(April 6, 2025)
We want to see the Passover picture and its concepts throughout the scriptures not only during the Memorial season, but all of the year because we live the reality every day.
Verses: 22-25
We would like to focus on the phrase “love one another whole-heartedly with all your strength.”
Jesus’s unblemished body and his life poured out in sufferings have been applied to (sprinkled on) our hearts. This now allows us to be called into God’s family and we are to develop love for the brethren.
“Now that by obedience to the truth you have purified your souls until you feel sincere affection towards your brother Christians, love one another whole-heartedly with all your strength. You have been born anew…” (NEB)
1 Peter 1:22–25 ESV
22 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, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Discussion Questions:
Our love for each other is shown in various aspects of the last supper:
- “You also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14)
- “Because there is one loaf, we, many as we are, are one body, for it is one loaf of which we partake.” (1 Cor. 10:17)
What are we to learn from the inclusion of these two pictures in the Last Supper?
Discussion Summary:
To love other Christians “whole-heartedly” means to love each deeply from the heart. Other translations use the word “unfeigned” which means to love sincerely. While our efforts often fall short of this ideal, we are to love each other in an increasing amount “more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:10). The Greek word eis translated “for” in verse 22 has the thought of “unto.” In other words, Christians are purifying themselves towards this goal of whole-hearted love. Traversing this spiritual geography is the Christian’s journey.
During the evening of the last supper, Jesus gave an example of this love by washing the disciples’ feet. It was the act of a servant. It is thought provoking to consider that none of the apostles preformed this customary service for each other and left this to the Master. We note that Jesus did not pass by Judas who he knew would betray him that very night. We also note that Mary (the sister of Lazarus) anointed his feet with oil as a beautiful demonstration of her love for the Master (John 12:-8). This action can be taken by all Christians in everyday life (Romans 12:10, 1 Timothy 5:10).
During the last supper Jesus gave his disciples of the one loaf. This was a symbol of their oneness. Christians in a collective sense are members of Jesus’ one body and are interdependent upon each other (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). This oneness is also shown in the family relationships between Christians and their Lord; mothers, brothers, sisters in Matthew 12:50; husband and wife in Ephesians 5:25-27.
Jesus’ sacrifice has given us forgiveness of sins and a new life and a new relationship with each other. This is our calling:
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.” Colossians 3:12-15
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