fundamental fulfilment of that scripture, "Behold, I lay in Sion a corner Stone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on Him shall not be ashamed." But to the prophet was not revealed as yet the wondrous preciousness which belongs in its full value now to those who believe; and here is one of those things in which the prophets of old predicted, as Peter has just said to us, things that went beyond their own intelligence, and which they realized to have respect, in their full meaning, to others than themselves. Alas, to Israel, that Stone which the builders rejected, while it has become, indeed, "the Head of the corner," yet is but "a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence to those who stumble at the Word, being disobedient." This, too, had been appointed, for it followed of necessity from the very blessedness of that which was in it -grace revealed to a carnal people who had built themselves up in pride of heart against it. It was the necessary result, they being what they were, that they stumbled at the Word through the spirit of disobedience which was in their heart, and there was no help indeed if the very wonder of God’s grace was that which made them stumble.*

{*There is no thought in this of the unscriptural doctrine of reprobation, man’s addition to God’s precious truth of His election of His people. The ungodly are not appointed to be ungodly, but being ungodly God appointed that this should be fully manifest in their rejection of Christ. Thus Pharaoh (Rom 9:1-33) was "raised up," put upon the throne with opportunities for rejection of God’s message, and of showing the wickedness and enmity that was always in his heart -S.R.}

The apostle returns from this to contemplate with satisfaction how God nevertheless has carried out His thoughts in a more wonderful way. They were themselves now the partakers of those blessings which God had proffered to Israel of old, but which had so manifestly been without avail for them. "Ye shall be to Me," He had said, "a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." It was necessary for them to be the latter in order to be the former. It was only in the white robe which typified the purity required by God that even the typical high priest could draw near to Him; but it was not therefore the nation that drew near. The nation and the priesthood became emphatically distinguished from one another, while the priest himself could no more really draw nigh. There was but the witness of that which was in God’s thoughts, along with the witness that as yet it was not a practical reality. Now God has accomplished this. Christians have become this holy nation, -not one of the nations of the earth, -and a royal priesthood, more even than was offered to Israel -a people who are not only priests but kings, a people thus for God’s possession, such as He can openly manifest as His and claim by the Spirit indwelling them, a people able to set forth the virtues of Him who has called them out of darkness into His own marvelous light -no earthly one, but the light of His own Presence revealed to those brought nigh. Here are those to whom the words of the prophet could be applied, a people "who once were not a people, but are now the people of God; who once had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." This does not, of course, set aside the application of such a promise to Israel themselves in days to come; but God has left in it a largeness which gives room for us also, who were indeed in God’s thoughts before ever the earth was, and in whom God has, more than Israel themselves can ever manifest it, shown the unchanging character of His purpose.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 5

CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD: ITS CHARACTER AND DUTIES

1Pe_1:22-25; 1Pe_2:1-3

THAT holy lives have been lived in solitude none would venture to dispute, and that devout Christians have found strength for themselves and given examples to the world by withdrawal from the society of their fellows is attested more than once in the history of Christendom. But with lives of such isolation and seclusion the New Testament exhibits little sympathy. To whatever preparation the Christian is exhorted, it is never with a view to himself. Though not of the world, he is to be in the world, that men may profit by his example. The prayer of the Lord for His disciples ere he left them was, not that they might be taken out of the world, but protected from its evils.

Christs intention was to found a Church, a communion, a brotherhood, and all His language looks that way: "One is your Master, and all ye are brethren"; "So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." And of like character is the teaching of the Epistles: "Be kindly affectioned in love of the brethren"; {Rom_12:10} "Let brotherly love continue". {Heb_13:1} We are in no way surprised therefore when St. Peter turns from his exhortations to personal sobriety, obedience, and holiness, and addresses the converts on the application of these virtues, that through them they may bind in closer bonds the brotherhood of Christ: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently." Obedience is the sole evidence by which the believer can show that Gods call has wrought in him effectually. His election is of the Fathers foreknowledge, his sanctification is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is the sprinkling of the blood of Christ which makes him fit for entry into the house of the Father. In the Christian, so called and so aided, there must be a surrender of himself to the guidance of that spirit which deigns to guide him. The law in his members must be mortified, and another and purer law accepted as the rule of his life. This law St. Peter calls "the truth because it has been made manifest in its perfection in the life of Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Of this example St. Paul testifies as the truth which is in Jesus." He therefore who would cherish the Christian hope will purify himself even as Christ is pure. The way and means unto such purification is obedience.

This first and most needful step the Apostle believes, from his knowledge of their lives, that these Asian converts have taken in earnest, and thus have attained to a love of their brethren which differs utterly from the love which the world exhibits, which is true, sincere, unfeigned. But the believers life is a life of constant progress. Daily advance is the evidence of vitality. All the language which Scripture applies to it proclaims this to be its character. It is called a walk, a race, a pilgrimage, a warfare. The Christian all his life through will find himself so far from what Christ intends to make him that he must ever be pressing forward. Hence, though they have attained to a stage of purification, have put off in some degree the old man, the Apostles exhortation is "Press forward"; "Love one another from the heart fervently." The English word describes a warmth and earnestness of love which is deep-seated and true, but the original expresses more than this, more of the sustained effort to which St. Peter is urging them. It points to incessant striving, to a constancy like that of the prayers of the Church for the Apostle himself when he was in prison, a prayer made unto God without ceasing. So steadfast must be the Christian love; and such love the purified, undistracted heart alone can manifest, a heart which has been released from the entanglements of earthly ambitions and strivings, whose affections are fully set on the things above.

Such souls must be filled with the Spirit; a steadfastness like this comes only of the new birth. And of this the converts are reminded in the words which follow: "having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God." It is true they are but at the outset of their Christian course: but if any man be in Christ, he is made a new creature. And in this connection the word of God might be taken in a twofold sense. First, the Word who was made flesh, in whom was light; and the light was the life of men. Through His resurrection God has begotten men again to a life which shall know no corruption. But the figure which the Apostle presently employs of the withering grass and the falling flower carries our mind rather to Christs explanation of His own parable. The seed is the word of God, which liveth and abideth. And throughout the New Testament the life-possessing and life-giving power of the Gospel is made everywhere conspicuous. When it was first proclaimed, we read again and again, "The word of God grew mightily and prevailed"; {Act_12:24} and the figurative language used to describe its character shows how potent is its might. It is the sword of the Spirit; {Eph_6:16} "It is quick and powerful". {Heb_4:12} By it Christ foiled the tempter. It makes those strong in whom it abides. {1Jn_2:14} It is free, and not bound. {2Ti_2:9} St. Paul calls it "the power of God unto salvation," {Rom_1:16} "the word of truth, the gospel of salvation" {Eph_1:13} and says, "It comes, not in word only, but in power". {1Th_1:5} This is the incorruptible seed of which St Peter speaks. And his words force on our thoughts that for such a seed a fitting ground must be prepared, if the new life of which it is the source is to bear its due fruit. This preparation it is which the Apostle is anxious to enforce, the purifying and cleansing of the seed-plot of mens hearts. They must not be hardened so as to forbid it access, and leave it for every chance enemy to trample on or carry away; they must not be choked with alien thoughts and purposes: the cares of life, the pleasures of the world. Such things perish in the using, and can have no affinity with the living and abiding word of God, which, even as He, is eternal and unchanging.

