Font Size
Being God’s people means governing relationships by love. Close attention to Peter’s language will clarify what he has in mind when he calls his readers to love.
That he commands them to love one another already implies that love has essentially to do with one’s will and disposition rather than one’s emotions. Love is active goodwill or acting for the highest good of another person. Of course, “the highest good” must be understood in light of the good revealed by God in Christ. It is in this sense that Peter commands Christians to love one another.
As with holiness, however, the capacity to love is not natural. Rather, love is a capacity that Christians acquire when they receive life through the Gospel (1:23-25). Peter reminds them that when they were obedient to the truth of the Gospel they were purified so that they could genuinely love one another (1:22). Therefore, because they now have the capacity, they must love one another sincerely.
Of course, the love that governs relations among God’s people will preclude all unloving attitudes and actions. Every sort of evil, deceit, insincerity, and slander must be rejected (2:1). The love that works for another’s highest good in Christ cannot be invalidated by these typical and all too common features of human relationships.
Finally, love will order relations among God’s people consistently only as they are nurtured continuously by the life-giving and sustaining Word of God. The Word that purifies Christians for a life of love must be to them as milk is to the nursing infant (2:2). By constantly feeding upon God’s Word they will receive what they need to sustain mature relationships of love as they grow toward final salvation.
Wesleyans have described the capacity for and ascendancy of love in the Christian life with such expressions as “perfect love” and “Christian perfection.” The biblical content of these expressions comes into clear focus in the light of Peter’s remarks. Believers are called to love God wholly and their neighbors as themselves (see 1:8, 22; Mk 12:30-31). The capacity for such love comes as God’s gracious gift through the Word (2:22-25). As Christians exercise that capacity, love reigns supremely over their relationships.