The apostle Paul was a Jesus Creeder, and so in chp 27 of 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, I look at the Jesus Creed in the hands of the apostle Peter when he ventured to establish churches in Asia Minor (Western Turkey today).
What kinds of concrete adaptations can we make to give the Jesus Creed new life in our context?
Three points:
First, Peter said the most important command is “to maintain a constant love for one another” (1 Pet 4:8). I like that “above all.” First and foremost; top of the list.
Second, love begins with loving the invisible Jesus. Notice 1 Peter 1:8: “Although you have not seen him, you love him.” We do this by reading the Gospels but we also do it in our daily encounters with those who are following Jesus.
Third, love involves loving the visible humans around us. “Now that you have purified your souls .. love one another deeply from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). This word “deeply” is a little too psychological of a translation for me; the word means “strenuously” or “stretchingly.” Picture a runner stretching her or his body forward to hit the finish line first — that’s what this word suggests.
Peter knew love was hard work; he failed at it and he was forgiven and he committed himself again to loving Jesus — invisible and visible.