And herewith is bound up a very solemn thought. The word may be neglected, may be choked, in individual hearts; but still it liveth and abideth, and will appear to testify against the scorners: "He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words hath one that judgeth Him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself". {Joh_12:48} But for those who accept the message of the word and live thereby St. Peters language is full of comfort, especially to those who are in like affliction with these Asian Christians. For them the acceptance of the faith of Jesus must have meant the rending asunder of earthly ties; the natural brotherhood would be theirs no longer. But they are enrolled in a new family-a family which cannot perish, whose seed is incorruptible, whose kinship shall stretch forward and be ever enlarging through all time and into eternity. For they, like the word by which they are begotten again, will live and abide for evermore.

And confirming this lesson by the prophecy of Isaiah, {Isa_40:6-8} the Apostle thus links together the ancient Scriptures and the New Testament. But in so doing he shows by his language how he regards the latter as more excellent and a mighty advance upon the former. The margin of the Revised Version helpfully indicates the difference of the words. In Isaiah the teaching is styled a saying. It was the word whereby God, through some intermediary, made known his will to the children of men. But under the Gospel the word is that living, spiritual power which is used as synonymous with the Lord Himself. The word of good tidings has now been spoken unto men by a Son, the very image of the Divine substance, the effulgence of Gods glory, and now possesses a might quick even to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. This is verily the living word of God. {Heb_4:12}

And we of today can see what ground there was for the Apostles faith and for his teaching, how true the prophetic word has been found in the events of history. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth: but the, word of the Lord abideth forever." When we cast our thoughts back to the time when St. Peter wrote, we see the converts who had accepted the word of God a mere handful of people amid the throngs of heathendom, the religion which they professed the scorn of all about them, to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness, and its preachers in the main a few poor, untrained, un-influential men, of no rank or conspicuous ability. On the other hand, worshipping crowds proclaimed the greatness of Diana of the Ephesians, and the power of the Roman Empire was at its height, or seemed so, with the whole of the civilized world owning its sway. And now that worlds wonder, the temple at Ephesus, is a pile of ruins, and over the Roman power such changes have passed that it has utterly faded out of existence; but the doctrines of the Galilean, who claimed to be the Incarnate Word of God, are daily extending their influence, proving their vitality to be Divine.

But though in his language he has seemed to mark the superiority of the Gospel message, the Apostle is deeply conscious that the office of the preacher has much, nay, its chief character, in common with that of the prophet. Hence he proceeds to call the Gospel message, now that it is left to the lips of Evangelists and Apostles to proclaim, a saying like that of Isaiah. In this way he links the New Testament to the Old, the prophet to the preacher. Both spake the same word of God; both were moved by the same spirit; both proclaimed the same deliverance, the one looking onward in hope to the coming Redeemer, the other proclaiming that the redemption had been accomplished. "This is the telling" (the saying) "of good tidings which was preached unto you." Here Peter seems to allude to a preaching earlier than his own, and to none can we attribute the evangelization of these parts of Asia with more probability than to St. Paul and his missionary colleagues. But there was no note of disagreement between these early ambassadors of Christ. They could all say of their work, "Whether it were I or they, so we preached, and so ye believed." Having spoken of the seed, the Apostle now turns to the seed plot which needs its special preparation. It must be cleared and broken up, or the seed, though scattered, will have small chance of roothold.

But here St. Peter recurs to his former metaphor. He has spoken {1Pe_1:13} of the Christians equipment, how with girded loins he should prepare himself for the coming struggle. He now speaks of what he must lay aside. He has been purified, or made to long after purification, through his obedience to the truth, so that he can with earnest desire seek to make known his love to the brethren; and the word of God is powerful to overcome such dispositions as are destructive of brotherly love. Hence it is to no hopeless, unaided conflict that the Apostle urges his converts when he writes of their "putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings." It is a formidable list of evils, but St. Peters words treat them as forming no part of the true man. These are overgrowths, which can be stripped away, though the operation will many a time be painful enough; they have enveloped and enclosed the sinner, and cling close about him, but the sanctification of the Spirit can help him to be unclothed of them all. They are the forces which make for discord. The word of good tidings began with "peace on earth, good will towards men." Hence those who hearken to the message must put away everything contrary thereto. First in the Apostles enumeration stands a general term, wickedness, those which follow it being various forms of its development. We learn how utterly alien this wickedness is to the spirit of Christ when we notice the employment of the word to describe the sin of Simon: "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right before God". {Act_8:22} Such a man had no comprehension of the source of the Apostolic powers; the sacred things of God were unknown to one who could treat such gifts as merchandise. And it is full of interest in the present connection to observe that what our English Version there renders "matter" is really, as the margin (R.V.) shows, "word." It was the word of God which was mighty in the first preachers, which was growing and prevailing as they testified unto Christ, and in this "word" a heart like Simons could have no share. He was no fit member of the fellowship of Christ. Guile was the sin of Jacob, a sin which brake the bond of brotherhood between him and Esau, and wrought so much misery in the whole of Jacobs family history. Guile was not found in Nathanael. The searching eye of Jesus saw that the sin of the "supplanter" was not in him. Hence he is pointed out as an example of the true Israel, that which the race of Jacob was intended to become.

That hypocrisy is a foe to brotherhood our Lord makes evident as he reproaches the Pharisees for this sin. "I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, nor even as this publican," are words which could never rise to the lips of him whose heart was purified by the Spirit of God; and envy brings hatred in its train. It was by envy that Saul was incited to seek the death of David; it was from envy that Josephs brethren sold him into Egypt; through envy a greater than Joseph was sold to be crucified, {Mat_27:18} and this sin led to war in heaven itself.

From evil-speaking these Asian converts themselves had to suffer, and would know by experience its mischievous effects. They were spoken against as evil-doers, as the Apostle notes twice over. {1Pe_2:12} This evil adds cowardice to its other baneful qualities, for it takes advantage of the absence of him against whom it is directed, and is that vice which in 2Co_12:20 is described as backbiting, a rendering which the Revised Version leaves undisturbed, while those who indulge in it are called backbiters. {Rom_1:30} St. James has much to say in its dispraise: "Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother or judgeth his brother speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law." {Jam_4:11} Such a one is intruding into the prerogative of God Himself, and passing sentence where he can have no sure knowledge of the acts which he judges. "Evil-speaking," says one of the Apostolic Fathers, "is a restless demon, never at peace. So speak no evil of any, nor take pleasure in listening thereto." By good works St. Peter instructs his converts to live down such cowardly slanders, that those who revile their good manner of life in Christ may be put to shame thereby. Purity will overcome iniquity, innocence gain the day against deceit.

But the transformation to which the Apostle exhorts them must be verily to become a new creation, and so he goes on to speak of their condition as one akin to that of newborn babes. These, by natural instincts, turn away from all that will hurt them, and seek only what can nourish and support. To such right inclinations, to such simplicity of desire, must the Christian be brought. He has been born again of the word of God. From this he is to seek his constant nurture, as instinctively as the babe turns to its mothers breast. This is able to save the soul, {Jam_1:21} but it cannot be received unless the vices which war against it be put away, and a spirit of meekness take their place. They seek other and less pure food for their support.

Christians are to long for the spiritual milk which is without guile. This food for babes in Christ is the word, which is taken by the Spirit and offered a nurture for the soul. But there must be a longing for, a readiness to accept, what is offered. For the spiritual appeals to the reason of man, and though offered, is not forced on him. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. And the purification, the clearing off and putting away corrupt dispositions, about which the Apostle speaks so earnestly, applies an eye-salve to the inward vision which helps us to see things in their true light, and so to long for what is really profitable food without guile, which does not disappoint the hope of those that seek it. "That ye may grow thereby unto salvation." It is called the word of salvation. "To you," says St. Paul to the men of Antioch, {Act_13:26} is the word of this salvation sent forth; and through it is proclaimed the remission of sins. The healthy condition of the life of the soul is evidenced by these two signs: longing for proper food and growth by partaking thereof. For there is no standing still in spiritual life, any more than in the natural life.

