1 Peter 1:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Peter 1:22
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
to love (in a social or moral sense) · verb — aorist active imperative, 2nd person plural
another
ἀλλήλουςallēlous
G240
one another · reciprocal pronoun — accusative plural masculine
with
ἐκek
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
pure
καθαρᾶςkatharas
G2513
clean (literally or figuratively) · adjective — genitive singular feminine
heart
καρδίαςkardias
G2588
the heart · noun — genitive singular feminine
fervently
ἐκτενῶς·ektenōs
G1619
intently · adverb
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
Romans 12:9-10 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Peter 1:13-23
Here the apostle begins his exhortations to those whose glorious state he had before described, thereby instructing us that Christianity is a doctrine according to godliness, designed to make us not only wiser, but better.
I. He exhorts them to sobriety and holiness.
1. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, etc., Pe1 1:13. As if he had said, "Wherefore, since you are so honoured and distinguished, as above, Gird up the loins of your mind. You have a journey to go, a race to run, a warfare to accomplish, and a great work to do; as the traveller, the racer, the warrior, and the labourer, gather in, and gird up, their long and loose garments, that they may be more ready, prompt, and expedit…
purified . . . in obeying the truth--Greek, "in your (or 'the') obedience of (that is, 'to') the truth (the Gospel way of salvation)," that is, in the fact of your believing. Faith purifies the heart as giving it the only pure motive, love to God (Act 15:9; Rom 1:5, "obedience to the faith").
through the Spirit--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. The Holy Spirit is the purifier by bestowing the obedience of faith (Pe1 1:2; Co1 12:3).
unto--with a view to: the proper result of the purifying of your hearts by faith. "For what end must we lead a chaste life? That we may thereby be saved? No: but for this, that we may serve our neighbor" [LUTHER].
unfeigned-- Pe1 2:1-2, "laying aside . . .…
Seeing ye have purified your souls - Having purified your souls, in obeying the truth - by believing in Christ Jesus, through the influence and teaching of the Spirit; and giving full proof of it by unfeigned love to the brethren; ye love one another, or ye will love each other, with a pure heart fervently. These persons,
First, heard the truth, that is, the Gospel; thus called in a great variety of places in the New Testament, because it contains The truth without mixture of error, and is the truth and substance of all the preceding dispensations by which it was typified.
Secondly, they obeyed that truth, by believing on Him who came into the world to save sinners.
Thirdly, through this bel…
The Church Fathers
Why does Peter talk about purifying our souls but says nothing about the body? The reason for this is that true purity comes from within. If the soul is clean, the body will be cleansed as well.
"Do you only keep your house pure, as they will delight to dwell in a pure abode. For they are pure, and chaste, and industrious, and have all influence with the Lord. Therefore, if they find your house to be pure, they will remain with you; but if any defilement, even a little, befall it, they will immediately withdraw from your house. For these virgins do not at all like any defilement." I said to him, "I hope, sir, that I will please them, so that they may always be willing to inhabit my house. And as he to whom you entrusted me has no complaint against me, so neither will they have." He said to the Shepherd, "I see that the servant of God wishes to live, and to keep these commandments, and will place these virgins in a pure habitation."
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. Love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. "Love one another fervently." In this way, it must be said: That you may have faith and hope in God, when you have purified your souls through obedience to the truth, that is, when you have prepared yourselves for obedience to the truth through the Spirit. For the obedience in evils and lies is not through the Spirit, that is, it is not spiritual. Since purification for obedience or preparation, exercise, care, also wishes to attract many other helpers, provided it is spiritual and free from envy: but this is the work of fervent love, making a neighbor a participant in the goods that someone has obtained: therefore, it adds: to love fervently, devoid of hypocrisy. However, this is subjected by deficiency: for it is familiar to the blessed apostles, as it is also found in blessed James, "Who is wise among you and endowed with knowledge?" (James 3:13) And again: "Now you who say, 'Today and tomorrow,'" (James 5:1) and many other similar things. That spiritual ones should, in turn, make others partakers of all good things with utmost diligence, can be learned from what he says elsewhere: "I indeed consider them to be mutual for the provocation of love," (Heb. 10:24) that is, to sharpen and stir it up.
Dictionary and topics
Man — (1.) Heb. ‘Adam, used as the proper name of the first man. The name is derived from a word meaning “to be red,” and thus the first man was called Adam because he was formed from the red earth. It is…
Brother · .by Peter — .by Peter
Fraternity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Heart · .Pure — .Pure
Heart, The · We should: Love one another with a pure — We should: Love one another with a pure
Sincerity · .Our love to one another — .Our love to one another
Truth · Is purifying — Is purifying
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Seeing ye have purified your souls,.... The apostle passes to another exhortation, namely, to brotherly love; the ground of which he makes to be, the purification of their souls; and which supposes that they had been impure; and indeed, their whole persons, souls and bodies, were so by nature; even all the members of their bodies, and all the powers and faculties of their souls: it is internal purity, purity of the heart, that is here particularly respected; though not to the exclusion of outward purity, for where there is the former, there will be the latter; but there may be an external purity, where there is not the inward one: this the apostle ascribes to the saints themselves, but not w…
1 Peter 1:17-22
17. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
17. Et si Patrem invocatis, eum qui sine personae acceptione secundum cujusque opus judicat, in timore conversantes, tempus incolatus vestri transigite;
18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
18. Scientes qu?d non corruptibilibus, argento vel auro, redempti sitis ? vana conversatione ? patribus tradita;
19. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
19. Se…
Following his call for holiness (1:13-21), Peter specifies how believers must live in a loving way with fellow Christians.
1:22 must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters: Literally must have brotherly love. See study note on 5:9.
