1 Peter 1:22-23

1 Peter 1:22-23 - Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere Love for your brothers, Love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.

Your true life begins when you are born again. Christ came and gave His life so that we could be born anew into His Spirit. This new birth is not like the old birth. When we are born into this world we are born into a body. No matter how healthy we are or how well we train our bodies they will eventually perish. There is nothing that can stop that. Our new birth is different.

When we are born again we are born into the Spirit of God. This new life that we receive is of imperishable seed. It is eternal. With this new eternal life we have been given the ability to live in the Truth of God which purifies us from the inside out.

Now that we have a pure heart we are able to Love others. This enables us to follow the two greatest commandments as Jesus described them: Love God and Love people. Since God Himself is Love, His desire is that we all walk in His Love.

So you can see the progression. It starts with us giving up our old life, which will perish anyway, and receiving the new life in God. After we make the decision to let God reign in our lives we receive the Love of God in our hearts. Now we can follow the command of Loving God and those He created.