Where there is no growth, decay has already set in; if there be no waxing of the powers, they have already begun to wane. To the natural human growth there must needs come this waning; the body will decay: but the spiritual increase can continue, must continue, until the stature of the fullness of Christ be attained, till we come to be made like unto Him when we see Him as He is. Watch, then, strive and pray for growth, "if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." The true food once found and appreciated, the joy of this support will be such that no other will ever be desired. Hence St. Peter adopts, or rather adapts, the words of the Psalmist {Psa_34:9} who tells of the blessedness of trusting in the Lord. The angels of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and setteth them free. This is the initial stage: the deliverance from the power of evil. Then come the desire and longing for the true strength. "O taste and see that the Lord is gracious; blessed is the man that findeth refuge in Him." The joy of such a refuge can come even to those who are suffering after the fashion of the Asian converts. But the Psalmists words are full of teaching. Gods training is empirical. Spiritual experience comes before spiritual knowledge. Well does St. Bernard say of this lesson, though his words pass the power of translation, "Unless you have tasted you will not see. The food is the hidden manna; it is the new name which no one knows but he who receives it. It is not external training, but the unction of the Spirit, which teaches; it is not knowledge (scientia) which grasps the truth, but the conscience (conscientia) which attests it."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

1:22–2:3 Following his call for holiness (1:13-21), Peter specifies how believers must live in a loving way with fellow Christians.

1:22 must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters: Literally must have brotherly love. See study note on 5:9.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Pe 1:22. Τὰς ψυχὰς, your souls) Without the copula, as 1Pe 1:14-15.—ἡγνικότες, ye who have purified) who have undergone purification of your souls. Hence follows presently καθαρᾶς, pure. The word ἁγνίζειν denotes both chastity and all other purity. See Septuagint.—ὑπακοῇ, in obedience) This is faith, to which love is accustomed to be joined: for Peter attributes purification to faith, Act 15:9.—τῆς ἀληθείας, of the truth) revealed in Christ.—διὰ Πνεύματος, by the Spirit) The Holy Spirit bestows that obedience and purity. Comp. ch. 1Pe 1:2.—εἰς φιλαδελφίαν—ἀγαπήσατε, unto love of the brethren—love ye) These are two steps: comp. 2Pe 1:7; from which the statements concerning the graces which go before [these two steps of love], here in the 22d verse, and there in 5th and 6th, may in like manner be compared.—ἀνυπόκριτον, unfeigned) For it flows from the truth. Comp. ch. 1Pe 2:1-2.—ἀγαπήσατε, love ye) The sentiments agree, ch. 1Pe 2:3; 1Pe 2:10.—ἐκτενῶς, earnestly) ch. 1Pe 4:8.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe_1:22. From 1Pe_1:22 to 1Pe_1:25 the third exhortation,[99] and its subject is love one of another. Gerhard incorrectly joins this verse with verse 17, and regards 1Pe_1:18-21 as a parenthesis.

τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν ἡγνικότες] The participle does not here express the accomplished act as the basis of the exhortation, as if it were: after that ye, or since ye, have purified (Bengel, Wiesinger), but it stands closely linked on to the imperative, and denotes the duty which must ever be fulfilled (hence the perf.) if the ἀγαπᾶν is to be realized (de Wette-Brückner, Schott, Fronmüller);[100] Luther inexactly: make chaste … and, etc.

ἁγνίζειν, a religious idea denoting in the first instance the outward, and afterwards the inward consecration and sanctifying also (cf. Joh_11:55; Act_21:24; Act_21:26; Act_24:18); in passages too, as here, where it expresses moral cleansing from all impurity (here more especially from selfishness), it does not lose its religious significance; cf. Jam_4:8; 1Jn_3:3.[101]

ἘΝ Τῇ ὙΠΑΚΟῇ Τῆς ἈΛΗΘΕΊΑς] Ἡ ἈΛΉΘΕΙΑ is the truth revealed and expressed in the gospel in all its fulness. Calvins limitation of the idea is arbitrary: veritatem accipit pro regula, quam nobis Dominus in evangelio praescribit.

ὑπακοή, not faith (Wiesinger), but obedience. The genitive is not the gen. subj.: the obedience which the truth begets, but the gen. obj.: obedience to the truth. This ὙΠΑΚΟΉ, however, consists in believing what the truth proclaims, and in performing what it requires (thus Weiss also).

The preposition ἐν exhibits ὙΠΑΚΟΉ as the element in which the Christian must move in order to procure the sanctification of his soul.

If the reading ΔΙᾺ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΟς be adopted, the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ is not the human spirit, but the Spirit of God; Luther incorrectly: that the apostle here means to observe that the word of God must not only be heard and read, but be laid hold of with the heart.

εἰς φιλαδελφίαν ἀνυπόκριτον] does not belong to the ἈΓΑΠΉΣΑΤΕ following, either as denoting the terminus of love, and the sense being: diligite vos in fraternam caritatem, i.e. in unum corpus fraternae caritatis; or as: διά (Oecumenius), and thus pointing out the agency by which; nor, finally, is it embatic: ita ut omnibus manifestum fiat, vos esse invicem fratres (Gerhard);but it is to be taken in conjunction with ἩΓΝΙΚΌΤΕς, and specifies the aim towards which the ἉΓΝΊΖΕΙΝ is to be directed. Sanctification towards love, by the putting away of all selfishness, must ever precede love itself.

ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΊΑ] love of the brethren peculiar to Christians, cf. 2Pe_1:7; Rom_12:9-10; 1Th_4:9.

With ἈΝΥΠΌΚΡΙΤΟς, cf. 1Jn_3:18, where true unfeigned love is described.

ἘΚ (ΚΑΘΡᾶς) ΚΑΡΔΊΑς] is not to be joined with what precedes,it being thus a somewhat cumbrous adjunct,but with what follows, setting forth in relief an essential element of love; with the expression ἘΚ ΚΑΡΔΊΑς, cf. Rom_6:17; Mat_18:35 (ἈΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΚΑΡΔΙῶΝ ὙΜῶΝ); on the Rec. ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας, see 1Ti_1:5.[102]

ἈΛΛΉΛΟΥς ἈΓΑΠΉΣΑΤΕ ἘΚΤΕΝῶς] ἈΓΑΠᾶΝ is not to be limited, as Wiesinger proposes, to the manifestation of love in act; the passages, chap. 1Pe_4:8, 1Jn_3:18, do not justify this limitation.

ἘΚΤΕΝῶς, with strained energies; it denotes here the persevering intensity of love (in like manner Weiss, p. 336; Fronmüller, Hofmann); Luther translates ardently; Schott without any reason asserts that in all the N. T. passages the word is used only in the temporal sense of duration, and therefore is so to be taken here; Luk_22:24, Act_12:5; Act_26:7, 1Pe_4:8, are evidence not for, but against Schotts assertion. The chief emphasis lies not on ἀγαπήσατε, but on ἘΚ (ΚΑΘΑΡᾶς) ΚΑΡΔΊΑς and ἘΚΤΕΝῶς.

