"Having purified your souls, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of the imperishable (through the living and abiding word of God)
First Peter
The above reading from Peter is echoing the words of Jesus when he spoke to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John. "I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above. What is born of flesh is flesh. What is born of the Spirit is Spirit." For Peter, this rebirth comes through the living and abiding word of God. And we know from the Gospel account that the living and abiding word is Jesus Himself. "For God so love the world that he gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life."
So our rebirth is a Spiritual reality, springing from an imperishable seed, Christ, who changes us from living only in the flesh to living by the Spirit. But this change must be reflected in our behavior. When we live by the Spirit, we live in unity with one another. We manifest the fruits of the Spirit which represent signs of that unity. When we live by the flesh, then factions and disagreements, bitterness and anger usually follow.
We are all familiar with the Gospel where two brothers James and John step forth with certain ambitions. They want to sit at Jesus' left and right in His new Kingdom. They want certain positions of prestige and importance. And what happens when the other disciples hear about it? They feel indignant, put out, maybe jealous; and divisions begin to arise among them. Is this of the Spirit? Of course not.
Jesus wants to make this quite clear. This interplay of ambition and desires that form part of our day-to-day culture most often gives rise to division and factions This is not how the fruits of the Spirit should be reflected in our behavior. And Jesus is quick to point this our.
"Anyone who wants to become great among you must be servant to all." To be Christian is to be servant. To be Christian is to manifest the fruits of the Spirit. To be Christian is to give one's life as a ransom for many. To be Christian is to love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
As long as we live in community, we are going to experience this tug and pull, this resistance and submission to the Spirit who desires to work among us. As with James and John, community is the place we learn to discern that which flows from the flesh (from ourselves) and that which flows from Spirit which brings patience and forgiveness. When we allow prayer to be the cornerstone of our day, then we create an enviroment where the Spirit is able to speak and we are able to listen.
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