You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
—1 Peter 1:22–23
Easter is such an incredible celebration, time with friends and family, rejoicing in the new life we have been given in Christ. We love those moments because they feel victorious.
I remember feeling victorious when I first accepted Christ as savior. It was such a big moment! My friends and teachers told me this was the most important decision I would ever make. I believed and understood that everything would be different, though I didn’t know how it would be different. They were right. The day was great. It was an incredible moment. But on Monday, I walked around wondering, “Now what?”
1 Peter tells believers that because we have been saved and been given eternal life, we must live the way that Christ has taught us to live. That means learning to love sincerely and deeply with all our hearts. For his original readers, this was easier said than done because they were facing extreme persecution and suffering. But he tells them that it doesn’t matter the circumstances because we live in the light of the resurrection.
Here is the key and the hard part: after you accept Christ, the details of your life might not have changed, but it does not matter because you have changed.
So now it’s your Monday after. God has defeated death in you and guaranteed your eternal life. What do you do now? You may still face difficult situations like the early believers. Perhaps today just feels like nothing special. You still wake up, get ready for the day, dealing with the same people about the same things. I get that. The good news is that you have been born again. You have been given a new life. Maybe the world is not different, but you are. And, just like it took years for you to learn to live your life the old way, you will need to learn to live this new way: love sincerely as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all our hearts.