[99] Hofmann, without any sufficient reason, supposes the third exhortation to begin with ver. 18, although the amplifications contained in vv. 1821 serve eminently to inculcate the preceding exhortation. The expression εἰδότες can be joined either with a preceding or a subsequent idea, yet it must be observed that in the N. T. the first combination is more frequent than the second, and that in the latter case εἰδότες is always accompanied by a particle, by which it is marked as the first word of a subsequent set of phrases; Hofmann altogether overlooks this. Here undoubtedly καί would have been prefixed to εἰδότες.

[100] Hofmann declares himself opposed to both of these interpretations, or rather he seeks to unite them after a fashion, by assuming that the participial clause partakes of the imperative tone of the principal clause. He likewise characterizes personal purification, presupposed by that love which is ever and anon manifested, as that which should have been accomplished once for all (as if it were possible to command that something should have taken place); he then adds that he who has not yet dedicated his soul to brotherly love must do so still(!).

[101] Schott leaves this religious reference entirely unnoticed. He states that the original meaning of the word ἁγνός, is that purity of mind which regards one thing only as the foundation and aim of all practical lifethe truly moral. Cremer, too, thinks that although originally it had the religious sense to dedicate, it is (Joh_11:55, Act_21:24; Act_21:26; Act_24:18 excepted) as a term, techn. foreign to the N. T., and is here only equal to to purify, to cleanse (without the secondary meaning to dedicate).

[102] This participial clause joins itself naturally with what precedes, and is not, with Hofmann, to be taken with what follows (chap. 1Pe_2:1); ἀποθέμενοι, as οὖν shows, begins a new sentence. The connection proposed by Hofmann would give rise to a very clumsy phraseology. Were it true that regeneration has nothing to do with brotherly love, then of course neither has it anything to do with the laying aside of those lusts which are opposed to love, spoken of in chap. 1Pe_2:1. Hofmann says, indeed, that 1Pe_2:1 describes the contraries of ἁπλότης (childlike simplicity), not of φιλαδελφία; but is not the opposite of the one the opposite of the other also? The construction in Rom_13:1 ff. is only in appearance similar to that which Hofmann understands as occurring here.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 1:22-25 . The combination of purification of souls with love of the brotherhood suggests that the temptations to relapses were due to former intimacies and relationships which were not overcome by the spiritual brotherhood which they entered. Different grades of society were doubtless represented in all Christian churches and those who were marked out for leaders by their wealth and position were naturally slow to love the slaves and outcasts. As at Corinth old intimacies and congenial society led the better classes (1Pe 4:3 f.) to fall back on the clubs to which they had belonged and in the company of their equals to sneer at their new brothers “the brethren” (1Pe 2:1 ). St. Peter reminds them that they must purify their souls from the taint with a side-glance perhaps at the rites proper to the associations in question. They must love the brotherhood and its members as such. Earthly relationships are done away by their regeneration; they have exchanged the flesh for the spirit. The section is full of echoes; compare ἡγνικότες with ἅγιοι (15), ἐν ἁγιασμῷ (2), τῇ ὑπακοῇ with τέκνα ὑ . (14), ἀναγεγεννημένοι with ἀναγεννήσας (3), φθαρτῆς with φθαρτοῖς (18), εὐαγγελισθέν with τῶν εὐαγγελισαμένων (12). It should be compared throughout with Eph 4:18-24 . τὰς … ἡγνικότες from Jer 6:16 ,“ see what is the good way and walk in it and you shall find purification ( ἁγνισμόν LXX) to your souls . ἁ . usually of ceremonial purification in LXX. Compare Jas 4:8 , ἁγνίσατε καρδίας δίψυχοι ( cf. ἀνυπόκριτον ). The perfect participle is used as indicating the ground of the admonition, so ἀναγεγεννημένοι (23). Pagan rites professed to purify the worshipper but cannot affect the soul, the self or the heart any more than the Jewish ceremonies can (Heb 9:9 f.). Scripture declares ὁ φόβος Κυρίου ἁγνός (Psa 19:10 ). They must realise that they have cleansed themselves ideally at baptism, cf. 1Jn 3:3 ; 1Jn 3:15 f. above with context. ἐν τῇ ὑπακοῇ τῆς ἀληθείας , in your obedience to the truth, cf. Jer. l.c. above. They are no longer ignorant (14) but have learned the truth ( cf. Joh 17:17-19 , and γνώσεσθε τὴν ἀ ., Joh 8:32 ) from the missionaries. They must persist in the obedience to it which they then professed, in contrast with those who are disobedient to the truth (Rom 2:8 ; cf. 2Th 2:12 ). Hortsays: “St. Peter rather means the dependence of Christian obedience on the possession of the truth,” relying on Eph 4:24 , and the probability that “St. Peter would have distinctly used some such language as ἐν τῷ ὑπακούειν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ ”. In regard to the latter point it should be observed that St. Peter is curiously fond of using nouns instead of verbs ( e g. , 2). εἰς φιλαδελφίαν , love of the brethren , Vulgate, in fraternitalis amore , mutual love which exists between brothers. It is the primary Christian duty, Mat 23:8 , the first fruits of their profession of which St. Paul has no need to remind the Thessalonians, 1Th 4:9 . ἀνυπόκριτον , unfeigned , contrasted with the love which they professed towards their fellow Christians ( cf. 1Pe 2:1 ) which was neither hearty nor eager. There was pretence among them whether due to imperfect sympathy of Jew for Gentile or of wealthy and honourable Gentiles for those who were neither the one nor the other. For a vivid illustration of this feigning see Jas 2:15 f. and 1Pe 2:1-5 , etc., for the friction between rich and poor. ἀλλήλους ἀγαπήσατε . St. John’s summary of the teaching of Jesus (Joh 13:34 f., Joh 15:12 ; Joh 15:17 ) which he repeated in extreme old age at Ephesus, till the disciples were weary of it: “Magister quare semper hoc loqueris”. His answer was worthy of him: “Quia praeceptum Domini est et si solum fiat sufficit (Hieron. in Gal 6:10 ). ἐκτενῶς , intentius (Vulg.), in LXX of “ strong crying to God” (Jon 3:8 = בחזקה violently, cf. Jdg 4:12 ; Joe 1:14 ; 3Ma 5:9 : in Polybius of a warm commendation (xxxi. 22, 12) a warm and friendly welcome (viii. 21, 1), a warm and magnificent reception (xxxiii. 16 4).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He commendeth the practice of obedience, that is, charity: earnestly beating into their heads again, that he speaketh not of any common charity, and such as proceedeth from that our corrupt nature, but of that whose beginning is the Spirit of God, which purifieth our souls through the word laid hold on by faith, and engendereth also in us a spiritually and everlasting life, as God is most pure and truly living.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

purified . . . in obeying the truth--Greek, "in your (or 'the') obedience of (that is, 'to') the truth (the Gospel way of salvation)," that is, in the fact of your believing. Faith purifies the heart as giving it the only pure motive, love to God (Act 15:9; Rom 1:5, "obedience to the faith").

through the Spirit--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. The Holy Spirit is the purifier by bestowing the obedience of faith (Pe1 1:2; Co1 12:3).

unto--with a view to: the proper result of the purifying of your hearts by faith. "For what end must we lead a chaste life? That we may thereby be saved? No: but for this, that we may serve our neighbor" [LUTHER].

unfeigned-- Pe1 2:1-2, "laying aside . . . hypocrisies . . . sincere."

love of the brethren--that is, of Christians. Brotherly love is distinct from common love. "The Christian loves primarily those in Christ; secondarily, all who might be in Christ, namely, all men, as Christ as man died for all, and as he hopes that they, too, may become his Christian brethren" [STEIGER]. BENGEL remarks that as here, so in Pe2 1:5-7, "brotherly love" is preceded by the purifying graces, "faith, knowledge, and godliness," &c. Love to the brethren is the evidence of our regeneration and justification by faith.

