Peter next turned his attention from the believer's duty to God to the believer's duty to his or her Christian brethren. He did so to explain further the implications of living joyfully during trials and suffering. He returned to what he set out to do in verse 13, namely, to spell out the implications of Christian faith and hope. However, he continued to reflect on the theological basis of our ethical responsibilities. He will get into practical Christian ethics later.
1:22 The purification to which Peter referred occurred at conversion as a result of believing the gospel (cf. John 13:10). This cleansing made it possible for us to love other Christians unremittingly (Gr. ektenos). Now Peter urged his readers to do everything out of love for the brethren. We do not need to love one another as thoughwe were brethren. We can love one another because we really arebrethren.
1:23 The Word of God is the instrument God uses to produce new birth (cf. Matt. 13:20; Luke 8:11). This "seed"shares the character of its Source. It never passes out of fashion nor does it become irrelevant.
"All the way from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, to Babylon the Great' in Revelation 17-18, man's great attempts at unity are destined to fail.
"If we try to build unity in the church on the basis of our first birth, we will fail; but if we build unity on the basis of the new birth, it will succeed."55
1:24-25 This quotation from Isaiah 40:6-8 contrasts the transitory character of nature and the eternality of God's Word (cf. James 1:10-11). Every natural thing eventually dies and disappears, the opposite of God's living and abiding Word (cf. Matt. 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). The seed lives and abides, and so do those to whom it gives new life.
"My friend, we need the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God above everything else. I do not mean to minimize the place of music, the place of methods, and the place of organization, but there is absolutely no substitute for the Word of God today."56
The duty of Christians to one another then is to love one another unremittingly. We can and should do so because we are genuine brethren and because we will abide forever.
