ODJ: God’s Love Letter

December 26, 2017 

READ: 1 Peter 1:13-25 

You have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God (v.23).

Many years ago, a love-struck groom on a military base wrote a love letter to his young bride. But then the letter was lost by the postal service. Forty-six years later, a crew dismantling an old post office discovered it. They turned it over to the postmaster who found the man and his wife and gave it to them days after their fiftieth wedding anniversary! The love expressed in the letter had endured the test of several decades.

What the young man wrote to his wife was heartfelt, but it pales in comparison to the love letter God has extended to us in Scripture. Peter reminded a group of believers in Jesus, who had come to faith outside of Judaism, of the Word of God they had received—the message of the gospel. These were people who were struggling to form a community of faith in the midst of a foreign land.

The believers had been “ransomed” from their former sinful lifestyles (1 Peter 1:18-20). They’d been born again through the work of the life-changing message of Jesus (v.23). This living and enduring Word—through the power of Jesus, the eternal Word (John 1:1)—awakened new life within them, initiated their living in a way set apart for Him, drew them towards obedience to Him and reinforced the permanence of their new life in Christ (1 Peter 1:22,24). Peter shared that the “Good News” of Jesus would stand forever because the God who made it possible was eternal and faithful (v.25).

As we continue to live in the midst of a broken world, let’s renew our faith and love in Jesus by opening and reading God’s love letter to us—the Bible. Through the Scriptures, we can be reminded of all that Jesus provides and turn to Him for new life, deeper love and an eternal, living hope.

—Marvin Williams

365-day plan: 1 John 3:1-24