love one another--When the purifying by faith into love of the brethren has formed the habit, then the act follows, so that the "love" is at once habit and act.

with a pure heart--The oldest manuscripts read, "(love) from the heart."

fervently--Greek, "intensely": with all the powers on the stretch (Pe1 4:8). "Instantly" (Act 26:7).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls] Having purified your souls, in obeying the truth-by believing in Christ Jesus, through the influence and teaching of the Spirit; and giving full proof of it by unfeigned love to the brethren; ye love one another, or ye will love each other, with a pure heart fervently. These persons, First, heard the truth, that is, the Gospel; thus called in a great variety of places in the New Testament, because it contains THE truth without mixture of error, and is the truth and substance of all the preceding dispensations by which it was typified. Secondly, they obeyed that truth, by believing on Him who came into the world to save sinners. Thirdly, through this believing on the Son of God, their hearts were purified by the word of truth applied to them by the Holy Spirit. Fourthly, the love of God being shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, they loved the brethren with pure hearts fervently, εκτενως, intensely or continually; the full proof that their brotherly love was unfeigned, φιλαδελφιαν ανυποκριτον, a fraternal affection without hypocrisy.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22 Seeing ye have purified your souls, or, Purifying your souls. Erasmus badly renders the words, “Who have purified,” etc. For Peter does not declare what they had done, but reminds them of what they ought to do. The participle is indeed in the past tense, but it may be rendered as a gerund, “By purifying, etc.” The meaning is, that their souls would not be capable of receiving grace until they were purified, and by this our uncleanness is proved. But that he might not seem to ascribe to us the power of purifying our souls, he immediately adds, through the Spirit; as though he had said, “Your souls are to be purified, but as ye cannot do this, offer them to God, that he may take away your filth by his Spirit.” He only mentions souls, though they needed to be cleansed also from the defilements of the flesh, as Paul bids the Corinthians, (2 Corinthians 7:1;) but as the principal uncleanness is within, and necessarily draws with it that which is outward, Peter was satisfied with mentioning only the former, as though he had said, that not outward actions only ought to be corrected, but the very hearts ought to be thoroughly reformed.

He afterwards points out the manner, for purity of soul consists in obedience to God. Truth is to be taken for the rule which God prescribes to us in the Gospel. Nor does he speak only of works, but rather faith holds here the primacy. Hence Paul specially teaches us in the first and last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that faith is that by which we obey God; and Peter in Acts, the fifteenth chapter, bestows on it this eulogy, that God by it purifies the heart.

Unto love of the brethren, or, Unto brotherly love. He briefly reminds us what God especially requires in our life, and the mark to which all our endeavors should be directed. So Paul in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, when speaking of the perfection of the faithful, makes it to consist in love. And this is what we ought the more carefully to notice, because the world makes its own sanctity to consist of the veriest trifles, and almost overlooks this the chief thing. We see how the Papists weary themselves beyond measure with thousand invented superstitions: in the meantime, the last thing is that love which God especially commends. This, then, is the reason why Peter calls our attention to it, when speaking of a life rightly formed.

He had before spoken of the mortification of the flesh, and of our conformity with the will of God; but he now reminds us of what God would have us to cultivate through life, that is, mutual love towards one another; for by that we testify also that we love God; and by this evidence God proves who they are who really love him.

He calls it unfeigned, (ἀνυπόκριτον), as Paul calls faith in 1 Timothy 1:5; for nothing is more difficult than to love our neighbors in sincerity. For the love of ourselves rules, which is full of hypocrisy; and besides, every one measures his love, which he shews to others, by his own advantage, and not by the rule of doing good. He adds, fervently; for the more slothful we are by nature, the more ought every one to stimulate himself to fervor and earnestness, and that not only once, but more and more daily.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(22) Purified your souls in obeying.—Bengel well points us to 2Pe_1:5-7, where, in like manner, St. Peter delights to exhibit gradations of grace. “Obeying the truth” here will correspond to “knowledge” there, with its immediate consequences of “self-mastery,” “endurance,” and “reverence;” after which we pass on to “love of the brethren,” and thence, as to a higher grace, to “love” or “charity.” On this last point see Note on 1Th_4:9. Perhaps the literal “in the obedience of the truth” (i.e., the Christian gospel) does not exactly coincide with “obeying the truth,” as implying rather “the obedience (to God) which the truth (i.e., the knowledge of the truth) demands.” Truth has a claim, not only to be accepted intellectually, as truth, but to alter moral conduct in accordance (comp. Joh_17:17): a doctrine which lies at the bottom of the Socratic maxim, “Virtue is knowledge.” That Socratic maxim, however, does not sufficiently take into account the inertness of the will to act on principle; and no doubt it was under some such instinct that some copyist first added as a gloss the words (not found in the original text) “through the Spirit.” The first effect of such knowledge of the truth, under the Spirit’s influence, is to “purify” the soul of selfish aims, and to give it that “altruism” (as they call it now), or desire for the benefit of the community rather than self, which is here described as “love of the brethren.” (See Notes on 1Th_3:13; 1Th_4:6.)

Unfeigned love of the brethren.—The epithet “unfeigned,” in itself, would suggest that St. Peter was uneasy about the depth of their brotherly kindness. And the brotherly kindness is here, as usual, attachment to other members of the Church, special point being added to the word here because of the notion of regeneration running through the whole passage. (See 1Pe_1:14.) Is it not possible that some coolness had arisen between the Jewish and Gentile members of the Church, and that St. Peter finds it necessary to remind the former that they are truly brethren, sons of one Father, and that they ought not only unaffectedly to have done with all jealousy of the Gentile members, but to be far beyond that, loving one another “from the heart (the word ‘pure’ is not part of the original text, and interrupts the run of the sentence) strenuously?”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. Seeing ye have purified your souls] It may be noted that the use of the Greek verb “purify,” in this spiritual sense, is peculiar to St Peter, and to his friends St James (Jas_4:8) and St John (1Jn_3:3). In Joh_11:55, Act_21:24; Act_21:26; Act_24:18, it is found in its ceremonial significance. In Act_15:9 and Tit_2:14, the Greek verb is different. The purity implied is prominently, as commonly with the cognate adjective, freedom from sensual lust, but includes within its range freedom from all forms of selfishness. The instrument by which, or the region in which, this work of purification is to be accomplished, is found in “obedience to the truth;” the Truth standing here for the sum and substance of the revelation of God in Christ.

unto unfeigned love of the brethren] The Greek noun which answers to the last four words is, in its wide range of meaning, almost, if not altogether, a coinage of Christian thought. The names of Ptolemy Philadelphus (= the lover of his brother) and of the city of Philadelphia (Rev_3:7) had probably given a wide currency to the adjective. St Paul uses it in Rom_12:10, 1Th_4:9, St Peter here and in 2Pe_1:7. The general bearing of the passage runs parallel to St Paul’s “the end of the commandment is charity (better, love) out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned” (1Ti_1:5).

