Often our brotherly love is dependent on the tide of our emotions. When our emotional tide is high, we love everyone. But when the tide of our emotion is low, we may not be willing to show love for anyone. When the emotional tide of some brothers is high, they will do almost anything to help you. But when the emotional tide is low, they are not willing to help at all. This kind of brother loves the saints, but he loves them according to the changeable tide of his emotion. That kind of love is not agape. The divine love does not depend on our emotional tide. Because this love has its source in the divine life, it does not change. We need to learn to love the brothers with this divine love, not with the love that depends on the tide of our emotions.
God’s love is consistent. If we love others with this love, we shall also be consistent. Whenever someone contacts us, we shall be the same with respect to our love. We shall always love others with discernment and according to their need. We may realize that one brother needs a certain measure of love. Therefore, we shall measure out, mete out, that much love to him. But another brother may need a different measure of love to meet his need. This is a noble kind of love.
We need to have this divine love in our married life and family life. Peter charges the husbands to assign honor to the wife (1 Pet. 3:7). This requires a noble love.
It is common for sisters to love their husbands emotionally and without discernment or measure. When such a sister is happy or high in her emotion, she will love her husband accordingly. But if she is unhappy or angry, she will not love him. That kind of love is emotional and does not contain the element of agape. However, another sister, with more experience in the Lord, will consistently love her husband and children, but will always love with a measure and with discernment. This kind of love is surely a noble love.
It is not possible for our human love to be with the proper measure and discernment. This is the reason that, after speaking of brotherly love, Peter goes on to indicate that in our brotherly love we need to develop love. Some expositors have misinterpreted Peter here and have thought that he is telling us to develop first a love for the brothers and then a love for all men. This understanding, however, is too shallow. Peter’s thought is that in our brotherly love there needs to be the element of agape, the divine love.
In verses 8 through 10 Peter says that if all these virtues exist in us and abound, they shall constitute us neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he in whom these things are not present is shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing of his past sins. Therefore, Peter charges us to be diligent to make our calling and selection firm by developing all these virtues.
In verse 11 Peter concludes, “For so shall be richly and bountifully supplied to you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” In this eternal kingdom we shall not be subjects—we shall be kings. But in order to be kings in the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we need maturity in life. We Christians are destined to be kings in the Lord’s kingdom. However, how can someone be a king in the coming kingdom if he lacks the maturity in the divine life? It is impossible to be a king without this maturity. Even if the Lord would want to enthrone as a king someone who is not mature, that person would realize that he is not able to exercise the kingship. This indicates that even we ourselves know that we need to grow to maturity in order to be kings.
According to Peter’s word in 1:5-11, to grow to maturity is to develop what we have already received. We have been allotted the wonderful like precious faith, and this faith is an all-inclusive seed. All the divine riches are in this seed, but we must be diligent to develop them into virtue. Then we need to develop in our virtue knowledge; in knowledge, self-control; in self-control, endurance; in endurance, godliness; in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, love. By developing these virtues we grow, and eventually we shall reach maturity. As a result, we shall be full of Christ, and, in Paul’s words, we shall arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Then we shall be qualified and equipped to be kings in the coming kingdom.