What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.

If ever there was a time when the world needed love, sweet love it’s now! This call to love one another is not unique to 1960’s songs. It’s written all over the pages of Scripture (albeit a slightly different context). In fact, in writing to the dispersed church, the Apostle Peter reminds the church to love one another from a pure heart. 

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again. (1 Peter 1:22) 

This charge to “Love one another” isn’t a call for sentimental, swallow love, but a love that is marked by fervency, eagerness, and consistency.  The Apostle Paul gives a definition of this love kind of love in 1 Corinthians 13 when he writes:  

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor 13:4-7) 

Paul gives a definition, but in Romans God gives us a demonstration: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

How can we even begin to love one another in a way that the Bible talks about? How can we love sacrificially?

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again (1 Peter 1:22-23)

We can love like God because we’ve been changed by God. Through faith in Christ we’ve been born again. Being “born again” is spiritual language that is used to describe the new life that you have with Christ and through Christ. Peter isn’t calling the church to be who they aren’t, but to be who they are! Be the new creation God has made you to be. In a world increasingly divided, our love for another one another will speak most clearly. What the world needs now is the love of God displayed in the lives of the people of God. And not just for some, but for everyone!

You can listen to our latest message from the series, Exiled: Hope for the Scattered Church by visiting: https://christpoint.com