love one another with a pure heart fervently] The better MSS. omit “pure” which may have been inserted from a reminiscence of 1Ti_1:5. The adverb is strictly “intensely” rather than “fervently.” It is noticeable that the only other passage in which it meets us in the New Testament is in Act_12:5, where it, or the cognate adjective, is used of the prayer offered by the Church for St Peter.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seeing ye have purified your souls,.... The apostle passes to another exhortation, namely, to brotherly love; the ground of which he makes to be, the purification of their souls; and which supposes that they had been impure; and indeed, their whole persons, souls and bodies, were so by nature; even all the members of their bodies, and all the powers and faculties of their souls: it is internal purity, purity of the heart, that is here particularly respected; though not to the exclusion of outward purity, for where there is the former, there will be the latter; but there may be an external purity, where there is not the inward one: this the apostle ascribes to the saints themselves, but not without the grace of God, the blood of Christ, and the operations of his Spirit; as appears by a following clause; but they are said to purify themselves, inasmuch as having the grace of faith bestowed on them, they were enabled, under the influences of the Spirit of God, to exercise it on the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin:

in obeying the truth; of the Gospel, by receiving, believing, and embracing it in the love of it; which teaches outward purity, and is a means in the hand of the spirit of inward purity, and of directing to the purifying blood of Jesus, who sanctifies and cleanses by the word:

through the Spirit; this clause is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and some others, and in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, but is in the Arabic version, and ought to be retained; for, as Christ died to purify to himself a peculiar people, the Spirit of Christ does from him purify the heart by faith in his blood; by sprinkling that on the conscience, and by leading the faith of God's people to the fountain of it, to wash it for sin, and for uncleanness; even both their consciences and their conversation, garments; whereby they obtain inward and outward purity:

unto unfeigned love of the brethren; which is the end of sanctification, and an evidence of it; when the saints are loved as brethren, and because such; and with a love without dissimulation, not in word and in tongue only, but in deed and in truth: this being the case, the exhortation follows:

see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: this is Christ's new commandment, and the evidence of regeneration; a distinguishing badge of Christianity, and without which all profession of religion is a vain and empty thing: this should he mutual and cordial; should proceed from the heart, and from an heart sprinkled from an evil conscience; and should be with warmth and fervency, and not with coldness and indifference; though the word here used, may not only design the intenseness of it, but the extensiveness of it also; as that it should reach to all the saints, the poor as well as the rich, and the lesser as well as the greater and more knowing believers; and likewise may denote the continuance of it; it ought to be continually exercised, and to last always; and so the Arabic version renders it, "with a perpetual love".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Ver. 22. Ye have purified] Animabus vestris castificatis. A metaphor from the legal purifications.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seeing ye have purified your souls - Greek, “Having purified your souls.” The apostles were never afraid of referring to human agency as having an important part in saving the soul Compare 1Co 4:15. No one is made pure without personal intention or effort - any more than one becomes accomplished or learned without personal exertion. One of the leading effects of the agency of the Holy Spirit is to excite us to make efforts for our own salvation; and there is no true piety which is not the fair result of culture, as really as the learning of a Person, or the harvest of the farmer. The amount of effort which we make “in purifying our souls” is usually also the measure of our attainments in religion. No one can expect to have any true piety beyond the amount of effort which he makes to be conformed to God, any more than one can expect wealth, or fame, or learning, without exertion.

In obeying the truth - That is, your yielding to the requirements of truth, and to its fair influence on your minds, has been the means of your becoming pure. The truth here referred to is, undoubtedly, that which is revealed in the gospel - the great system of truth respecting the redemption of the world.

Through the Spirit - By the agency of the Holy Spirit. It is his office to apply truth to the mind; and however precious the truth may be, and however adapted to secure certain results on the soul, it will never produce those effects without the influences of the Holy Spirit. Compare Tit 3:5-6; the notes at Joh 3:5.

Unto unfeigned love of the brethren - The effect of the influence of the Holy Spirit in applying the truth has been to produce sincere love to all who are true Christians. Compare the Joh 13:34 note; 1Th 4:9 note. See also 1Jo 3:14-18.

See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently - Compare the Heb 13:1 note; Joh 13:34-35 notes; Eph 5:2 note. The phrase “with a pure heart fervently,” means:

(1)That it should be genuine love proceeding from a heart in which there is no guile or hypocrisy; and,

(2)That it should be intense affection, (ἐκτενῶς ektenōs;) not cold and formal, but ardent and strong.

If there is any reason why we should love true Christians at all, there is the same reason why our attachment to them should be intense. This verse establishes the following points:

(1) That truth was at the foundation of their piety. They had none of which this was not the proper basis; and in which the foundation was not as broad as the superstructure. There is no religion in the world which is not the fair developement of truth; which the truth is not suited to produce.

(2) They became Christians as the result of obeying the truth; or by yielding to its fair influence on the soul. Their own minds complied with its claims; their own hearts yielded; there was the exercise of their own volitions. This expresses a doctrine of great importance:

There is always the exercise of the powers of the mind in true religion; always a yielding to truth; always a voluntary reception of it into the soul. Religion is always of the nature of obedience. It consists in yielding to what is true and right; in laying aside the feelings of opposition, and in allowing the mind to follow where truth and duty lead. This would always take place when the truth is presented to the mind, if there were no voluntary resistance. If all people were ready to yield to the truth, they would become Christians. The only reason why all people do not love and serve God is that they refuse to yield to what they know to be true and right.

(3) The agency by which this was accomplished was that of the Holy Spirit. Truth is adapted in itself to a certain end or result, as seed is adapted to produce a harvest. But it will no more of itself produce its appropriate effects on the soul, than seed will produce a harvest without rains, and dews, and suns. In all cases, therefore, the proper effect of truth on the soul is to be traced to the influence of the Holy Spirit, as the germination of the seed in the earth is to the foreign cause that acts on it. No man was ever converted by the mere effect of truth without the agency of the Holy Spirit, any more than seed germinates when laid upon a hard rock.

(4) The effect of this influence of the Holy Spirit in applying the truth is to produce love to all who are Christians. Love to Christian brethren springs up in the soul of everyone who is truly converted: and this love is just as certain evidence that the seed of truth has germinated in the soul, as the green and delicate blade that peeps up through the earth is evidence that the seed sown has been quickened into life. Compare the 1Th 4:9 note; 1Jo 3:14 note. We may learn hence:

(a)That truth is of inestimable value. It is as valuable as religion itself, for all the religion in the world is the result of it.

Error and falsehood are mischievous and evil in the same degree. There is no true religion which is the fair result of error; and all the pretended religion that is sustained by error is worthless. If a system of religion, or a religious measure or doctrine, cannot be defended by truth, it should be at once abandoned. Compare the notes at Job 13:7. We should avoid the places where error is taught. Pro 19:27, “cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” We should place ourselves under the teachings of truth, for there is truth enough in the world to occupy all our time and attention; and it is only by truth that our minds can be benefitted.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Your souls; i.e. yourselves; the whole person is implied, the soul being the principal part.

In obeying the truth; in subjecting yourselves to the truth of the gospel, by faith, to which the purification of the heart is ascribed, Act 15:9, not only as to justification, and purging away the guilt of sin, but as to sanctification, and cleansing from the defilement of it: q.d. Seeing ye have begun to purify your hearts by faith in Christ, set forth in the gospel, and made sanctification to them that believe, 1Co 1:30.

Through the Spirit; by the operation of the Spirit working faith in you.

Unto unfeigned love of the brethren; without hypocrisy, and which is not in word only, but in deed and in truth, 1Jo 3:18. Love to the brethren in Christ, and for Christ’s sake. This notes one great end of our sanctification, viz. the exercise of brotherly love, whereby our love to God is likewise manifested, when we love them upon his acconut. The whole clause may likewise be understood, as an exhortation to purify themselves more and more by faith, that so they might (being purged from carnal affections) be the better able, and more disposed, to love one another.

