Purified part 4
Its all about the heart. Because its all about love. And God's heart in our chests beats with love. That's why, and how, He purified us. He gave us one new heart. His heart. We went through the fire and our bonds were burned away. The flesh was cut away. The circumcision made without hands. So that what was hidden deep down inside could be revealed. So that the love of God that's inside could come out. Naturally. See, being purified isn't about going from "bad" to "good." Good and evil were on the same tree of death. There's something better than swinging from branch to branch. There's something better than trying to earn God's love through our behavior. There's a more excellent way. And His name is Jesus. Jesus IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life, right? Its not us trying (and failing) to live His life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. Its about Him living His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life in us, and through us, and as us. Its about that pure, incorruptible seed of love growing in us until it gets to be too big to keep inside. Its about us loving each other because God loves us. That's what it means to be purified--knowing and believing that God loves us, and loving each other with that same love. That's the gospel: God is love and He loves you. God is love and He loves THROUGH you. That's the New Commandment: Loving each other as Jesus loves us. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Receiving it (Him) BY releasing it. Experiencing it by sharing it. Giving it away. Giving OURSELVES away. Laying our lives down for our friends, and understanding that we only have friends, and people who don't know they are our friends yet. Giving everything we are and everything we have without expecting anything. And its that lack of expectation that makes it pure. Because you can't control what other people do. You can only control what you do. Like when God told Ezekiel, "Your job is to speak to them. Whether they listen is not your concern. They're hardened rebels" (Ezekiel 2:7 MSG). Its your job to love people. What they do with it is not your concern. If you only love because you're expecting to get something out of it, or see some certain result, then what you're doing is not really love at all. Because love is never about getting. Because love is giving. Let me quote our main verse for this Rant series again: 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." The proof of the pudding is in the eating. You, in a sense, purify your own soul when you know and believe and obey the truth. That truth that you HAVE been purified. The truth that you ARE loved. You can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So you have to understand that you ARE loved before you CAN love. You have to BE purified before you can purify yourself. You BE transformed into what you've already BEEN transformed into by the renewing of your mind. By using the gift you've been given. Sharing it. Giving it away. Loving people no matter what. Fearlessly. Without any thought, or concern, about what other people think or do. It doesn't matter what they do. It matters what YOU do. And what you CAN do is love people out of a pure heart!