1 Peter 1:22-25

²² Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

²³ having been born again, not of corruptible seed but  incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

²⁴ because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,

²⁵ But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

The words “have purified” [v.22] are from a perfect tense verb in the Greek. That is, a past completed process, that of a consistent, habitual obedience to the Word, had resulted in the purifying of their souls as they obeyed. — Wuest, page 47.

__________

The word “unfeigned” [sincere, v.22] is the translation of the Greek word from which we get our word “hypocrite,” with the letter Alpha prefixed which makes it mean “not a hypocrite.” The Greek word for “hypocrite’ was used on an actor on the Greek stage, one who played the part of another. The word means literally, “to judge under,” and was used of someone giving off his judgment from behind a screen or mask. Some of these to whom Peter was writing, had [apparently] put a mask of feigned love over their usual countenances when associating with certain others of their brethren. — Wuest, page 45.

__________

The particular word for love [v.22, first appearance] used here is phile, a love called out of one’s heart by the pleasure one takes in the person loved. It is a love of “liking.” … It is an affection or fondness, a purely human attachment for another, and perfectly legitimate. … An affection or fondness for another based upon the likeness of that other to one’s self is in the mind of Peter here. — Wuest, page 46.

__________

Why does God exhort those to love one another who are already loving one another? The answer is found in the use of another distinctive word for “love,” agape, [v.22, second appearance], which Peter uses. This word speaks of a love, which in its classical usage refers to a love called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the person loved … which has an additional content of meaning of … self-sacrifice for the benefit of the person loved.  — Wuest, page 47.

fervently (v.22) = an intense strain, with supreme effort, with every muscle strained.

Because their souls had been purified by the redemptive work of Christ, they were to love one another with an unfeigned or unhypocritical love. A genuine love never says one thing in person and then turns around and launches arrows of criticism from afar that pierce the heart with many sorrows. …

These saints were born again, not of the corruptible seed that perishes, but of the incorruptible Word of God. You will recall our Lord said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.” Poor Nicodemus was still operating in the realm of the earthly. He wondered how it was possible for a man to enter again into his mother’s womb. The Master enlightened hims with these words, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Here we learn two things must simultaneously take place to be born again. To be born of the water clearly refers to the Word of God. In fact, water is sometimes used as a metaphor for the Scriptures. Paul states, “That He might sanctify and cleanse it [the church] with the washing of water by the Word” (Ephesians 5:26). So the Word of God must be received with all readiness of mind, in conjunction with the operation of the Spirit, who convicts and regenerates a lost sinner who has believed the gospel.

As Peter quotes from Isaiah 40:6, 8, he was seeking to remind his readers that the ways of man are temporal. … — Sadler, pages 67-68.

gospel (v.25) — the kingdom gospel that Peter was commissioned to preach (Acts 1:8; Galatians 2:8-9)