Love one another with a pure heart; as the source and fountain of your love to each other, and from whence it proceeds, 1Ti 1:5; 2Ti 2:22.

Fervently; or, vehemently, and intensely, strongly. The word seems to be a metaphor taken from a bow, which the more it is bent, with the greater force it sends forth the arrow; so love, the more fervent and strong it is, the more abundantly it puts forth itself for the benefit of others.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Having purified your souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit, who bestows upon you freely, both obedience and purity of heart, and unfeigned love of the brethren, go on to still higher degrees of love. Love one another fervently - With the most strong and tender affection; and yet with a pure heart - Pure from any spot of unholy desire or inordinate passion.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The quality of Christian love:

v. 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently

v. 23. being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

v. 24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away;

v. 25. but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

Just as earnestly as the apostle emphasized the necessity of faith and of unwavering trust in God, just so strongly he brings out the need of Christian love: Having your hearts purified in the obedience of the truth to unfeigned love of the brethren, from the heart love one another intently. The characteristic of faith is that it is obedient to the truth of the Gospel, that it is eager to give every manifestation of sonship towards God. This obedience of the Christians has purified their hearts from the former selfishness, from the natural love of self. They are able and willing now to show real, genuine, unfeigned love, without a trace of hypocrisy or affectation. But although this is true only in the same degree as a Christian has made progress in sanctification, yet the faculty, the ability, is there and is being fostered carefully by the Christians. Therefore they can and do accept the admonition of the apostle to love one another from their hearts, fervently, intently, assiduously. The argument is virtually this: Since you Christians can do it, since your faith has given you the ability to give proof of its existence in brotherly love, be sure to exercise this ability with all cheerful eagerness.

This love should appear in the entire life of the Christians on the basis of their regeneration: Since you are born again, not of perishable, but of imperishable seed, through the living and abiding Word of God. The new birth, which took place in us when God kindled faith in our hearts, is supposed to have effected a thorough purification of our hearts, has, in fact, done so, if our faith is of the right kind. And so the fruit of this faith will be a genuine, unselfish love for the brethren. Just why the fact of our regeneration should prove such a strong motive to us to give evidence of our faith in love is shown in the description of regeneration, when the apostle states that this new birth in our hearts is not the result of perishable, corruptible seed, as the growth of earthly plants would be, but of an incorruptible, imperishable seed, the Word of God, the Gospel of the Savior Jesus Christ. This Word of God is in itself living, full of life and of life-giving power. And it abides in eternity; even after the form of the Word, in Scripture and preaching, has passed away, the content of the Gospel will remain in eternity. Thus the life which is wrought in the hearts of men through the Gospel is a true, divine, and therefore imperishable life, and it will continue in the life of eternity.

The apostle substantiates the statement just made by a quotation from the Old Testament: For, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass dries up, and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord lasts forever. Isa 40:6-8. All flesh, all mankind, as it now exists, with its nature corrupted by sin, is like grass; and of the grass it is true that it withers, it dries up. All the handsomeness, the beauty, the glory which man is able to produce, with which he delights to boast; honor, art, culture, wisdom, virtue, righteousness: all is vain, without lasting value, subject to the same rapid change and decay as the flowers of the field that fall off even before the stalk is withered. They that trust in the things of this world will find themselves bitterly disappointed at the last. For only God’s Word has lasting value; it endures throughout eternity, it alone stands firm and unmoved in the midst of this world of death. If we but place our trust in this Word, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it will lift and take us safe through the uncertainty and decay and misery and wretchedness of this world to the eternal life of salvation. Once more, then, the apostle calls out: But this is the Word which in the Gospel is preached to you. If we place our trust in this Word, in this glorious Gospel, then we are safe here in time and hereafter in eternity.

Summary.After the address the apostle launches forth in a hymn of praise to God for the gifts of His grace in Christ Jesus, to which he adds an admonition to be firm in Christian hope, in sanctification, and in brotherly love, the motive being the regeneration through the Word of God.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The next duty which our apostle exhorts these Christians to, is the duty of brotherly love, to a gracious propensity of heart which a Christian bears for Christ’s sake to his neighbours, whereby he wills, and to his power procures, all good for him; a brotherly affection which every true Christian chiefly bears to all his fellow-members in Christ for grace sake. This duty of brotherly love is often urged and enforced by Christ and his apostles.

St. Peter here tells them, that seeing, by the power of Christ’s Spirit, and obedience of the gospel, they had purfied themselves in some measure from pride and self-love, they should now labour to grow in the fervency and sincerity of their love one towards another.

And the argument he uses to persuade them to love one another, is drawn from their relation to each other; they are all born again, and born alike; not brethern by corruptible generation only, but begotten of incorruptible seed, the word of God; therefore should they live in love together, as children of the same Father.

Note here, The commendation given go the word of God, not to any inward word infused, but the outward word preached, it is styled incorruptible seed; from whence it follows, that in the ministry of the word is the ordinary means of the new birth, and the instrumental cause of our regeneration: Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, the word of God.

Note farther, That such as are born of this incorruptible seed, ought to bear an incorruptible seed, ought to bear an incorruptible love to each other, as an evidence of their incorruptible and gracious nature: See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 6

REGENERATION AND SANCTIFICATION

22, 23. “Having purified your souls in obedience the truth unto brotherly love free from hypocrisy, love one another with divine love fervently out of the heart, having been born again not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the Word of God, who liveth and abideth.” Peter is a powerful exponent of the great double salvation which inundates the Bible from the alpha of Genesis to the omega of Revelation. In this isolated sentence, comprising two verses, he clearly, specifically, and unequivocally sets forth in their connection the two works of grace, i.e., regeneration and sanctification. The Word of God is here symbolized by the seed sown in the field, germinating and producing the abundant harvest. As none but God can make the seed sprout, so the Holy Spirit is the only Agent in regeneration. We preach the Word, which is the seed of the kingdom, and the Holy Spirit develops out of it divine life, thus raising the dead human soul into spiritual vitality. “Having purified your souls.” This is spoken of the regenerate who are now obedient to the truth revealed in God’s Word, and is a beautiful description of the modus operandi by which we are sanctified “through the truth,” pursuant to our Savior’s valedictory prayer, John 17. The Bible is a wonderful book, delectably beautiful in variety. In the plan of salvation, there is a perfect co-operation of the human and divine agency. In this passage the human is brought to the front and conspicuously emphasized. “Unto brotherly love free from hypocrisy.” Nothing but entire sanctification can fully and finally expurgate the heart from every tincture of hypocrisy, which is one of the most subtle emissaries of Satan, lurking clandestinely in the deep subterranean jungles of the fallen soul. “Love one another fervently out of the heart with divine love.” In the Greek Scriptures agapee, which never occurs in heathen literature, means divine love, i.e., the divine nature, for “God is love,” while philia always means “human love,” being the word used by the heathen Greek writers. Unfortunately, the English Scripture has obscured this great and valuable truth by translating agapee and philia simply by the same word, “love.” Myriads have been swept into the popular churches on a profession of love to God and the brethren, when it was nothing but human love, utterly destitute of salvation, as all wicked people have it, and even Dives in hell loved his brethren, so that he wanted to send them a missionary to save their souls. The divine agapee is never in a human heart till imparted by the Holy Ghost in regeneration. Rom 5:5.

