Can we experience our eternal inheritance now?

Do you want to experience the future, now? Read on!

Christian: you have received, in Jesus, an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. What a contrast to this passing age. The customs and priorities of your culture are an empty way of life, but you have been redeemed from that by the precious blood of Christ. Even gold is perishable compared to the everlasting certainty of your glorious inheritance.

So are we meant to stoically wait for that future, knowing in theory that it will be amazing, but not experiencing a taste of it now?

No. We can experience the future now when our church family is characterised by sincere love.

Love one another

The command to love one another is given in 1 Peter 1:22 and also repeated in 2:17, 3:8 and 4:8. It is not surprising that a beleaguered church community needs to be full of one-anothering love in order to stand firm amid pressure.

What might be surprising is how Peter roots the command to love in the good soil of the new birth. “Love one another… for you have been born again” (1 Peter 1.22-23).

You were given new birth into a living hope and an inheritance that cannot perish - so we have already been told at the start of chapter one. Now Peter tells us that we are born again through the imperishable seed of the Word of God. We are clearly meant to make the connections.

The perishable seed of our human fathers brought us to life, a life which is perishing. “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall” (1 Peter 1:24). Human achievement, earthly glory, treasures in banks, fame and honour – these will all wither away. But the Word of the Lord endures forever and this Word is the seed that gave us new birth into an imperishable inheritance. And this is why we should love one another, deeply, from the heart.

When we love we experience our future inheritance, now. Earthly glory will fall and fade but sincere love, especially sincere love within the family of believers, endures forever because it is the fruit of a seed that endures forever.

What kind of love?

So let your love be sincere, not full of malice (1 Peter 2:1-3). Malice seeks to bring down our enemies but we have received love from God full of mercy towards sinners.

Let your love be free from deceit and hypocrisy, which hides false motives and goes through the motions in order to look good. In Jesus we have truth, pure truth, about a love that is prepared to suffer for the beloved.

Rid yourself of envy and slander, for these destroy love. Envy makes us bitter rather than full of joy when others are blessed; it shows that our heart is focused on self rather than full of self-giving love. Slander shows that we are following the ways of this perishing world (1 Peter 2:12, 3.16) rather than being shaped by the encouraging Word of a gracious God.

And if you need to grow in this life of love – and who does not need to do this! – then remember that the Word which brought you to new birth is also the spiritual milk that makes you grow up in your salvation. Taste again the goodness of the Lord; remember the blood of the Lamb that was shed for you; hear again of the inheritance you have been given; see again the suffering and glory of the Saviour. There, in the Word of God, a love is revealed in Jesus Christ that will last forever.

Here is a love to change your heart. So let it change your heart, and experience the future now: “Love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again.”