Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Peter 1:22

"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:" — 1 Peter 1:22 (ASV)

In the third subdivision of this section on the Christian way of life, Peter adds to the command to be holy and to reverence God, the command to “love” (GK 26). He also gives two reasons for Christians to love one another. The first is that they have “purified” (GK 49) themselves, a word that is not common in the NT but denotes the moral purity that comes to Christians through the Gospel.

The means of this purification is “by obeying the truth” of the Gospel (cf. Acts 15:9; Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8). The Good News carries with it a command to repent and believe. In the early church, this was commonly tied to baptism. Not that the church believed that baptism itself saved; rather, it was the focal point of decision (cf. Acts 2:38). Being purified from sin enables Christians to show genuine family love for God’s children. Yet this love is not entirely a foregone conclusion, because it can be and is commanded.

This love is to be “from a pure heart” (see NIV note). So Peter exhorts Christians—because they are purified—to love fellow Christians purely and fervently. Love for non-Christians is not in view here, but of course it is also part of Christians’ obligations (cf. Matthew 5:44; Lk 6:27, 35). The NT teaches that there are different kinds of love and different emotions of love. Yet Christians are enabled to love all people with true Christian love—a self-sacrificing desire to meet the needs of others that finds expression in concrete acts (cf. 1Jn 3:14-18).