24. In this verse we are exhorted, from the evanescence of the flower which blooms today and fades tomorrow, to remember the transiency of probationary opportunities, to be constantly on our watch towers looking out for the enemy, with our eye on Jesus, ready to go at His bidding and come at His beck, ever mindful that these fugitive days and years constitute our only opportunities to be regenerated into the kingdom of grace and sanctified for the realms of glory.

25. While this world with its emoluments and aggrandizements is fleeting as the falling leaf and fading flower, Peter reminds us that the Word of the Lord, the glorious Gospel, which it is our heaven-born privilege to proclaim to a dying world, will abide forever, judging us and all mankind when we stand before the flaming tribunal.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22–25. Seeing ye have purified your souls. The Greek verb rendered “purified,” occurs seven times in the New Testament. In four of these, John 11:55; Acts 21:24, 26; and 24:18, it refers to ceremonial purification. In the other three it refers to moral purification; the cleansing of the life from its sins. That seems to be the sense here. It refers not only to the forgiveness of sins but to the pure life that should follow. This purification is obtained in obeying the truth. That is, by obedience to the gospel. Through the Spirit. The Spirit is inseparable from the gospel. The gospel dispensation is that of the Spirit. See Acts 15:8, 9. Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. The Spirit of Christ in our hearts is the spirit of brotherly love. See that ye love. How can one profess to follow Christ unless he loves those for whom Christ died? With a pure heart. With a sincere heart.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

You made your souls pure

Here the word "soul" refers to the whole person. AT: "You made yourselves pure" (See: Synecdoche)

pure

Here the idea of cleanliness refers to being acceptable to God. (See: Metaphor)

by obedience to the truth

You can translate this using a verbal phrase. AT: "by obeying the truth" (See: Abstract Nouns)

brotherly love

This refers to love between fellow believers.

love one another earnestly from the heart

Here "heart" is a metonym for a person's thoughts or emotions. To love someone "from the heart" means to love some one completely with total commitment. AT: "love one another earnestly and completely" (See: Metonymy)

born again, not from perishable seed, but from imperishable seed

Possible meanings are that Peter speaks of the word of God either 1) as the seed of a plant that grows and produces new life in believers or 2) as the tiny cells inside a man or woman that combine to cause a baby to grow inside the woman. (See: Metaphor)

imperishable seed

seed that will not rot or dry up or die

through the living and remaining word of God

Peter speaks of God's word as if it were alive forever. In reality, it is God who lives forever, and whose instructions and promises last eternally. (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

soul

pure

obey

true

love

heart

born again

perish

seed

life

word of God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

22. St Peter continues his exhortation, which has been interrupted by a reminder to his readers of their high privilege (1Pe 1:18-21).

ἡγνικότες. The adjective ἁγνός in the O.T. means (a) ceremonially pure, free from defilement; (b) morally pure, which is its only meaning in the N.T. The verb ἁγνίζειν is nearly always used in the ceremonial sense in the O.T. and four times in the N.T., but here and in Jas 4:8, 1Jn 3:3 it denotes moral purification. In accepting baptism, St Peter implies, you symbolized your cleansing from defilement, you consecrated yourselves to God’s service. The perfect participle denotes the abiding consequences of a past action. You profess to be men who have purified and consecrated themselves.

ἐν τῇ ὑπακοῇ τῆς ἀληθείας, in virtue of your obedience which is prompted by the truth; cf. 1Pe 1:2, ἐν ἁγιασμῷ … εἰς ὑπακοήν. Your old life was one of ignorance (1Pe 1:14). Now God has revealed the truth to you, and the possession of that truth, telling you of your sonship to God, sets before you a standard of obedience, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” Your self-consecration consists in and depends on your obedience to that standard. It is meaningless unless you are τέκνα ὑπακοῆς.

εἰς φιλαδελφίαν. Self-consecration as obedient children of God necessarily pledges you to (εἰς) love of the brethren. φιλαδελφία does not mean merely “brotherly love,” but love of the Christian brotherhood; cf. 1Pe 2:17, and 1Jn 5:1. There can be no true sonship of God without true brotherhood with the other children of “Our Father.”

ἀνυπόκριτον. This love of our brethren in Christ must be no mere cant phrase, no unreal pretence. Cf. Rom 12:9, 2Co 6:6. It must spring from the heart and must be intense (ἐκτενῶς), not fitful or capricious, but steady and strenuous. For ἐκτενής, applied to love, cf. 1Pe 4:8, and to prayer cf. Luk 22:44, Act 12:5; cf. also Act 26:7.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22-25.] Third exhortation, to love of one another, from the consideration of their new birth by the word of God.

22.] Having purified (i. e. ‘seeing that ye have purified:’ the part. carries with it an inferential force as to the exhortation, and besides, assumes that as a fact to which it covertly exhorts. “Luther has rendered it, not exactly, but according to the sense: machet keusch … und …” Huther. ἁγνίζειν, of moral purification, as in ref.) your souls (the ψυχαί, as the centres of personality, though here described as purified by the persons themselves, yet are not so except by a process in which the whole person is employed: the habit of obedience) in (the course of: the region, in which the purification takes place) your obedience of (‘to,’ so that τῆς ἀλ. is gen. objective. It might be, obedience brought about by the truth, gen. subjective: but not so simply. ‘The truth’ is that of the Gospel of Christ in its largest sense, not merely as Calv., “regula, quam nobis Dominus in evangelio præscribit:” and ὑπακοὴ τῆς ἀληθείας nearly = ὑπ. (τῆς) πίστεως, Rom 1:5 and elsewhere. Compare St. Peter’s own saying, Act 15:9, τῇ πίστει καθαρίσας τὰς καρδίας αὐτῶν) the truth (see above), unto (‘with a view to,’ ‘in the direction of,’ it might be with or without intention: the legitimate tendency of that purification, which ought to have been going on in your souls, was toward) unfeigned (reff.) brotherly love (love of Christians towards one another: see reff.), love one another from the heart earnestly (καρδία is the seat of the affections: let the love come straight and pure from thence, not short of it, from any secondary purpose as its origin. ἐκτενῶς is proscribed by Phrynichus, p. 311, where see Lobeck’s note. But the adj. is not, as sometimes stated, a word of later Greek: we have ἐκτενὴς φίλος in Æsch. Suppl. 990. ‘Intente’ exactly gives the sense: with the energies on the stretch):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purified [ηγνικοτες] . The Septuagint translation of the Old - Testament technical term for the purification of the people and priests (Jos 3:5, 1Ch 14:12; 1Sa 16:5). Also, of the separation from wine and strong drink by the Nazarite (Num 6:2 - 6). In this ceremonial sense, Joh 11:55; Act 21:24, 26; Act 24:18. In the moral sense, as here, Jas 4:8; 1Jo 3:3. Compare kaqarisav, purifying, Act 14:9.

Obeying [υπακοη] . Rev., obedience. A peculiarly New Testament term unknown in classical Greek. In the Septuagint only 2Sa 22:36; rendered in A. V. gentleness. Rev., condescension, in margin.

Unfeigned [ανυποκριτον] . 'A, not, uJpokrithv, actor. The latter word is from uJpokrinesqai, to answer on the stage, and hence to play a part or to act. A hypocrite is, therefore, an actor.

With a pure heart [εκ καθαρας καρδιας] . The best texts reject kaqarav, pure. Render, therefore, as Rev., from the heart.

Fervently [εκτενως] . Used by Peter only, and only in this passage. He uses the kindred adjective ejktenhv, without ceasing, in Act 12:5, where the narrative probably came from him, and also at ch. 4 8; "fervent charity." The words are compounded with the verb teinw, to stretch, and signify intense strain; feeling on the rack.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.