Purified for a Purpose

By Michael Pemberton

 “Seeing ye have purified yours 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.” – I Peter 1:22

 I stood at the end of the workroom looking down at the white sheet spread on the floor, Grandpa Elliott by my side.  The musty smell of the old basement, mingled with the acrid odor of solvents, had become so familiar that I hardly noticed them.  To everybody else this was just a dingy corner, but to this nine year old boy it was close to heaven.  As we surveyed the neatly cleaned parts all laid out in disassembly order on the sheet, I thought of how Grandpa gave me the old side shaft engine on the condition that I had to take it apart, fix it, and have him inspect it before reassembly. 

 “Looks like you did a fine job,” he said.  “What do you think was wrong with it?”

 “Well,” I replied, “I think it was two things.  First the carburetor was bad.  This little thing (holding up a small part that looked like a short pencil) was stuck.” 

 “That’s called a needle valve,” he injected.

 “Right,” I continued, “Second, this little fiberglass thingy that’s supposed to splash oil up on everything is busted on one side.”

 “That’s called a butterfly,” he said flatly.  Then he looked at me sort of sideways and asked, “Think you can fix it?”

 “Yup.”

 Then he did something that made me panic.  He picked up the corners of the sheet, gave it a tremendous shake and set it back down.  I almost cried.  “Here’s a dollar for gas and oil.  Call me when you get it running,” he said as he shoved a dollar in my pocket. 

 I did get that old engine running.  One day I called him and excitedly invited him over to watch it run.  “No need,” he explained.  “I only wanted you to know you could do it.”

 That old engine taught me a lot about myself.  It taught me that I could remember how things came apart, even if they weren’t in the order I took them apart in.  It taught me that I could see parts, and understand what they were supposed to do, even if I didn’t know what they were called.  It taught me that designs serve purposes.

 In today’s passage we’re told that we are purified for a specific purpose.  The work that God has done in us is done for a reason, just like my Grandpa’s gift of that engine.  I thought he gave it to me so I could have fun with it.  Perhaps that was a part of it, but the real reason was so that I might learn something about myself.  In the same manner God has a purpose in our purification.

 People who live holy lives are rare – all too rare.  This is a shame because our purification should lead us to live holy lives.  But even if we lived the most holy lives imaginable – we would still not fulfill the purpose of our purification.  Consider how the apostle Paul says it:

 “Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”   -I Cor 13:1-3

Let’s put it plainly: There is a reason why you were saved.  There is a reason why you were purified.  There is a reason why you were given the Spirit of God.  You were meant to love the brethren fervently. 

 FERVENTLY!  The word comes to the root “ferve” meaning to boil.  The dictionary describes it in terms like “Very hot” and “Marked by great intensity.”

 What a thought!  How do you think that matches up against the “once a week on Sunday” practice of most Christians in our day?  Or how about the “I can worship God at home just as well as at church” practitioners?  Such thoughts are pure nonsense from a scriptural viewpoint! 

 Fervent love.  This is not something we just have; it’s something we need to learn.  Practice is the way to learn this, and church is the place to practice.  I know that it’s not easy; some of those people bug me too.  Some of the greatest offences in my life came from my fellow Christians.  But the failure of others cannot be an excuse for us.  We will be embarrassed if we stand before God and say, “I didn’t love them fervently because they were so annoying.  So I chose to ignore them for the most part.  At least I tried not to offend them.” 

 Let’s decide today that we will quit making excuses.  We will practice fervent love for each other because God practiced fervent love for us.  There is a big difference between “I don’t hate you” and “I love you fervently.”   I believe that I could make the argument from scripture that love that is not fervent is not love at all – just the absence of hatred.  The absence of hatred may be sufficient from the world’s point of view, but don’t expect the God who sacrificed his only begotten son for those he loved to be content with it.  He expects us to love fervently.  How we doin’?

 By the way, I love you.