Purity of Soul unto Loving Like Christ
March 13, 2021      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: El Dorado
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One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1 Peter 1:22-25 (NIV)
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.
23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

John 17:17 (NIV)
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Psuche
Zoe
Bios

God wants life sanctification for the whole tri-part man!

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NIV)
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eyes of soul Opened = Eyes of spirit Shut

Solution?

First - Born Again - Spirit made alive “through” the Word of God
Logos - Constant, Written Word. Living, Enduring, Active
Rhema - Instant utterance of God’s living, personal voice
(Often using Logos word, ALWAYS based on Logos word)

Logos - objectively know God’s heart, character & ways
Rhema - subjectively know God personally & experientially 

Second - Purify your soul BY obedience - soul made dead to self

Matthew 16:24-26 (NIV)
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Obedience = An Act of Faith
Disobedience = A Result of Unbelief

Third - (Now you can….) "have sincere love for one another”
We cannot love one another without purity of soul
PURITY EMPOWERS LOVE!

Fourth - (Now because you have it) Demonstrate love for one another!

Why?

John 13:34-35 (NIV)
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”